HEXUS.BEANS :: World Exclusive :: ATi Multi Video Processing Unit

[DR]

Sadly, it seems that just like NVIDIA with SLi, ATI’s MVP solution will come with a few rigid pre-set conditions before you can enjoy the benefits… so not all that different from a bit of twin action after all… In order to run the ATI AMR solution you’ll first off need to have a compatible mainboard and then you’ll 2 cards, but not just any card, oh no… read on.

http://www.hexus.net/content/reviews...lld19JRD0xMTY1

[Ruggerbugger]

Sounds interesting. With, I suspect, the majority of ATI customers owning 9700/9800 series cards, I think the reviewers will have an interesting time.

[NightWolf]

Sounds very interesting. I think that if ATI can get the system to work with a NF4 chipset it will eat NVIDIA's SLI market....
Will be interesting to see how this performs compaired to SLI
The external connecter is an interesting idea, I guess its the only way to have backwards compatability with old cards...

[phaeton]

ATi R520 is set set to be placed in direct competition with NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra (fastest card to fastest card). This could make the NVIDIA GeForce 6800GT product’s life rather difficult as it will be head-2-head with ATI RADEON X850 XT (R480). Working on the assumption that ATi will continue manufacturing all of these products, then will not a dual-card ATI R480 solution be competing directly with a brace of NVIDIA GeForce 6800GT in SLi mode?

The top end R520 will not be competing with the 6800U (that wouldn't make sense as in a single implementation both 850XT and 6800U are neck and neck) but will be set to destroy 6800U's SLI.

... Imagine that power... if you put two of the R520's together... the performance would be almost like 4 6800U's... and if the benchmark of 15K 3DMark05 on one R520 (stock) is true... well then we are in for a nice couple of years ahead

[alterion]

wait so with this i could use my current cad as a "slave" and then buy a new genearation r520 card as the "master" card and still use my old card.. sheeewt

[simtech]

I guess this is probably based on a similar concept to the one already used to get 16 ATI GPUs working in parallel in the CAE Medallion-S image generator.

That's got the components of 4 standard type high-end ATI graphics cards (GPU, memory etc.) built onto a single extra large PCB - it looks very similar to 4 normal cards laid out in a 2x2 panel - with 4 of the 4-way cards then installed into a single system unit, connected via the motherboard bus plus a separate interconnect board. The rest of the system is derived from standard-ish PC components, adapted to suit, plus the actual video output parts.

Performance is obviously impressive, as is the cost. And most installations would use at least 3 channels for a single display i.e. 48 GPUs - the system is scalable by adding extra units/channels to a display.

All of which makes the idea of a couple of 850XTs seem a bit tame to be honest. Still, nice to see the commodity market starting to catch up.

[trinibwoy]

wait so with this i could use my current cad as a "slave" and then buy a new genearation r520 card as the "master" card and still use my old card.. sheeewt

I don't think so. Only PCIe cards need apply. This is going to be a big selling point of the R480 and R520 though - the ability to add a next gen card on top of your existing card is going to be a sweet proposition.

[Ronin]

How can you possibly compare the R520 to the 6800U? There's no comparison there, simply based on core/design modifications.

I think this will give ATi an interesting bullet or two to shoot at nVidia, but you can't leave the G70 out of the mix if you're going to talk about the R520.

[Ratchet]

The question now is... wtf make a "Master" card? Is it different hardware? Will there be two kinds of every card now, "Master" and "Slave"? Or is a Master card simply defined by the card that is currently sitting in PEG slot 1?

Also, before you guys with 9700 Pros get too excited, remember that this is PCI-Express only stuff. AGP card owners need not apply.

fp!

[exAndrzej]

...I'll go out on a limb...

Just make sure that it is thick enough to support you

[friskyolive]

What an excellent article; just when things seem to be in a relatively lob-sided state, we have the scale tilted the other way, hopefully in all of favour to US! All in favour?

[alterion]

read the sig.. i have a pci-e card....

[suryad]

Wow I can imagine systems which have 4 R520s being hooked together!! Heck with 4 core procs arriving in 2007, is that really so far fetched to believe?

[DR]

Thats not what is being talked about here - of course we will see 2 cores one piece of silicon but cooling it is hard.

[DR]

Also how do you link 4 cards - if you have to use an external dongle?

[oralpain]

How can you possibly compare the R520 to the 6800U? There's no comparison there, simply based on core/design modifications.

I think this will give ATi an interesting bullet or two to shoot at nVidia, but you can't leave the G70 out of the mix if you're going to talk about the R520.

The 6800U will supposedly still be the NVIDIA top of the line card when the R520 is release. i think thats all they were getting at.

BTW, NVIDIAs drivers still need an OpenGL tripple buffering override.