ATi Crossfire Tested

[Rollo]

ULI is a brand new offshoot company (yes formerly ALI). As for links, here: http://anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2471



Like I said, you're a moron. Your nVidia trolling won't work here at the [H], son.

The only moron here is the guy pimping vaporware as if preliminary tests are equal to months of use, great reviews, and big market share.

Your ATI trolling won't work here at [H]. Most of us aren't dumb enough to think ALI changing it's name to ULI suddenly makes them just as good as the companies that have been kicking their ass for years now.

BTW- will you be buying a ULI wonder board? Or just pimping them?

 

[MFZ]

The only moron here is the guy pimping vaporware as if preliminary tests are equal to months of use, great reviews, and big market share.

Your ATI trolling won't work here at [H]. Most of us aren't dumb enough to think ALI changing it's name to ULI suddenly makes them just as good as the companies that have been kicking their ass for years now.

LOL in another words you got owned after you asked for a link and now you're trying to wiggle out of it by spouting more drivel. I guess the infamous nVidiot troll Rollo knows better than Anandtech now. Take off the little green panties, son. I told you, that trolling doesn't work here at the [H].

 

[Rollo]

LOL in another words you got owned after you asked for a link and now you're trying to wiggle out of it by spouting more drivel. I guess the infamous nVidiot troll Rollo knows better than Anandtech now. Take off the little green panties, son. I told you, that trolling doesn't work here at the [H].

Link? Really? Where?

What did I ask for, Mouthy?

Why don't you link us to some hot ticket, reknowned ALI or ULI motherboard chipsets that have 1/10 the sales of nVidia, Intel, or VIA.

What did you give us? A link to a a chipset AT said looks promising.

BS.

Who cares? Lots of things look promising, I asked for links to a successful product they've made, you didn't provide it.

If they're so good, why don't they have the market share?

 

[MFZ]

Link? Really? Where?

What did I ask for, Mouthy?



What did you give us? A link to a a chipset AT said looks promising.

BS.

Who cares? Lots of things look promising, I asked for links to a successful product they've made, you didn't provide it.

If they're so good, why don't they have the market share?

Who cares about market share dipshit? It's a brand new product that has been reviewed by Anandtech and given a stamp of approval. You're just grasping at straws as usual.

 

[R1ckCa1n]

Looks very promising! Can't wait for ATI to get off their lazy ass and start to release things....


ps. Rollo - stop while you are behind. I know it kills you this isn't a NVIDIA ROXXORS TO THE M@XXXX thread, but please.

 

[SatinSpiral]

Who cares about market share dipshit? It's a brand new product that has been reviewed by Anandtech and given a stamp of approval. You're just grasping at straws as usual.

Agreed. BFG was a startup and had no marketshare once upon a time not so very long ago. Now look at them. BFG was nothing but "Promising" once too. "Promising" can mean a lot for a company's future marketshare.

 

[botreaper10]

I don't like how one game has a HUGE performance boost while others have very little gain. I'd rather have something that can give me consistent frames than something that is hit or miss. Like [H]'s reviews, I want to see what the best playable settings are. Not how much faster it is without the eye candy on.

Yeah, its beta hardware with beta drivers, but there are some things i'd expect to work off the bat. Even with NV's beta driver release, the 77' somethings, you could use coolbits to open up all the options. From what Anand said, it looks like you can't do that with ati's yet.

Performance numbers are one thing, gameplay evaluations and actual product being available are another. Like others have said, it looks promising but so did volari

 

[TruthInRuin]

Pfft. Not like "no control panel AA" and a crappy ULI southbridge. I've had four different SLI sets, am currently running a 6800GT SLI and 7800GTX SLI rig, have NEVER had problems other than SLI not working on a brand new game. (eg Riddick)

Crossfire is DOA, will only be of use when R520 arrives. Why would anyone want 2 SM 2 cards in Q3 2005?!?!? W/O R520, Crossfire blows chunks. Same problem as X850XT PE has:
"OK it's faster in some benches. What about SM3, soft shadows, and HDR- all implemented in current games and making an IQ difference for people with nV4X cards?"

