Advice on Crossfire

[rchi84]

hi all

i am looking at creating a xfire setup for my next pc. at present i am looking at the C2D e7400 CPU, with dual radeon 4770s, 500 GB WD HDD, Samsung 20 " monitor with the Antec EA 650 W SMPS. i am stuck on which motherboard to buy for this. which is the cheapest xfire motherboard available in the market right now?

should i invest in the x3 720 BE with biostar 128M motherboard, which costs around 6k or the e7400 based setup?

thanks

[damngoodman999]

ASUS P5Q pro is good stable one "awarded motherboard" costs u 8K

good for crossfire support !!!

[MetalheadGautham]

AMD X3 720BE would be a better choice with Biostar 790GX motherboard mainly because of much stronger CPU.

[comp@ddict]

Yup, for Gaming, seriously the X3 720 B.E. is the best, cuz more than that, it's no use, less than that, y would u go for that, when it's so cheap. SO:

X3 720 B.E. @ 7.8k
Biostar TA790GXB 128M @ 5.8k
2x Sapphire HD4770 512MB GDDR5 @ 7.2 x 2 = 14.4k

[damngoodman999]

Originally Posted by comp@ddict

Yup, for Gaming, seriously the X3 720 B.E. is the best, cuz more than that, it's no use, less than that, y would u go for that, when it's so cheap. SO:

X3 720 B.E. @ 7.8k
Biostar TA790GXB 128M @ 5.8k
2x Sapphire HD4770 512MB GDDR5 @ 7.2 x 2 = 14.4k

the mobo u mentioned has one PCIe slot !! so no crossfire !!

i think u have to mention this TA790GX A3+ which costs 5.8K

[comp@ddict]

My mistake!

[desiibond]

X3 720 is much more faster than C2D e7400, thanks to it's integrated memory controller, huge cache and extra core. Also, get 790FX/GX based motherboard to setup crossfire. ASUS/Gigabyte mobo should cost you around 8k-9k. If you are on a budget, go for Jetway HA 07 Ultra (Hummer) mobo for 6k.

[rchi84]

thanks for the advice guys. am zeroing in on two motherboards.

Jetway HA07-LF for 6 K as desiibond mentioned
Biostar TA790GX 128M as recommended by comp addict for 5.3 K (this does have 2 x pci x16 slots, as opposed to Biostar TA790GXB A2+ which only has one pci x16 slot).

now, between these two, which is better?

(i am not going to do heavy OCing. probably see how many multipliers i can go upto on the 720BE on stock voltage.)

thanks once again to everyone who pitched in with their replies. really appreciate it

[desiibond]

among those two, I pick jetway's. reason being it's efficient cooling and power mechanism.

But If you want to get most out of crossfire and want extremely stable mobo, pick Gigabyte GA-MA790FX-UD5P.

The reason is that for those Biostar and Jetway, if you add to GPUs, they will run in 8-lane PCI-E mode (a.k.a x8) but for that gigabyte board, they will run at x16 mode. This will give better fps.

few links;

http://www.gigabyte.in/Products/Moth...ProductID=3003
http://www.gigabyte.in/Products/Moth...A-MA790FX-UD5P

[asingh]

What resolutions..you plan to play on..for X-Fire...?

[MetalheadGautham]

8x is enough for PCIe 2.0. A radeon 4770 will be more than comfortable in a 2.0 8x slot.

[desiibond]

but why to sacrifice those extra lanes when the price differnce is around 2k-2.5k?? Also, Gigabyte 790 boards with UltraDurable 3 are much more stable for overclocking (just my opinion)

[rchi84]

well Asigh, i am looking at playing at max 1680 x 1050. i can even live with 1440 x 900. dont really need 1920 x 1080 in my games.

i am thinking of pairing this setup with the samsung 20" monitor. and i think i saw some websites where they said that the diff between pci 8x and pci 16x was similar to diff between ddr 2 and ddr3 on low to mid range configs.

my idea is to buy the system now with a 4770. and when games start to choke in 7 months time, pop in another 4770( which will be cheaper by then). in two years, i would have to buy a new system anyways.

i speak with the sadness of seeing my athlon 64 3000+, 1 GB DDR 400, 6600 GT pc struggle to play games at 1024 x 768 in two years

[MetalheadGautham]

2k difference ? Are you referring to CrossFire X4 capable boards ?

