All ATI' X1000 GPUs to add CrossFire

All of ATI's Radeon X1000-class graphics chips will support the company's multi-GPU technology, CrossFire, the company has revealed.

The move, announced yesterday by Edward Chou, ATI Asia-Pacific's marketing director, will presumably end the separation of the X1000 GPU lines into standard and "CrossFire Edition" cards.

Chou's comment comes on the heels of the release of X1600-based graphics cards, such as Club 3D's Radeon X1600 XT board, that support CrossFire but are not marked out as 'CrossFire Edition' products.

Chou said CrossFire cards will continue to be hosted by ATI's Radeon Xpress 200 chipsets and Intel's 975X chipset. The company, he said, has no plans to allow other chipset vendors to mark their products as CrossFire-compatible. VIA's K8T900 chipset is said to be capable of hosting CrossFire cards as well as the company's own RapidFire solution.

DigiTimes today claimed most of ATI's CrossFire-compatible GPUs have been sold to PC OEMs, according to Taiwanese motherboard-maker sources. Supplies for the channel are expected to ramp up through Q1 2006, it said.