Crossfire isnt even on the market yet. You cant compare it to when you bought your first SLI setup. No ones using it with all its awesome bugs, they're still being ironed out..hence it not being on the market. Anand had a little preview from Gigabyte to show the potential and what to look for in Crossfire, just a general preview.

And yes, until the R520 is released crossfire is dead in its tracks, thats not to say its doing well now in its early stages of development with immature drivers.

This is NOT a launch. It's a preview from Anandtech because they were lucky enough to get a non-retail sample board from a 3rd party.

http://www.ati.com/technology/crossfire/index.html

Its advertised on ATI's website, the cards might not have been launched yet, but Crossfire itself has...

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Rollo, your always biased, over at Anandtech and here.

 

[CMAN]

Looks good to me. I'm glad they are getting things working right be4 releasing it. I can just imagine buying a dual card set-up that's full of bugs and shit and not getting anywhere with it for months until finally, proper drivers and profiles start showing up. That would piss me off. Glad to see Crossfire will come out when its ready and working.

Ain't imagination grand,where would ATI customers be without a good one..........

 

[CMAN]

LOL in another words you got owned after you asked for a link and now you're trying to wiggle out of it by spouting more drivel. I guess the infamous nVidiot troll Rollo knows better than Anandtech now. Take off the little green panties, son. I told you, that trolling doesn't work here at the [H].

How about posting a link to where we can buy an R520 and a Missfire motherboard.
It's ok to use your imagination because thats all there is right now.

 

[Rollo]

Who cares about market share dipshit? It's a brand new product that has been reviewed by Anandtech and given a stamp of approval. You're just grasping at straws as usual.

Have any control of your emotions Mouthy? Or is calling people names your method of "debate"?

Here's why we care about market share Mouthy:

Look at Jaton/Trident: They've been in the video card market since I can remember, probably longer than you've been alive Mouthy.

During that time they've come out with many GPUs that never really caught on. Why? They couldn't compete, were inferior to their competitors. So they've been a bit player on the sidelines forever.

Better yet, look at S3. They had LOTS of GPUs reviewed as "promising" but never really caught on because they weren't as good and driver support was inferior.

That's the story of ALI (ULI) Mouthy. They were around forever, but never really caught on because their products AREN'T AS GOOD.

You're the one "grasping at straws" Mouthy:
1. You couldn't provide me a link to anything ALI did that actually succeeded like I asked, to give us some indication they might succeed this time.
2. You're using name calling and misdirection to try and take us away from the real question here:
ALI/ULI hasn't done anything right in the past, why should we trust them now based on a preview? For that matter, ATI themselves haven't really had any success in the high end motherboard market, I believe nVidia makes 65% of the A64 mobo chipsets and VIA/SiS have most of the rest?
3. You didn't answer the question about whether YOU will buy this "wonderful new tech" Mouthy? My money is where my mouth is.

 

[^eMpTy^]

I think hes trying to say its a good thing that ATI is taking its time rather than pushing a buggy pile of shit out of the door, granted it is an awful paper launch. But remember, when nVidia first released SLi it had its problems too.

Right but SLi was never a buggy pile of shit...that's my point...when SLi first came out it had two problems, profiles and widescreen resolutions...CrossFire was announced months ago...and now 7 months after the release of SLi they don't even have AA working on the damn thing...much less thier CrossFire AA modes...

Now I'm not saying that SLi was perfect, but I will say that sitting around saying "good job ATi" for being buggier and 7 months behind, well that's just nonsense to me...and if you think they're doing it because "it's not ready" then you must have missed the amazing stream of paper launches they've had over the past year...

 

[Chris_B]

Why don't you check out mine then?

http://www.villagephotos.com/pubbrowse.asp?folder_id=1403308

Perhaps if the screens weren't totally raped by jpg compression they'd be worth looking at.....

 

[^eMpTy^]

Yeah even when sli was being developed first time they tried it BAM up and running with full speed and no bugs no crashes or anything. What a statement... "its buggier than sli ever was". Probably because nvidia took their sweet time to show sli they waited till it was in a good enough working order to send test samples to websites. From the looks of this this is just something gigabyte arranged and not ati. Im sure when ati thinks its ready the review sites will have their samples. Saying somethings buggy when;

a. its not yet finished
b. theres no way of knowing how old the drivers for either the card or the motherboard were or even how stable they were.

just comes off as plain stupid, its buggy because its still not ready. Theres no way they'd release it the way it is, and as stated before the drivers etc anandtech used could have been well oudated with better performing drivers in the works.

