The battle for graphics superiority continues. AMD/ATI most powerful graphic card Radeon X1950 XTX could not go toe to toe with NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX on the graphics card battlefield. While NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX is getting loyalty from enthusiasts, rival AMD/ATI is on to something big. It is so big that it requires up to 265W of dedicated power supply to fire up AMD/ATI  monstrous high-end graphic card.

It appears the graphics card battle for 2007 has just begun and AMD/ATI is at full momentum, offering new and unseen technology. If all the leaked features in regards to the R600 are accurate, AMD/ATI will definitely regain the graphic card battle field once again.

The R600 GPU is designed "from the ground up" with Windows Vista and DirectX10 in mind and backward compatible with Windows XP and Linux support. DX10 is a superior new API that is exclusive to Windows Vista so you will need a compatible video card and the Vista operating system to enjoy it on next generation games and other multimedia applications.

The card interface will be consisted of a true PCI-E x16, DVI or HDMI, Dual-HDMI (v.1.3) support and video in and out.  CrossFire enable will make R600 as the most powerful card capable of CrossFire without a Master Card or an external Y-shaped dongle to connect the two cards.

• Core working frequency ranging at 700 MHz to 800 MHz, and to a rumored over 1000 MHz
• 64 4-Way SIMD Unified Shaders, 128 Shader Operations/Cycle
• 32 TMUs, 16 ROPs
• 512 bit Memory Controller, full 32 bit per chip connection
• GDDR3 at 900 MHz clock speed (January)
• GDDR4 at 1.1 GHz clock speed (March, revised edition)
• Total bandwidth 115 GB/s on GDDR3
• Total bandwidth 140 GB/s on GDDR4
• Consumer memory support 1024 MB
• DX10 full compatibility with draft DX10.1 vendor-specific cap removal (unified programming)
• 32FP internal processing
• Hardware support for GPU clustering (any 2^n number, not limited to Dual or Quad-GPU)
• Hardware DVI-HDCP support (High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection)
• Hardware Quad-DVI output support (Limited to workstation editions)
• Multi-GPU cluster solutions will be available for the workstation market only until March, 2007

• 105,000,000,000 SOps (Shader Operations Per Second)
• 2,000,000,000 TCps (Triangle Calculations Per Second)
• 28 GTps (Gigatexels Per Second)

Supporting the AM2 and the Socket 939 Processors, these new chipsets have been mated up with the AMD SB600 Chipsets in order to offer the highest possible performance at a very reasonable price. Originally the Socket 939 version of this chipset was paired with AMD's  SB450 and SB460 which received mixed reviews due to it's feature set and slow USB transfer rates. With the launch of the AM2 socket, AMD also introduced the SB600 south bridge which brought stellar performance and a great boost in the features available to the chipset.

AMD 580X CrossFire Chipset

Starting with the higher-end 580X chipset, AMD set out to try and redefine the gaming platform. With unrestricted 2x16 PCI Express graphics capabilities, and being designed from the ground up with CrossFire graphics in mind, the gaming performance available is comparable, if not better than any competing solution. AMD utilizes a single chip solution for their dual PCI Express x16 whereas other companies use multiple chips to handle the communication tasks. While there is denial from the rest that this causes any bottleneck in the operation, it is kind of telling that the competition has already started to shift to a matching technology for their future products.

Motherboards featuring the AMD 580X CrossFire Chipset

Model	ASUS M2R32-MVP	ECS KA3 MVP	MSI K9A-Platinum
ASI SKU	52325	51715	52274
CPU Support	AM2 Athlon 64 X2, Athlon 64 FX, Athlon 64, Sempron	AM2 Athlon 64 X2, Athlon 64 FX, Athlon 64, Sempron	AM2 Athlon 64 X2, Athlon 64 FX, Athlon 64
Memory Support	Dual Channel DDR2 800/667/533 4 DIMMS, 8GB Max	Dual Channel DDR2 800/667/533 4 DIMMS, 8GB Max	Dual Channel DDR2 800/667/533 4 DIMMS, 8GB Max
Slots	2 x PCI Express x16 2 x PCI Express x1 2 x PCI	2 x PCI Express x16 2 x PCI Express x1 2 x PCI	2 x PCI Express x16 2 x PCI Express x1 2 x PCI
CrossFire	ATI CrossFire 2 @ x16 mode	ATI CrossFire 2 @ x16 mode	ATI CrossFire 2 @ x16 mode
Audio	ADI 1988A 8-channel HD	Realtek ALC883 8-channel HD	Realtek ALC883 8-channel HD
LAN	Marvell 88E8001 Gigabit	Agere E1310I Gigabit Realtek 8100C 10/100	Realtek 8110SC & 8111B Gigabit LAN
USB	10 USB 2.0 / 1.1 supported	10 USB 2.0 / 1.1 supported	10 USB 2.0 / 1.1 supported
1394a	VIA VT6308P 1 port, 1 header	VIA VT6308P 2 headers	VIA VT6308P 1 port, 1 header
Other	eSATA port on back
Model	DFI Infinity CFX3200-M2/G	ABIT AT8 32X	ASUS A8R32-MVP Deluxe
ASI SKU	55099	44970	46255
CPU Support	AM2 Athlon 64 X2, Athlon 64 FX, Athlon 64	Socket 939 Athlon 64 X2, Athlon 64 FX, Athlon 64, Sempron	Socket 939 Opteron, Athlon 64 X2, Athlon 64 FX, Athlon 64
Memory Support	Dual Channel DDR2 800/667/533 4 DIMMS, 8GB Max	Dual Channel DDR 400 4 DIMMS, 4GB Max	Dual Channel DDR 400/333/266 4 DIMMS, 4GB Max
Slots	2 x PCI Express x16 2 x PCI Express x1 3 x PCI	2 x PCI Express x16 2 x PCI Express x1 2 x PCI	2 x PCI Express x16 2 x PCI Express x1 3 x PCI
CrossFire	ATI CrossFire 2 @ x16 mode	ATI CrossFire 2 @ x16 mode	ATI CrossFire 2 @ x16 mode
Audio	Realtek ALC882 8-channel HD	8-channel HD	Realtek ALC882 8-channel
LAN	Realtek 8110SB & 8111B Gigabit LAN	Gigabit	Marvell 88E8053 PCIe Gigabit Marvell 88E8001 Gigabit
USB	10 USB 2.0 / 1.1 supported	10 USB 2.0 / 1.1 supported	8 USB 2.0 / 1.1 supported
1394a	VIA VT6307 1 port, 1 header	VIA VT6308P 1 port	TI 1394a 2 headers
Other

  AMD 480X CrossFire Chipset

The lower end offering from AMD is no slouch in either the performance or the feature categories either. The PCI Express for CrossFire drops down to 8x8 support since this chipset is only utilizing 20 lanes for PCI Express instead of the 40 lanes available to it's bigger sibling. This and the lack of the ATI Xpress Route single chip solution for CrossFire are the only real differences between the two chipsets. Unless you are running the highest end video cards and checking your performance numbers regularly, you'd probably never notice the difference.

Motherboards using the AMD 480X CrossFire Chipset
 

Model	ABIT AT8	ASUS A8R- MVP
ASI SKU	44970	43423
CPU Support	Socket 939 Athlon 64 X2, Athlon 64 FX, Athlon 64	Socket 939 Athlon 64 X2, Athlon 64 FX, Athlon 64, Sempron
Memory Support	Dual Channel DDR 400 4 DIMMS, 8GB Max	Dual Channel DDR 400/333/266 4 DIMMS, 4GB Max
Slots	2 x PCI Express x16 2 x PCI Express x1 2 x PCI	2 x PCI Express x16 2 x PCI Express x1 3 x PCI
CrossFire	ATI CrossFire 2 @ x16 mode	ATI CrossFire 2 @ x16 mode
Audio	Realtek ALC882D 8-channel HD	ADI AD1986A 6-channel HD
LAN	Gigabit	Marvell 88E8001 Gigabit
USB	8 USB 2.0 / 1.1 supported	8 USB 2.0 / 1.1 supported
1394a	1 header	1 port, 1 header
Other

Comparison Specs for the AMD 480X / 580X CrossFire Chipsets (differences highlighted in red)
 

