dfi-rd580 crossfire due soon? (gibbo?)

raja · 30 Apr 2006 at 14:58

Atm, that's a question only ATI can answer.

The value of that option is limited by the lack of overclocking options for Crossfire. It can be done with ATI tool, but you have to fool around with 2d/3d voltages. Consider this, 2 XTX's in Crossfire will probably give a 5 fps advantage in games, when overclocked sensibly, is it worth it? It's tricky to overclock Crossfire anyway.

There has been no indication that ATI will be able to enable pci Crossfire on the bandwidth hungary 1900 series.

Raja

andyr · 30 Apr 2006 at 20:39

raja said:
Atm, that's a question only ATI can answer.

The value of that option is limited by the lack of overclocking options for Crossfire. It can be done with ATI tool, but you have to fool around with 2d/3d voltages. Consider this, 2 XTX's in Crossfire will probably give a 5 fps advantage in games, when overclocked sensibly, is it worth it? It's tricky to overclock Crossfire anyway.

There has been no indication that ATI will be able to enable pci Crossfire on the bandwidth hungary 1900 series.

Raja

Hi Raja , you are doing xfire with 2 1900's arent you?
am i right in thinking there is only one master card on the market as far as speed goes that is , at 625/1450, and the slave if its a xt-x then its at 650/1550 , well how does it show the speed in ccc for instance are they both at 625/1450 ?
Thanks coz i am interested in a purchase maybe but i am puzzled as the master card is rated at xt speeds, but on the 1800's they are both at 625/1500

raja · 1 May 2006 at 03:54

Hi,

Have not got access to my pc atm, but I think you can OC them both to 650 - 800 using CCC.
My XTX will do 850 on the mem, that was using the Seasonic, which was inadequate, si I'm expecting moe once I get a better power supply. I'm just waiting on tech specs on the 1100w Tagan , which is around £234 with VAT. If it provides 4 independant rails of 20a each, and you can put a PCIE card on 2 seperate rails (which I assume you can as it's quad SLI), I'll get one.

Raja

Coolasmoo · 1 May 2006 at 10:07

raja said:
1100w Tagan , which is around £234 with VAT.

Thats more power than my Microwave :eek:

Reporting back with the FSP 700

Ive had none of the problems i had with the Seasonic for over a week now.

The only critism is the fan noise, but like i said earlier, im either waiting on a RMA from FSP, or i may just dive in and swap out the fan for a 120mm Amber

I would rather just swap the fan, but im not sure of the specs of the stock 120mm and i cant seem to find any information.

grace from FSP advised me not to swap out the fan, but im guessing this is because she does not want me to electrocute myself in the process :cool:

Dr Who · 1 May 2006 at 12:32

Coolasmoo

I am Using the FSP Sparkle 700w and mine is quiet..

Its also running 4 HDD's, 2 cdroms, 2 1900's Crossfired, and 2 dvd writers with not a hiccup...

Cant recommend this PSU highly enough, voltages are rock stable

EDIT: PS What timings are you running on your ram mate?

Coolasmoo · 1 May 2006 at 13:16

Dr Who said:
Coolasmoo

I am Using the FSP Sparkle 700w and mine is quiet..

Its also running 4 HDD's, 2 cdroms, 2 1900's Crossfired, and 2 dvd writers with not a hiccup...

Cant recommend this PSU highly enough, voltages are rock stable

EDIT: PS What timings are you running on your ram mate?

Anything below 220Ht 2-3-6-2 1T

Above 220Ht - 250Ht 2.5-2-3-6-2 1T

Not gone much higher as of yet

FrankJH · 1 May 2006 at 19:51

A few years ago everyone seemed to advise that sparkle shouldnt be touched for love nor money, have they improved sooo much that they can now produce one of the top PSU's available?

If I am going to invest £100 or so in a new psu, I want it to be rock solid

Coolasmoo · 1 May 2006 at 20:09

FrankJH said:
A few years ago everyone seemed to advise that sparkle shouldnt be touched for love nor money, have they improved sooo much that they can now produce one of the top PSU's available?

If I am going to invest £100 or so in a new psu, I want it to be rock solid

Its more a question of availabilty really,

At the moment, you can count on one hand the certified PSU's available for X1900 Crossfire, and two of those belong to FSP.

Dr Who · 1 May 2006 at 20:19

Well OcUK use it in their ultimate crossfire machine...

