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    5870 vbios on 4870? Also Xfire without cable possible?

    Discussion in 'Gaming (Software and Graphics Cards)' started by moral hazard, Mar 18, 2012.

  1. moral hazard

    moral hazard Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    With a 4870 on the way I was considering 2 things.
    First I would like to know if anyone has any insight into whether an MXM 2.1 4870 would work with an MXM 3.0 5870 vbios and if there would be any advantage to that?

    Secondly, can 2 4870's run in Xfire without the Xfire cable?
    What is needed to be done in order to get this to work?
     
    moral hazard, Mar 18, 2012
    #1
  2. Marecki_clf

    Marecki_clf Homo laptopicus

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    First: MXM2.1 and MXM3.0 are completely different slots, both electically and logically. Also 4870M and 5870M are made using a different manufacturing process (4870M - 55nm; 5870M - 40nm). 4870M uses GDDR3 256-bit, while 5870M uses GDDR5 128-bit, so they have different memory controllers. I'm sure You know all that. My conclusion is - because of these differences, the 4870M cannot work with 5870M vBIOS.

    Second: I think the Xfire cable in notebooks has exactly the same function as Xfire bridge for desktop cards. As two desktop cards won't work in Xfire without the Xfire bridge, two laptop cards won't work in Xfire without the Xfire cable.
     
    Marecki_clf, Mar 18, 2012
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  3. whitrzac

    whitrzac The orange end is cold...

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    I know nvidia laptop cards will SLI without the cable. Desktop ATI cards will CFX without the cable. I see no reason why they wouldn't ;)
     
    whitrzac, Mar 18, 2012
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  4. Mechanized Menace

    Mechanized Menace Lost in the MYST

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    Hasn't been tried or done yet with any AMD laptop GPU's whitrzac...
     
    Mechanized Menace, Mar 18, 2012
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  5. svl7

    svl7 T|I

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    First: Definitely won't work for several reasons. A couple of them got already mentioned.

    Second: Might work, but it mainly depends on whether there's enough bandwith available on the bus.
     
    svl7, Mar 18, 2012
    #5