Ati/AMD Radeon 58xx series poll.

It was something between a GF3 & GF4 unit count wise, same architecture with GF3's features (I think GF4 brought in some new features?)

 

Yeah, I think you are right. I really meant geforce 4(of course thats easy to remember when someone corrects you).

From here it looks like a half breed geforce 3 and 4. Does this sound about right?
http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=2169

 

I remember, that some B3D member mentioned, that NV2a had even more arithmetic power than NV25 and it was on top in this point till NV30. But it's many years now and my memory isn't good enough.

 

Personally I will wait. I always wait till the competition is released if possible. Prices almost always go down (though sometimes directly after introduction they go up). If ATI had the old school thing where the first cards of the 5850 could be converted to 5870 with bios flash then maybe I would buy one, but they don't seem to like that any more.

 

I've waited for R600 before I bought my G80, and I'll probably do the same now.
Firstly, because prices will probably come down considerably during the first weeks/months. Secondly, because I'd like to get the best card, not necessarily the first card.
Ofcourse this all depends on how long nVidia plans to keep me waiting. My patience runs out after about 6 months...

 

In the past when a particular IHV has lead another to market on a new generation of parts the first to market typically outperforms (or matches) the card that comes after. Think about
R300 and NV30, G80 and R600, NV10 and R100, NV20 and R200 etc

So I'm thinking that GT300 is going to be another NV30. Their DX10 arch is completely outclassed here, the die size they'd need on 40nm to match the performance of R870 is not economically feasible. It'll be interesting to see how they respond.

That said I'm going to stick with my 4870 1GB becuase it's plenty fast for my needs.

 

Assuming they'd need something bigger than GT200, it's not technically feasible: TSMC can't manufacture something over 600mm².

But of course that's a big assumption.

 

is it that big of an assumption? Even on 40nm it would have to be huge to match the 5870. I'm assuming here that they haven't made any big area saving changes between GT200 and now, i guess that's a possibility but I feel that if area savings were possible we would have seen some indications of it already.

 

Yep.

 

That's a very good point. When you're on time, it's a strong indication that your design was fulfilled and your execution worked. When an IHV product is late, that's usually because things have gone wrong. Over ambitious design, process problems, need to cut down the design and do respins taking more time, etc.

ATI hitting their timetables shows that 58xx has gone to plan, where Nvidia's execution on new products (as opposed to old products renamed) has been sorely lacking. I can't believe Nvidia don't have a DX11 product for the launch of DX11 with a new version of Windows. It's a golden marketing opportunity that no PC-tech company should miss out on.

 

I'll go with a 5870X2 for extreme overkill. I don' t ever want to struggle for frame rates.

 

I have to buy a new case to fit these ever longer cards. Going to aim for overkill on depth.

 

its the same size as a 4870x2~, and smaller than a 8800gtx~... If you use big cards you need a server case anyways... well for the love of the cable gods and your sanity to install stuff.
and will get two X2s! .

 

Bah, my little Shuttle SFF has handled everything with room to spare so far. Granted room to spare with an 8800 GTX is only a cm or two.

Regards,
SB

 

I have one of those TT Armor cases which might as well be a freakin non-racked server anyway So I'll have no problem wedging in a pretty egregiously-sized card or three.

A 5870 would do everything I want today; every game I play would have a measurable performance increase over my 4850 CF setup. And in a year when I need / want more, another 5870 will be cheap(er)

 

Hell, I've already started looking around for a 3rd monitor for my setup.

LG has a really sweet and seriously thin 23/24 (can't remember exactly) LED LCD for a little over 300 USD. Unfortunately it's only 1920x1080. And it doesn't support Portrait mode. /sigh. So I'll have to keep looking.

Regards,
SB

 

Well, there's Crysis and then there's modded Crysis. It's not even historically new: we used to have the Q2 Crusher benchmark when Quake 2 no longer proved a challenge.

 

I got a Antec Solo so its a write off. Any body have any recommendations on something small that's also deep?

 

I think Lian Li makes a rather compact case. Not as small as a Shuttle SFF. A bit deeper and wider.

Regards,
SB

 

you mean this:
Lian-Li PC-V350A Aluminium Cube Case