Crossfire Reviews

[GTaudiophile]

Originally posted by: Rollo

Originally posted by: munky
I agree with the ppl that said crossfire was a rushed job so far, and the main reason is because Nvidia designed the gf6 with SLI in mind, whereas Ati didnt design the x800's with the possibility of multi-gpu solutions. So, Ati just had to make compromises to slap on that ability onto the x800's.

The interesting part, however, is whether or not they'll remedy those problems with the r520, which they knew would be going against g70 SLI cards when they designed them. So, in theory, they could (and probably should) abandon the whole idea of the external dongle, master/slave cards, and maybe even make it work on any board with 2 pci-e slots, with or without an internal connector. That would most likely alleviate the present limitations of crossfire, and at the same time allow them to "invade" Nvidia's SLI market, if anyone with a dual pci-e board could have dual gpu's, even those boards that are not "officially" SLI-compatible (like mine for example).

As it stands right now, Crossfire is just in it's infancy, but it might develop into a technologically superior solution if Ati is willing to re-design it the way it should have been done from the start.

This is all nice wishful thinking Munky, but I've seen rumors the Master/Slave carries on to the the R520, as does the dongle and the motherboard requirement. If they're true, ATI execs are going to wish they had dumped the other 60% of their stock.

Nobody believed me when I said ATI has always been a second/third best company, and that the only success they've had was due to the acquisition of ArtX. I've been a video card junkie for more than a decade, and for most of that ATI has been my "I'm buying this lesser hardware because it's interesting" company.

BTW- if you want to see some hilarious spin on this, head over to the Rage3d.com forums and check out the "Another triumph for ATI!" posts. Crossfire ended up looking like a high school science project and these guys are posting HL2 benches where it's ahead by two fps and shouting "Another glorious victory!" :roll:

Damn, I didn't know you could play with computer hardware in the womb! Wow!

 

[5150Joker]

Originally posted by: Rollo


BTW- if you want to see some hilarious spin on this, head over to the Rage3d.com forums and check out the "Another triumph for ATI!" posts. Crossfire ended up looking like a high school science project and these guys are posting HL2 benches where it's ahead by two fps and shouting "Another glorious victory!" :roll:

LMAO this I have to go see.

 

[Genx87]

Disappointing but not surprising.

Get R520 out the door to finish this debacle and lets move onto the next generation. That is where Ill be making a purchase next

 

[SolMiester]

Rollo, hoorray.......I too have always thought that!

 

[Wreckage]

I just read the THG review....

I think I am going to puke, that has to be the biggest steaming pile of crap ever posted on the internet.

 

[rbV5]

BTW- if you want to see some hilarious spin on this, head over to the Rage3d.com forums and check out the "Another triumph for ATI!" posts. Crossfire ended up looking like a high school science project and these guys are posting HL2 benches where it's ahead by two fps and shouting "Another glorious victory!"

Even in Doom3 X850 XT Crossfire was ~ 6800Ultra in SLI @ 1600x1200 4xAA and ~ to 7800GTX SLI in Half Life 2 aT 1600X1200@4AA in Anand's review...not too shabby out the door IMO.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: SolMiester
Apoppin, IMHO, ATI dominated nada, never has done, the 9xxx were a great card and eventually ATI got the drivers right. I maybe a fanboy if you want to call me that, but I have been buying video cards from the 1st Voodoo > SLI (V2) > GF series and then some (ATI). Name me 1 technology ATI bought out on its own which Nvidia hadnt already invented either on its own or through the Glide architechure?

r300 - 9700p/9800p/9800xt - what nVidia cards even came close?
:Q

and thanks for agreeing that ati got their drivers right . . . at least that's a 'start'

 

[M0RPH]

Originally posted by: Rollo

Originally posted by: M0RPH
SLI and Xfire are for a few uber-geeks who have a lot of cash to throw away. They just don't matter much.

People that have the best equipment "don't matter much"? Since when? :roll:

I was saying that the products don't matter much since 99.9% of the population won't be using SLI or Xfire. SLI was a way for Nvidia to make more on motherboard sales and to give them bragging rights about having the fastest graphics solution. It's just not practical as an upgrade solution so it becomes mostly a toy for those few who have the money to burn on dual 7800GTX cards (or whatever card is on top at the time).
These people are running SLI mainly for bragging rights, and certain of them don't even play games much because they're too busy trolling on forums and looking for opportunities to tell everyone how they have the 'best equipment.'

 

[Munky]

Originally posted by: Wreckage
I just read the THG review....

I think I am going to puke, that has to be the biggest steaming pile of crap ever posted on the internet.

* goes to see what the pile of crap says ... *

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: rbV5

BTW- if you want to see some hilarious spin on this, head over to the Rage3d.com forums and check out the "Another triumph for ATI!" posts. Crossfire ended up looking like a high school science project and these guys are posting HL2 benches where it's ahead by two fps and shouting "Another glorious victory!"

