4870 x2 setup question

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NaelNael

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#1 NaelNael
Member since 2006 • 168 Posts
i'm not sure i'm going to get this one but for me to decide i need to knw if it's good with my motherboard. my board has 1 PCI Express x16 bus. i heard the 3870 x2 needed something called a dual PCI Express x16 bus bus, not sure what that is but i guess from what i understood it's one bus but two 16x rows next to each other. is that true or is it like the normal 4870, just needs one PCI Express x16 bus. second question, do all PSUs have an extra 8pin PCIe and 6pin one or are there special ones i need to know about, thanks
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NaelNael

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#2 NaelNael
Member since 2006 • 168 Posts
bump, i'd like an answer, popularity of this forum makes some posts fly by
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blade55555

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#3 blade55555
Member since 2005 • 1116 Posts
from what I can tell you only need 1 PCI express x16 for 1 card. If you want to put 2 you have to have 2 pci express slots. I hope this answered your question but it was kind of confusing.
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DGFreak

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#4 DGFreak
Member since 2003 • 2234 Posts
A "dual-slot" card just means that the card takes up double the amount of space. You don't actually need two empty slots to use one.
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iBP_Rickochet

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#5 iBP_Rickochet
Member since 2008 • 163 Posts

All of the "X2" cards (from NVIDIA or ATI) only require one PCIE slot to plug into, but the coolers on the cards cover the slot next to them, thereby having a "dual-slot" cooler.

Every PSU I've seen recently have at least one 8pin and one 6pin PCIE plug. If your PSU doesn't have them but it has enough power capacity, you can use adapters to convert standard 4-pin molex connectors to PCIE plugs.