R700 pics

[adamsleath]

Ya, because everyone *needs* a Nehalem based system

i bet every tom, (ffs, richard?) and jane will want one when they go mainstream.

[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?

[adamsleath]

haha nv monolith fan; still it depends on the games and whether they are cf compatible/friendly.

[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...

[JohnZS]

Oh, you mean like the 480 SP's?

I would not be surprised if ATi do release a 400 or 480 castrated SE version of the RV770 as they have always had those sorts of models in the past (basically same tech as the big boys but castrated and speedbinned so they can churn them out and sell bucket loads in the 9600GT segment).

I have no idea which of my games are SLi or Crossfire Friendly. I tend to play all sorts of games and love FSAA and AF.

I tend to play.
Crysis (Medium as high tends to choke my G92 GTS)
Bioshock
GTA San Andreas with the EBS Shader mod (looks quite cool).
Tom Clancy Advanced War Fighter
Quake 4
All the Half-Life 2 games Have Episode 2 and many mods
World in Conflict
Unlreal Tournament 3 and 2004
Colin McCrae Dirt (this one struggles on the G92 GTS)
F.E.A.R
Farcry
Black & White 2
Settlers Rise of an Empire

So hopefully they all work nicely with the 4870 1GB Crossfire, OR it is Zotac GT280GTX AMP! Time! (and ear plugs)
John

[xlink]

Have you got any proof for this?
To be it looks like it is going to have the same old 512MB VRAM limitation and will be just the same as having 2x 512MB 4870's on one card. (as was the case with the HD3870X2)

Then again I am an nVidia fanboy so would like to be educated as if this IS the case then the HD4870X2 is going to be kick arse

John

there have been rumors to the effect of floating around for a while now...

[JohnZS]

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...

You forgot to mention the shade of Red on the PCB is slightly different to
AND the lady on the heatsink has slightly bigger boobs

[JohnZS]

there have been rumors to the effect of floating around for a while now...

Very true which is what makes this card even more mouth watering, however were there not similar rumours prior to the launch of the HD 3870X2?

[Unbornchild]

According to ExtremeTech:

A Lot Faster But Not A Lot Bigger
Somehow, ATI managed to cram two-thirds more stream processors, more than double the texture units, and improved render back-end units into a chip that's only about 40% bigger than the RV670. And that's all on the same 55nm manufacturing process. You don't typically do that by keeping the same architecture with just a few tweaks here and there, and in ATI's case, they have looked at and re-worked most of the major facets of the chip in order to meet these design goals.



First, there's the memory controller. Gone is the "ring bus" architecture of the 600-series GPUs. In its place is a new distributed controller design, with the memory interface spread out around the edges of the chip, and memory controllers spread throughout the die near the blocks of render back-ends. Comparatively low-volume traffic like PCI Express, display controllers, and inter-chip communication are handled by a centralized hub. Each memory controller block has its own L2 cache block. The net result is, according to ATI, better bandwidth utilization in less die space. Also new is support for GDDR5 memory, which will find its way to market first in the Radeon HD 4870. We previously wrote about the advantages of GDDR5.



This may be our first hint at what is new with the dual-chip "R700" product coming in a few months—these hubs may communicate between two RV770 chips in a fashion that is more efficient than in past multi-GPU boards.

[Shintai]

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...

Memory aint different. perhaps amount. power configuration doesnt matter. PCIe bridge is needed to expand the singleslot.

And yes, in terms of running 2 or 1 card there is no difference for the way crossfire works. They both work the exact same way, with the good and bad things.

[Shintai]

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?

Quite sure, and magic doesnt exist. 3DFX version today would be horrible I assume. But back then things like 800*600 was badass and quality was a town in inner mongolia.

According to ExtremeTech:

And they state "hubs may communicate" and such. In short they dont know and just guesses. And with people that earn money on clicks. Guesses usually gets affected by it.

[JohnZS]

[QUOTE=Shintai;3081905]Quite sure, and magic doesnt exist. 3DFX version today would be horrible I assume. But back then things like 800*600 was badass and quality was a town in inner mongolia.

Erm I think you may have misunderstood my post. I agree that a Voodoo5 is rather useless (but an effective paper weight or retro computer art) in today's world.

However their technique of SLi did not cause any microstutter or problems in games for me back in the day of the year 2000...playing Quake 3 and Devil Inside and Half-Life.

John

[bowman]

Well if it's just the same thing as before I'm not interested in the X2. I don't care about what FRAPS says or what 3dmark says, I only care about how the game plays.

Let's just hope that the 4870 is good as a single card because this tactic of skimping on the design and bunching chips together in a microstutteringly fabulous package is not very enticing at all. If they're going to do multi-GPU configurations to compete it better be a good method of combining them.

[JohnZS]

Well if it's just the same thing as before I'm not interested in the X2. I don't care about what FRAPS says or what 3dmark says, I only care about how the game plays.

Let's just hope that the 4870 is good as a single card because this tactic of skimping on the design and bunching chips together in a microstutteringly fabulous package is not very enticing at all. If they're going to do multi-GPU configurations to compete it better be a good method of combining them.

Microstutter is starting to sound like a feature, imagine this on the box.

- ATI Radeon HD 4870X2 GPU @ 700MHz
- 1024GB GDDR5 Memory @ 3000MHz
- 24x custom filter anti-aliasing (CFAA) and high performance anisotropic filtering and Microstutter™
- PCI Express 2.0 support
- 256-bit GDDR3 memory interface
- ATI CrossFireX Multi-GPU Technology
- Microsoft DirectX 10.1 support
- Shader Model 4.1
- ATI Avivo HD video and display technology
- Unified Video Decoder 2 (UVD) for Blu-ray and HD Video
- Built-in HDMI with 7.1 surround sound support
- On-chip HDCP

[bedlamite]

Yeah and these average Joes talking "my microstuttering is better than your!"

[adamsleath]

4x Advanced Microstutter engine


8X with Catalyst AI enabled

i have no clue as ive never seen Microstutter....but it gave me a good chuckle.
..and for that matter i never want to see MS (tm) either.

[JohnZS]

Yeah and these average Joes talking "my microstuttering is better than your!"

4x Advanced Microstutter engine

Hehe

Next up will be Toms Hardware's VGA Charts where they have a bar for microstutter.

Anandtech's investigation into which Microstutter provides the best straffing jerk effects in games would be an in depth article.

Followed by X-Bit labs overclocking (getting more stutter out of your microstutter) article.

Oh and last but not least Kyle over at the [H]ardOCP on a rant over how Microstutter is the best innovation in gaming since the Glide API

lol

John

[adamsleath]

funny bugger.

[bedlamite]

I can imagine these stickers on boxes
"Advanced Microstuttering Ready"

[Crankybugga]

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...

hehe
These last 2 pages seem to be full of complete BS comments from knowalls who are just here to spoil the party.
Not worth reading here, wait till results say in black and white 4870X2 not surprising eats bloated gtx280 for brekky

[adamsleath]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glide_API
glide; never heard of it; i musta been too busy at university around then

haha i know enuf to know that i know very little