Crossfire released

[jlreich]

The long awaited Crossfire is finally out.

http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20051006/index.html

Newegg has the X1800 XL for $479.

[rond36]

The ATI X1800 XL at Newegg for $479 is Crossfire ready, not Crossfire capable. This card has 2 DVI ports. It needs to have 1 DVI port and 1 DMS-59 Port For the CrossFire cable.

All of the ATI X800 and later video cards are CrossFire ready.

To build a PC with CrossFire you need:
A motherboard chipset that supports CrossFire (ATI’s Radeon Xpress 200 CrossFire or Intel i955X chipset) (http://www.ati.com/buy/promotions/CrossFireReady/motherboards.html)
An ATI CrossFire Edition video card with a DMS-59 Port For the CrossFire cable
An ATI Crossfire ready video card of the same series as the CrossFire Edition video card


For CrossFire to work the two video cards need to be the same series.
The X1800 XL can't be used in a CrossFire system until the X1800 CrossFire Edition video card is released maybe in November.

The X800 CrossFire Edition and X850 CrossFire Edition are the only CrossFire capable video cards that have been released.

The only CrossFire capable video card at Newegg is the Radeon X850 CrossFire Edition (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102611)

CrossFire has been released but not for the X1800 series cards!

[jlreich]

OK, this shows how much I have kept up on the crossfire thing. :rolleyes:

So what does Crossfire ready mean? I thought the whole point of crossfire was to use two cards?? :confused:

On a side note the ATI 1000 series looks pretty darn good. Tom's Hardware shows the benchmarks running neck and neck with the 7800GT. Just beating out the 7800GT by a little on most comparisons.

[saphalline]

So what does Crossfire ready mean?Crossfire is like SLI (the new version), except that one of the vid cards is different from the other one. One of them is merely Crossfire ready, which means it will work in a Crossfire system. The other vid card actually has the Crossfire engine chip on it, which is the chip that balances the load between the two vid cards and combines the image into one (or flips between them, whatever setting you use).

[jlreich]

So Crossfire doesn't use the bridge like SLI? It's built right into one of the cards? So one card has the engine in it and the other is just a basic card so to speak that is "ready" to be used in conjunction with the other crossfire "capable" card?

Now it makes sense why Tom's was complaining about the other cards not being released yet.

[rond36]

So what does Crossfire ready mean?

CrossFire ready means that the card can be paired with a CrossFire Edition video card of the same series on a CrossFire capable motherboard.

You can't pair 2 CrossFire ready cards because they don't have the CrossFire co-processor that is needed to divide up the work between the 2 VPUs and don't have a DMS-59 Port for the CrossFire cable that connects the 2 video cards together.

The 2 video cards are connected externally with a cable connected to the DMS-59 Port on the CrossFire Edition video card and the DVI port on the CrossFire ready card and has a DVI port on the end of the cable to attach your monitor

I thought the whole point of crossfire was to use two cards??

It is, but one of the cards needs to be a CrossFire Edition video card.

CrossFire capable motherboard + ATI Radeon CrossFire Edition video card + any ATI Radeon video card of the same series as the CrossFire Edition video card = a system with CrossFire graphics

BTW
I can't find a CrossFire capable motherboard anywhere, they may not be released yet!

From ATI's CrossFire FAQs (http://www.ati.com/technology/crossfire/faq.html#2)

Q. What is the difference between CrossFire Ready graphics cards and CrossFire Edition graphics cards?

A. CrossFire Edition graphics cards include a “compositing engine” chip on-board. This chip takes the partially rendered image from the CrossFire Ready graphics card, and merges it with the partially rendered image from the CrossFire Edition graphics card. The result is a complete frame rendered at up to twice the performance of a single graphics card. The CrossFire compositing engine is a programmable chip that offers flexible support of different graphics cards, allows a superior feature set (advanced compositing modes), and enables further enhancements to be quickly implemented on next generation products. The CrossFire compositing engine also offers a performance benefit over combining the final image on the GPU.

