Gigabyte anticipates quad CrossFire - bit-tech.net Forums

Tim S · 6th Jun 2007, 05:03

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2007/06...ad_crossfire/1

COMPUTEX 2007: With AMD's RD790 chipset closer than you think, Gigabyte (among others) expects it to launch soon with quad CrossFire not far behind.

Gravemind123 · 6th Jun 2007, 05:06

How is that going to work with HD 2900XTs? You would have to replace the cooler on it to a single-slot solution, and would pretty much mean water cooling for a card of that energy use. Although I suppose if you can afford quad HD 2900s that isn't much of an issue for you. Interesting idea, could you have oct-crossfire if you used 4 X1950Pro duals or the dual HD 2600 Sapphire is going to make? I would love to see oct-crossfire in action!

Tim S · 6th Jun 2007, 05:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gravemind123

How is that going to work with HD 2900XTs? You would have to replace the cooler on it to a single-slot solution, and would pretty much mean water cooling for a card of that energy use. Although I suppose if you can afford quad HD 2900s that isn't much of an issue for you. Interesting idea, could you have oct-crossfire if you used 4 X1950Pro duals or the dual HD 2600 Sapphire is going to make? I would love to see oct-crossfire in action!

I did mention this in my pre-show computex coverage, but here we've actually got pics of the board running

Gravemind123 · 6th Jun 2007, 05:59

I would like to see some pictures and benchmarks of the board up and running. Did you get any word there on possible octo-crossfire?(sorry for being repetitive, but the thought of it is pretty cool).

Tim S · 6th Jun 2007, 06:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gravemind123

I would like to see some pictures and benchmarks of the board up and running. Did you get any word there on possible octo-crossfire?(sorry for being repetitive, but the thought of it is pretty cool).

We can't benchmark the board at the moment, since it's unreleased hardware (I've already asked if we could...). I'm not sure about Octo CrossFire, but you'd be waiting on drivers for a while, since quad-CrossFire drivers (for the dual HD 2600 XT) are months away. Also, that card has a dual slot cooler on it, so you'd not be able to get a pair in Gigabyte's board.

HourBeforeDawn · 6th Jun 2007, 09:05

ya I was just about to say something about that, would be sick to two see octal actually work on that, be insane numbers not to mention the ability to have 16 dvi monitor support lol

Dr. Strangelove · 6th Jun 2007, 10:05

Quote:

...or think it's yet another excuse to try and pry more money out of us?

No I think it's because the "Canadians" are hoping for some more global warming, so that they don't freeze so much in the winter. with the power needed to run quad crossfire you would think that the governments soon would start charging greenhouse tax on our GFXs

r4tch3t · 6th Jun 2007, 10:25

What are the other PC-E slots at when in 16x-16x mode?
And octo wouldn't work even if you replaced the cooler, the PC bracket is a dual one and there are DVI ports on both.
Still Quad is just money grabbing, even SLI/Crossfire are really just money grabbers.

HugoB · 6th Jun 2007, 10:34

Not to mention that, if you think about it, the cost vs performance figures are going to be terrible. The processing overhead for keeping 4 cards in sync has got to be exponentially higher than for two cards, so your probably looking at getting maybe 3x the performance of a single card rather than 4x.

Of course until we actually see it working that's just a hypothesis, but it's a reasonable assumption based on current data.

DXR_13KE · 6th Jun 2007, 12:13

this will need a thermonuclear reactor to feed it.

Toka · 6th Jun 2007, 14:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr. Strangelove

with the power needed to run quad crossfire you would think that the governments soon would start charging greenhouse tax on our GFXs

rofl

Paradigm Shifter · 6th Jun 2007, 15:53

Not so sure it'll be as power-hungry as many are worried about. Since it can only cope with single-slot coolers, that limits the really ultra-power-hungry cards right off the bat. And the HD2400 and 2600 are supposed to be cool running chips.

devdevil85 · 6th Jun 2007, 16:35

Yeah once the 65nm R650 comes out, heat will be less (as one would expect) and who knows, maybe driver support for Octo (which is completely insane). Would the two extra slots that are x8's be bandwith limiting?, if so, would it just be best to wait for a mobo that supports (4) x16's? In my next rig, I want a lot of headroom for the future and for OCing. I just don't want to get bottlenecked right from the start. It would be a wise investment to go with a 4 slot PCI-E 2.0 config that can support Crossfire because you can continually upgrade every year or so and notice improvement....well atleast I think you would, or would all the new cards run at the same clock as the slowest? O man, somebody help me figure that one out cause that would suck.

Jipa · 6th Jun 2007, 22:57

TBH I don't get it. Like the current SLI-systems wouldn't heat up like hell and be powerful enough?

Uh oh.. wait... AHA it's an ATI/AMD-system, sure you need four of those to compete the half-a-year old 8800GTX SLI! That explains.. But still has someone been actually waiting for such board?

