ATI Crossfire Xpress 3200 is better known as RD580 among our readers and it has been an enticipated sequel to ATI’s RD480 chipset for AMD’s processor platform. RD480 has had some problems with both performance and overclocking, which has made many enthusiasts doubt ATI’s platform. Xpress 3200 (RD580) was expected to arrive at the same time as ATI’s R580 graphics circuit (X1900), but was delayed a few weeks. Crossfire Xpress 3200 brings several news and improvements compared to its predecessor, but primarily it is the true support for two x16 PCI Express video cards where as the RD480 only sported x8 bandwidth when using two cards in a Crossfire setup.
Except for the increased number of PCI Express lanes ATI has been working from scratch with RD580 to create a chipset with as much overclocking potential as possible. Contracting world famous overclocker Macci perhaps tells you how serious they were with this.
Crossfire Xpress 3200 seems overall as a considerably better chipset than the previous and those who have been following our overclockers Kinc and Crotale as they overclock a X1900 Crossfire system it is no surprise that the RD480 chipset has been a real bottleneck. Kinc has had the RD580 based A8R32-MVP Deluxe motherboard for about a week and it has turned out to be a great board for overclockers. Something you will get a hint of very soon.
Several reviews and articles about ATI’s new chipset, usually the above mentioned ASUS motherboard, have appeared during the day. below is a short list of some of these articles, but don’t worry we have our own review coming here at NH to be able to show you the true nature of Crossfire Xpress 3200; its overclocking capabilities.
:: Anandtech (ASUS A8R32-MVP Deluxe) :: Anandtech (multiple RD580 boards) :: HardOCP :: HotHardware :: Firingsquad ::Presence PC (french) ::
