With Crossfire

[YeaYea&#33&#33&#33]

Can I run off the mastercard, say if the main card goes down. Can you still run games off the Crossfire Mastercard? This has been one question buggin me. Cuse Im selling my XFX 7900gtx and going with Crossfire x1800xt 512mb. I have a Sapphire x1800xt 512mb that I RMA'd start of January.

 

My buddy also tried to scare me yesterday and say that you cant overclock Crossfire....I laughed.

[Angry_Games]

Can I run off the mastercard, say if the main card goes down. Can you still run games off the Crossfire Mastercard? This has been one question buggin me. Cuse Im selling my XFX 7900gtx and going with Crossfire x1800xt 512mb. I have a Sapphire x1800xt 512mb that I RMA'd start of January.

 

My buddy also tried to scare me yesterday and say that you cant overclock Crossfire....I laughed.

I have Crossfire in my system (sig-rig)

 

I have basically disabled Crossfire by uninstalling CAT drivers and using Omega drivers, downclocking the second X1900, and overclocking the X1900XT Crossfire Master

 

the Crossfire Master card is simply an X1900XT...it just has the controller on it that allows it to be the Master card. There's no difference between the X1900 Master card and an X1900XT card.

 

The same is true with X1800's.

 

 

Overclocking Crossfire is a bit of a pickle...it is not impossible though. With teh official CAT drivers and CCC (and .NET etc that is required to run Crossfire mode), you can simply overclock using the CCC but your limited (with X1900's it is limited to 690/700 from 625/650 stock)

 

you can overclock a different way by disabling certain features in the CCC and installing ATI Tool, and then overclocking each card separately, but this, while it will overclock much more than the CCC will allow, is a huge pain in the butt because ATI Tool will not load your overclocked settings each time you start the comp...so each time you start, you have to open ATI Tool, then first run the 'overclocked' profile for card 1, then do the same for card 2...its just a real pain in the butt.

 

 

 

here's something else to consider...unless you are using 1600x1200 or higher resolution, forget Crossfire. Just get a single X1900XT.

 

At resolutions lower than 1600x1200, Crossfire is useless (same as SLI). I've tested and tested and a single card actually performs better in most cases at 1024x768 and 1280x1024. The only time you need dual gpu's is 1600x1200 or higher.

[Rebelranger]

Good information.. I just put my second card in my wish list. I'll save that money now.

[YeaYea&#33&#33&#33]

I have Crossfire in my system (sig-rig)

 

I have basically disabled Crossfire by uninstalling CAT drivers and using Omega drivers, downclocking the second X1900, and overclocking the X1900XT Crossfire Master

 

the Crossfire Master card is simply an X1900XT...it just has the controller on it that allows it to be the Master card. There's no difference between the X1900 Master card and an X1900XT card.

 

The same is true with X1800's.

 

 

Overclocking Crossfire is a bit of a pickle...it is not impossible though. With teh official CAT drivers and CCC (and .NET etc that is required to run Crossfire mode), you can simply overclock using the CCC but your limited (with X1900's it is limited to 690/700 from 625/650 stock)

 

you can overclock a different way by disabling certain features in the CCC and installing ATI Tool, and then overclocking each card separately, but this, while it will overclock much more than the CCC will allow, is a huge pain in the butt because ATI Tool will not load your overclocked settings each time you start the comp...so each time you start, you have to open ATI Tool, then first run the 'overclocked' profile for card 1, then do the same for card 2...its just a real pain in the butt.

 

 

 

here's something else to consider...unless you are using 1600x1200 or higher resolution, forget Crossfire. Just get a single X1900XT.

 

At resolutions lower than 1600x1200, Crossfire is useless (same as SLI). I've tested and tested and a single card actually performs better in most cases at 1024x768 and 1280x1024. The only time you need dual gpu's is 1600x1200 or higher.

 

Man happy you are the bomb man. Help me a lot on here. I knew there was some wy of doing it and I heard it wasnt easy. I will hate that ATI Tool way, but when doing a benchmark I will do it. Now I am on a monitor of 1680x1024, and will be upgrading to a 24" @ 1920x1200. Now I was reading and maybe missed it, but you were saying about he mastercard x1900 being x1900xt setup to read as the mastercard. But does that mean I can use that as a card incase my Primary x1800xt goes down?

 

Also I remmeber you telling me in one thread about Smartfan and DFI. This guy is telling me his Smartfan works on his SLI-DR. Does it just not work with ATI chipsets?