ATI Graphics in Nvidia Chipset

Jaxom92 · July 2008

Here's my question: Can I put two ATI 4870 cards crossfire in an Nvidia 780i motherboard and have it work properly? I really like the features that come with these motherboards, but Nvidia really dropped the ball on the graphics cards these last couple of weeks and, in my opinion, the 4870 cards are superior. Therefore, I want to purchase the ATI cards, but I still really like the Nvidia motherboard. If it doesn't work, what's a comprable motherboard that will work for me? Thanks. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Locklain · July 2008

Originally posted by Jaxom92

Here's my question: Can I put two ATI 4870 cards crossfire in an Nvidia 780i motherboard and have it work properly? I really like the features that come with these motherboards, but Nvidia really dropped the ball on the graphics cards these last couple of weeks and, in my opinion, the 4870 cards are superior. Therefore, I want to purchase the ATI cards, but I still really like the Nvidia motherboard. If it doesn't work, what's a comprable motherboard that will work for me? Thanks. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

No, this won't work at all. The cards wont have the proper framework to communicate with each other.

Mysk · July 2008

Originally posted by Jaxom92

Here's my question: Can I put two ATI 4870 cards crossfire in an Nvidia 780i motherboard and have it work properly? I really like the features that come with these motherboards, but Nvidia really dropped the ball on the graphics cards these last couple of weeks and, in my opinion, the 4870 cards are superior. Therefore, I want to purchase the ATI cards, but I still really like the Nvidia motherboard. If it doesn't work, what's a comprable motherboard that will work for me? Thanks. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I know where you're coming from. I'm running two 8500 GT cards of all things (long story there), so you can bet that I feel the graphical pinch and need to upgrade. ATi's cards have sudden become a great cost vs performance option and I'd like to get one of their 4870's.

Of course we can't do Crossfire, but I am wondering if I can run one of their cards in my 680i mobo.

Locklain · July 2008

Originally posted by Mysk

Originally posted by Jaxom92

Here's my question: Can I put two ATI 4870 cards crossfire in an Nvidia 780i motherboard and have it work properly? I really like the features that come with these motherboards, but Nvidia really dropped the ball on the graphics cards these last couple of weeks and, in my opinion, the 4870 cards are superior. Therefore, I want to purchase the ATI cards, but I still really like the Nvidia motherboard. If it doesn't work, what's a comprable motherboard that will work for me? Thanks. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I know where you're coming from. I'm running two 8500 GT cards of all things (long story there), so you can bet that I feel the graphical pinch and need to upgrade. ATi's cards have sudden become a great cost vs performance option and I'd like to get one of their 4870's.

Of course we can't do Crossfire, but I am wondering if I can run one of their cards in my 680i mobo.

One ATI card MIGHT (and i stress the might) work in an Nvidia board. But I still doubt it. Best thing to do is ask either the motherboard manufacturer or the cards.

Camisado · July 2008

Originally posted by Locklain

Originally posted by Mysk

Originally posted by Jaxom92

Here's my question: Can I put two ATI 4870 cards crossfire in an Nvidia 780i motherboard and have it work properly? I really like the features that come with these motherboards, but Nvidia really dropped the ball on the graphics cards these last couple of weeks and, in my opinion, the 4870 cards are superior. Therefore, I want to purchase the ATI cards, but I still really like the Nvidia motherboard. If it doesn't work, what's a comprable motherboard that will work for me? Thanks. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I know where you're coming from. I'm running two 8500 GT cards of all things (long story there), so you can bet that I feel the graphical pinch and need to upgrade. ATi's cards have sudden become a great cost vs performance option and I'd like to get one of their 4870's.

Of course we can't do Crossfire, but I am wondering if I can run one of their cards in my 680i mobo.

One ATI card MIGHT (and i stress the might) work in an Nvidia board. But I still doubt it. Best thing to do is ask either the motherboard manufacturer or the cards.

One ATI Card WILL work, absolutely.

SomeOldBloke · July 2008

Your other option is to wait for the HD4870x2 card as I believe it's the same as 2xHD4870 but only one card.

I assume you need an IBM P35/45 chipset?

Tykero · July 2008

There's absolutely no reason why a single ATI card wouldn't work in one the "i" series motherboards. It's a silly notion to think they wouldn't.

Multiple may or may not work -- it depends on the cards you're using.

Unlike SLI, Crossfire doesn't necessarily require a specific chipset to function. Depending on the card combination, you can actually often get by with just the crossfire bridge.

That being said, multi-GPU setups are overrated. I would suggest purchasing a high quality motherboard and going with a single powerful video card.

Magnu · July 2008

That is a lot of cash your talking about spending there jack. if you were to got the top end MB and GPU that would be well over a grand were if you gotten SLI or ATI gpu 8000 or (well i dont mess with ATI) i am using two GPUs so that all the work wont be on one GPu. pules it was only 230 for the 780i MB and 100 For each Gpu.

I'll let you all do the math.

Varlok91 · July 2008

Originally posted by Magnu

That is a lot of cash your talking about spending there jack. if you were to got the top end MB and GPU that would be well over a grand were if you gotten SLI or ATI gpu 8000 or (well i dont mess with ATI) i am using two GPUs so that all the work wont be on one GPu. pules it was only 230 for the 780i MB and 100 For each Gpu.

