How much more do you get from X FIRE?

[liamcrane]

Hi everyone, I have just got myself a nice 5850 and I am thinking of giving cross fire a go never tried it before. I just wanted to know how much more you really get out of cross fireing 2 5850's? I only have a 22" monitor so my max res is only 1600x900 so would i really see the benifit of cross fire?

hope you can help

 

[liamcrane]

thanks for that mate i would really like to understand just how cross fire works if some would not mind explaining id be very gratefull

 

[liamcrane]

thanks for your input, I am new to ATI cards and I cant seem to find my way around there site to good, i want the latest drivers for the 5850 but dont no what to download, im kinda confused

 

[liamcrane]

http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx

Thanks mate i found them in the end from the top of the forum lol dam im stupid!!

At the right resolution for the cards you should see average gains in the region of 60-70% and in some cases almost double the performance... whoever at 1600x900 you'd be quite happy with a singe 5850, the optimal crossfire solution for this res would be 5770 or 5750 - but pointless when you can get a single faster card in the same ballpark price range.

Thanks for that mate, i see your point with regards to the res it would not be worth running x fire at all. I am looking to upgrade in the future and x fire two of these 5850's on my 32" 1080p TV, im looking at getting this nice x fire board
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-339-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1481

As well as this RAM
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-193-CS

Its a real costly upgrade when getting a x fire setup i only have an am2+ board so im gonna need new everything!!