Alternatively, you can purchase just one single GeForce 7800 GTX, which is CHEAPER than the CrossFire needs mentioned above and it runs on all current PCI-Express motherboards. In our performance testing, the single GeForce 7800 GTX was able to match or beat the CrossFire platform in performance and image quality. The 7800 GTX also defeats the CrossFire platform in features for future game titles.
When it comes right down to it, CrossFire is really not a solid value with the current generation of ATI video cards. You get more for less money with the GeForce 7800 GTX.
The platform as a whole is sound. Integrating Crossfire is a piece of cake if you follow the given instructions and the AMD-based mainboards, of which HEXUS has been privileged to sample two of so far, perform well. Halibut is a fine reference design that ATI should be proud of, that’ll also support R5-series Crossfire in coming months.
Availability of affordable Crossfire mainboards should be strong from the minute this article is published. But, given all of the above - cost and timing of master boards hitting the market, seemingly low availability, complete inability of current drivers to support the cheaper X800 variation of Crossfire for whatever reason, resolution and refresh rate limitations and issues of heat and noise - you wouldn’t want to make those seemingly good mainboards the home of a current Crossfire system.
The current downsides massively outweight the good points that do their best to shine through. Too late by far, this level of Crossfire would have been relevant a few months ago before the launch of NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT and GTX and certainly a good while before the ATI replacement for the X8-series of cards. The timing, when most people are looking towards the horizon for new Radeon models, seems almost on purpose.
Most of all, not being able to evaluate what’s likely to be the most popular side of Crossfire using the X800 XL master board we possess is wholly frustrating and equally as puzzling. Launch a technology and usually all the pieces to evaluate it properly should be there for folks like us to do so. It’s as if half of Crossfire simply isn’t ready yet. We’ll get round to those missing bits when we can.
Until then, promising technology for when R5xx gets it right, but just now it’s just a poor shadow of what it could and should be. SLI is currently a better multi-GPU consumer technology and overall solution (although we loathe the term), that’s the simple truth.
HardOCP sucks. They are so biased it’s rediculous. Geeeezzzzz, the opening statement is a dead giveaway:
ATI fights back against NVIDIA with their dual card solution known as CrossFire. Although CrossFire improves performance, do the limitations that exist in ATI’s current dual card implementation make CrossFire a wise investment?
What a load of crap. And this is hardly a review. It’s more of a very twisted PREVIEW. I can’t believe ATI sends these monkeys anything to review. They really need to send it to me!
HardOCP still thinks a P4 and a 6800 is the ultimate gaming solution. :rolleyes:
Hard OCP may be biased, but then most are…look at Tom’s Hardware. Plus, the basic limitations of CrossFire and the fact that a single 7800GTX beats 2 x850xt has been repeated on many review sites.
SLI is easier to implement, no master/slave cards, no dongles, and with the new update, I dont believe that the cards even have to be the same bios, etc, with SLI.
The new ATI chipset for A64 is nice though.
Crossfire is not available yet. It’s still in the testing stages. ATI is not very smart to let those nVidia/Intel Fanboys play with their unfinished tech.
ATI are caught with their pants down whatever they choose to do.
If they wait until crossfire is properly ready, then a goodly percentage of ATI owners will either have cutover to 7800’s and not be ready to change or will be prepared to wait just a little longer for R520 which will render their X800 abd X850 crossfire technology largely worthless.
By bringing out something immature now they have gambled that ATI fans will wait just a little longer for Crossfire to be ready.
On paper, crossfire would seem to be a slightly better technology than SLI, but it is also an awful lot less ‘elegant’ than SLI as you have to have interconnect cables etc hanging out of the back of your PC.
ATI should have had crossfire ready for the 7800 launch and would have stolen a lot of nVidia’s thunder. But they did not. It is still not ready - and we in the UK have no visibility of when crossfire cards will be available to us.
I am looking at upgrading my PC. I have been putting it off for a month or two now as I was waiting for Crossfire. I will almost certainly go nVidia, though, as I am not prepared to wait indefinately for ATI.
From speaking to Sarge at the last LAN (who has also gone from ATI to 7800) I will not be disappointed by nVidia - they have got it right for once.
ATI will have to have one heck of a comeback imo to dig themselves out of the mess they have now got themselves into. Whilst nVidia have been on the back foot for the last two or three years, they have now shot past ATI and are in the driving seat. Lets hope ATI put up a real fight soon.
ever since the 9700/9800 Ati seems to be going down. I too am looking forward to the R520 series, but most likely will get another nvidia card. SLI is more mature, there are many SLI motherboards and cards available, so prices arent crazy, etc. I loved my 9800Pro and am even happier with my 6800U.
Of course, who really plays at 1600x1200 where crossfires 60mhz refresh rate cap comes into play.
I still dont like how they implemented the cards (master/slave) Id rather just have 2 same cards with no external dongles, etc.
Crossfire should be coming out very shortly, if not, its another blown paper launch by ATI. By the time R520 finally comes out, nvidia will be close to offering a refresh of the 7800 series, or if ATI waits long enough, 7800’s replacement.
I don’t really know what’s occuring in the ATI camp, either Nvidia have played a blinder
and really got ahead of the game or ATI is struggling or playing it crafty.
My understanding of the ATI setup should be reaping benefits over Nvidia but its just does
not seem to be playing out that way.
The X800 and beyond core was men’t to be scalable upto 32 GPU’s and you would expect the gains to be greater than we are seeing under a 2 GPU enviroment.
I hope for the consumer things work out, if not ATI could certainly be in troubled times.
I like my lappy with ATI everything, but for games the 7800GTX is NICE!!!
ATI should just relax knowing that they are the best for everything except games and 3D benching. Then they should get their arses in gear and do something again. Crossfire is a failed experiment.
