ASRock Enables CrossFire on nForce 740i SLI Motherboard

btarunr · Mar 4, 2009

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.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

MilkyWay · Mar 4, 2009

legal minefield!!!

nice idea tho sadly i have an ati chipset board

phanbuey · Mar 4, 2009

now if they could only enable SLI on the 790GX

EaGle1337 · Mar 4, 2009

how the heck did they do this

Error 404 · Mar 4, 2009

EaGle1337 said:
how the heck did they do this

Witchcraft.

thebeephaha · Mar 4, 2009

Asrock has more talent than most give them credit.

wolf2009 · Mar 4, 2009

thebeephaha said:
Asrock has more talent than most give them credit.

agreed, nice innovation

Error 404 · Mar 4, 2009

thebeephaha said:
Asrock 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.

ShadowFold · Mar 4, 2009

Nvidia doesn't make motherboards anymore, why would they?

Mussels · Mar 4, 2009

Error 404 said:
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.

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.

cdawall · Mar 4, 2009

asrock does some crazy shit lol

Error 404 · Mar 4, 2009

ShadowFold said:
Nvidia doesn't make motherboards anymore, why would they?

Because motherboards = $$ for nVidia.

Wow @ Asrock making AM2 drop in motherboard, thats pretty clever.

hat · Mar 4, 2009

Error 404 said:
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.

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

btarunr · Mar 4, 2009

Error 404 said:
Wow @ 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.

eidairaman1 · Mar 4, 2009

whats funny is This is an Intel Chipset, So what about the NV AMD Chipset?

Hayder_Master · Mar 4, 2009

nice , i want see some day can crossfire ATI card with nvidia card

steelkane · Mar 4, 2009

smart move by asrock.

legends84 · Mar 4, 2009

wow... really great.. hope my amd 780a could CF as well..hahaha

DrPepper · Mar 4, 2009

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.

js01 · Mar 4, 2009

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.

[I.R.A]_FBi · Mar 4, 2009

I usually hate on assrock, but for this, major proppings ... wished there was a thanks button for asrock

DrPepper · Mar 4, 2009

[I.R.A]_FBi said:
I 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.

Mussels · Mar 4, 2009

DrPepper said:
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.

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.

PCpraiser100 · Mar 4, 2009

Who think ASRock could be threatened for a lawsuit?

DrPepper · Mar 4, 2009

Mussels said:
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.

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.

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ASRock Enables CrossFire on nForce 740i SLI Motherboard

btarunr

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MilkyWay

phanbuey

EaGle1337

Error 404

thebeephaha

wolf2009

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Error 404

ShadowFold

New Member

Mussels

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cdawall

where the hell are my stars

Error 404

hat

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btarunr

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eidairaman1

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Hayder_Master

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