x1800 master cards?

[Richards]

Am I missing something or just not looking closely enough?

Im looking for master cards for the CrossFire or is that not 'out' yet?
Ive heard so much about it, yet still dont see anything related to the master cards really.

 

[northrop]

it's not out yet. just wait another month or two...

 

[Asian Dub Foundation]

the X850 Xfire master cards are out

as for the X1800s... don't be surprise if it dosent come out in full force til next year

 

[Andross182]

with the x1800xt overclocks breaking the 10k mark in 3dmark05 i think its forgivable that the master cards arent on the market yet...just for a refrence, my 7800GT SLI setup stock clocks 425/1025 get me around 10k to 10500, overclocked to 495/1.18 i get 12700 so i think the card has a great score for being a single card

 

[Netrat33]

Well if the ukoverclockers pre-orders are any indication, you'll see x1800xt mastercards november 21st.

 

[Lord_Exodia]

with the x1800xt overclocks breaking the 10k mark in 3dmark05 i think its forgivable that the master cards arent on the market yet...just for a refrence, my 7800GT SLI setup stock clocks 425/1025 get me around 10k to 10500, overclocked to 495/1.18 i get 12700 so i think the card has a great score for being a single card

It's true that the X1800 card gives 10k in 3dmark 05 with overclocking but unfortunately I dont think it makes up for the Master card being unavailable. This is the problem with the Crossfire architecture. The cable in the back is not that bad. The lack of connector on the card for the extra bandwidth to be offset is killing ATI right now. Because of this now you have to pay for a Overpriced Crossfire Card and wait desperately for it to come out. Now as far as scoring in 3dmark if that is what you like then that's cool but a X1800 can't give you the real world gameplay that a 7800GT SLI would. I prefer to run games at more playable FPS than to have a high benchmark score (no offense) I also prefer to be able to buy 2 similar cards and link them up then to be left high and dry knowing that whenever ATI decides, I can have my dual card setup. I'm sorry it's this way for you guys but I mean it is what it is.

 

[Asian Dub Foundation]

It's true that the X1800 card gives 10k in 3dmark 05 with overclocking but unfortunately I dont think it makes up for the Master card being unavailable. This is the problem with the Crossfire architecture. The cable in the back is not that bad. The lack of connector on the card for the extra bandwidth to be offset is killing ATI right now. .

yeah i think ATI can't do the whole "SLI connector" sort of thing cause nvidia patent it

 

[Lord_Exodia]

yeah i think ATI can't do the whole "SLI connector" sort of thing cause nvidia patent it

Yup, I was really considering Crossfire R580 down the road. I'll see what happens. I like ati and nv. I just hope ATI can make Xfire a better solution that it currently is. Right now they don't even care. There was an ATI exec that said "the percentage of the people that will buy crossfire is small". Basically he is saying the percentage ATI cares about crossfire is small. I mean that's how I took it.

 

[Richards]

I was considering the following:

Asus A8N32-SLI
X2 4400+
ATI X1800XT
2x1GB Crucial

Newegging this brings it to about 1682 total. Few paychecks there....

 

[R1ckCa1n]

It's true that the X1800 card gives 10k in 3dmark 05 with overclocking but unfortunately I dont think it makes up for the Master card being unavailable. This is the problem with the Crossfire architecture. The cable in the back is not that bad. The lack of connector on the card for the extra bandwidth to be offset is killing ATI right now. Because of this now you have to pay for a Overpriced Crossfire Card and wait desperately for it to come out. Now as far as scoring in 3dmark if that is what you like then that's cool but a X1800 can't give you the real world gameplay that a 7800GT SLI would. I prefer to run games at more playable FPS than to have a high benchmark score (no offense) I also prefer to be able to buy 2 similar cards and link them up then to be left high and dry knowing that whenever ATI decides, I can have my dual card setup. I'm sorry it's this way for you guys but I mean it is what it is.

I think you have the limitations of the X800 series cards in Crossfire as the X1800 do not have the same limitations. And for the record, it has nothing to do with bandwidth or Crossfire itself, it is a limitation of the composite chip on the X800 series only.

 

[Lord_Exodia]

I think you have the limitations of the X800 series cards in Crossfire as the X1800 do not have the same limitations. And for the record, it has nothing to do with bandwidth or Crossfire itself, it is a limitation of the composite chip on the X800 series only.

Sorry Rick your wrong. If there is no link between the 2 cards all of the data will have to pass through the PCIe bus.

Here is a quote from BrentJustice

"bandwidth

you need fast communication between the cards, since ATI does not have a fast internal connector like NVIDIA they had to go the dongle route on the outside, with the idea of no X1300 or X1600 master cards all the communication is handled through the PCI-Express bus, there is no dongle

we already knew X1300 wouldn't need mastercards, their performance is such that all that is needed is the PCIe bus

what's new here is that apparently ATI thinks the PCIe bus is sufficient for the X1600 series as well

but for the X1800 series there is no way they could only use the PCIe bus, they need the dongle because there is just too much of a bandwidth demand

this is all very interesting, could raise the benefit of a 2 x16 PCIe solution on X1600 cards"

 

[Richards]

Sorry Rick your wrong. If there is no link between the 2 cards all of the data will have to pass through the PCIe bus.

Here is a quote from BrentJustice

"bandwidth

you need fast communication between the cards, since ATI does not have a fast internal connector like NVIDIA they had to go the dongle route on the outside, with the idea of no X1300 or X1600 master cards all the communication is handled through the PCI-Express bus, there is no dongle

we already knew X1300 wouldn't need mastercards, their performance is such that all that is needed is the PCIe bus

what's new here is that apparently ATI thinks the PCIe bus is sufficient for the X1600 series as well

but for the X1800 series there is no way they could only use the PCIe bus, they need the dongle because there is just too much of a bandwidth demand

this is all very interesting, could raise the benefit of a 2 x16 PCIe solution on X1600 cards"

Hearing that, if ATI dosent fix that problem of bandwidth that might mean that Nvidia is the only clear gamer performance card at this point, although that remains to be seen with the master cards. Please ATI, pull some ace out of your ass/hat. ( hah I made a joke! )

 

[Trimlock]

rick is talking about the 60hz refresh rate limited on the x800 cards due to the composit chip, the x1800's do not have this problem, and it is yet to see if the dongle is a good or bad choice with the new ones, seeing as it is currently great for the x800's in terms of performance but poor in their refresh rate

 

[Sir Random]

This guy seems to have unearthed an X1800XT Master card:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17494384

 

[Trimlock]

haha that box is cool as shit

 

[Andross182]

thats not a master card, we have the same 3 part diagram on the x1800xt boxes at CompUSA thats the "crossfire ready" card

 

[Netrat33]

thats not a master card, we have the same 3 part diagram on the x1800xt boxes at CompUSA thats the "crossfire ready" card

I can't read the sticker, but for all you know it says "1 Motherboard 2: Mastercard (highlited) 3: another x1800xt card"

they might change the order around depending on the card *shrug*

 

[Lord_Exodia]

rick is talking about the 60hz refresh rate limited on the x800 cards due to the composit chip, the x1800's do not have this problem, and it is yet to see if the dongle is a good or bad choice with the new ones, seeing as it is currently great for the x800's in terms of performance but poor in their refresh rate

I think he misunderstood my post. I wasn't talking about that limitation before. I actually don't think that cable is so bad. Since the have dual link dvi that limitation is gone also no more composite chip. The problem is that a master card is required and as I mentioned before this sucks.

 

[Trimlock]

the only that sucks about master cards is the fact ATI has to supply them, if the card could work both ways with the dongle, and not have two seperate cards to work then i'd say its great

 

[Ingonuts13]

Well if the ukoverclockers pre-orders are any indication, you'll see x1800xt mastercards november 21st.

So when can we expect to be able to order one off say newegg?

 

[ClearM4]

Hearing that, if ATI dosent fix that problem of bandwidth that might mean that Nvidia is the only clear gamer performance card at this point, although that remains to be seen with the master cards. Please ATI, pull some ace out of your ass/hat. ( hah I made a joke! )

You mis-understood. Neither Nvidia or ATI can run SLI or Crossfire on the PCI-E Bus becuase of bandwidth limitations. Nvidia uses an internal SLi Bridge while ATI uses the external dougle. The external dougle solution is not as good becuase it requires ATi to make master cards. Someone else mentioned ATI should have used an external "box" to combine the images and I have to agree because mastercards were not ATI's best idea. Preformance wise and bandwidth limitations are the same for both ATI and nvidia. Here's to hoping engineers can design the high-end video cards to run without the SLI bridge or external dougle on a DUAL 16x PCI-E mobo.