Crossfire or physx? with hd 6850...

[confused stupid]

Hello digitians...
My cousin wants to convert the pc to "dual gpu pc". She has Sapphire HD 6850 and a Msi e35-880gm and processor is phenom ii x4.

Can this mobo handle 2 gfx cards?
What should be done, physx or crossfire? Budget is 10-12k and this includes everything that needs to be changed.

BTW PSU is some CX 500w(not sure what was before it). Will this be enough? Mobo,needs to be changed too??

 

[Rajesh345]

Hello digitians...
My cousin wants to convert the pc to "dual gpu pc". She has Sapphire HD 6850 and a Msi e35-880gm and processor is phenom ii x4.

Can this mobo handle 2 gfx cards?
What should be done, physx or crossfire? Budget is 10-12k and this includes everything that needs to be changed.

BTW PSU is some CX 500w(not sure what was before it). Will this be enough? Mobo,needs to be changed too??

*www.msi.com/product/mb/880GM-E35.html#?div=Detail

• 1 PCI Express x16 slot with x16 operation (PCI Express Bus SPEC V2.0 compliant)
• 1 PCI EXpress x1 slot
• 1 PCI slot, support 3.3V/ 5V PCI bus Interface.

Sadly u cant use dual gpu on 880GM-E35 m,b since it lack 2nd PCI-E port

 

[Piyush]

exactly
as pointed by rajesh, you'll need a board with 2 PCIe x16 slots
890 series is capable of plugging in 2 gfx crads

also you'll need a good PSU to be on the safe side
if you can sell your Mobo and PSU and fetch around 5-6k, then by adding around 7k, you can build the setup you are asking for

 

[sukesh1090]

^^but he is already having 12K budget.

 

[d6bmg]

@OP: please increase your budget.

 

[Cilus]

The cheapest X8-X8 based crossfire mobo is MSI 890GXM-G65, priced @ 6.8K in theitwares. Now another HD6850 for Crossfire will cost you 9.5K (Sapphire). So the total cost will be 16.3K.

 

[sukesh1090]

^^after selling his old parts,he will get some more money around 5k.then his total budget will be 17k.

 

[Piyush]

out of 12k, 9k will be used by 6850 for crossfiring
so he requires around 6k-7k for a decent crossfire capable mobo

and thats not all
he should and he must buy a good PSU

so lets take corsair TX 650W v2 @ 6k appx

 

[Cilus]

^^+1 for Piyush baba for reminding us PSu requirement which I forgot completely. For Crossfiring two HD 6850, atleast a 650W PSU is required.

 

[sukesh1090]

so 6+7+9=22k.
@op,
you have to increase your budget by a lot.by the way whats the purpose of cross fire setup?

 

[comp@ddict]

No point, just stick to HD6850 and njoy. Next generation should come out soon, upgrade then

 

[d6bmg]

^^ Price may just be a factor for him. (assuming from his present budget)