Markham (ON) – AMD’s graphics units will allow enthusiasts to run three and four graphics cards in their system with the release of the Catalyst 8.3 driver package, which will be released in March.

The next Catalyst release, however, will be version 8.2, which will be available on Wednesday, February 13, according to our sources. This version will be the last driver version not to support triple- and quad-GPUs, which will become the next graphics battleground for AMD and Nvidia.

Version 8.3 will surface, as the number indicates, in mid-March, but this release is actually not in line with other Catalyst revisions, since it was in heavy testing and coding for the past couple of months. Catalyst 8.3 is an important milestone for AMD in 2008 and might mean much more than just another driver. Catalyst 8.3 is finally going to deliver support for up to four GPUs within one system and we will be able to see whether multi-GPU setups have a future or whether this is just another a marketing bubble.

Expect hardware review sites to publish their Crossfire X reviews in the second week of March when Germany’s CeBit concludes.

I hope to be wrong, but I think that they probably ...

Feb 07, 2008 00:33     

I hope to be wrong, but I think that they probably won't get it right until at least a couple of more releases. It seems that crossfire with 2 GPUs is not completely fine yet: http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/02/04/best_cards_february_2008/page5.html "...the 3870 X2 does seem to be performance limited in DirectX 10 applications for the time being. We hope ATI will correct this weakness in future driver releases..." http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/01/28/ati_r680_the_rage_fury_maxx_2/page19.html "...Other consequences include a few early bugs related to CrossFire..."

Alejandro report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

LOL

Feb 07, 2008 09:08     

AMD sure needs quad gpu to keep up with one of nvidias. This is hillarious. I'm sure they're eyeing that demographic that buys 2k watt PSU's.
ba report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

2k watt

Feb 08, 2008 22:32     

ha, or more like a tesla generator... google it. I swear the SLI and Xfire is big scam. Pay almost more than double for two cards and a mobo that can support it and you ONLY get an average of 30-40% more frames.
VILLAIN_xx report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

8.2 or 8.3???

Feb 09, 2008 13:39     

First this article states that 8.2 will support 4 GPU's. Then it states that 8.3 will "finally bring support for up to four GPUs"... Is it me or someone just a little off on version capabilities? [can't follow you, Narg. About 8.2, the article says "This version will be the last driver version not to support triple- and quad-GPUs". 8.3 is said to be the one supporting quad-GPUs. -ed]
Narg report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0