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Crossfire question

liveforeva

liveforeva

liveforeva

Associate
Joined
23 Aug 2006
Posts
264
Location
North Wales
Hi i am thinking about geting the new ati x1950 crossfire edition.
I know that it will work on its own, but will it work on its own on any pci express motherborad?
My system is
Foxconn NF4UK8AA mainborad
AMD 64 3500
1.53 G of RAM
ATI Radeon X800 XL
Thanks.
 
Yes it will work on any pcie mobo - though I suggest you don't bother going for the x1950 - rather go for the x1900xt and clock it up to the xtx speeds - the 1950 doesn't really benefit at all with gddr4 - search this section for a thread on it.
 
Welcome to the forums. :)

The x1950 master card will work on its own in any PCI-E board as said above, will be an amazing upgrade up from your x800 XL. :)

Depends how he is going to do it, as i take it he is going to go Crossfire as he's buying the master now, now if he's decided to get the slave later on, if he goes the x1900 route would he still be able to find a card then, as now they are discontinued they are going to start getting rare, and also the prices will rise, yet another x1950 will easily be available when he wants to go Crossfire, and also x1950 Crossfire would be much faster than x1900 Crossfire id have thought.

Of course though the x1900 XT is much cheaper, and when clocked to XTX speeds it will only be about 1-2 fps slower than the x1950, but is it worth the risk of getting that, and then when wanting to go Crossfire further down the line, it being difficult to find another x1900, and the ones that are found are more expensive, its a tough call id say if its for Crossfire, single card id say everytime x1900 XT, but do you take the chance on being able to still find a card for Crossfired x1900's when the time comes for wanting to do that, or just go for the safer x1950 route even though its more expensive. :)
 
LoadsaMoney said:
Oh yeah i forgot the x1950's can be paired with the x1900's. :o
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I couldnt see the pic - it was a little blurry and hard to see any detail

Why spend the extra money on an X1950 though? For the very slight performance increase its completely daft

By an X1900 now (slave) and if you need to buy a X1950 mastercard later - but by that time there will be better DX10 cards I would think and if not the X1950 master's will be cheaper anyway
 
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Just get an X1900 Crossfire Edition instead. ;) The X1950 Series will be a horrible waste of money until prices drop and X1900s are gradually phased out.
 
All these comments about the x1950 only being 1-2 frames faster than an overclocked x1900 is a bit confusing. Wouldnt it then be fair to say that the gap would widen when you start overclocking the x1950 (assuming they will clock similarly to the x1900's)?
 
Kabaala said:
All these comments about the x1950 only being 1-2 frames faster than an overclocked x1900 is a bit confusing. Wouldnt it then be fair to say that the gap would widen when you start overclocking the x1950 (assuming they will clock similarly to the x1900's)?
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We're not comparing pure performance, we're comparing price and performance.

An X1950 XTX is equal to an X1900 XTX, which is equal to an overclocked X1900 XT that costs quite a lot less than both.
 
SLI and Crossfire have both come a long way in the last couple of years and I would consider both to be very stable solutions, but simply not worth the money in most cases.

Single cards these days have no problems with a resolution of 1680x1050, so if I were in your position I would buy an X1900 Crossfire Edition now and then just add an X1900 XT later on if you felt that the single card wasn't up to scratch.

I am doing the same thing, just the opposite way around. I think that the chances of me needing to go Crossfire will be so slim (especially with a 1440x900 native resolution) that I am taking the gamble on buying the standard card and risking letting the Crossfire Edition cards become rare.
 
squiffy said:
What I mean is that should I go dual card Crossfire? Is driver support/gaming advanced or still buggy? rez is 1680x1050.
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I dont think you can use two crossfire master cards in one system - it would be a little daft and they might each want to control the other.

At that res I wouldnt think you would get that much added performance, I only went crossfire because I bought a 24" screen for My primary while using 20" as secondary.
 
Ulfhedjinn said:
SLI and Crossfire have both come a long way in the last couple of years and I would consider both to be very stable solutions, but simply not worth the money in most cases.

Single cards these days have no problems with a resolution of 1680x1050, so if I were in your position I would buy an X1900 Crossfire Edition now and then just add an X1900 XT later on if you felt that the single card wasn't up to scratch.

I am doing the same thing, just the opposite way around. I think that the chances of me needing to go Crossfire will be so slim (especially with a 1440x900 native resolution) that I am taking the gamble on buying the standard card and risking letting the Crossfire Edition cards become rare.
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I think you are completely correct . at that res you would never need a xfire solution, would be complete waste of money and as master cards are based on XT gpu's anyway they are unlikely to clock any better either.

Good choice
 
Ulfhedjinn said:
SLI and Crossfire have both come a long way in the last couple of years and I would consider both to be very stable solutions, but simply not worth the money in most cases.

Single cards these days have no problems with a resolution of 1680x1050, so if I were in your position I would buy an X1900 Crossfire Edition now and then just add an X1900 XT later on if you felt that the single card wasn't up to scratch.

I am doing the same thing, just the opposite way around. I think that the chances of me needing to go Crossfire will be so slim (especially with a 1440x900 native resolution) that I am taking the gamble on buying the standard card and risking letting the Crossfire Edition cards become rare.
Click to expand...

I already have an X1900XT, so I know I'll just need a master X1900XT...it does look like I've made a mistake on explaining it, but anyway I'll stick to the single card.
 
squiffy said:
I already have an X1900XT, so I know I'll just need a master X1900XT...it does look like I've made a mistake on explaining it, but anyway I'll stick to the single card.
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Ah gotcha' now, sorry. Yeah, I think you would be best off sticking with a single-card as I don't think you'd see much of an improvement at that resolution really.

You would still get similar minimum-FPS figures in games like Oblivion (ergh) and an X1900 XT Crossfire setup would also be quite CPU-limited at 1600x1200 and under to boot (which means you would definitely be feeling that at 1680x1050.)

If you happened to upgrade your monitor to a 1920/2048 panel then I would definitely say go Crossfire, but as it stands it would just leave a hole in your wallet that won't be easy to fill again, and you would probably be getting your hair off at the performance increase not being what you expected.
 
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