ATI RD580: Dual x16 Crossfire Preview
by Wesley Fink on November 16, 2005 3:00 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
Our Take
ATI's chipset Engineering team seem determined to take ATI chipsets to new levels to grab the attention of AMD hobbyists. They seem right on target, since the AMD market has been, and continues to be, driven by the computer enthusiast. Our preview of RD580 on the ATI Manta Reference board showed us some exciting developments are on the way from ATI. Dual x16 video capabilities in a single chip 44 PCIe lane package certainly performed extremely well compared to the just released Dual x16 from nVidia.The possibility of HTT ratio-free overclocking will also interest the real overclockers out there. Running over 300FSB with a 5X HTT multiplier with current Athlon64 chips seemed an impossibility until we saw it working for ourselves in RD580. We are also glad to see ATI continue their commitment to quality audio on the AMD platform with continued support for High Definition audio codecs. Audio is one area where ATI is clearly outperforming nVidia.
In the comparison of the RD580 Dual x16 motherboard with X1800XT Crossfire to Asus A8N32-SLI with 7800GTX Crossfire, X1800XT Crossfire won every benchmark. That means if RD580 and X1800XT Crossfire were shipping today the graphics war would be on and plenty hot. The reality, however, is that X1800XT Crossfire and X1800XT PE are "coming soon", while nVidia's offerings are available today. ATI RD580 will likely land in early to mid January. We also expect the nest generation ATI R580 GPU to land about the same time. ATI is also hard at work on Socket M2 offerings to be launched with that AMD socket.
Based on what we have seen in this RD580 preview, the worries at ATI right now are more about the present than the future. Future solutions look very competitive and exciting to the market. ATI seems to be caught in a release "Twilight Zone", but as they work their way through current release nightmares, the future looks as if it could be very bright again for ATI. Certainly the upcoming RD580 Dual x16 chipset, X1800XT Crossfire, and X1800XT PE look more than competitive. Add to that R580 is just around the corner and it looks as if ATI has the goods coming to erase the last nine months of disappointment
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allnighter - Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - link
I believe I brought this up several times before and I'll say it again - I am personally bothered with AT's previews of reference boards. Why? Well simply because as far back as I can think it's always the same $hit. A hand tuned, tweaked to hell mobo pitted against the competing products, usually months before they go to retail and are actually available. That makes AT preview a pr piece that pretty much serves as a sales stopper against the competition regardless of which manufacturer is being reviewed. It's simply ridiculous to watch how those previewed boards always outshine the competition and show performance that barely translates into something we'll be able to experience, yet it's heralded as the best thing since sliced bread.Although I must give props to Wesley for not including any comparison charts in today's preview 'cause that would really tick me off.
What ever happened to a good old technology preview? What ever happened to the good old "product taken out of the retail box" review?
I'm not doubting AT's (in this case Wesley's) credibility or competence but the very fact that the reference board is sent specifically for AT preview makes me doubt the results. Why? Well simply because we've seen that exact scenario numerous times. These boards should be clearly marked as "AT preview edition" rather than anything else.
So to end this little bitch session let me just say that I'll simply stop reading mobo previews at AT. Unless it clearly states it's a new mobo tech preview or has a brand and product name/code in the title of it - I'm not interested. Thank you.
allnighter - Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - link
I believe I brought this up several times before and I'll say it again - I am personally bothered with AT's previews of reference boards. Why? Well simply because as far back as I can think it's always the same $hit. A hand tuned, tweaked to hell mobo pitted against the competing products, usually months before they go to retail and are actually available. That makes AT preview a pr piece that pretty much serves as a sales stopper against the competition regardless of which manufacturer is being reviewed. It's simply ridiculous to watch how those previewed boards always outshine the competition and show performance that barely translates into something we'll be able to experience, yet it's heralded as the best thing since sliced bread.Although I must give props to Wesley for not including any comparison charts in today's preview 'cause that would really tick me off.
What ever happened to a good old technology preview? What ever happened to the good old "product taken out of the retail box" review?
