very detailed 9700 preview at extremetech

[LittlePenny]

]I wonder if that is an indication of underlying bias?

Oh shut up.

I am was looking at the crossbar picture and I noticed there is a connection between the end channels/controllers and the agp controller is included. Those are two things not done with the GF3/4 if I recall correctly. Can anyone take a guess as to how useful it is including an AGP controller in this?

<update>

NV20

NV25

R300

Looks like NV25 has one less connected controller/channel than NV25? Strange.

 

[Evildeus]

The board is built with 10-layer PCB (Printed Circuit Board) which makes it expensive to produce, and many of ATI's partners were unhappy about this decision.

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=4547
I thought Ati was using 8 PCB. Anyone can confirm that? (Mufu? )

 

[LittlePenny]

Can anyone tell me what kind of switch you think they would use for the crossbars? I am guessing a multiplexor would slow things down significantly, which is one reason besides the n^2 traces I think hierarchy access was used up until recently. Is there a different design(probably one using alot of transistors) that allows crossbar to take effect so swiftly?

 

[multigl2]

It would probably be more eye-opening if we could see real scores on these tests, especially since the close marks are very CPU bound tests as fps numbers would have shown. Obviously if card A is like 43 fps, it would be pretty apparently a CPU bound test.

I'm a bit floored at the JK-II @ 1600x1200 4xAA at 414 vs 100. The reviewer did sneak in the hint that it was over 85fps at this resolution. 1600x1200x32 with 4xAA at "over 85 fps" is pretty damn impressive. I just wonder how much "AA" that 4xAA really does.

programmable rotated grid multisample with a gamma correction filter that certainly impressed one previewer

 

[OpenGL guy]

The reviewer did sneak in the hint that it was over 85fps at this resolution. 1600x1200x32 with 4xAA at "over 85 fps" is pretty damn impressive. I just wonder how much "AA" that 4xAA really does.

4x AA looks very nice on the Radeon 9700. Of course, you can always go to 6x if you aren't satisfied but 4x looks really incredible already.

 

[Randell]

4x AA looks very nice on the Radeon 9700. Of course, you can always go to 6x if you aren't satisfied but 4x looks really incredible already.

bearing in mind fpr space reasons, I use a 10x7 LCD - I beleive if 1280x1024 4xAA and 16x AF is very fast on a R300 will I be able to reach good fps (60+ say) at 10x7 and 6xAA on say UT2003?

Oh and if you have any influence at all please enable;

- MS & SS in the shipping drivers
- A mixture of the 2 like Gf4 style 4xS (but better) if you dont already