R9 290x can be crossfired with PCI-e 2.0 motherboards!

[M-ursu]

AMD Radeon R9 290X will Feature New CrossFireX Technology

AMD and nvidia have been using SLI and CrossFire bridges with their GPUs since a while to enable up to multi-GPU setups, AMD seems to return to a bridge-less for multi-GPU functionality with their latest R9 290X GPU's. A few days prior to the GPU ’14 event, pictures of the R9 290X leaked on the internet showcasing two standard CrossFireX gold fingers but to our knowledge, that was an Engineering Sample. When AMD officially introduced the card at the event, we were quite stunned to notice the missing CrossFire ports but it was a hint at the new CrossFireX technology.

The Sideport technology was meant to debut originally with the ATi Radeon 4870 X2 but was never actually unveiled. The CrossFireX technology introduced with the Radeon R9 290X is similar to Sideport which would the GPUs to communicate over through the PCI-Express bus rather than an external connector. Previously, NVIDIA and AMD made a move to bridged connections to reduce the bandwdith issues faced on the first generation PCI-e slots but the PCI-e 3.0 bus available today has enough bandwidth to once again enable the use of sideport.

PCI-e 2.0 can be use as well, but there will be little performance lose, i personally love this idea, because crossfire bridges look awesome. Vitalius made me to understand that.

AMD mentions that the new CrossFire technology for AMD Radeon R9 290X is designed to for Eyefinity and 4K resolution setups. The new technology, as mentioned before allows for direct access between GPU display pipelines over PCI-Express since no external connectors are required this technology is fully compatible with AMD’s Catalyst frame pacing technologies which help reduce frame pacing issues faced with Multi-GPU setups which have been a massive problem with the last gen. Radeon GPU's. 

However, its not certain whether only PCI-e 3.0 has the bandwidth to fully support the new CrossFireX tech used on AMD Radeon R9 290X since motherboards come with one or two x16 PCI-e 3.0 slots while the rest are usually x8 and x4. So a motherboard update would be essential when using up to four of the Hawaii GPUs. By 2015, motherboard makers would ship the first PCI-e 4.0 products but that’s still a year away from the launch of the Hawaii GPUs so we hope AMD would address this. The NDA for the Radeon R9 290X specifications officially ends at October 15th and that’s basically when the card would either hit retail or final specifications and the the card would be revealed.

 

Source:

http://www.techpowerup.com/191453/amd-gpu14-event-detailed-announces-radeon-r9-290x.html

https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/60976-amd-radeon-r9-290x-to-be-officially-released-on-october-15th/

https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/59975-amds-new-line-of-cards-cant-crossfire-them-on-pci-e-20-motherboards/

[Youbetternot]

Aye I claim the first picture first add me name to the post  https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/60976-amd-radeon-r9-290x-to-be-officially-released-on-october-15th/ first picture in spoiler

[M-ursu]

Aye I claim the first picture first add me name to the post  https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/60976-amd-radeon-r9-290x-to-be-officially-released-on-october-15th/ first picture in spoiler

fine

[Youbetternot]

fine

I want it fancy like this Youbetternot member= my name add [ and ]

[Wesley]

Isn't there only one AMD MB out there that supports PCI 3.0 the new Sabertooth?

[M-ursu]

I want it fancy like this Youbetternot

i changed it, so it wont look messy, but i will add your topic to souces.

[Youbetternot]

Lol M-ursu changed the picture completely lol

[Youbetternot]

i changed it, so it wont look messy, but i will add your topic to souces.

Thank you

[M-ursu]

Isn't there only one AMD MB out there that supports PCI 3.0 the new Sabertooth?

Only new sabertooth support it

[Wesley]

Only new sabertooth support it

I've been waiting for them to release a new ROG MB with 3.0 but they just released the ASUS Crosshair V FORMULA-Z not too long ago so i don't think its gonna happen

[M-ursu]

I've been waiting for them to release a new ROG MB with 3.0 but they just released the ASUS Crosshair V FORMULA-Z not too long ago so i don't think its gonna happen

I think that when steamroller comes, all new MoBo's will support it.

