Crossfire and SLi decision

[cosmogenesis]

Got a xfire and SLi capable motherboard and I want to do that. So its either 2x 4980 1GB or 2x 4890 2GB or 2x 285 instead.

Its pure gaming on a 24" 16:9 capable monitor.

Would people await 58xx from ATi at all ?

 

[Rroff]

Prolly best to wait for the 5870...

That said in the short term nothing is gonna really best 2x 285GTX purely on performance tho the 4890 cf and 5870 is better value for money for fairly close performance.

 

[SfnX]

id definetly say wait, 5870s here we come!

 

[Duff-Man]

Wait a week for the 5800 series.

A single 5870 should give you similar performance to the SLI / x-fire setups you describe.

Alternatively you could go for x-fire 5850s, although with a 24" screen this might be a little bit overkill.

 

[matttrd]

I was in a similar situation and decided to get a single 4890 to tide me over until the new cards are released.

This might be the best option for you too.

 

[EvilOne]

Which motherboard?

If it's a P45/P55 i wouldn't bother waiting for 5870 xfire, as the 2x8PCIe lanes will more then lightly bottleneck, and not give that much more performance then the current gen.

A single 5870 on that type of board would run great tho.

 

[cosmogenesis]

Does X58 support 2x x16 lanes for SLi or xfire?

 

[Dauthi]

I'd wait a week as the 5850 is rumored to be priced where the 285 is now so i can see 20-£30 being shaved of the price which when your buying 2 adds up.

Other thing to consider is if you will be upgradeing to the socket 1156 in future you will only have 16x PCI-E lanes so either 1x16 or 2x8 if you go xfire/sli.

 

[Typhoon]

Does X58 support 2x x16 lanes for SLi or xfire?

Some MB's do, some dont.

 

[AMG]

yes X58 does support 2 way 16/16x crossfire, however the very first X58 boards may not support SLI, something to check up on.