Intel 8x4 Platform & R600 for February & G81 on 21 March 2007

[HamidFULL]

WE WERE reminded that an eight-core system is available today. You don't need to wait for Q3 2007 to have one, as Intel can already do it today. If you want an AMD eight-core system then you need to wait until late next year.
We checked the claims and learned that our sources got things right. Intel has Quad-Core Xeon processor 5300 series codenamed Clovertown. These babies come as 1066/1333 FSB parts, with the faster one clocked at 2.66GHz and branded as X5355. This baby looks very similar to Kentsfield but it has 8MB of cache memory, 4MB per core, and the faster FSB. It has four cores and supports 64 bit and some other neat stuff.

You need an Intel server motherboard to support two of these babies but these chipsets can support 64 and some even 128GB of memory. Just to tell you that there is always an alternative.

Source (http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=36044)

IF AMD manages to stick to its latest plan, it will launch ATI's R600 in February. The original postponed plan indicated that the chip would be launched in Q1 but we got a slightly more precise date.
ATI has been pushing hard for January but it seems it won't make it. Nvidia is also preparing the faster version of G80 for around Cebit time but this is nothing new, as Nvidia traditionally likes to spoil ATI's launches.

The launch and availability will take place together, so as soon as DAAMIT officially introduces the card it should be widely available. It is an 80 nanometre part and should prove to be very powerful DX 10 hardware. It will arrive around the time of Microsoft's Vista DirectX 10 announcement, or shortly thereafter.

Source (http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=36106)

Cebit 2007 date : 21.03.2007
Source (http://www.cebit.de/7590?x=1)

[VulgarHandle]

yes, but does it support unbuffered ram and have 4 pcie x16 slots? no? move on, nothing to see here

[jbizzler]

G81 March 21. That's something to see. Bet it'll be 1GB of GDDR4.

[Helmore]

You mean GDDR4, I can't stand it when people write it wrong because this also makes it something completely different (DDR4 doesn't yet exist as far as I know).

[Theli]

yes, but does it support unbuffered ram and have 4 pcie x16 slots? no? move on, nothing to see here
My thoughts exactly, wasn't the 8-core Clovertown system benchmarked here a while ago?

[jbizzler]

Sorry. I understand. I have pet peeves too.

[uOpt]

If you want an AMD eight-core system then you need to wait until late next year.

Strange. The one I built in 2005 works just fine :confused:

Clovertown will not have twice the cache as Kentsfield. There might be later offers with additional L3 cache, though.

[-Acid-]

And we already have them crunching for us at WCG


Come on people join up to see the power

[cky2k6]

im sorry, but does anyone else here realize how retarded this article is? clovertown is not a desktop processor, why in the hell is it being compared to 4x4? you can have 16 cores on an amd server, do they actaully think about what theyre writing?

[nn_step]

FB-Dimms.. Joy that isn't gonna overclock 1Mhz

[red]

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/amd-quad-fx_13.html
Our test platform used two Athlon 64 FX-74 processors with 3.0GHz nominal clock speed. Unfortunately, we couldn’t increase this frequency any further.
:D

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=35428
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=35245
There's nothing stopping Nvidia from going non FBDimm on their supposed new chipset.

AMD Opteron 8220 SE $2149 x 4
Intel Xeon X5355 $1172 x 2

Either way is impractical. Am I the only one that sees no point in desktop octo core, especially dual socket quad core? It'll still have the same wattage/noise problems of today but most likely won't be as 'cheap' as Quad FX of today.. BTW, I predict Quad FX's death before the real quad comes:D

[Theli]

FB-Dimms.. Joy that isn't gonna overclock 1Mhz
Hmmm... yes, in that respect I think we could compare it to the 4x4, at least at this moment. Perhaps that was the point of the article.

[badhabit]

G81 barely 5 months after G80? Doesn't that seem a little fast? Sure this is the GPU market, but it took 9 months to go from G70 to G71 (at least according to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_NVIDIA_Graphics_Processing_Units#GeF orce_7_series)). They haven't even introduced 8600 models or their equivalents for G80...

[onewingedangel]

FB-Dimms.. Joy that isn't gonna overclock 1Mhz

I have no problem with fbdimms, performance is on par with registered ecc ram, price is the same as value unbuffered ddr2 ('someone' is obviously subsidising them) and they scale to nice large memory sizes. Running similarly setup stock systems performance is not far behind unbuffered memory, and in some limited situations with lots of simultanious reads and writes fbdimms end up faster. Memory overclocking yields very little real world performance benefit, capacity is a much bigger factor usually.

The biggest problems are heat/power consumption (silly levels at this point), and too much added latency due to the buffer chips, both issues which I believe will be improved shortly by a refresh.

However a dual cloverton system wouldn't compare to an overclocked single kentsfield in most tasks - 8 cores is overkill for most tasks, the added speed would serve you better.


