Dual Graphics Platforms, Part II

Overclocking ATI Radeon Xpress 200 XE: Asus A8R-MVP

The Crossfire motherboard by Asus permits a system clock speed range of between 200 and 1,000 MHz. Again, a gigahertz system clock speed is something that would never work on today's hardware.

We were able to go as high as a 325 MHz system clock with the Radeon Xpress 200 Crossfire Edition motherboard by Asus. Although this is a bit less than what the nForce4 SLI X16 could do, we need to point at the feature set of both motherboards. While the nForce4 A8N32 is a high-end enthusiast product with six phase switching voltage regulators and state-of-the-art components, the A8R-MVP is a motherboard that goes into the upper mainstream. It comes with a three-phase voltage regulator and fewer additional components.

Still, it is interesting to see how well the board performs, even though it was not designed to compete with stars such as the A8N32 SLI Deluxe. Please note that our assessment of motherboard category relates to the target market space, rather than the chipset used. We are pretty confident that the Radeon Xpress 200 XE should be able to score similar overclocking results if it gets the chance to prove it on a higher-class motherboard.