-------------------------------- Desktop - AMD 8450 Tri Core, 3 gigs of DDR2 800 RAM, ATI HD 3200 Graphics, Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit Laptop (Dell Latitude E6400) - Intel P8400, 2 GIGs of RAM, Intel X4500, Windows XP Professional
In the techreport. Thier test rig was kinda stupid. They tested all the single slot cards on a nVidia chipset. I think its safe to assume ATI doesn't perform well on a nvidia chipset. Also the x38 chipset was made by Intel as an energy effecient chipset. It won't scale crossfire that well. Its too bad they didn't actually test it in the real life scenario on platforming, or on an AMD based system since it nuetrally supports both video cards on with the right chipsets. Its also too bad they didn't pit the ati 780x vs the nvidia 780i chipsets, since thats were the enthusiasts will really use these cards.
I'm not sure the 780x was out when they did the review. Oh, I meant 790x I think... They also stated that they had wanted to put the 3870's up in crossfire, but amd only sent them one of them for testing.
There were a lot of people upset that they didn't test lower resolutions, only the super high resolutions that most people won't have.
I came to the realization myself that with my lcd monitor It's almost pointless for me to go higher than the 3850 due to resolution restrictions. Now I need a better lcd monitor, bleh.
I miss my crt. (It went the way of humptey dumptey and had a nice fall during my last move :C( )
On a kind of unrelated note....apparently Intel is going to get into the GPU game...
I'm not sure the 780x was out when they did the review. Oh, I meant 790x I think... They also stated that they had wanted to put the 3870's up in crossfire, but amd only sent them one of them for testing. There were a lot of people upset that they didn't test lower resolutions, only the super high resolutions that most people won't have. I came to the realization myself that with my lcd monitor It's almost pointless for me to go higher than the 3850 due to resolution restrictions. Now I need a better lcd monitor, bleh. I miss my crt. (It went the way of humptey dumptey and had a nice fall during my last move :C( ) On a kind of unrelated note....apparently Intel is going to get into the GPU game... D.
It was only a matter of time before intel did.
-------------------------------- Desktop - AMD 8450 Tri Core, 3 gigs of DDR2 800 RAM, ATI HD 3200 Graphics, Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit Laptop (Dell Latitude E6400) - Intel P8400, 2 GIGs of RAM, Intel X4500, Windows XP Professional
Intels last chip, the X3100, isnt all that bad, for intergrated. The X3300 is suposted to be 3 times more powerful, but eventhen that makes it on par with a 2-3 year old dedicated card. What Intel is probably going to end up doing is forming a partnership with nvidia, to have nvidia graphics intergrated on Intel chipsets.
"There's no star system Slave I can't reach, and there's no planet I can't find. There's nowhere in the Galaxy for you to run. Might as well give up now." Boba Fett
That would be cool. I have to admit, the x38 would look a lot better to me if it was more compatible with nvidia. If I can get some scratch up to build myself a system after new years I'll probably go with x38 and ATI card, but who knows what might be out by the time I can build one for myself, instead of building for other people.
At the recent Analyst Day conference, AMD noted that it will focus on technology to put multiple GPUs onto a single card to form its new high-end graphics products.
AMD has already started working on the technology in its Radeon HD 3000 series, according to sources at graphics card makers. The first product will be the Radeon HD 3870 X2 which will feature two RV670XT GPUs and will launch in January 2008 with a price set between US$299-349, noted the sources.
The Radeon HD 3870 X2 uses a PCI Express bridge chip, the PEX6347, to let the two GPUs work together on the card. Although the cost of this solution is higher than just producing a single GPU card, AMD will be able to save on research and development costs while reducing its time to market for new high-end products.
Although AMD saves time and money from this design, its partners are expected to suffer since not will their production costs increase, power consumption and size of the cards will also go up, noted the sources.
AMD is currently planning to integrate the PCI Express bridge chip into its future GPUs so that it does not need to adopt third-party's chips. This design is expected to appear in AMD's next generation R700 series, the sources added. Monica Chen, Taipei; Joseph Tsai, DIGITIMES [Wednesday 19 December 2007]
Well, from what I noticed in the data on the 3870, it's competitive for the energy consumption concerns, but on raw frame rate the 8800GT, especially when over clocked, out performs the 3870. But, I've noticed in some reviews in regards to the two-card setups (SLI vs Crossfire), that the ATI cards seem to even out with the Nvidia cards (how weird is that?). I'd say wait a month, lots of new cards are suppose to come out, and the price of the 8800GT will come down accordingly since Christmas shopping is officially over, and supplies will swell once again.
Actually it depends on the northbridge on how crossfire fares to SLi. With the rescent 790X northbridge, Crossfire simply dessimates anything else in a dual card setup. Going into 3 cards Crossfire leaves them in the dust. This is because of how good the scaling is with the new chipset. Its something like 75~80% performance boost per additional card where in other setups I think the best is only at 50% if even that. Also it only applies to the rescent RV670 cards because of some hardware on those as well.