I'll let you all do the math.

You probably would have been better off buying one $200 graphics card (like the 4850 or 9800GTX) versus two $100 cards.

SLI doesn't improve perfomance 100%, more like 40% (some games less, some more) depending on what resolution you are running.

In theory SLI and Crossfire sound great, games just aren't fully optimized for it so you don't really get what your paying for.

Mysk · July 2008

For anyone else who is curious about this subject see this post a Guru3D: http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?p=2763371#post2763371

Short answer: No more doubts. It definitely works. Guru3D even used a 680i board as their review platform for the new Radeon cards.

Typically I would say that a standard is a standard, but I was fairly uncomfortable with the idea of having an NForce board running an ATi product. No more worries.

Later.

PureChaos · July 2008

Originally posted by Varlok91

Originally posted by Magnu

That is a lot of cash your talking about spending there jack. if you were to got the top end MB and GPU that would be well over a grand were if you gotten SLI or ATI gpu 8000 or (well i dont mess with ATI) i am using two GPUs so that all the work wont be on one GPu. pules it was only 230 for the 780i MB and 100 For each Gpu.

I'll let you all do the math.

You probably would have been better off buying one $200 graphics card (like the 4850 or 9800GTX) versus two $100 cards.

SLI doesn't improve perfomance 100%, more like 40% (some games less, some more) depending on what resolution you are running.

In theory SLI and Crossfire sound great, games just aren't fully optimized for it so you don't really get what your paying for.

40% bit low if ya ask me, Having 2 cards crossfired should yield about x1.9 of power.

Anyway its great for down the line, when your down the line and you had that sweet card thats old now, its not super cheap, now instead of buying a brand new card, you just buy another of the card you had for cheap and get alot of performance for cheap.

I have a 4870 now and down the line il get another one instead of a new Card.

CleffyII · July 2008

I wouldn't recommend pairing an ATI video card with a nVidia chipset. Even if you can, it won't perform its best.

I also wouldn't recommend a crossfire system. It sounds great and in the games that support Crossfire it does indeed perform great. However, game support is the issue and there aren't many games that offer good support for Crossfire.

Varlok91 · July 2008

Originally posted by PureChaos

Originally posted by Varlok91

Originally posted by Magnu

That is a lot of cash your talking about spending there jack. if you were to got the top end MB and GPU that would be well over a grand were if you gotten SLI or ATI gpu 8000 or (well i dont mess with ATI) i am using two GPUs so that all the work wont be on one GPu. pules it was only 230 for the 780i MB and 100 For each Gpu.

I'll let you all do the math.

You probably would have been better off buying one $200 graphics card (like the 4850 or 9800GTX) versus two $100 cards.

SLI doesn't improve perfomance 100%, more like 40% (some games less, some more) depending on what resolution you are running.

In theory SLI and Crossfire sound great, games just aren't fully optimized for it so you don't really get what your paying for.

40% bit low if ya ask me, Having 2 cards crossfired should yield about x1.9 of power.

Anyway its great for down the line, when your down the line and you had that sweet card thats old now, its not super cheap, now instead of buying a brand new card, you just buy another of the card you had for cheap and get alot of performance for cheap.

I have a 4870 now and down the line il get another one instead of a new Card.

Well of course it "should" yield 1.9x, but thats rarely the case. Not all games are optimized for it, thus you get lower yields. Crossfire does yield higher numbers than SLi usually, but neither consistently yield a 1.9x improvement.

nephren25 · July 2008

im running dual 8600gtx and in alot of games i have turn sli off cause i get a gfx glitch. and yea i dont see a real increase in fps not really worth a money imo. i would have rather got a 8800 would have spent the same cash. imo sli not worth it not to mention that i get blue screens alot not as much since i put riva tuner on my pc. and before you say i need more fans i have 5 fans and there not wal mart fans either. the cards are just to close to each other and they even have a pci 1 slot between them. dont waist your money on sli buy 1 good card. hope this helps

Death1942 · July 2008

BLASPHEMY!!!!!!

if you do try it i suggest doing it in a bomb proof shelter wearing a bomb proof suit and some eye protection from the inevitable implosion/explosion.

Jaxom92 · July 2008

Thanks for all the replies. If I do end up going with a single card solution, I might not bother with the Nvidia motherboard anyway. It's really designed for the higher-end market and with the 3x PCI-E slots, a multiple card set up. I'll end up looking for something a bit cheaper that will do the job for me.

Mysk · July 2008

Originally posted by Jaxom92

Thanks for all the replies. If I do end up going with a single card solution, I might not bother with the Nvidia motherboard anyway. It's really designed for the higher-end market and with the 3x PCI-E slots, a multiple card set up. I'll end up looking for something a bit cheaper that will do the job for me.

If you do buy another motherboard and you're still considering ATi, you may as well get a Crossfire board that you can expand on later.

Just a thought. No need for it to be a super expensive piece of hardware.

Good luck.

Oh, and I'm rather enjoying my 4850. Works like a dream so far.

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