![]() ![]() Had Phenom been competitive at launch this would be a very different situation, but it wasn't, so it's not. The graphics and chipset guys over at AMD are a bit frustrated, they finally have a competitive GPU and they never get tested on their own platforms because everyone uses Intel CPUs. Receiving such a system doesn't come without its caveats however. AMD promised a new world of multi-GPU support in the future after the release of the X2, and since that review we've started giving it the benefit of the doubt.ĪMD plans on enabling CrossFireX support sometime in March (we also plan on being at CeBIT sometime in March, maybe the two will coincide), but in the interim we've been provided with a preview system to begin to whet our quad-GPU appetites. The release of the Radeon HD 3870 X2 surprised us, as it was the most seamless multi-GPU implementation we've ever seen. ![]() And like NVIDIA's SLI, CrossFireX supports configurations of 2, 3 or 4 GPUs.Īll the way down to basic marketing CrossFire has always fallen short of dethroning SLI, but AMD has been making significant strides towards perfection. What is CrossFireX? The new CrossFire is AMD's attempt to finally achieve multi-GPU parity with NVIDIA's SLI. Even today, CrossFireX continues to be a feature that's been promised but not delivered. Upon Phenom's launch, CrossFireX was promised as a feature but the driver support was not ready. It's always a good thing that we don't capitulate, but it was extra good in the case of Phenom for one very obvious reason: CrossFireX didn't work. We strive for scientifically sound comparisons at AnandTech, testing ATI video cards on an AMD platform and comparing them to NVIDIA video cards on an NVIDIA platform would violate the scientific method in a horribly inappropriate way. We never capitulate, always stressing that we'll use components because they make sense, not because they are a part of some platform that doesn't necessarily offer a tangible benefit to the end user. We see this sort of pressure all the time NVIDIA has been trying to get us to test with its "platforms" for the past year, with little success of course. After all, only AMD 790 FX motherboards were properly equipped to support four GPUs and that was a clear advantage Phenom held over Intel's Core 2. Back when we reviewed the Phenom AMD really wanted us to stress the importance of CrossFireX as a part of the overall platform package. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |