xDNA: Crossfire on any chipset?

[Nathelion]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XDNA_(multi-graphics)

http://www.nordichardware.com/news,6982.html

http://arstechnica.com/journal...upport-for-any-chipset

Crossfire on any chipset? Is this for real? I found these two articles and the wikipedia entry, but I can't find any reviews, forum threads or anything else to substantiate that it actually works. It's not mentioned on Diamond's website either. Did I just not pay attention back in late '07, or what? It sounds like it would be a pretty big deal to bypass the nVidia chipset lockout.

Does anyone know anything about this?

 

[ther00kie16]

Why would you want to crossfire on an nvidia chipset though? It's expensive and less reliable. Much better go with Intel. Unless you are thinking of SLI on any chipset. That in theory works with a bit of tempering.

 

[Sylvanas]

Originally posted by: ther00kie16
Why would you want to crossfire on an nvidia chipset though? It's expensive and less reliable. Much better go with Intel. Unless you are thinking of SLI on any chipset. That in theory works with a bit of tempering.

QFT.

I think this kind of thing never really got off the ground, I remember HP or someone selling a High end desktop that had Crossfire on an Nvidia chipset a while back but we never really heard anything more about that. Anyway this is pretty pointless unless you have an existing Nvidia board and wish to run Crossfire -although that begs the question why buy the Nv board in the first place since the only real reason to buy their chipsets is for SLI.

 

[undeclared]

Back in the day (earlier crossfire edition), you could do CF on any board, provided they were x16 slots

 

[JPB]

Not really relevant to this thread, But I just read.....a HD 4870 and a HD 3870 can be run in CrossfireX

 

[Ike0069]

Originally posted by: Sylvanas

Originally posted by: ther00kie16
Why would you want to crossfire on an nvidia chipset though? It's expensive and less reliable. Much better go with Intel. Unless you are thinking of SLI on any chipset. That in theory works with a bit of tempering.

QFT.

I think this kind of thing never really got off the ground, I remember HP or someone selling a High end desktop that had Crossfire on an Nvidia chipset a while back but we never really heard anything more about that. Anyway this is pretty pointless unless you have an existing Nvidia board and wish to run Crossfire -although that begs the question why buy the Nv board in the first place since the only real reason to buy their chipsets is for SLI.

Nvidia chipsets are not very good right now, but back in the S939 days they were the chipst maker of choice.

I think the idea of having the option to run what multi-card setup you want independent of the MB chipset would be a good thing.

 

[Nathelion]

Originally posted by: Sylvanas

Originally posted by: ther00kie16
Why would you want to crossfire on an nvidia chipset though? It's expensive and less reliable. Much better go with Intel. Unless you are thinking of SLI on any chipset. That in theory works with a bit of tempering.

QFT.

I think this kind of thing never really got off the ground, I remember HP or someone selling a High end desktop that had Crossfire on an Nvidia chipset a while back but we never really heard anything more about that. Anyway this is pretty pointless unless you have an existing Nvidia board and wish to run Crossfire -although that begs the question why buy the Nv board in the first place since the only real reason to buy their chipsets is for SLI.

I could agree that the motivation to do this would be slim for most people, but still, it would give a great deal more flexibility. I could see someone having an nvidia board and a single ATI card and wanting to upgrade to crossfire, or maybe one would just want the option of going SLI later and therefore get the nvidia board? I dunno, it just seems like a nice value-add feature.

Still, does anyone have any information on whether or not this actually works?

 

[SunnyD]

There is physically NOTHING that prevents SLI and/or CrossFire from working on any chipset - except artificially introduced checks to see what chipset is being run on in the drivers. This was proven by ALi when they supported (briefly) SLI on their Majik chipset if I recall, which was part of the reason that NVIDIA ended up buying ALi's chipset division out - to shut them up.

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: SunnyD
There is physically NOTHING that prevents SLI and/or CrossFire from working on any chipset - except artificially introduced checks to see what chipset is being run on in the drivers. This was proven by ALi when they supported (briefly) SLI on their Majik chipset if I recall, which was part of the reason that NVIDIA ended up buying ALi's chipset division out - to shut them up.

I remember reading the same years ago... some research into the actual implementation and claiming that the only thing preventing it is that the companies in question want to sell more boards...

And BOTH companies benefit from it.. so you sell your board on ebay to get the competitor board to go from SLI to CF? well, the warranty is gone, and it took a beating in transit so it will live less time... and your shiny new board? well next gen comes and you want to switch again... oooh but you sold your old board, time to sell this one and buy one again...

Overall both companies win and the consumer looses.