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cu2cool

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 20, 2005
Messages
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I plan on upgrading to the core 2 cuo extreme in the future, because I heard it kicks the FX's behind. The thing I'm wodering about though is the video cards. I know someone with an ATI x1900XTX, which says it's corssfire edition, but it has two DVI ports. Does that mean he has to get another card with the Xfire port in order to run Xfire with the card he already has? I am also considering getting two of these-> nVidia Cards and run a quad SLi setup.

Which would be better? The quad SLi setup or the Xfire setup? I want it to be capable of carrying out any gaming, multimedia, or computing tasks i throw at it with no problem. Any suggestions?
 
Quad SLI WILL be better. It's not quite there right now because of the driver settings. The C2D cpus do kick the X2's quite hard.

For crossfire, you do need 2 crossfire enabled cards, one should be the "master" card IIRC. That's the benefit of SLI, any 2 similar GPU's can run together.

How large of a display will you be running that requires such graphical power. A 7900GS is perfect for almost anything at 1280x1024 max detail.
 
Either Crossfire or SLi can do everything you have asked for. As for which is better, well that is somewhat subjective. A huge hurdle in using SLi with Core 2 Duo is the lack of good motherboards that support C2D and SLi. Intel chipset based boards are typically the best for the Intel processors, but the Intel chipsets do not support SLi.

The problem with nVidia chipsets for Intel processors happens to be thier complete lack of overclockability. A case in point is [H]'s review of the P5NSLI. Morry (the author) is very experienced in the ways of overclocking, but he couldn't get that board to overclock more than 35MHz. That's just sad. Kyle's experiences seemed to echo Morry's as he mentioned the lack of overclockability too.

Check out the [H] review of the P5NSLI here

If your friend has an X1900XT with two DVI ports, he has the regular card. He needs a Crossfire Edition card (Not a Crossfire ready card) and a Crossfire ready card in order to run Crossfire. The Crossfire Edition card will come with the dongle.

Also bear in mind that the X1950XTX is competetive with the 7950GX2 when it comes to real world gaming.

It is true that in the future, Quad SLI may become more mature and take the lead decisively. I wouldn't bet on that happening until the DX10 cards make it to market though.

Now if you aren't interested in overclocking, much of what I have said is moot point. In which case, I'd recommend a P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe (which is based on the proven nForce 4 SLi x16 chipset), an Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 with a pair of 7950GX2's in SLI. You will need a monster PSU for that and this sort of machine is going to set you back around $3000 depending on your drive selection, case selection, cooling provisions and so on.
 
FYI if you're keeping that 19" screen, PLEASE DO NOT waste your money on Quad SLI...Even for Crossfire, a 19" flat panel doesn't run resolutions high enough to really get the FULL benefit of an X1900 crossfire system.

You should really only be looking at Quad SLI if you're planning on getting a 30" LCD or a CRT that can run resolutions of 2560x1600...otherwise if you're planning on going to a 20", 21", or 24" LCD, Crossfire will do you just fine, assuming you'll be running at resolutiong of 1600x1200 or 1920x1200.
 
Get a single eVGA 7950GX2 and then stepup to a G80 (or 2). The new Nforce5 for Intel should be here in a week or 2 (unless Dell keeps hogging em all).
 
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