ATI Crossfire Previews

[W1zzard]

ATI has finally lifted the NDA on their SLI technology named "Crossfire".

Personally I don't like they way they did it, but we will see what the market says.

Read the Previews here:
HardOCP | Neoseeker | HotHardware | Tech-Report | Beyond3D

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Morlak]

ATI has finally lifted the NDA on their SLI technology named "Crossfire".

Personally I don't like they way they did it, but we will see what the market says.

Read the Previews here:
HardOCP | Neoseeker | HotHardware | Tech-Report | Beyond3D

I read each one, and Beyond3D seemed to go into more detail than the others. One thing they all had in common was they all were very optimistic towards the performance, and ease-of-use of it, and finally most didn't like the dongle aspect.

Personally, I don't mind the dongle. I used it with a Voodoo 2 setup I once had.

I do like the facts that:
1. I may not have to use a certian chipset motherboard (read Beyond3D's review, and ATI's own FAQ)
2. Crossfire can be used with just about any game. Whats not to like about that?

The only thing I dont like is the CrossFire X850 is using XT clocks 520/540. Can it be Overclocked?

I'll wait and see what the performance numbers say. I am hoping for good results. I also wonder if there will be an R520 CrossFire Edition right away, and what it's mate can be?

Overall I like the way they did it, and I am curious why you dislike it. Reasons?

 

[Urlyin]

I read each one, and Beyond3D seemed to go into more detail than the others. One thing they all had in common was they all were very optimistic towards the performance, and ease-of-use of it, and finally most didn't like the dongle aspect.

Personally, I don't mind the dongle. I used it with a Voodoo 2 setup I once had.

I do like the facts that:
1. I may not have to use a certian chipset motherboard (read Beyond3D's review, and ATI's own FAQ)
2. Crossfire can be used with just about any game. Whats not to like about that?

The only thing I dont like is the CrossFire X850 is using XT clocks 520/540. Can it be Overclocked?

I'll wait and see what the performance numbers say. I am hoping for good results. I also wonder if there will be an R520 CrossFire Edition right away, and what it's mate can be?

Overall I like the way they did it, and I am curious why you dislike it. Reasons?

I like the same points as Morlak ... But I dislike the dongle as well .... not to mention you have to have one specific "Crossfire card" .... wonder if there is any benefits to running it on the new ATI chipset ...

 

[wazzledoozle]

Something im confused about, do you HAVE to have the crossfire enabled chipset on the motherboard? Or any mobo with dual PCI-E 16x slots. One of those previews made it sound as if the DVI dongle makes the connection.

 

[djbbenn]

I read you have to have the radeon xpress 200 chipset in order to have the crossfire setup.

-Dan

 

[Morlak]

Before ATI pulled their FAQ (now says comming soon), I read (and I don't think I dreamed it up...) where ATI stated that they may even support nForce chipsets (read SLI boards).

ATI said (or I dreamed it, cause I cant prove it), that "it would be best to use the Radeon Express 200 chipset however " .... blah blah can't remember the rest of the text. They also said (and I'll paraphrase here) they were concentrating on their own chipset first, then they would certify/help develop bios support for other boards including their rival's boards. I swear I read it and didn't dream it, or did I..... ???

The only non-SLI board I have seen available that sports 2 PCI-e (x16) slots is http://usa.asus.com/products/mb/socket775/p5wd2-p/overview.htm

What else would you do with 2 x16 PCI-e ?

Edit

On ATI's site under build your own CrossFire, they have:

"Only three components: a CrossFire Ready motherboard ideally based on the ATI Radeon® Xpress 200 chipset..."

Notice "ideally"

 

[carl0ski]

What else would you do with 2 x16 PCI-e ?

i'm sure can think of something

but i always liked dual display gfx

I used to use 2 PCI cards on my AMD K6-2
to run two overlay programs at once. to render
Unreal tournment screen
and
My tvtuner was displayed on the other monitor.


the dual display and tv out cards arent as good as two cards since the TV out and second display share everything.


besides all SLI boards ive seen are actually x16 for 1 card and that is cut to
8x each for 2 cards.

 

[TooFast]

who is running a crossfire?