CrossFire X
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Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3-iSSD motherboard eyes-on
We're not normally all that stoked with motherboards, but Gigabyte's awkwardly named Z68XP-UD3-iSSD just about got our attention at Computex. The highlight here is the Intel 20GB SLC SSD latched onto the board's mSATA slot, which is right next to the LGA1155 CPU socket and the four DDR3 RAM slots (together supporting up to 32GB). Alas, Gigabyte says it won't be offering upgrade options for the SSD, though there are certainly alternatives out there in the wild if you dare to venture. But if none of this interests you, then there's always our multi-screen Angry Birds hands-on video after the break. %Gallery-125344%
NVIDIA SLI faces AMD CrossFire in a triple-GPU shootout
Place your bets, folks, because this one's gonna get ugly. On your left: a thunderous triad of AMD Radeon HD 6950 cards running in CrossFire. On your right: the terrorizing threat of triple NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 in SLI. In the middle: a Tom's Hardware tester just trying to stay alive. The winner? Well, as usual in these benchmark articles that sort of depends on what you're doing, but in general it's the AMD solution and its CrossFire barrage that comes out on top in terms of performance, cost, and even efficiency. But, that's certainly far from the whole story. You'll want to click on through to read about every agonizing blow.
ATI CrossFireX versus NVIDIA SLI: performance scaling showdown
We know who the daddy is when it comes to single-card graphics performance, and we've even witnessed NVIDIA and ATI duking it out with multiple cards before, but this here roundup is what you might call comprehensive. Comparing a mind-boggling 23 different configurations, the Tech Report guys set out to determine the best bang for your DirectX 11 buck. Their conclusion won't shock those of you who've been following the recent love affair between reviewers and NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 460: a pair of these eminently affordable cards regularly outpaced the best single-GPU solutions out there. Slightly more intriguing, however, was the discovery that its elder siblings, the GTX 470 and 480, have improved in performance to the point of being markedly ahead of ATI's Radeon HD 5870, with the blame for this shift being put squarely on the shoulders of NVIDIA's driver update team. Hurry up and give the source a read while it's still fresh, we can't imagine ATI letting this be the status quo for too much longer.
Alienware M17x now shipping with dual 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870 GPUs
Tossing a pair of GPUs into a single, beastly laptop ain't nothing new -- in fact, Alienware's own M17x has been offered in such a way since last year -- but having said machine arrive at your doorstep with a pair of ATI's world-beating Mobility Radeon HD 5870s has been downright impossible until now. The earliest of adopters are now reporting (with ear-to-ear grins, to boot) that their dual 1GB HD 5870-equipped M17x machines are finally shipping, and we suspect it'll only be a matter of time before those CrossFire assisted benchmarks surface to make our existing lappies look patently pathetic. So, hit that inbox once more and tell us if you've seen a shipping notification of your own -- and if you've already got your unit in hand, why not expound with a few opinions on how things are running? [Thanks, Max]
ATI Radeon HD 5970: world's fastest graphics card confirmed
ATI just announced its latest greatest polygon cruncher on the planet: the previously leaked Radeon HD 5970. The new card card is also one of the first to support Microsoft DirectX 11 and Eyefinity multi-display (driving up to three displays at once for a 7680x1600 maximum resolution) with ripe potential for overclocking thanks to the card's Overdrive technology. Instead of relying upon a single GPU like the already scorching Radeon HD 5870, the 5970 brings a pair of Cypress GPUs linked on a single board by a PCI Express bridge for nearly 5 TeraFLOPS of computer power, or a mind boggling 10 TeraFLOPS when setup in CrossFireX. Naturally, the card's already been put to the test by all the usual benchmarking nerds who praise the card as the undisputed performance leader regardless of game or application. It even manages to keep power consumption in check until you start rolling on the voltage to ramp those clock speeds. As you'd expect then, ATI isn't going to offer any breaks on pricing so you can expect to pay the full $599 suggested retail price when these cards hit shelves today for retail or as part of your new gaming rig bundle.
