Real Crossfire Benchmarks

BaconTheory said:

This just confirms that ATI is falling behind...again.

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ARRGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

I just got done reading the reviews of XFire on these sites:
Anandtech
BitTech
Tomshardware
FiringSquad
HardOCP

I'm very dissapointed with all of them except for Anandtech. Need I remind everyone that Xfire is not a Video card, but a new chipset platform. Not one of the reviews sites except for Anadtech looked at anything except the graphics performance. Preview performance of 2 video cards was released back in July, so there is no suprise about the video performance of 2 older generation video cards. Common guys, let's use our heads. The place this thread resides speaks volumes as to the mindsets of most people. Whyisn't this thread in the motherboard section instead of the video card section?

I DO understand people are most interested in the SLI performance of the chipset and in my mind, ATI hit par for the course. It performs at the exact performance levels as 2 6800Ultra. (alittle worse at times, alittle better other times). The ATI X850XT was oringinally reviewed in late 2004 guys!!!!! Did anyone anyone expect it to exceed a next gen video card like the Nvidia 7800GTX??

In my mind ATI is not behind the curve with what they have given us. They produced a stable SLI motherboard for multiple platforms (INTEL & AMD) that overclocks like a champ and has up-to-date features.

I've never seen so many **** poor **MOTHERBOARD** reviews in my life.

Remember Oct 19th and 20th of last year. I do. This is the day the NFORCE4 and SLI initial reviews popped up on the web. Those reviews covered the specs and the performance of the motherboard, not just the graphics performance. Why didn't crossfire get the same treatment?

I know some of these websites suck nowadays with their reviews, but we are better then that in OC forums guys. Don't fall into the pithole of their shallow review.

BaconTheory said:

This just confirms that ATI is falling behind...again.

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In the high end market and the 2xGPU fad market yeah. Not many other places.

it will be interesting to see how the ati chipset motherboards line up against nf4 boards in terms of mobo performance and overclocking...does anyone know if ati mobos will support sli? i know that sounds wacky, but i remember reading somewhere a while ago that it might support both companies multi-gpu tech....?

Vrykyl said:

it will be interesting to see how the ati chipset motherboards line up against nf4 boards in terms of mobo performance and overclocking...does anyone know if ati mobos will support sli? i know that sounds wacky, but i remember reading somewhere a while ago that it might support both companies multi-gpu tech....?

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It only supports multiple *ATI* video cards.

OMG, is that a question about mobo performance. Everyone raise their glass to Vrykyl!!!!!

see, I pay attention sometimes

Seriously tho, I was kinda dissapointed that none of the reviews lined up the ati chipset and nf4 boards side by side and compared memory bandwidth/overclocking/stability etc....guess they were all caught up in how ati is trying themselves to push the boards NOT as a good chipset to rival nf4 (which to me would make most sense) but is touting the dual ati gfx capability - stupid in my opinion as its not gonna compare...

Now if theyd release the x1k simultaneously with crossfire and ati chipset mobos then folks might have focused on all the finer points of the new mobo technology...instead they lined up an inferior gfx technology (as their major selling point) and get a well desereved beating...ati baffle me sometimes

situman said:

i think ATI implemented the limitation on purpose. The next gen cards will cost an arm and a leg. If current x-fire can match or beat a single r520 core, would people shell out to buy a 400-500 card when they can just add another 200 or 300 dollar card to their system to get similar or better performance? ATI threw this gen of x-fire out there just for the sake of fulfilling their promise of the product and to reap back some of its development costs. The true x-fire will be next gen products. This gen is for the adventurous and pioneers.

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Well no since to use Crossfire you have to have a certain motherboard and for many - that means buying 2 new cards as well as a new motherboard where as a single card u buy and go.

But you have to buy a new motherboard for SLI as well. Of course you can get cheap SLI boards, but its been out for months! Just wait a while and there will be xfire mobos at a competitive pricepoint. The way I see it xfire will be the better option once its established:

Easier to install- whatever anyone says its not going to be that difficult to work out which card is which, 5 seconds max. DVI link isn't harder to use (I'm guessing here but how hard is it to plug in a cable?), just ugly. Autoswitching to xfire mode though the default bios, a feature that is bound to be used on retail boards and means an end to jumper switching.

Better chipset(s)- anandtech have a review of the xpress200 chipset and its out performs the NF4 in many areas and indeed sets some new OCing records beating the DFI boards even. Brings HD audio to AMD. Being supported by Intel chipsets
cant be a bad thing.

Seemingly equal performance- the X1800s will define how good xfire really is

The big limitation is the 1600x1200 @60hz but that is changing with the next gen (apparently). It'll still be bandwidth limited but not by as much (again just what I read), which kinda sucks but most people don't have those kind of huge resolutions. Theres very little chance of me going either xfire or SLI but if I did it would be to increase detail settings not resolution because I play at 1280x1024 anyway.

Its really intresting. I've been an ATI fan for quiet a while since I got my 9800Pro. I love there driver support and I havn't had a single issue with games with my graphics card or drivers except recently on AOEIII Demo. Even though ATI might be behind the ball on getting this out, better late then never, expecially if it brings more preformance to the table.

I'm looking forward to seeing how this comes along and plays out in the future (mid/late next year), when I'll be doing a full system upgrade. I'm definatly going to be following the AMD boards and how well ATI fairs up against the nVidia boards.

I mean if im gonig to do an upgrade, I'm going to have to keep my 24" Widescreen running for a few years before my next upgrade and multi card setups might be the way I'm looking at.