	AMD 580X Chipset	AMD 480X Chipset
CPU Support	Athlon64 / X2 / FX Socket-AM2	Athlon64 / X2 / FX Socket-AM2
HyperTransport Support	800 MHz / 1 GHz HTT	800 MHz / 1 GHz HTT
Multi-GPU Support	Crossfire PCIe 16 x 16	Crossfire PCIe 8 x 8
PCI Express Lanes	40 Lanes	20 Lanes
32-bit PCI Slots	6	6
Serial ATA	4 x Serial ATA-II/300 Ports	4 x Serial ATA-II/300 Ports
Serial RAID	RAID 0, 1, 0+1	RAID 0, 1, 0+1
Parallel ATA	2 Devices	2 Devices
Audio Interface	High-Definition (Azalia) 8-Channel	High-Definition (Azalia) 8-Channel
USB 2.0 Ports	10	10
ATI Express Route	Yes

AMD Quad FX (4X4) Platform Review

Are you into extreme “megatasking?" Do you want the raw power four execution cores on your motherboard? On November 30th, 2006 AMD announced the Quad FX Platform that brings two dual-core processors into a single system that is not a server platform but rather a high-end personal workstation platform with advanced graphics card support.

Yes the Quad Core FX platform features the ability to install two physical dual-core processors into one system as well as fast DDR2 memory, SLI graphics, and high definition audio solutions - a true enthusiast platform built for speed and scalability. In fact the 4X4 codename means 4 cores + 4 graphics cards.

The AMD Quad FX Platform is powered by pairs of the AMD Athlon™ 64 FX-70 series dual-core processors, the newest additions to the award-winning AMD Athlon 64 FX processor family. The new platform lets enthusiasts make the most of their overall computing experience while gaming, editing audio/video and streaming high-definition content. This is a true multi-purpose power workstation with scaleable performance that brings professional digital content creators the extra edge they need by accelerating multimedia tasks up to 100% over a single dual core platform.

The Quad FX will allow you to take greater advantage of Windows Vista Ultimate Edition multithreading capabilities. While costing significantly more than a normal desktop the Quad FX is still an affordable combination that brings together high performance elements rarely, if ever, seen together. This extra cost will be a bargain for those who make a living working on their PC especially those creating multimedia content, and already many leading gaming developers have been working on massively multi-threaded games that can use two or more execution cores.

This platform consist of a number of unique components and features that build on AMD Athlon 64 and FX architecture and design philosophy:

Two Socket 1207 (socket F) FX-70 processors: CPU are based on 0.09 micron process technology and have 1MB L2 cache per core: These CPU also feature Dual-channel DDR2 SDRAM memory controller (like AM2 processors) and three 2GHz HyperTransport links. HyperTransport is one of the backbones the DSDC architecture (we talk about next). AMD will eventually release quad-core processors (codenamed Agena FX)compatible with this platform, allowing 8 cores per systems, sometime around mid 2007.

Dual Socket Direct Connect Architecture: DSDC Architecture enables high-bandwidth communication between matched pairs of AMD Athlon™ 64 FX-70, AMD Athlon™ 64 FX-72, and AMD Athlon™ 64 FX-74 dual-core processors. DSDC Architecture is designed for the multi-core, multi-threaded future with planned platform upgradeability to eight cores (dual quad-core systems).

Dual Socket Motherboard with Nvidia Chipsets: Nvidia is AMD's launch partner and is providing the first chipsets the NVIDIA nForce 680a MCPs. These MCP (media and communications processors) are certified Vista ready and designed to be extremely high performance chipsets than can supply the board with two full speed x16 PCIe for SLI and an additional two x8 PCIe slots to install up to four independent graphics cards supporting up to eight monitors. As with Opteron processors the DDR2 memory controller is built into each processor (two slots per CPU). Hypertransport bus links directly to one processor with a coherent bus between the processors. The massive component support does not stop there. MCP supports up to 12 SATA 3Gbps hard drives for highly scalable storage. Below is a chipset diagram.

Asus is the exclusive launch partner of AMD offering the first and currently only Quad FX motherboard on the market.

 First Quad FX Motherboard - ASUS L1N64-SLI (ASI SKU# 56568)

The ASUS L1N64-SLI WS is powered by two NVIDIA nForce 680a MCP chipsets. Two socket-1207 processors are supported with four memory slots (two slots allocated per processor). With two nForce 680a MCPs the ASUS L1N64-SLI WS features 12 SATA 3.0 Gbps ports and one PATA for storage connectivity.

