How to wait for DX10?

[shodan]

Hi all. Feels good to be part of the forum!

I've been planning my 1st self-built system for a few weeks now and I have a question or two.

I want to build a conroe E6600 machine on an Asus P5W DH deluxe (unless Asus release a more suitable board by the time the conroes are out), and having read the other threads in this section it seems the best vid card to tide me over until the DX10 cards are at their first revision is an X1900XT. To be precise, that naughty little ICEQ number in the OcUK shop!

The thing is, will the DX10 cards use PCI-E x16 slots? Will they use crossfire in the same way DX9 cards do?

If they do, I've noticed the Asus mobo PCI-E x16 slots will only run at x8 in a crossfire config. Would this ruin the performance for twin DX10 cards?

I'd like to be as DX10 ready as I can be really, and the last thing I want to have to do is change the motherboard on a complete system. Sounds like a pain.

If on the other hand crossfire and SLI are being binned with the introduction of DX10, what's the point of a compatible motherboard? I can't see myself getting irritated with the performance of an X1900XT within a year.

Thanks for the help!

 

[shodan]

I believe when cards are crossfired the PCI-E slots run at x8 for each card. So that wont be a problem. (I think this is the case - but don't quote me on it - either way it shouldn't be a problem)

Thanks for your help! Much appreciated. However, before I discovered the impending greatness of conroe chips, I was planning an AMD FX60 system (and wincing from the price too) and therefore I had a different mobo in mind, the Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe. Asus's specs for the two cards show the AMD board to run both crossfire cards at x16, whilst the Intel board only allows x8:

A8R32-MVP Deluxe (AMD)
P5W DH Deluxe (Intel)

I think it is something to do with what is possible with the chipsets involved. Anyway, with GPUs getting faster at a rate of knots, are you sure having half the PCI-E speed of other crossfire mobos won't be bad for DX10 crossfire performance?

 

[shodan]

Well I have just searched for some reviews on the performance difference on Crossfire 8x vs 16x and here are the results:

http://www.tbreak.com/reviews/printpage.php?id=438

I'm afraid I don't know much more about crossfire so I would wait until someone with more knowledge can answer your question more fully.

Thanks Killer_uk. You've remedied my ignorance with great success! I'll just see what mobos are around when the conroes launch and hopefully something will offer crossfire at x16. It isn't crucial though. I'm sure once I upgrade to a second generation DX10 card it'll be a LONG time before I want to consider crossfiring it!

If anyone knows of any upcoming chipsets for conroe with full x16 crossfire support then post the details in this thread!