Crossfire/SLI

[Infired]

Hey,

I am here with a question, if I were to run two 6950's in Crossfire in my system, would I have to buy the exact same model, brand as the current 6950 that i have?

(e.g I have a PowerColour HD6950 2GB, can I run a Gigabyte HD6950 2GB or a MSi Twinfrozr III HD6950 2GB in Crossfire with my PowerColour? Or will I have to buy another PowerColour HD6950?)

Any help is Appreciated

 

[FuryRosewood]

core has to match, brand doesnt, so 6950 + 6950 would work, would probably want the memory amounts to match too

 

[SMGOwnage]

It all really cones Down to the GPU Core.

Example:

You cant use a 6950 with a 6990, different core design, shaders and all that.

But to answer your question, yes if you have a powercolor 6950 then you can get an ASUS, Sapphire, HIS 6950 and it will work in crossover fine.

 

[TrainTrackHack]

I'm pretty sure you can use different cores too, at least as long as you stay within the same series of cards. 6950 should work with any 6900 series card, but the performance will usually be similar to running two of the slower card in crossfire. You could do this with 3, 4 and 5 series, I don't see why they would've dropped the support - though for best results you'll want identical GPUs, yes.

 

[Infired]

Thanks for the help, much appreciated

Might either go for the MSi Twin Frozr HD6950 2GB and put it in Crossfire with my PowerColor.

For those interested in my specs, take a look

CPU: Intel Core i7 2600K Unlocked Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz 8MB Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Hyperthreading Processor
MOBO: GIGABYTE GA-Z68XP-UD3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
GPU: PowerColor Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity
RAM: Kingston HyperX 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model
SSD: OCZ Vertex Plus 2.5" 60GB SATA II MLC Internal SSD
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB SATA3 6Gb/s NCQ 32MB 7200RPM Hard Drive OEM
PSU: OCZ 850W Modular 80 plus Gold
CASE: Antec Twelve Hundred V3 Black Steel ATX Full Tower
OD: LG 24X Double Layer SATA DVDRW
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - OEM

 

[Rollo]

Hey,

I am here with a question, if I were to run two 6950's in Crossfire in my system, would I have to buy the exact same model, brand as the current 6950 that i have?

(e.g I have a PowerColour HD6950 2GB, can I run a Gigabyte HD6950 2GB or a MSi Twinfrozr III HD6950 2GB in Crossfire with my PowerColour? Or will I have to buy another PowerColour HD6950?)

Any help is Appreciated

I don't know if this is still the deal, but Crossfire started out letting a user combine any two ATi cards of the same generation. (like a 6870 and a 6970)

I've never seen how this could be a good thing as one would think the slower card might actually hold back the faster as CF is alternate frame rendering, and the slower card wouldn't be able to keep up for it's half of the frames. I've seen mixed card benches where framerate was improved though, so the drivers must mix them as the cards are able.

With SLi it has to be the same GPU. (two 560s, two 580s, brand doesn't matter)

 

[jonnyp11]

just a warning, if you get a 2gb card and your current one is 1gb they will both operate on 1gb, and if one is 900mhz and the other like 800 or so, they will both operate at 800mhz, they will lower specs until they are exactly the same.