Slashdot Mirror
ATI X1800 CrossFire Cards Reviewed
AnInkle writes "ATI finally joins the Christmas party. If money is (virtually) no object and high-end 3D animation is part of your game, you'll want to check out The Tech Report's review of the ATI X1800 CrossFire card before spending your green on the green team. From the review: 'This new CrossFire card also sweeps away some of the limitations of the first-generation CrossFire hardware introduced just a couple of months ago, allowing mega-high-res gaming.' Further, if the latest rumors about the 7800GTX 512MB are true, it would mean that this CrossFire graphics subsystem would arguably stand alone at the top of the graphics benchmarking mountain."
Notice how the author acknowledges that "the GeForce 7800 GTX 512 is practically otherworldly." Doesn't really sound like there's any argument to be had.
My work here is dung.
At a cost of $1200, you're better off getting an XBox 360, a PS3, and the new Nintendo. You'll probably have a couple bucks left over for lunch. Just way too uch money for the average Joe. But I bet some uber Slashdot users already have them :)
gasmonso http://religiousfreaks.com/The GTX 256's perform at or near the X1800XT's (looking at the linked benchmarks). These cards will cost you at least $400 less for a pair, use a single slot design, run cooler and quieter.
**(And yes they now support Linux in SLI).
http://www.kubuntu.org/
Yes, perhaps this will disappear when ATI's linux drivers no longer offer half the performance they provide under Windows (Yes, I've tested this myself with recent drivers in the last month). Sorry, but if nVidia can provide nearly identical performance under both OSs, then ATI is going to stay off my linux system. I'll give it to ATI that their drivers are at least mostly stable under Linux these days, but performance has to improve before I consider them a viable alternative.
It's hardly a myth when it's true.
...then you have no frame of reference and should probably not speak on the subject of ATI's Linux support. If you own a laptop and want 3D hardware accelleration on Linux, nVidia's generally your only choice. You MAY be able to get particular ATI cards to work with a whole lot of headache, but with the nVidia cards you have a sure thing and can be comfortable knowing the company ACTUALLY CARES whether or not you can use their hardware effectively on Linux. For me it doesn't make that much of a difference when I do laptop shopping. Restricting oneself to machines using nVidia cards SEVERELY limits your choices, and all of the 3D games I play are Windows-only. However, nVidia does support Linux FAR better than ATI, especially for mobile computing.
One of my regrets in life is all the money I wasted on new CPUs, RAM and video cards (remember the Diamond Monster 3d? the GeForce 3? The Radeon 9700 OEM?) back in the 90s just to play the latest games. And all those hours reconfiguring config files to squeeze the last resources available.
I wish I had all those hours back, and all that money. I never got my money's worth. I still have a Radeon 9700 OEM in a PC downstairs. Granted it's got a better picture for watching movies on TV than my GeForce 3, but still, what a waste. What I don't get is why my parents or girlfriend-then-wife never set me straight. I guess they thought I'd be happy.
sigh. if only I'd spent those hours working on my career. if only i'd saved that money or spent it on cool experiences i could look back on
But is it possible that the reason Nvidia is discontinuing their high-end card in February of 2006, is because they are releasing a NEW card that will probably trounce anything ATI has out.
Just a thought..considering that it seems about time for Nvidia to release a new GPU in the next 3 months or so.
"To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield." - Tennyson
>>I just love the way that the guys at nvidia refer to this ATI technology. It's not CrossFire, It's MissFire.
:-P
Their drivers seem to miss Linux almost entirely
It is hard to get excited about bleeding edge graphics cards, because ATI and NVidia refuse to publish their register sets so people can write good free Linux drivers. I have programmed ARM, Blackfin, and PIC processors. In all cases the registers are exhaustively documented and there are thriving communities of experts trying to get the most out of them. Your $600 video card's drivers were probably developed by a team of 4. Is the code any good? You will never know. Thanks for nothing ATI and NVidia.
an ill wind that blows no good
A pair of these ATI X1800s may cost less than a pair of 512MB GeForce GTXs, but nobody buys the 512 MB GTX for SLI, it's way too expensive. You can get 95% of the performance at 50% of the price by just buying a pair of 7800 GTs and using SLI. There is no game out there that a dual 7800 GT SLI system cannot run at any res, with full graphics turned on.
If you read any of the enthusiast sites, they back the 2x7800 GT in SLI as the best top-end rig. It basically comes down to the fact that dual 7800 GTs are so fast, you gain no noticible performance benefit from using 7800 GTXs.