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ATI Catalyst 8.3 Sneak Peek: CrossFireX and More

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Dave_HH Posted: Wed, Feb 27 2008 10:03 PM

A fresh new set of graphics card drivers, like a pair of new shoes, can sometimes make a world of difference.  We were recently given a chance to chat with some folks from AMD about all of the new features they have in store for users with the Catalyst v8.3 release and we'll be outlining some of the finer details here today.  In addition to the typical batch of performance enhancements and bug fixes available with each new Catalyst release, the v8.3 suite is going to deliver official support for three and four GPU CrossFireX and Hybrid CrossFire, plus some new anti-aliasing features, previously unavailable tweaks for video playback, and GPU LCD scaling, among some other things. 

Check out our early preview of the new AMD ATI Catalyst v8.3 driver suite for the full scoop.

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1nteljunki3 replied on Wed, Feb 27 2008 10:05 PM
No one has mentioned which cards support the Crossfire X, is it only the HD 3 series and up? or is it backward compatible with the HD 2 series as well?

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Kamrooz replied on Wed, Feb 27 2008 10:41 PM

 w00t..crossfirex. Unfortunately I'm dissapointed with the 3dmark scores, but those halflife 2 benchmarks are interesting. The third gpu scales damn well, the fourth...software issue? I'll have to wait and see how much this develops..but hopefully these are minor issues that could be fixed =P...

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replied on Thu, Feb 28 2008 7:44 AM
I think once they get more than 2-3 that it seems CPU bottlenecked. So we prolly wont see a huge increase til we get more powerful CPU's
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Marco C replied on Thu, Feb 28 2008 8:58 AM
Yes, it's only the HD 3000 series for now.

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LaMpiR replied on Thu, Feb 28 2008 9:52 AM

 This looks quite interesting But i would like to see more game results with three or four gpus...

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eblade72 replied on Thu, Feb 28 2008 1:28 PM

Does this mean that Hydravision will be updated for XP too? 

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Crisis Causer replied on Thu, Feb 28 2008 1:47 PM

Any more than two GPUs seems not worth it currently.  But as time progresses more and more GPUs may be the future.  I'm happy with one GPU for now though.  As long as each new generation increases peformance by 50%-100% I'll always choose to buy 1 card for an upgrade and sell the old one to make up some cash.

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Kamrooz replied on Thu, Feb 28 2008 9:16 PM

Indeed, do you go nvidia or ATI based for your cards? Cause if you do go nvidia, there is a tactic for getting infinite high ends for around 200 bucks each time =P...but you lose your old card in the process. 

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prayeruk replied on Mon, Mar 3 2008 1:25 PM

hi guys ,do you think that my 2900xt in crossfire will run better,with these new drivers?

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Crisis Causer replied on Mon, Mar 3 2008 2:04 PM

Crossfire seems to get better all the time.  You just might see some improvement.  Certainly you won't lose any performance, at least. 

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