by Scott BichenoGraphics giant ATI has announced the launch of its multiple graphics processing unit system, known as Crossfire.
The system is ATI?s answer to Nvidia?s SLI technology, but sports a number of unique features.
The system requires the use of a Crossfire motherboard, a special Crossfire Edition (CE) graphics card and any X800 or X850 ATI card to partner it.
The CE card is effectively a normal card plus a compositing engine, which serves to harmonise the activity of the two cards.
There are two CE cards, one designed to work in conjunction with the X800 series and one for the X850 series. The performance of each CE card is equivalent to a mid-range card in its series and they are currently priced at a $50 premium over the non-CE card.
The system is compatible with all games, thanks to its supertiling technology and is cross compatible between different motherboard and graphics card manufacturers.
PC Retail spoke to Vijay Sharma, product marketing manager at ATI, to find out what all this means for retail. ?For retailers there are two benefits,? he said. ?They get to offer their enthusiast gamer customers a totally new level of performance. The buyer can leave the store with two graphics cards installed in one system and have immediate gratification.
?The other benefit is the ability to sell their customers a unique upgradeability option, with respect to graphics, that wasn?t available beforehand. Now you can almost double your performance where previously you could only replace the graphics card. In a sense, the customer is leveraging an investment they have already made.?
The Crossfire system should start to be seen on UK retail shelves from late June and early July.
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