X1950 Pro Crossfire

[MagicBoy]

A mate of mine has just upgraded his rig and has a Sapphire X1950 Pro going begging. I've got a Triplex ParaSouls X1950 Pro at the moment so I was thinking crossfire on the cheap. Last time I did this sort of thing was Voodoo2's in SLI so it's been a while... so a couple of questions :

Can you mix and match makes of card as long as the chip is the same?

How many cables do I need? The cards appear to have two internal connectors - the Sapphire has the cable in the box, but my card didn't ship with one.

 

[waso_dude]

Ignore got it wrong....

 

[gt_junkie]

I'd imagine it would work fine. Do you have a crossfire board?

Assuming it's been offered to you for a very good price you might be better selling them on and buying a single more capable card.

Think 3850pro 512mb, 3870XT or 8800GT (assuming their prices drop after the new GTS is released).

My lowly 3850pro 256mb returns performance similar to my old overclocked 7950GX2. That in turn performed similar to 2x 7900GTX's in SLi which in turn will perform similarly to 2x 1950pro's in crossfire. Other benefits are better compatibility with games (some don't support SLi or Crossfire) and much lower power consumption.

gt

 

[Scougar]

Yup, you'd prob be better selling them seperately and getting an 3850 512mb or 3870 512mb

Matthew

 

[MagicBoy]

Thanks for the input, but I'll stick with the X1950. DirectX is pointless at the moment so I can't see the point in upgrading now. Once ATI have sorted out the 3000 range then I might look at an upgrade in a few months.

One of the original question still stands - do I need two crossfire bridges?

 

[schumi84]

Looking at this pic, you will 2 of the bridges:

http://www.wccftech.com/thy/ATIX1950/x1950cf.jpg

 

[Randell]

Thanks for the input, but I'll stick with the X1950. DirectX is pointless at the moment so I can't see the point in upgrading now. Once ATI have sorted out the 3000 range then I might look at an upgrade in a few months.

That makes no sense? Do you mean DX10 is pointless now? Anyway, you don't buy a 3850/3870 or 88xx series card necessarily for DX10, you buy them for the fast DX9 capabilities. As someone who has run 2x1950pro's crossfire and now got a 3870, you are much better off with a faster single card than 2 crossfired cards.

 

[MagicBoy]

Yeah I meant DX10 is pointless now. T'is a typo. I don't run Vista and won't be for the foreseeable future. I've got a Leopard powered Mac for proper computing duties - the PC is just a games box.

As to the x1950 - I'm happy with the one I have. I've been offered another one for £30 and I've got the spare PSU grunt to run it. It's an opportunity - I wasn't planning on spending £150 on a new card.

I've arranged to borrow another bridge from a mate. I'm hoping an 2900XT one is the same, so I'll find out tomorrow.

 

[Randell]

For £30 it's certainly worth it, you will get close to 8800GTS 320 performance. But I would still recommend once you've had a play, sellign them both. You could probably get £60 for each 1950Pro so that woudl fund a 3850 or near fund a 3870.

The bridges are all the same, plus two different makes will work together, I had a Gecube/Sapphire combo.