Xfire with PCIE 1x

[SlickmanRickman]

'Ello peoples. I got a question here for any who'd like to weigh in.
I have an XFX 6850 that im looking to crossfire for boosted game performance. My issue is that i dont have another PCIE-16x slot. I do however have a few (though cramped) PCIE 1x slots open. I did check around a few places and found some 1x to 16x converters, and a few 1x video cards.

So 1st. Are the 1x to 16x adapters really even an option for xfire? I've never even read about them till tonight so im a bit scetchy on if it could even work.

And 2nd. Are any of the 1x Low Profile PCI-Express Video Card xfire compatable? If so, some ideas/links for right around $100 is my pricerange.

And what, (if any) of the two are the best one to go with?

Remember- We can only learn by asking questions, or... a 12v shock!
As always, thanks for any feedback.

[ShyguyXPC]

won't work, the x1 slot is too low of bandwidth.

x1, x4, x8 & x16 is the amount of data lanes on the slots, so if your going from an x1 to x16, your still only running x1 bandwidth.

So its not going to work.

You may indeed get Crossfire to work, but the card will be so choked it won't be worth it.

PCIe x1 in 1.0 spec is about the same as the old PCI standard. And PCIe 2.0 x1 slots are about twice that old spec.



PCI:

133 MB/s (32-bit at 33 MHz)
266 MB/s (32-bit at 66 MHz or 64-bit at 33 MHz)
533 MB/s (64-bit at 66 MHz)

PCIe:

Per lane (each direction):

v1.x: 250 MB/s (2.5 GT/s)
v2.x: 500 MB/s (5 GT/s)

since x1 is a single lane, that would be the speeds of 1.0 or 2.0, depending on what your motherboard supports.



So its not going to work running Crossfire on an x1 slot with a primary card that is in an x16 slot.



your second option, finding an x1 low profile PCIe card is also as useless, due to the low bandwidth its utterly pointless.


With Crossfire you HAVE TO match up the cards with similar Family cards.

If your running a Radeon 6850 currently, it HAS TO be matched with a 6850 or 6870, NO other cards.

the only exceptions are low end cards paired up with onboard Hybrid design chips, such as the AMD Socket FM1 Llanos Fusion platform, pairing the onboard (On CPU) Radeon with a similar low end card for Crossfire.


For the 6850, your sh*t out of luck, if you only have a single x16 slot on your motherboard. Even if you did have a 2nd x16 Slot, or at least an x16 slot with x4 or x8 bandwidth (some x16 slots don't run at full speed), the motherboard would have to support Crossfire as well.


Perhaps if you listed your actual Motherboard you have that would shed some light on the topic.


Add to that, you need to make sure your Power Supply Can handle 2 cards in your current system.

[Mrrawesomesauce]

Yeah Shyguys Right and Im not to sure ud wanna run xfire on a 1x slot anyways it prob Actually be slower! LOL!

For Xfire Id suggest at least a 8x PCI slot for sure and like shyguy sayed again make sure u have a powersupply that can take the extra watts, read around to what ppl say is a good psu for crossfiring ur to particular cards :P Pce out

[Taxmancometh]

when you refer to Xfire are you talking about the gamer text and voice chat client.

[ShyguyXPC]

CrossfireX, mistakenly mentioned as Xfire, like when people talk about PCI Express and list it as PCI.

[Taxmancometh]

Oh, I see now. The X means cross. So Xfire.