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  1. N

    Is there an X38 board that can take two dual-slot PCIe video cards AND two PCI cards?

    Are you sure it's onboard? I thought it was just a free PCIe X-Fi card (presumably the same spec as all the others). http://global.msi.com.tw/index...d_no=1328&maincat_no=1
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    Is there an X38 board that can take two dual-slot PCIe video cards AND two PCI cards?

    As per the subject line, I'd quite like to have a single PC that doubles up as a gaming rig and an HTPC. With ATI's 3870 cards' coolers rated at a pleasing 34dB then a case with reasonable noise-proofing (Antec P182, say) should make this possible: Crossfire graphics, but quiet enough for HTPC...
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    X38 Chipset

    It is entirely believable that a Crossfire X38 rig outperforms a Crossfire P35 rig by a wide margin: P35 Crossfire is badly limited by having to run in x16/x4 mode, where X38 is x16/x16.
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    so the x38 is among us, thoughts?

    However, it's looking as there will be sizeable performance gap between the DDR2 boards and the DDR3 boards.
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    so the x38 is among us, thoughts?

    There is no such thing as a motherboard that is "Crossfire/SLI capable". Some boards can do SLI. Some boards (such as X38) can do Crossfire. There is no board or chipset yet released that can do both. If you want SLI and can wait for a month or too, Nvidia's next chipset is due out in...
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    X38 Chipset

    Most likely not. Increasingly it's looking as though X38 needs DDR3 to perform to its potential. With DDR2 it's crippled. (That, I suspect, is one of the main issues with the tomshardware review - thus far their only available X38 board is DDR2).
  7. N

    X38 Chipset

    No way in hell. If you read the updated article on hothardware you will see: To summarise: Skulltrail is not based on X38. Skulltrail boards will support SLI. X38 boards will not.
  8. N

    Question on X38 and P35

    Crossfire performance on 975X is much better than it on most P35 boards, because most P35 boards run one of the video cards in x4 mode, while 975X is x8/x8. X38 will be a full x16/x16, which may be a shade faster even than 975X. X38 also offers superior over-clocking capabilities to P35, some...
  9. N

    3 PCIe x16 slots? What for?

    Not a "PhysX" card, necessarily - that's still PCI only - but a physics card of some sort; more likely a slightly lower-powered video card. At the time the Bad Axe 2 was designed, Nvidia and ATI were both making a big song and dance about using graphics cards to do physics calculations.
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    X38 Chipset

    Yup, that works.
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    X38 Chipset

    How about posting thats somewhere where I can actually see it? I have to say, this practice of posting images on Anandtech in such a way that they don't make it past firewalls was already getting old about three years ago. Any chance you guys might do something about that? Ever? :(
  12. N

    X38 Chipset

    Penryn, maybe; but Nehalem? Nehalem will have an onboard memory controller. I would have thought it would require a new socket.
  13. N

    X38 Chipset

    You know perfectly well I meant "any X38 boards". :P It doesn't seem utterly unfeasible. I mean, the MSI board has two x16 slots and two x4 slots for a total of 40 lanes. That's more than enough to offer four x8 slots with some left over. They'd have to be single-slot cards, but there's a...
  14. N

    Intel Motherboard in existence that supports full speed dual PCIe x16?

    ATI Xpress 3200 is x8/x8, it's not dual x16. As for your original question, it depends what you mean by "full speed". Anything that uses the Nvidia 680i chipset has x16/x16 SLI (but does not support Crossfire). However, not all of those lanes come off the north bridge, some come off the south...
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    X38 Chipset

    It's not that Intel has decided not to support SLI, it's that Nvidia has decided not to allow SLI on a non-Nvidia motherboard. If Nvidia and ATI were on an equal footing at the moment, Nvidia might lose out by high-end gamers deciding they want an Intel chipset motherboard and switching to ATI...
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    X38 Chipset

    Do you think there will be any boards that support x8/x8/x8/x8 quad-Crossfire? :)
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    Asus P5K vs P5K-E vs P5K Deluxe

    Could someone clarify what the differences are between the three versions of the P5K? Or rather, what are the differences that actually matter? Do they justify the price differential?
  18. N

    theInq: R600 a soundcard too?

    Anyone who was paying attention (i.e. anyone who is not on the staff of The Inquirer :D) has known about this "story" for weeks. As a couple of other people have said, the main application for this is in the HTPC market. Forthcoming HD-DVD and BluRay movies will be using new and superior...
  19. N

    Why does ATI choose Africa to launch R600?

    The launch is happening in Tunisia because the senior AMD (or possibly ATI) executives fancied a holiday somewhere hot where they could go on safari. And that's a perfectly serious suggestion, btw.
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    P180 and upcoming R600

    The retail card will be 9.5" - slightly shorter than an 8800GTX.
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    Why does ATI choose Africa to launch R600?

