Hi All,


Upgrade time....



Could you please recommend a decent CROSSFIRE motherboard that doesnt cost the earth



i have no clue to be honest !


Cheers

Haven't really look at crossfire boards in a while. The newer foxcon range with the p35 chipsets are meant to be good http://www.ebuyer.com/product/143175

But I have also read that some of the boards that support ddr3 and ddr2 have issues when trying to overclock the memory. But having said that i think you have to be pushing hard to notice it.

http://scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=818508


i was looking at this board

Looks ok but thought you didn't want it to cost the earth?

If you have a cash you can go for an x38 based chip as it means that both pci-e will run at 16x



where as the p45 ones



Not sure what the real world difference is but thought you might want to know.

Worth reading http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2007/1 ... rsus_p35/8

the 8x gen2 boards dont offer any perfornace diffrence.

same bandwidth as prev 1.1 16x board

thanks for your input guys.


Should of asked this first off but is SLI/Crossfire worth the money/hassle...


i have a ABIT IP-35 Pro Mobo, would it be more realistic to keep the mobo and maybe just put the money towards a 4870X2.....OR get a decent CS mobo and 1 x 4870 and then added another 4870 down the line

what you think?

as usual, my gaming res is 1680x1050 (22")

I have two HD 4850s in crossfire, at the time of purchase it was far cheaper than a GTX 280 and performed better but now prices have fallen it's not such a good idea, now two HD 4850s cost the same as one GTX 280.

You say you're only playing at 1680x1050, at this resolution crossfire is a waste of money, I personally regret not waiting a few weeks for the HD 4870 release. I recently built a gaming machine for my brother consisting of an E8400 and HD 4870, the duo would play COD4 at max settings on a 22" (1680x1050) monitor at over or around 60fps.

You should throw out the HD 3850 and drop in a HD 4870, don't bother with a second one for the time being. The alternative is a GTX 260, it's now priced the same as a HD 4870 and performs roughly the same, the choice is yours.

so would you advise keeping my current board (IP-35Pro) and just buying a HD4870?


OR


new CS mobo + 1 HD4870 and then buy a 2nd card if i move to a 24" + ?


this is the HD4870 im thinking of getting:


http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... -PC&tool=3

I'm running an hd4850 with 24" and GRID (pretty demanding) runs 1950x1080 full wack with AA and AF. So would think you will be ok with an hd4870 and 24" if you do go that way!

Groovy

well ive just ordered the Powercolor ATI Radeon HD 4870 PCS Extreme 512MB GDDR5 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail


I'm keeping the Abit IP-35Pro for now...see how i go


thanks all for the advice