"Grouper" first look

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07-19-2005, 02:09 AM
Harshal

Damn ATI

This is a super ES-board, as many have said. But then making it available to gamers/overclockers is the game and not just to few lucky1s.

:fact:
I just stumbled upon the article(www.techtree.com) in which ATI India's head said about wide CrossFire availibilty by september :slapass: . Well....I think it will be mid-to-end september . I think it makes sense for ATI to get R520 out with these boards as 7800GTX has taken good lead already. But you never know with ATI, took them so long to get SB issues settled and also to get 520 yeild issues settled as per many of the reports round the web.

Waiting for ATI CrossFire went lil beyond my capacity :mad: and I have asked my cousin to get Abit AN8-SLI. Anyways all d best , ATI :slapass: .
07-19-2005, 06:58 AM
madpete

@ Bigtoe

Tony, during the time you've had the board have sapphire supplied you with any bios updates? If so has this improved anything clocks wise?

I was also wondering if sapphire have made any revisions to the boards, or is the one you have a final reference design?

I'm really really interesting in buying this board, the one thing that worries me is do Sapphire have the ability to put out frequent bios updates and tweaks the way Oscar does for DFI?

I'm really looking forward to a review of this board when it finally arrives.
07-22-2005, 04:59 AM
situman

It seems the delay is really driver related. Ati's crossfire drivers are still buggy according to a preview by Anandtech. They had trouble running some AA modes and stuff like that. So until the drivers are finalized, the boards probably wont show up yet.
07-22-2005, 12:40 PM
Tony

Quote:

Originally Posted by madpete

@ Bigtoe

Tony, during the time you've had the board have sapphire supplied you with any bios updates? If so has this improved anything clocks wise?

I was also wondering if sapphire have made any revisions to the boards, or is the one you have a final reference design?

I'm really really interesting in buying this board, the one thing that worries me is do Sapphire have the ability to put out frequent bios updates and tweaks the way Oscar does for DFI?

I'm really looking forward to a review of this board when it finally arrives.

Sapphire are shipping their version of grouper to reviewers right now, so you should see reviews real soon. I have had 15+ bios upgrades over the development period and im still helping after the boards have launched.

We are working on higher 1t performance, we have already managed to get 2t real sweet (highest performance I have see upto now) 1T is also good but you can always improve things ;)

I hope you all like tweaking as this board has tons of ram and drive options etc...
07-22-2005, 01:21 PM
Millyons

does 1T go as high as on nf4 at least or is it lower
07-22-2005, 02:04 PM
fareastgq

woo for tweaking!
07-22-2005, 07:15 PM
Afterburner

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigtoe

Sapphire are shipping their version of grouper to reviewers right now. We are working on higher 1t performance, we have already managed to get 2t real sweet (highest performance I have see upto now)

Big Up to you bigtoe......you are freakin invaluable to us :woot:

:toast: :toast: :toast:
07-22-2005, 07:43 PM
dippyskoodlez

No x700... :( sucks.. I wanted to have an uber low budget system :D

Hmm.. maybe ill just have my friend register for the coupon and buy a crossfire x800 for now :slobber:
07-22-2005, 08:38 PM
turtle

Quote:

Originally Posted by Afterburner

Big Up to you bigtoe......you are freakin invaluable to us :woot:

:toast: :toast: :toast:

Word to the nth power. You tell 'um what's up. ;)

If we have Tony coaching Sapphire on bios updates, it's a good indication they'll have some nifty bioses comparible to DFI's. It looks like the "PURE" series xfire really might be taking on DFI's crossfire board for the out-of-the-gate and perhaps even overall xfire title.

One quick Q, if it's been answered, apologies. DFI's using the ATi SB on their enthusiast xfire board...Is Sapphire using the ULI or ATi? I see DFI took everything that wasn't incorporated onto the ATi SB and just put stand-alone controllers and such on-board. If the Sapphire uses the ULI, and it controls everything like SATAII and such, which do you think is more efficient?
07-23-2005, 07:32 AM
madpete

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigtoe

Sapphire are shipping their version of grouper to reviewers right now, so you should see reviews real soon. I have had 15+ bios upgrades over the development period and im still helping after the boards have launched.

We are working on higher 1t performance, we have already managed to get 2t real sweet (highest performance I have see upto now) 1T is also good but you can always improve things ;)

I hope you all like tweaking as this board has tons of ram and drive options etc...