Alienware's surprise: the CrossFire X-enabled M17 gaming notebook
When it said evolutionary, it wasn't kidding around. Alienware has just taken the wraps off of a relatively uninspiring (or, unworthy of hype, we should say) new laptop: the M17. Not to be confused with the M17x, this 17-incher is the outfit's very first CrossFire X-enabled notebook, and those with the requisite coin can get one outfitted with a Core 2 Quad / Extreme CPU, up to 4GB of DDR3 RAM, twin ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870 GPUs, a WXGA+ / WUXGA panel, an optional ATSC HDTV tuner, up to 640GB of HDD space in a RAID 0 array, a dual-layer DVD writer / optional Blu-ray reader, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, gigabit Ethernet and a facial recognition sensor. As with most of its siblings, this one puts a beating on the scales at 9.5-pounds, and we're certain you can deplete that 12-cell battery in no time flat. Granted, it does get going at "just" $1,399, but you can expect that figure to head far north when you add anything drool-worthy to the build sheet.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
AMD dubs HD 4870 X2 "world's fastest graphics card," benchmarks prove it
Looks like all the Cinema 2.0 fuss that AMD has been blustering about with its new RV770-based GPUs is fully warranted. The benchmarks are in and AMD's new $549 ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 -- what AMD calls the "world's fastest graphics card" -- is an out and out screamer, besting the best cooked up over at NVIDIA thanks to that RV770 GPU pair nuzzled up next to 2GB of GDDR5 memory. As noted by PC Perspective, the new champ, "is able to run away from NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 280 1GB card handily. Our various game tests proved this - Crysis, Call of Duty 4 and GRID showed big gains for AMD's new card at resolutions 2,048 x 1,536 and 2,560 x 1,600," though performance gains are less dramatic as resolutions drop to 1,600 x 1,200. Not that any self-respecting gamer would push so few pixels. CrossFireX performance was disappointing, however, as the systems didn't scale well when going from 2 to 4 GPUs. In fact, Crysis seemed to barely notice the additional CrossFireX horsepower, something that should be corrected with future driver releases. Make no mistake though, as power-hungry, expensive, and hot-running as the new HD 4870 X2 may be, it's a big day for AMD as it retakes the graphics crown from NVIDIA, as short-lived as this victory may be.Read -- HotHardware Read -- PCPer Read -- Tweaktown Read -- CustomPCRead -- TechGageRead -- AMD press release
AMD's FireStream 9250: first processor to top 1 Teraflop
AMD's second generation FireStream 9250 just broke the single-precision teraflop barrier at the International Supercomputing Conference in Germany. The proc takes advantage of AMD's GPU expertise to augment the processing power of your rig's CPU with an additional 8-gigaflops per watt of processing from this 150 watt processor. A 55x performance bump, say developers, when compared to crunching financial analysis code, for example, on a CPU alone. The 9250 Stream fits into a single PCI slot and includes double-precision floating point hardware performing at more than 200 gigaflops. The processor and supporting SDK are due for release in Q3 for $999.Update: According to TGDaily, the 9250 features ATI's upcoming RV770 GPU at its core -- the foundation of future 4800-series graphics cards. So 4x cards setup in Crossfire X should be capable of offering your next gaming rig an additional 5 Teraflops or power. You know, in theory.Read -- press releaseRead -- TGDaily
AMD releases ATI Catalyst 8.3 drivers, enables CrossFireX
Get ready to burn through your allowance, kids, as AMD is getting set to loose its Catalyst 8.3 drivers for all to indulge in. What does the download net you, exactly? Why, CrossFireX support, of course. Starting today, users can link up any combination of RV670- and R680-based products -- that includes the Radeon HD 3850, Radeon HD 3870 and Radeon HD 3870 X2 -- in order to acquire triple- and quad-GPU performance within Windows Vista. Additionally, the drivers also introduce ATI Hybrid Graphics support in Vista, which was boasted about already when the firm unveiled its upcoming 780G chipset. Check out the read link for the full list of changes, and keep an eye on the firm's support page for v8.3 to surface any moment now.
ATI's mix-n-match CrossFire X technology gets official, tested
Sure, SLI technology is fine and dandy, but ATI's hoping to remove some of the restrictions found on current multi-GPU setups with its forthcoming CrossFire X technology. As we've seen before, the idea here is to "take two, three or four GPUs and use their power to render one game faster than you otherwise would be able." Over at PC Perspective, those kind folks were able to pick AMD's brain on the topic, and aside from getting confirmation that CrossFire X "supports multi-GPU configurations of any combination of RV670- and R680-based products," we also found that a public release was just weeks away. Better still, there's a full report detailing the results of putting the technology to the test, and yes, initial impressions do seem quite positive. Hit the read link for the full spill, cool?[Thanks, sizewise]