With the g81 rumour, it wouldn't suprise me. However if anything I think it will probably just be g80 on a 80nm process so clocked higher and paired with GDDR4. G81 was probably designed alongside g80 - nvidia decided not to risk 80nm production and went with the proven 90nm process instead, and may just be a dumb shrink. G81 is probably there to increase performance (higher clockspeeds for both memory and gpu) whilst also reducing the die size, so I wouldn't expect them to expand the design.

[kiwi]

There were no g70 7600 either :)

[Gam3Ra]

R600 is DX10.1
Maybe the G81 will be too :slap:
And what is the surprise?
7800GTX > 7900GTX anyone?

R600 (x2800) will too have next step
X2900 maybe.. (X1800XT>X1900XT) ....

[oshox]

FINALLY we get dates on this stuff. I can't wait. It's all coming out EXACTLY (abouts) when I plan to put together my new gaming setup.

Nothing, however, would be better than Microsoft promoting the official release of DirectX 10 by releasing Gears of War for the PC.

Too bad they're so hell-bent on defaming the PS3 (like it needs any help)

[onewingedangel]

depending on how they play it, g81 will be up against the r600 (both at 80nm) and the next chips from both parties will probably be the 65nm refreshes - so makes you wonder how nvidia will go about naming things.

g80 - 8800
g81 - (80nm) 8850 or 8900?
gXX - (65nm) 8900 or 8950?

The 65nm part may well be the 9800 - which would make you wonder whether ati would market an x2900 or x3800 against it.

[RPGWiZaRD]

G81 March 21, yes please! I wouldn't have thought that soon myself, more like end of May or beginning of June or something. Prolly will get "delayed" until around that time anyways.

8900GTX, 1GB vidmem, 80nm, GDDR4, sounds yummy but both R600 and the highend G81 will be too expensive for my bugdet as usual probably, unless 8900GT(S) lands at the pricetag at $350 which I'd really hope but doesn't sound that likely but I don't say it would be impossible either as if it uses 80nm and GDDR4 will be relatively cheap by then and to counter ATI R600 whit very aggressive pricing, it sounds somewhat plausible, I hope. :)

[nn_step]

I have no problem with fbdimms, performance is on par with registered ecc ram, price is the same as value unbuffered ddr2 ('someone' is obviously subsidising them) and they scale to nice large memory sizes. Running similarly setup stock systems performance is not far behind unbuffered memory, and in some limited situations with lots of simultanious reads and writes fbdimms end up faster. Memory overclocking yields very little real world performance benefit, capacity is a much bigger factor usually.

The biggest problems are heat/power consumption (silly levels at this point), and too much added latency due to the buffer chips, both issues which I believe will be improved shortly by a refresh.

Yes they have good bandwidth and in Theory unlimited capacity.
However they are hot, hungry, Horrid latency, and more expensive than Registered ECC (2GB capacity down)

[DilTech]

G81 March 21, yes please! I wouldn't have thought that soon myself, more like end of May or beginning of June or something. Prolly will get "delayed" until around that time anyways.

8900GTX, 1GB vidmem, 80nm, GDDR4, sounds yummy but both R600 and the highend G81 will be too expensive for my bugdet as usual probably, unless 8900GT(S) lands at the pricetag at $350 which I'd really hope but doesn't sound that likely but I don't say it would be impossible either as if it uses 80nm and GDDR4 will be relatively cheap by then and to counter ATI R600 whit very aggressive pricing, it sounds somewhat plausible, I hope. :)

For the 8900GTX to go 1GB, there'd have to be some changes to the memory controller, or it's already more flexible than we know of. I'm still wondering if the memory controller can actually scale up higher than 384. Take 2 chips away, 320, add 4 chips(and likely an entire new PCB)...512.

Just a theory anyway.

[RPGWiZaRD]

Sure, sounds plausible but is there room for all that, the PCB is already way too big as it is. :D

If ATI X2800XTX and XT has both 1GB vidmem and 512bit bus along with those 64 shader that can handle four operations at once and most likely has relatively high mem clock, then 8900GTX might need such solution like you said, but then again Nvidia doesn't usually take such many steps at a time. Would be very unusual by Nvidia if we'd see both 80mm, 1GB & 512bit, GDDR4 at same time, released only like a half year after 8800GTX, that doubt me a bit that we'd see all this but if R600 is what it's rumored to be then it would possible be a good way to head. Who knows, maybe Nvidia had planned this well beforehand tho and try impress more in the 2nd wave this time. Time will tell as usual.

[Fred_Pohl]

Just where is the line between desktop and server these days? It seems to me that AMD has really blurred the line with QFX and their crazy idea of 2x4C 'desktop' systems next year. I think I'll wait for software to catch up with 2C systems before even considering taking the 4C plunge. 8C 'desktop' rigs in 2007? Talk about a tiny niche market...

[afireinside]

Looks like they'll launch an 80nm/gddr4 card possibly with even more unified shaders... Bit pissed since we just got the 8800s for top dollar...