The downside of Crossfire

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally posted by: CP5670

There were a few minor issues like Vsync not working I recall but nothing major. Most popular games worked fine? I adopted SLI right when Nvidia released it with two 6800GTs. How about you? Speaking from experience...?

That vsync thing is actually a major problem IMO, enough to turn me away from SLI. I really like SLI's massive performance increases in almost any game, new or old, but am finding some games unplayable due to the tearing. I'm going to go back to a single card, as I can use EVGA's step-up program to get a G71 (if it comes out before March 6) and I have a use for the second GT anyway.

That being said, SLI looks far more appealing than this Crossfire stuff at the moment.

i dont see the big thing about v-sync........ive never felt the need to use it ever. but then again thats just me, my eyes may not be susceptible to it

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: Crazyfool
Anandtech didn't have problems because they aren't stupid.

3 people stupid enough to post at Hardcop hate ATI so that says it all. Yeah, real balanced opinion. I will listen to Anand over those @ssclowns.

So because you want to believe HardOCP readers and their video editor are "stupid", they must be? :roll:

Why don't you buy a X1800XT Crossfire rig and see if you can get it to work right?

Since you're presumably not "stupid"?

I won't hold my breath, it's a lot easier to pimp ATI than open your wallet, isn't it?

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: Elfear
Crossfire is in it's infancy and I think it's ignorant to say it's a horrible design and ATI should just forget about it. The same thing was said by a lot of people about SLI when it first showed up.

Crossfire IS a horrible design. The bolt on compositing chip, Master/slave card, huge dongle, the default to that crappy tiling mode, there are a lot of problems with it.

It's not "ignorant" to look at that mess and say, "WTF?".

 

[M0RPH]

Originally posted by: Rollo

So because you want to believe HardOCP readers and their video editor are "stupid", they must be? :roll:

Why don't you buy a X1800XT Crossfire rig and see if you can get it to work right?

Since you're presumably not "stupid"?

I won't hold my breath, it's a lot easier to pimp ATI than open your wallet, isn't it?

No need for that since there are numerous reviews out there that show that it works just fine. If it's such a non-working mess, I wonder how these numerous reviewers managed to benchmark multiple games and not report any major problems.

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: M0RPH

Originally posted by: Rollo

So because you want to believe HardOCP readers and their video editor are "stupid", they must be? :roll:

Why don't you buy a X1800XT Crossfire rig and see if you can get it to work right?

Since you're presumably not "stupid"?

I won't hold my breath, it's a lot easier to pimp ATI than open your wallet, isn't it?

No need for that since there are numerous reviews out there that show that it works just fine. If it's such a non-working mess, I wonder how these numerous reviewers managed to benchmark multiple games and not report any major problems.

AT said the DFI Crossfire motherboard was great too, and users/H had many problems with it.

Your money isn't where your mouth is, so your opinion means much less to me. I bought 4 SLI sets, and three SLI motherboards. When I say I've had no problems with them, you can pretty much believe it.

You have no Crossfire, you're like a guy posting, "Man I hear those Porsches handle excellent!" that doesn't own one.

The three guys who's word you're doubting have one BIG factor of credibility you don't: they've actually used the hardware.

 

[Asymptoke]

The availability, chipset efficacy, and inter-card connectivity of the ATi multi-GPU solution doesn't amount to a hill of beans; however, there are enough beans, in fact, to give me "Butt-fire."

 

[Conky]

Originally posted by: Rollo

Originally posted by: M0RPH

Originally posted by: Rollo

So because you want to believe HardOCP readers and their video editor are "stupid", they must be? :roll:

Why don't you buy a X1800XT Crossfire rig and see if you can get it to work right?

Since you're presumably not "stupid"?

I won't hold my breath, it's a lot easier to pimp ATI than open your wallet, isn't it?

No need for that since there are numerous reviews out there that show that it works just fine. If it's such a non-working mess, I wonder how these numerous reviewers managed to benchmark multiple games and not report any major problems.

AT said the DFI Crossfire motherboard was great too, and users/H had many problems with it.