Untill ati send it to the sites for preview, statements of "omg" it r teh buggy" are useless pointless and most of all dumb. Lets all keep our pants on and wait till the offical previews\reviews begin.

Oh and before i forget

"........................................................" <- has to be done seeing its the cool thing to do these days

Do you really think this little preview went down without the approval of ATi?

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2258

Read that little article, and you'll realize one undeniable fact in all this silliness: It's now 10 months since that article I linked to was written...TEN MONTHS...and CrossFire now is less stable than SLi was on pre-release hardware and drivers 10 months ago...

And you have to admit, it's kinda funny that ATi came up with this whole CrossFire AA modes idea...and now nVidia has it out to market already, and ATi doesn't even have it working yet...and they announced it 2 months ago.

 

[^eMpTy^]

ULI is a brand new offshoot company (yes formerly ALI). As for links, here: http://anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2471

Like I said, you're a moron. Your nVidia trolling won't work here at the [H], son.

Funny, Anandtech seems to think the ULI southbridge is "somewhat lacking"...

But I digress, let's see a show of hands of anyone who's ever used one of their chipsets in a gaming rig...anyone? I didn't think so.

Now let's see a show of hands of people who are ready and willing to go out and buy CrossFire and work through all the inevitable bugs inherent in such a new configuration when SLi is out, stable, faster, and will soon not only equal, but surpass the featureset of CrossFire...all without an external dongle and an untested motherboard chipset.

The only reason to even think about ATi right now is R520...R520, where are you? (and while you're answering questions, how many fragment pipes do you have...hehe)

 

[^eMpTy^]

LOL in another words you got owned after you asked for a link and now you're trying to wiggle out of it by spouting more drivel. I guess the infamous nVidiot troll Rollo knows better than Anandtech now. Take off the little green panties, son. I told you, that trolling doesn't work here at the [H].

actually...considering these forums are now dominated by nvidia users after being prodominantly ATi for several years...I'd say the trolling is working well...gj rollo!

 

[Dan_D]

Don't forget that the 7800GTX was also optimized to go beyond 1600x1200. The X850XT's and 6800Ultra's are not.

There are some tests at higher resolutions over 1600x1200 and the X850XT gets its ass kicked harshly. That could definatley be why the X850XT can keep up at 1600x1200. That resolution is the sweet spot for the ATi cards.

The 7800GTX has been shown to be able to go well over that and not lose performance. I don't think the ATi card actually is nearly as fast in all reality. Not when a single 7800GTX can best 6800Ultra's in SLi.

Crank up the res and really see what happens.

 

[Rollo]

Perhaps if the screens weren't totally raped by jpg compression they'd be worth looking at.....

http://www.diamondtransistor.com/images/Rollo/Rollo.zip

Then go ahead and download the bitmaps?

 

[[Tripod]MajorPayne]

Perhaps if the screens weren't totally raped by jpg compression they'd be worth looking at.....

Yeah, I agree. I think it's kinda funny that guys are flaunting 16xAA with a JPEG. Any jpg is going to have pixelization, because they're optomized to be small files, not high res uber-detail images. Post up a .tga, or those bitmaps up there that Rollo posted are nice looking. I think that any benefit provided by 16xAA will best be observed INGAME, not in a highly compressed .jpg.

 

[CrimandEvil]

Crank up the res and really see what happens.

Damn right. I would have loved to see some 1920x1080 tests. If anything it shows that a single 7800 GTX is a better buy.

Honestly I'm a bit disappointed with XFire as it is right now, not to mention how close the release date is, I could see ATI holding it back a bit longer to work out the obvious bugs. It's very promising tech for sure though, if only ATI had the right card for it.

 

[coz]

The Crossfire technology looks good and should be pretty awesome with a pair of R520's. However, planning to releasing it with the X8-series now seems utterly pointless - they've missed that window of opportunity and may as well concentrate on getting it right with the next-gen tech.

