Hardware CrossFire Comparison: Intel X38 vs. P35

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2007/10/12/crossfire_comparison_intel_x38_versus_p35/1

We test ATI CrossFire on 16x16, 8x8 and 16x4 configurations using the Intel X38 and P35 chipsets to see if the extra bandwidth actually makes a difference. From this we discuss what you should aim for if you've got your heart set on an Intel-CrossFire setup.



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Very nice, informative article..

some good photography in there aswell!

 

I agree with Mankz, bit-tech's updates on hardware has kept me "in-the-know"if you will, and was indispensable in helping me build my new computer. Thank you for these articles.

 

Huh.. thats weird i thought the 8X-8X config would give the best overall performance Vs. Price.

Ahh well, nice to see Crossfire getting the legs it finally deserves.

 

all new low end AMD graphics cards are already pci express 2 and have been for several months

 

AMD certainly hasn't indicated to that at any point during our chats with the company since the mid-range cards launched in July, or since X38 has launched. Also, none of the engineers we talk to at Taiwanese motherboard firms have said that AMD's current cards support the technology. They're all talking about something else called RV670.

 

Yah...that's at least true according to theInquirer.net:

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2007/10/10/ati-releases-pcie2-cards

 

I'm pretty (99%) sure RV615 and RV630 are not PCIe2 compatible. Instead, I'm under the impression that the 55nm refreshes, RV620 and RV635, are PCIe2 compatible - at least that's what my contacts that work close to AMD/ATI have suggested. I wouldn't take everything that comes out of Charlie's mouth as gospel and nobody with any authority has said that the current cards are PCIe2 capable.

 

The x38 chipset is still very new. My guess is in the coming months driver/BIOS updates will push this past the P35 in most games. I wonder if a native PCIE 2.0 card would yield a better result.

Too bad the lowest x38 I could find was $250. That is a lot of money for a motherboard.

 

May be a lot of money to spend on a motherboard, but it is money well spent, you see so many people cripple the performance of a processor o graphics card by using substandard motherboards.

 

give me a break. informative my ass. fear, cod2, come on gentlemen, why not bioshock, call of juarez, rainbow six vegas. and what are these benchmark numbers, averages. give me mins, they mean more. 1280x1024? anyone running two 2900xt's and playing at this res needs to get kicked in the taint. when i read header on this article i got really excited, because i've got an asus p5ke with two 2900's and it runs like crap. i was really hoping you guys were going put the screws to the current crossfire implementation, but imagine my surprise, fear and cod2....ridiculous.

 

Would be interested to see what impact PCIe gen 2 has on single card performance. Essentially can current and coming in near future gpus make use of any of the extra bandwidth that gen 2 provides.

 

well it may not be much now but will play a bigger factor down the road, they just dont have any cards yet that take advantage of the bandwidth, hell we didnt evene max out what the AGP could do either before the switch to PCI-E happened and even then the difference between PCI-E and AGP was very very minor, so just like this it will take some time before it really takes its own.

 

interesting, would have been nice to have single card results as well for reference

 

Well a single card would already work in x16 and there have previously been single versus CrossFire performance analysis done.

Renny: Old games, new games, low resolution, high resolution - it was meant to be a coverage. Does resolution affect it more? Do older games affect it less? - plenty of people still play FEAR MP.

Bioshock, true, I did have it down to play but I've been unable to script it and I just didn't have the time to play it through repeatedly on three systems sorry. I'd love to have spent two weeks on it investigating every game but with Vista being it's wonderful self and other stuff I have to get done this already took enough on its own - we're not a bedroom site

I did update Quake 4 to ETQW and we did use Sup Com and WiC which are recent games, as recent as R6:Vegas. I know of no one who actually plays CoJ, and the update was only released yesterday. We didn't use the source engine because it's not particularly intensive for a recent game though. I can't cover every single game, I'd love to but I just didn't have time. Tim or I will include Bioshock and look at R6:Vegas when Gen-2 cards (worth owning) arrive - single and multi-GPU.