New Hardware

[ATI_7500]

R700 in combination with the technology currently in the works is where it all really begins.

Sounds familiar to me.

Wasn't it the same with the introduction of Dx-9 cards?
First ATI with the 9700Pro, then NVidia with the 5800 series...9800/5900 (just imporoved versions of the old chips)...X8xx/6xxx series (new chips)...X1xxx/7xxx series and finished.

[Ivan]

SP1 is about to be released for FSX in about 2-3 weeks which will also change things, mostly frame lock -or- higher autogen. I also hear they may be dropping the higher water features to 1 pass instead of 2 by FSX for rendering which means the higher water features will not hit the card anywhere near as bad.

SP1 will get multi-core support... that is way more important than the amount of render passes (which should be a pure video thing anyway if they finally cleaned up their act regarding 3d)

[Nick N]

SP1 is about to be released for FSX in about 2-3 weeks which will also change things, mostly frame lock -or- higher autogen. I also hear they may be dropping the higher water features to 1 pass instead of 2 by FSX for rendering which means the higher water features will not hit the card anywhere near as bad.

SP1 will get multi-core support... that is way more important than the amount of render passes (which should be a pure video thing anyway if they finally cleaned up their act regarding 3d)

FSX already has multicore support. All they are doing is increasing the thread use to the terrain calls on the 2nd core and pulling back on the CPU bound calls. The combination of the 2 and an entire list of changes is what will make SP1 sing, not multicore support.

[Nick N]

Well, I just upgraded to an AMD 6000, Asus Crosshair and Mushkin 6400 Extreme memory.

I am waiting to see what the next line of GPUs have to offer before I upgrade my graphics.

I am still running XP so I can use the 7950s in quad mode.

My question is, is it worth the time to tweak FSX to this system if I plan on upgrading the GPU to a DX-10 board.

Will the settings be that much different.

I am not a real fan of 3DMark06 but this thing hit 8900 out of the box and never went over 39 deg on the stock cooler. Seems to be a very stable setup.

If anyone is familiar with overclocking this board I would be interested in what settings you used.

Check your BIOS version Richard. The latest release was #0502 on 4/20/07

Crosshair Release BIOS 0502
1. Change CopyRight year from 2006 to 2007
2. Add new uCode to support new CPU
3. Enable CnQ support for FX62 CPU
4. Add "Press TAB to display BIOS POST Message" string display when full screen logo has been turned on
5. Fixed Aibooster CPU frequency display error when adjust FID
6. Fix speed bar of AI-Booster show abnormal speed
7. Finetune NOS sensitivity
8. Update to AMD AGESA Version 2.08.00
9. Enhance memory compatibility
10. Shorten S3 resume time



Before that it was 0203 on 9/22/06


1. Fixed Cool'n'Quiet and S1 fail
2. Support direct key-in input for CPU frequency.
3. Show CPU frequency & ratio in post screen.
4. Lock power button and CTRL+ALT+DEL during EZFlash 2 to prevent accidental damage to BIOS.
5. Fixed Q-Fan fail after resuming from AI-NAP



The inital release was 0121 on 8/22/06


I would make sure you have the latest installed. If you flash up, don't forget to follow the proper proceedure to clear and load up the new BIOS.

After the flash when it requests a reboot, Power down, (unplug the tower), clear the CMOS by the motherboard jumper, power up, enter the BIOS and go to the exit menu... select "Load Setup Defaults" and then F-10 save and exit.

Re enter the BIOS and set it up normally.

I will post more as I go though your manual.

[Nick N]

R700 in combination with the technology currently in the works is where it all really begins.

Sounds familiar to me.

Wasn't it the same with the introduction of Dx-9 cards?
First ATI with the 9700Pro, then NVidia with the 5800 series...9800/5900 (just imporoved versions of the old chips)...X8xx/6xxx series (new chips)...X1xxx/7xxx series and finished.

This is not the same.. this is coming with an entire new approach to the bus since the new ATi card has the native core ability to directly address the memory controller and with that the cores on the CPU


I am sure Nvidia will copy-cat the design with changes. I suspect the G90 will have such abilities

[ATI_7500]

This is not the same.. this is coming with an entire new approach to the bus since the new ATi card has the native core ability to directly address the memory controller and with that the cores on the CPU

Didn't DirectX-9 cards hit the market with some new ways of doing something as well?


Sorry, it *is* all the same - with the difference that ATI didn't head out to match Nvidia's jump into the DX-10 generation.
Wait till the R600 and G85 (or whatever) are out...the race will be just like it used to be.

[DizZa]

Just like it used to be eh?

You mean how ATi always seemed to beat Nvidia on highend?

[ATI_7500]

You mean how ATi always seemed to beat Nvidia on highend?

Not really.

