Tuesday, March 3rd 2009

ASRock Enables CrossFire on nForce 740i SLI Motherboard

by
btarunr
 Discuss (32 Comments)
ATI's CrossFire multi-GPU technology started off on the Intel platform with ATI's own brand of chipset before AMD acquired the company. AMD/ATI then allowed CrossFire and the succeeding CrossFireX standards to be supported by Intel chipsets. The only current chipset platform that doesn't support CrossFire is the NVIDIA nForce series, which as ASRock demonstrated during the ongoing CeBIT event, breaks the dogma.

ASRock devised a BIOS for its nForce 740i based N7AD-SLI motherboard that enables support for CrossFire. AMD's Catalyst drivers were able to detect the motherboard as a qualified platform and enable CrossFire between two installed ATI Radeon accelerators. The setup was able to show performance increments during a 3DMark06 session. ASRock is reportedly working out similar BIOS firmware for several other motherboards made by it, and wants to enable CrossFire, CrossFireX for all its nForce motherboards.
Source: Hardware-Aktuell

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32 Comments on ASRock Enables CrossFire on nForce 740i SLI Motherboard

#1
MilkyWay
legal minefield!!!

nice idea tho sadly i have an ati chipset board
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#2
phanbuey
now if they could only enable SLI on the 790GX
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#3
EaGle1337
how the heck did they do this
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#4
Error 404
EaGle1337how the heck did they do this
Witchcraft.
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#5
thebeephaha
Asrock has more talent than most give them credit.
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#6
Unregistered
thebeephahaAsrock has more talent than most give them credit.
agreed, nice innovation
#7
Error 404
thebeephahaAsrock has more talent than most give them credit.
Agreed, they managed to stick PCI-E and AGP together on a 775 motherboard. It wasn't very well done IMO, as the PCI-E x16 slot was only x4 electrically, and who would use an AGP card when they could get a PCI-E card much cheaper?

This, however, looks much more worth it, although I wouldn't be surprised if nVidia gets pissed off by it.
Posted on Reply
#8
ShadowFold
Nvidia doesn't make motherboards anymore, why would they?
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#9
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
Error 404Agreed, they managed to stick PCI-E and AGP together on a 775 motherboard. It wasn't very well done IMO, as the PCI-E x16 slot was only x4 electrically, and who would use an AGP card when they could get a PCI-E card much cheaper?

This, however, looks much more worth it, although I wouldn't be surprised if nVidia gets pissed off by it.
later boards had AGP and PCI-E at 16x. only the first model was 4x.

Dont forget asrock had a 939 board with an AM2 addon board as well, they've made some really cool stuff. I think they were one of the first with onboard wifi as well.


For quite some time its been known that its only BIOS registers that enable/disable crossfire, the legal minefield is what stopped it... if ATI supports this it will get stopped, but if they remain quiet its asrock who gets yelled at. and asrock may not have to stop.
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#10
cdawall
where the hell are my stars
asrock does some crazy shit lol
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#11
Error 404
ShadowFoldNvidia doesn't make motherboards anymore, why would they?
Because motherboards = $$ for nVidia.

Wow @ Asrock making AM2 drop in motherboard, thats pretty clever.
Posted on Reply
#12
hat
Enthusiast
Error 404Agreed, they managed to stick PCI-E and AGP together on a 775 motherboard. It wasn't very well done IMO, as the PCI-E x16 slot was only x4 electrically, and who would use an AGP card when they could get a PCI-E card much cheaper?

This, however, looks much more worth it, although I wouldn't be surprised if nVidia gets pissed off by it.
I was considering getting the dualcore vsta because I was considering moving on up from a 478 platform to 775 but I couldn't afford a new graphics card and ddr2 memory that went along with it. however I fell short on even that but my uncle got me this kickass rig which I has evolved quite a bit. the only 2 origional components are the cpu and motherboard, everything else has changed at least once, including the case
Posted on Reply
#13
btarunr
Editor & Senior Moderator
Error 404Wow @ Asrock making AM2 drop in motherboard, thats pretty clever.
ECS once made an LGA-775 motherboard (before Core 2 came along), that also supported socket 939 through a riser.
Posted on Reply
#14
eidairaman1
The Exiled Airman
whats funny is This is an Intel Chipset, So what about the NV AMD Chipset?
Posted on Reply
#15
Hayder_Master
nice , i want see some day can crossfire ATI card with nvidia card
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#17
legends84
wow... really great.. hope my amd 780a could CF as well..hahaha:D
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#18
DrPepper
The Doctor is in the house
Asrock are really talented when it comes to this kinda stuff. With this kind of innovation I'm surprised they aren't market leaders. Also this is just like the alienware motherboards that support Xfire and SLI.
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#19
js01
I have an asrock board and i'm very impressed by it for the price i paid $110 it has plenty of features including crossfire.
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#20
[I.R.A]_FBi
I usually hate on assrock, but for this, major proppings ... wished there was a thanks button for asrock
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#21
DrPepper
The Doctor is in the house
[I.R.A]_FBiI usually hate on assrock, but for this, major proppings ... wished there was a thanks button for asrock
I wished the all the computer companies toured these websites and used our feedback. Asrock would get props for this.
Posted on Reply
#22
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
DrPepperAsrock are really talented when it comes to this kinda stuff. With this kind of innovation I'm surprised they aren't market leaders. Also this is just like the alienware motherboards that support Xfire and SLI.
asrock are a division of asus. so in a way, they are market leaders.

asrock get the budget boards and the weird frankensteins - if an idea takes off, they move it to asus boards.
Posted on Reply
#23
PCpraiser100
Who think ASRock could be threatened for a lawsuit?
Posted on Reply
#24
DrPepper
The Doctor is in the house
Musselsasrock are a division of asus. so in a way, they are market leaders.

asrock get the budget boards and the weird frankensteins - if an idea takes off, they move it to asus boards.
I know but you would think they had a greater market share and reputation with this kinda stuff.

I doubt they will be sued because this seems like a demonstration but it would be cool if they did make a production version.
Posted on Reply
#25
Baum
i love asrock, just shows what's possible and always sticks out of the budget market.
one of my favorite board makers even if quality is some time a bit poor/low
Posted on Reply
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