GA-880GA-UD3H PCI CrossFire support

[bigdaveberg]

I being a idiot that i am did not 100% read up on crossfire. I now see that in order to have the best performance you want the second pcie x16 to be atleaset operating at x8 with to cards installed. Well my board, the second slot runs at x4... should i send it in for refund and spend the 120 for the  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128438

[Dark Mantis]

I would have thought that your best idea would be to upgrade the graphics card that you have. Even if you SLI your nVidia card with another one you probably won't get any more perfomance than with one of the newer cards. By the way you can only use crossfire on ATI cards on nVidia cards you have to use SLI.

[bigdaveberg]

Well i plan on getting a 5770 also, but if i want to xfire later on, i do not think this board will be that good, atleast that is what i am seeing

[Dark Mantis]

Well this is the problem we all face, where to stop!

[bigdaveberg]

Okay so my delima, I was just about to purchase(honestly was at checkout) a 5770, then i was thinking of xfire down the road, looked around, and they say 2 pcie x16 running at x8 both slots is the way to go, but my second slot runs at x4, is there a software fix? or should i rma the board and get the other one overnighted? I have the cash now to do it.

EDIT: I just read a very interesting article http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=254239 and these test show to me that there will not be too much difference, not enough were myself will notice, like i said i am a gamer, wow, and call of duty is about it, i had crysis idk yet again, so i do not think i will see that much of a difference.

[Dark Mantis]

Well bigdave the article was interesting wasn't it. I was quite shocked at how little difference the x4 to x16 made. Personally I would spend more on one good graphics card than two mediorcre ones Xfired. The amount of extra frames etc you get difference by having the second card is negligable compared to the extra power from a better card. For instance the 5xxx series is twice as powerfull as the 4xxx series. So by getting the newer card you get twice the power whereas by Xfiring two 4xxx series you get about 1.25 times the power. Plus you only have to worry about one x16 slot. Plus you get DX11 support rather than DX10. No brainer in my book.

[bigdaveberg]

Yep that is why i am no longer worried about my mobo choice, albeit i could have paid the xtra cash for better, but what i got will be good for a while coupled with a 5770 or better!

[Dark Mantis]

I reckon that's the best choice! I'm like you as far as games and a card like that should do you nicely.