ATi --- Crossfire "Mark II" will finally abandon the Master-Slave implementation.

ATi is finally doing what they should have done before Crossfire was
first shipped - integrated the compositor into the silicon of every
high-end Crossfire-capable GPU and (a la SLI) symmetrically
data-linking the GPUs on identical boards or modules.

See:-

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=909

Seems not a good time to 'invest' in any of the current Crossfire
implementations. Orphaned products with very low sales volumes
( the current Master/dongle cards) normally get poor long-term
technical/software support.

John Lewis

Not that I have anything against ATI but isn't this a NVIDIA Newsgroup?

John W

"John Lewis" wrote in message
...
ATi is finally doing what they should have done before Crossfire was
first shipped - integrated the compositor into the silicon of every
high-end Crossfire-capable GPU and (a la SLI) symmetrically
data-linking the GPUs on identical boards or modules.

See:-

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=909

Seems not a good time to 'invest' in any of the current Crossfire
implementations. Orphaned products with very low sales volumes
( the current Master/dongle cards) normally get poor long-term
technical/software support.

John Lewis

On 21 Feb 2006 20:14:23 GMT, Walter Mitty wrote:

"John" risked the wrath of Usenet weenies mastering
mommies computer when he ventured forth on 2006-02-21, commmitted
his life to the whims of Google, and spluttered:

ATi is finally doing what they should have done before Crossfire was
first shipped - integrated the compositor into the silicon of every
high-end Crossfire-capable GPU and (a la SLI) symmetrically
data-linking the GPUs on identical boards or modules.

See:-

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=909

Seems not a good time to 'invest' in any of the current Crossfire
implementations. Orphaned products with very low sales volumes
( the current Master/dongle cards) normally get poor long-term
technical/software support.

John Lewis

It is a rum day when a company incurs the wrath of Mr Lewis.

Nope. Not the company. Just the asinine management and marketing.

I'm sure that ATI engineering prototyped Crossfire in its present
form, showed it to management and asked "please can we integrate
the compositor into the GPUs and emulate SLI with identical boards
and symmetrical connections" And marketing/management said
"NO, just ship it for now, some idiots are bound to buy ! "

ATi running after nVidia reminds me of today's version of Intel's CPU
and chip-set groups running behind AMD as the innovator.

dog with a bone he is.


Gabe's rear end would be a much easier and jucier target for my
dog.... :-) :-)

John Lewis

--
It is better to be an "expert" than it is to do actual work.

Is that the biggest problem you could dig up with ATI? Because it
sounds like a non-issue to me. It's not as if SLI is a particularly
sensible deal, either.

On Tue, 21 Feb 2006 16:03:46 -0500, "Magnulus"
wrote:

Is that the biggest problem you could dig up with ATI? Because it
sounds like a non-issue to me.

Sure is an issue if you are somebody not particularly rich but
a PC gaming-enthusiast. pony up $1000 and 3 months later
find that the dual-card implementation that you invested in
had become a totally obsolete architecture nine months
after its introduction. Past history of low-volume obsolete
architectures has not been kind in terms of technical
support and software updates.

It's not as if SLI is a particularly
sensible deal, either.


Agreed, but 4 million SLI motherboards, 10 million
SLI-capable video cards, 500k-1million dual-card
SLI gaming rigs, plus a unified driver architecture
does have some weight in terms of long-term support.

John Lewis

For those looking for an eventual dually X1900 setup, the Crossfire master
card, already available, can work as a standalone. Price premium is about
$50. Finding a slave card in the future should not be problematic.

--
"War is the continuation of politics by other means.
It can therefore be said that politics is war without
bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed."

"Magnulus" wrote in message
. ..
Is that the biggest problem you could dig up with ATI? Because it
sounds like a non-issue to me. It's not as if SLI is a particularly
sensible deal, either.

