RD600 and 32 lanes quest Help appreciated!!

[Sym8olo]

Hello all,
This is a simple question but difficult to explain, as it has many sides so please stick with it and try to help me please!

I'm confused and I want to buy a conroe crossfire rig. I think the DFI RD600 mobo is what I want but it may not be worth the wait. Set me straight on any of the below if I'm wrong!

In reviews, crossfire is always quoted as running off two pciExpress slots at 8x each, where an SLI rig can use up to the full 32lanes. Is it infact true that the new chipset 3200 Crossfire express with RD600 and SB600 will provide ATI dual GPUs with 32 lanes or not?
I have seen some articles that suggest this and others which indicate it will still be two pciExpress x16 8x+ 8x for crossfire.

I am hoping that by posting here someone can set me straight on the benefits, if any, of having 32 lanes dedicated to GPUs.
I think that with the newer Crossfire express standard some reviews pointed out the fact that ATI like Nvidia now has the capability to use the full 32 lanes for the GPUS, however, I have found no reviews that compare the old and new standards with the emphasis on the improvement (if any) the full bandwidth makes.

Lastly, I think I have a misunderstanding. I am wondering if it has to do with the answer to this question:
Does anyone know whether Using the Dongle
a)effectively gives ATI the same bandwidth as an SLI setup, or otherwise negates the necessity for full 32 lanes, OR
b) It has NOTHING to do with this? in which case I need to know about the above

Phew!

[BUFF]

RD580 (for AMD boards) already has 32 lanes (16+16) for Crossfire.
You should be able to find a review comparing the 8+8 RD480 with it to show the difference.
Like SLI you only might notice it at very high res. & levels of FSAA etc.

[ExceededGoku]

the RD600 has 48 lanes for graphics and physics

[Hottentot]

The intel 975X chipset has 2x 16 for Crossfire so I expect the RD600 will have the same. You will have to wait for the reviews.
The crossfire set-up needs a master and slave card and the dongle links the two. There were some figures on crossfire without the dongle but performance was lower at high resolutions.

[Sym8olo]

Thanks all, I saw the review with the comparison of dongle vs dongle free xfire. I think this is a separate issue in that it doesnt affect the communication of GPU to the rest of the system , just GPU to GPU.
Hottentot, the intel 975X chipset has 2x 16 for Crossfire but doesnt have a configuration that dedicates 32 lanes to GPUs only. Have a look at the Available Configurations section on intel's site. Tricky tricky.
PCI Express x16 3 (2 routed as x8, 1 as x4) or 3 (2 routed as x8, 1 as x4)

So the new question is: Conroe and 3200 crossfire xpress- is the D600 on DFI's board the only hope for 32lane crossfire with Conroes?
I doubt there'll be another since the AMD/ATI merger.

[YorkieBen]

yep, the RD600 should provide the 2 pci-e 16x slots with 16 lanes each (not 8 each like other conroe mobos)

[R3MF]

but it probably is the only 16+16 crossfire solution until Intel get their act together chipset wise.

[Sym8olo]

Yeah, DFI should be out this month, and I doubt Intel will feel obliged to produce another chipset supporting ATI technology when they've just merged with AMD, we'll see.
Thanks for all your replies !

[Sym8olo]

Still no word on this from any of the sources that reported this in the first place- looks like there are new articles out supposedly 'leaked' or something- describing ATIs new chipset develpment roadmap and it doesnt involve the RD600. Boo.

[Supershanks]

Similar thread here :- Crossfire R600, Intel Board?
have just read
DFI LANParty UT ICFX3200-T2R: ATI's, err, AMD's RD600 finally arrives

The performance difference at this time between dual x8 and x16 CrossFire capable boards is minimal at best, but this could potentially change with the upcoming R600 video card release. While the x8/x16 difference might be important to some, for the majority of users we still recommend buying the fastest single card available based on cost to performance ratios

It's probably a bit like sata v sata 2. The available bandwidth 1500> 3000 is greater but physically the ddrives themselves are virtually identical so there is no big boost in performance.

I'm struggling to decide between this & the Abit IN9 32X-MAX 680i. Both look great boards but:-

Am concerned that if i get the dfi board it's a 1 off, with little support, have seen that it's supposedly a limited edition board which tends to reinforce the fact that support may be shortlived, as dfi move onto to a more mainstream 680i board.

The abit board looks great but have been put off by the sata issues seen effecting various 680i boards. Whilst there has been a lot of hype i'm not totally convinced that the extra cost of the 680i compared to the best 965/975boards gives a better performance.

Luck & Happy xmas