I'm not doubting AT's (in this case Wesley's) credibility or competence but the very fact that the reference board is sent specifically for AT preview makes me doubt the results. Why? Well simply because we've seen that exact scenario numerous times. These boards should be clearly marked as "AT preview edition" rather than anything else.
So to end this little bitch session let me just say that I'll simply stop reading mobo previews at AT. Unless it clearly states it's a new mobo tech preview or has a brand and product name/code in the title of it - I'm not interested. Thank you.
haelduksf - Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - link
I don't get it.AT's preview of the Crossfire referance board was right on- performance was matched almost exactly by the DFI CF-DR. I personally would rather have the review as soon as possible, until waiting for the product to ship x units to y stores before even looking at it.
pyrosity - Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - link
It's good to hear that the R580, at least, is still on track. It's taken ages, but I'm glad that AT got the whole R520 delay thing cleared up. It would be interesting to find out which third party screwed ATI up.Personally, I'd be more interested in reading/hearing about the R530, as it should fit into my price range better than the supposed ubercard that R580 will likely be. Still good to get an update on that, though.
On the motherboard side of things, it's nice to read that the competition is stepping up at last.
MDme - Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - link
maybe it was MS that screwed things up for ATI since ATI must have used a lot of R&D for the R500 on the 360. remember that the PS3 is only using a 7800GTX at 90nm (presumably with a higher clock) ;pi'm glad though that the r580 is "on time" because competition is good.
michal1980 - Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - link
nvidia isn't the king of anything. but this is the pc world, things change and they change fast. crossifre is barely working on last years gpus, and thats just now, a year after nvidia.geez u know if i keep waiting for the next round, then i'll have a 10ghz 8 core cpu, with a multi-core gpu, and a multi-core ppu, with a terabyte of ram, and hundreds of tb's of storage...
all i have to do is wait.
and wait.
and wait.
and wati
and ati = wait for us.
don't wait for a company play with the best now, then when the best changes buy that.
WaltC - Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - link
I've been having a ball since January of this year when I bought an AGP x800 xt. Nothing for me to be disappointed about.I think some of the comments in this thread are funny...;) I mean, nV sends out some 7800GTX 512 reference cards to review sites--cards that, when available, will cost ~$800, and consist of little more than overvolted, overclocked 7x gpus and ram, requiring a gigantic heatsink--and some people complain that ATi sends out reference boards of its upcoming motherboards to those same websites who preview them.
Personally, I'm glad to see ATi getting so aggressive in the AMD, enthusiast's mboard markets, and could care less that they don't shove and push their products to market before they are ready. Rome wasn't built in a day, etc.
I can well understand the angst of people who rushed to market to buy the expensive nV products on the strength of the wrong-headed idea that ATi wasn't interested in competing within this market. If I'd been rash and made the same mistake I'd be pissed, too--but I guess I'd be upset more with myself than with anybody else.
There's just no substitute for patience, is there? It will be no trouble at all for me to wait until next year to buy a few new things. In the meantime I'll continue to enjoy the more-than-adequate gaming support the x800 xt has given me all year. I have zero complaints with it thus far. In fact, it may well be that I'm not even in a hurry next year to replace my current config.
bob661 - Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - link
People complain about ATI "releasing" products with no actual product to buy. Nvidia's so-called "reference" board can be bought in stores for $749 on the day they launched it. Quite a bit of difference there bud.quasarsky - Thursday, November 17, 2005 - link
well no difference really.i can't afford that lol.
but my recent computer upgrading I WILL tell you what i can afford :) and bought :-D
$610 =
2 250 gig seagate sata 7200.8 harddrives $165
2x 1 gig of patriot red heatspreader ram 2.5-3-3-8 $175
ati all in wonder x800xt $275 (255 after rebate :-D)
and someone bought the 7800gtx 512 mb for $749 (a pun i know cause i spent $610 lol), and then lost their job, and couldn't pay their bills and their world fell apart LOL.
:0D
poohbear - Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - link
well said mate, i love competition and really all this 7800 gtx 512mb doesnt do it for me, give me a card in the same performance group as a 6800GS/7800GS cause that's the stuff me and most ppl can afford.