crossfire x1600 with a x1800/ x1900 ? Whats the best method ?

[nn4786]

I got the x1650 but kinda regret it now....wish i had saved up for a x1900 so later i could crossfire w/ another >< , so im trying find the best way to crossfire w/ what i have or maybe i'll have to discard the x1650 and start over.

So does anyone know since the x1650 communicates directly through the pci bus and the x1800 or x1900 uses additional hookups, could i still buy a x1950 or x1800 and crossfire the two w/o a crossfire bridge/ additional hookups ?

Also , am i right that the crossfire will only go as fast as the slowest card right ? or both card runs at full speed regardless of their speed differences ?

 

[Geoff]

Almost all of ATI's crossfire cards require an external cable hookup, except some of the newer x1950 series use an SLI-like bridge. And yes, if you crossfired an x1650 and x1900, the x1650 will bottleneck it.

Just sell the x1650 and buy a better card.

 

[heyman421]

That's not true, crossfire allows both cards to work at 100%.

Crossfire has the ability to do split-frame rendering, and the split is dynamic.

Meaning, if your 1900 can render 90% of the frame in the same amount of time that the 1650 can do the other 10%, it will split the frame 90/10 so both cards will be working at their full potential.

This is one of the benefits of crossfire over SLi's capability.

 

[Geoff]

That's not true, crossfire allows both cards to work at 100%.

Crossfire has the ability to do split-frame rendering, and the split is dynamic.

Meaning, if your 1900 can render 90% of the frame in the same amount of time that the 1650 can do the other 10%, it will split the frame 90/10 so both cards will be working at their full potential.

This is one of the benefits of crossfire over SLi's capability.

No it's not, the x1900 video card will have to "downgrade" in order to work together with the x1650PRO.

In an example from AMD's site:

6. What happens when you pair a 12-pipe CrossFire Edition card with a 16-pipe card?

A. In this scenario both cards will operate as 12-pipe cards while in CrossFire mode.

And with SLI, you can only use two identical model cards, you cant use say, a 7600GT and a 7900GT.

 

[heyman421]

Their own crossfire advertising is highly misleading, then.

The crossfire demo video on youtube (made by ATI themselves) explains that you can couple any two cards, and they will split the workload according to each card's individual capabilities, so that both cards will be able to contribute as much as possible.

 

[Geoff]

Their own crossfire advertising is highly misleading, then.

The crossfire demo video on youtube (made by ATI themselves) explains that you can couple any two cards, and they will split the workload according to each card's individual capabilities, so that both cards will be able to contribute as much as possible.

Do you have the link to that video? Everything i've heard so far has made me believe that if you couple two different cards, one will have to downgrade so it performs similarly to the other card.