 

[Brent_Justice]

...yeah I'm sure all the guys that have had SLi for 7 months really regret it and wish they waited for CrossFire, which is way buggier now than SLi ever was...

would someone please explain to me how paper launching an extremely buggy product 7 months behind the competition is a "good thing"?

Just an FYI, SLI was a paper launch as well.

It was announced in June 2004 and we didn't have hardware here at the [H] until November 2004, and it was buggy then.

 

[Brent_Justice]

Right but SLi was never a buggy pile of shit...that's my point...when SLi first came out it had two problems, profiles and widescreen resolutions...CrossFire was announced months ago...and now 7 months after the release of SLi they don't even have AA working on the damn thing...much less thier CrossFire AA modes...

I did have some issues with stability initially, just FYI. http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=Njk2LDg=

 

[jacuzz1]

Great choice of screen shot, i can see jaggies on the wall to the left closest you, i can see jaggies on the greyish roof on the left hand side, i can see jaggies on the chimneys on the right hand side. I can see jaggies on the towerblock in the distance plus on the building 2 over from the tower block, i can see jaggies on the scanner just coming on the screen.....

The jaggies you see are a maifiestation of improper screen capture at high resolution, look at Rollo;s shots. He knows how to do it

 

[R1ckCa1n]

Just an FYI, SLI was a paper launch as well.

It was announced in June 2004 and we didn't have hardware here at the [H] until November 2004, and it was buggy then.

LOL...... Empty gets p0wned yet again. Where is Rollio on this one?

 

[TruthInRuin]

Right but SLi was never a buggy pile of shit...that's my point...when SLi first came out it had two problems, profiles and widescreen resolutions...CrossFire was announced months ago...and now 7 months after the release of SLi they don't even have AA working on the damn thing...much less thier CrossFire AA modes...

Now I'm not saying that SLi was perfect, but I will say that sitting around saying "good job ATi" for being buggier and 7 months behind, well that's just nonsense to me...and if you think they're doing it because "it's not ready" then you must have missed the amazing stream of paper launches they've had over the past year...

I'm sure when SLi was still in its developement stages it was a buggy pile of shit. And I'm not saying "good job ATI" either. Actually its sad that theyve had this technology working for 7 months and they still dont have it all together.Also, yes, crossfire is a paper launch... but do you really think ati would put crossfire on the market now? Ya, I think they're 7 months behind because it is not ready lol..

 

[Brent_Justice]

LOL...... Empty gets p0wned yet again. Where is Rollio on this one?

It's not about owning people, I think we need to stop with such diatribe.

It is simply about stating the correct facts, which is what I am interested in.

 

[tornadotsunamilife]

I don't know what people expect from these sort of previews. It shows that there is a promising performance to be seen from using two X850XT's. sure there is problems with it but so what? It's not the final release, and it's already beating single 7800GTX's and 6800Ultras in SLi in most of these tests.
I think it's obvious that ATi are trying to create a brand with little bugs as possible in the final release and have the cards/motherboards there to use it, and why not? They have to compete with SLi, something of a standard in the gaming world now as well as the reputable nForce chipset motherboards.

 

[eno-on]

...
It is simply about stating the correct facts, which is what I am interested in.

Scant bit of that around here

Anyway, can't wait to see xfire on next gen ATI's.

 

[^eMpTy^]

Just an FYI, SLI was a paper launch as well.

It was announced in June 2004 and we didn't have hardware here at the [H] until November 2004, and it was buggy then.

Brent I'm going to send you a PM on this one.

 

[jacuzz1]

I don't know what people expect from these sort of previews. It shows that there is a promising performance to be seen from using two X850XT's. sure there is problems with it but so what? It's not the final release, and it's already beating single 7800GTX's and 6800Ultras in SLi in most of these tests.
I think it's obvious that ATi are trying to create a brand with little bugs as possible in the final release and have the cards/motherboards there to use it, and why not? They have to compete with SLi, something of a standard in the gaming world now as well as the reputable nForce chipset motherboards.

I think this type of technolgy is very cool for ATI owners who invested serious money into thier 850's . I am a hobbiest and if I owned an x850 I wouldbe thrilled to see this if only to give me something new to play with or in my case, I would be willing my rig to my kid and have the ability to boost its performance to competive levels while lan gaming with me on my new R520 or GTX or whatever rig. I guess my point is that it should have its own niche for sure.