[desiibond]

after two years, you won't be able to find HD4770 easily I think. Get the best you can get now itself. And looking at the speed with which gaming industry is moving, I think HD4770 will become slower by this time next year

Originally Posted by MetalheadGautham

2k difference ? Are you referring to CrossFire X4 capable boards ?

I meant the price difference between X8 CF board and X16 CF board.

eg: MSI K9A2 Platinum v2 is available for 8.5k-9k and it has Quad CF and MSI's circu pipe

{Slot configurations: Dual CrossFire (16X+16X), Triple CrossFire (16X+8X+8X), Quad CrossFire (8X+8X+8X+8X)}

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130136

but one downside for this is that it has SB600 Northbridge

You can find a full X16 CF boards from Gigabyte for 9.5k

[damngoodman999]

But Crossfire is totally waste of money - is that true , i heard many of them saying as no large increase in FPS ??

[desiibond]

^^ A CF of HD4770 competes with GTX280

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...e,2288-11.html

[damngoodman999]

ok hd 4770 is looking good @ 7.2K but , palit hd 4850 today onwards its costs 7.8k if we crossfire hd 4850 then it beats gtx 280 right !!!

also heard that hd 4850 xfire in equals the performance of the gtx 285 !!

[desiibond]

and your cabinet will become a nuclear plant. HD4850 is extremely power hungry and it give out lot of heat. The difference between HD4770 and HD4850 is marginal but HD4770 runs lot cooler and consumes lot less power.

If heat and power are of no concern, then dual HD4850 is the way to go.

Also, HD4850 X2 (single slot card) is now available for 18k. Expect a price drop very soon in India

[damngoodman999]

^^^ gr8 i forgot abt the POWER --- YUP gr8 good thanks man

[asingh]

Hey...

Why you so intent on a X - Fire solution....

1. The 16x X 16X motherboards are more expensive.
2. Not all games scale great on the X-fire, since they are not programmed to understand such a set up efficiently....yet....will so in the future.
3. The FPS gain, is not that much.
4. Anything above 35 - 40 FPS you cannot tell the difference visually anyways.
5. Requires more power.
6. Generates more heat.

I have read on many forums, with multiple driver/hardware issues regarding X-Fire and SLI configurations. Many times, when you are rendering games, if the game does not support multi GPU, one card will be sitting there..doing jack-squat. You wont even know.

You are ready to spend RS 7200 x 2 = 14400. In less then this you can easily get a Palit Sonic 4870 or add a few more bucks and pick up the HD4890. Both are really good cards, with overclock potential.

Single GPU solutions..are better anyday...!

[Krow]

^^^Games like GTA IV actually have X-fire disabled by AMD!!!

@ rchi84 Saving u some more money(not performance), u cn evn have a look @ the MSI HD4770 @ 6.5k. Sapphire is a great brand, but if u looking to save some bucks and get the same performance from a well-known, but new to GPU brand, go for MSI!
After all the Sapphire CFX will cost u 14.4k, while the MSI CFX will cost u 13k 2day! Maybe evn less later! Choose to go for CFX depending on the games u r gonna play. Frankly speaking,

i am looking at playing at max 1680 x 1050. i can even live with 1440 x 900. dont really need 1920 x 1080 in my games.

For this a single 4770 is great as of today!

[Krow]

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/g...hmarks,51.html

Hope this helps.

[damngoodman999]

^^^ y r u always posting from other forums !!

[dOm1naTOr]

Originally Posted by Techalomaniac

Sapphire is a great brand, but if u looking to save some bucks and get the same performance from a well-known, but new to GPU brand, go for MSI!

actually MSI is much older manufacturer than most others like palit, POV.

just for reference, i had an old MSI MX 44 card which was more than 6 yrs old.
MSI entered GPU market at geforce 2 era.

[Krow]

y r u always posting from other forums !!

I'm not posting from other forums, I'm just giving links to them so that it helps whoever has a certain problem(no offence). At least now, I have my own thoughts and I most probably will continue to have them(provided I dnt lose myself).

actually MSI is much older manufacturer than most others like palit, POV.

just for reference, i had an old MSI MX 44 card which was more than 6 yrs old.
MSI entered GPU market at geforce 2 era.

Point taken. Shoulda researchd a bit more b4 claiming that. I was just quoting what some dealer told me. Will keep that in mind next time.