so u cant crossfire with a HD 4850 and a 4870?

[oldfolks123]

Ok lets say i wanna go cheap now and jsut buy a 4850 would i later on be able to crossfire it with a 4870 or would i need to remove the 4850 altogether and just add a 4870

[nunyadam]

If I remember correctly both cards need to match.

[RicheemxX]

Sure you can http://game.amd.com/us-en/content/im...art_July08.jpg

[RamonGTP]

Yep, they just need to be the same family, not the same card.

[ShyguyXPC]

Huh, I thought they needed to be of the same series, for example HD2600 Pro/2600 Pro, or 2600 Pro/2600XT etc... I thought the 4850 & 4870 are slightly different GPU's?

[RamonGTP]

Well difference between the 4850 and 4870 is GDDR5 on the 4870 and clock speeds. I wouldn't be surprised at all if the 4850 GPU can support GDDR5, but simply isn't used to cut costs. If true, then the only real difference between the GPU's is clock speeds.

[ShyguyXPC]

hmmm...

kind of off topic a bit, but related...

as far as SLI, I know that you need to have matching chipsets, but in the case of say a G92 core 8800GTS 512MB, and a 9800GTX 512MB, being the 9800GTX uses the same core, & some minor differences like clock speeds, shouldn't it be possible to SLI those two cards together, granted their 2 "different" series, but technically aside from some minor differences the cards are the same (same sort of thing as the 8800GT & 9800GT or 8800GS & 9600GS/GSO)


or is there some sort of differences with the shaders or other parts?

I know a 9800GTX+ would be out of the question, smaller Die chip etc.

[RamonGTP]

Not too sure about that. There may not be a technical reason as to why they wouldn't work together, but I dont know how the drivers would react to seeing the two different BIOS'

[ShyguyXPC]

thats kind of what I was thinking too, the different Bios's, though I can see nVidia making it that way to force consumers to move up to another card series & shell out more cash as a result... where as AMD (even though crossfire existed with ATI before AMD bought them up) has almost always been about a better "value" as in cheaper products that do the job almost as well, if not in some cases better than the competition.

[RamonGTP]

Yeah, though I wouldn't be surprised to see some consumer friendly changes coming from nVidia soon. With nVidia being said to quit the chipset business shortly and several motherboard manufacturers opting to NOT support SLI on the upcoming X58 chipset due to costs, as well as bruised business relations between some manufacturers and nVidia, mainly due to the 680i problems and nVidia refusing to acknowledge a problem with the chipset, nVidia's future isn't as bright as it once was. Not to mention much stiffer competition from AMD/ATI finally.