Your money isn't where your mouth is, so your opinion means much less to me. I bought 4 SLI sets, and three SLI motherboards. When I say I've had no problems with them, you can pretty much believe it.

You have no Crossfire, you're like a guy posting, "Man I hear those Porsches handle excellent!" that doesn't own one.

The three guys who's word you're doubting have one BIG factor of credibility you don't: they've actually used the hardware.

You don't have Crossfire either so by your own measure your opinion doesn't count.

:laugh:

 

[Wreckage]

Originally posted by: M0RPH
No need for that since there are numerous reviews out there that show that it works just fine. If it's such a non-working mess, I wonder how these numerous reviewers managed to benchmark multiple games and not report any major problems.

I have never seen shimmering mentioned in a review. So it must not be a problem.

 

[Nirach]

Originally posted by: Rollo

Originally posted by: Crazyfool
Anandtech didn't have problems because they aren't stupid.

3 people stupid enough to post at Hardcop hate ATI so that says it all. Yeah, real balanced opinion. I will listen to Anand over those @ssclowns.

So because you want to believe HardOCP readers and their video editor are "stupid", they must be? :roll:

Why don't you buy a X1800XT Crossfire rig and see if you can get it to work right?

Since you're presumably not "stupid"?

I won't hold my breath, it's a lot easier to pimp ATI than open your wallet, isn't it?

If I wasn't broke, Rollo, I'd buy a Crossfire rig and get the thing working. Brute force and ignorance would probably be my best tools

Edit: By buy a crossfire rig, I mean a master card and a slave

 

[LikeLinus]

Originally posted by: Crazyfool

Originally posted by: Rollo

Originally posted by: M0RPH

Originally posted by: Rollo

So because you want to believe HardOCP readers and their video editor are "stupid", they must be? :roll:

Why don't you buy a X1800XT Crossfire rig and see if you can get it to work right?

Since you're presumably not "stupid"?

I won't hold my breath, it's a lot easier to pimp ATI than open your wallet, isn't it?

No need for that since there are numerous reviews out there that show that it works just fine. If it's such a non-working mess, I wonder how these numerous reviewers managed to benchmark multiple games and not report any major problems.

AT said the DFI Crossfire motherboard was great too, and users/H had many problems with it.

Your money isn't where your mouth is, so your opinion means much less to me. I bought 4 SLI sets, and three SLI motherboards. When I say I've had no problems with them, you can pretty much believe it.

You have no Crossfire, you're like a guy posting, "Man I hear those Porsches handle excellent!" that doesn't own one.

The three guys who's word you're doubting have one BIG factor of credibility you don't: they've actually used the hardware.

You don't have Crossfire either so by your own measure your opinion doesn't count.

:laugh:

LOL so owned. That was classic.

 

[Conky]

Originally posted by: LikeLinus

Originally posted by: Crazyfool

Originally posted by: Rollo

Originally posted by: M0RPH

Originally posted by: Rollo

So because you want to believe HardOCP readers and their video editor are "stupid", they must be? :roll:

Why don't you buy a X1800XT Crossfire rig and see if you can get it to work right?

Since you're presumably not "stupid"?

I won't hold my breath, it's a lot easier to pimp ATI than open your wallet, isn't it?

No need for that since there are numerous reviews out there that show that it works just fine. If it's such a non-working mess, I wonder how these numerous reviewers managed to benchmark multiple games and not report any major problems.

AT said the DFI Crossfire motherboard was great too, and users/H had many problems with it.

Your money isn't where your mouth is, so your opinion means much less to me. I bought 4 SLI sets, and three SLI motherboards. When I say I've had no problems with them, you can pretty much believe it.

You have no Crossfire, you're like a guy posting, "Man I hear those Porsches handle excellent!" that doesn't own one.

The three guys who's word you're doubting have one BIG factor of credibility you don't: they've actually used the hardware.

You don't have Crossfire either so by your own measure your opinion doesn't count.

:laugh:

LOL so owned. That was classic.

Thanks.