Even in Doom3 X850 XT Crossfire was ~ 6800Ultra in SLI @ 1600x1200 4xAA and ~ to 7800GTX SLI in Half Life 2 aT 1600X1200@4AA in Anand's review...not too shabby out the door IMO.

I wouldn't question Crossfires performance on the games it works with. I question the lack of modern gpu features, the master/slave, the dongle, and the 16X12 at 60Hz.

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: M0RPH

Originally posted by: Rollo

Originally posted by: M0RPH
SLI and Xfire are for a few uber-geeks who have a lot of cash to throw away. They just don't matter much.

People that have the best equipment "don't matter much"? Since when? :roll:

I was saying that the products don't matter much since 99.9% of the population won't be using SLI or Xfire. SLI was a way for Nvidia to make more on motherboard sales and to give them bragging rights about having the fastest graphics solution. It's just not practical as an upgrade solution so it becomes mostly a toy for those few who have the money to burn on dual 7800GTX cards (or whatever card is on top at the time).
These people are running SLI mainly for bragging rights, and certain of them don't even play games much because they're too busy trolling on forums and looking for opportunities to tell everyone how they have the 'best equipment.'

In Tom's review it says nV has sold 2 million SLI chipsets. That is not a small number of people who want the option.

I can't speak for the others, but I'm running SLI because it lets me game at levels I used to wish I could game at. That's all that really matters. It works smoothly and I game at 19X14 4X8X, even on modern games.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: Rollo

Originally posted by: rbV5

BTW- if you want to see some hilarious spin on this, head over to the Rage3d.com forums and check out the "Another triumph for ATI!" posts. Crossfire ended up looking like a high school science project and these guys are posting HL2 benches where it's ahead by two fps and shouting "Another glorious victory!"

Even in Doom3 X850 XT Crossfire was ~ 6800Ultra in SLI @ 1600x1200 4xAA and ~ to 7800GTX SLI in Half Life 2 aT 1600X1200@4AA in Anand's review...not too shabby out the door IMO.

I wouldn't question Crossfires performance on the games it works with. I question the lack of modern gpu features, the master/slave, the dongle, and the 16X12 at 60Hz.

sli didn't work that great on release . . . these things take months . . . IF nVidia didn't come out with SLI first, xFire would be impressive . . . now it's barely competitive . . . in a year, who knows?

i know i wont be an early xfire adopter

 

[SolMiester]

OMG....just read the Tomshardware review on the xfire, LOL....SLI was better in like most of the benchmarks yet toms dribbled on about xfire!

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: SolMiester
OMG....just read the Tomshardware review on the xfire, LOL....SLI was better in like most of the benchmarks yet toms dribbled on about xfire!

Conclusion

It is clear that like SLI, CrossFire provides a solid foundation for dual graphics gaming. The software support with Catalyst is refreshing in that everything works without having to reset the entire system. The other major advantage of CrossFire is that you can use non-identical cards to achieve higher performance than is possible with one card. From our early observations, the ATI solution also has the better image quality, but we would like to do some more detailed testing on that.

The main drawback of CrossFire is the same as that of its competitor, SLI: cost. The need to purchase a second video card, a new motherboard, and potentially a new processor makes this upgrade a rather expensive proposition. On the bright side, there are some new products coming out of the ATI camp that could bring down the cost of a dual card solution.

Where's the BS?

 

[SolMiester]

How about the 1st page where he stated ATI had single card crown before 78xx series release....BS! Main drawback price!!! how about waste of money if you run resolution of 1600x1200!

 

[Wreckage]

Originally posted by: apoppin

Originally posted by: SolMiester
OMG....just read the Tomshardware review on the xfire, LOL....SLI was better in like most of the benchmarks yet toms dribbled on about xfire!

Conclusion

It is clear that like SLI, CrossFire provides a solid foundation for dual graphics gaming. The software support with Catalyst is refreshing in that everything works without having to reset the entire system. The other major advantage of CrossFire is that you can use non-identical cards to achieve higher performance than is possible with one card. From our early observations, the ATI solution also has the better image quality, but we would like to do some more detailed testing on that.

The main drawback of CrossFire is the same as that of its competitor, SLI: cost. The need to purchase a second video card, a new motherboard, and potentially a new processor makes this upgrade a rather expensive proposition. On the bright side, there are some new products coming out of the ATI camp that could bring down the cost of a dual card solution.

Where's the BS?

No mention of the res limitation, the dongle, the master card limitation, problems with the crossfire motherboard, availability, poor benchmarks, etc.

It almost reads like someone told them about crossfire and they just posted a review based on that.

 

[Munky]

Originally posted by: SolMiester
How about the 1st page where he stated ATI had single card crown before 78xx series release....BS! Main drawback price!!! how about waste of money if you run resolution of 1600x1200!

That depends how you look at it. In terms of single card performance, there's no denying that whenever you put a single 6800u vs. a single x850xt pe, in majority of cases the x850 would win. But dual ultras held the "no cost is too great" performance crown.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: Wreckage

Originally posted by: apoppin

Where's the BS?

No mention of the res limitation, the dongle, the master card limitation, problems with the crossfire motherboard, availability, poor benchmarks, etc.

