ATi 4870X2(R700) PCB Debut

[F.stop]

i hope that's a super-clever-chippy inbetween the gpu's

...any chance of squeezing more ram onto that card? or is it just impossible at this point?

might not need it if it runs very well and the price is right.
id like more ram though. maybe another edition would follow at a higher price

[Hornet331]

i hope that's a super-clever-chippy inbetween the gpu's

...any chance of squeezing more ram onto that card? or is it just impossible at this point?

either way; yes, i'm interested.

thats the chip your looking at:

http://www.plxtech.com/products/expresslane/pex8648.asp

[largon]

Hornet331
But certainly, it does not look like a PEX 8648?

[JameCa]

damn i see a damn hot card

hope the cooler is better than the other 40**

[bowman]

So this proprietary new interprocessor communication they talked about.. Either it was a load of hype BS about a PCI-E 2.0 PLX switch, or they're saving it for R800, or.. There's more to that chip?

[Helmore]

So this proprietary new interprocessor communication they talked about.. Either it was a load of hype BS about a PCI-E 2.0 PLX switch, or they're saving it for R800, or.. There's more to that chip?

I don't think that most of the communication will go through the PLX chip but rather through a direct connection between the 2 chips. That connection will probably (I'm pretty sure though) not provide enough bandwidth to make some kind of memory pool sharing possible but it will probably provide increased scaling.

@Hornet331: I think it will beat 2 4870 in CFX in most situations, it will only lose on some rare occasions.
Dave Baumann (ATI employee) has hinted over at Beyond3d that it may not be that PLX chip that you linked to Hornet....
Linky:
http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=48691&page=8
further down on that page.

BTW guys, I'm just speculating...I hope you guys have no objections with that .

[Macadamia]

As for the chip, it probably just has a metal heatspreader over it.

Not to mention all PLX chips seem to look alike.

[DoubleZero]

bohu... no surprise there, its 2xRV770... if it dont beats a single 280gtx it would be a utter failure.

2xRV770 have a smaller die and lower TDP then the 280GTX so... bohu.
I'm pretty sure ATI could have done a 1600 stream beast with a 700mm^2, if they wanted to.

[Sampsa]

Anyone else notice the size of the PLX chip..? I think AMD leveraged some type of their hyper-transport technology with this newer PLX chip. It would confirm the hints AMD was mentioned a few months back about a new internal bridge.

AMD doesn't make the bridge chips but buy them from PLX Technologies. This one features 2nd generation PCI Express bridge design + next generation GPU interconnect for improved scaling.

[Helmore]

2xRV770 have a smaller die and lower TDP then the 280GTX so... bohu.
I'm pretty sure ATI could have done a 1600 stream beast with a 700mm^2, if they wanted to.

I think 400 mm^2 would be a little more accurate....

[Hornet331]

Hornet331
But certainly, it does not look like a PEX 8648?

*cough* IHS *cough*

[Hornet331]

2xRV770 have a smaller die and lower TDP then the 280GTX so... bohu.
I'm pretty sure ATI could have done a 1600 stream beast with a 700mm^2, if they wanted to.

oh rly... no wai!!111

[gojirasan]

Believe me, that thing is gonna crush gtx280 so hard, even chuck n. could do that

Do you have any info about whether this card is going to have a possible mechanism to reduce or eliminate microstuttering or multi-GPU driver issues? If not I don't think it will be beating the GTX280 in games with poor or nonexistent multi-GPU support since a single 4870 can almost never meet/beat a GTX280. OTOH, unless something goes horribly wrong the R700 certainly should utterly destroy the GTX280 in frame rates in games with multi-GPU support. In theory 2 4870s should give about the same performance as GTX260 SLI. I am really hoping that AMD/ATI is going to do something about the microstuttering issue though. Having parts of the game perform at the same level as a single card quite significantly reduces the value of multi-GPU for me.

[Eson]

Just thought I would point out the one CF bridge...
Bye bye +5TFlops of GPU power.

FYI, GPGPU calculations doesnt require crossfire/SLI. You can pop in as meny cards as you want and it will still scale linear.

[Bo_Fox]

damn, i do not see how a 6-pin plus 8-pin would be nuff 4 this...

tis like powering 2 8800gtx chips on 1 card..

i thought it would require 2 8-pin power connectors!

1300W PSU minimum for xfire???

