Two master cards in crossfire?

[Reezer]

I'm about to upgrade to a conroe system and want a pair of crossfire cards to go with it.

Just wondering if I could use two of these cards in crossfire rather than one master and one slave (since the slave is only £10 less than a master of the same spec):

ATI Radeon X1950 XT-X ***Crossfire/Master Edition*** SILENT Heatpipe 512MB GDDR4 (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-051-CO)

I'd guess sticking the output of one into the crossfire port of the other would work but I can't find anything on google to confirm/deny this...

Thanks

 

[FrankJH]

There is no point - you wont get any added benefit in the slightest and it may even harm one or both of the cards, and potentially you could harm performance (as each master is expecting to do the "combining" and so neither end up doing it)

Slave X1950 XT usually get upto and past XTX speeds anyway so I wouldnt even attempt if I were you

 

[LoadsaMoney]

Yep as above, there is no point as 2x masters won't work, has to be master + slave.

 

[Reezer]

Damn, was thinking two masters would be easier to sell separately if/when I next upgrade than a master + slave.

Oh well... I'm in two mind anyway whether to wait and get two x1950 Pro's and save myself £200... the performance should still be damn good.

Suppose the third option would be to get a cheap-ish card and upgrade as soon as some decent dx10 cards come out... decisions, decisions

Thanks

 

[FrankJH]

What resolution are you using - if its any less than 24" ma res (1920*1200) then One X1900XT is more than enough

 

[S_D]

There's actually no reason why it wouldn't work. Just put the video output of one into the dongle that's plugged into the other. Although you wouldn't get any benefit from it, and if it doesn't work then don't blame me.

Simon

 

[FrankJH]

There's actually no reason why it wouldn't work. Just put the video output of one into the dongle that's plugged into the other. Although you wouldn't get any benefit from it, and if it doesn't work then don't blame me.

Simon

.........that you know about

Crossfire is tricky (and costly) enough to get working well with the specified equipment , why try and make it harder for yourself and risk damaging expensive cards into the bargain if you dont need to

 

[LoadsaMoney]

Well ive just looked it up and its changed, you can now pair 2x masters together, see here , although i don't see the point seen as the master cards cost more, and you'll be paying for the composing chip on the 2nd master, but its going to be redundant as your not using it, so you paid the extra for a worthless composing chip, wonder when they started this.

 

[Reezer]

Well ive just looked it up and its changed, you can now pair 2x masters together, see here , although i don't see the point seen as the master cards cost more, and you'll be paying for the composing chip on the 2nd master, but its going to be redundant as your not using it, so you paid the extra for a worthless composing chip, wonder when they started this.

Thanks, at least that leaves my options open.

The masters cost more to make but the ati branded X1950xtx is the same price as the regular one (probably to encourage people to get the crossfire just-in-case and increase their chances of buying a 2nd card later.)