I can reread the whole 3D card race back till 1999, when NVidia released the Geforce 128, surpassing the former competitors Voodoo 3x (3Dfx), Rage 128/Fury (ATI), Matrox G400 and the TNT2...also from NVidia. After that and through the year 2000, with the release of the GeForce 2 series, NVidia kept on dominating the market. Its nearest enemies were 3Dfx with the Voodoo 5 series and ATI who came up with a new chip on the market - the Radeon. But still, NVidias chips were faster than anything the competition could come up with (Matrox decided to do something else than manufactoring 3D chips for gamers).
Then, in january of 2001, NVidia went out for the kill - purchasing 3Dfx, the closest follow-up to NVdia's market position. The market domination was choking. If you wanted the fastest card out there, you had to go for the brand-new Geforce 3, which was released in june 2001. Any other cards? Yeah, but the Radeon DDR and the very innovative Kyro were only had a chance on the lower budget market. No surprise, since NVidia pushed the prices higher than ever. When 2001 came to a close, ATI finally could face NVidia head-on with the 8500, which by then began to take some market shares back, fueled by the prices which were about fifteen percent lower than for a comparable GF3 (the 7500 (an updated Radeon DDR) took the GF2 head-on in the budget market). But still, if you wanted performance, you had to choose NVidia - thanks to their updated Geforce 3 chip (Ti 500).
In spring of 2002, NVidias product range further gained in width. The Geforce 4 (a updated Geforce 3) and its' many subversions (some were actually GF2s) held up the stakes in the Dx-8 race till the new round for the Direct-X 9 crown began. But suddenly, in august 2002, the GF4 Ti4600 got kicked from the throne...by a brand new, ultra fast and Direct-X 9 compatible card from ATI - the 9700Pro!
The cards in the high end market got shuffeled anew - after three years of unbeaten dominance of one single company. Until february of 2003, the only market NVidia was without competition on were the budget cards...until the Radeon 9500Pro arrived.
The Radeon kept on dominating. Even when NVidia released their long-awaited, but in the end unsatisfying GeForce FX in spring, ATI kept the crown - thanks to the 9800Pro. The race leveled out again in summer of 2003, when NVidia put the 5900 series on the market, which were slightly better than the 9800Pro. The Geforce managed to recapture the 3D throne with the third version of the FX, the 5950 chip (competitor: 9800XT), at the end of 2003.
This didn't change much until mid-2004 when NVdia and ATI released their 6800/X800 series, almost at the same time - this time with a slight advantage for ATI.
The biggest change till early 2005 was the rising importance of PCI-Express, which was dominated till about spring by ATI. There was nothing new on the AGP front till then, it was still a close race between the X800 and 6800 series.
(Inacurracy from here on...)
From mid-2005 on, NVidias GF7 dominated the benchmarks and ATI needed time till x-mas 2005 to put a card on the market that could outperform the competition - the X1800. Soon enough, in spring 2006, ATI upped the ante even more with the X1900 which kept the crown till NVidia launched the 7950GX2.
And from then on, and till now, NVidia cards are the best performing cards on the market.

But for how long?



Sorry for the history lesson. I haven't aimed for 100% accuracy and I know Nick will disagree on everything I wrote, I just wanted to give you an idea about the race between 3D cards.

Even though, the 2900 will shake the market, maybe like the 9700 did, there won't be anything that hasn't been there before.

[DizZa]

Thanks for the history lesson, , however, I wouldn't say the Geforce fx ever managed to outpace the Radeon 9xxx series. Look at them now, the Geforce fx is a ultra low end card which cannot play some modern ganes at all, while most people still consider a 9800pro to be a lower midrange card. In my opininon though, the 7950gx2 never outpaced ATI.

Oh, and check this out!:
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=7043

Me= want!

[Nick N]

Thanks for the history lesson, , however, I wouldn't say the Geforce fx ever managed to outpace the Radeon 9xxx series. Look at them now, the Geforce fx is a ultra low end card which cannot play some modern ganes at all, while most people still consider a 9800pro to be a lower midrange card. In my opininon though, the 7950gx2 never outpaced ATI.

Oh, and check this out!:
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=7043

Me= want!

that's the cheeze model

have some cake

[DizZa]

Thanks for the history lesson, , however, I wouldn't say the Geforce fx ever managed to outpace the Radeon 9xxx series. Look at them now, the Geforce fx is a ultra low end card which cannot play some modern ganes at all, while most people still consider a 9800pro to be a lower midrange card. In my opininon though, the 7950gx2 never outpaced ATI.

Oh, and check this out!:
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=7043

Me= want!

that's the cheeze model

have some cake

[Nick N]

[quote]AMD

[ATI_7500]

however, I wouldn't say the Geforce fx ever managed to outpace the Radeon 9xxx series.

It did.

Not in 3D Mark 01 or without AA/AF, but in most benches the 5950 outran the 98xx series as soon as AF and AA were enabled.

Look at them now, the Geforce fx is a ultra low end card which cannot play some modern ganes at all, while most people still consider a 9800pro to be a lower midrange card.

The FX series wasn't nearly as popular as the 98xx series, mainly thanks to the high prices and the disappointing 5800.

In my opininon though, the 7950gx2 never outpaced ATI.

The GX2 suffers from its SLI configuration which onyl pays off in high resolutions and with AA/AF.

http://hardware.thgweb.de/2006/06/22/nv ... page6.html

Oh, and check this out!:
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=7043

Am I surprised? No.

Am I drooling in excitement? No.

It's business as usual. I'd like to know what NVidia will come up with 'though.

Any infos, Nick?

[DizZa]

[quote]
It did.

[richardd43]

"Lets put dual video cards through one slot and sell it for $600 and hype it up as quad SLI with 4x performance, then sell it to rich kiddies!".

Well, I am not sure you have ever played a game with 2 7950GX2s in quad mode but they are rock solid and get the job done quite well.

When they first came out there was nothing on the market that could keep up with them. In fact a single 7950 GX2 was considered the fastest card on the market.

I read a lot of the reviews about the cards before I bought mine and there were 2 lines of thought about them. One side loved them, the other hated them.

Like everything else, they were dependent on the rest of your hardware. I ran mine with an overclocked 4400 with no problem and now run them with my AM2 6000.

Nick and I spent some time tweaking the system to run right. Because of Nick my 3DMard06 scores jumped from 8000 to 9800 so I don't think the 7950s did to bad. On the same tweaked system I could not get my 7900 GTX anywhere near those scores.

I have not tweaked the 6000 yet but that is coming soon.