I wanted to say "owned" but we all know someone else has to call it. :laugh:

 

[LikeLinus]

Originally posted by: Crazyfool

Originally posted by: LikeLinus

Originally posted by: Crazyfool

Originally posted by: Rollo

Originally posted by: M0RPH

Originally posted by: Rollo

So because you want to believe HardOCP readers and their video editor are "stupid", they must be? :roll:

Why don't you buy a X1800XT Crossfire rig and see if you can get it to work right?

Since you're presumably not "stupid"?

I won't hold my breath, it's a lot easier to pimp ATI than open your wallet, isn't it?

No need for that since there are numerous reviews out there that show that it works just fine. If it's such a non-working mess, I wonder how these numerous reviewers managed to benchmark multiple games and not report any major problems.

AT said the DFI Crossfire motherboard was great too, and users/H had many problems with it.

Your money isn't where your mouth is, so your opinion means much less to me. I bought 4 SLI sets, and three SLI motherboards. When I say I've had no problems with them, you can pretty much believe it.

You have no Crossfire, you're like a guy posting, "Man I hear those Porsches handle excellent!" that doesn't own one.

The three guys who's word you're doubting have one BIG factor of credibility you don't: they've actually used the hardware.

You don't have Crossfire either so by your own measure your opinion doesn't count.

:laugh:

LOL so owned. That was classic.

Thanks.

I wanted to say "owned" but we all know someone else has to call it. :laugh:

It's just true over almost all of his post. He has no first hand experience over the majority of ATI cards, but he can talk bad about them non-stop. It's so ironic. Others can have opinions on products they dont own...but yeah whatever.

Kudos

 

[Nirach]

Originally posted by: LikeLinus

Originally posted by: Crazyfool

Originally posted by: LikeLinus

Originally posted by: Crazyfool

Originally posted by: Rollo

Originally posted by: M0RPH

Originally posted by: Rollo

<sinp>

<sinp>

<sinp>

<sinp>

LOL so owned. That was classic.

Thanks.

I wanted to say "owned" but we all know someone else has to call it. :laugh:

It's just true over almost all of his post. He has no first hand experience over the majority of ATI cards, but he can talk bad about them non-stop. It's so ironic. Others can have opinions on products they dont own...but yeah whatever.

Kudos

A lot of people insult the living jesus out of nVidia and don't use them. I can be found taking pops at nvidia sometimes, but I'm an ATI user.

You said it yourself, it's opnion.

I have to admit, that was a pretty good owning though

 

[CP5670]

i dont see the big thing about v-sync........ive never felt the need to use it ever. but then again thats just me, my eyes may not be susceptible to it

It's pretty much a deal breaker for me. I actually rarely used it on my old 6800 GT, but with the SLI setup the framerates shoot over the refresh rate all the time. Some older games tear so badly that any motion feels choppy even though the framerates are in triple digits, but aren't fast enough on a single card at the same settings. It works correctly only in certain games and SLI modes, not quite what Nvidia advertises. SLI has a lot of potential, but it isn't for me in its current state due to this issue. A single G71 looks like it will get similar or better performance, so I'll probably exchange one of my cards for that.

 

[swatX]

Originally posted by: Wreckage
Until they get rid of that whole "Master Dongle" thing, it's just a hack.

Sadly it looks like the R580 will suffer the same fate.

its very ironic because ATI was the one that was complaning on how the Nvidia SLI connector is useless and how crossfire setups dont need a connector like that.

50% of that was true but then again ATIs solution to NV's connector is less efficient than NV;s SLI connector

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: LikeLinus
It's just true over almost all of his post. He has no first hand experience over the majority of ATI cards, but he can talk bad about them non-stop.

O rly?

I bet I have experience with more ATI cards than you, little buddy?

I have purchased one of every flagship ATI card since the Rage Fury, with the exception of the X1800XT. ( and it's not my fault they released the thing when the year was about over and I already had a 7800GTX SLI rig that pwned it)

How about you? Care to list the ATI cards you've bought compared to this list?

