ATI Planning HD 3850 X2?

[[I.R.A]_FBi]

or optys

 

[TheGuruStud]

well as everyone knows its cpu limitations now for agp boards because the best cpu i can think of for agp boards is prolly 939pin amd x2 processors

Agreed, but what if you have a 2.4 x2 939 and need a budget card to the job but still has kick?
Many, many ppl would buy those cards. I think it would be an excellent upgrade to get rid of your old computer or if you just need the extra video features.

I don't how many instances there would be, but for me I have an example:
I could give/sell it to a sibling/child that likes to play games but needs more oomph than the old 6800gt. Pop in a $125 card and they're good to go.

Maybe it's just me, but AGP didn't just magically become legacy with the advent of pci-e. I have a frickin serial and parallel port on my new MB (which I actually need though, for JTAG cables and the like ).

 

[TheGuruStud]

or optys

Yeah, there's a fair number of those running around at 3 ghz. That would play the latest games just fine if you could mate an 8800 series card to it.

 

[Scrizz]

well as everyone knows its cpu limitations now for agp boards because the best cpu i can think of for agp boards is prolly 939pin amd x2 processors

you can get core 2 agp boards aswell

 

[tkpenalty]

AMD is doing R&D with the newer GPUs atm so this will be certainly interesting. They are using a tactic that is very economical. They dont need to redesign anything at all moreover. Certainly a wise tactic. But i hope AMD makes the PCB as long as the original HD3850

 

[candle_86]

if they do this, id bet on it, that Nvidia will do a 9600 GX2 just to piss on AMD

 

[cdawall]

It's called a bridge chip from agp to pci-e and they've been around for a while.
Think about the first pci-e interface cards, but reversed. The cards were the exact same agp boards, but had that bridge chip.

It's easy to do, but they want to force you to buy a pci-e board so they rake in more cash.
I think it's total BS and they shouldn't shit on the customers like that. Especially, since just a couple yrs ago everyone had AGP boards.

not what i mean i know what a bridge is my 7800GS has one the thing is dual cards CAN NOT communicate correctly to the AGP bus hence why there never has and never will be a current gen dual AGP card

 

[InnocentCriminal]

Spoil our dreams why don't cha! >.<

More info for yall...

 

[candle_86]

not what i mean i know what a bridge is my 7800GS has one the thing is dual cards CAN NOT communicate correctly to the AGP bus hence why there never has and never will be a current gen dual AGP card

thats not entirly accurate, the 3dfx cards did it over AGP, as well as the Rage Fury Maxx, and there is a very rare 9800XT dual card that was put into a flight simulator for the goverment that used AGP, so it is possible.

 

[TheGuruStud]

The problem is that it's not a real dual gpu card (it's more like intel's CPUs). So, if they made a real one, then it would be super easy for an AGP version, but I was talking more in general of cards of today.
So, i guess I didn't get what you meant

 

[cdawall]

thats not entirly accurate, the 3dfx cards did it over AGP, as well as the Rage Fury Maxx, and there is a very rare 9800XT dual card that was put into a flight simulator for the goverment that used AGP, so it is possible.

i bolded current gen or did you miss that

even the 9800XT is hardly considered current gen

as for the ancient AGP cards you listed....gee i wonder if those are even considered old tech now...

 

[newtekie1]

I don't think it is entirely impossible to adapt a dual GPU setup using current gen GPUs to AGP.

However, I don't think it is practical.

It would take a lot of time to develop a working method. Since all the communication between the cores is handled on the cards PCB then sent out to the PCI-E bus as a single card, it might be possible to adapt that PCI-E signal to AGP using an AGP bridge chip. However, doing all the tweaking to get this setup working is probably too much time effort and money to warranty spending on a shrinking market.

Also, there is already a lot going on in the current dual GPU cards. To add another bridge chip to the mix would probably make performance suffer. Though most AGP users would probably still be more than happy with the performance.

The cards of this power would also probably suffer from the low bandwidth of the AGP interface.

 

[candle_86]

possible and Nvidia not ATI has the working tech they got it from 3dfx, the voodoo2 and voodoo 5 cards used a chip similar to the brige chip on the 3870x2 cards. All data passed into this chip from both GPU's and was redistrubuted. The only problem is simple, first a PCIe to AGP brige chip then another bridge chip to talk to the two cores, but it is still possible even today, just not worth it.

 

[Morgoth]

@ Candle_86
yes it is agp still got a market

 

[InnocentCriminal]

Are you saying the 3850X2 is AGP Morgoth?

 

[Morgoth]

no just a quote to candle_86

 

[DaedalusHelios]

With a water block the 3850 X2 would be able to possibly reach the OC on my 3850 but with two cards? I would edit the Bios.

Or would something hold it back?