Q. What graphics cards work with CrossFire?

A.CrossFire requires a CrossFire Edition graphics card and a compatible standard Radeon (CrossFire Ready) graphics card from the same series.

The Radeon® X850 CrossFire Edition card can be paired with any PCI Express Radeon X850 graphics card (Radeon X850 PRO, Radeon X850 XT or Radeon X850 XT Platinum Edition) from ATI or any of its partners including cards previously sold.

The Radeon X800 CrossFire Edition cards can be paired with any PCI Express Radeon X800 graphics card (Radeon X800, Radeon X800 PRO, Radeon X800 XL, Radeon X800 GTO, Radeon X800 XT or Radeon X800 XT Platinum Edition) from ATI or any of its partners.

Q. What happens if customers have the wrong combination of products?

A. If a customer incorrectly configures their system they will not see the performance benefits of CrossFire. All three CrossFire components, a CrossFire Ready graphics card, a CrossFire Ready motherboard and a CrossFire Edition co-processor graphics card, must be installed correctly to benefit from the CrossFire multi-GPU platform.

Q. How are the two graphics cards connected on a CrossFire system?

A. The two cards are connected by an external cable. The cable is attached from the CrossFire Ready graphics card’s DVI connector to the CrossFire Edition high density input connector (DMS). The partially rendered image is sent through the DVI connection to the CrossFire Edition DMS input connector. The partially rendered image from the cable input is combined with the CrossFire Edition’s partially rendered frame in the compositing engine. The compositing engine combines the result of both cards to output a complete image.

[jlreich]

Thanks Rond36.

I see one advantage of Crossfire over Nvidia is you don't have to use two exact cards. You can mix and match models and the clock speed of each card will run independently. That's pretty cool. :cool: Even though if one has less pipelines than the other they will both use the less pipelines while in crossfire mode.

[rond36]

I may have been totally wrong in my posts above :eek:

Read here (http://techreport.com/ja.zz?comments=8390)

Apparently CrossFire will work with a CrossFire capable motherboard and 2 identical CrossFire Ready graphics cards. The northbridge chip will handle the composition of the image and bridging of the two video cards.

If this is true:

Why doesn't ATI mention anything about this on their site? (other than ATI wanting to sell more $400.00 CrossFire Edition video cards)

Why was the 3Dmark05 score higher for the two CrossFire Ready graphics cards than it was for the CrossFire Edition graphics card + CrossFire Ready graphics card? (Other then it being two X800 graphics cards vs two X850 XT-PE graphics cards)

I have also heard a rumor that some of the cards in a series are not CrossFire Ready. In a review at Newegg a poster claims that the All-In-Wonder versions of the X800 are not CrossFire Ready although they are X800 series graphics cards.

If that is true the ATI All-In-Wonder X800 XT and the ATI All-In-Wonder X800 XL (read reviews) (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102582) are not CrossFire Ready :mad:

I don't know if the ATI X800 XL DVD Edition is CrossFire Ready.

[jlreich]

BTW
I can't find a CrossFire capable motherboard anywhere, they may not be released yet!
Here you go rond36. Released today...or I guess it is yesterday now. 10/14

http://www.ocheaven.com/readvarticle_en.asp?id=1160

[rond36]

Asus, ECS, MSI, and Abit have all released CrossFire boards but I dont think they are shipping them to vendors (paper release)

[i an not a nerd]

I have also heard a rumor that some of the cards in a series are not CrossFire Ready.

Another card that is not Crossfire ready is the x800gt.

[hockey man]

Only problem with Crossfire over SLI is all the hassle figuring out what will work with it :rolleyes: ! ALI is mostly plug and play, and has simple rules: get two identical SLI cards and your good.

[rond36]

Another card that is not Crossfire ready is the x800gt.


Where did you get that info?

I think I will call ATI Monday to find out which cards are and which aren't CrossFire ready.