ATI Radeon Xpress 200: Performance, PCI Express & DX9 for Athlon 64
by Wesley Fink on November 8, 2004 6:00 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
The Radeon Xpress Family
The RX480/RS480 is the first ATI chipset for AMD. It is also the first ATI chipset available as a discrete chipset. Previous ATI chipsets have concentrated on integrated graphics for the Intel platform.
While the previous ATI chipsets brought interesting integrated graphics to the Intel platform, the performance never really threatened Intel's domination of the Pentium 4 chipset market. Without truly competitive performance as a chipset, there was no real reason for a discrete ATI chipset solution for Intel, although each generation of the ATI chipset for Intel brought more competitive performance. ATI firmly believes that RX480 for Athlon 64 has broken through the performance barrier, bringing competitive or better performance to Athlon 64.
To understand the current ATI lineup better, you need to take a closer look at how they will be branded and sold.
Radeon Xpress is ATI's name for the new PCI Express chipsets. The 480 series is aimed at AMD Athlon 64 and the future 400 series will bring ATI PCI Express to Intel. The current introduction is the A64 chipsets, with the chipsets for Intel targeted for the beginning of 2005. ATI believes clearly that there is a better market for AMD A64 solutions right now, which is why they have concentrated on the chipsets for AMD.
RX480 and RS480 are identical except for integrated graphics. RX480, called Radeon Xpress 200P, is the discrete Athlon 64 solution for PCI Express graphics cards. RS480, marketed as Radeon Xpress 200G, adds integrated DX 9 graphics to the 480 core. Both RX480 and RS480 are currently combined with the SB400 Southbridge.
The RX480/RS480 Northbridge supports dual or single channel DDR memory, PCI Express x16 for graphics, and up to 4 PCIe x1 slots. It is interesting that communication between North and South bridges (RX480/SB400) is handled by 2 additional lanes of PCI Express. This bring the total PCI Express lanes to 22. Communication with the CPU is available over a 1GHz (1000MHz) Hyper Transport. RS480 adds integrated DX9 graphics with both VGA and DVI outputs.
The current SB400 south bridge supports 8 USB 2.0 ports, 4 SATA 150 drives, 4 ATA-133 drives, PCI 8-channel AC '97 audio, and up to 5 PCI slots. SATA drives can be combined in RAID 0 and 1 configurations, but RAID 0+1 is not currently supported. The 2-chip design allows ATI to upgrade features just by using a new Southbridge. For instance, an SB450 Southbridge supporting High Definition audio appears on the ATI roadmaps. The SB450 should be available in early 2005.
Optional Integrated Graphics - Radeon Express 200G adds ATI's first DirectX 9 integrated graphics, which can be supported by both DVI (digital) and VGA (analog) outputs. The graphics core is a modified version of the discrete Radeon X300 core with only two rendering pipelines instead of four. Since the logic core is identical on RX480 and RS480, PCIe x16 support is also available. Graphics outputs from both internal and external graphics can be combined in ATI SurroundView.
LAN - The Radeon Express 200 series does not provide integrated LAN in the chipset. ATI claims that integrated Gigabit LAN offers no performance or cost advantage compared to Gigabit LAN supported by the PCI Express bus. PCI Express Gigabit LAN can deliver bi-directional 500MB/s total bandwidth per device. Gigabit or 10/100 Ethernet can be supported by the Northbridge PCI Express bus or the Southbridge PCI bus. This should allow manufacturers the option to implement LAN for top performance or for lowest cost.
SLI - ATI claims that this PCI Express 20-lane design is capable of supporting dual PCIe x8 slots for combining 2 graphics cards in an SLI configuration. Plans are already in place at ATI for an SLI version of RX480 to be introduced in early 2005.
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Sahrin - Monday, November 8, 2004 - link
I'm really excited to see another performance player in the AMD chipset market. Ironically, despite the fact that Intel is considered to have the best quality chipsets, the AMD segment has the most players and the most options. This chipset looks very good to me, especially as an overclocker, but I'm kind of left hanging in the feature set, which traditionally has been the determinant in the A64 market. Sure, 6 SATA ports is nice...etc. etc. but where's my dual integrated GigE LAN? I will take a long hard look at this chipset if SB450 comes out in time, but I think I will likely be going nForce one more generation.SLIM - Monday, November 8, 2004 - link
#6, of course you use an FX with the best gfx card available, he's trying to highlight small differences between chipsets. If you want P4 vs A64 look at a recent cpu review.However one large set of differences were the specviewperf benches? Huge differences when using ati/ati (some good and some bad) but no comments as to wtf is going on. Are those differences related to DX vs opengl, other driver issues, anybody know??
ipoh - Monday, November 8, 2004 - link
Onboard graphics use to be not good but changed since ATi comes out with RS350...and with this RS480 DX9 VGA will be definitely goodCurrently using my RS350 playing Doom3 and still looks good :)
I will spend my money for more HDD :)
Ivo - Monday, November 8, 2004 - link
With DX9 included, the integrated graphics (IG) of RS480 is good. First of all, with guaranteed future OS compatibility, it's very good for the OEM - for both business machines and home-office PCs. Secondly, as stated it the review, it is good enough for high-end 2D users because of the Surround View option. Third, it is a reasonable option for gamers too, as it could serve in emergency cases, when your high-end overclocked graphic card is tired ;-(The IG could be even more interesting for occasional gamers and even business users if, in a thinkable upcoming chipset, the IG is involved in a SLI scheme with one graphic card. In that case the IG will add it's modest 10% to 20% to the overall gaming performance (small, but from heart). This 10%-20% could be interesting for the real gamers too, if the IG is involved in a triple SLI scheme with two additional graphic cards.
My questions to this great article are:
1. What about the Cool 'N Quiet operation - does it work properly on the reference board with all (DIMM etc.) configurations used?
2. What is ATI suggesting about the SidePort - why it is limited to 32 bit and 16MB only?
byvis - Monday, November 8, 2004 - link
It's very impressive. But I have one minor question about the benchmarking. Why didn't you test Nforce4 + X800XT in Winstone and other benchmarks? I see, that you DID test RX480 + GF6800U and RX480 + X800XT. Maybe the margins are very small, but I'd like to see them, I think other people would like that too.deathwalker - Monday, November 8, 2004 - link
ATI might be right in the thick of it based on performance..however...from a marketing standpoint I think they will have a tough road to plow.bearxor - Monday, November 8, 2004 - link
SoldJalf - Monday, November 8, 2004 - link
Onboard graphics makes perfect sense for non-gamers.If they can cram in something that works for normal desktop use, *and* can claim to support DirectX 9 as well, then it's a pretty good deal. It'll serve your needs under normal use, and it'll at least be able to run games, even if they might get an unplayable framerate.
DrDisconnect - Monday, November 8, 2004 - link
I'm surprised that any of you are wondering why they are producing an integrated graphics versio. Haven't you taken a walk through any of the computer superstores lately? Entry level machines from HP etc. are using integrated graphics to hold prices down yet allow users to beef up their machines when they ahve some coin later on.ranger203 - Monday, November 8, 2004 - link
-1st of all, why does anandtech keep benchmarking AMD FX chips, sure they are the fastest hands down, but none of us are buying they. I.e. they are comparing apples to oranges, (FX vs. P4). They need to bench regular A64s!!!!-2nd, Onboard video still really sucks for gaming, but atleast they are making an effort, they should relize that $30 gaming cards are better quality than their onboard video and stop integrating it into their full size atx boards!!! Unless this was just a "show" board of ati's capability, then i could understand....