Networking features of the ASUS L1N64-SLI WS include dual Gigabit Ethernet ports. The onboard Gigabit Ethernet features NVIDIA’s FirstPacket, DualNet, Teaming and TCP/IP offload technologies. Audio is powered by a high definition audio codec with optical and coaxial SPDIF outputs.

Due to the complex design of AMD’s 4x4 platform, the ASUS L1N64-SLI WS uses a  larger than ATX form factor (The L1N64-SLI WS is 12" by 10.5" standard ATX is 12" x 9.6") ) which will not fit in smaller ATX only cases. Since dual processors require a little extra power, ASUS has equipped the L1N64-SLI WS with an 8-pin EPS12v and Molex power connectors.

For those currently running AMD Dual core processors (Athlon X2 or FX series) and need a permanent big boost to create /edit multimedia titles, 3D animation, etc, then the Quad FX platform is definitely worth the investment compared to the amount of time you will save.

The Quad FX only major shortcomings are in relatively high power usage (per processor and overall system), especially when compared to a Quad Core Intel (Quad Core 2 Duo). In the recent past some people have used dual Opteron workstation motherboards but for those who want the top of the line in the AMD workstation space plus truly advanced graphics support the Quad FX is a clear winner.

Though the differences in the chipsets are slight, they are enough to bump the price and the target market segment down to a more everyday gamers level. NVIDIA has always been known for their high end offerings and their mainstream products seem to get lost in the shuffle. For years NVIDIA has been making quality products that extend across all market segments and allow even those on a limited budget to enjoy spirited gaming if that's what they desire, or just to be able to rely on great chipsets that have offered rock solid stability and added features that other manufacturers had decided not to offer with their products (like built-in RAID and MediaShield applications) until NVIDIA started giving them away for free. After seeing NVIDIA's examples and the success that they had with them, the rest quickly began to follow.

Many board partners offer NVIDIA chipset based motherboards, but when you are looking for consistency and quality you really don't need to look any further than ASUS. While their prices may be a bit higher on motherboards than their competitors, the features, quality, and support you get for those few extra dollars far outweighs the cost delta.

For quite a bit less than the higher-end 680i board you can get your hands on an extremely good SLI capable 650i board which gives you almost all of the same features, but at a greatly reduced price. ASUS has stepped up with their offering, the P5N-E SLI (ASI SKU 56353), which features the 650i in it's best possible configuration, done in a way that ASUS has become famous for. Supporting Intel's latest Quad-Core processor in bus speeds up to 1066MHz (and reportedly 1333MHz when it finally arrives!), SLI video card configurations (2 x 8 PCI Express with LinkBoost Technology) and Dual-Channel DDR2 memory in speeds up to 800MHz, this board can make the main-stream gamer feel like he's getting the same quality and features that the guys with unlimited budgets can buy.

Browse the "official" specifications for the nForce chipsets below to see the slight differences between the 680i and it's sibling the 650i.

What you don't necessarily see in the chart above is the magic of ASUS to offer features that NVIDIA doesn't officially support on this chipset, yet ASUS gets to work flawlessly. Starting with the 1333 MHz bus speed that ASUS says will easily be available via a BIOS update once capable CPUs are released, you'll find that this is a feature normally only available on the 680i boards.

ASUS has also integrated the EPP (Enhanced Profile Protocol) memory capability into the board (read; overclocking) for good measure. Those of you who choose to run a SLI video card configuration on this motherboard will also be glad that ASUS also broke the rules and added NVIDIA's LinkBoost Technology (PDF available here) into this sweet package. LinkBoost Technology automatically overclocks the PCI Express and MCP HyperTransport bus speed by 25%. All this happens without user intervention, it's plug and play overclocking brought to you from the clever people at NVIDIA and ASUS.

The bottom line on this board is, well... the bottom line. If you can live with 8 x 8 speed SLI and without a few other features that really don't affect the vast majority of consumers, then your bottom line is going to reflect about a 45% price reduction over the NVIDIA 680i based motherboards. When trying to build a rocking gaming rig without breaking the bank, this is an unbelievably good deal. Add to that the ability to run pretty much any Intel CPU from the Pentium D to the Core 2 Quad Processor, and you've got a platform to build on which should get you through the next few years at a minimum.