Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe: First ATI RD580
by Wesley Fink on March 1, 2006 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Crossfire Gaming Performance
The RD580 chipset brings ATI Dual X16 Crossfire video to the marketplace, so both the major players in the Video market now have flagship Dual X16 solutions. SLI and Crossfire are about gaming, so Crossfire tests were confined to gaming benchmarks, and the test suite is heavily slanted to recent and popular titles where SLI and Crossfire make the biggest difference.
Single Video
Clearly, with 4X AA turned on at 1600x1200 resolution, the X1900XT outpaces the 7800GTX. X1900XT Crossfire is also the clear winner, but the sweep is not complete as NVIDIA still leads or is razor-close in the Open GL games. The Asus A8R32-MVP ran the single NVIDIA 7800GTX, the X1900XT, and X1900XT Crossfire with no problems at all.
It should be pointed out, however, that ATI has a very clumsy means of enabling Crossfire – and there is nothing intuitive about it. You must install Catalyst Control Center for Crossfire to work. You then go into CCC, select the Crossfire tab and enable the feature. NVIDIA warns you that an SLI-capable system is installed and prompts you to enable SLI. There is no warning at all with ATI. The only clue you will have that Crossfire is not turned on is the poor performance results.
Single Video
Clearly, with 4X AA turned on at 1600x1200 resolution, the X1900XT outpaces the 7800GTX. X1900XT Crossfire is also the clear winner, but the sweep is not complete as NVIDIA still leads or is razor-close in the Open GL games. The Asus A8R32-MVP ran the single NVIDIA 7800GTX, the X1900XT, and X1900XT Crossfire with no problems at all.
It should be pointed out, however, that ATI has a very clumsy means of enabling Crossfire – and there is nothing intuitive about it. You must install Catalyst Control Center for Crossfire to work. You then go into CCC, select the Crossfire tab and enable the feature. NVIDIA warns you that an SLI-capable system is installed and prompts you to enable SLI. There is no warning at all with ATI. The only clue you will have that Crossfire is not turned on is the poor performance results.
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Beenthere - Monday, February 20, 2006 - link
No flames at Anandtech. Asus is the mfg. and the one responsible for delivering a proper vcore circuit design, using quality components, etc.Don't shoot the messenger for stating the facts. If Asus didn't have design and engineering problems their mobos wouldn't have these confirmed issues reported by numerous hardware review sites.
arswihart - Sunday, February 19, 2006 - link
Do you have to use the same color RAM slots on ASUS boards for dual-channel, as shown in the pic in this review?Shimmishim - Sunday, February 19, 2006 - link
it's good to see you catch your mistakes from your previous reviews. i hope next time you'll take users comments/emails more seriously than just brushing it off simply as "others can do it..." other than that. this board looks great! its a shame all this good stuff is coming out 1/2 quarters before AM2 is being released.godrod - Friday, February 17, 2006 - link
I need to know on this board if you only have one video card (x1800XT) can you put it into the upper PCI-E slot closest to the CPU socket or does it have to go into the lower slot like the SD480 boards.Wesley Fink - Friday, February 17, 2006 - link
A single video card can go into either x16 PCIe slot. We tried both slots and it will work wekk in either.arswihart - Sunday, February 19, 2006 - link
this looks nice, I haven't moved from AGP yet, this may just make me do itBeenthere - Friday, February 17, 2006 - link
After Asus's false advertising of the A8R-MVP as being designed for "Serious Overclockers"; After Asus's failure to fix the long list of defects on the A8R-MVP which include 1T memory, Vcore instability, BIOS issues, etc.; After Asus's failure to acknowledge the known problems with the A8R-MVP; After Asus's refusal to even discuss the problems of the A8R-MVP with customers; After Asus's refusal to provide a proper BIOS upgrade to correct the defects in the A8R-MVP; After Asus's denial that the A8R-MVP mobo even existed after people bought it; After Asus's refusal to provide the same BIOS to consumers that they provided to Anandtech...there will never be another Asus product purchased by our company. Asus can stick their entire product line where the Sun don't shine. They've burned us for the last time. They may think they got away with defrauding consumers with the defective A8R-MVP mobos but they are in for one big surprise.
DanaGoyette - Sunday, February 19, 2006 - link
Refusal to provide the same BIOS...Hey, that gives me an idea! I wonder if Anandtech still has their A8R-MBP -- if they do, they should make a bios backup and post it!
matthewfoley - Wednesday, March 1, 2006 - link
If any of you read the article they offered anyone who emailed them a copy of the same bios that they used. If you really want it I can get it for you.DanaGoyette - Sunday, March 5, 2006 - link
Oh, I don't even have the board, but shouldn't it be easy to post the BIOS on the site rather than just through e-mail?