Crossfire on P5K-E WiFi/AP

[Arterion]

Having been informed by a nice little article over at theregister that a pair of 4850's in crossfire is a nice little bang-for-buck graphics setup (maybe I'll finally be able to get Crysis going properly), I'm wondering how much the crossfire-nerfed x4 PCE-E x16 slot on this board is really going to affect the performance potential of this configuration? Is it literally 1/4 of the speed on the slot means 1/4 the potential max performance of the card in it?

What board might be a good upgrade (at a reasonable price point) if this one isnt really suitable?

For reference, I'm currently running a single 8800GT.

Cheers!

 

[HeX]

Some tests I did on my P5K-E with 2 x 4850's:

You do get a boost, but not enough to warrant the outlay imho.

You'd prolly get the same performance from a single HD4870.


I changed my P5K for a P5E using the X38 chipset, and my cards obliterate those scores now.

If you want a cheaper option the P5Q boards based on the P45 chipset also work great with these cards.

 

[Arterion]

Quite probably the best response I've had to any post I've made...ever....thanks!

 

[MagicBoy]

I was running a pair of x1950 Pro's in crossfire on P5K-E WiFi. Results varied from game to game - 3DMark gave an increase of about 65-80%, UT3 worked very well, whereas enabling crossfire in Crysis slowed the game down. Other games eg GRID won't work full stop in Crossfire.

In my opinion it's basically more bother than it's worth. Unless you are adding a second card to an existing one I'd either get a fast single card or go straight for an X2 version.