Sunday, July 13th 2008
R700 Supports 4-way Crossfire X?
Yes, you read that right. You can use upto four HD4870 X2 accelerators in tandem for an 8-GPU, 9.6 TFLOP, 8 GB graphics crunching monster. You need a 4-slot motherboard though. There are 4-slot solutions available on the AMD 790FX platform, for Intel though X48 did support 4 slots and images of prototype X48 boards with 4 slots did surface months back, there isn't such a board out yet. You do have the Skulltrail platform and upcoming X58 Bloomfield-supportive boards do promise to come in 4 slot flavours.
In a press-conference, Raja Koduri, worldwide CTO (Products Group), AMD talked to Indian website TechTree, among minor revelations such as "Fusion in 2009", here's a shocker:
"AMD has already built a computer that has four 4870X2s in it. So it has eight GPUs; drivers will not be supporting eight GPUs at this point of time."
-Implies that AMD is fully geared up to go head on against GT200b whenever it comes up. It's all a matter of them releasing a supportive driver. Again, unreliable sources point towards the possibility that also in the pipeline could be a R700+ which could be based on 'Super-RV770XT' processors. If you thought you're witnessing the peak of the GPU battle for supremacy, hold on, you're only getting appetised.
Source:
TechTree
In a press-conference, Raja Koduri, worldwide CTO (Products Group), AMD talked to Indian website TechTree, among minor revelations such as "Fusion in 2009", here's a shocker:
"AMD has already built a computer that has four 4870X2s in it. So it has eight GPUs; drivers will not be supporting eight GPUs at this point of time."
-Implies that AMD is fully geared up to go head on against GT200b whenever it comes up. It's all a matter of them releasing a supportive driver. Again, unreliable sources point towards the possibility that also in the pipeline could be a R700+ which could be based on 'Super-RV770XT' processors. If you thought you're witnessing the peak of the GPU battle for supremacy, hold on, you're only getting appetised.
89 Comments on R700 Supports 4-way Crossfire X?
Most US houses have a 20Amp 120VAC trip. I read an article several months ago about the upper limit for most PSU's will be about 1800W for US households. (if the PSU's are more efficient, they can go to higher ratings)
well think about it, the manufacturer are really going to suffer from this kind of war between Nvidai and Ati. The 3rd party producers cant be in a good situation right now. And why should the consumer care ....well look at the whole nvidia and their mobile GPUs fiasco. When manufacturers suffer in this way they start to cut corners.which means that shoddy products end up in the market. I would not be surprised if warranty periods are reduced all of a sudden. We are all not rich folks , I need to spend my hard earned cash to but a new GPU and I expect to get my money's worth. If however this GT280 dies out after 1 year..then I cant even sell it.
They can do gaming, crunch numbers, and keep it nice and warm for the night too. :laugh:
I can easily run this 1600W monster even with all the other PCs on at the same time. However, a PC that uses that much power (8 GPUs :wtf: ) don't even qualify as overkill anymore - since 2 of those cards would be doing nothing but sucking juice :(
Thank AMD for preventing Intel from selling you a 5.00 GHz 200W, $1000 Netburst CPU, Thank ATI for preventing NVIDIA from selling you a $350 9800 GTX or better still, $500 8800 GTX (after R680 demolished it). The day either Intel or NVIDIA monopolize the industry, the victims are going to be us, the users. Users turn losers.
TBH, I think this is ATI flexing their muscle at this point - TBH, I would be surprised if within the next few GPU generations, tha majority of their cards are dual GPU.
Sure, those of us common consumers wouldn't ever have a need for any more than maybe 4 GPUs; but for people working in certain industries that need all the rendering power they can get their hands on, being able to run 8 GPUs in cooperation would be a blessing.
I really don't think this is anything more than one of those "look what I can do!!" kinda incidents. A big fat
to the green camp.
I think the 8 GPU capability is an awesome development for all of us, even if everyone can't use it or afford it now...it pushes both companies forward and allows developments to trickle down for everyone.
well maybe not crysis:laugh:
but this 8 gpu's may get DreamWorks back
Look at the 8800GTX. When it came out, all the different derivatives of it was $800-1000 :wtf: 1 years later, you could pick it up for $400-500. 2 yrs later, you can get it on eBay for $150-200 :rolleyes: The GTX280 was $650, a month later $500. If things keep going like they are, & it will, the thing will be about $200 in 11 months or so. The best thing NV buyers can do is buy what they can, then step up when the next thing comes out. The resell value of this thing is going to be cah soon so live it up while you can ;)
If you need four GPUs to play your games, or hell, even do your multi-media work, you are fu**ing with one seriously demanding application.
So much so, that I would question it's coding...
"Look at the 8800GTX. When it came out, all the different derivatives of it was $800-1000 1 years later, you could pick it up for $400-500. 2 yrs later, you can get it on eBay for $150-200 The GTX280 was $650, a month later $500. If things keep going like they are, & it will, the thing will be about $200 in 11 months or so."
Which begs the question why everyone is so up in arms over it's price....
"So it has eight GPUs; drivers will not be supporting eight GPUs at this point of time"
stop dreaming .. there is no promise that the driver will ever support 8 gpus. everything in the driver is engineered to support a maximum of four active gpus.
"drivers will not be supporting 4597498547 GPUs at this point of time"
omg ?! ati working on 4597498547-gpu computer?
all raja said is that they inserted 4 r700 cards into a motherboard, not that they powered it, not that it worked, not that it had been used for anything... NOTHING. you people just got so PR-owned by techtree