Re: Crossfire Asus yet?

In article <42dcbc9d.21643494@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, john.dsl@xxxxxxxxxxx
(John Lewis) wrote:

> On 18 Jul 2005 14:26:48 -0700, edavid3001@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
>
> >I've upgraded my PC for 6 years now, the P3V4X Mobo is maxed out and
> >it's upgrade time.
> >
> >I've been looking at the A8N-SLI Premium, putting in a 3000 and a cheap
> >PCIe card to begin with, along with XP x64. My P3V4X isn't going
> >anywhere, so I can deal with the x64 lacking drivers issue. This is
> >mostly to be a gaming rig on a cheapo budget leaving me with
> >expandability down the road.
>
> The A8N-SLI Premium seems an excellent choice. See the following
> brand-new review:-
>
> http://www.hothardware.com/viewarticle.cfm?articleid=704
>
> Do not use XP x64 for gaming. Zero advantage -- yet. Yes, you can run
> the Far Cry x64 update, but that is a special exception. And several
>
> on-disk copy-protection schemes in current or legacy games will barf
> as they embed driver code that knows nothing about 64-bit.
>
> Better to dual-boot x32 and x64 ( if you can afford it ) until x64 is
> mainstream and all driver issues are addressed. Maybe M$$ will be kind
>
> enough to eventually embed a TRUE 32-bit compatibility mode in
> XP x64.
>
> >
> >But when looking at the A8N-SLI I discovered the ATI Crossfire, with
> >Motherboards coming out in June (last month.)
> >
>
> Nope, mid-end August at best.
>
> >The idea that I can add a newer faster crossfire enabled video card
> >down the line and still get benefit from my older one seems better than
> >ditching my cheapo PCIe card for a pair of 6800's equiv.'s a year or so
> >from now.
> >
> >So what's the eta on the ASUS crossfire MOBO? Any news? I saw they've
> >showed the crossfire board http://techreport.com/onearticle.x/8390 back
> >in may, but I don't see any crossfire boards on the website. Just the
> >P5RD1 models that have ATI RADEON XPRESS 200 chipset, but not crossfire
> >enabled..? I'm wondering if I should wait for Crossfire or go forward
> >with the A8N-SLI.
> >
>
> Crossfire ( er...CrossDampSquib) only works with existing X800 and
> X850 cards ( and presumably with unannounced R520-based cards) And
> you need to buy the special X800 or X850 (or unnanounced R520-based )
> Crossfire video card and the X200-Crossfire-version motherboard before
> you can even use an existing X800 or X850 card as the second card in
> Crossfire mode. Also mixing a lower-performance card in a Crossfire
> setup always reduces performance to be equivalent to a dual-set of the
> lower-performing card. Plus you had better know which Southbridge the
> X200-Crossfire Motherboard has -- the buggy ATi one or the unbuggy ULi
> one.
>
> Between keeping M$$ happy on the Xbox360, the delayed R520
> family launch due to 90nm leakage problems, now likely to miss the
> 'back-to-school' buying spike ( with nVidia also soon to announce
> other members in the 7800 family with immediate availability on
> announcement) and the CrossDampSquib exercise, no wonder
> ATi's stock price ( Symbol: ATYT ) has slid into the dumpster.
> Unsubstantiated rumors of a take-over bid from parties unknown
> have caused some recent knee-jerk jumps in ATi's stock price.
>
> Crossfire seems to be a non-starter... too late. The second PCIe
> video-card socket might be useful for dual-card multiple-head video
> display, but a SLI board will work in this mode just as well
> as any Crossfire motherboard.
>
> I believe that ATI, like nVidia are in discussions/testing with Intel
> on the 955x chip-set with regard to Crossfire ( or for nVidia -SLI )
> compatibility. That might render the need for a special Crossfire
> motherboard meaningless. However the 955x chip-set does not
> come cheap.
>
> John Lewis

In reading this article, I don't see any special property of the
motherboard being necessary. As long as the motherboard offered
two x8 electrical slots, that would be good enough for the video
cards. I bet even a Tyan dual processor board, with two real
x16 electrical slots, could be used.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2432&p=11

The key, is the 3DFX style cable running from one video card
to the other. That is what seems to provide the support. In
reading the Anandtech article, I didn't see mention of any
motherboard hardware helping in any way. An A8N-SLI using an
Nvidia chipset could be used to run two ATI cards, just as
easily as an Express200.

The trick will be all in the drivers. What hardware they choose
to support/obstruct or otherwise interfere with, by means of
their drivers.

Paul
.

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