GamePC: Crossfire Redux : ATI’s Radeon X1800 Crossfire Edition

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 7:34 am

"Let's get this out of the way first. ATI's first multi-GPU product implementation (dubbed Crossfire) which was seen on the Radeon X850 product lineup, simply wasn't very good. At the time of its inception, ATI’s Radeon X850 graphics cards were already nearing the end of their lifespan as a top tier product (lacking features such as Shader Model 3.0 and HDR support), and the Radeon X850 architecture simply was not designed with multi-GPU operation in mind. ATI's method of linking two of these high-end cards together was seemingly tacked on in order to have a competing product to nVidia's SLI, rather than a full-fledged, from the ground-up, multi-GPU solution. While the solution did perform well (an admirable feat from ATI's engineers, who had to develop this solution after the fact), the solution has resolution limitations, required rare motherboards, and simply had a lot of rough edges. While some early ATI fans got onboard, the solution generally did not pan out as ATI intended.

Of course, this was first generation technology, and we all have to start somewhere. Let's not forget that nVidia's first generation SLI technology has its own share of major problems when it launched, ranging from incompatibilities between SLI cards (many GeForce 6800 and QuadroFX 3400 cards could not support SLI, despite having SLI connectors), overheating, driver issues, and an overall lack of SLI bridges. However, since nVidia was the first to market this technology (well, after 3dfx), they were cut a lot of slack since they were venturing in relative unknown territory. By the time ATI's competing Crossfire solution had actually hit the market (six months late), nVidia's method of multi-GPU technology was more refined and accepted by the gaming communities.

ATI's second generation Crossfire technology is now shipping to market, providing solutions to many of the original issues which many had with X850-series Crossfire implementations. Crossfire solutions today can be run on a range of high-end motherboards and are not tied directly to one chipset family, as nVidia's multi-GPU solutions are. In addition, Crossfire solutions are now shipping with ATI's Radeon X1800 architecture as its backbone, allowing far greater performance compared to the Radeon X850-series. The new X1800 architecture puts ATI on the same level as nVidia in terms of GPU feature sets, and such, today’s Crossfire systems using X1800 graphics cards are far more competitive compared to their previous generation systems. Today at GamePC, we're taking a look at a pair of Radeon X1800 cards in a Crossfire configuration, compared against nVidia's GeForce 7800-series SLI technology. Let's get to it."

Full article here:
http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_content ... txf&page=1

aagiants · Post by **aagiants** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 10:57 am

what confuses me is how someone can justify shelling out soo much money for 2 cards for a few fps

Sava700 · Post by **Sava700** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 11:46 am

aagiants wrote:what confuses me is how someone can justify shelling out soo much money for 2 cards for a few fps

its not just a few FPS when running SLI I can tell you that... Its rather hard to explain but when I run a single 6800 Ultra card say with BF2 I see a sometimes random chop or just some frame rate lag its really hard to explain till your sitting here looking at it.. but when I drop a 2nd 6800 Ultra card in beside it the difference is amazing!!! I hate running any game now without them both running. Soon I'll shell out enough for dual 7800 GTX 512cards.. why ya ask?? Well lets just say anything that helps your eyes is worth the money.. you only have one set of them why not make things easier on them.

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 12:13 pm

Sava700 wrote:its not just a few FPS when running SLI I can tell you that... Its rather hard to explain but when I run a single 6800 Ultra card say with BF2 I see a sometimes random chop or just some frame rate lag its really hard to explain till your sitting here looking at it.. but when I drop a 2nd 6800 Ultra card in beside it the difference is amazing!!! I hate running any game now without them both running. Soon I'll shell out enough for dual 7800 GTX 512cards.. why ya ask?? Well lets just say anything that helps your eyes is worth the money.. you only have one set of them why not make things easier on them.

Its not worth it, you buy 2 top end cards for 550-650 bucks and 3-6 months later a new top end card is better than both of the others.

Sava700 · Post by **Sava700** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 12:19 pm

YARDofSTUF wrote:Its not worth it, you buy 2 top end cards for 550-650 bucks and 3-6 months later a new top end card is better than both of the others.

don't knock it till you've tried it. It is worth it from what I've seen. You may lose some money if you keep upgrading but that just depends on what the individual wants to do.

RoscoPColtrane · Post by **RoscoPColtrane** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 10:47 pm

Sava700 wrote:don't knock it till you've tried it. It is worth it from what I've seen. You may lose some money if you keep upgrading but that just depends on what the individual wants to do.

rich eh? must be nice....

wish i could afford to do the same!

Rivas · Post by **Rivas** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 11:16 pm

RoscoPColtrane wrote:rich eh? must be nice....

wish i could afford to do the same!

its not so expansive but there is no way i would spend that kind of money for video cards just to see small difference in a game.but if he thinks its worth it why not.i rather spend it on HDD's since im space hungry wh0re

Sava700 · Post by **Sava700** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 11:50 pm

RoscoPColtrane wrote:rich eh? must be nice....

wish i could afford to do the same!

not really rich no.. I don't have any kids nor do I have any car payments since they are all paid for.. its pretty much the after effect of a good paying job and good money managing for the last 10years. Spend it now to enjoy rather than wait till i'm 70 and can't see or hear anything ya know.

wee96 · Post by **wee96** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 6:45 am

In certain games there is a major performance increase, while others its virtually nothing. I certainly would do it if I could afford it, more so for bragging rights if anything. What I really want is the dual 7800 Asus card

RoscoPColtrane · Post by **RoscoPColtrane** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 6:25 pm

Sava700 wrote:not really rich no.. I don't have any kids nor do I have any car payments since they are all paid for.. its pretty much the after effect of a good paying job and good money managing for the last 10years. Spend it now to enjoy rather than wait till i'm 70 and can't see or hear anything ya know.

Yeah i hear you, thats how i paid for my tv! LOL no kids no car payment at the time. Life was good, even on my military paycheck....

Now i got carpayment!

knightmare · Post by **knightmare** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 6:27 pm

everytime I think of upgrading, they come out with something newer before i can make a move.....

RoscoPColtrane · Post by **RoscoPColtrane** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 12:24 am

thats a good thing, you can hold of a month or two and save hundreds of dollars!

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 2:49 am

I liek to wait for the second version of the newest generation. Waited for the ti4600 from leadtek with their revised cooling and that lasted be forever. Moved to a 6800GT beacuse I just couldnt wait, then when that system died I made the jump to the 7800GTX, I'll skip the next generation adn wait on the one after that.

There is no worthwhile use of SLI for me. If I got a 33% increase or more in all gaming then I could see it.

Plus I use the other PCIe x16 slot for my Areca card