A. The principal differences between the competitor’s multi-GPU solutions and ATI’s CrossFire are:

a. CrossFire can enable multi-GPU rendering on all applications.
b. CrossFire supports more rendering modes. Supertiling evenly distributes the workload between the two GPUs to improve performance. CrossFire can use multiple GPUs to improve image quality rather than performance with Super antialiasing (AA) modes. Supertiling and SuperAA modes are only supported on the CrossFire platform.
c. CrossFire is an open platform that supports multiple components and graphics cards that can be mixed and matched in a single system. Competitive multi-GPU solutions are constrained to supporting identical graphics cards.

A. A complete CrossFire system requires a CrossFire Ready motherboard, a CrossFire Edition graphics card and a compatible standard Radeon (CrossFire Ready) graphics card from the same series, or two CrossFire Ready cards if they are software enabled. This applies to cards from ATI or any of its partners.

A. CrossFire Edition graphics cards include a “compositing engine” chip on-board. This chip takes the partially rendered image from the CrossFire Ready graphics card, and merges it with the partially rendered image from the CrossFire Edition graphics card. The result is a complete frame rendered at up to twice the performance of a single graphics card. The CrossFire compositing engine is a programmable chip that offers flexible support of different graphics cards, allows a superior feature set (advanced compositing modes), and enables further enhancements to be quickly implemented on next generation products. The CrossFire compositing engine also offers a performance benefit over combining the final image on the GPU.

A. CrossFire Xpress 3200, Radeon Xpress 200 CrossFire, Intel i955X and i975 based dual-slot motherboards are supported platforms.

A. CrossFire Xpress 3200 and Radeon Xpress 200 CrossFire motherboards are available from our partners now.

A. In this scenario both cards will operate as 12-pipe cards while in CrossFire mode.

A. Both cards will continue to operate at their individual clock speeds.

A. SuperTiling is enabled by default for Direct3D applications running on 16-pipe cards.

A. Yes, the CrossFire platform will work with ATI’s SurroundView™ multi-monitor technology to enable up to 5 separate displays when not running in CrossFire mode.

A. CrossFire works with all 3D applications. The user is able to run any game with multiple graphics cards cooperatively rendering the images. The end user is able to take advantage of the additional graphics hardware for all games, all the time.

Competitive solutions only work on a limited number of games that are profiled in the driver. New games, older games, lesser known games, and even some current popular titles are not supported, and the end user sees no benefit with this system when running these applications.

A. Games that stress the graphics sub-system will benefit most from the additional performance offered by CrossFire. Most new games are designed for advanced graphics, and end users will see large performance increases with multi-GPU systems. Some applications that are more CPU intensive may not scale well with multi-GPU solutions.. For these applications, CrossFire offers extreme image quality modes that take advantage of the additional graphics power, and improves the overall gaming experience.

Customers using an enthusiast-class motherboard like those based on Radeon Xpress 200 CrossFire chipsets will reap greater benefits from CrossFire because they are able to get the more performance from their entire system.

A. No. CrossFire is enabled by default for all 3D applications. With Catalyst™ A.I. enabled, the preferred rendering mode is selected for targeted applications. For applications that are not identified in Catalyst A.I., or when Catalyst A.I. is disabled, default multi-GPU rendering modes are offered. For applications that are very graphics limited, and can not benefit from multiple high-end graphics processors, the end user has the option to enable SuperAA or disable multi-GPU rendering completely. In all scenarios the end user has the option to adjust her/his system to best take advantage of multi-GPU rendering.

A. Performance enhancements with CrossFire are application dependent. Performance improvement varies up to 100% increase in frame rates. New, graphics intensive applications can see over 80% performance improvement at high resolutions and image quality settings.

A. CrossFire Edition and CrossFire Ready cards are connected by an external cable. The cable is attached from the CrossFire Ready graphics card’s DVI connector to the CrossFire Edition high density input connector (DMS). The partially rendered image is sent through the DVI connection to the CrossFire Edition DMS input connector. The partially rendered image from the cable input is combined with the CrossFire Edition’s partially rendered frame in the compositing engine. The compositing engine combines the result of both cards to output a complete image.

Radeon X1300 and X1600 CrossFire Ready cards do not require an external connector. CrossFire mode is enabled via software and the cards communicate over the PCI Express® bus.

A. By default either SuperTiling or Scissor modes are applied. Alternate frame rendering mode is used for applications identified in Catalyst A.I. (when enabled). When Catalyst A.I. is disabled, 16-pipe graphics processors running Direct3D applications are accelerated by supertiling mode (other configurations are accelerated by scissor mode). Super AA mode is enabled through the control panel.

A. When users are running in SuperTiling, Scissor or AFR modes they can use ATI’s existing AA modes (2x, 4x or 6x.)