So its not gonna be a dog

raja · 1 May 2006 at 20:40

Hi,

I've heard some very good reports of the Sparkle 700w, even heavily loaded, it's supposed to be up to the task. I'm considering something larger incase I upgrade even further, I'm also convinced overclocking ability is affected when a supply nears saturation. ATM, my 12v rails alone will be demanding around 500w when under load. As a safe bet 750w supplies have become my minimum preferred requirement, though I'm really looking at 1000w, just incase gpu's become even more power hungary (quad Crossfire anyone?);

Raja

Coolasmoo · 1 May 2006 at 21:14

Do you think this will become the trend ,

I would have thought with conroe , and the next gen GPU's we may be seeing less power hungry requirements.

raja · 2 May 2006 at 04:42

Hi,

It's the quad gpu's that could become a high end trend for some. The GPU makers are hell bent on selling as many cards as possible, allthough we will see power requirements of each individual device reduced. For the short term future, both ATI and Nvidia want to exploit the sale of multiple cards to a single individual at the same time. There are still bandwidth limitations etc to consider too.

Raja

FrankJH · 2 May 2006 at 08:14

Coolasmoo said:
Its more a question of availabilty really,

At the moment, you can count on one hand the certified PSU's available for X1900 Crossfire, and two of those belong to FSP.

Thats very true actually, was hoping OCUK can get hold of the 900w Tagan thats meant to be available - always liked them myself

raja · 2 May 2006 at 16:54

I would think OCUK have the Tagan's in stock already, they are using them in the quad SLI PC. Several uk sites are already stocking them, I'm awaiting some specs first, like how the rails are divided up. From what I understand so far, Tagan have used a dual transformer system, basically it's two 450w supplies in one box. AFAIK there are four 15amp rails, how they are divided between CPU and PCIE will be the point of concern. The 3 supplies of inerest for me ATM are the upcoming Seasonic 750w, Tagan 900w and Tagan 1100w units.

BTW I had a bad bios flash which was entirley my own fault, as I tried to flash from a flash drive (re formatted mp3 player). It corrupted my bios

, so I can't reboot, so here's a warning, stick to the instructions folks!

I have a new bios chip on the way so I should be up and running by the end of the week.

Raja

Coolasmoo · 2 May 2006 at 17:58

raja said:
BTW I had a bad bios flash which was entirley my own fault, as I tried to flash from a flash drive (re formatted mp3 player). It corrupted my bios , so I can't reboot, so here's a warning, stick to the instructions folks!

I have a new bios chip on the way so I should be up and running by the end of the week.

Raja

Bad luck bud

Touches wood, ive never had a bad flash yet but it goes to show they can happen

raja · 2 May 2006 at 18:12

Hi Coolasmoo,

I should've known better! If I'd followed instuctions instead of trying to save time, I would've been ok. My new bios chip has already been shipped, I used a site, sent them the link and chip details and they programmed and have posted a new one. Cost me about 20 bucks, but the rma would've cost the same, with more downtime too. Hopefully it should work, everything looks ok on the mobo, nothing appears burnt out.

BTW guys, make sure you clear CMOS reloaded after a bios update, some of the info it stores relates to the old bios, which will/can cause corruption on a newer bios. Clearing via jumper and battery is required before first boot on a new flash. If the info is still there then it's probably better to delete the saved cinfigurations and reflash the bios again. I think falshing from dos is better, as it seems to clear the CMOS straight out, I flashed 3 times from Windows, yet my CMOS reloaded config's remained.

Not detracting anything from this board, it has a few quirks, but once you operate it properly it rocks.

Raja

andyr · 2 May 2006 at 18:56

Bad news about the bios , I wouldn’t mind that address sometime just in case , I wouldn’t mind a spare bios chip in the drawer.
I have the xclio 750 and seems pretty good 14cm fan so its really quiet and it does have the 8 pin mobo connector so that was a relief , cant load it too much at the moment as i have sold one of my graphics cards lol

raja · 2 May 2006 at 19:36

http://www.recoverybios.com/

They're not a competitor, so I think the link is ok!

You may be able to do it cheaper, so may want to shop around, but they seem pretty quick, I'll let you know at the end of the week.

What made you sell one of the gfx cards (jst asking)?

I'll be buying something (psu) soon as I'm up and running again. I suppose it's always a safe investment with DFI boards to have a spare bios chip. Should be included in the package with their higher end boards, if I new anyone there (DFI) I'd let them know.

I was thinking today about having my own forum for ATI gfx cards and ATI chipset moboards, there are a couple of people here at least who I'd work with. Thought about it, then decided that the effort required would be too great, server needs, web design etc. Ah pipe dreams..

andyr · 2 May 2006 at 19:49

Thanks for the link , see how yours is then ill order one as im thinking of keeping this mobo for a bit, I thought id sell the xfire 1800 first for obvious reasons as opposed to the slave lol, as the price is still high for the master 1800 and im going for the 1900xt-x slave and in a couple more weeks the x fire master , just still strange to me why there isn’t a matched pair yet i.e. both at 650/1550 . I am told the sapphire masters have better speed memory chips 1.1nS as against 1.2nS

raja · 2 May 2006 at 19:55

I think it's down to board revisions, maybe Sapphire still have older stock, I think my Connect 3 is revision -20 which I think is 1.2ns. -50 must be 1.1, as that's what my XTX revision is.