LGA775 PCI-E performance

Ed · 11 Aug 2006 at 10:41

The new RD600 from ATi will have 3 PCI-E x16 slots instead of the usual configs of current conroe boards [link] such as 1 or 2 PCI-E x16 and 1 PCI-E x1. If I remember from the days of AGP, x4 and x8 yielded very little, if not any difference at all in terms of performance. With the tidal wave of physics and dual GPU's in the foreseeable future is the extra bandwidth of x16 worth it over the current 975 chipsets which sport x8 in crossfire mode and usually x1 as an extra?

I'm holding out for a motherboard, particularly RD600 and am losing the will to hang on as there is no pre-order, no news on release on any next gen boards.

What's peoples thoughts on this?

Elric · 11 Aug 2006 at 11:25

Go for an interim solution, get a DS3 for now and swap it out later. The DS3 is a great board for the price, especially if you want to o/c, but just make sure you get compatible ram.

I've got the DS4 as it has the heatpipe setup, but it i was going for an interim board, I'd have saved the difference and gone cheaper.

Ed · 11 Aug 2006 at 18:42

Going interim would work if the wait for RD600 is 6 months or more but it's only around the corner, allegedly!

Another thought: would a PCI-E card, such as my X1900XT, lose performance if it were to run at PCI-E x1 and not PCI-E x16? There's enough boards out there with the features I need to warrant buying now but if the extra bandwidth of the RD600 is worth sticking around for, then I will.

Elric · 12 Aug 2006 at 00:09

A PCI-e x16 card would not fit in a PCi-e x1 slot. :confused:

Sokay, just re-read your post, and if I'm not mistaken, you're considering using 3 ATi cards in a DS3 / DS4?

This will not work at the moment. if you're considering a DS3, it will definately NOT work. A DS4 will give you two 8x lanes, but even now they are not supported by CrossFire.

The only board I can think of at the moment that would suffice would be the Intel "BadAxe" board, as it has 3 PCI-e x16 slots. these slots are not all x16 rated, but will at least physically support the cards.

I suppose the only thing to say is if you are really wanting a RD600 based mobo AND they are just around the corner, then wait for the boards to be released.

BUT... an option as I mentioned earlier would be go for a DS3/DS4 now and buy a RD600 board when they settle a little and sell the DS3/4 board to recoup some cash?

Ed · 12 Aug 2006 at 08:22

Elric said:
A PCI-e x16 card would not fit in a PCi-e x1 slot.

Sokay, just re-read your post, and if I'm not mistaken, you're considering using 3 ATi cards in a DS3 / DS4?

This will not work at the moment. if you're considering a DS3, it will definately NOT work. A DS4 will give you two 8x lanes, but even now they are not supported by CrossFire.

The only board I can think of at the moment that would suffice would be the Intel "BadAxe" board, as it has 3 PCI-e x16 slots. these slots are not all x16 rated, but will at least physically support the cards.

I suppose the only thing to say is if you are really wanting a RD600 based mobo AND they are just around the corner, then wait for the boards to be released.

BUT... an option as I mentioned earlier would be go for a DS3/DS4 now and buy a RD600 board when they settle a little and sell the DS3/4 board to recoup some cash?

As you can tell I've been out the hardware loop since the old Voodoo2 SLi days.

I've already got a X1900XT to run in the rig until DirectX 10 settles but will eventually, after the first roundup, get dual DX10 GPU and need another slot free for a physics adapter if or when they're needed maybe late 2007. Being a Microsoft Partner means I get Vista on release so may as well fire it up and bench for allegedly increased DX9 performance and wait for DX10 games to evolve.

There's a couple of boards such as Asus P5W and MSI 975x PU that sport more than two PCI-E slots and support multi GPU so maybe that's a better interim.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Elric · 12 Aug 2006 at 10:57

which CPU are you thinking of using?

One other thing, Currently CrossFire is only available using a Master card / Slave card combo, as it uses a cable to loop between the two GFX cards. If ATi are to be implementing Multi GFX with Physics, the physical configuration will need to change to support it.

So what ever you GFX you have now, it may *not* be fully compatible anyway.

Ed · 12 Aug 2006 at 12:03

I'm aiming to go E6600 to begin with, then upgrade to Quad in Q1/2 2007. As for GFX, I'm waiting on next gen DX10 and will be giving my X1900XT to my girlfriend along with the E6600.

My thoughts were that the new crop of boards will scale much further than say a DS3 with all this forthcoming tech and it's just a case of holding out a little longer for it.

The upgrade bug is worse than the travel bug I have

Elric · 12 Aug 2006 at 12:43

spinneR~uk said:
I'm aiming to go E6600 to begin with, then upgrade to Quad in Q1/2 2007. As for GFX, I'm waiting on next gen DX10 and will be giving my X1900XT to my girlfriend along with the E6600.

My thoughts were that the new crop of boards will scale much further than say a DS3 with all this forthcoming tech and it's just a case of holding out a little longer for it.

The upgrade bug is worse than the travel bug I have

right simple then...

Buy a DS3/DS4, use and abuse till quad core and swap the lot.