It almost reads like someone told them about crossfire and they just posted a review based on that.

he doesn't mention the resolution limitation and his is playing up Xfire's definite advantages - but even Tom's benchs do speak for themselves . . . Xfire isn't ready for prime-time in a match with SLI - yet . . .

 

[jiffylube1024]

So basically, what I get out of all of this is that Crossfire is a lot like the Nforce 1 motherboards. Interesting, unspectacular, with a couple inherent weaknesses, but setting solid groundwork for later generations to follow. Very few people will actually be running dual video cards in there, just like very few actually run SLI. They just like having the option of trying it out.

Personally, I wouldn't touch Crossfire with a 10-foot pole, just like how I stayed away from Nforce 1 and 3 (obviously NF3 was a lot better, but it still lacked certain features such as SATA2, NCQ, etc.). I'll let them iron out the bugs first (and everyone else can beta test it for me ).

 

[DidlySquat]

Originally posted by: M0RPH

Originally posted by: Rollo

Originally posted by: M0RPH
SLI and Xfire are for a few uber-geeks who have a lot of cash to throw away. They just don't matter much.

People that have the best equipment "don't matter much"? Since when? :roll:

I was saying that the products don't matter much since 99.9% of the population won't be using SLI or Xfire. SLI was a way for Nvidia to make more on motherboard sales and to give them bragging rights about having the fastest graphics solution. It's just not practical as an upgrade solution so it becomes mostly a toy for those few who have the money to burn on dual 7800GTX cards (or whatever card is on top at the time).
These people are running SLI mainly for bragging rights, and certain of them don't even play games much because they're too busy trolling on forums and looking for opportunities to tell everyone how they have the 'best equipment.'

very true, even if SLI motherboards are sold in large quantites, it doesn't mean a lot of people are using two cards, much less two top of the line cards. For 99.99% of the people a good single card is more then enough to play games - that's how the software companies write their games.

 

[nRollo]

Toms benches don't match many other sites, I have to wonder about his testing methodology. I'd also think the 16X12 limit would anger Tom, but he doesn't seem to mind.

 

[rbV5]

Updated with link to Anand's new article. It looks like its not all dismal news for Crossfire, in fact, aside from slow usb performance issues, it looks like an awesome enthusiast chipset. Crossfire multi-GPU may not be in my imediate future, but the right Crossfire Motherboard very well may be

....In the end, the ATI Crossfire AMD is without a doubt the best enthusiast-oriented Reference Board that we have ever seen - with performance to match. Unfortunately, that does not mean that the retail boards that you will see with this chipset will be similarly endowed. Our advice to manufacturers is that this is one Reference Board worth copying. A manufacturer who faithfully copies this Reference Board and delivers the same performance as the Reference Board will have a winner on their hands.

Some manufacturers like DFI have committed to deliver a board as good or better than the ATI Crossfire AMD Reference. Others like Abit, Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, ECS, and Jetway will likely deliver exciting ATI Crossfire boards loaded with enthusiast features that may well match the ATI Crossfire AMD Reference performance.

In case the message is not crystal clear, it doesn't matter whether you want ATI Crossfire or not when you are considering buying an ATI chipset motherboard. Crossfire is slated for mainstream pricing, so it is definitely worthwhile to consider an ATI Crossfire AMD motherboard to drive your nVidia 7800GTX or 6800 Ultra or ATI X850 or the upcoming ATI X1800. They will all perform very well with any Athlon 64 processor on the ATI Crossfire AMD motherboard.....

Link

 

[nRollo]

For those who haven't seen this:

Crossfire blows up on ATI

The motherboard review did come out better than expected, but why would you give up SLI for better OCing capabilities unless you absolutely knew you'd never have a second card?

 

[rbV5]

Originally posted by: Rollo
For those who haven't seen this:

Crossfire blows up on ATI

The motherboard review did come out better than expected, but why would you give up SLI for better OCing capabilities unless you absolutely knew you'd never have a second card?

Pretty obviously most SLI motherboard purchasers use a single card, if you were going to use a single card like most users, why would you limit yourself to a feature you won't use?

Far more entusiast care about overclocking than SLI, so its definately a viable option for a much bigger userbase than multi-gpu Crossfire could possible be. They need to take care of USB2.0 performance, granted, but thats a minor concern when you look at the whole package.

If the price is right, I really like the additional monitor support of Xpress200 (and now I see Nvidia has perhaps a contending IGP solution)..I'll definately be looking at Crossfire motherboards.

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: DidlySquat
Of course SLI only makes sense for the absolute high end, and that was obvious from its begining. Only fools (some of them post here) invested in 6600GT and 6800NU SLI setups .

Hey DSquat, answer me this:

I earned the money I used to buy the four SLI sets honestly.

I spent a lot of my free time benchmarking them at settings other than what normal reviews had to give ATers information about SLI technology.

Why you, or anyone, call me a "fool" for enjoying my hobby and contributing to the board?

What have you given the board of similar value? (hint: the answer is not "I like to troll")