Radeon X1900XTX - what do I do for Crossfire

[the_joph]

Hi folks, newbie here, first of all I'd lie to say thanks to you guys and gals as this site has seriously helped me put together a nice machine...I think....

AMD 64 Dual Core FX-62
Asus Crosshair AMD AM2 nForce 590 SLI Motherboard
OCZ 2GB (2*1GB sticks) PC2 6400 PC26400 PLATINUM EDITION XTC, 800Mhz 4-5-4-15
2*320GB Seagate Barracuda 7200rpm SataII 3.5IN 8.5MS 7200RPM 16MBcache - (will be putting into an array)
18x SONY AW-G170A Dual Layer DVD +/-RW/RAM ReWriter
Logitech G7 wireless gaming mouse
Zboard keyboard
Cooler Master iGreen Power 600W
X1900XTX 512MB DDRIII VIVO ATI RADEON DVI I X1900 XTX

That last one's the purpose of this post. I was swithering between Sli or Crossfire and opted for the X1900XTX. I'm panicing now as at some point will want to go crossfire and I'm unsure if I have made a wise choice. Especially as I see the 1950XTX is out! Is there a big difference between those two?

and crutially do I need a crossfire edition X1900 XTX or just an identical X1900XTX card to get crossfire on my system?

Cheers

Joe

 

[Sharkfood]

To run Crossfire, you need a Crossfire edition card and a "normal" variety card.

The Crossfire edition card acts as a "master" whereas any normal of the same variety is the "slave" card. So when you decide to go Crossfire, you'll want a Crossfire edition of what you have.

In your case, if your X1900 is a true-blue ATI model, you'll want to add:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814195001

You did the correct thing. For single-card operation, you buy the standard edition, then if/when you decide to go Crossfire, you get the Crossfire Edition/Master card.

 

[mailpup]

In addition to what Sharkfood already mentioned, you'll also need a Crossfire compatible motherboard. Your current board is SLI which means you need Nvidia cards to make SLI work in your rig.

 

[Sharkfood]

Good point by mailpup that I assumed you were already on-key with.

In order to run Crossfire, you obviously need a Crossfire compatible mainboard. If you're planning on future-upgrade to Crossfire, you'll need a Crossfire (not SLI) motherboard as well.

Crossfire is vastly different from SLI in it's requirements from the PCI-E bus. SLI motherboards aren't up to this task.

 

[the_joph]

Yep seems like i've made a slight mis-calculation there then!

The motherboard is CrossHAIR not FIRE (I think I've read them as the same thing) and yeah is meant for SLI.

Doh!

It'll be a while before I'll be changing so it will need to do me just now.

Thanks folks