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Sapphire PURE Innovation - ATI's Chipset for the AMD Enthusiast

 by Wesley Fink on July 29, 2005 12:05 AM EST
52 Comments | Add A Comment
52 Comments

Sapphire PURE Innovation

Sapphire will release the first in their new PURE motherboard series around August 5th. The top enthusiast board, based on the Grouper Reference Board, will be the PURE Innovation. This is based on the discrete video version of the Radeon Xpress 200 chipset for AMD Athlon 64 Socket 939. There will also be another version based on the RS480 integrated graphics version of the same chipset.

Sapphire and ATI have done an outstanding job of making the PURE ATI board stand out. This starts with silver foil Sapphire packaging...

...to the board window behind the outside flap...

...to the standout white motherboard with red lettering.


Click to enlarge.

A white board in a window case with UV lighting should have the attention of those who like to show off their computer guts in a window case. This is certainly the first white motherboard that we have seen, and it is just another example of how Sapphire and ATI are out to get the attention of the AMD enthusiast. There is a lot to like that stands out in the appearance of the Sapphire, but most will be even more interested in the options available and how the board actually performs.

ATI Reference Boards Basic Features: Sapphire PURE Innovation
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  • Avalon - Friday, July 29, 2005 - link

    This board sounds fantastic!

  • Hacp - Friday, July 29, 2005 - link

    Competative with similar Nforce4 boards(DFI LP) isn't enough. They need to beat the price by 5-10 dollars in order to regain the edge. I agree that the VTT options is awesome (for you BH-5 users), but in order to kill the current proven top Overclockers board, they need to be very competative with the DFI in terms of price.

    Also, I was wondering if they managed to fix the cold boot issue with these boards. If the cold boot issue is a non issue with these boards, and they are priced exactly the same as the DFI Lan Party boards, then it is a no brainer for BH-5/CH-5/UTT users as to which board to pick (unless they already are doing the 3.3 Rail Vdimm mod).

    Also, the 2nd page, He art in the first sentence needs to be fixed, and in the first page, it says AMD in the first paragraph when its supposed to say ATI.

  • afrost - Friday, July 29, 2005 - link

    I don't think so, a lot of people complain about problems with the DFI.....and it has a super loud fan on the chipset which is difficult to replace because the video card is right on top of it.

    I personally would never buy a DFI....different people obviously have different priorities

    If this board is rock solid stable like AT reported, then they will have a winner.

  • cryptonomicon - Friday, July 29, 2005 - link

    looks like a strong competitor, and here was a typo pg. 11
    "The Sapphire ATI chipset performs at least as fast as the best of nForcee4 chipset boards"

  • Mant - Friday, July 29, 2005 - link

    I think that was intentional. They're comparing the ATI to the "NForcee" by MVidia...like you can compare a Seiko watch to a BOLEX

  • RyanVM - Friday, July 29, 2005 - link

    In the first pic of the motherboard, it clearly has 8 SATA ports. However, the next page lists the specs with 6 SATA ports and the next picture seems to confirm that. Is there indeed an 8 SATA port version as well?

  • Wesley Fink - Friday, July 29, 2005 - link

    The pictures on page 4 were provided by Sapphire and are earlier prototypes. The actual production version we tested is pictured on page 5 and has 6 (not 8) SATA ports. We apologize for the confusion. There are indeed pads for 8 SATA ports on the production board, so there could be further developments.

  • ncage - Friday, July 29, 2005 - link

    What i like:
    Performance in general
    good audio quality (im wondering if it supports any of the eax extensions though which would be great if it did. Would elimante the need for a sound card.)

    What i don't like:
    bad USB2 performance. This would affect me big time. I have a pro consumer camera (8MP Olympus C-8080) and i usually transfer a bunch of images at a time from my camera to my computer so this is definitly a disapointment.

    I really like nvidia as a company. Their driver team has from the start been top notch. I think that is one of the things that led to their popularity. I generally have always gone with nvidia except in the 9800 pro days because you know why. I currently own a 6600gt which i love. Anyways the only thing that upset me that nvidia did was to take out soundstorm out of thier chipsets. I hope ATI bringing high end audio will force nvidia to reconsider. Nvidia knew that a lot of customers were asking for soundstorm back yet they still wouldn't put it back in. I just don't understand this.

    I hope thier are boards produced that don't have dual video card abilites because of price. I really don't want two video cards. I only occasional play games and im not going to spend 500-900 on two video cards. So we shall see how this plays out.

  • bob661 - Friday, July 29, 2005 - link

    The mobo manufacturers were griping about the price. Also, I believe the demand was too low. Yes I know lots of geeks liked it but we're a small percentage of the market.

  • BPB - Friday, July 29, 2005 - link

    "Today, we look more deeply at production version of the ATI Grouper that will be launched by Sapphire next week."
    So, when do we actually see these? If it's by end of Summer, great. If not, it may just be too late. I think most people who've waited for ATI to get this out have already gone to nVidia. I know my buddy has.

    Also, regarding Crossfire, can an AIW X800XT PCIe work with a plain old X800XT PICe?
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