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Maximum PC Guide to Extreme PC Mods (Maximum PC Guide To...)
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Home » Video
SLI vs. CrossFire
Author: Gabriel Torres
Type: Articles Last Updated: April 15, 2008
Page: 6 of 8
$ Check REAL-TIME pricing for EVGA 512-P3-N862-AR GeForce 9600 GT GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 Video Card Retail, (512 MB) PCI Express Products $
Dell: $175.99 Circuit City: $184.99
TigerDirect.com: $149.99 CompUSA.com: $149.99
CompuVest: $169.09

Native CrossFire and CrossFireX
The second CrossFire generation, called Native CrossFire, solved the two main problems found on previous generation: the requirement of a “master”card (as the composition engine is now embedded on the graphics chip of all video cards that support Native CrossFire and CrossFireX) and the cable issue, using a bridge just like SLI for high-end cards. Actually two bridges are needed to connect the cards, as each card has two connectors.

Native CrossFire Connector
click to enlarge
Figure 9: Native CrossFire connectors on a Radeon video card.

Native CrossFire Bridge
click to enlarge
Figure 10: Native CrossFire bridge. You need two of them.

For mainstream cards ATI also decided to use the same approach used by nVidia: the cards are connected thru the PCI Express bus, not requiring an external bridge.

Native CrossFire increased the maximum resolution to 2560x2048.

On the table below you have a list of all possible combinations of video cards using Native CrossFire and a column indicating if the bridges are necessary or not. So you cannot hook up your Radeon HD 2900 Pro to a Radeon HD 2600 XT, for example.

First Video CardSecond Video CardBridges Required
Radeon HD 3870 X2
Radeon HD 3870
Radeon HD 3850
Radeon HD 3870 X2
Radeon HD 3870
Radeon HD 3850

Yes

Radeon HD 3650Radeon HD 3650

Yes

Radeon HD 3470
Radeon HD 3450
Radeon HD 3470
Radeon HD 3450

Yes

Radeon HD 2900 XT
Radeon HD 2900 Pro
Radeon HD 2900 XT
Radeon HD 2900 Pro

Yes

Radeon HD 2600 XT
Radeon HD 2600 Pro
Radeon HD 2600 XT
Radeon HD 2600 Pro

Yes

Radeon HD 2400 XT
Radeon HD 2400 Pro
Radeon HD 2400 XT
Radeon HD 2400 Pro

Yes

Radeon X1950 ProRadeon X1950 Pro

Yes

Radeon X1950 GTRadeon X1950 GT

Yes

Radeon X1650 XTRadeon X1650 XT

Yes

Radeon X1650 Pro
Radeon X1650
Radeon X1600 XT
Radeon X1600 Pro
Radeon X1650 Pro
Radeon X1650
Radeon X1600 XT
Radeon X1600 Pro

No

Radeon X1550Radeon X1550

No

Radeon X1300 XTRadeon X1300 XT

No

Radeon X1300 Pro
Radeon X1300
Radeon X1300 Pro
Radeon X1300

No

And finally the third generation, CrossFireX, is a Native CrossFire connection that allows you to connect up to four video cards based on ATI/AMD chips. The connectors and bridge are identical to Native CrossFire, the difference is how they are connected (see Figure 11). So far only Radeon HD 3870 and Radeon HD 3850 support this new mode. CrossFireX is part of AMD Spider gaming platform. Of course you will need a motherboard with three or four PCI Express x16 slots in order to use more than two video cards. It is very imoportant to notice that AMD started recently calling all generations of CrossFire technology as "CrossFireX".

CrossFireX
click to enlarge
Figure 11: CrossFireX.

Pages (8): « 1 2 3 4 5 [6] 7 8 »
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