That is really good to hear, and makes me think this board could be really special. Thanks for all the input and info you have given us. :toast:
07-23-2005, 03:23 PM
Tony

As far as I know both Sapphire and DFI are using the ATI SB. Regarding bios support this will probably come from ATI for those who follow the reference designs, those who deviate will probably work on their own bios.

Oskar has worked on the DFI crossfire, so expect something special from DFI, its out real soon and i should with luck have a preview board and i will post on Xtreme.

1T overclocks on grouper are a little less than the DFI NF4, some will see 300+ 1T some will not. I do know 2T is almost as fast with the tweaks we have worked on and i have benched 320+fsb this way. The board is REALLY fast with VX or good BH die dimms and 2-2-2 all 1T. Developement still continues though, so don't panick because you can not do 310fsb, I just run 285 2.5-3-3- and play with rartio's etc and im still getting 3400+ in memtest86 at high clocks ;)

One last thing, remember the grouper design was a single 16x slot board so no crossfire on this one, the reference crossfire board has all the same power regulation as the grouper, it just has the different NB and the extra 16X slot etc ;)
07-23-2005, 03:31 PM
Afterburner

Keep it comin......... :toast:
07-24-2005, 11:15 PM
alpha0ne

I would much rather have the single 16x as 2 VGA is a bit silly to me, not to mention way too expensive for two vid cards so its gonna be Grouper for me :)
07-25-2005, 03:56 AM
jiff

Quote:

Originally Posted by alpha0ne

I would much rather have the single 16x as 2 VGA is a bit silly to me, not to mention way too expensive for two vid cards so its gonna be Grouper for me :)

I just want a baord that boots up everytime
:stick:
07-25-2005, 04:15 AM
Sampsa

I got an answer from Sapphire:

"I should have samples soon but I haven't been given a date for them yet"

So basically they gave no information at all.. :D
07-25-2005, 05:03 AM
Millyons

Quote:

Originally Posted by jiff

I just want a baord that boots up everytime
:stick:

that used to be standard, and now its a feature LOL
07-25-2005, 06:15 AM
jiff

Quote:

Originally Posted by Millyons

that used to be standard, and now its a feature LOL

:rofl:
07-25-2005, 06:18 AM
einCe

wait, isnt the whole(or at least most) point of the new ati chipset for crossfire capability
07-25-2005, 08:03 AM
eva2000

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigtoe

As far as I know both Sapphire and DFI are using the ATI SB. Regarding bios support this will probably come from ATI for those who follow the reference designs, those who deviate will probably work on their own bios.

Oskar has worked on the DFI crossfire, so expect something special from DFI, its out real soon and i should with luck have a preview board and i will post on Xtreme.

1T overclocks on grouper are a little less than the DFI NF4, some will see 300+ 1T some will not. I do know 2T is almost as fast with the tweaks we have worked on and i have benched 320+fsb this way. The board is REALLY fast with VX or good BH die dimms and 2-2-2 all 1T. Developement still continues though, so don't panick because you can not do 310fsb, I just run 285 2.5-3-3- and play with rartio's etc and im still getting 3400+ in memtest86 at high clocks ;)

sweet.. would be nice with my FX-57 :D
07-28-2005, 06:39 PM
Tony

Guys look on Anandtech at 12 midnight EDT Wesley is posting the first official look at the sapphire retail board that is to be released real soon.

They even kept the board white which we doubted ;)
07-28-2005, 07:46 PM
TheMeatFrog

I'll be keeping an out for that too :)
07-28-2005, 08:09 PM
fareastgq

They even kept the board white which we doubted ;)[/QUOTE]

thank god. It's soooo bling :)
07-28-2005, 08:44 PM
Prometheus

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2481
07-28-2005, 09:18 PM
jinu117

Quote:

Originally Posted by Prometheus

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2481

Thanks. Well time to grab grouper and not worry about how to cool northbridge with water... Wait a second... it doesn't really need that kind of cooling now does it? :) Too bad they didn't test it with UTT... I should get spare rig setup with grouper and another X2 to test how things fans out before shoving it under my phase unit... :)
07-28-2005, 11:01 PM
madpete

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigtoe

Guys look on Anandtech at 12 midnight EDT Wesley is posting the first official look at the sapphire retail board that is to be released real soon.

They even kept the board white which we doubted ;)

Very cool, looks like a great board.

Thanks for the heads up man. :toast:

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