Will a HD3870 x2 card work, as x2, in a MB without a Crossfire Chipset?

I guess some may consider this a dumb question, but I can't
find a satisfactory answer in any of the product description's,
on the net.

I've seen it said that there is a chip on the card that provides
the crossfire interface between the two GPU, so does the card
need to be in a Motherboard with a Crossfire capable Chipset,
even if you only want to run just the two GPUs?

If it can work without the MB having a Crossfire Chipset, how
do you setup the drivers and other software, if there is a setting
enabling or dealing with crossfire support?

Luck;
Ken

"Ken Maltby" wrote in message
...

I guess some may consider this a dumb question, but I can't
find a satisfactory answer in any of the product description's,
on the net.

Read the "Our Experiences" section.
http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?...50aHVzaWFzdA==

I've seen it said that there is a chip on the card that provides
the crossfire interface between the two GPU, so does the card
need to be in a Motherboard with a Crossfire capable Chipset,
even if you only want to run just the two GPUs?

Crossfire-capable motherboard is not required.

If it can work without the MB having a Crossfire Chipset, how
do you setup the drivers and other software, if there is a setting
enabling or dealing with crossfire support?

According to HardOCP everything just works transparently, no Crossfire
checkbox or enable or disable. The on-card bridge chip handles everything.
In 2D you can drive multiple monitors. In 3D it automatically goes into
Crossfire mode. There's only one slider for overclocking both cores in
Overdrive. The 3870X2 is a very finessed product. Too bad the performance
lags behind nVidia counterparts.

--
"War is the continuation of politics by other means.
It can therefore be said that politics is war without
bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed."

"First of One" wrote in message
...
"Ken Maltby" wrote in message
...

I guess some may consider this a dumb question, but I can't
find a satisfactory answer in any of the product description's,
on the net.

Read the "Our Experiences" section.
http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?...50aHVzaWFzdA==


Their test setup used a Crossfire capable board.


I've seen it said that there is a chip on the card that provides
the crossfire interface between the two GPU, so does the card
need to be in a Motherboard with a Crossfire capable Chipset,
even if you only want to run just the two GPUs?

Crossfire-capable motherboard is not required.


Their test setup used a Crossfire capable board.

If it can work without the MB having a Crossfire Chipset, how
do you setup the drivers and other software, if there is a setting
enabling or dealing with crossfire support?

According to HardOCP everything just works transparently, no Crossfire
checkbox or enable or disable. The on-card bridge chip handles everything.
In 2D you can drive multiple monitors. In 3D it automatically goes into
Crossfire mode. There's only one slider for overclocking both cores in
Overdrive. The 3870X2 is a very finessed product. Too bad the performance
lags behind nVidia counterparts.

--

Wish I could find a review or poster who has run the
card in a MB without Crossfire. Or some where that
has spec.s for it that said it will work in other than a
crossfire MB.

I'm not trying to be argumentative, but I can't find anywhere
that spells it out, one way or the other.

Luck;
Ken

Have a look here.


http://www.techpowerup.com/printrevi...HIS/HD_3870_X2

They used the Gigabyte P35C-DS3R *NON* SLI/Crossfire motherboard.

Hope this helps.

"oldwolf" wrote in message
u...
Have a look here.


http://www.techpowerup.com/printrevi...HIS/HD_3870_X2

They used the Gigabyte P35C-DS3R *NON* SLI/Crossfire motherboard.

Hope this helps.

Great thanks. I went back over the specs that ATI post for
the card and it at least doesn't require Crossfire, just a PCI-e
based MB "with one dual-width X16 lane graphics slot
available", but then it says the same thing for the nonX2,
HD3870 and HD3850. (The nonX2 specs include an
additional bullet point about CrossfireX, and a requirement
for "an ATI CrossfireX Ready motherboard", this bullet
point doesn't appear in the X2 Requirements.)

I also found a NewEgg customer that said it would
work in a non-Crossfire MB.

It looks like this could be a good way to get the video
processing features I want and have the option of adding
another card later, if or when I deside to go the CrossfireX
route.

Luck;
Ken

"Ken Maltby" wrote in message
...
Read the "Our Experiences" section.
http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?...50aHVzaWFzdA==

Their test setup used a Crossfire capable board.

It represents the current state of affairs. Reviewers typically use the
fastest CPU on the fastest mobo chipset when testing video cards, to avoid
the platform bottlenecking. The fastest chipset for Intel CPUs is the
X38/X48.

From what the article shows, though, the mobo sees the 3870X2 as a
single-GPU card. The mobo's Crossfire capabilities don't even come into
play.

--
"War is the continuation of politics by other means.
It can therefore be said that politics is war without
bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed."

It looks like this could be a good way to get the video
processing features I want and have the option of adding
another card later, if or when I deside to go the CrossfireX
route.

What kind of video processing features do you want that an X2 card can
solve? Unless you're gaming, there's advantage to this....

"Augustus" wrote in message
news:XSTEj.94054$FO1.45165@edtnps82...
It looks like this could be a good way to get the video
processing features I want and have the option of adding
another card later, if or when I deside to go the CrossfireX
route.

What kind of video processing features do you want that an X2 card can
solve? Unless you're gaming, there's advantage to this....

Oops...should have read "Unless you're gaming, there's no advantage to
this..."

"Augustus" wrote in message
news:XTTEj.94073$FO1.12706@edtnps82...

"Augustus" wrote in message
news:XSTEj.94054$FO1.45165@edtnps82...
It looks like this could be a good way to get the video
processing features I want and have the option of adding
another card later, if or when I deside to go the CrossfireX
route.

What kind of video processing features do you want that an X2 card can
solve? Unless you're gaming, there's advantage to this....

Oops...should have read "Unless you're gaming, there's no advantage to
this..."


Well, I do some gaming on occasion, but while the CPU
is more important than the GPU for encoding and display
of the newer more complex video formats, there are a
number of improvements both Nvida and AMD/ATI
claim for their latest cards, in this area.

You could be right that the "X2" idea may add little to
the processing of video, or at least not enough to justify
the added cost. Still, a faster GPU couldn't hurt.

Luck;
Ken

Well, I do some gaming on occasion, but while the CPU
is more important than the GPU for encoding and display
of the newer more complex video formats, there are a
number of improvements both Nvida and AMD/ATI
claim for their latest cards, in this area.

You could be right that the "X2" idea may add little to
the processing of video, or at least not enough to justify
the added cost. Still, a faster GPU couldn't hurt.

You would be far better off just getting a single HD3850 for video editing
and decoding and spending the extra money on more RAM (no point in more than
3 Gig in XP32 or Vista 32) and a faster CPU with more L2 and speed. This
will give you more speed in this regard. Throwing an 3870X2 card at it is
money thrown away unless some heavy duty newer title 3D gaming is the
primary object.