Sure is John but most of us cross over from time to time. Why can't we just
all get along? VBG FWIW, I've been Intel all my computer life I've finally
come to the painful realization that Intel is no longer the innovator and
AMD is kicking but so my next box will be AMD. I switched from Matrox to ATI
years ago when I realized that they dropped out of the gaming market. Now
I'm going to switch to nVidia because ATI and nVidia are no longer
leapfrogging. IMHO, nVidia has the undisputable lead and I think they will
keep it into the foreseeable future. My brand loyalty only goes so far

"John W" wrote in message
...
Not that I have anything against ATI but isn't this a NVIDIA Newsgroup?

John W

"John Lewis" wrote in message
...
ATi is finally doing what they should have done before Crossfire was
first shipped - integrated the compositor into the silicon of every
high-end Crossfire-capable GPU and (a la SLI) symmetrically
data-linking the GPUs on identical boards or modules.

See:-

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=909

Seems not a good time to 'invest' in any of the current Crossfire
implementations. Orphaned products with very low sales volumes
( the current Master/dongle cards) normally get poor long-term
technical/software support.

John Lewis

For those interested in ATI video cards, they could always have a look in:

alt.comp.periphs.videocards.ati

John W

"Ed Forsythe" wrote in message
...
Sure is John but most of us cross over from time to time. Why can't we
just all get along? VBG FWIW, I've been Intel all my computer life I've
finally come to the painful realization that Intel is no longer the
innovator and AMD is kicking but so my next box will be AMD. I switched
from Matrox to ATI years ago when I realized that they dropped out of the
gaming market. Now I'm going to switch to nVidia because ATI and nVidia
are no longer leapfrogging. IMHO, nVidia has the undisputable lead and I
think they will keep it into the foreseeable future. My brand loyalty only
goes so far

"John W" wrote in message
...
Not that I have anything against ATI but isn't this a NVIDIA Newsgroup?

John W

"John Lewis" wrote in message
...
ATi is finally doing what they should have done before Crossfire was
first shipped - integrated the compositor into the silicon of every
high-end Crossfire-capable GPU and (a la SLI) symmetrically
data-linking the GPUs on identical boards or modules.

See:-

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=909

Seems not a good time to 'invest' in any of the current Crossfire
implementations. Orphaned products with very low sales volumes
( the current Master/dongle cards) normally get poor long-term
technical/software support.

John Lewis

On Tue, 21 Feb 2006 19:33:34 GMT, (John Lewis)
wrote:

ATi is finally doing what they should have done before Crossfire was
first shipped - integrated the compositor into the silicon of every
high-end Crossfire-capable GPU and (a la SLI) symmetrically
data-linking the GPUs on identical boards or modules.

See:-

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=909

Seems not a good time to 'invest' in any of the current Crossfire
implementations. Orphaned products with very low sales volumes
( the current Master/dongle cards) normally get poor long-term
technical/software support.

John Lewis

Is there anyone that spends a fortune on new video cards that doesn't
realize they're a sucker deal? Something twice as fast is always a
year away.

"Ed Forsythe" wrote in message
...
Sure is John but most of us cross over from time to time. Why can't we
just all get along? VBG FWIW, I've been Intel all my computer life I've
finally come to the painful realization that Intel is no longer the
innovator and AMD is kicking but so my next box will be AMD. I switched
from Matrox to ATI years ago when I realized that they dropped out of the
gaming market. Now I'm going to switch to nVidia because ATI and nVidia
are no longer leapfrogging. IMHO, nVidia has the undisputable lead and I
think they will keep it into the foreseeable future. My brand loyalty only
goes so far

"IMHO, nVidia has the undisputable lead and I think they will keep it into
the foreseeable future." --- This coming from a guy who *just recently*
conceded to AMD's technological superiority over Intel?

This "undisputable lead" you mention doesn't exist. It's very evident that
they are neck-and-neck competitors at this point in time. Sounds like you've
got the same death grip on nVidia as you *had* on Intel.

Tony