Sapphire PURE Innovation - ATI's Chipset for the AMD Enthusiast
by Wesley Fink on July 29, 2005 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Test Setup
| Performance Test Configuration | |
| Processor(s): | AMD Athlon 64 4000+ (2.4GHz) Socket 939 |
| RAM: | 2 x 512MB OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev. 2 |
| Hard Drive(s): | Seagate 120GB 7200 RPM SATA (8MB Buffer) |
| Video AGP & IDE Bus Master Drivers: | ATI Catalyst Platform 5.7 |
| Video Cards: | ATI X850XT PE NVIDIA 6800 Ultra MSI NVIDIA 7800GTX |
| Video Drivers: | ATI Catalyst 5.7 NVIDIA nForce 77.79 |
| Operating System(s): | Windows XP Professional SP2 Direct X 9.0c |
| Motherboards: | Sapphire PURE Innovation (ATI RX480/SB450) ULi AP9567A (M1695/M1567) Abit An8 Fatal1ty Biostar NF4UL-A9 Chaintech VNF4-Ultra DFI LANParty UT nF4 Ultra-D ECS KN1 Extreme Epox 9NPA+ Ultra Winfast NF4UK8AA (Foxconn) Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe DFI LANParty nF4 SLI-DR Gigabyte K8NXP-SLI MSI K8N Neo4/SLI Platinum |
Tests used OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev. 2, which uses Samsung TCCD chips. All memory ran at 2-2-2-7 timing in all benchmarks.
We tested with our standard NVIDIA 6800 Ultra to allow the best comparisons to benchmark results with other motherboards. To demonstrate performance with various current video options, we also tested with the ATI X850XT PE and the MSI NVIDIA 7800GTX. Resolution in all benchmarks is 1280x1024x32 unless otherwise noted.
Results for the Sapphire ATI with the ATI X850 XT PE are color-coded red in all graphs; results for the Sapphire ATI/NVIDIA 6800 Ultra are in orange; and, Sapphire ATI/MSI NVIDIA 7800 GTX are in gold. Results for the other boards, all tested with the NVIDIA 6800 Ultra, are color-coded blue.
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afrost - Friday, July 29, 2005 - link
One of the big things for me is that there is only passive cooling on the motherboard without the need for crazy heatpipes etc. This is really important for those of us who want to build silent computers.I'v definately picking up this board from Saphire.
Zebo - Friday, July 29, 2005 - link
Good point must run at lower temp than nvidia's single chipset solution which gets hot as hell when you start cranking HTT.rjm55 - Friday, July 29, 2005 - link
We mentioned several times in the article that Sapphire will launch the new board in early August. Sapphire has confirmed their plans to launch around August 5. Sapphire has asked us to pass on that you will be able to buy retail PI-A9RX480 motherboards in most markets by August 15th-20th. Price will be "competetive with nForce4".Resh - Friday, July 29, 2005 - link
Any idea on when we will see them? I'd really like to go that route, but I can't wait forever!Wesley Fink - Friday, July 29, 2005 - link
Halibut (Crossfire AMD) and Stingray (Crossfire Intel) boards are ready to go to reviewers, but there are still some decisions being made at ATI. We have also seen the prototype retail boards from Gigabyte and another manufacturer. When ATI decides whether Crossfire will be now or with R520 (just a guess at events) Crossfire will roll out quickly.Resh - Friday, July 29, 2005 - link
Thansk Wesley. I wish they would hurry up with that decision... RAM is ordered and PSU, CPU, and X800XL will be ordered this w/e, too, so they better get the motherboards out!If you do hear something, please share it with the rest of us.
N
coomar - Friday, July 29, 2005 - link
wow the white pcb stands out, at least the thing is packaged wellDhaval00 - Friday, July 29, 2005 - link
A week ago, AT was having fun posting such rumors... I am sure it thinks otherwise now :)./me feels like getting rid of all my nVIDIA hardware.
ukDave - Friday, July 29, 2005 - link
Typo on Pg8, second bottom paragraph. "ATI X350XT PE" - the '3' should be an '8' me thinks.Tommouse - Friday, July 29, 2005 - link
Nice board. Still undecided on the white color though.I wonder if the Zalman CNPS7700-Cu will fit :|