• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

2 x ATI X1900 XT Crossfire - heat and noise?

ozy

ozy

Associate
Joined
21 Apr 2003
Posts
43
Location
Suffolk, UK
Hi,

I'm thinking of purchasing a new system with the following graphics cards

ATI Radeon X1900 ***Crossfire Edition*** 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-045-CO)
Connect3D ATI Radeon X1900 XT-X 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (3055) (GX-046-CO)

For those who already have this setup, how noisy are the X1900 cards in general? As much as I would like to get two, i'd rather the system didn't sound like a jet engine taking off.

Also, with two cards in a setup like this, i'd assume a lot of heat is generated, and that having at least one case fan is pretty much a requirement?

Cheers

Chris (ozy)
 
Associate
Joined
20 Jul 2005
Posts
1,653
Location
Nottingham
if i recall correctly, you can save some cash and just buy the XT with the master card as if you bought a xtx it would be clocked down to match the master anyways.
i cant help with noise, but i would suggest at least 2 case fans. one at the front and one at the back, purely to get air in and out efficiently and not just out
 

ozy

ozy

Associate
OP
Joined
21 Apr 2003
Posts
43
Location
Suffolk, UK
Thanks for the response fullfat.

If a slave XTX card clocks down to an XT, then i'd definately go for an XT. Although I have some spare money, i'm not going to throw it away for no benefit.

I'm assuming a master crossfire card can run quite happily on its own without a slave? As I was considering purchasing the master card first, then putting a second XT in the future when the games get a little choppy. :)

Chris (ozy)
 
Suspended
Joined
17 Mar 2006
Posts
9,055
AMDX23800+ said:
When using SLI, aren't the 2 cards supposed to be identical, exactly the same cards ?

ATI Crossfire is not like Nvidia SLI. ATI require Crossfire motherboard and a Master Crossfire and a normal Crossfire capable ATI videocard, ie a 1900 Master and 1900XT slave.

Nvidia require Nforce SLI chipset and two identical SLI capable Nvidia cards, same range and same memory config.
 
Soldato
Joined
3 Nov 2004
Posts
9,857
Location
UK
Heat's not a problem as most of it's vented out the back of the case. There are supposed to be some drivers out soon that will do away with the master card. So you could have the fastest combination of two XTX's, but you will need a motherboard based on the ATI RD580 chipset. Noise, I don't have a problem with my single card, can't speak for dual cards.
 
Associate
Joined
20 Jul 2005
Posts
1,653
Location
Nottingham
gary996 said:
both cards will run at there default speed so an xtx will run faster than the xt, which means this setup will be a little quicker than 2x xt's


i was sure the master card would make the xtx clock slower to match up??
 
Soldato
Joined
24 Dec 2004
Posts
11,353
Location
Knowle, Solihull, UK
Crossfire supports different cards having independent clock speeds so the XTX will be able to run at the faster clock speed

They run hot but the cooling exhausts all of the hot air out of the case so this isn't a worry

Noise wise they're said to be a little noisy but not too noisy. They're very noisy on startup but temperature controlled

nVidia cards aren't necessarily better when running two. It all depends on the cards and the applications. Crossfire is implemented in hardware and it doesn't require any software support bar the drivers unlike SLI which is implemented in software. Compare the Master card and the standard card and you'll see the extra chip on the Master card for the compositing engine - this is one of the reasons why the Master card is more expensive
 
Soldato
Joined
17 Aug 2005
Posts
4,297
As said above, in crossfire each card runs at its own clock speeds, thus a X1900XTX & X1900 mastercard will be marginally quicker than a X1900XT & X1900 mastercard. The quicker clocked card simply does more work.

Having heard a single X1900XT i dont think they are loud when playing at all.
 
Back
Top Bottom