AMD/ATI will definitely be bringing out a Quad Crossfire platform. The R600 will probably have a memory bandwidth of 150GB/s. That totally obliterates the 8800GTX with its memory bandwidth of 85GB/s or so... 4 of these together would be total pwnage.

Yeah, but then we get a new nVidia card that pwns ATi.

Apparently the 8900 card will have different memory (Samsungs fastest stuff that runs at up to 2.8GHz, that means a GDDR4 8 series card ) ... this will give the 8 series a boost, probably up to around 135GB/s memory bandwidth. Though if ATI use this in their R600, it could pump up their memory bandwidth to around 180GB/s.

Of course, it's all down to how the GPU likes to chuck around those numbers. It looks again like ATI are focusing on mega hurts and super high power consumption. R600 will be the longest graphics card to date... though probably not as long as the original 7900GX2 (the OEM version of the 7950GX2), as R600 OEM will be just over 12 inches long! The retail version will be under 10 inches long.

R600 and G80 will physically be the largest GPU's ever made. From this point onward, GPU's must shrink to survive... and to be financially viable.

This is a picture of the X2800 XTX OEM Edition:
[img]http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a324/azcn2503/R600XTX.jpg[/img]
12.4 inches, by the way

OMFG! That's huge!

Nice info, btw, should be interesting to see how this plays out...

When they say Quad Crossfire, I think they mean Quad Crossfire as in Quad SLI. As in... Not actually 4 slots but 2 PCB's in 1 slot, 4 PCB's total. Basically a copy of the 7950GX2 (the card that I have, by the way )

Why do I think this?

Because it is fact!

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=37631

NICE! Everything is going towards the simultaneous processing now...

Doing a quick calculation, building a computer this year could be 14 separate processing units...
8 CPUs (2 quad core AMDs)
4 GPUs (Quad SLi/cross-fire)
1 PPU (Ageia)
1 SPU (Creative Xi-Fi)

Possibly even AIPU soon. And I probably missed something.

Maybe you could count the chipset as a type of processor.

Also, behold Nvidia's answer to R600: http://www.tweaktown.com/news/7055/gefo ... index.html

Hmm, true! And that looks like some pwnage from nVidia!

I wouldn't bet on it beating the performance of the X2800XTX or the X2900XTX (if there will be one of those...)

I can imagine performance margins would be very close, with X2800XTX outperforming 8900GTX (maybe not so much the 8950GX2), ATI would need to release an X2900XTX to really appeal to enthusiasts/gamers that make up 5% of the HPC market...

Apparently, Nvidia have fixed their Quad-SLI drivers (because 7950GX2 in SLI sucks hard) and 8950GX2 in SLI would far outperform any multi-GPU setup available by a long way. Though, then again I hear that the G80 is borked and there are some major problems with the architecture. I hear that it totally sucks as a GPGPU. I mean.. the GPU FAH client is missing.

Hmm, it will be interesting. ATi seem very delayed on the X2800 side of things, I'd swear the 8800 has been out ages.

Then again, the X2800XTX is supposed to have almost 2 times the memory bandwidth of the 8800GTX. ATI have also had their driver approved for Vista for quite a while now, unlike Nvidia who still haven't got a proper 8 series driver for SLI in Vista... Not knocking Nvidia (much) but it seems like they're suffering at the moment.

True, but if they don't deliver it soon, they will be stuffed as everyone goes nVidia cos they can't wait.

There will always be ATI fanbois, as there will always be Nvidia fanbois

Nvidia undoubtedly had the best graphics products in 2006.

True, it seems to alternate every year who is better.