AMD: R8xx Speculation

[Neb]

What is also new to watch for in HD 58X0 series besides DX11 capability is that there is a new AA/AF algorithm, where everything on the render back end has been doubled. As a benefit for gamers, that means much less of a performance hit when going from no AA to 4xAA or perhaps even from 4xAA to 8xAA.

2.6TFlops

*Unzips pants*

 

[Subtlesnake]

Isn't this thing going to be bandwidth starved with only 150 GB/s?

 

[Alexko]

That's 2.72 TFLOPS... pretty damn impressive, I must say. I'm a bit disappointed about the disabled SPs on the 5850 though, but I guess something like that was to be expected now that the GDDR3/5 differentiation has disappeared.

 

[nAo]

What was 4870 bandwidth?

 

[LordEC911]

What was 4870 bandwidth?

115.2GBps for RV770
Supposed 153.6GBps for RV870

So RV870XT has ~33.3% more bandwidth than RV770XT.

 

[Alexko]

I've been thinking for a while that both Cypress and Juniper might be bandwidth-limited. Maybe Cypress will be a bit better off due to faster GDDR5, but Juniper basically gets the short end of the stick with—probably— relatively slow GDDR5 and a measly 128-bit bus. A shame, because with a 192-bit bus it could have been faster than the 4890.

For what it's worth, here's a raw comparison between RV790 and Cypress:

Compute power: 1.36 -> 2.72 TFLOPS, i.e. +100%
Bandwidth: 124.8 -> 153.6 GT/s, i.e. +23%.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Bah, 399 USD? Here we go back on the path to 500-600 USD cards. /sigh...

Regards,
SB

 

[Raqia]

Bah, 399 USD? Here we go back on the path to 500-600 USD cards. /sigh...

Regards,
SB

Just remember inflation! That figure today is more like $350 year 2000 dollars.

 

[juicytuna]

http://technologic.ysoserius.com/2009/09/radeon-hd-5870-six-with-6-display.html

Many are perhaps wondering how AMD managed to fit no less than six display outputs on the back of the same graphics card. The answer is DisplayPort, or more precise Mini DisplayPort.

Even if we don't have any benchmarks to share, we have it on good authority that AMD's new Radeon HD 5800 series will bring between 25-40% better performance than current generation, depending on games and application.

I hope that is 25-40% better performance than the X2 cards of the current generation!

 

[Rangers]

Bah, 399 USD? Here we go back on the path to 500-600 USD cards. /sigh...

Regards,
SB

At first I was like you, but now that I see all 5870 offers, it cant be anything but 399 really.

If 5870 was meant to be ~50% faster than 4870/90, 299 would be fine. But now we see it's a solid doubling of functional units, with a fast clock too so it's not giving away anything there. As high as stock 4890 out of the gate! Combine that with the supposed power consumption.

I mean it supposed to compete with 4870X2 and GTX295 on performance, so couldn't you look at it as making things actually cheaper (since it's cheaper than those)?

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Meh, ATI making the 4870 and setting a new price precedant kept me in PC gaming. If not for that I'd probably have ditched PC gaming by now, and just gone pure console for gaming.

If price starts going back to the 500-700 USD range, then I'll probably abandon the PC platform for good. Yes, I know there's cheaper alternatives, but my mind works in weird ways always wanting the best.

Regards,
SB

 

[Arty]

How about looking at the scenario this way? $299 5850, 75% jump over 4870.

 

[apoppin]

Meh, ATI making the 4870 and setting a new price precedant kept me in PC gaming. If not for that I'd probably have ditched PC gaming by now, and just gone pure console for gaming.

If price starts going back to the 500-700 USD range, then I'll probably abandon the PC platform for good. Yes, I know there's cheaper alternatives, but my mind works in weird ways always wanting the best.

Regards,
SB

i simply cannot imagine picking console gaming over PC gaming for price reasons. Especially when console gamers pay $10 to $15 more for the same title. Just buying 100 titles over the life of a console costs at least $1,000 more than buying the same games and playing them on the PC platform.

Also, if you hunt bargain bin, you will get much cheaper PC games than console games - and it takes a lot longer to hit the bargain bin for consolers than for PC gamers.

 

[LunchBox]

for $399, I'll hold off a little till the Nvidia ones show up and the price battle starts again I've been too spoiled from the past years' price wars.

 

[wishiknew]

But what if Nvidia's card is too fast or not good enough to make ati drop prices. Or maybe it doesn't come until ati is ready with a refresh.

 

[sunscar]

I've been thinking for a while that both Cypress and Juniper might be bandwidth-limited. Maybe Cypress will be a bit better off due to faster GDDR5, but Juniper basically gets the short end of the stick with—probably— relatively slow GDDR5 and a measly 128-bit bus. A shame, because with a 192-bit bus it could have been faster than the 4890.

For what it's worth, here's a raw comparison between RV790 and Cypress:

Compute power: 1.36 -> 2.72 TFLOPS, i.e. +100%
Bandwidth: 124.8 -> 153.6 GT/s, i.e. +23%.

I wonder something, though... If tesselation becomes HUGE over night, this might matter very little. Maybe they've anticipated needing less bandwidth for geometry, but slightly more for displacement maps? It'd make sense at any rate "Design to perform great for previous gen, but still competant for next, and evolve from here."

 

[LunchBox]

But what if Nvidia's card is too fast or not good enough to make ati drop prices. Or maybe it doesn't come until ati is ready with a refresh.

It's been common practice, if they can't hack it, they lower the price. I'll get the one with the price point with the best bang forthe buck , I'm not gonna spend an extra $100-200 just for a measly 5-10 frames.... unless if it's running at like 10-15 frames a sec.

Migiht just xfire or SLI the not so high end parts

 

[trinibwoy]

Some obscure website eh? doesn't matter that it has eight times more users than XS.

Heh what? Stop being so touchy, I wasn't mocking your sources, actually quite the opposite. Sheesh......

Any idea why the card is so big for a low power, small die, 256-bit setup? Or is there something hidden under the hood?

 

[Sound_Card]

I've been thinking for a while that both Cypress and Juniper might be bandwidth-limited. Maybe Cypress will be a bit better off due to faster GDDR5, but Juniper basically gets the short end of the stick with—probably— relatively slow GDDR5 and a measly 128-bit bus. A shame, because with a 192-bit bus it could have been faster than the 4890.

For what it's worth, here's a raw comparison between RV790 and Cypress:

Compute power: 1.36 -> 2.72 TFLOPS, i.e. +100%
Bandwidth: 124.8 -> 153.6 GT/s, i.e. +23%.

RV770 seems to be hardly starved. RV790 even less so. Only the HD 4850 was somewhat starving for bandwidth. Perhaps 23% was just the right amount.

 

[Davros]

twice the flops is all well and good, but will it get twice the frames