    Now that's a good idea!!!
  22. N

    All AMD R6xx chips are 65 nanometre chips, now

    Coming to this thread rather late, here, but a few brief points.... 1) People really, seriously need to stop spouting the "15 respins" bullsh*t. In the first place the A15 revision was only ever a rumour, and it's a rumour that has since been firmly squashed. The released version is A13...
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    Quick question for BadAxe2 owners....

    As I understand it, the BadAxe2 has only two PCI (as opposed to PCIe) slots. Am I right in thinking that, if the board is kitted out with two dual-slot PCIe video cards, that this blocks one of the two PCI slots and thus allows only one PCI device to be fitted?
  24. N

    When are we expecting X38 (high-end Bearlake)?

    Rumours suggest that the "mainstream" Intel Bearlake chipsets may be just about to launch - some are being shown at CeBit. Is the "performance" version (X38) likely to be launching any time soon? Or is that still expected "Q3"?
  25. N

    I seem to have a problem with DVD playback on my computer (Formerly: What is the best DVD decoder out there?)

    If you ask an AV geek rather than a PC geek you will probably be told that TheaterTek is the best DVD player.
  26. N

    Are there any x16/x16 C2D Crossfire boards coming soon? (Or ever?)

    Subject line says it all, really: are there any motherboards not yet out but announced (or even rumoured) that are likely to support x16/x16 Crossfire? I guess I'd be surprised if there are. AMD successfully converted the ATI RD600 chipset from x16/x16 to x8/x8 (if you believe the conspiracy...
  27. N

    confirmation on r600 power req

    No they didn't. They announced an April release. That was their only firm announcement on a release date. Yes, they certainly did intend to launch in January at one time, but it was never actually announced.
  28. N

    AMD Plans To Open Cross Fire Architecture To 3rd Party Chipset

    We're presumably talking about a new specification here - we're not talking about existing ATI boards being able to run in Crossfire mode on existing SLI motherboards; and I imagine that any present-generation SLI (and maybe Crossfire) setup would be unable to operate on a board with the new...
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    R600 Delay - The Reason

    Some of us just have a low tolerance for speculation that is quite so obviously wrong. :D
  30. N

    R600 Delay - The Reason

    No, they didn't. That was a quote from The Inquirer in an article written by someone who is not a native English speaker. God alone knows what he meant, or whether what he meant bore any resemblance to what his source originally said, or whether his source was actually telling the truth anyway...
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    R600 Delay - The Reason

    Who says it's only going to be delayed by a month? All ATI has said is "Q2". That could be anything up to a three-month delay.
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    R600 Delay - The Reason

    Precisely. Which means it cannot possibly have been the result of generally poor performance. If the problem is "the chip is too slow compared to G80" they would have known about that long before they booked the flights to Amsterdam: any testing at all would have revealed that. The fact that...
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    R600 Delay - The Reason

    You don't think maybe someone might have tried doing that at least once before booking hundreds of flights and hotel rooms for the "Editors' Day" event? :disgust:
  34. N

    R600 Delay - The Reason

    I don't believe this delay was caused by a performance problem. Whatever the reason was, it must have come up suddenly. Hector Ruiz had publically stated that R600 would launch in Q1 no matter what. ATI had actually booked hotels and flights for huge numbers of journalists to attend the...
  35. N

    R600 Delayed AGAIN!

    That's all a bit confused at the moment. For a long time the rumours were for 64 vec4 shaders, with a few optimistic souls hoping for 80 or even 96. More recent rumours have suggested 128 shaders of som sort. But this is a weird figure. 128 scalar shaders would put R600 several miles behind G80...
  36. N

    R600 Delayed AGAIN!

    Why is everyone on this forum always so angry? :(
  37. N

    Best motherboard for high(ish)-end Crossfire system?

    Are there any reviews that directly compare the Bad Axe 2 and Asus P5W DH Deluxe? I'm curious as to how the DFI Infinity 975X board fits into the picture too. Anyone want to put in a good word for RD600? I think I'm currently leaning slightly towards Bad Axe 2, but that's only because of...
  38. N

    Best motherboard for high(ish)-end Crossfire system?

    Thanks for the info. Any other comments are welcome. :) What's everybody's preferred 975X board? Intel Bad Axe 2? Asus P5W DH Deluxe? Something else?
  39. N

    Best motherboard for high(ish)-end Crossfire system?

    It isn't just "not any quicker" clock-for-clock, it's a lot slower clock-for-clock. You have to overclock it significantly just to get it up to the level of performance that the other chipsets offer at stock speed. (To be fair, it does overclock pretty well). If you've got a link indicating...
  40. N

    Best motherboard for high(ish)-end Crossfire system?

    Okay, this a shameless, newbie-ish plea for help. :) It may, in fact, be the first of several, with similar pleas appearing in other sub-fora, but let us consider the motherboard question for now. I'm going to be putting a new system together in a month or two, and, if everything pans out...