ATI's Multi-GPU Solution: CrossFire
by Anand Lal Shimpi & Derek Wilson on May 30, 2005 9:00 PM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Pricing and Availability
What ATI has here at Computex is a very early sample of what CrossFire can do. Much like NVIDIA has had, ATI will encounter growing pains of their own with CrossFire. Most motherboard manufacturers are telling us to expect CrossFire motherboards by the end of July at the earliest, but more realistically, we can expect retail availability sometime in August.The price point will be competitive with nForce4 Ultra (not SLI) motherboards, thanks to more aggressive chipset pricing on behalf of ATI. Also note that not all manufacturers will be producing both AMD and Intel CrossFire solutions. For example, MSI is producing an AMD CrossFire motherboard, while ASUS is currently only producing an Intel CrossFire solution. The problem is that most CrossFire manufacturers are also nForce4 SLI manufacturers and they have to be careful not to confuse their customers by offering two products that compete with one another. Choice is a good thing, but from a sales standpoint, it can sometimes be a difficult pill to swallow.
Despite the strong showing at Computex, most motherboard manufacturers have stated that they don't expect ATI's CrossFire chipsets to really make a dent in this year's shipments. ATI's high-end chipset market share will still remain very low in comparison to NVIDIA, but the long term outlooks are definitely positive. Much like they have done in the graphics industry, ATI will provide good balance to NVIDIA in the chipset business now that NVIDIA is king of the high-end AMD market.
The pricing of CrossFire X800 and X850 cards is listed in the following chart along with the existing products that each CrossFire part supports.
On the high end, we are definitely looking at an expensive upgrade. Those who want the ultimate in performance can be expected to shell out the cash. The X800 versions CrossFire are a little more compelling in terms of affordability.
It will be interesting to see how these CrossFire parts move in price as they are very targeted in application as opposed to NVIDIA's parts, which are marketed as standalone graphics cards that could be used in SLI.
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Calin - Tuesday, May 31, 2005 - link
"ATI should be focused on the overall platform, not necessarily building up support for their South Bridge. Although we do think it is a bit embarrassing to have to turn to another chipset vendor to provide working South Bridges for your motherboard partners. It would be one thing if this were ATI's first chipset, but it most definitely is not. "AMD first chipset (AMD 760 for Slot A Athlon, or Irongate, I think) had also non working USB support (or very buggy). Most mainboard manufacturers offered USB thru an add in PCI card, in order not to use the one included in the southbridge
Googer - Tuesday, May 31, 2005 - link
In theroy since It connets to the other card through DVI, I could use my old 9700pro in Crossfire mode with the newer card; even better is what if I could use an NVIDA card and ATI card in Crossfire! All I need is that moterhboard (if forgot the make and model) that supports PCI-e and Ture AGP! (not pci based agp)FakeName - Tuesday, May 31, 2005 - link
This is bogus, remember accelerator cards, mid-90's... poor solution then, same poor solution again... don't waste your hard earned money on this cerebral shortfall, the next gen will soon be upon us...Shinei - Tuesday, May 31, 2005 - link
Performance looks promising, sure, but I wonder what will be shown when AT gets hold of a sample for longer than a few benchmark runs--an 85% improvement at 1600x1200 seems a bit strange, particularly for hardware known for wheezing in the benchmarked game...CrystalBay - Tuesday, May 31, 2005 - link
Very sophisticated approach ATI...Hopefully the Composter doesn't turn to sh!t later on...sprockkets - Tuesday, May 31, 2005 - link
Hmmm, isn't the current SB on existing Radeon Express 200 boards buggy too?overclockingoodness - Tuesday, May 31, 2005 - link
#15: Regardless, what difference does it make? The performance would still be closer to what's presented in the article.overclockingoodness - Tuesday, May 31, 2005 - link
#15: You need to read more carefully. Notice how they said that it was the vendor's PC and not their own. So, obviously they had no choice. They had to go by whatever the vendor was offering at the time.flatblastard - Monday, May 30, 2005 - link
I was a little bummed after reading that the Crossfire + Xpress 200 would also have 2xPCI-e slots instead of just one like the current msi rs480m2-il. I was even more disappointed to here about the current state of the sb450. I thought the sb450 was supposed to fix the bugginess of sb400 which it is replacing? Oh well, no big suprise I guess considering their history in that department. So here's hoping for another save from uli.bob661 - Monday, May 30, 2005 - link
#16They weren't listed so I would imagine that they won't be compatible.