Is this video card compatible with this motherboard?

[Jskid]

Is the XFX Radeon 7970 video card compatible with a an Asus P9Z68-V LE motherboard? I'm rather confused with Crossfire and SLI, is it Crossfire allows multiple Radeon video cards and SLI allows multiple NVidia video cards?

 

[St1ckM4n]

Yes, the card is compatible with the mobo.

Your Crossfire and SLI understanding is correct. However, it extends to GPU's, not just 'cards'. Cards like HD7990 and GTX690 use Crossfire/SLI internally as they have two GPU's on one card.

 

[Jad Chaar]

Dont SLI or Crossfire with that board. It only has 1 PCIe x16 slot. The other PCIe slot is x4, which is very slow.

 

[Jskid]

Dont SLI or Crossfire with that board. It only has 1 PCIe x16 slot. The other PCIe slot is x4, which is very slow.

So it is possible to SLI with the board and video card I mentioned but not advisable? I'm wondering because I'd be using the cards for hashing so I don't think the PCIe x4 would matter...

 

[Jad Chaar]

So it is possible to SLI with the board and video card I mentioned but not advisable? I'm wondering because I'd be using the cards for hashing so I don't think the PCIe x4 would matter...

Well, what exactly is hashing?

 

[GhostRyder]

Bitcoin mining is what he means I believe, so yeah the 4x should not make a different (Or much of one) in that case.

 

[Jskid]

Thanks - you're right.

 

[Jad Chaar]

Thanks - you're right.

Yeah Bitcoin mining is not bandwidth intensive.

 

[St1ckM4n]

I'm not going to bother finding the link, but there's been a lot of testing showing that x4 link doesn't have a very noticeable performance decrease compared to x16, even in high-end gaming. Toms hardware I believe did the tests.

 

[Jad Chaar]

I'm not going to bother finding the link, but there's been a lot of testing showing that x4 link doesn't have a very noticeable performance decrease compared to x16, even in high-end gaming. Toms hardware I believe did the tests.

Well yeah, if you think about it, that is true. Computing/crunching numbers doesnt need as much bandwidth as rendering images would.

 

[Jskid]

I'm not going to bother finding the link, but there's been a lot of testing showing that x4 link doesn't have a very noticeable performance decrease compared to x16, even in high-end gaming. Toms hardware I believe did the tests.

What are these numbers you refer? I checked the wikipedia article and there are versions 1 to 4 but what does mean x16?

 

[Jad Chaar]

What are these numbers you refer? I checked the wikipedia article and there are versions 1 to 4 but what does mean x16?

No, your motherboard has 2 PCIe slots. One of them is x16, the other is x4.

 

[Jskid]

No, your motherboard has 2 PCIe slots. One of them is x16, the other is x4.

What does it mean to be x16 and x4?

 

[Jad Chaar]

What does it mean to be x16 and x4?

You can read up about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express. Or dividebyzero can explain.

 

[dividebyzero]

So it is possible to SLI with the board and video card I mentioned but not advisable? I'm wondering because I'd be using the cards for hashing so I don't think the PCIe x4 would matter...

You can Crossfire two cards with PCIe x16 and PCIe x4, but you cannot SLI two cards in that configuration. Nvidia stipulate that each card must use a minimum of a PCIe x8 slot to enable SLI. If you're running a 7970 this shouldn't concern you since the card utilises Crossfire.

 

[Jad Chaar]

You can Crossfire two cards with PCIe x16 and PCIe x4, but you cannot SLI two cards in that configuration. Nvidia stipulate that each card must use a minimum of a PCIe x8 slot to enable SLI. If you're running a 7970 this shouldn't concern you since the card utilises Crossfire.

How exactly is Crossfire and SLI different and why can one work on 4x (AMD) and one on x8 (nVidia)? Do they have different SLI/crossfire fingers on the GPU?

 

[dividebyzero]

There are a number of differences between Crossfire and SLI ( SuperTiling available to Crossfire, interconnect bandwidth higher with SLI etc.), but in this instance Nvidia stipulate that at least PCIe x8 must be used for SLI. Use a PCIe x4 and the driver won't enable SLI- it's an Nvidia decision that x4 doesn't allow for full compatibility (synchronization of GPU workload) although that is a bit of a head scratcher considering you can plug a couple of GTX 690's (or any duallie) into two PCIe x8 slots and have quad-SLI.