geester

Hi all,

My second post.....I have a DFI CFX3200-m2/G AM2 motherboard running an AMD64 x2 5200+ cpu and 2gb memory. I have a 700watt psu and am running two HIS ATI Radeon X1950pro graphics cards in crossfire mode. When I do a 3dmark06 test I only score about 8500. Now I know my cards are a bit old, but surely they should perform better than this.

A friend told me that my mobo was teh problem. he said that whilst both PCIE slots run at 16x, together they do not because it is an older board. The way around it he said was to either upgrade my two cards to just one or replace my motherboard to a better one, which is my preferred option I think. Apparently I need a board that has PCIE2 on it which will fully utilise my cards.

Heres the link to my board: http://us.dfi.com.tw/Product/xx_prod...FINITY&SITE=US

Could someone who knows more about this than me (wouldn't be hard). If I needed a new board, what would I get?

Thanks very much.

Graeme

mcogan10

Your cards don't use PCI-E 2.0, so that's not the problem...your friend probably meant that in xfire your board runs at 16x on the first slot and at 4x on the second slot.

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3dMark06: 13033 w/ 3.4G, 725/1780/2050, XP Pro

3.6G on an AF7

Sanders54

1950 Pro's dont use PCIE2, they use 1. So you won't need a new motherboard. X1950 is a bit old tough.. Score sounds about right...I'm sorry.

dasparx

Dude, 8.5K in 3dmark06 is fine.
i got around 7.8k with an 3850.
Ohh, and i'd rather upgrade ur VGA's. Maybe 2x 4850

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geester

OK. Slightly more reassured. In that case, if I was to buy ONE new card, what would compliment my system best. I like to play the latest games at the highest settings. Am I looking at the ATI Radeon HD4870?

Cheers

mcogan10

Depends on your resolution...what do you run?

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AI am 75% addicted to Counterstrike. What about you?

3dMark06: 13033 w/ 3.4G, 725/1780/2050, XP Pro

3.6G on an AF7

txtmstrjoe

geester, not that CPU speed has that much to do with the overall score, but how fast do you have your X2 5200+ running?

As a comparison, I used to run an Opteron 170 @ 2.72GHz with X1950XTs crossfired on an Abit AT8-32X (S939); that rig scored in the low 9000s in 3DMark06.

The X1950XTs are slightly better than your X1950Pro setup, for the record.

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pez

Yeah, score sounds about right. You don't need pci-e 2.0 really. It's only been proven to have a 2-3% increase, which isn't really much.

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3DMark06(Sig Rig)[Vista Ultimate 64-bit]: 9275

geester

eeerrrrr. 1280x1024, but I don't mind bumping it down a couple of notches. Playing Racedriver Grid ok on my cards. The actual driveing runs fine at the highest settings, its the menus that are so very slow. Weird.

Mebby

I get 89xx~ so your about right.

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