Can an i7 920 handle two HD 5970 in crossfire?

2689 Views 6 Replies 7 Participants Last post by [email protected]'D, Nov 30, 2009

12Honk34

Discussion Starter · Nov 30, 2009

Hi,

I've read the i7 920 CPU may bottleneck 3 HD 5970. Are at least two possible?

Allow me two more questions please.

1.)Does the brand matter? It seems the MSI R5970-P2D2 is the only 5970 available to me. http://de.msi.com/index.php?func=pro...2_no=&cat3_no=

2.) If I wanted to upgrade to the i9 Series next year can I use my X58 board and DDR3 RAM with it, did Intel already say something about the socket?

Thanks

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SamTheJarvis

· #2 · Nov 30, 2009

im sure 2 will be fine, perhaps the greater quickpath of the i7 extreme's will benefit for a 3rd.

i mean, tbh, thats alot of cash to splash on just graphics,

i'd go for two

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NZi

· #3 · Nov 30, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by 12Honk34

Is your i7 920 overclocked? With a decent overlock + high resolutions (1920x1080 +) It shouldn't be, but at lower resolutions there wouldnt be much use for them. Also I'm not sure if you can run tri crossfire? (unless its 4870x2 + 4870)

1) Dont think brand matters yet as they're all using reference designs, so the only diffrence is the box and whats included.

2). Pretty sure the I9 can be dropped into current x58 boards, all it might need is a bios update.

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Bob Santana

· #4 · Nov 30, 2009

i dont think it is possible to crossfire 3 5970 together.
atleast, i have never heard of anyone running hexa-fire.
but anyways, it is almost NEVER the cpu that bottlenecks performance unless you are running a low end cpu and high end gpu.
im almost positive the i7 can handle anything on the market today without a problem.

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Nautilus

· #5 · Nov 30, 2009

Firstly as Bob Santana mentioned you can't crossfire 3 hd 5970s. it makes total 6GPUs.Today's crossfire technology allows you to use maximum 4 cards together.So either you are going to crossfire 4 5870s or 2 5890s.

Secondly at stock clocks your i7 920 would bottleneck 2 5970s.But overclocking to say... ~4Ghz would remove bottlenecking.

And yes you can use i9 chips on x58 motherboards.Intel said i9s will be compatible with socket 1366.You might need a BIOS update though.

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smoothjk

· #6 · Nov 30, 2009

It's game-specific and depends on the resolution, so you can't really speak generally. In certain games, such as CoD4, there is no current processor that won't see bottlenecking, even with two 5870s. In others, it might not bottleneck. Two 5970s would probably be suited for modern games at 2560x1600 or something.

In a good number of cases, you'll still see gains with the second 5970. And yea, you can't tri-fire 5970s. Each card only has one Crossfire slot/bridge possible (two-card CF max).

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[email protected]'D

· #7 · Nov 30, 2009

good luck trying to run 3 5970's in crossfire, but yess a 920 will be fine for 2 5970's

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