[AliG]

Do you have any info about whether this card is going to have a possible mechanism to reduce or eliminate microstuttering or multi-GPU driver issues? If not I don't think it will be beating the GTX280 in games with poor or nonexistent multi-GPU support since a single 4870 can almost never meet/beat a GTX280. OTOH, unless something goes horribly wrong the R700 certainly should utterly destroy the GTX280 in frame rates in games with multi-GPU support. In theory 2 4870s should give about the same performance as GTX260 SLI. I am really hoping that AMD/ATI is going to do something about the microstuttering issue though. Having parts of the game perform at the same level as a single card quite significantly reduces the value of multi-GPU for me.

there's only one problem with your theory. A single 4870 beats the gtx 260. Considering xfire is supposed to scale better than sli and the possible there may be an internal ht bridge or something like that for a fast low-latency inter-connect, then it's safe to say the 4870x2 will be closing in on gtx 280 sli

[AriciU]

damn, i do not see how a 6-pin plus 8-pin would be nuff 4 this...

tis like powering 2 8800gtx chips on 1 card..

i thought it would require 2 8-pin power connectors!

1300W PSU minimum for xfire???

I think a 1000W Corsair would be more then enough for them.

[fornowagain]

2 x 8pins? Even the 1.1 PCIe + 6pin + 8pin is 300W, if it was over 300W imagine the cooler needed.

[gojirasan]

there's only one problem with your theory. A single 4870 beats the gtx 260. Considering xfire is supposed to scale better than sli and the possible there may be an internal ht bridge or something like that for a fast low-latency inter-connect, then it's safe to say the 4870x2 will be closing in on gtx 280 sli

The HD4870 only beats the GTX260 if you choose your reviews and the games in the reviews and your resolution with great care. OTOH, I could go cherry pick reviews that clearly shows the HD4870 losing badly to the GTX260 in multiple benchmarks. The fact is that the GTX260 and the HD4870 are trading blows. Although in reading reviews from sites that I know and trust the HD4870 seems to be losing by greater margins when it loses than the GTX260 in the games where it loses. Also, it looks to me like the GTX260 has more OC headroom. With an apples to apples water cooled OC comparison I believe the GTX260 OC is going to win against the HD4870 OC in nearly every benchmarks except those few where the HD4870 does unusually well.

Also what is with this CF is "supposed to" scale better than SLI? In the benchmarks I have seen if anything it seems to scale worse and CF is often stated to have worse driver support in games than Nvidia. The game industry has been very Nvidia biased since the 8800GTX took the crown. Hell there was a lot of speculation that AMD/ATI may not even be around anymore due to their huge financial problems which are not even over yet.

The internal HT type bridge idea is extremely speculative. In fact most of the current rumors seem to be that R700 is going to be some sort of crossfire on a card with a faster bridge chip. Remember all the crazy rumors before R600 was released? Some of the rumors were even talking about improved GPU communication IIRC. I suggest we adopt more of a wait and see attitude rather than these type of ultra-optimistic assumptions.

[v_rr]

The HD4870 only beats the GTX260 if you choose your reviews and the games in the reviews and your resolution with great care. OTOH, I could go cherry pick reviews that clearly shows the HD4870 losing badly to the GTX260 in multiple benchmarks. The fact is that the GTX260 and the HD4870 are trading blows. Although in reading reviews from sites that I know and trust the HD4870 seems to be losing by greater margins when it loses than the GTX260 in the games where it loses. Also, it looks to me like the GTX260 has more OC headroom. With an apples to apples water cooled OC comparison I believe the GTX260 OC is going to win against the HD4870 OC in nearly every benchmarks except those few where the HD4870 does unusually well.

You are totaly blind dude.
The one cherry picking reviews is you. Must be. HD 4870 kicks GTX260 with 100$ less.

And this tread is about R700 not cherry picking reviews and ati vs Nvidia

[Malik]

When is premier of this beast ?

[ultimeus]

Happy to see a black pcb on ATI.

[ownage]

When is premier of this beast ?

AMD said within 8 weeks, but there is no official launch day yet.

[Malik]

AMD said within 8 weeks, but there is no official launch day yet.

8 weeks ? Ohhh soo long - but for this black beauty ... everything

[Hornet331]

8 weeks ? Ohhh soo long - but for this black beauty ... everything

8 weeks was 1 week ago, so its 7 now. :p

i think we'll see first cards at the end of august.