New rumor about ATI Southern Islands

[-Sweeper_]

wasnt cayman pro slightly bigger than cypress XT?
and its 6+6 pin...

[madcho]

seems like a small PCB for a 6+8pin

if its really consuming 250+ watts, id expect the cooler would have to be much bigger, or they are giving you room to OC

size of the heatsink says alot more than the number of power pins

6+6 is up to 225W.
6+8 is up to 300W.

Maybe it's 227 or 230W ...

[Manicdan]

so im off by less than 10%
does that mean this card should be 20-30% shorter than a 5870 while consuming alot more power? seems like its gonna be super loud to me
the 5850 has great noise to perf ratio, which is what this is looking like for size, no way they can do the same thing while adding in 75+ watts

[Calmatory]

ATX standard says that each 6 pin power connector can deliver power up to 75 W(as with the PCI-Express 16-lane slot, 25 W for 1, 4, 8 lane slots), after a threshold overcurrent protection should kick in to prevent possible damage due to a fault(in case the product's resistance rises too high demanding more current).

However, I believe some manufacturers do not play by the standards and their cards actually draw more than the slot + connectors should be able to feed the card with.

Edit: Strange that I haven't ever heard of a situation where the overcurrent protection would actually kick in with highly overclocked & overvolted cards like 5970 etc.

[madcho]

so im off by less than 10%
does that mean this card should be 20-30% shorter than a 5870 while consuming alot more power? seems like its gonna be super loud to me
the 5850 has great noise to perf ratio, which is what this is looking like for size, no way they can do the same thing while adding in 75+ watts

The 5870 is not very very efficient cooling. A bit beautifull but not efficient. It draw 200w, so 230w is not much more, even shorter i don't see any problem.

Maybe it's shorter because power stage is much more efficient, and pcb is 10 layers so no need of more pcb.

If this GPU kick ass, a good $/W and $/fps ratios, why i would cry for a short pcb ? ...

[Manicdan]

The 5870 is not very very efficient cooling. A bit beautifull but not efficient. It draw 200w, so 230w is not much more, even shorter i don't see any problem.

Maybe it's shorter because power stage is much more efficient, and pcb is 10 layers so no need of more pcb.

If this GPU kick ass, a good $/W and $/fps ratios, why i would cry for a short pcb ? ...

the size of the PCB can tell you about how big the heatsink is. the thermal efficiency is not increasing much for gpus with a given size since they are already using heat pipes and copper fins. if this gpu is just like a 5850 (150W draw in games, and the same size) we can be pretty sure its going to be about the same noise. then look at the 5870, a little bigger, and draws 221W peak (still has only 6+6 pin) and is much louder.

so if this new card is smaller than a 5870, but draws more than a 5870, then it will be loud as hell. and when i refer to the PCB, i dont care about layers, i care about length.

[Eastcoasthandle]

I'm not sure if it's real,I can't find the source of this pic.

Hmm, if true I'm a tad concern that a Antec SpotCool fan is needed for the back of the video card.

[FischOderAal]

Who says that it's necessary? It blows on the VRM-area. Maybe someone put their finger on it, noticed it was boiling hot and put a fan over it.

[Calmatory]

the size of the PCB can tell you about how big the heatsink is. the thermal efficiency is not increasing much for gpus with a given size since they are already using heat pipes and copper fins. if this gpu is just like a 5850 (150W draw in games, and the same size) we can be pretty sure its going to be about the same noise. then look at the 5870, a little bigger, and draws 221W peak (still has only 6+6 pin) and is much louder.

so if this new card is smaller than a 5870, but draws more than a 5870, then it will be loud as hell. and when i refer to the PCB, i dont care about layers, i care about length.

There is much more to thermal efficiency than heatpipes and copper fins. Radial fan blade orientation and bending alone will have big impact on noise levels and maximum pressure generated by the fan, fin density and thickness, exhaust holes in the backplate, vapour chamber base in the heatsink etc. They all play a role, one could argue that they play a small role. But what I've understood AMD has been using the cheapest possible cooling solution, the fan dating back to HD2900 series, no more than 4 years old and far from the most efficient blade design. It's not like they're at limits in this regard, they can improve the noise levels and cooling efficiency if they want to, but it isn't as cheap then.

