Ok, another dual video card question.

Alright, so I was doing some research on this Crossfire set up and my motherboard says its Crossfire ready, has 2 slots for the vid cards. Now the main is X16 and the 2nd is X4. Now in reading about this kind of setup they say you lose quality. Well Ok that does not make sense to me, why say your crossfire ready when people say it makes it worse, no matter what configuration the mobo may be set up for. Ive seen this with on forums even with X16/X16, X16/X8..etc...didnt seem to matter what the setup was. So if running 2 cards is suppose to be great, why do so many swear that it makes it worse. And also in doing some reading about the config,(X16/X16 or X8/X8..etc) people say the difference between X16/X16 vs X16/X8 or X4 is only minimal.

Adding a second card will not make your computer worse. If everything is functioning properly, you will gain frames. Different motherboards change PCI-E bandwidth when there is a second card added. For instance my motherboard is X16, X8 normally, but because i added a second card my motherboard is running in X8, X8 mode. However i still gained a substantial amount of performance adding the second card. Every motherboard is different, and the higher end the motherboard you go, the higher PCI-E bandwidth you will be able to have in multi gpu setups, generally.

This video, while is not testing multi gpu setups, will give you an idea of the difference in PCI-E bandwidth modes. Also keep in mind that this is a very high end, high bandwidth card, and would show more of a difference than lower cards.
[utube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfXALgE7mVM&feature=channel_video_title[/utube]

Well right now im running a XFX HD radeon 6850.

If your first card is running in X16, and the second is running in X4, the card running in X4 will just not be performing at quite 100%. You would still gain 90+% performance in adding a second 6850. Assuming you are not CPU bottle necked.

If your first card is running in X16, and the second is running in X4, the card running in X4 will just not be performing at quite 100%. You would still gain 90+% performance in adding a second 6850. Assuming you are not CPU bottle necked.

I think he has a Phenom II x4 965 BE so I don't think he'd be bottlenecked by that.

He should be fine adding a second card then.

Yeppers, I run the AMD 965 B.E.

I would add the second card then if i were you, you are still going to get a massive gain in performance in games.

just make sure you get those crossfire profiles with each game you play

If the CPU(AMD 965 quad core B.E)cant handle it, I will just get a 6 core AMD....

If the CPU(AMD 965 quad core B.E)cant handle it, I will just get a 6 core AMD....

that's what I'm doing for BF3

just make sure you get those crossfire profiles with each game you play

Im guessing that the bundle your suppose to download the CAP in AMD website.. I think its the 11.3 CAP1, has all the games that are crossfire ready installed in this, or do you have to get the Crossfire profiles individually for each game? Or is this not the right place to get the profiles at all and/or where and how do you get the profiles for the AMD based system?

just make sure you get those crossfire profiles with each game you play

Im guessing that the bundle your suppose to download the CAP in AMD website.. I think its the 11.3 CAP1, has all the games that are crossfire ready installed in this, or do you have to get the Crossfire profiles individually for each game? Or is this not the right place to get the profiles at all and/or where and how do you get the profiles for the AMD based system?

On the download page for the catalyst on AMD's website, there's also an option for "ATI Catalyst Application Profiles." The newest one is with Catalyst 11.6, and the version number for this one is 11.6 CAP3

http://sites.amd.com/us/game/downloads/ ... n7-64.aspx