ATI X1900 Crossfire

[Custom Computers]

Whats the profits between Newegg and nVidia have to do with this
subject? LOL If you look at Newegg today you would find a brand new ATi
X1950 CF card for $379 you have to keep looking because they like
ZipZoomFly change prices daily. Now that review of the Crossfire I was
talking about is a little old it was done in March of 06. But here is
the link to it:

http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/332/1/

Take notice that it was done with the AMD Athlon FX 57 and you may want
to pay attention to this part of it:

"Our test results today have shown that majority of games will run into
the dreaded CPU bottleneck if you play games below 1600x1200. The dual
X1900 XT's really want and can go faster yet even our AMD64 Athlon
FX-57 processor (which still is the fastest single threaded gaming
processor that money can buy) is not able to kick the crap out of the
two X1900 XTs. Now do not get me wrong, as the performance is simply so
darn fast .. you won't believe what you are seeing but .. it could be
even faster with a better CPU or a future game from 2007/2008"

You should also notice the board used the Crossfire 3200 solution. I'm
thinking about updating my system to the one of the boards using the
Crossfire 3200 chipset and AMD AM2 cpu instead of my socket 939.

 

[First of One]

Whats the profits between Newegg and nVidia have to do with this
subject? LOL

I said *sales*, not profits. The high sales volume means an enormous number
of parts go through Newegg's RMA department, so don't expect every returned
video card to undergo extensive testing. An open-box card like you suggested
would be extremely iffy.

If you look at Newegg today you would find a brand new ATi
X1950 CF card for $379 you have to keep looking because they like
ZipZoomFly change prices daily.

$379 is a pretty far cry from the $329 you supposedly paid for the Asus EAX
1900 CF. It's closer to $400. Interesting to see prices *increase* with
time, even in face of greater competition from the 8800 cards.

Now that review of the Crossfire I was talking about is a little old it
was done in March of 06. But here is
the link to it: http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/332/1/

Take notice that it was done with the AMD Athlon FX 57

As I said, it's an outdated article written almost a year ago. Far more
demanding games like Oblivion and Rainbow Six Vega have been released since
then. Far more powerful CPUs in the form of Intel Core 2 Duo have appeared
as well. Prices of LCDs have fallen a bit, too, making 1920x1200 a viable
resolution for many people.

and you may want to pay attention to this part of it:

LoL. Don't make the mistake of taking the Words of Guru3D (of all sites) as
gospel. These guys benchmark Quake 4 with no FSAA, then claim a "win for the
Green team" because nVidia SLI gets 114 fps while ATi Crossfire gets 103
fps. Hell, ATi isn't even "red" any more after its absorption by AMD.

You should also notice the board used the Crossfire 3200 solution. I'm
thinking about updating my system to the one of the boards using the
Crossfire 3200 chipset and AMD AM2 cpu instead of my socket 939.

The Xpress 3200 is no faster than the Xpress 1600. In fact, even two X1900GT
cards, which depend entirely on the PCIe interface for communication, show
zero difference between PCIe x16 and x8. As seen here:
http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/powercolorx1900gtcf/4.html

If you are gonna get a new CPU, mobo and obligatory DDR2 RAM, you might as
well go for an i975 board and a Core 2 Duo processor.

 

[Custom Computers]

I said *sales*, not profits. The high sales volume means an enormous number
of parts go through Newegg's RMA department, so don't expect every returned
video card to undergo extensive testing. An open-box card like you suggested
would be extremely iffy.


$379 is a pretty far cry from the $329 you supposedly paid for the Asus EAX
1900 CF. It's closer to $400. Interesting to see prices *increase* with
time, even in face of greater competition from the 8800 cards.


As I said, it's an outdated article written almost a year ago. Far more
demanding games like Oblivion and Rainbow Six Vega have been released since
then. Far more powerful CPUs in the form of Intel Core 2 Duo have appeared
as well. Prices of LCDs have fallen a bit, too, making 1920x1200 a viable
resolution for many people.


LoL. Don't make the mistake of taking the Words of Guru3D (of all sites) as
gospel. These guys benchmark Quake 4 with no FSAA, then claim a "win for the
Green team" because nVidia SLI gets 114 fps while ATi Crossfire gets 103
fps. Hell, ATi isn't even "red" any more after its absorption by AMD.


The Xpress 3200 is no faster than the Xpress 1600. In fact, even two X1900GT
cards, which depend entirely on the PCIe interface for communication, show
zero difference between PCIe x16 and x8. As seen here:
http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/powercolorx1900gtcf/4.html

If you are gonna get a new CPU, mobo and obligatory DDR2 RAM, you might as
well go for an i975 board and a Core 2 Duo processor.

Why don't you send me your email address since you fail to have it
listed correctly in here. I would be happy to send you copys of my
invoice and billing for my order that includes the video card.

It will show: 1 Asus EAX1900 Crossfire card
1 Abit AT8 32X RD580 board
1 CPU Thermal Paste OCZ Ultra 5+

With a order date of 11-02-2006 and the billing will show one order
from Newegg on 11-02-2006 for a grand total of $447.26 so when you
deduct the $329 for the video card that leaves $118.26 to cover the
cost of the motherboard and thermal paste.

Oh and I have been looking at the 975 boards, I was always an Intel
user till I built this system and I still haven't made up my mind as to
what I'll buy next. Only reason I would consider one now is because
Intel added Crossfire support.

I don't play FPS games much at all, do have GRAW my primary use is for
NASCAR 2003 for online racing and with that game I have AA set to X14
and Anisotropic set to X16 and I use a 32" HDTV for a monitor running
in 1080i it doesn't do to bad with 145 frames per second. Don't know if
GRAW has a setting to show frames per second in that. I do also have
Microsoft Flight Sim X and it averages between 43 and 51 fps set to
High, from what I've seen online at Tom's Hardware Guide and Hard OCP
this sim works the crap out of video cards with both reporting they
haven't seen a system yet to run it with settings maxed out.

As for the review you posted, the X1900 GT cards are not very good
cards and can begin to compair to my EAX1900 Crossfire and X1900XTX.
Plus do a little research on Tom's or Hard OCP and they will show you
there is a big difference between the 3200 and 1600.