ATI Mach32 VESA, Xpert, Rage FURY, MAXX, Radeon VIVO, Radeon 32 DDR, 8500, 9700Pro, 9800Pro, X800XT PE.

Presumably, since you're doing all this "owning" and "I have no experience with ATI cards" your list will be MUCH more impressive.
:laugh:

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: Crazyfool
You don't have Crossfire either so by your own measure your opinion doesn't count.

You don't have Crossfire, SLI or even a modern video card, so by my measure, you don't belong in this thread.

 

[fierydemise]

Originally posted by: swatX
its very ironic because ATI was the one that was complaning on how the Nvidia SLI connector is useless and how crossfire setups dont need a connector like that.

Really when did they say that? I don't remember seeing that anywhere

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: Rollo

Originally posted by: Elfear
Crossfire is in it's infancy and I think it's ignorant to say it's a horrible design and ATI should just forget about it. The same thing was said by a lot of people about SLI when it first showed up.

Crossfire IS a horrible design. The bolt on compositing chip, Master/slave card

On the flipside, you can say that building the extra hardware to handle SLI into the core of every NVIDIA GPU adds extra cost/heat output to all the users that aren't using SLI. It's a tradeoff, like anything else. Either you build the multi-card support into all the cards, or you sell a separate product that only people who want to use multi-card setups have to buy.

The design of using a separate compositing engine is a more interesting design choice. It's more complex and expensive, but you get SuperAA with essentially no performance hit. Again, a tradeoff.

huge dongle

OMG a cable behind my PC that I'll never see! The horror! :roll:

the default to that crappy tiling mode

Finally, somewhat of an argument that makes sense. NVIDIA's SFR mode is more efficient, since each card only has to process some of the scene geometry (but still has problems with render-to-texture, so it's not a perfect solution either). OTOH, with SFR the driver has to predict how to split the load for each frame, and if it doesn't do that relatively well, you can get framerate fluctuations and other performance issues. Tiling makes it much easier to load-balance between the cards.

The only real problem with Crossfire so far has been availability. A couple people on one site's forums having problems with it does not mean it is fatally flawed; a number of sites have reviewed Crossfire setups and gotten it to work properly.

 

[Killrose]

Just noticed this post today @H from MaxOut313:

"the flickering is probley vsync, but i enabled it in every which way and still there. im just gonna say thats it. Its only annoying in windows when u do stuff. In gmaes its fine. I reformatted windows x64 by the way and reinstall my gmaes. perfect. Everything runs amazing. COD2 1280x1024 MAX and video card on 6x AA (Adapative), 16x AF HQ. It runs at 91cap almost all time. So smooth
Quake 4 i run same settings on ultra nad at cap all time no matter where i am (indoor or outdoor). Im gonna get another liquid cooler for my crossfire card and overclock both them to 700/800. =)"
__________________

Maybe someone did not re-format when installing a new motherboard with Win64?

 

[5150Joker]

Originally posted by: LikeLinus

Originally posted by: Crazyfool

Originally posted by: Rollo

Originally posted by: M0RPH

Originally posted by: Rollo

So because you want to believe HardOCP readers and their video editor are "stupid", they must be? :roll:

Why don't you buy a X1800XT Crossfire rig and see if you can get it to work right?

Since you're presumably not "stupid"?

I won't hold my breath, it's a lot easier to pimp ATI than open your wallet, isn't it?

No need for that since there are numerous reviews out there that show that it works just fine. If it's such a non-working mess, I wonder how these numerous reviewers managed to benchmark multiple games and not report any major problems.

AT said the DFI Crossfire motherboard was great too, and users/H had many problems with it.

Your money isn't where your mouth is, so your opinion means much less to me. I bought 4 SLI sets, and three SLI motherboards. When I say I've had no problems with them, you can pretty much believe it.

You have no Crossfire, you're like a guy posting, "Man I hear those Porsches handle excellent!" that doesn't own one.

The three guys who's word you're doubting have one BIG factor of credibility you don't: they've actually used the hardware.

You don't have Crossfire either so by your own measure your opinion doesn't count.

:laugh:

LOL so owned. That was classic.

