I want to run two 5870s for bitcoin mining (since 5970s are literally impossible to find).
The question I have is this: do I need to crossfire in order to take full advantage of them? I know for sure that my board (an M4A87TD EVO from Asus with Athlon II X4 CPU) will bottleneck because it only has one PCIe 2.0x16, the other is 2.0x4. If I have to I'll shell out for a new board, but I'd like to keep costs down until I start pulling in some cash with this machine.
The question I have is this: do I need to crossfire in order to take full advantage of them? I know for sure that my board (an M4A87TD EVO from Asus with Athlon II X4 CPU) will bottleneck because it only has one PCIe 2.0x16, the other is 2.0x4. If I have to I'll shell out for a new board, but I'd like to keep costs down until I start pulling in some cash with this machine.
Best to xfire or youll have to use dummy plugs, doesnt use much bandwidth though so x4 slot is fine (people are using the x1 slots fine too
)Yea, I just ordered one of these. http://www.9mart.com/products/2-Lots-PCI-Express-Card-Extender-Cable-PCI%252dE-1X-Riser-Adapter.html
We'll see if it works, I've seen pics of others using these with vga dummy plugs. I also picked up some 100 ohm resistors from radio shack to make the plugs.