ATI's new CrossFire Xpress 3200 can't be called a chipset since it's a single chip, but it does the same job as the chipset by functioning as the heart of the motherboard. The CrossFire Xpress 3200, announced today, represents ATI's newest bid to get into the hot AMD Athlon 64 motherboard market.
Graphics rival Nvidia has long dominated the AMD Athlon 64 enthusiast space with its nForce 4 MCP (media and communications processor) motherboard platform, but ATI has armed its new chip with features designed specifically for the performance-gaming crowd.
The CrossFire Xpress 3200 supports two PCI Express x16 slots for dual video card setups with a full-speed x16 communications link between the two cards. Additionally, motherboards based on the new ATI chip will also be able to run at overclocked specifications without any voltage increases. According to ATI, the chip can safely boost the HyperTransport transfer bus speed from the default 1GHz to 1.5GHz or more.
The first CrossFire Xpress 3200 motherboards will be available from ASUS, Sapphire, DFI, Abit, and PCPartner. Initial prices will be in line with performance motherboard pricing of between $150 and $250.
Jesus age Christ, Why be a "fanboy" of any one company, anyone with any sense of reality realizes this is what a company like Intel, Nvidia, ATI, and AMD all want. They want your "brand loyalty" over your "logical mind" to make a decision when purchasing a product. This goes across the board in every competitive market. Whoever makes the best, I will support, and everyone should follow this principal. For one, it doesn't give credit to the company that fails, instead it rewards the company that wins out that particular generation of products. Without competition, we wouldn't have all these innovations, at least not to this intensity. For someone to say "Oh, screw ATI" or "screw Nvidia" needs to grow the hell up. We as Gamers need these companies at each others throats to give us better quality arse-kicking performance products. So stop with the childish behavior and use your brain to make your OWN decision instead of giving in to that big brain-washed stamp on your forehead.
In the past, I've always tended towards nVidia but this is most interesting. I haven't researched all the specs yet but am excited. Depending on how the nVidia responds to this, it might be a good time to build an AMD/ATI system.
im not that interested but its good news for everyone
Wow...fanboys even exist in video card realms. LMAO Grow up.
AMD and Nvidia work perfectly together...forget that Intel and Nvidia crap. Intel gets flushed along with ATI!
Intel is working on P5 64-bit, so just wait for that. Intel has always been best with application, amd however is the king of games. Probably going to buy amd for my game-station and Intel for work(3d animator).
well said bebi_vegeta...couldnt argue with that...this graphx card companies flaming is kinda worthless...but btwn amd and intel, well lets just say its a one sided battle...*cough*amd*cough*...ohwell
Whatever, as long as there is a competition, we can only get better pricing and always pushing to get the best card out. We all know that Intel lost for the gaming market, but between ATI and Nvidia there is no winner.
Sure does sound nice. I wouldn't mind getting my hands on one of those...
NICE!
Umm there is no such thing as AMD and Ati more likely its AMD and Nvidia that are working together. Nvidia Chipset have been ruling AMD for along infact Nvidia never really did make any intel chipsets. I think Ati was the first person to make intel chipsets from a graphics company. So it would be AMD/Nvidia and Intel/ATI, this is just a comment to an earlier poster that said Intel/Nvidia sucks and AMD/ATI rules. As fars as graphics go I could care less between Nvidia and ATI, I go with whichever company has the best at the time I am buying. As far as cpu AMD destroys Intel desktop cpu's in perfomance in games so thats a clear cut winner.
i have always liked ati personally.
How many people use AMD??
awesome... i give up on typeing... yeaa
WHOA thats is aweome!
I cant believe that there are fanboys of Nvidia wtf is that....as for me I had Nvidia before and switched to ATI and never looked back I compare the two to Intel and AMD try AMD for games and you will see
With ATI, its happy times for all.
ATi has always sucked and will continue to suck . Nvidia pwns ATi
also the dual card thing is a great idea because of how it fixes a major problem in the pc industry, selling older parts. so you buy a 6800 GT and a year later your starting to feel behind, what do you do, you buy another "old" 6800GT to run SLI, i keeps the vendors from getting stuck with to many old peices of useless tech, and it also makes keeping your pc up to date a little cheaper.
may i remind ATI junkeis that every generation the companies take turns being in the lead and that the 800 series was an embarasment in comparison to the comparable 6800 series. so ATI doesn't rock quite yet and if you don't consider the dual setup at all when comparing the cards the curent gen is pretty neck in neck so i wouldn't be saying anything bad about either side right now. though i am looking forward to see how the Crossfire works out in the end, if it delivers it could blow the pants off the SLI setup.
I'm an Nvidia man myself, but this mother board intrigues me. may i say that though SLI is pretty much fool prof at this point in time, the crossfire set up offers more to nongamers, the setup works without dual graphics card optimization and funtions for regular applications like video editing and stuff like that, without extra tampering, so though SLI came first and is good, Nvidia should really see if they can fix it in the next generation of cards to see if they can make it more fluid and usefull to nongamers. plus the crossfire setup doesn't require that you get two of the same graphics cards it can be any two crossfire enabeled, i beleive that is what it siad on the ATI website. but on the flip side if you want to get more than two graphics cards you'll have to go with the Nvidia solution and custom order one of those quad 7800 512MB solutions that is being made by somebudy( I don't remember who). But overall it's nice to see that AMD is getting more support, they are after all the best processor for pc's, to bad that for some reason everyone still buys intels(intel is void of inovation and should try and make better parts and try to break some ground like AMD) though i have a intel processor(it was such a good deal at the time) i can tell you when i revamp my computer in six months it will have a AMD in it.
i personally am not a fan of intel for gaming. i love nVidia though, hope the 7900GTX is better tthan the x1900. i have a 7800gt, i love it.
im sure Intel and Nvidia will make a comeback
Safe overclocking with no voltage boosting.... I think that's even more impressive then the Crossfire setup personally. AMD and ATI kick butt. The days of Intel and Nvidia ruling the desktop/gaming marketplace are SOOOOOOO over.
well im a Nvidia user so it doesn't concern me. Still that board looks to pack some heat.
aahh. i just bought an asus A8R-MVP crossfire motherboard. i could have waited. but i am not going to return this. this is a great overclocker.
KingOfTheNubeis... SLi has been out for a while, but the way ATi have got their CrossFire up and running is more efficient and alot more sophisticated than that of the nVidia's SLi.
I use Intel, so.... *smiles*
Yea but Nvidia's SLI's been out and working.Crossfires still bugged.
Sounds sweet but it's A little out of My price range o_0
never been a huge fan of ati but this sounds interesting
that's fairly cheap
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good, but i don't have an athlon anyway o_O
Wow thats cool
well done james yu. posting at 6:01am in america. i like it because its 2:01pm in ireland