Crossfire or single card?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Neil
  • Start date Start date
N

Neil

Which has the better performance do you guess: 2 off X1900GT's in
crossfire; or 1 off X1900XT? They'll both have the same amount of
memory in total, but I guess the two cards don't share their memory over
the PCI-Express bus. And the two cards will have more processing lines,
but the processor clocked lower. I reckon they're probably about the
same price (at the moment), give or take a few pounds. The two card
solution has the advantage that you can buy it in two chunks. It has
the disadvantage that you don't get all the performance until you've
bought the second instalment; by the time I'm thinking of adding and
have saved up for the second half, it will probably be out of date
anyway. [I suppose it's almost out of date now with DX10 "just around
the corner"].

I'm sure a single GT would be more than enough to cope with what I do at
the moment. So what do you reckon, buy that and then get another
if/when it starts flagging? (It'll probably be cheaper by then too).

Neil
 
Before you get too imaginative, I've read from Hexus forum posts that 2x
X1900GTs in Crossfire (the so-called "dongle-less" setup) only works on
Xpress3200 boards. Do you have one?
 
Recanting, 2x X1900GTs apparently work just fine on the Asus P5W DH (i975
chipset), at least if you trust Hexus:
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=6649&page=1
Performance of the setup versus a flagship X1950XTX can also be seen.

Truth be told, even if 2x X1900GTs deliver greater performance than a single
X1900XT, they are still not worth the hassle. Keep in mind the bloated CCC
is a required install for Crossfire to function (adds 30+ sec to every
boot), whereas a single card can have all its settings exposed through ATi
Tray Tools.
 
my system
2.93 core 2 duo
4 gigs ddr2
4 10000 rpm raptors stipe 0
2 x1900xtx 512s crossfire
onboard sound
p5w dh deluxe
650 antec
watercooling tower koolance cpu only
3dmark06 12202
crossfire works great!
 
I got 2 X1900XT 512 MB cards myself, but I also spent $50 on an SBLive
instead of using *cough* onboard sound *cough*
 
TRUELY all the games i play the onboard sound doesnt skip a beat "caugh"
"caugh" i do have a fx and didnt notice any diff betweeen the 2 using a head
set!
 
TRUELY all the games i play the onboard sound doesnt skip a beat "caugh"
"caugh" i do have a fx and didnt notice any diff betweeen the 2 using a head
set!


You notice a helluva difference with a digital connection into 5.1
Logitechs! Battlefield 2 sounds great!
 
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