This release of Catalyst introduces Enhanced CrossFire Support. The enhanced support allows for CrossFire Alternate Frame Rendering mode for Direct3D applications to be forced on by setting the Catalyst AI slider to the Advanced position. Users are encouraged to enable this setting if they are not seeing significant performance gains in applications when Crossfire is enabled. This enhancement is available for all Direct3D applications except for Direct3D applications known not to work with Alternate Frame Rendering.

Scott Wasson over at TR had expressed some doubts that putting a GPU into a CPU socket would actually be desirable. I've seen these doubts expressed elsewhere in response to our AMD-ATI article. The reasoning goes that a PCIe video card with high-bandwidth GDDR3 will outperform a GPU that's placed in a cHT socket to share a pool of DDR2 with the CPU. As far as it goes, it is, in fact, correct that putting 512MB of GDDR3 on a daughtercard with the GPU and linking it to the CPU over PCIe will get you more performance than just dropping a GPU into a cHT socket. This is just throwing hardware and money at the problem, though.

The point of doing a cHT-compatible GPU that's a drop-in replacement for a second Athlon is that it's much, much cheaper and less wasteful than a dedicated daughtercard (with a dedicated cache of GDDR3), and the performance is pretty good. So from a price/performance standpoint, glueless cHT and a shared CPU-GPU memory pool will beat the more expensive daughtercard solution by a significant enough margin to make it attractive to many gamers.

The other issue that I want to address is this article over at the Inquirer. Clearly, Charlie has some of the same information that I have about Intel's various internal research initiatives. Intel is a big, research-driven company that has many teams working on many different types of projects at any given moment. I know for a fact that they have teams looking at Cell-like projects that combine DSP and general-purpose cores. They're also looking at low-power x86 cores, and Niagara-style chip multiprocessing, and lots of other exotic stuff.

Q: Does NVIDIA have any official statements or comments on the news about AMD buying ATI?
NVIDIA: Today's news about the acquisition of ATI by AMD is a positive development for NVIDIA. We are now the only graphics processor and core logic company that supports both Intel and AMD processors. We will continue to execute on our strategy, which is to develop industry-changing GPU and platform technologies, extend the use of the GPU into new applications, and expand its reach into all computing devices - from PCs to servers to phones

Q: How do you expect AMD's purchase of ATI to affect your partnerships with AMD?

NVIDIA: AMD needs and wants the support of our leading brands - GeForce, nForce, Quadro, and SLI. We will continue to work with AMD to bring our brands to our mutual customers. On the other hand, our relationship with Intel is going to become much more intimate than before. We are now Intel's best GPU partner.

Next, Intel had only this to say:
Intel: We will study the transaction but have no comment at this time about any possible impact it might have on our agreements with ATI.

The GeForce 7600GT can be had for as little as $150 and as much as $185, depending on the make and model. The XFX GeForce 7600GT we reviewed retails for about $175. This is clearly a midrange value card. Those looking to do some gaming on a limited budget can find excellent value in the GeForce 7600GT.

The GeForce models 7800GT and 7800GTX are being phased out, and replaced by the 7900 series cards. A 7800GT can be purchased for about $330 to $360. The 7800GTX models are about $380 to $500. If you seek a solid performer without the added cost, the 7800GT is the card for you--as long as you find a good deal. Before you break open you wallet for the 7800GT, the GeForce 7900GT might be an even better buy. The move to the 90 nm process and the redesigned core allow you to pick one up for as little as $270, leaving many 7800 cards overpriced-and the performance results show this.

If you desire serious caliber performance without astronomical price tags, then the PNY Verto GeForce 7900GTX will do you best. At $435 -$445 you can grab a special edition card with a free flash drive and tool kit. Moving to the realm of the elite, the GeForce 7950GX2 is just that: elitist. For about $550 you can purchase SLI on a stick. If you are so adventurous, you can purchase two and wait for the drivers to enable Quad SLI, but that will set you back by $1,100. The performance is there and the status you will gain from it with your hardware loving friends might be worth it, though.

Bit-Tech: So then, it turns out that the performance numbers that we ran on the Intel-built Core 2 Duo E6700 system are as good as they looked the first time around. The performance capabilities of Intel's Core architecture are now clearer than ever. There wasn't a single test where the Core 2 Extreme X6800 fell behind AMD's current flagship processor - the Athlon 64 FX-62. Arguably though, the more intriguing processors are the lower-end Core 2 Duos, namely the E6600 and the E6400. There are many occasions where the Core 2 Duo E6600 is hot on the heels of the Athlon 64 FX-62, and in many cases Intel's slowest 4MB L2 cache Core 2 Duo outperforms AMD's flagship chip for roughly 1/3 of the price. On the other hand, there are many occasions where the Core 2 Duo E6400 puts in strong performances against the Athlon 64 X2 5000+ and X2 4600+ processors. In many situations, it came out on top of the X2 5000+ while costing considerably less than AMD's Athlon 64 X2 3800+.

