5970 + 5870 = Tri CFx?

Yup. Don't see why not. The architecture is basically the same except one has 2 gpus on 1 board.
 
Because I read somewhere that technically each of the GPUs in the 5970 are not the same as the 5870 GPU, therefore I am no sure if it will work.

Anyone know for sure, ie tried it and got it to work, or have a link for reference?
 
well we may find out soon because I have a 5870 and just got lucky on a newegg 5970, so i will be playing with that soon!
 
I will be sticking with a single 5970 until they fix the Eyefinity issue for bridged cards. Apparently the 5970's internal bridge chip is a special exception that they found easier to fix Eyefinity for so they did that first.
 
A few things, even if they are compatible the 5970 is running at lower clocks so you may only get max usage from that system if the 5970 is overclocked.

Also eyefinity works accelerated by crossfire on the 5970 itself but wont be able to make use of the 3rd card until they've fixed this in the drivers which wont be for a while.

Theres no single monitor which is going to need more than an overclocked 5970 anyway so I question the need for this amount of hardware without an eyefinity set up.
 
PrincessFrosty said:
A few things, even if they are compatible the 5970 is running at lower clocks so you may only get max usage from that system if the 5970 is overclocked.

Also eyefinity works accelerated by crossfire on the 5970 itself but wont be able to make use of the 3rd card until they've fixed this in the drivers which wont be for a while.

Theres no single monitor which is going to need more than an overclocked 5970 anyway so I question the need for this amount of hardware without an eyefinity set up.
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QFT
 
SpeedyVV said:
Please read my original post.

I did not ask if I "Should".

I asked if I "Could".
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1) Don't be so defensive
2) If there is a not a good application/reason to do so then why do you want to know if you "Could"?
 
Gagnon said:
1) Don't be so defensive
2) If there is a not a good application/reason to do so then why do you want to know if you "Could"?
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Lol, this is high end computer enthusiast stuff, people spend tens of thousands of dollars for an epeen vantage score that means noth and you are asking this? Really? Come now, you should know better than trying to make sense of things of this nature by know.
 
We don't know what his intentions are with the card, so they're valid points.

Just trying to be nice/helpful :}
 
Thanks for trying to be helpful.

The reason is because I like to run benchmarks and I would like to benchmark a tri crossfire setup.

I already have a 5870, so instead of buying 2 more 5870s, it would be better for me to just get a 5970.

Oh yeah, I dont run benchmarks for any particular reason. I just like to measure stuff.

Like how many Watts of power does it use, the rate of temperature change in my benchmarking environment, idle vs, load, how much load can it take before the fans spin up to 100% and other things like that.

I am not crazy about canned benchmarks like 3DMark, or games canned benchmark.

The exception is the FEAR benchmark, because I been running those since the days of my 1st Video Card the 7600GT.

So with that information, maybe then someone could tell me if I can install a 5870 and a 5970 on a single motherboard? Feel free to suggest a good mobo for tri crossfire if you know of one.
 
SpeedyVV said:
Thanks for trying to be helpful.

The reason is because I like to run benchmarks and I would like to benchmark a tri crossfire setup.

I already have a 5870, so instead of buying 2 more 5870s, it would be better for me to just get a 5970.

Oh yeah, I dont run benchmarks for any particular reason. I just like to measure stuff.

Like how many Watts of power does it use, the rate of temperature change in my benchmarking environment, idle vs, load, how much load can it take before the fans spin up to 100% and other things like that.

I am not crazy about canned benchmarks like 3DMark, or games canned benchmark.

The exception is the FEAR benchmark, because I been running those since the days of my 1st Video Card the 7600GT.

So with that information, maybe then someone could tell me if I can install a 5870 and a 5970 on a single motherboard? Feel free to suggest a good mobo for tri crossfire if you know of one.
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I am sure you can but don't be surprised if you loose performance. with these cards you are likely to be cpu bound and the third gpu may not be worth the overhead. If I were looking to do what your doing I would actually sell the 5870 and go to water and over volt the thing. then again I wonder, crysis at 2.3mp with 4xAA and 60fps? as good as it looks I really wish the game was itself better

as for a motherboard any i7 based board with dual PCI 2.0 16X slots will work. I usually like AMD for the bang for the buck but in your case intel is the way to go. I usually go with DFI or asus for brands.
 
After some of the Tri-CFX setups I've seen with a i7 at 3.8Ghz it'll make you drool. Especially in games that scale well.

Then again, it's all for bragging rights because we're eventually gonna hit a point where our rigs are just ridiculous.

Hell, I got the 2nd card for only one game.... Crysis, and I won't lie about it. Lol.

Running 3 of them = OMGZORSWTF
 
some people just like to tinker and don't do it for just games.
I say buy 4 of them and do some crazy CF-X testing like Bodar...Its fun and interesting to read/look at...

Just because someone finds something interesting that you may not, doesn't mean the person is crazy. Test away!
 
All i can say is be prepared to overvolt and then overclock the 5970 to 5870 speeds on the core/mem otherwise either it's not going to work, OR you'll get poor performance.

Make sure you're running an insanely fast CPU because at the frame rates you'll be cranking out even at 2560x1600 on most rigs, you'll be getting close or exceeding being CPU limited.

Look into what you can pull ampage wise from the rails on your PSU, to overvolt the 5970 you need to be able to support 20A on the 8pin and 15A on the 6 pin (recommended by AMD) although YMMV.

Best of luck, while it seems completely pointless outside of an eyefinity setup, if you enjoy it then have a blast, pointless or not i'd love to handle that kind of kit.
 
Gagnon said:
1) Don't be so defensive
2) If there is a not a good application/reason to do so then why do you want to know if you "Could"?
Click to expand...

Myself, I don't plan on getting a 5970, but I'd love to know if one can out of pure curiosity sake.

Hopefully I won't be seen as defensive for daring to mention that, or for asking why it matters if and why the guy asked the question.
 
Can someone who knows the answer for a fact please answer original question?

I already know it is a dumb thing to do, but still, I would like a real answer.
 
SpeedyVV said:
Can someone who knows the answer for a fact please answer original question?

I already know it is a dumb thing to do, but still, I would like a real answer.
Click to expand...

I am sure someone will but remember as hard as those things are to get right now the number of people that can try it are far and few in between
 
Yes you can use them for Tri-Fire i tried and it works as long as you can OC your 5970 to 5870 speeds if not the 5870 will down-clock to whatever speed you running your 5970.
 
thanks a lot gamingarena23.

It took 23 post, but finally an awnser ;-)
 
You really should see Borad's youtube video review, it is quite amazing how 5870 tri-fire scales.
 
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