Question on A8 with dual graphics

[Occidio]

I recently re-built my HTPC with an A8 and I am glad I did, I had a few questions though.
Before I built this box I bought a discreet 6570 card to limp the old build along. I had no idea what I could do with this card later. Turns out it is one of the cards I can couple with the new build to enhance it to dual graphics. Could someone point out the benefits of doing this?
Does enabling the dual graphics with the extra card only help you out with crossfire or could I essentially be doubling the graphics power and adding the 2gigs of ram that is on the add on card to the main graphics memory overall?
As it stands right now, I am not really needing the extra boost since it is playing all my media and blu-rays fine but in my ever techy quest of making the computers run better/faster would this be worth it?
I will not be running multiple monitors to this, just the HDTV as it is now.
Right now I have the BIOS setup to have the UMA cache at 1024mb as the manual stated to ensure it has smooth blu-ray playback, I was wondered if adding in this extra card with 2 gigs would make it that much faster.

 

[Gman1979]

In order to benefit from the discrete card while running the built in GPU, you would indeed need to run them in Crossfire mode. You will not get the 2 Gigs of RAM from the discrete card unless you also have 2 Gigs of RAM dedicated to the built in GPU. Since you stated you have the built in GPU allocated 1 Gig of RAM, then the discrete card will function as though it also has 1 Gig of RAM in Crossfire mode. This isn't really a loss as each GPU would have 1 Gig of RAM to basically work on rendering 1/2 the frame they would be doing if run separately. The only real caveat I can think of is you will only see a benefit in games that have a working Crossfire profile. In games without one, you will find yourself turning Crossfire off to get smooth framerates.

 

[Occidio]

So for an HTPC that would not really be running games, I would not see any noticeable difference in anything?
The Hybrid Crossfire is only usable for a gaming situation and only for DX10/11?
Never built a crossfire system so I am unsure on what gets a boost and what doesn't.


Edit* Another question just popped up. This is the discreet card I have. MSI 6570
It does not support Crossfire, I am kind of curious if it supports Hybrid Crossfire since it does not use a connector card. So if it would not even support hybrid crossfire, then this is all moot.

 

[defaultluser]

You don't need a dedicated crossfire adapter port on the card to support Hybrid Crossfire. All communication happens over PCI Express.

 

[buttons]

Its just for gaming and even then -- some games dont support it, dont scale well, or you get "micro stutter" Outside of gaming, it doesnt do anything -- even in gaming i think its better to either just use on chip or get a 5770/6770 for only a few dollars more then a 6570/6670 and just skip hybrid crossfire all together.

 

[miketf1]

ive been looking into this for a while for a SFF/HTPC i am planning.

from what i read you turn it on in Catalyst and CF's the IGP in the A8 and the compatible card. from the reviews around it looks like it will bump the performance a bit. youre not going to get monster performance but its a good boost.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4476/amd-a83850-review/6

**edit: fast RAM gives the whole system a boost too.

 

[Aaron11]

Its just for gaming and even then -- some games dont support it, dont scale well, or you get "micro stutter" Outside of gaming, it doesnt do anything -- even in gaming i think its better to either just use on chip or get a 5770/6770 for only a few dollars more then a 6570/6670 and just skip hybrid crossfire all together.

This. Hybrid crossfire doesn't scale well at all in games anyway.

 

[miketf1]

^ true but if you already have both pieces of the puzzle like the OP does i would go ahead and give it a try.

for me i have the 6670 but no Llano which is why im in a weird place still thinking about whether or not to go do the Hybrid Crossfire.