TechReport: These processors consume less power-and thus produce less heat-than desktop Pentiums have for quite a while. The E6700 system's total power draw when fully loaded was 156 W, only 14W more than the Pentium Extreme Edition system drew while sitting idle. What's more, even the high-end Core 2 processors' power use was in line with that of the Energy Efficient versions of the Athlon 64 X2. That leaves room for many good things to happen, from less expensive cooling systems to quieter, smaller enclosures and even some righteous overclocking. Combine the low power draw with the performance we've seen, and the Core 2 is clearly the most energy-efficient desktop processor around. As much as I appreciate the performance and efficiency of these new CPUs, though, I can't endorse forking out a cool grand (minus one) for a Core 2 Extreme X6800. These top-end CPUs are always iffy values, even if they're insane performers. Meanwhile, the prices on the first two Core 2 Duos are very reasonable for what you get. At $316, the Core 2 Duo E6600 looks like a tremendous deal, provided you can get your hands on one. The E6700 is pricier at $530, but it'll beat the much more expensive FX-62 at almost every turn.

FiringSquad: What's AMD's response? In the short term, price cuts. We've been told to expect severe cuts on the entire Athlon 64 lineup later this month, including AMD's latest AM2-based X2 CPUs. Later this year AMD plans to introduce faster X2 and FX CPUs, while AMD's also hard at work on their dual-core, dual-socket platform for enthusiasts codenamed 4x4. The 4x4 connotation indicates AMD's plans for the platform to roll over anything that gets in its way, including Core 2 Extreme. If it's able to pull this off is anyone's guess at this point, and you can expect that any dual-socket, dual-CPU platform isn't going to be cheap. AMD's true answer to the Core 2 family really won't come until their upcoming K8L core debuts next year.

GD: Do you feel the current, available games justify someone going out right now to spend $300 for PhysX? Why?

Agiea: Yes, PhysX is giving you something new that wasn't previously possible. That's the value of PhysX. Physics as a technology category is shaping up to be the next big thing in gaming and AGEIA PhysX is the only way for gamers to get an entirely new experience in which literally 1,000s of objects of different types can move, collide and interact. You have many choices of how to spend your $300, but the results are largely incremental. With PhysX, you can change the game experience and if you purchase today, you not only enjoy physics right away but will also have the foundation for new games and updates as they roll out from this point forward. Remember, there are over 60 developers planning to deliver as many as 100 PhysX-accelerated game titles from now through 2006 and into 2007. I'm not sure I've ever seen a brand new technology category like this being supported to this extent by leading content providers.

Secondly, there are PhysX enabled games available today including:
Ghost Recon, Advanced Warfighter (Ubisoft) - Added physics effects throughout Ghost Recon
CellFactor game demo - Full gameplay physics with a modder program just initiated.
City of Villains (NCSoft) - An update with explosive effects of player powers
Bet on Soldier (Kylotonn) - An update with cool new fluids in gameplay
Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends (Microsoft) - Soon to be available

In addition, over 20 games, including Epic's Unreal Tournament 2007, have been publicly announced as supporting PhysX and we expect at least 20 more to hit store shelves in 2006. That doesn't even count what we'll see in 2007. And with leading game engines like Unreal Engine 3, Emergent's Gamebryo and Bioware's Eclipse, the possibilities get even bigger. If players like Dell, Alienware, Falcon Northwest, Systemax, Velocity Micro, Voodoo PC, BFG, ASUS and ELSA are behind this, you know it's real.

The introduction of dual-channel DDR2-800 memory gives AMD a much needed shot in the arm, as the DDR-400 technology used in older AMD processors doesn't have the appeal it once had. While DDR2-800 doesn't provide any major performance boosts over DDR-400, it does allow for hefty gains in memory bandwidth, and looks far nicer on paper. In addition, with both Intel and AMD now using DDR2-800 as their memory modules of choice, this will allow memory manufacturers to concentrate on this market, hopefully providing some excellent high-end and low-cost modules in the process.

With the introduction of this new socket, AMD is also filtering out a lot of old processors while bringing in new models, like the Athlon64 FX-62 and the new energy efficient (EE) series. While AMD has simplified their processor line-up on one side, the introduction of the EE series also makes things a bit more complex, as buyers will now have the option of paying extra for lower-power consumption models for nearly every Athlon64 and Athlon64 X2 model on the market today. While the EE series is nice, in concept, we've never seen low-wattage/low-voltage processors really take off in any major way in the past. Time will tell if AMD's gamble on the Energy Efficient series is worth it. Socket-AM2 processors already have decreased TDP levels compared to Socket-939 processors, so power consumption/heat production aren't extremely important factors with today's AM2 processors, as far as we can see.

In our eyes, the sweet spot for the Socket-AM2 lineup right now is the Athlon64 X2 3800+ model, as its dual-core technology wallops higher-clocked single-core modules, performance wise, but is priced extremely competitively. For a more high-end user, the Athlon64 X2 4800+ AM2 model is a great buy, assuming you can get your hands on one of the lucky few of these chips which made it to market. While AM2 marks several positive steps for AMD, we're not sure if it will be enough to hold back Intel's upcoming Core 2 Duo processor. Time will tell.