Crossfire Bridge for 5870

[The Cobra]

Ok, so I am going to plunk down the money for another 5870 to go crossfire. When I have purchased motherboards in the past, they have come with SLI Bridges. WHen I purchased my most recent motherboard, I found no Crossfire bridge in there (It did come with an SLI bridge though) In my Sapphire 5870, I received to crossfire bridge with that product. I know I have to go out and get one, however, aren't the motherboards supposed to come with the Crossfire bridge?

Also, I noticed on my 5870, I have 2 grooves where you hookup one of the Crossfire bridge up to it. Am I supposed to use just one bridge or 2?

Thx

 

[schoenda]

From all I have read you get a *slight* improvement in *some* apps with 2 bridges...I have seen no difference in Heaven bench on my rig and I have felt no difference in all the recent games though I have not benched anything else recently. I use 2 bridges because that's how many I had lying around. No issues that I am aware of.

As for the MOBO issue I smell nvidia conspiracy!

 

[e-geek]

You just need to use 1 bridge as the other port will be disabled unless it detects tri-fire.

Edit: My m/b only came with sli bridge but every single ati card i've had came with cf bridges.

 

[The Cobra]

My new 5870 DID come with a crossfire bridge. All ATI cards are supposed to have them. My other sapphire 5870 did not have one. I will call them to get a free one.

I placed the 2nd card in there, it detected the card in crossfire mode, fired it up and viola, I now have 2 cards running!!! Very Easy!! Funny thing though, Now Star Trek Online AA is not working. Very weird. I turn off crossfire, and it works. I have to figure out what is going on.

Anth