ATI RD580: Dual x16 Crossfire Preview
by Wesley Fink on November 16, 2005 3:00 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
Overclocking and Integrated Graphics
For the past year we have watched ATI evolve as a chipset maker for the AMD Enthusiast. Each subsequent chipset seems to get better and offer more options and features AMD hobbyists have asked for. So what's new for the Enthusiast on the RD580?First and foremost, the RD580 breaks the HTT barrier in overclocking. Overclockers are used to having to drop HTT to 3X or 600HTT for their highest overclocks because the limit on current AMD HTT is 1000. RD580 requires no drop in HTT for even the highest overclocks. We were able to achieve overclocks in excess of 300 with HTT set at 5X. Utilities which showed HTT frequency indicated we were actually running at greater than 1600 HTT at these settings.
It is clear ATI has found a way around the current AMD limitation of 1000HTT, which will be a breath of fresh air to those trying to squeeze the most performance from their Athlon 64 processor. So how well does RD580 overclock? We can't quote exact numbers, but we can tell you the RD580 BIOS has not yet been tweaked for memory compatibility or top memory performance. We also used our own known OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev. 2 dimms in testing since we are very familiar with how they perform. Even with the untweaked BIOS, we still reached overclocks even higher than the excellent performance of the Crossfire AMD Reference board! We can only speculate where this board might end up, but it is already a very exciting overclocker.
Integrated Graphics
Some may have noticed there is no small x in RD580, and they would rightly guess it means there is no Integrated Graphics version of the 580 chipset. RD580 will only exist as a Dual X16 chipset for discrete graphics.
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allnighter - Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - link
I believe I brought this up several times before and I'll say it again - I am personally bothered with AT's previews of reference boards. Why? Well simply because as far back as I can think it's always the same $hit. A hand tuned, tweaked to hell mobo pitted against the competing products, usually months before they go to retail and are actually available. That makes AT preview a pr piece that pretty much serves as a sales stopper against the competition regardless of which manufacturer is being reviewed. It's simply ridiculous to watch how those previewed boards always outshine the competition and show performance that barely translates into something we'll be able to experience, yet it's heralded as the best thing since sliced bread.Although I must give props to Wesley for not including any comparison charts in today's preview 'cause that would really tick me off.
What ever happened to a good old technology preview? What ever happened to the good old "product taken out of the retail box" review?
I'm not doubting AT's (in this case Wesley's) credibility or competence but the very fact that the reference board is sent specifically for AT preview makes me doubt the results. Why? Well simply because we've seen that exact scenario numerous times. These boards should be clearly marked as "AT preview edition" rather than anything else.
So to end this little bitch session let me just say that I'll simply stop reading mobo previews at AT. Unless it clearly states it's a new mobo tech preview or has a brand and product name/code in the title of it - I'm not interested. Thank you.
allnighter - Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - link
I believe I brought this up several times before and I'll say it again - I am personally bothered with AT's previews of reference boards. Why? Well simply because as far back as I can think it's always the same $hit. A hand tuned, tweaked to hell mobo pitted against the competing products, usually months before they go to retail and are actually available. That makes AT preview a pr piece that pretty much serves as a sales stopper against the competition regardless of which manufacturer is being reviewed. It's simply ridiculous to watch how those previewed boards always outshine the competition and show performance that barely translates into something we'll be able to experience, yet it's heralded as the best thing since sliced bread.Although I must give props to Wesley for not including any comparison charts in today's preview 'cause that would really tick me off.
What ever happened to a good old technology preview? What ever happened to the good old "product taken out of the retail box" review?
I'm not doubting AT's (in this case Wesley's) credibility or competence but the very fact that the reference board is sent specifically for AT preview makes me doubt the results. Why? Well simply because we've seen that exact scenario numerous times. These boards should be clearly marked as "AT preview edition" rather than anything else.
So to end this little bitch session let me just say that I'll simply stop reading mobo previews at AT. Unless it clearly states it's a new mobo tech preview or has a brand and product name/code in the title of it - I'm not interested. Thank you.
haelduksf - Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - link
I don't get it.AT's preview of the Crossfire referance board was right on- performance was matched almost exactly by the DFI CF-DR. I personally would rather have the review as soon as possible, until waiting for the product to ship x units to y stores before even looking at it.
pyrosity - Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - link
It's good to hear that the R580, at least, is still on track. It's taken ages, but I'm glad that AT got the whole R520 delay thing cleared up. It would be interesting to find out which third party screwed ATI up.Personally, I'd be more interested in reading/hearing about the R530, as it should fit into my price range better than the supposed ubercard that R580 will likely be. Still good to get an update on that, though.
On the motherboard side of things, it's nice to read that the competition is stepping up at last.
MDme - Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - link
maybe it was MS that screwed things up for ATI since ATI must have used a lot of R&D for the R500 on the 360. remember that the PS3 is only using a 7800GTX at 90nm (presumably with a higher clock) ;pi'm glad though that the r580 is "on time" because competition is good.
michal1980 - Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - link
nvidia isn't the king of anything. but this is the pc world, things change and they change fast. crossifre is barely working on last years gpus, and thats just now, a year after nvidia.geez u know if i keep waiting for the next round, then i'll have a 10ghz 8 core cpu, with a multi-core gpu, and a multi-core ppu, with a terabyte of ram, and hundreds of tb's of storage...
all i have to do is wait.
and wait.
and wait.
and wati
and ati = wait for us.
don't wait for a company play with the best now, then when the best changes buy that.
WaltC - Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - link
I've been having a ball since January of this year when I bought an AGP x800 xt. Nothing for me to be disappointed about.I think some of the comments in this thread are funny...;) I mean, nV sends out some 7800GTX 512 reference cards to review sites--cards that, when available, will cost ~$800, and consist of little more than overvolted, overclocked 7x gpus and ram, requiring a gigantic heatsink--and some people complain that ATi sends out reference boards of its upcoming motherboards to those same websites who preview them.
Personally, I'm glad to see ATi getting so aggressive in the AMD, enthusiast's mboard markets, and could care less that they don't shove and push their products to market before they are ready. Rome wasn't built in a day, etc.
I can well understand the angst of people who rushed to market to buy the expensive nV products on the strength of the wrong-headed idea that ATi wasn't interested in competing within this market. If I'd been rash and made the same mistake I'd be pissed, too--but I guess I'd be upset more with myself than with anybody else.
There's just no substitute for patience, is there? It will be no trouble at all for me to wait until next year to buy a few new things. In the meantime I'll continue to enjoy the more-than-adequate gaming support the x800 xt has given me all year. I have zero complaints with it thus far. In fact, it may well be that I'm not even in a hurry next year to replace my current config.
bob661 - Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - link
People complain about ATI "releasing" products with no actual product to buy. Nvidia's so-called "reference" board can be bought in stores for $749 on the day they launched it. Quite a bit of difference there bud.quasarsky - Thursday, November 17, 2005 - link
well no difference really.i can't afford that lol.
but my recent computer upgrading I WILL tell you what i can afford :) and bought :-D
$610 =
2 250 gig seagate sata 7200.8 harddrives $165
2x 1 gig of patriot red heatspreader ram 2.5-3-3-8 $175
ati all in wonder x800xt $275 (255 after rebate :-D)
and someone bought the 7800gtx 512 mb for $749 (a pun i know cause i spent $610 lol), and then lost their job, and couldn't pay their bills and their world fell apart LOL.
:0D
poohbear - Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - link
well said mate, i love competition and really all this 7800 gtx 512mb doesnt do it for me, give me a card in the same performance group as a 6800GS/7800GS cause that's the stuff me and most ppl can afford.