Hd5870 - $299

[Oberon]

I think ATI will drop prices even in the unlikely event that GT300 is a huge flop. I think it would be an effective strategy because it might enable ATI to pull in some of the less informed people out there who think NVIDIA is the only GPU maker out there that's worth buying from.

[perkam]

I think ATI will drop prices even in the unlikely event that GT300 is a huge flop. I think it would be an effective strategy because it might enable ATI to pull in some of the less informed people out there who think NVIDIA is the only GPU maker out there that's worth buying from.

ATI won't be dropping prices for a little while yet.

The more I think about it, though, the more a $299 pricepoint for the 5850 makes more and more sense considering the 1600 shaders (it should beat the GTX 285 handily, pushing its price down to $249 or lower).

What remains to be seen, however, is whether the single 5870 can trump its younger brother which also has 1600 shaders: the 4870X2.

Considering that the 4870 was faster than the 3870X2, I have great hope for the product.

Perkam

[Star_Hunter]

ATI won't be dropping prices for a little while yet.

The more I think about it, though, the more a $299 pricepoint for the 5850 makes more and more sense considering the 1600 shaders (it should beat the GTX 285 handily, pushing its price down to $249 or lower).

What remains to be seen, however, is whether the single 5870 can trump its younger brother which also has 1600 shaders: the 4870X2.

Considering that the 4870 was faster than the 3870X2, I have great hope for the product.

Perkam

Should be able to since it wont have to deal with crossfire scaling and inefficiencies.

[Xoulz]

Should be able to since it wont have to deal with crossfire scaling and inefficiencies.

That brings up a good point.

Micro-stutter was pretty bad in the last gen of crossfire/sli and not so much in this gen (4870x2). But it's still there, plus how SLI was implamented reduces the specs, so it's not a proper comparison. Because in Crossfire/SLi things are mirrored, etc.



ATI hints at a new connection or cross-talk between their GPUs. I wonder how much better scaling we will get... I know HYDRA is/was suppose to be near 100% scaling.

Even if it's not, the enthusiast wouod rejoice at anything close to 80%. Does the HD5870x2 move in this direction if it's a single card solution with a true Dual-GPU solution...?

[LordEC911]

ATI hints at a new connection or cross-talk between their GPUs. I wonder how much better scaling we will get... I know HYDRA is/was suppose to be near 100% scaling.

Hmmm... I don't ever remember hearing about that.
Can you recall where you heard that or read it?
Really the only info I remember coming directly from AMD/ATi was that the scheduler is much more complex and that this is the largest change since R600.