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ATI RD580: Dual x16 Crossfire Preview

 by Wesley Fink on November 16, 2005 3:00 AM EST
52 Comments | Add A Comment
52 Comments

ATI RD580

ATI's AMD Athlon64 chipsets began with a bang almost a year ago with the "Bullhead" Reference Board. In our review of the first Radeon Xpress 200 Reference board, ATI was clearly aiming for the AMD Enthusiast. This continued with the all-white "Grouper" this past July, and the black "Halibut" which was reviewed as the Crossfire AMD in late September. Despite three generations of capable Enthusiast chipsets based on the Radeon Xpress 200 core, we only began seeing ATI AMD chipsets used in Enthusiast motherboards with the launch of Crossfire. The first ATI enthusiast board was the DFI LANParty UT RDX300 reviewed less than a month ago. Now we are finally seeing Tier 1 manufacturers like Asus, MSI, and Gigabyte with ATI Crossfire AMD boards starting to ship.


Click to enlarge.

The Manta Reference board is a distinctive clear blue with Red slots and peripheral connectors. ATI seems to have no lack of Fish names or unique board color schemes, so Manta carries on a tradition that could soon stock an aquarium. Some love the fish internal development names, some hate them, but they are definitely unique.

When we recently reviewed the nVidia Dual x16 board we saw a dual chip setup with PCIe channels split between two multipurpose chips.

The nVidia dual x16 design provides one x16 PCIe off the "north bridge" or SPP and one x16 PCIe off the "south bridge" or MCP. On the AMD side the North chip is the MCP51 which communicates with the CK8 south chip over 16-bit HTT connections. The Intel dual x16 uses the same CK08 SLI south bridge as the AMD chipset, but the North chip is C19. C19 forces communications between the North and South chips to 8-bits.

The ATI RD580 also uses a North Bridge/South Bridge configuration, but all PCIe channels reside in the North Bridge and both PCIe x16 slots are driven by the North Bridge Chip. The new RD580 north supports 44 lanes and can be combined with any of the south bridges than can be used with the Rx480 chipset. This includes the ATI SB450, the revised pin-out SB460, the upcoming SB600 with SATA2 and revised USB, and the ULi 1573/1575.

ATI SB460

While ATI has used the current SB450 South Bridge in the Manta we evaluated, we expect the shipping Manta Reference Board will use the new SB460. SB460 is identical in function to SB450, with the same fast feature performance, but limited USB and no SATA2 or NCQ. It is important because it is pin-compatible with the upcoming SB600. This means boards designed with SB460 will be able to drop in SB600, with revised USB, SATA2, and NCQ as soon as this new South Bridge is available - possibly as early as January. Manufacturers can also combine the RD580 Dual x16 North Bridge with the ULi M1573, or more likely the ULi M1575, which supports SATA2, NCQ and competitive USB.

HD Audio

ULi was actually the first to annonce HD Audio on the AMD chipset in April of 2004. However, ATI was the first major manufacturer to bring High Quality HD audio to their AMD product line with the introduction of the SB450 South Bridge for the Xpress 200 chipset in the late 2004. HD support continued with the Crossfire AMD chipset. This advantage continues with RD580, which features the Realtek ALC882D HD audio codec on the Reference board.

Index Overclocking and Integrated Graphics
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  • JarredWalton - Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - link

    It would have been a heck of a lot easier to differentiate the cards if NVIDIA had gone and named the 512MB card the "Ultra" like everyone was expecting. *Grumble* ;)

  • shabby - Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - link

    Where is this $499 x1800xt you speak of, is this the 256meg card by any chance?
    If it is, then i dont see anyone buying it since for 50 bucks more *cough* you can get the 512meg one.

  • Wesley Fink - Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - link

    No one said there was a $499 X1800XY yet, as in the first wave the past week everyone was selling at $599 suggested retail price. The MSRP of the nVidia 7800GTX is also $599, but it is selling at most places now for $499 - even less if you shop. My point was the price of the X1800XT will likely drop once the retail pipelines are filled - just as the 7800GTX prices have dropped the longer they are on the market.

  • shabby - Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - link

    My bad, i read that as the $499 x1800xt.
    Anyway while ati can believe the cheaper gtx is its competitor, its msrp doesnt suggest that unless they lower it.
    Does ati also believe that the x1600xt is a competitor for the 6800gs? Same price right, but its half a slow.

  • fxrron - Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - link

    I couldn't agree more with allnighter. Companies tweak their product for weeks and send them to be reviewed. The reviews are worthless and a waste of time to read. I remember Falcon Northwest sent Tom's Hardware Guide a system to review. The 7800 GTX was overclocked alot and it would not even run the benchmarks. You can't order the same system so what good was the review in the first place. Spend your time reviewing retail products in the future.

    Ron

  • Wesley Fink - Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - link

    This was a PREVIEW, not a review, and I am still looking for the benchmarks you so roundly criticize - since there are no benchmarks in the preview. I have described relative performance that I personally found with my components on the ATI Manta board.

    I can't speak of how other review sites test, but I can tell I used known processors, memory, hard drives, and 7800GTX cards in my preview tests. I also did all the setup myself to make sure everything was as fair as I could make it. I also ran ALL the benchmarks myself - side-by-side - with the nVidia and ATI boards and video cards. This was not a canned set of numbers, or a canned demo, these are results I personally found in 2 days of testing.

    Last, the DFI Retail is performing exactly as I found in my review in the retail samples. I found 305 max, lower than the Reference Crossfire - and retail buyers are finding 295 to 310 max.

    I have suggested that any manufacturer who wants to duplicate ATI Reference results should copy the Reference Board, and other review sites have also said the same thing. Eventually someone will actually copy an excellent ATI Reference Design, and when they do buyers will do even better in performance than I have achieved in the AT reviews. The ATI Reference boards are not tweaked to oblivion - it's just the designs are that good.

  • DigitalFreak - Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - link

    First - ATI is not the only chipset maker with HD Audio support for AMD. Nvidia has this as well with the 410/430 southbridges.

    Second - "However, ATI clearly believes the competitor for X1800XT is the $499 7800GTX and not the $700 7800GTX 512MB."
    Boy, does ATI need to get a clue. X1800XT cards are currently going for $599, while the 7800GTX boards are in the $450 range. Why would I want to spend $149 more for a card that performs slightly better.

  • Wesley Fink - Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - link

    When 7800GTX launched they were $600 or more, but they have dropped to around $499 at most e-tailers and you can find them even cheaper if you shop carefully. The X1800XT shipped first wave last week and instantly sold out. Prices will drop as soon as the supply line is filled - just like the 7800GTX.

  • Wesley Fink - Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - link

    HD Azalia audio is just an option on the high-end versions of the nVidia integrated chipset, which have just started shipping. You also have to buy a high-end integrated video micro ATX board to get an nVidia HD audio solution, as this option is not available on any nForce4, SLI, or SLI Dual x16 board.

  • haelduksf - Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - link

    Thanks guys, way to tease me!

    One question though; is there a big difference between x8 and x16 Crossfire? Can an RD480/482 owner expect similar Crossfire performance to an RD580?
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