Dual XFX HD 5970 Black Edition's in Quadfire

Digitalcaveman

Digitalcaveman

Gawd
Joined
Dec 18, 2006
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602
Guys, if you had 2 of these cards for Quadfire (and this might be a dumb question but....) could you use 2 power supplies. Use the 1 for your system then buy another one and just plug it into the second card?

Would that work?

Thanks
 
It is possible to daisy chain a second power supply in series. You can research exactly how. But I wouldn't recommend it. There are some 1000+ watt power supplies available that would work great and be safer.
 
Yes, just buy a cable or make your own, that connects the pins. I have done so on my Lian Li. You don't need it just for the graphics cards though. I did it, as the computer has 3 water cooling systems, etc, etc.
 
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I did that with my 480's, and the only daisy chain cable I could find wasn't able to handle the load and melted the plastic. If you are going with 2 psu's, I would recommend tripping it with a paper clip and using the on/off button on that psu to power on and off in conjunction with your normal routine.

Mostly I would recommend getting a good PSU. Not sure if 1200 watts is enough, as I assume you will be overclocking. You might need the Silverstone 1500 or Ultra 1600.
 
jaredpace

Very nice man, will look similar to mine...can you pm me and tell me ballpark of what you spent on those two beauties!
drool.gif
 
sure you can use 2 power supplies. However, Quad-fire and quad-SLI scale very badly. You'll probably end up under performing simple 3 5870s, and it would cost more.

I'd really like to see them improve Quad-fire and Quad-SLI scaling but as of now, they unfortunate scale like ass.

Id say, unless you already have both cards, hang on to your single 5970 and sell that bitch when the 6000 series comes out for the new high end part. Take that money you were going to spend on the second 5970 and hook yourself up with Tri-fire system. It will most certainly ass-rape quad-fired 5970's
 
edifyingkarma said:
sure you can use 2 power supplies. However, Quad-fire and quad-SLI scale very badly. You'll probably end up under performing simple 3 5870s, and it would cost more.

I'd really like to see them improve Quad-fire and Quad-SLI scaling but as of now, they unfortunate scale like ass.

Id say, unless you already have both cards, hang on to your single 5970 and sell that bitch when the 6000 series comes out for the new high end part. Take that money you were going to spend on the second 5970 and hook yourself up with Tri-fire system. It will most certainly ass-rape quad-fired 5970's
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lol....nice...

but no I only have 2 8800GTX's running in SLi and wondering what to do. I really don't want to wait 2 months - this crap happens to me all the time when I decide to upgrade. Would you think 1 5970 would be great compared to what they are coming out with for the money?
 
Naieve said:
I did that with my 480's, and the only daisy chain cable I could find wasn't able to handle the load and melted the plastic. If you are going with 2 psu's, I would recommend tripping it with a paper clip and using the on/off button on that psu to power on and off in conjunction with your normal routine.
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http://www.servercase.com/Merchant2...duct_Code=ATX-to-AT+cable&Category_Code=Acce.

I have dual GTX 480s and dual 750W PSUs, and I use the above to turn on the 2nd PSU.
 
Well, if the leaked benchmarks and information is anywhere close to being true, they are going to be quite a leap performance wise. Id say a 5970 would be a good tide-over buy until they 6000 series high end it dropped. Then, you could always sell your 5970 (which will still gross you most of what you paid for it probably) and use that toward upgrading to the highend 6000 series.

The one thing is certain though, you would definitely be wasting your money going to quad-fired 5970s. They end up performing less than 3 of the equivalent GPU's 90% of the time.

With the 6000 series so close, id say just get you one (since you have a 30inch) 5970 for now. That or 2 480's or 2 5870s will be enough to get you by and will sell for enough to pay for most of the upgrade once the 6000 series drops (since you dont want to wait).
 
Hmmmm..... interesting point - because it could be 2 or maybe 3 or 4 months before they release those cards and I can't do surround gaming with the 8800GTX's I have....

Toly - I'll check that link out... wow... now I can connect 2 ATX power supplies together with that cable? Because I have 2 1000W power supplies and don't want to send back and rebuy a bigger PSU because both of mine are very high quality, got the Corsair HX1000 and the other is 2 years old BFG 1000W.
 
WOW nice hows the framerates with the dual 5970's? quadfire actually scales pretty good with my rig
 
jeremyshaw said:
Since most 1000W PSU seems to be of generally decent quality, yes.

With no overclocking, you are within a healthy margin. With overclocking, you should still be allright.
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I have two GTX480s and an OCed i7-920 and the highest load I've seen out of my UPS was ~750W. So yeah I'd think a single 1000W PSU would work.
 
Digitalcaveman said:
Guys, if you had 2 of these cards for Quadfire (and this might be a dumb question but....) could you use 2 power supplies. Use the 1 for your system then buy another one and just plug it into the second card?

Would that work?

Thanks
Click to expand...

I just used a 1200W PSU to power dual 5970s. It worked out fine. Oh but the performance increases are likely going to disappoint since ATI's crossfire driver support appears to be borked lately. Quadfire in particularl was really borked. That was months ago so maybe they've fixed it. *shrug*
 
BTW I wouldn't plug anything into that BFG 1000W PSU. BFG has gone belly up and no longer provides warranty services for anything. So if you plug your 5970s into that thing and they get fried you are SOL. Just use the HX1000 by itself.
 
Get an ax1200. It will put out more wattage than it is rated just at a lower efficciency.
 
70 Chevelle SS said:
I'll be using a 750w and 850w together for my soon to be dual 480's with this.

http://www.performance-pcs.com/cata...e=product_info&cPath=34_186&products_id=21193
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Chevelle, that is the same exact one I used on my Tri-Sli 480 system. Yeah the 12v PCI-e melted on the connection between PSU and connector. You will going with a lower load, but I wouldn't do it. I have a 750 watt PSU that is slagged from a bad connection now. Thankfully I caught it within the first two seconds and crashed my system with no harm done.

Tolyngee pointed out what he is using, which allows you to bring the on/off switch for the second PSU where you want, instead of a paper clip mod.

Personally I went with the Antec TPQ-1200, which EVGA also uses. It's a solid PSU for the price.
 
Naieve said:
Chevelle, that is the same exact one I used on my Tri-Sli 480 system. Yeah the 12v PCI-e melted on the connection between PSU and connector. You will going with a lower load, but I wouldn't do it. I have a 750 watt PSU that is slagged from a bad connection now. Thankfully I caught it within the first two seconds and crashed my system with no harm done.

Tolyngee pointed out what he is using, which allows you to bring the on/off switch for the second PSU where you want, instead of a paper clip mod.

Personally I went with the Antec TPQ-1200, which EVGA also uses. It's a solid PSU for the price.
Click to expand...

So how does that exactly work? It hooks up to the second PS and i press the switch the same time as when i turn on the rest of the system?
 
70 Chevelle SS said:
So how does that exactly work? It hooks up to the second PS and i press the switch the same time as when i turn on the rest of the system?
Click to expand...

Yes, it is just an easier way to do the paperclip mod. Instead of using a paperclip and the on/off switch on the PSU, it allows you to move the second on/off switch up front near your other one.
 
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