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
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
52 Comments
View All Comments
michal1980 - Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - link
ati has been late for 2 years now. the 6800gt vs the 8xx series, the 6800 series out first.with the 7800 series they got killed.
the promised crossfire last year... were only starting to see it work.. on boards that cost 2x that of nivdia entry level sli (they said theres would be cheaper) the said the x18xx series would be out months ago... well about 6 months later and ur finally starting to see the 1800xt..
there crossifre boards are still running with ethier the amputated southbridge, or a uli southbridge.
ati has lately given alot of promises, but not alot to play with.
oh and the big news that the 1800xt in cross fire can beat the 7800gtx(256) in crossfire. NO DUH. i mean it beats the 7800gtx in a single card test, so why would 2 magically be slower.
plus why are they so dumb. isn't there next grahpics card core the 580? now there next motherboard is a 580? WOW talk about confusion... or maybe they've lost there minds and the whole time we thought the 580 was the next gen card, but in fact its just another motherboards.
WOW ati... i owned your stuff, but right now your on the suckage path
a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
i can play with 7800gtx sli, or gtx512 sli. i can play with a 32lane motherboard (a8n32)...
i can only dream of ati xfire
MDme - Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - link
I think the article was meant to show that ATI still has a fighting chance considering that the X1800XT exceeds the 7800GTX in ALL benchmarks (including nVidia strongholds like doom3 and quake4). Obviously it will also win in the SLI/CF tests. I think this is really quite some news in the ultra-highend segment where most enthusiasts play.It also gives us the question of will the X1800XT PE beat the 7800GTX 512, head to head.
Now, if only ATI can actually get the products to the market before nVidia comes up with something faster.
Competition is good. If not for competition, we will still be typing on our AMD K6-III 700MHz with 512MB SDRAM and a GF2 with 64 mb VRAM. :)
Megatomic - Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - link
Wesley, do you know if ATI is planning to release an analogue to the NF4 Ultra, i.e. a high performance motherboard with only one slot for PCI-e graphics cards?Wesley Fink - Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - link
The Sapphire "Grouper" we reviewed is on sale in Europe, buit it never made it to the US. It is also very expensive - more expensive than the Asus Crossfire whose review will post early next week. We are told there will likley be a couple of more "Grouper" boards, but we haven't seen them yet. MSI will release a full range of Crossfire chipset boards from full blown to basic - but we do not know yet which boards will reach the US and European markets.Megatomic - Thursday, November 17, 2005 - link
Well, I'd dearly love to see a highend RS580 mobo. I might even go for an RS480 if it ever gets paired with SB600.tuteja1986 - Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - link
I think ATI will take lead next year... This year was totally bad for them! just like NVIDIA had a bad year with Geforce 5800U.. Anyways ATI is good position for the future and we should see some great competition.Jedi2155 - Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - link
If it can beat the 7800 GTX in all tests then it certainly peaks my interest in the duo. Although if this is what they can do with their *failed* (my opinion) R520...just imagine the R580 :O.Cygni - Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - link
ATI just seems a little late to the party with each of their releases, and then once finally officially launched, even later to actually get to market.I wish em the best, but i dont even think the (possible) overclocking abilities and x16 Crossfire option will truly get people up to buy the board unless it dips into the $100 range that the SLI boards are now sitting in.
n7 - Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - link
Hawt!The more competition, the better.
Also, i really do think that it's only a matter of time before the ATi chipset is superior to nVidia's offerings.
Now we just have to wait, something no one likes to do...
Calin - Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - link
because the nVidia will develop new things for themselves. nVidia won't stay idle when ATI chipsets (graphic or otherwise) eat at their performance advantage