Crossfire or Not?

[Larry]

hey guys just need some advise im looking into buying a new motherboard and graphics card just want to no if these crossfire boards and cards are any good here is what ive been looking at
this......
(Mobo) Sapphire PURE Innovation Gruper Radeon Xpress 200P (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-001-SP) @ £114

(Card)BFG GeForce 7800 GT OC 256MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-010-BG) @ £204
or
(Mobo)DFI LanParty UT RDX200CF-DR Crossfire (Socket 939) Motherboard (MB-017-DF) @ £129

(Card)Sapphire ATI Radeon X1800 XL 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-102-SP) @ 219

im open to suggestions thanks Larry

[Larry]

bump

[CrashOv3r1De]

I would go with the first option but change the motherboard to a DFI eXpert or Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe.

[ionicle]

not asus, and i personally would go with the second option, ATi make faster graphics cards...and saphire make the best of all imo

[MrMojoZ]

not asus, and i personally would go with the second option, ATi make faster graphics cards...and saphire make the best of all imo

So all ATI graphic cards are just faster? Great, I had no idea. :rolleyes:

[stone_cold_Jimi]

Faster than this? -

http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/12/14/sneak_preview_of_the_nvidia_quad_gpu_setup/

[Crankybugga]

^^ Great help !

Id go with option 2 myself, im running the RDX with excellent results paired with an ATi vga.

[CrashOv3r1De]

not asus, and i personally would go with the second option, ATi make faster graphics cards...and saphire make the best of all imo

You honestly do not know what you are talking about. Look at the the gfx cards comming out for the past 3 months atleast. Nvidia has beaten ATI on every level.

So what your saying X1800 Xt is faster than 7800GTX 512? No. X1800 XL faster than 7800GTX 256? No.

The X1800 Xt is faster than the 7800GTX 256 but has a higher price as well and it does not fit into Larrys budget. Out of all the cards that fit into Larry's budget the 7800GTX 256 is by far the FASTEST.

Also makes no sense using a NVIDIA card on an ATI chipset. Either use ati card/chipset or nvidia card/chipset.

In your budget the fastest card is the 7800GTX 256. For a budget motherboard you can go with the DFI Lanparty UT NF4 Ultra-D

[k00lance]

you get nf4 mobo with ati so you can toy with ati for moment then sell it to go 7800gtx in sli:) that way your experience double:)

[ionicle]

You honestly do not know what you are talking about. Look at the the gfx cards comming out for the past 3 months atleast. Nvidia has beaten ATI on every level.

So what your saying X1800 Xt is faster than 7800GTX 512? No. X1800 XL faster than 7800GTX 256? No.

The X1800 Xt is faster than the 7800GTX 256 but has a higher price as well and it does not fit into Larrys budget. Out of all the cards that fit into Larry's budget the 7800GTX 256 is by far the FASTEST.

Also makes no sense using a NVIDIA card on an ATI chipset. Either use ati card/chipset or nvidia card/chipset.

In your budget the fastest card is the 7800GTX 256. For a budget motherboard you can go with the DFI Lanparty UT NF4 Ultra-D
right:rolleyes: ..well i have a X800GTO2 @x850 speeds, it totally owns my 6800, which i replaced with it...also it is running on a nforce 4 chipset

[FireDragon]

well in that case the 7800gtx 512 is 200 more than the x1800xt so in my book the x1800xt wins i can deal with 8fps less in dooms with a dc chip and with newest driver i am srry but 5-15 fps in a game that runs well over 50 at almost all settings is NOT worth 200 more that the x1800XT

Dragon

[biohead]

uhm
2nd option, but not the rdx200 - wait for the Sapphire Pure Innovation Crossfire (SAPPHIRE PI-A9RD480 to hit the market. They make the best of all anyways. -_-

[saaya]

id recommend you to go asus a8r-mvp with two x1600 pros :)
you have to mod it to get good vcore and vdimm options but the board seems to be very nice and its only 100€ aka 67£!
thats half of what the other crossfire boards cost :D

and the 1600 pros work in crossfire without dongle and master card, only cost 120€ ~£85!

x1600pros are as fast as a 6600gt, but they have a slightly better iq and they are faster in shader heavy enviroments and more future proof i think. in reviews the x1600xt scores a lil better than a 6600gt, it especially with with aa and af.
a 6600gt scores around 3700 in 2k5, a 1600pro around 4800! (as much as a 6800gt!)

crossfire seems to scale really nice, so unless your cpu is limiting you you can expect almost 2x the speed in futuremark and in some games :)
and thats at stock speeds, the 1600pro comes clocked at 500mhz, the xt is clocked at 600mhz, i think with mods you can reach 700mhz+ easily.
try to find a 1600pro with good memory though, palit has one with gddr3!
other cards are ddr2. im kinda confused about eh default memory clocks, seems to vary between 390 and 400mhz, but thats way too low so i think its 780ddr and 800ddr memory speeds. im sure you can push that mem to 1ghz+ with mods. i think in the end 6600gt sli oced will perform the same or probably slower than a set of 1600pro cards oced in crossfire.
and a set of 6600gt cards cost 100€/£67 more than a set of 1600pro cards :)

or you get a 1800xl and maybe get a 1800 master card later...
if you want to game at high fps and max resolutions etc then id recommend this.

im going to get a set of 1600pros and the asus a8r-mvp next week and will let you know how it performs ;)

[ionicle]

ATi have the better cards...they are faster, clock speed wise...they are usually comparatively cheaper, and tbh they look cool...i mean red! on a black motherbord...with yellow pci-e slots, it just looks so cool lol...but seriously ATi is the better choice...

[CrashOv3r1De]

ATi have the better cards...they are faster, clock speed wise...they are usually comparatively cheaper, and tbh they look cool...i mean red! on a black motherbord...with yellow pci-e slots, it just looks so cool lol...but seriously ATi is the better choice...

So why is the gTX512 faster than the X1800 XT
Why is GTX 256 faster than X1800 Xl
Why does NVIDIA dominate the orb?

plenty of other examples...:slapass:

[saaya]

ATi have the better cards...they are faster, clock speed wise...they are usually comparatively cheaper, and tbh they look cool...i mean red! on a black motherbord...with yellow pci-e slots, it just looks so cool lol...but seriously ATi is the better choice...

lol :D
card wars episode III -the revenge of the MYTH :lol:
the mega hurtz myth strikes back :D
more megahurtz doesnt mean they are faster man :)
ati cards have a slightly better iq afaik, but nope, the fastest cards atm are from nvidia.

[biohead]

congratulations to saaya breaking 20k posts :toast: