ATi is finally doing what they should have done before Crossfire was
first shipped - integrated the compositor into the silicon of every
high-end Crossfire-capable GPU and (a la SLI) symmetrically
data-linking the GPUs on identical boards or modules.

See:-

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=909

Seems not a good time to 'invest' in any of the current Crossfire
implementations. Orphaned products with very low sales volumes
( the current Master/dongle cards) normally get poor long-term
technical/software support.

John Lewis

"John" risked the wrath of Usenet weenies mastering
mommies computer when he ventured forth on 2006-02-21, commmitted
his life to the whims of Google, and spluttered:

> ATi is finally doing what they should have done before Crossfire was
> first shipped - integrated the compositor into the silicon of every
> high-end Crossfire-capable GPU and (a la SLI) symmetrically
> data-linking the GPUs on identical boards or modules.
>
> See:-
>
> http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=909
>
> Seems not a good time to 'invest' in any of the current Crossfire
> implementations. Orphaned products with very low sales volumes
> ( the current Master/dongle cards) normally get poor long-term
> technical/software support.
>
> John Lewis

It is a rum day when a company incurs the wrath of Mr Lewis. Like a
dog with a bone he is.

--
It is better to be an "expert" than it is to do actual work.

On 21 Feb 2006 20:14:23 GMT, Walter Mitty <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> "John" risked the wrath of Usenet weenies mastering
> mommies computer when he ventured forth on 2006-02-21, commmitted
> his life to the whims of Google, and spluttered:
>
>> ATi is finally doing what they should have done before Crossfire was
>> first shipped - integrated the compositor into the silicon of every
>> high-end Crossfire-capable GPU and (a la SLI) symmetrically
>> data-linking the GPUs on identical boards or modules.
>>
>> See:-
>>
>> http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=909
>>
>> Seems not a good time to 'invest' in any of the current Crossfire
>> implementations. Orphaned products with very low sales volumes
>> ( the current Master/dongle cards) normally get poor long-term
>> technical/software support.
>>
>> John Lewis
>
>It is a rum day when a company incurs the wrath of Mr Lewis.

Nope. Not the company. Just the asinine management and marketing.

I'm sure that ATI engineering prototyped Crossfire in its present
form, showed it to management and asked "please can we integrate
the compositor into the GPUs and emulate SLI with identical boards
and symmetrical connections" And marketing/management said
"NO, just ship it for now, some idiots are bound to buy ! "

ATi running after nVidia reminds me of today's version of Intel's CPU
and chip-set groups running behind AMD as the innovator.

>dog with a bone he is.
>

Gabe's rear end would be a much easier and jucier target for my
dog.... :-) :-)

John Lewis

>--
>It is better to be an "expert" than it is to do actual work.

Is that the biggest problem you could dig up with ATI? Because it
sounds like a non-issue to me. It's not as if SLI is a particularly
sensible deal, either.

On Tue, 21 Feb 2006 16:03:46 -0500, "Magnulus"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> Is that the biggest problem you could dig up with ATI? Because it
>sounds like a non-issue to me.

Sure is an issue if you are somebody not particularly rich but
a PC gaming-enthusiast. pony up $1000 and 3 months later
find that the dual-card implementation that you invested in
had become a totally obsolete <architecture> nine months
after its introduction. Past history of low-volume obsolete
architectures has not been kind in terms of technical
support and software updates.

> It's not as if SLI is a particularly
>sensible deal, either.
>

Agreed, but 4 million SLI motherboards, 10 million
SLI-capable video cards, 500k-1million dual-card
SLI gaming rigs, plus a unified driver architecture
does have some weight in terms of long-term support.

John Lewis

For those looking for an eventual dually X1900 setup, the Crossfire master
card, already available, can work as a standalone. Price premium is about
$50. Finding a slave card in the future should not be problematic.

--
"War is the continuation of politics by other means.
It can therefore be said that politics is war without
bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed."

"Magnulus" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:%bLKf.21979$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Is that the biggest problem you could dig up with ATI? Because it
> sounds like a non-issue to me. It's not as if SLI is a particularly
> sensible deal, either.

On Tue, 21 Feb 2006 19:33:34 GMT, (E-Mail Removed) (John Lewis)
wrote:

>ATi is finally doing what they should have done before Crossfire was
>first shipped - integrated the compositor into the silicon of every
>high-end Crossfire-capable GPU and (a la SLI) symmetrically
>data-linking the GPUs on identical boards or modules.
>
>See:-
>
>http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=909
>
>Seems not a good time to 'invest' in any of the current Crossfire
>implementations. Orphaned products with very low sales volumes
>( the current Master/dongle cards) normally get poor long-term
>technical/software support.
>
>John Lewis

Is there anyone that spends a fortune on new video cards that doesn't
realize they're a sucker deal? Something twice as fast is always a
year away.

"Tim O" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...

>
> Is there anyone that spends a fortune on new video cards that doesn't
> realize they're a sucker deal? Something twice as fast is always a
> year away.
>
... and doing so on a single card.

Now Dell is releasing a PC with four 7800GTX GPUs. It reminds me of the
razor companies with their number-of-blade wars. Did Gillette buy out Dell
recently?

On Wed, 22 Feb 2006 01:59:12 GMT, (E-Mail Removed) (John Lewis)
wrote:

>On Tue, 21 Feb 2006 16:03:46 -0500, "Magnulus"
><(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> Is that the biggest problem you could dig up with ATI? Because it
>>sounds like a non-issue to me.
>
>Sure is an issue if you are somebody not particularly rich but
>a PC gaming-enthusiast. pony up $1000 and 3 months later
>find that the dual-card implementation that you invested in
>had become a totally obsolete <architecture> nine months
>after its introduction.

That's kind of how I felt after paying $400 for a 6800 GT (back in the
day) and six months later AGP went the way of the dinosaur.

Not quite the same issue, but painful nonetheless...

"Tim" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:gqSdnYCnPfttOmHeRVn-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Now Dell is releasing a PC with four 7800GTX GPUs. It reminds me of the
> razor companies with their number-of-blade wars. Did Gillette buy out
> Dell recently?

Yes, it is nuts. I've got a 7800 GT (not the GTX) that runs just about
any game out there just fine with ungodly amounts of anti-aliasing (more
than I really need) at 1280x1024. Why would I even need two of them, let
alone four? And certain things, like anti-aliasing of normal maps, just are
not going to be fixed by throwing more hardware at it. Unless you've got a
huge widescreen monitor running games at 1900x1200 or whatever, what's the
need?

It all comes down to software. The ultra high end graphics stuff is
basicly dying on the PC beyond tech demoes and the occasional game. So you
can get your super-duper SLI graphics, and find there is absolutely no
reason to own them beyond bragging rights.