VXI BlueParrott B100 Specifications download pdf (Page 7)

ATI’s CrossFire vs. nVidia’s SLI

ATI’S CROSSFIRE: Reference-

design CrossFire Edition Socket 939

motherboard (retail boards range

from $80 to $120), Radeon X850 XT

CrossFire Edition videocard ($350),

and Radeon X850 XT videocard

($350), www.ati.com

EASE OF INSTALLATION

Videocard pairs in SLI and CrossFire systems both

depend on inter-GPU communication to divvy up the rendering

workload. nVidia’s GeForce 6600 and 6600 LE use the PCI Express

bus to share synchronization, display, and pixel data; nVidia GPUs

from the GeForce 6600 GT on up require a bridge board.

The GPUs in all CrossFire cards communicate via the PCI

Express bus, but the “slave” card transfers its renders to the

“master” card using a three-headed cable outside the case (one

end plugs into a proprietary DMS-59 connector on the master

card, one end plugs into the slave card’s DVI output, and the

third connects the master card to your monitor). Both solutions

are equally annoying kludges rendered necessary by inadequate

bandwidth across the PCI-E bus. WINNER: TIE

TWO TECHNOLOGIES ENTER, ONE TECHNOLOGY LEAVES

head

2head

SPECIFICATIONS

The Socket 939 CrossFire Edition motherboard we

reviewed is based on ATI’s RD480 chipset and features an 800MHz/

1GHz HyperTransport bus, support for DDR1 400 memory, SATA

1 and SATA 2 RAID controllers, a gigabyte Ethernet controller, and

integrated Intel HD audio.

ATI’s 16-pipe, 256MB Radeon X850 XT CrossFire Edition

videocard was the only CrossFire card available at press time. We

paired it with Sapphire Technology’s Radeon X850 XT videocard.

(We’ll test the company’s 16-pipe X800 XL and eight-pipe X800

CrossFire Edition cards as soon as they’re available.)

The fact that nVidia can deliver SLI solutions today with 8-,

16-, 20-, and 24-pipe GPUs gives the company an obvious edge

in this category. We’ll have to wait and see if ATI’s R520 GPU can

alter the equation. WINNER: SLI

round

BY MICHAEL BROWN

16 MAXIMUMPC HOLIDAY 2005

hen you need to do something faster, nothing is more effective than

doubling the amount of horsepower available to perform the task.

And when it comes to making 3D games run faster, nothing has proven to

be more effective than dropping two videocards in the same PC.

There’s absolutely nothing new about this concept. 3dfx’s Voodoo 2

graphics boards introduced the concept to consumer PCs in the 1990s,

and nVidia brought the technology back into the mainstream with its SLI

(Scalable Link Interface) technology in 2004. ATI is no stranger to the con-

cept either—you’ll find its GPUs in high-end flight simulators.

ATI, like nVidia, will rely on OEM partners to sell CrossFire mother-

boards, but consumers can buy CrossFire videocards directly from ATI or

from third-party manufacturers.

We compared an ATI reference-design Radeon XPress 200 CrossFire

Edition motherboard, an ATI Radeon X850 XT CrossFire Edition video-

card, and a Sapphire Radeon X850 XT videocard to GeForce 6800 Ultra,

7800 GT, and 7800 GTX cards running in SLI in an Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe

motherboard, to determine which technology is superior.

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