ATI Defines The Next-Generation of Enthusiast Gaming With CrossFire Multi-Graphics Processor Platform

May 31, 2005

ATI Technologies Inc.,, a leader in graphics and media processors, is revolutionizing gaming with the introduction of CrossFire, the ultimate gaming platform. The CrossFire platform has been designed to give gamers the best performance and more flexibility and game compatibility than any other multiple graphics processor platform. It combines the power of ATI's Radeon Xpress chipsets for Intel and AMD processors, a standard Radeon graphics processor and a Radeon CrossFire Edition graphics card to bring massive performance and image quality to gamers.

When gamers add a CrossFire Edition graphics card, which includes the CrossFire compositing engine, to their Radeon Xpress powered system they are doubling their graphics rendering potential. With a variety of settings, they can use the rendering horsepower to get up to twice the performance of a single graphics card, or they can choose to put the horsepower to work increasing the image quality of their games, making them look better than ever before.

"ATI's CrossFire platform delivers the best gaming experience bar none," said Rick Bergman, Senior Vice President and General Manager, PC Business Unit, ATI Technologies. "It is by far the most broadly compatible and flexible multi-GPU platform and gives users the most options for enhancing performance and visual quality. We believe this platform sets the stage for outstanding gaming now and in the future, with systems powered by ATI's graphics processors and chipsets."

The strength of ATI's CrossFire platform is its broad game compatibility. ATI's unique multiple graphics processor implementation allows CrossFire to automatically work with every game, new or old, without requiring special game profiles or driver updates. Whether a customer is playing a game that was released last night or last year, CrossFire can automatically make the game run faster and look better.

For gamers purchasing or building a CrossFire system it couldn't be any easier. The optimal CrossFire platform includes a motherboard powered by ATI's Radeon Xpress 200 CrossFire Edition chipsets. These motherboards have the two dedicated and balanced PCI Express graphics ports needed to run multiple graphics cards and are optimized for high-performance gaming.

Radeon Xpress 200 CrossFire ready motherboards from partners such as ASUS, DFI, ECS, GIGABYTE, MSI, PC Partner, Sapphire and TUL are designed with gamers in mind. They support both AMD and Intel platforms and have the overclocking and enthusiast-class features that gamers want such as high-definition audio, dual-core support as well as Gigabit Ethernet, SATA II with NCQ and RAID over PCI Express and they offer the broadest compatibility with high-performance system memory.

Customers will have plenty of options and flexibility in choosing graphics cards for their CrossFire systems. The Radeon X850 CrossFire Edition cards, with 256MB of graphics memory can be paired with any standard Radeon X850 based graphics card. The Radeon X800 CrossFire Edition graphics cards, which come with either 128 MB or 256 MB of graphics memory, can be paired with any Radeon X800 series graphics card. The standard Radeon X800 and Radeon X850 cards can be purchased new or can be ones the customer already has.

The standard and CrossFire Edition cards will be available from ATI and ATI graphics partners including ABIT, ASUS, Connect3D, Diamond, GeCube, GIGABYTE, HIS, MSI, Pailt, Sapphire, TUL or VisionTek.

System builders such as ABS, Alienware, Cyberpower, Falcon Northwest, Hypersonic, Ibuypower, Monarch PC, PC Club, Polywell, Velocity Micro, VoodooPC, and ZT Group will also carry CrossFire systems for gamers wanting pre-built systems.

With its amazing system and graphics performance, the resulting CrossFire system is a dream machine for gamers. Whether they game professionally or for fun, they are sure to be the envy of their friends. And with almost 1 million Radeon X800- and Radeon X850-based graphics cards already sold, many gamers are already CrossFire ready!