AMD: R7xx Speculation

[jimmyjames123]

http://www.hardware.fr/articles/724-1/preview-ati-radeon-hd-4850.html

ouch! the hd 4850 matches a 3870X2 (with AA, but who would want to play without, especially on such hardware?), and is slightly better than a 8800 Ultra, at midrange price. 159€, or even 157.90€. same price as a 9600GT 1GB or 8800GT 512. (I can see a 9800GTX at 219€ which is outrageously low too but not good enough!)

the GPU market is insane

The AA performance (ie. relatively little drop in performance when enabling 4xAA) from the 4850 in this review is incredibly good. Interesting because before R6xx, ATI always seemed to have more efficient MSAA than NVIDIA. Only with R6xx did their MSAA all of a sudden become less efficient (and we all know why). Now with R7xx, it looks like ATI is more efficient in MSAA again (at least from this review).

 

[Anarchist4000]

A second power connector just means that the maximum possible power draw exceeds 150W. With a 1GB firestream using roughly 110W the second connector is probably just there for overclocking purposes.

From what I read about on the GDDR5 there is a mirroring option which reverses the pins. This should allow chips on opposite sides of the card to line up with eachother. The command and addressing pins are shared and the data bus to each individual chip is cut in half for the clamshell. The end result is the same bandwidth since two chips are used instead of one and twice the memory capacity. Since most of the lines would be shared there wouldn't be much additional routing required to add the extra chips.

The 4850, 4870, 4870x2, and newest firestream card are all the exact same chip. R700 doesn't seem to be a chip as much as a board layout. I doubt there are any disabled units and it's just a matter of clockspeed and memory capacity/bandwidth that would be changing.

R700 should only require 16 total memory chips. Each core would have 8 attached and be operating nearly identical to a 4870. Through some connection they will share their memory pools. The end result should look like a single processor with 64TMUs?, 1600 SPs, a 1GB memory pool, and a load of bandwidth.

 

[ZerazaX]

Interesting to see that GDDR5 is actually providing a LOT of advantages over GDDR3, unlike GDDR4.

It looks like ATI designed these cards with GDDR5 specifically in mind, especially since GDDR5 might be the key to R700 memory sharing if it exists

 

[Anarchist4000]

I'm doubtful the GDDR5 will have anything to do with the memory sharing. It's beneficial for doubling the capacity but likely can't be shared efficiently.

 

[Geo]

Memory sharing is the holy grail of multi-gpu. And by that I mean it is much more sought after than achieved.

 

[itsmydamnation]

NDA has been pushed forward to today on the HD 4850 (9am in the US)

I will post my results up soon- now i have to write an article, I thought I had till next week bloody hell!!!!!!!!!!!111111111111111111oneoneoneone

taken from another forum.....


cheers

 

[Tchock]

^Whaaaaaaaaaaa^

(Yes, I apologise for the abnormal SNR ratio for this post. )

 

[ZerazaX]

edit: nvm saw tweaktown has mentioned it as well

 

[Rangers]

I have to say, I haven't seen such a groundswell of pro-AMD anti-Nvidia sentiment based on their respective new products at forums across the internet in years. Interesting to see if it holds out.

I think it's good, not like Nvidia cant absorb quite a few blows and be just fine after they've been running up the score the past few years, and we need competition in the market.

It also seems like GDDR5 was such a great decision from AMD, it just makes the 4870 seem more technically advanced than the other guy (besides of course the actual benefits), and image is a lot of the battle.

 

[thatdude90210]

I have to say, I haven't seen such a groundswell of pro-AMD anti-Nvidia sentiment based on their respective new products at forums across the internet in years. Interesting to see if it holds out.

In a time when PC gaming is said to be on a decline due to increase competition from $250 - $399 consoles, a $650 video card just doesn't seem right. AMD, from early previews, looks to have hit a good balance for price and performance.

 

[ZerazaX]

The ATI 4800 series thread at XS has over 220,000 views alone... and the FXvideocards site had 90 or so Sapphire 4800's on sale today and have gone down to 18 right now, so people are definitely snapping them up

And with the recent success of the G92 cards and RV670, people are definitely realizing that good performance can be had at cheap prices - and in some ways, are demanding that now

 

[Silent_Buddha]

I was seriously tempted to buy one from them before even reading a review.

