Will this motherboard be okay with two HD3870X2 cards in CrossFire mode
Now that I have my new Q6600 G0 sorted out, I want to maximize the rest of my system. Because of the mostly favorable reviews, I have ordered two new Asus HD3870X2 video cards. Initially, I will be testing just one card, but once the CrossFire drivers are released, I will run them in that mode. For those interested, the Asus and HIS versions of these cards are factory overclocked from a core speed of 775 MHz to 825 MHz.
Based on my experience with the HD2900XT, I believe the drivers for the HD3870X2's will mature quickly, and they will end up performing very well together in CrossFire mode. I sure hope so, as these cards are $495 CAD each.
If these were single GPU HD3870 video cards, I wouldn't worry about a performance "hit" from using a P35 based motherboard, but I am concerned putting two GPU's worth of video card through one PCI-E 8x slot is going to create a bottleneck.
Ultimately, my question is this: "I know the X38 based motherboards with dual PCI-E 16x slots will be a better choice for maximizing the performance of dual HD3870X2 video cards, but will the performance gain there be offset by poorer CPU overclocking performance?"