CrossFire / CrossFire-X confusion

LiengLiengZA

LiengLiengZA

Expert Member
Joined
Sep 24, 2008
Messages
2,241
Reaction score
770
Location
Dronkenville,Vereeniging
Hey people,

I went on Guru3d's website this morning to read the article about HD7970.Now the next line from Guru3d confuses me:
A question that we receive a lot is this, What is the difference in-between Crossfire and CrossfireX mode ? If you use the very same cards in multi-GPU mode, that is Crossfire. However However if you mix models, say the R7970 with a R6970 .. that's CrossfireX mode.
Click to expand...
Now from what I understand is that you CANNOT Crossfire say 5850 and 6850 together but in this they say you can Crossfire two different Gen cards hence the support for Crossfire-X.


Any comments will be helpful.
 
CrossFire is when you "combine" multiple same model graphics cards.
CrossFireX is when you "combine" multiple graphics cards that aren't the same model / generation.

Your motherboard would have to have CrossFireX support to be able to "combine" different graphics card models.

^^ This is just from what I understand, so I might not be 100% correct.

In my opinion you SHOULD use the same model graphics cards if you can, otherwise you'll just bottleneck one of the graphics cards and not get the optimum performance gain.
 
You are correct Pada.Thing is I've googled it and they say you can't under any circumstances use a 5850 and 6850 together.But now from what I understand if your cards and mobo are CrossfireX capable then you can use two different gen cards together.
 
CrossfireX is just the current gen version of Crossfire, and you cannot ever Crossfire different generations of cards. The 'exception' is 6770/6750 and 5770/5750, since those are the same cards, just rebranded (and higher clocks, I think). Otherwise, you can only Crossfire cards with the same chips, i.e. 6970 and 6950, 6870 and 6850 and 6790, etc...

Take a look here for compatibility.
 
Yeah, it seems like not even CrossFireX supports multiple-generation setups. I won't recommend different GPU CrossFire setups either, unless you have like an HD6950/HD6970 + HD6990 setup, since the HD6990 is in essence 2x HD6950 GPU's.
 
Rudimental said:
CrossfireX is just the current gen version of Crossfire, and you cannot ever Crossfire different generations of cards. The 'exception' is 6770/6750 and 5770/5750, since those are the same cards, just rebranded (and higher clocks, I think). Otherwise, you can only Crossfire cards with the same chips, i.e. 6970 and 6950, 6870 and 6850 and 6790, etc...

Take a look here for compatibility.
Click to expand...


Rudimental,thanks I have looked here and that's what confusing me.

And regarding the 6770/6750 and 5770/5750.They are the same but the 7970 and 6970 is totally different.
 
Last edited:
kelevra said:
Rudimental,thanks I have looked here and that's what confusing me.

And regarding the 6770/6750 and 5770/5750.They are the same but the 7970 and 6970 is totally different.
Click to expand...

Yes. For whatever reason, AMD didn't have a 6000 series card to fill the gap, so they took the 5770 and 5750 and slapped new stickers on them, basically. 7970, on the other hand, is completely new architecture, and so there is no way it would be compatible with 6970.
 
Rudimental said:
Yes. For whatever reason, AMD didn't have a 6000 series card to fill the gap, so they took the 5770 and 5750 and slapped new stickers on them, basically. 7970, on the other hand, is completely new architecture, and so there is no way it would be compatible with 6970.
Click to expand...


That is my arguement. The quote that I used on their site says that you can basically use a 6970 and 7970 together.It's then just called CrossFire-X as where I agree that the architecture on the two card are completely different and you cannot use them together.
 
exactly is a new feature, before crossfire was work only with the same card model now some different cards will work togeter
via crossfire-x. the specs still need to be clarify but we got the basic here
 
bobby39 said:
exactly is a new feature, before crossfire was work only with the same card model now some different cards will work togeter
via crossfire-x. the specs still need to be clarify but we got the basic here
Click to expand...

The website is of no use.But what you are telling me is that I can pair a 6850 and 5850 together if my mobo supports crossfire-X?But according to Rudimental's link he posted it's not possible and I have googled this and they say you can't pair 6850 and 5850.if it's normal crossfire or crossfire-X,it's impossible.
 
kelevra:
You won't be able to pair different generation cards (eg. HD6850 + HD5850) in CrossFire-X either, with the exception of a few that uses the same GPU architecture (eg. 5570,5770,6750 & 6770).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X