If the 4850's and 4870's turn out as well as it appears they will. I suspect demand is going to FAR ourstrip anything ATI can possibly supply. Even if ATI somehow managed to get the lions share of TSMCs capacity for 55nm.

In some ways I have a feeling I'm going to regret waiting for reviews before ordering a card.

I'm willing to bet that even if Suggested Retail price was 199-229, that Newegg will soon have them up around 259-299 due to demand.

Regards,
SB

 

[Miksu]

Someone please run some folding with your 4850 and tell me the results

 

[JasonCross]

Someone please run some folding with your 4850 and tell me the results

The newest released folding client supports the 4800 series cards, but it isn't optimized for it. It only uses 320 stream processors. Some operations are still considerably faster, but I'm told it might be two or three weeks (give or take) before a properly optimized client comes out that really takes advantage of the 4800 series.

 

[Miksu]

The newest released folding client supports the 4800 series cards, but it isn't optimized for it. It only uses 320 stream processors. Some operations are still considerably faster, but I'm told it might be two or three weeks (give or take) before a properly optimized client comes out that really takes advantage of the 4800 series.

Oh But thanks for the heads-up!

 

[randomhack]

Tweak town reporting a new Nvidia card 9800 GTX+.
Looks like an OC GTX.
The prices : original GTX is now $199, GTX+ is 229 !!!!

http://www.tweaktown.com/news/9702/nvidia_surprise_with_9800_gtx_graphics_card/index.html

 

[AlphaWolf]

I just love how Nvidia and AMD crap on each others launches.

on the upside, we might see $159 4850's.

 

[Pressure]

Tweak town reporting a new Nvidia card 9800 GTX+.
Looks like an OC GTX.
The prices : original GTX is now $199, GTX+ is 229 !!!!

http://www.tweaktown.com/news/9702/nvidia_surprise_with_9800_gtx_graphics_card/index.html

Wow, more SKUs to clutter the market with. That should make it easier for people to get an overview of NVIDIAs products.

Seriously, I am much more interested in the RV770 than in the GT200 this time around. Affordable performance for the masses.

 

[simbus82]

Damn.

Tri-SLI GTX280 at 702/1511/1196 (overclocked 17%/17%/8%) is 16% faster than R700

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=191313

That's X14556 for 3 GT200s and X12526 for 2 RV770s.

Jawed

error.... X14556 for 3 GTX280 and X12526 for 2 R700, or 4 x rv770.

But now, the price.

3 x gtx280 = 3 x 500€ = 1500 €!

2 x R700 ~= 4 x rv770xt ~= 4 x 200 euro = 800 €

14556/1500 = 9,7 points/euro for 3 x GTX280

12526/800 = 15, 7 points/euro for 2 x R700

The winner is clearly ATI.

 

[Sunrise]

Well, I don´t know how you guys feel, but right now I´m in absolute awe of the work that AMD/ATI have done behind the scenes. I just have to congratulate everyone at ATI that pursued an approach that was barely visible but (I see it now) definately is a great decision for the future.

I wish AMD/ATI success and many more customers, so that they can grab a big chunk of the market in no time and that they´ll continue to give customers great products for an unbeatable price (and hopefully still have their margins under control).

I must say that I really enjoyed the new tech demos/presentations, esp. the new ruby. That level of realism combined in one is just unreal (it´s only a 11sec clip for gods sake).

Now, speaking about the performance of RV770. I´ve never thought it´s possible that an ASIC of this size (I expected good, but not this) and on 55nm (just think about what ATI could do with the half-node 40nm) could deliver so much raw processing power. And we haven´t even seen what RV770 can do if you support it with enough BW, higher core clocks and it´s "new" multi-gpu-capabilities.

While RV670 really was a _great_ ASIC, RV770 is the king. Great work guys. Yes, Dave, feel free to forward that to your colleagues.

Looking at one of the previews that I personally trust the most, hardware.fr:

http://www.hardware.fr/articles/724-8/preview-ati-radeon-hd-4850.html

That´s only a HD4850 and it´s a summary of all games they´ve tested in 1920x1200 (with and without AA). If the HD4870 really is at least 20% faster all around, this would mean that we´d have about parity with the GTX280, give and take some %. This is "only" games of course. Can´t wait for the real McCoy (4870X2).