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LOSTCIRCUITS	SHORTCUTS: Distributed Computing Crossfire - SLI RX200 Chipset Overview At One Glance What You Get Layout VRM On-Board Peripherals BIOS Test Configuration / Debugging Memory, Audio, USB, RAID DOOM3 3DMark'05 Canyon Flight FarCry and 5.12 Drivers Quake4 F.E.A.R. Call Of Duty2 Final Words Comment on this review on the LC Forums
Sapphire Pure Crossfire A9RD480 There was something we meant to say .. but we forgot
(Review by MS, Dec 22 2005)

The essence of the Crossfire platform is to provide a counteroffer to nVidia's SLI Platform when it comes to gaming and multimedia and this is where our benchmark suite focuses on. That is, we are taking the Sapphire PC-A9RD480 board with a pair of RADEON X850XT and pit it against a direct competitor, namely the DFI LAN Party UT NF4 UltraD (SLI enabled) with two ASUS n7800 GT in SLI configuration.

* for compatibility and comparison reasons, the memory latencies were set on both systems to 2:3:2:7:9:11 (CL:tRCD:tRP:tRAS:tRC:tRFC) with a Write Recovery Time of 2T and Read Write Turnaround of 3T. All benchmarks were run at a Command Rate of 1T

Software Configuration:

• WindowsXP Pro Corp ed.
• SP2
• DX9c
• SiSoft Sandra
• HDTach
• 3DMark'05
• DOOM3 (Demo1)
• Quake4 (LC Demo 005)
• arCry (LC Demo5)
• Code of Honor2 (LC Demo1)
• F.E.A.R (Default Benchmark)

Installation

In theory, installation of a mainboard should nowadays be straightforward compared to what we had some 8-9 years ago. With respect to just getting the PC-A9RD480 up and running, there were no real issues other than the stability problems that could be finally traced to the "Weak" Drive Strength setting in the BIOS. Among other things, some of the symptoms included very slow execution of for example the Windows XP Service Pack2 update (error and retry) and apparent slow IDE transfers on the CDROM channel. How these issues were exactly caused is not clear, some of this may be purely coincidental but a consistent observation was that on the test rig, setting the memory drive strength below nominal, caused problems with the recognition of CD / DVD media. Keep in mind that this is not a flaw but we feel mentioning of this may help avoiding some headaches.

The situation was somewhat different with respect to getting Crossfire to work. The first issue we ran into was the confusion about the PEG slot layout which is non-standard on the Sapphire board (at least compared to the ATI reference). This should not be an issue however, if there are any problems, and the "online Help" is accessed via the Catalyst Control Center, the Help illustrations show exactly the opposite of what actually works on the PC-A9RD480 board. Once again, this type of confusion can can cause severe headaches if things are not working correctly because instead of solving the problem, the instructions lead to a path that is definitely not working.

The problems that could arise are - amongst other things - found in the drivers. In order to get Crossfire to work, the very latest chipset and graphics drivers are required. For example, using the Catalyst 5.10 drivers will result in the problem that the Crossfire configuration / cable connectivity is not sensed correctly and generate the following screen output:

After updating to the 5.11 drivers (embedded in the latest chipset drivers) or better 5.12 or 5.13 beta, this problem disappears. Overall, we cannot recommend the 5.11 drivers, they are slow, and there is a noticeable performance increase in a number of games after upgrading to the 5.12 drivers.

Major Rants

Aside from technical issues, one of the biggest gripes we had with the Crossfire platform and the ATI driver suite is the mandatory installation of DOTNET. The result is that it is no longer possible to boot straight into Windows, rather, what you get is a login screen, which also happens every time the screensaver kicks in. Arguably, many users have their systems configured this way anyway, especially in the corporate environment but for the home user, this is extremely annoying and, given an equal choice between the Crossfire and any other platform, this would be the straw that breaks the camel's back. In other words adding some absolutely superfluous, not to say borderline retarded requirements for the users is one of the safest way of losing customers.