Does anyone think P965 not supporting CrossFire is Intel's warning on ATI?

[lopri]

I posted this on motherboard forum originally, but didn't get many ideas. So here goes;

I usually don't like to discuss conspiracy theory on tech forums, but if we look back all major Intel desktop chipsets (945, 955, 975) have been compatible with CrossFire.

Enter P965. Sure mobo makers can fit their boards with 2 physical X16 PCIE slots, but the secondary PEG can reportedly support only X4 bandwidth, which would hinder the performance of CF even if ATI were to enable it.

While not as sexy as 975X, P965 will be huge. With the souped-up southbridge along with the new "Fast Memory Access" or whatever, we may see whole lot of boards based on P965, natively supporting Conroe. I just don't understand why Intel would go backwards when dual-graphics support is becoming a standard, at least, on motherboards.

Would this be possibly because of Intel's wrath WRT the short-lived rumour of AMD-ATI merger?

 

[Polish3d]

I hope not, I dont need this crap lol, I want crossfire and a good conroe mobo and I want it without a bunch of hassle

 

[lopri]

With a X16/X4 configuration (instead of X8/X8), anything over X1600 will be limited by low (X4) PCI-E bandwidth.

 

[fierydemise]

lopri, where do you get "anything over X1600 will be limited by low (X4) PCI-E bandwidth?" I was under the impression that current video cards didn't come close to filling AGP X8 which provides 2133 MB/s which is only slightly greater then the 2GB/s of PCI-E X4.

 

[hans007]

um, the 955 and 945 , also only had a 16 x and 4x slot.

 

[josh6079]

Originally posted by: Frackal
I hope not, I dont need this crap lol, I want crossfire and a good conroe mobo and I want it without a bunch of hassle

QFT. I'm tired of us enthusiasts having to get work-arounds for everything under the sun just to have good graphics.

 

[hardwareking]

get a p965 now.Get RD600 based ATI mobo later.And DFI will hopefully start making lan-party boards for intel once core 2 duo comes out.
I'm lookin at getting 965p with conroe and getting a DFI RD600 mobo about a year later.

 

[lopri]

Originally posted by: fierydemise
lopri, where do you get "anything over X1600 will be limited by low (X4) PCI-E bandwidth?" I was under the impression that current video cards didn't come close to filling AGP X8 which provides 2133 MB/s which is only slightly greater then the 2GB/s of PCI-E X4.

Oh trust me. I've tested with a GTX. It loses 20~30% of performance on PCI-E X4 compared with on PCI-E X16. Future GPUs will suffer even more. On the other hand, on A8N32-SLI, the bottom PEG (full X16 bandwidth) loses only 2~3% performance compared to the top PEG. Besides, why would Intel even bother doing this, were it not for the intention of keeping GPU manufacturers in check?

Edit: The performance penalty could be a direct result of the lower bandwidth, or the limit of current generation motherboards. (Not implementing PCI-E switch correctly, or latency issue due to farther distance from the chipset/CPU, etc.) But it's definitely there. If you have a first generation SLI board, I'd suggest you test it out.

 

[lopri]

Originally posted by: hans007
um, the 955 and 945 , also only had a 16 x and 4x slot.

945945
955
975

965

The four-pin molex power connector that will be required for future GPU products and the Silicon Image 3132 SATA port is located above the PCI-E X16 slot. The P965 chipset will not officially support CrossFire or SLI operation so the lack of a secondary PCI-E X16 slot means this board could have been arranged differently. However, Abit informed us that some of the unusual port locations were predicated upon ensuring proper power delivery, stability, and trace layouts based upon the capacitor locations. That may be true, but we think they would do better to add more capacitors and do whatever else is necessary to accommodate a more ideal layout, as frankly the current layout really isn't what we'd like to see.

 

[Golgatha]

I think 965 chipsets are dead in the water. The new 975x boards are supporting both Conroe and Crossfire, all the while being a tried and true platform to build a system around. Don't forget the lack of native IDE ports on the new southbridge also...haven't seen too many SATA optical drives (or any worth shelling out for anyway) out yet.

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: Golgatha
I think 965 chipsets are dead in the water. The new 975x boards are supporting both Conroe and Crossfire, all the while being a tried and true platform to build a system around. Don't forget the lack of native IDE ports on the new southbridge also...haven't seen too many SATA optical drives (or any worth shelling out for anyway) out yet.

I image that calling them dead in the water might be a bit strong, since I imagine that Dell will sell a few systems with P965 mobos's (maybe Apple too). That being said, I agree with you that it's pretty much of non-interest to the enthusiast. Then again, it's directed at the mainstream market. Honestly, I find it interesting that people seem to be taking that approach that a Conroe system will be cheap just becasue the CPU's themselves aren't (supposedly) going to be priced that high... Sure, you can build one for cheap, but not if you want any dual goodies like dual gpu's or RAID0. Most of the motherboards that support these things are well over $200. I've personally got my eyes on the Asus P5W DH (a $250 mobo).

 

[LittleNemoNES]

I need crossfire -- hope Abit makes a great RD600 one

 

[Ichigo]

What's the problem? Just buy the DFI Crossfire motherboard when it comes out. You know it's probably going to be great.

 

[LittleNemoNES]

Originally posted by: Ichigo
What's the problem? Just buy the DFI Crossfire motherboard when it comes out. You know it's probably going to be great.

hey, relax buddy. I just wanted to say I hope there's a nice crossfire board when core2duo is out cos there are still some that are unannounced.

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: gersson
I need crossfire -- hope Abit makes a great RD600 one

Isn't RD600 going to be an AMD chipset?

The 975X chipset supports Crossfire and Conroe, which is what the Asus P5W DH is based on.

 

[LittleNemoNES]

Originally posted by: nitromullet

Originally posted by: gersson
I need crossfire -- hope Abit makes a great RD600 one

Isn't RD600 going to be an AMD chipset?

The 975X chipset supports Crossfire and Conroe, which is what the Asus P5W DH is based on.

RD600 will also be available for Intel.

 

[nitromullet]

maybe that's why Intel's new chipsets don't support Xfire... just an alternate view on the OP's "conspiracy theory".

 

[thilanliyan]

When are RD600 motherboards supposed to come out?? And would they have 3 PCI-e slots??

 

[Golgatha]

Originally posted by: Ichigo
What's the problem? Just buy the DFI Crossfire motherboard when it comes out. You know it's probably going to be great.

The DFI Infinity (975X, Crossfire, and Conroe) is already available at Newegg.

 

[LittleNemoNES]

Originally posted by: Golgatha

Originally posted by: Ichigo
What's the problem? Just buy the DFI Crossfire motherboard when it comes out. You know it's probably going to be great.

The DFI Infinity (975X, Crossfire, and Conroe) is already available at Newegg.

Hmm. that's a pretty high price for a budget centric mobo. Their infinity line is el cheapo.

 

[Cookie Monster]

Also, could this be because Ati/AMD merge rumour?