ATi 4870X2(R700) PCB Debut

[sxs112]

Chiphell

[zerazax]

This might be the first ATI reference card with a black PCB in a long time, if ever...

<3 my black pcb 8800 ultra

[xsbb]

Beautiful!

[xsbb]

Is there any word on the launch date?

[Envydia007]

Nvidia is screwed !

[bball4ever39]

Well... it's a beast for sure...

[ExodusC]

Oh wow, that thing looks sexy...

[Sr7]

Jesus that PCB is a mess.

[twwen2]

Oh man that's nice. Should pack a punch too!

Me wants a black PCB on my 4870XT

[AriciU]

I'm wondering if the performance will be the same with two 4870's in CF.

[ExodusC]

I'm wondering if the performance will be the same with two 4870's in CF.

Perhaps it will perform better?

Doesn't a single HD3870 X2 outperform two HD3870s in crossfire?

[AriciU]

Perhaps it will perform better?

Doesn't a single HD3870 X2 outperform two HD3870s in crossfire?

No idea. Had no interest in ATI untill now. I know that two 9800GTX's in SLI worked better then a single GX2.

[clonez]

nice design

they could make that pcb even shorter...

[HKPolice]

nice design

they could make that pcb even shorter...

That empty space on the pcb was intentional to make room for the fan. They could make it shorter if they replace the cooling solution with 'dual orb' style cooling.

[ExodusC]

Perhaps it will perform better?

Doesn't a single HD3870 X2 outperform two HD3870s in crossfire?

No idea. Had no interest in ATI untill now. I know that two 9800GTX's in SLI worked better then a single GX2.

I mean, I could be totally wrong, but I for some reason am under the impression that crossfire-on-a-chip performs better than normal crossfire.

Correct me if I'm wrong, anyone.

PLX chip in the middle = no performance gains over regular 4870 in CF just like the 3870x2

Does that PLX chip act as a PCI-E bus or something of the sort? Kind of like emulating crossfire?

[Tonucci]

No idea. Had no interest in ATI untill now. I know that two 9800GTX's in SLI worked better then a single GX2.

When clocked the same the GX2 is an hair better, due to decreased latency IIRC.

[Helmore]

When clocked the same the GX2 is an hair better, due to decreased latency IIRC.

There is also the fact that R700 will be using 2 RV770 chips clocked at 4850 speeds as the cooling needed to do 2 of those at 750 MHz. is just too crazy. This will mean that R700 will be faster than 2 4870 in CFX in general, but in occasions where crossfire scales exceptionally well this will be different.

BTW, keep in mind that I'm just speculating although I'm pretty sure on those clocks.

[xlink]

I'm wondering if the performance will be the same with two 4870's in CF.

if they managed to get chip to chip communication done via hardware then it'll be faster.

sadly I count 16 memory chips so it'll either be a 512bit card or it won't.

I really don't know now.

[BulldogPO]

It really looks pretty.

[quake6]

It looks fantastic,but I hope that will work even better

[flopper]

Benches we need, lots of them

[HKPolice]

PLX chip in the middle = no performance gains over regular 4870 in CF just like the 3870x2

[zerazax]

Well this makes it it sound like it won't be CF on a card:

CNET Article

For ATI, the execution of this chip-ganging strategy is the key. And this is where ATI appears to have been successful. "The inter-processor communications. Getting that to work has been the trick. This is what ATI has done. They've come up with this stellar way of doing inter-processor communications so they can in fact get the scaling," according to Peddie.

AMD-ATI's upcoming R700 (rumored to be called the 4870 X2) two-chip graphics board will be the ultimate test of this strategy.

"It's a new proprietary inter-processor communication technology. If they put these two chips on one board and it does scale properly, then they have pulled off a coup," he said.

"When you gang up graphics chips (using the traditional Scalable Link Interface or CrossFire technologies) they roll off pretty fast. ("Roll off" implies that performance doesn't scale up well.) "So when you put two boards in, you don't get twice the performance but you (only) get one and a half. You put four boards in and you (only) get about 1.7, 1.8. What ATI is saying is that with two chips using (their) proprietary inter-bus, they will get 1.8 (the performance) with two chips. If that's true, you can expect to see four of them giving you something around 2.5."

Getting 2.5 times the performance from four boards would be a masterstroke for ATI.

The previous ATI dual-chip solution was very different, Peddie said. "The HD 3870 X2 was not a proprietary bus but a CrossFire connection. The CrossFire connection and the SLI connection are at the very, very end of the pipeline. Not the most efficient place to do an inter-processor communication. That's one of the reasons ATI has abandoned it."

So basically the card will not be CF on a board but will be a new interconnect between the GPU's. Also, it seems to suggest that the CrossFire connection was redone in the RV770 or at least for R700 since Peddie suggests that the CF connection is no longer at the very very end of the pipeline. Maybe that's why recent CF results of the 4800's show incredible scaling when it works? Or if as anandtech suggested and it was disabled on the RV770 cards, then it might be turned on for this and is different from the current 4800's.

Anyways, with the plethora of information of R700 that was just released it seems like ATI is pushing hard to get these cards out fast.

And quit thread crapping Sr7. This isn't the place for agendas.

[[XC] 2long4u]

Well this makes it it sound like it won't be CF on a card:

CNET Article





So basically the card will not be CF on a board but will be a new interconnect between the GPU's. Also, it seems to suggest that the CrossFire connection was redone in the RV770 or at least for R700 since Peddie suggests that the CF connection is no longer at the very very end of the pipeline. Maybe that's why recent CF results of the 4800's show incredible scaling when it works? Or if as anandtech suggested and it was disabled on the RV770 cards, then it might be turned on for this and is different from the current 4800's.

Anyways, with the plethora of information of R700 that was just released it seems like ATI is pushing hard to get these cards out fast.

And quit thread crapping Sr7. This isn't the place for agendas.

If any of that is true Nvidia is in for a sever ass kicking.

[ExodusC]

Did I mention is was fraking black...?

Black is great.