Hardly, he has experience with SLI to back up his claims of stability. Furthermore, he can use the experience of the 2 users + editor I posted in the OP as proof that Crossfire has problems with end users.

 

[Conky]

Originally posted by: Rollo

Originally posted by: Crazyfool
You don't have Crossfire either so by your own measure your opinion doesn't count.

You don't have Crossfire, SLI or even a modern video card, so by my measure, you don't belong in this thread.

Oops, there went the "balance". :laugh:

 

[Wreckage]

Originally posted by: Matthias99
On the flipside, you can say that building the extra hardware to handle SLI into the core of every NVIDIA GPU adds extra cost/heat output to all the users that aren't using SLI. It's a tradeoff, like anything else. Either you build the multi-card support into all the cards, or you sell a separate product that only people who want to use multi-card setups have to buy.

With the exception of one ultra high end card, NVIDIA's cards cost less and run cooler so it's not affecting the end user at all.

 

[Conky]

Originally posted by: 5150Joker

Originally posted by: LikeLinus

Originally posted by: Crazyfool

Originally posted by: Rollo

Originally posted by: M0RPH

Originally posted by: Rollo

So because you want to believe HardOCP readers and their video editor are "stupid", they must be? :roll:

Why don't you buy a X1800XT Crossfire rig and see if you can get it to work right?

Since you're presumably not "stupid"?

I won't hold my breath, it's a lot easier to pimp ATI than open your wallet, isn't it?

No need for that since there are numerous reviews out there that show that it works just fine. If it's such a non-working mess, I wonder how these numerous reviewers managed to benchmark multiple games and not report any major problems.

AT said the DFI Crossfire motherboard was great too, and users/H had many problems with it.

Your money isn't where your mouth is, so your opinion means much less to me. I bought 4 SLI sets, and three SLI motherboards. When I say I've had no problems with them, you can pretty much believe it.

You have no Crossfire, you're like a guy posting, "Man I hear those Porsches handle excellent!" that doesn't own one.

The three guys who's word you're doubting have one BIG factor of credibility you don't: they've actually used the hardware.

You don't have Crossfire either so by your own measure your opinion doesn't count.

:laugh:

LOL so owned. That was classic.

Hardly, he has experience with SLI to back up his claims of stability. Furthermore, he can use the experience of the 2 users + editor I posted in the OP as proof that Crossfire has problems with end users.

I have SLI experience with Voodoo2's since 1998 so my experience is longer and greater.

 

[5150Joker]

Originally posted by: Crazyfool

Originally posted by: 5150Joker

Originally posted by: LikeLinus

Originally posted by: Crazyfool

Originally posted by: Rollo

Originally posted by: M0RPH

Originally posted by: Rollo

So because you want to believe HardOCP readers and their video editor are "stupid", they must be? :roll:

Why don't you buy a X1800XT Crossfire rig and see if you can get it to work right?

Since you're presumably not "stupid"?

I won't hold my breath, it's a lot easier to pimp ATI than open your wallet, isn't it?

No need for that since there are numerous reviews out there that show that it works just fine. If it's such a non-working mess, I wonder how these numerous reviewers managed to benchmark multiple games and not report any major problems.

AT said the DFI Crossfire motherboard was great too, and users/H had many problems with it.

Your money isn't where your mouth is, so your opinion means much less to me. I bought 4 SLI sets, and three SLI motherboards. When I say I've had no problems with them, you can pretty much believe it.

You have no Crossfire, you're like a guy posting, "Man I hear those Porsches handle excellent!" that doesn't own one.

The three guys who's word you're doubting have one BIG factor of credibility you don't: they've actually used the hardware.

You don't have Crossfire either so by your own measure your opinion doesn't count.

:laugh:

LOL so owned. That was classic.

Hardly, he has experience with SLI to back up his claims of stability. Furthermore, he can use the experience of the 2 users + editor I posted in the OP as proof that Crossfire has problems with end users.

I have SLI experience with Voodoo2's since 1998 so my experience is longer and greater.

I think you just owned yourself there.