 

[Gorankar]

They did not get this hardware or drivers direct from ATI.. Untill it hits the shelves, or at least until we get previews samples sent FROM ATI to the review sites we are not going to have an accurate idea of how this is going to work...
I personally think that crossfire has limited usefullness for the 800/850 series... Unless they can get it to work on nforce4 mobos... But that's a whole different thread , that will have to wait till we have availability..


Love the fanatics from from both sides.. However, if I ignore a few select people I can actualy get a reasonable and mature sounding thread..

 

[jacuzz1]

They did not get this hardware or drivers direct from ATI.. Untill it hits the shelves, or at least until we get previews samples sent FROM ATI to the review sites we are not going to have an accurate idea of how this is going to work...
I personally think that crossfire has limited usefullness for the 800/850 series... Unless they can get it to work on nforce4 mobos... But that's a whole different thread , that will have to wait till we have availability..


Love the fanatics from from both sides.. However, if I ignore a few select people I can actualy get a reasonable and mature sounding thread..

Jesus, your right , i forgot about the ATI chipset requirement. LOl.

 

[coz]

Just an FYI, SLI was a paper launch as well.

It was announced in June 2004 and we didn't have hardware here at the [H] until November 2004, and it was buggy then.

That's right. But to be fair to NVIDIA they only 'launched' the technology concept that was SLi in June 2004, the SLi platform/hardware (ie. nForce 4 SLi) itself wasn't paper-launched until October 19th 2004. So their paper-launch latency for SLi wasn't as bad as it seems.

But that was back in the dark days of 2004 when there were enough paper-launches for a ticker-tape parade!

 

[^eMpTy^]

LOL...... Empty gets p0wned yet again. Where is Rollio on this one?

someone explain to me how that's getting "p0wned", as you so eloquently put it.

I never said SLi wasn't paper launched, and I never said it wasn't buggy. I just said it was less buggy 7 months ago than CrossFire is today. And if you read the article Brent linked to, you'll see he agrees.

I guess to me this preview from AnandTech was just unexpected. I honestly thought CrossFire was good to go and just waiting for R520. I had no idea they were still having so many problems.

 

[MrGuvernment]

ATIs Crossfire is NOT COMPATIBLE WITH ANY GAME.

Good lord, if I see this once more I will retch.

ATI has AFR profiles, just like nVidia.

ATI has two default "fallback" SLI types: tiling and scissors for non- profiled games. They aren't guaranteed to offer benefit. nVidia has one default "fallback" SLI type for non profiled games. Either way, you have to test it.

The reason ATI has been saying all along "all games compatible" is 14X AA. Guess what? nVidia has 16X.

You need to learn before posting.

Kytle or Brent can back me here, all I say is true. The main "difference" in Crossfire vs SLI tiling, and having one more form of SLI isn't that huge a deal.

My apologies for not reading what you have read so go ahead an retch all over, all i had read pointed that this was compitble with any and all games the way ATi designed it, that was the benefit over NVIDIA's SLI - i also was not aware NVIDIA had a fall back profile - as i understand SLI was that if NVIDIA did not have a profile, it would not work with dual cards where as ATI will and can always use both cards in their provided modes NVIDIA did not have.

But thank you for clarifying that, now i know better.

 

[mikelz85]

I think the main thing to look at here is the impressive results ATI is getting with 2 cards. They get a far better performance increase with 2 cards than nvidia does with their version of SLI. This looks to be promising for those in the market for video cards and not a car.

 

[coz]

They get a far better performance increase with 2 cards than nvidia does with their version of SLI.

Actually, if you check the XFire vs SLi % gains on the last page you'll see the score is 4-4 so 'far better' is misleading to say the least. XFire % gains look better against 7800GTX SLi because the latter is a more powerful solution and therefore more CPU-limited. You'd have to clock that CPU pretty high to see the true potential of 7800GTX SLi though.

 

[Rollo]

Just an FYI, SLI was a paper launch as well.

It was announced in June 2004 and we didn't have hardware here at the [H] until November 2004, and it was buggy then.

I had it in June 2004 Brent...........







LOL-kidding.