CrossFireX: x16/x4 vs x16/x16 performance boost?

Discussion in 'Videocards - AMD Radeon' started by clown_from_hell, Feb 3, 2010.

  1. clown_from_hell

    clown_from_hell New Member

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    GPU:
    2 x HIS Radeon 5770 1GB
    Hi.

    I recently bought the following rig:

    • Phenom II X4 965BE
    • Asus M4A77TD Pro
    • Kingston HyperX DDR3 2x2GB 1600 MHz CL9
    • 2 x HIS Radeon 5770 1GB
    • Corsair 750W PSU

    Unfortunately I didn't do my research regarding the mobo: with CrossFireX it only allows the second card to operate on PCI-E x4. It bothers me that this is bottlenecking the whole gear, so I'm thinking about switching to Gigabyte Gigabyte GA-790FXTA-UD5. It has several benefits over my current mobo (i.e. USB 3.0 / SATA 3.0 support), but most importantly - it supports triple CrossFireX at x16/x16/x8, so I could utilize my 2 cards for full benefit. However, I still have some concerns / questions, namely:

    - what performance boost (in games) should I expect? Are there any benchmarks that compare these 2 configurations?
    - will there be any noticeable increase in power consumption? I don't mean the new mobo in general, just switching from PCI-E x4 to PCI-E x16. I assume the PSU I have will handle the change?
    - and lastly (pardon the noobishnes), since both mobos are 'ATX Form Factor', the new mobo will fit into my Antec Three Hundred case, right :)?

    Thanks in advance for all the help.
     
  2. Hilbert Hagedoorn

    Hilbert Hagedoorn Don Vito Corleone Staff Member

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    Hey man welcome at Guru3D,

    With a 5770 in CFX you will see a small performance drop with one card at 4x, but really we are talking maybe 5% to 10% here. A lot of data is transferred over the Crossfire bridge anyways. If I where you I'd just tryout the new setup and then decide wether or not the x4 configuration is limiting you.
     
  3. hallryu

    hallryu Don Altobello

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    GPU:
    2x HD7970
    Like Hilbert says its only going to be a small performance drop. I'm moving from X48 board at X16/X16 to a P45 at X8/X8 which I'm ok with.
     
    Last edited: Feb 3, 2010

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