I wouldn't mind running that set up, as soon as AMD pulls their heads out of their arses that is. I'm curious to see what they bring to the table in actuality with the tricores coming out soon. (and the phenom black processors.)
Comments
You can also check out benchmarks from several different games and resolutions for these cards here:
www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_2007.html
(They are the ones in blue.)
--------------------------------
Desktop - AMD 8450 Tri Core, 3 gigs of DDR2 800 RAM, ATI HD 3200 Graphics, Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit
Laptop (Dell Latitude E6400) - Intel P8400, 2 GIGs of RAM, Intel X4500, Windows XP Professional
In the techreport. Thier test rig was kinda stupid. They tested all the single slot cards on a nVidia chipset. I think its safe to assume ATI doesn't perform well on a nvidia chipset. Also the x38 chipset was made by Intel as an energy effecient chipset. It won't scale crossfire that well. Its too bad they didn't actually test it in the real life scenario on platforming, or on an AMD based system since it nuetrally supports both video cards on with the right chipsets. Its also too bad they didn't pit the ati 780x vs the nvidia 780i chipsets, since thats were the enthusiasts will really use these cards.
I'm not sure the 780x was out when they did the review. Oh, I meant 790x I think... They also stated that they had wanted to put the 3870's up in crossfire, but amd only sent them one of them for testing.
There were a lot of people upset that they didn't test lower resolutions, only the super high resolutions that most people won't have.
I came to the realization myself that with my lcd monitor It's almost pointless for me to go higher than the 3850 due to resolution restrictions. Now I need a better lcd monitor, bleh.
I miss my crt. (It went the way of humptey dumptey and had a nice fall during my last move :C( )
On a kind of unrelated note....apparently Intel is going to get into the GPU game...
D.
It was only a matter of time before intel did.
--------------------------------
Desktop - AMD 8450 Tri Core, 3 gigs of DDR2 800 RAM, ATI HD 3200 Graphics, Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit
Laptop (Dell Latitude E6400) - Intel P8400, 2 GIGs of RAM, Intel X4500, Windows XP Professional
Intels last chip, the X3100, isnt all that bad, for intergrated. The X3300 is suposted to be 3 times more powerful, but eventhen that makes it on par with a 2-3 year old dedicated card. What Intel is probably going to end up doing is forming a partnership with nvidia, to have nvidia graphics intergrated on Intel chipsets.
"There's no star system Slave I can't reach, and there's no planet I can't find. There's nowhere in the Galaxy for you to run. Might as well give up now."
Boba Fett
That would be cool. I have to admit, the x38 would look a lot better to me if it was more compatible with nvidia. If I can get some scratch up to build myself a system after new years I'll probably go with x38 and ATI card, but who knows what might be out by the time I can build one for myself, instead of building for other people.
D.
At the recent Analyst Day conference, AMD noted that it will focus on technology to put multiple GPUs onto a single card to form its new high-end graphics products.
AMD has already started working on the technology in its Radeon HD 3000 series, according to sources at graphics card makers. The first product will be the Radeon HD 3870 X2 which will feature two RV670XT GPUs and will launch in January 2008 with a price set between US$299-349, noted the sources.
The Radeon HD 3870 X2 uses a PCI Express bridge chip, the PEX6347, to let the two GPUs work together on the card. Although the cost of this solution is higher than just producing a single GPU card, AMD will be able to save on research and development costs while reducing its time to market for new high-end products.
Although AMD saves time and money from this design, its partners are expected to suffer since not will their production costs increase, power consumption and size of the cards will also go up, noted the sources.
AMD is currently planning to integrate the PCI Express bridge chip into its future GPUs so that it does not need to adopt third-party's chips. This design is expected to appear in AMD's next generation R700 series, the sources added.
Monica Chen, Taipei; Joseph Tsai, DIGITIMES [Wednesday 19 December 2007]
Well, from what I noticed in the data on the 3870, it's competitive for the energy consumption concerns, but on raw frame rate the 8800GT, especially when over clocked, out performs the 3870. But, I've noticed in some reviews in regards to the two-card setups (SLI vs Crossfire), that the ATI cards seem to even out with the Nvidia cards (how weird is that?). I'd say wait a month, lots of new cards are suppose to come out, and the price of the 8800GT will come down accordingly since Christmas shopping is officially over, and supplies will swell once again.
-- Brede
Actually it depends on the northbridge on how crossfire fares to SLi. With the rescent 790X northbridge, Crossfire simply dessimates anything else in a dual card setup. Going into 3 cards Crossfire leaves them in the dust. This is because of how good the scaling is with the new chipset. Its something like 75~80% performance boost per additional card where in other setups I think the best is only at 50% if even that. Also it only applies to the rescent RV670 cards because of some hardware on those as well.
I wouldn't mind running that set up, as soon as AMD pulls their heads out of their arses that is. I'm curious to see what they bring to the table in actuality with the tricores coming out soon. (and the phenom black processors.)
D.