[Dravic]

Isn't there only one AMD MB out there that supports PCI 3.0 the new Sabertooth?

 

It has no native Pcie 3.0, only some additional bridge but in the end the CPU with 2.0 will be the main bottleneck.

[Wesley]

I think that when steamroller comes, all new MoBo's will support it.

But Steamroller is gonna be FM2+ so i'd have to be able to afford a MB and CPU at the same time thats what i loved about AM you could use older CPUs with new MBs and upgrade slowly its what i loved about AMD.

[M-ursu]

But Steamroller is gonna be FM2+ so i'd have to be able to afford a MB and CPU at the same time thats what i loved about AM you could use older CPUs with new MBs and upgrade slowly its what i loved about AMD.

Well AM3+ is dead anyway.

If you did not know, all AMD's next gen CPU's are APU's.

[Wesley]

Well AM3+ is dead anyway.

If you did not know, all AMD's next gen CPU's are APU's.

Yeah i know i just hope AMD gets it right.

[legopc]

am i the only one who liked the look of those black sli/crossfire bridges?? 

[M-ursu]

am i the only one who liked the look of those black sli/crossfire bridges?? 

yes

[bamerx98]

Im pretty sure its not going to be this way, its probably going to be crossfire over PCI-E 3.0 -No bridge required for crossfire and PCI-E 2.0 you will require a crossfire bridge for it to work, I'm sure AMD's not going to shoot them self in the foot 95% of there products don't have PCI-E 3.0 only motherboards that have PCI-E 3.0 are the Asus sabertooth 99FX Gen.3 and the new APU motherboards in the X88 chipset, all AMD PCI-E lanes are on the motherboards. 

[M-ursu]

Im pretty sure its not going to be this way, its probably going to be crossfire over PCI-E 3.0 -No bridge required for crossfire and PCI-E 2.0 you will require a crossfire bridge for it to work, I'm sure AMD's not going to shoot them self in the foot 95% of there products don't have PCI-E 3.0 only motherboards that have PCI-E 3.0 are the Asus sabertooth 99FX Gen.3 and the new APU motherboards in the X88 chipset, all AMD PCI-E lanes are on the motherboards. 

you cant use crossfire bridge on 290x

[bamerx98]

you cant use crossfire bridge on 290x

I'm pretty sure there will be, just looking at this picture it looks like theres going to be a connect there just the way the plastic also the cards were seeing right now are samples. not the retail version 

EDIT - This is just my guess also because you can see the contacts were the bridge would go im think its just because there samples and the cards are not full retail yet, I don't think they would, decide to lose potential buyers of two on there AMD platform it be shooting them self in the foot. Personally I was thinking about getting two of these bad boys 

[M-ursu]

I'm pretty sure there will be, just looking at this picture it looks like theres going to be a connect there just the way the plastic also the cards were seeing right now are samples. not the retail version 

Yes, but how do you attach cf bridge to that?

[bamerx98]

Yes, but how do you attach cf bridge to that?

I'm pretty sure these are design samples and are not retail copys if you read what I edited in to my other post, I just personally think its too early to say "fuck you" to a customer on there AMD platform who wants to have 2 or more, 

 

EDIT - The crossfire bridges are just like the lock down brackets for sample cards for reviewers

 

EDIT - Leaked picture of the PCB alone shows it has crossfire bridges

[Vitalius]

I'm pretty sure these are design samples and are not retail copys if you read what I edited in to my other post, I just personally think its too early to say "fuck you" to a customer on there AMD platform who wants to have 2 or more, 

 

EDIT - The crossfire bridges are just like the lock down brackets for sample cards for reviewers

 

EDIT - Leaked picture of the PCB alone shows it has crossfire bridges

That leak was way before the Hawaii event. Again, that is far more likely to be an engineering sample than the ones at the Hawaii event. 

[TymmVonD]

A88 FM2+ boards are PCI-E 3.0

[TERAFLOP]

There is no info in your post what so ever that suggests the "R9 290x can be crossfired with PCI-e 2.0 motherboards".
Your headline is misleading.