ATI Crossfire question.

[Tool Man]

Do the cards in a crossfire setup have to be identical?

I currently have a Sapphire Radeon 3870HD Atomic 512Mb, and I want to add a second card.
Although the Atomic is quite expensive, £179.99 GBP, probably because of the steel case it comes in, and the bundle of discs, cables and even a cold cathode!!

Anyway, I can get a Sapphire 3870HD Toxic 512Mb for around £100 GBP, which is only clocked slightly slower than the Atomic edition, 825 core, 1200 mem for the Atomic versus 800 core and 1150 mem for the Toxic.
And the toxic has the same single slot vapour chamber cooler as my Atomic card, so they should fit side by side, but will they work together?

I remember reading somewhere that crossfire cards only have to be the same 'family', not the same card.
So, does anyone know if it'll work, and will the slower card affect my faster one?

BTW, my MB has the ATI 790FX chipset.

Thanks.

[dj4monie]

I don't see why you can't... You use Crossfire on that board, I would suggest you hit up Xtreme Systems forum or Overclock.net

[Nelson37]

SFAIK they only have to match, not be identical. However, both the clock speed and memory capacity of the slower card will be used for both.

[RabidDog]

WHy not just underclock the faster card to match the slower one, if necessary?