So, ATI's website says that my Dual Sapphire (blue card) HD 3870 cards would be compatible to crossfire through my board (which is an Asus P5Q-E) yet when I throw in the second card, boot up windows, and its installs, it says it needs a bridging cable. (also running Windows XP PRO) the catylist driver isn't much help either. any idea? because trying to find the bridging cables in my city sucks... none of my computer stores carry them any help would be GREATTLYYY appreciated thx thx!
The cards come with crossfire bridges in the retail package. If you didn't get any, put up a fuss. There's always ebay I suppose. You DO need a bridge cable by the way.
Awee damn. yeah i guess im going to have to ebay it on the website it says the cards come with the cable how ever, thats for the red card, which i guess is discontinued, and the blue card doesn't come with the cable... how lame is that?
No, looks a bit different. It's not a clear fan case, and my case runs all they way to the end of the board. The weird problem I have encountered today though, is when I'm playing Crysis on high (I have IQ hack due to windows XP) (oh btw I got a crossfire bridging cable) it's now super buggy and glitchy..I get bright blue spots in the grass, and the monitor switches it self off and back on every 5 mins? I thought the grass and all that stuff was done by the CPU? its actually more laggy then when I was running 1 card, and I could run 8x AA no problem... any suggestions on this? CPU Specs: OSZ 800W PSU 4GB OSZ Ram (1333 mhz DDR2) (yes realizing i can only run 3.3 gb of ram TOTAL due to 32 bit XP) Asus P5Q-E Intel Core2 Quad Q6600 overclocked @ 2.52 ghz per core) 2 x ATI CrossfireX Sapphire 3870's (blue) Microsoft windows XP Pro 21" samsung 2033sw
It's OCZ, not OSZ. I used to use two HD3870s, but it's been a while, and I've had several different setups between then and now, so I can't remembr how Crysis used to run. It's worth saying though, that not all games work with crossfire on the 3870s, and as much as it might pain you to hear this, one HD4850 is faster than two HD3870s even when both are working flat out in crossfire, and has the bonus of working in all games. At least you don't have the card shown in that picture. The noisiest graphics card ever made. Very little is rendered by the CPU in Crysis by the way, the CPU's responsibility is the game's advanced physics processing and AI.
weird OCZ* yeah, plainly put i look stupid now lol, i keep saying osz for some reason in my head, and then end up typing it anyways... i dunno i guess the computer people at the store aren't the greatest for advice, cuz they told me that the 3870's where one of the most compatible cards out there... hmmm maybe i will upgrade to a 4850, or 2 thanks man, great advice and help!
so tomorrow night im going to do this return my 2 3870's and im going to buy the Sapphire HD 4850 X2 GDDR3 (2 GB obm) good investment or no? (considering i only have to pay 70 bucks more for the upgrade)
The HD4850X2 is very good, but very loud (louder than the 4870X2) It's more than twice as powerful as two HD3870s though, so a nice card for the price if you're willing to put up with the racket.
now my other question for you... upgrade from XP to 64 bit Vista ultimate, or wait for 64bit windows 7? i want to be able to actually use ALL of the ram i got, not be capped out
so i just installed my new 4850 X2 1 GB GDD3 and.. I ran crysis, put it into the mode.. and once again blue blotces, and loads of lag. do you think this could be an issue with the IQ hack? cuz once i put it back one lvl of quality.. its all fine and dandy. or, could it be an issue with the mb? ...some things just .. ugh frustraiting. you where right tho, that card is really freaking loud once its up to 100% speed.
Image quality hacks produce random coloured blotches from time to time, I got that. Turn of the IQ hack and run the game as intended. You'll lose some performance, but that's what the X2 is there for
