  Quad SLI or CrossFire?
[25 mn de lecture - paru le 5/16/2006 6:56:05 PM - Public : Débutant]
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Auteur
3 CrossFire of ATI
3.1 The response of ATI to the SLI
At the time of the release of the SLI, NVIDIA could be entitled to a series of criticisms.
Thus, a year after this release, ATI then claims to have the solution thwarting all the remarks which could be made against the SLI… This solution is: CrossFire!
Indeed, SLI technology was to use 2 identical cards graphics what made an evolution very expensive since the 2 graphics cards would have then to be changed.
3.2 The principle
CrossFire is presented in 3 parts: the motherboard CrossFire-ready (dedicated to this new technology), a graphics card edition, a card Radeon X800 or X850 (which evolved since until X1900).
The CrossFire Edition graphics card is obligatory for the correct operation of this technology. Indeed, you will not be able to couple 2 Radeon X800 for example.
Moreover, CrossFire leaves the principle that there will be a card known as “Master” and a card in “slave”.
Thus, the 2 graphics cards are connected on the ports PCI-Express of the new motherboard purposely designed in order to accommodate this new technology.
3.3 Connection between the cards
As we saw at the time of the chapter on the SLI of NVIDIA, connection between the 2 graphics cards GeForce was done either by a bridge or by the bus PCI-Express.
CrossFire, uses another principle to him. Indeed, the cards don't communicate directly but by a cable owner outside the case.
3 types of connectors are present: Male DVI, female DVI and DMS.
The cable with connector DMS will make it possible to connect the charts Master and girl. That with male connector DVI will be built on the chart slave, thus connecting it to the screen with the female DVI.
3.4 The comparison with Quad SLI
Tests were carried out with the graphics boards of last generation: GeForce 7900 GX2 for Quad SLI of NVIDIA and Radeon X1900XTX of ATI.
- The 1st test was carried out with 3DMark 2006:
We observe that there is very little difference, however CrossFire carries it here.
- The 2nd test was carried out on the game Doom 3 with 2 different resolutions, one in 1024x768 and the other in 2560x1600:
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