6th Jun 2007, 05:03	#1
Tim S Pewlius Caesar bit-tech Staff Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Ascot, Berks Posts: 18,021	Gigabyte anticipates quad CrossFire http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2007/06...ad_crossfire/1 COMPUTEX 2007: With AMD's RD790 chipset closer than you think, Gigabyte (among others) expects it to launch soon with quad CrossFire not far behind. __________________ Tim on Twitter \| Tim's Blog \| Tim's Flickr The bit-tech Blog \| bit-tech on Twitter \| Join the bit-tech & Custom PC folding team (#35947)

6th Jun 2007, 05:06	#2
Gravemind123 avatar not found Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Elmhurst, IL, USA Posts: 1,772	How is that going to work with HD 2900XTs? You would have to replace the cooler on it to a single-slot solution, and would pretty much mean water cooling for a card of that energy use. Although I suppose if you can afford quad HD 2900s that isn't much of an issue for you. Interesting idea, could you have oct-crossfire if you used 4 X1950Pro duals or the dual HD 2600 Sapphire is going to make? I would love to see oct-crossfire in action! __________________ E4400 - Asus P5B-Plus - Antec NeoHE 500 - 4GB OCZ SLI XTC - EVGA 8800GT - 250GB WD + 320GB Seagate Lian-Li PC-61 - Zalman Cooling - Creative GigaWorks T20 - AG Neovo M-17 Dell XPS M1330 - T8300 - 4GB Ram - 8400M GS - 250GB HDD

6th Jun 2007, 05:59	#4
Gravemind123 avatar not found Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Elmhurst, IL, USA Posts: 1,772	I would like to see some pictures and benchmarks of the board up and running. Did you get any word there on possible octo-crossfire?(sorry for being repetitive, but the thought of it is pretty cool). __________________ E4400 - Asus P5B-Plus - Antec NeoHE 500 - 4GB OCZ SLI XTC - EVGA 8800GT - 250GB WD + 320GB Seagate Lian-Li PC-61 - Zalman Cooling - Creative GigaWorks T20 - AG Neovo M-17 Dell XPS M1330 - T8300 - 4GB Ram - 8400M GS - 250GB HDD

6th Jun 2007, 09:05	#6
HourBeforeDawn a.k.a KazeModz Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Cali, USA Posts: 1,785	ya I was just about to say something about that, would be sick to two see octal actually work on that, be insane numbers not to mention the ability to have 16 dvi monitor support lol __________________ Current Rig: RubyRED • Lian-Li A05B • (2) Swiftech 220 Radiators • (2) D5 Variable Pumps • (2) Res • and a whole lot of modding • Retired Rig: Project F.E.A.R. • TT Lanbox Lite • Swiftech H2O-120 • Q6600 G0 OC@3.6ghz • 2900XT • 4gb SuperTalent Memory •

6th Jun 2007, 10:25	#8
r4tch3t hmmmm.... Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: New Zealand Posts: 2,882	What are the other PC-E slots at when in 16x-16x mode? And octo wouldn't work even if you replaced the cooler, the PC bracket is a dual one and there are DVI ports on both. Still Quad is just money grabbing, even SLI/Crossfire are really just money grabbers. __________________ Fight my Brute The quantum limit of reality might be scaled up because we're all holograms. Obviously. Once more we see that sufficiently advanced physics is indistinguishable from getting really stoned. From here

6th Jun 2007, 10:34	#9
HugoB H to the U to the G to the O to the B Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: ThrustingReviews HQ Posts: 1,194	Not to mention that, if you think about it, the cost vs performance figures are going to be terrible. The processing overhead for keeping 4 cards in sync has got to be exponentially higher than for two cards, so your probably looking at getting maybe 3x the performance of a single card rather than 4x. Of course until we actually see it working that's just a hypothesis, but it's a reasonable assumption based on current data. __________________ TrustedReviews.com - things I write about for a job

6th Jun 2007, 12:13	#10
DXR_13KE Madeira's banana is the best!!! Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Madeira ; Portugal Posts: 6,461	this will need a thermonuclear reactor to feed it. __________________ *Renegade X - 0.40 Release!* <---- CLICK!

6th Jun 2007, 15:53	#12
Paradigm Shifter Lethargic Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 1,210	Not so sure it'll be as power-hungry as many are worried about. Since it can only cope with single-slot coolers, that limits the really ultra-power-hungry cards right off the bat. And the HD2400 and 2600 are supposed to be cool running chips. __________________ Core i7 920 D0 @ 3.8GHz \| 6GB Corsair 1600MHz \| Gigabyte EX58-UD5 \| XFX 4870X2 2GB \| 4TB \| WUXGA

6th Jun 2007, 16:35	#13
devdevil85 Hypermodder Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: US of A Posts: 884	Yeah once the 65nm R650 comes out, heat will be less (as one would expect) and who knows, maybe driver support for Octo (which is completely insane). Would the two extra slots that are x8's be bandwith limiting?, if so, would it just be best to wait for a mobo that supports (4) x16's? In my next rig, I want a lot of headroom for the future and for OCing. I just don't want to get bottlenecked right from the start. It would be a wise investment to go with a 4 slot PCI-E 2.0 config that can support Crossfire because you can continually upgrade every year or so and notice improvement....well atleast I think you would, or would all the new cards run at the same clock as the slowest? O man, somebody help me figure that one out cause that would suck.

6th Jun 2007, 22:57	#14
Jipa Licenced idiot. Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Tampere, Finland Posts: 3,058	TBH I don't get it. Like the current SLI-systems wouldn't heat up like hell and be powerful enough? Uh oh.. wait... AHA it's an ATI/AMD-system, sure you need four of those to compete the half-a-year old 8800GTX SLI! That explains.. But still has someone been actually waiting for such board? __________________ Abit IP35 - E6750 - 8800GT 1024 MB - 2 GB 800 MHz - enough HDDs - 750 W Silverstone - CM Storm Sniper Asus P5Q-VM - Q9450 - 4 GB - 400 W Silverstone - Fortress FT01 AllTheMods - MetkuMods - LedCalc