R700 pics

[MAS]

the thoughts are the next:
AMD claimed it's top videocards will be all multi-gpu. But todays 3780 X2 and 9800GX2 have troubles in games => they cannot be recommended as universal card for gamer.
So I suppose AMD has already solved microsluttering problems for its top HD4000, 5000, etc series, otherwise there's no sense to sell 4870X2 since everyone can buy GTX280 and forget of any trouble

[Chickenfeed]

Indeed. For AMDs new approach of using multiple inexpensive dies to work, they will have to of remedied many of the short comings with current multi gpu configs, such as micro stuttering and inconsistent scaling/compatibility problems. They claim that after Nvidia sees their new approach on the 4870x2, that they will be making their concurrent offerings in a similar fashion. I do agree that this method is best for us as consumers ( as Nvidia's method of disabling hardware capabilities is somewhat lame ) and it should result in more affordable, yet still high performance, gpus. This would suggest to me that they have indeed designed a vastly improved bridge and hopefully this is the case. I would love to see unanimous scaling in games with these cards.

I'm still holding my breathe on this though but its what we should want to happen for the sake of progress and competition. For this all to go mainstream they will have to do more than plain old crossfire as its the only way this will be universally adopted and their high level of confidence sure seems to suggest this. Hopefully its not just PR hype. The current inconsistency of multi gpu sucks to put it bluntly so anything that improves this is welcomed. Sure multigpu usually will offer improved performance but its often quite small given the substantial increase in cost. What we need is a highly efficient method of scaling multiple cores and SLI/Crossfire isn't it. I won't touch a 4870x2 if its merely plain jane crossfire. For consistency's sake I'd more likely get a single GTX280 and be done with it. Hopefully AMD will prove us all wrong.

[ceevee]

I won't touch a 4870x2 if its merely plain jane crossfire. For consistency's sake I'd more likely get a single GTX280 and be done with it. Hopefully AMD will prove us all wrong.

Same here.

[Helmore]

What we need is a highly efficient method of scaling multiple cores and SLI/Crossfire isn't it. I won't touch a 4870x2 if its merely plain jane crossfire. For consistency's sake I'd more likely get a single GTX280 and be done with it. Hopefully AMD will prove us all wrong.

They better have thought of a better way to do it, they have been working on this for 2 years and that has got to account for something. ATI already said to themselves that they would never do any big chips any more around the time they launched R580. R600 was way too far into development, so they had to release that and that is also their last big chip. So they basically started working on this multi GPU concept around the time R580 launched.

@Sr7, it was extremely unlikely that RV770 would have a separate clock domain for the shaders as this would require a major design change and their chip would be based on RV670 as so many have said. The would have to redesign their shaders to be able to make them run at much faster clocks than the rest of the architecture and these the shaders would probably get at least twice as big as their current shader are.
BTW doesn't power consumption scale relatively linear with increase in transistor count, but it scales exponentially with increase in clocks, isn't that right?

[Shintai]

BTW doesn't power consumption scale relatively linear with increase in transistor count, but it scales exponentially with increase in clocks, isn't that right?

No, power consumption is much much harder to predict as such. It depends on active parts, design, electrical properties etc. Some parts uses alot more power than others and so on (scheduler vs cache etc). Just like we have Itaniums at 3 the frequency of GT200 with 2billion transistors and yet only 50% the power consumption. All at 65nm.

[JohnZS]

I don't know whether to buy a 2x 4870 1GB Crossfire to replace my G92GTS or hold on to see if this 4870X2 uses something better than Crossfire (and so would not be victim of the 512MB VRAM limitation or microst st stutter).
John

[Shintai]

I don't know whether to buy a 2x 4870 1GB Crossfire to replace my G92GTS or hold on to see if this 4870X2 uses something better than Crossfire (and so would not be victim of the 512MB VRAM limitation or microst st stutter).
John

4870X2 is just crossfire on 1 card, same PCIe bridge etc. There is no technical difference against 2 4870 cards.

[JohnZS]

4870X2 is just crossfire on 1 card, same PCIe bridge etc. There is no technical difference against 2 4870 cards.

Are you sure?
Rumours are suggesting that ATi have incorporated some magic which makes the linkage a bit more intelligent and transparent (rather like 3dfx's SLi on the Voodoo5)

Which card would you purchase?

[Syn.]

4870X2 is just crossfire on 1 card, same PCIe bridge etc. There is no technical difference against 2 4870 cards.

Different PCB layout, different power configuration, different memory configuration and oh yea it has a 2nd Gen PCIe bridge found on the PCB it self.

Yea sure no technical difference what so ever...