x1950 pro 256 meg vs x1950 pro 512 meg for crossfire

[DaPoets]

Need quick advice...

I have the X1950Pro 512meg PCI-e and to get ready for Crysis, CoD 4, Frontlines: Fuel for War, and Tabula Rasa I want to get another card for crossfire sometime this week.

I called ATI to ask if I got a 2nd card at 256meg would crossfire work and what the ram allocation would be. They said that crossfire would use the lowest ram so I would then be at 256meg on each card.

The question is since it's about $50 difference in cost (dug deep to find great prices) it a crossfire performance difference noticible from 256meg to 512meg? If so, is it worth the added cost? I got my x1950pro 512 pci-3 for $155 plus shipping and I can get the x1950pro 256meg pci-e for $120 w/ free 3 day shipping.

Is it a big difference?

[Douken]

it depends on which resolutions you are using that

[DaPoets]

1600x1200

[Dragonprince]

I just read a review somewhere that says Crossfire still sucks and will provide less performance than a single card...lemme look for it. That might have been on the 2x series though since most sites are not reviewing the 1x cards anymore...

[Mr.Guvernment]

if you havea 256mb crd get a 256mb card since if you get 512 you cant use the other 256.

Crossfire is as good as SLI, just the new 2* series cards arent as powerful as 88**

[Douken]

If you have the X1950PRO 512MB and running 1600x1200 get another one(512MBV.)

[Dragonprince]

These folks ,like others , don't seem to think Crossfire is worth a dime right now....

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/amd_nvidia_windows_vista_driver_performance_update/page9.asp

[Douken]

umm That article talks about HD 2000 series and 8000 series... we are talking about X1950-PRO here...

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2858&p=5

[oakstave]

crossfire seems to give an ~80% boost in performance. Definitley not 'worthless'.

But frequently, it doesn't make sense to buy 2 of an older card, for the price of single newer card.

If you were like me, already had the one, then adding one makes sense.

[Shell]

It's really a matter which rendering mode you're using.

AFR needs more memory then Scissor, and offers MUCH higher performance, %75 vs %95.

CrossFire is much more powerful then SLI, but there's still no point in using eiher of the two unless you're upgrading or need more power then what the best card can offer.

[DaPoets]

I now have crossfire and I am getting a lower benchmark.... by like 500 points... what gives? yes it's enabled...

I went with a 2nd x1950 pro 512 pci-e since it was only $139 from newegg.

I started a new thread for my crossfire benchmark problem.
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?p=5276444#post5276444