Rumours of new ATI 3870 X2 surface

[Unknown Soldier]

Haven't seen any news regarding this so am posting it here.

ATI is working on a new revision of its Radeon HD 3870 X2 card; and if all goes well, you should be able to get one by the middle of Q2, if not even earlier.

The new card will have an updated PLX Bridge chip that will support PCIe 2.0 and at the same time, ATI is trying to shorten the PCB and add GDDR4 to the card. The current Radeon 3870 X2 has a PLX chip that supports PCIe 1.1 communication and, obviously, a new card should have some better results with the faster inter-chip communication.

The RV670 chips will upgrade to revision 12 and this probably means higher frequencies and more performance. The current Radeon 3870 X2 dual chip cards come with RV670 chips' Revision 11.

News Source: http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5980&Itemid=1

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Radeon 3870 X2 DDR4 to surface at CeBIT

Most of ATI’s partners will showcase their Radeon 3870 X2 DDR4 versions of the cards at CeBIT For a few of you that might not know, CeBIT starts on the March 4th, next Tuesday, and it still remains as the biggest computer tradeshow. It takes place in Hannover, Germany.

Radeon 3870 X2 with GDDR4 and some water cooled cards will be the top of what ATI partners have to show, and we also learned that the production of GDDR4 X2 cards should start in the middle of March.

The cards should be available as of first week of April; they tend to be a bit more expensive, but we don’t know how much.

Don’t expect a big performance increase out of these GDDR4 powered cards, but they will be a bit faster than the currently available GDDR3 3870 X2 cards.

News Source: http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5979&Itemid=1

 

[BRiT]

Now why on earth would ATI do this new revision 3870 X2 when I thought they have Rv770 card coming out near the same timeframe?

 

[w0mbat]

CeBit is very close, and maybe they can save some production costs w/ a new rev?

they could change a lot, like A12 RV670 instead of A11 RV670 -> higher clocks (900mhz?) or lower vcore. GDDR4 as standard w/ 1200mhz, plx-chip upgrade from pcie1.1 to pcie2.0, maybe rearrange tha pxl<>gpus -> shorter pcb -> lower costs again.

so my guess of a perfect hd3870 rev2 or hd3890 or hd3970 would be:

900/1200
512mb gddr4
plx pcie2.0
shorter pcb

 

[ECH]

If the revision 12 is true then this looks like more of a template for R700 more so to me then anything else.

 

[Kowan]

Not great news for early adopters, but I hope it's true.

 

[DeadlyNinja]

Didn't someone here posted something about ATI noting that gddr 4 is the reason the 3870 X2 isn't performing as well as we thought? Why use gddr 4 again? That is assuming what they said was true, of course.

 

[hoom]

I don't understand why ATI would use a 3rd party PCIE bridge chip?
They design their own north/southbridges with as many lanes, surely they could bang out a tiny PCIE2.0 55nm chip

But then, if this multi-chip is going to follow the pattern that crossfire took, they would presumably at least have the PCIE bridge integrated on the chips next generation.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

ATI prepares new 3870 single cards

The new RV670 revision A12 will make enough space for a new version of 3870. The new Radeon 3870 with revision A12 chips will work at faster clocks and should score better than existing cards.

The other thing that we can report is that it is expected in April to May time frame which clearly indicates that the R700 family will launch a bit later than that.

The story behind the RV670 chip is that the current A11 revision that was launch back in November was not supposed to be the launched, but it was the first A11 silicon that ATI managed to ship. Usually by ATI, A12 silicon is the launch one but for a change something did went well in DAAMIT.

News Source: http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6015&Itemid=1

 

[silent_guy]

I don't understand why ATI would use a 3rd party PCIE bridge chip?

Because they don't have one? Because it takes time, money, and man power to create one?

They design their own north/southbridges with as many lanes, surely they could bang out a tiny PCIE2.0 55nm chip

I'm sure they have the technical capabilities, but in the absence of unlimited amounts of resources, a company has to allocate them there were they result in the biggest ! for $.

But then, if this multi-chip is going to follow the pattern that crossfire took, they would presumably at least have the PCIE bridge integrated on the chips next generation.

If that is their plan, then it would even make less sense to create their own 3rd party bridge...

 

[AlexV]

Because they don't have one? Because it takes time, money, and man power to create one?

I'm sure they have the technical capabilities, but in the absence of unlimited amounts of resources, a company has to allocate them there were they result in the biggest ! for $.


If that is their plan, then it would even make less sense to create their own 3rd party bridge...

Noises suggest they already have one that will be integrated in their future R700. That's why I think that DDR4+a supposed PCIE2.0 bridge chip with the 3870X2 will be more of an AIB trying to be sexy thing, rather than something that ATi spent time doing.

 

[hoom]

If that is their plan, then it would even make less sense to create their own 3rd party bridge...

Stream of thought posting...
I guess my main point is that if the bridge chip is going to be around for a while surely it wouldn't take too much effort for ATI to strip the USB/FSB/IDE etc sections off one of their existing Northbridge chip designs to make a much more efficient bridge chip?
Obviously not worth it if the next generation has the same or better functionality built in but there has been no direct evidence that this is the case so I'd have thought that a mk2 3870X2 might have used an internal ATI/AMD bridge chip.

 

[nagus]

http://www.pcgameshardware.de/?menu...ty_id=-1&image_id=785155&page=1&show=original

 

[AnarchX]

Still PEX8547 -> PCIe1.1.

 

[Tchock]

And definitely not very sexy at all.

 

[silent_guy]

Stream of thought posting...
I guess my main point is that if the bridge chip is going to be around for a while surely it wouldn't take too much effort for ATI to strip the USB/FSB/IDE etc sections off one of their existing Northbridge chip designs to make a much more efficient bridge chip?

It really depends on the expected volume, the amount of single chip GPU's sold (in which case an embedded bridge is dead weight) and the price they get from PLX. (Unfortunately, the embedded heat slug looks expensive...)
'Not too much effort' are famous last words, usually spoken by marketing. Often together with 'just a small change'.

 

[Kaotik]

I think that's just some AIBs own version with GDDR4, not related to the possible new model if there will be one.
I must say, I like the PCB HIS is using, it's shorter than the rest

 

[AlexV]

I think that's just some AIBs own version with GDDR4, not related to the possible new model if there will be one.
I must say, I like the PCB HIS is using, it's shorter than the rest

This will be an AIB thing(DDR4 models). And there are no plans for an SKU with a 2.0 bridge chip...unless an AIB chooses to include that as well in order to create a super duper model.

 

[Berek]

My goal for a system this summer is to put one of these in a Micro-ATX enclosure. Question is, will the new PCB fit... worst case I choose the smallest Mid-tower ATX enclosure possible.

 

[AlexV]

My goal for a system this summer is to put one of these in a Micro-ATX enclosure. Question is, will the new PCB fit... worst case I choose the smallest Mid-tower ATX enclosure possible.

I think Powercolor are using a custom, shorter PCB, which should fit...since I seem to recall the 2900XT used to fit micro-ATX enclosures and te size of aforementioned PCB should be around that/shorter(dunno exactly).

 

[Berek]

Change of plans, now that I understand the Radeon HD 4870's are close to release. Only problem with those is that the "X2" varient might not be released until Q4, while the single card is expected in June.

What I'll likely end up doing is Crossfire rigging two single cards together. It may require a bit more power, take up more room in the case, but should be cheaper anyway if you look at the current 3870 offerings in both configurations.

Worst case, I go with a SLI 8800gt rig or some other similar variant. It comes close in a lot of cases to the 9800 GX2, for half the price! I'm certainly not getting the 9800 GX2 itself, lol.