[Manicdan]

basically im just saying that i BELIEVE, the 6+8pin is for OCing, not typical power draw. ive listed my reasons and i dont really care if people try to nit pick the little things when the overall estimates show a very large difference between generations

[bill_d]

hmm if the 6870 is 6+8 pin power what will a 6970 have
unless they say the h*** with pcie specs

[Dimitriman]

basically im just saying that i BELIEVE, the 6+8pin is for OCing, not typical power draw. ive listed my reasons and i dont really care if people try to nit pick the little things when the overall estimates show a very large difference between generations

I agree, I bet it will work either 6+6 or 6+8 like some of ATI's previous cards.

[FischOderAal]

But what I've understood AMD has been using the cheapest possible cooling solution, the fan dating back to HD2900 series, no more than 4 years old and far from the most efficient blade design. It's not like they're at limits in this regard, they can improve the noise levels and cooling efficiency if they want to, but it isn't as cheap then.

What did you expect? Reference coolers are always just sufficient to do the job and as cheap as possible. Noise is somewhere at the bottom of the paper with the requirements.

[RPGWiZaRD]

What did you expect? Reference coolers are always just sufficient to do the job and as cheap as possible. Noise is somewhere at the bottom of the paper with the requirements.

Well it's a rather important selling point how silent and well cooled the cards are, so you can't skip too much on it either and customers will concider other products. Very few people change the cooling on their graphic cards.

[cold2010]

[Iconyu]

hmm if the 6870 is 6+8 pin power what will a 6970 have
unless they say the h*** with pcie specs

We're still not sure if that was a 6870, it could be a 6770, like I said earlier the very first rumours were of a 6770 that was larger than the 5870 on 40nm then a 6870 that had a lot more shaders coming a few months after. If the 6870 was coming a few days later then I'd say that picture was the higher end card without doubt, but right now I'm not sure what that card was.

[Silver Bullet]

Seems to be another part of the Chiphell post.



Dual DVI, HDMI and dual mini-DP

[RaZz!]

*snip*

128bit

who knows what else is detected wrongly...

[hurleybird]

if memory speed is 1250, then that hints towards a 384-bit memory interface.

[FischOderAal]

Well it's a rather important selling point how silent and well cooled the cards are, so you can't skip too much on it either and customers will concider other products. Very few people change the cooling on their graphic cards.

That's right. But that's what Palit / Gainward / XFX and the like are for. They don't use the reference cooler and are a few Euros more expensive.

I don't think the majority of the buyers care about noise levels as long as it's not a leaf blower.

[LordEC911]

Hmm, if true I'm a tad concern that a Antec SpotCool fan is needed for the back of the video card.

Hiding the product ID sticker and how many memory IC's there are.

Edit- and about the TDP discussion... I would be very surprised if Cayman XT exceeded 230w, I'm thinking somewhere around 210-215w.

[spursindonesia]

Hiding the product ID sticker and how many memory IC's there are.

Edit- and about the TDP discussion... I would be very surprised if Cayman XT exceeded 230w, I'm thinking somewhere around 210-215w.

And that was the approximation of GTX 275's TDP, and from that card could be derived onto a dual chip GTX 295 card, so getting an Antilles card from two Cayman XT spec chip isn't so fictional as some argued.

[MirageSys]

ATX standard says that each 6 pin power connector can deliver power up to 75 W(as with the PCI-Express 16-lane slot, 25 W for 1, 4, 8 lane slots), after a threshold overcurrent protection should kick in to prevent possible damage due to a fault(in case the product's resistance rises too high demanding more current).

However, I believe some manufacturers do not play by the standards and their cards actually draw more than the slot + connectors should be able to feed the card with.

Edit: Strange that I haven't ever heard of a situation where the overcurrent protection would actually kick in with highly overclocked & overvolted cards like 5970 etc.

I think it has more to do with really large variations in current as opposed to exceeding the limit and passing a threshold. Individual board manufacturers set their own limits from what it would seem.

I remember an old Epox board a friend had would shut down when a heavy load was applied to an 825mhz X1800. (power supply was pcp&c, so not the cause)

[tajoh111]

Seems to be another part of the Chiphell post.



Dual DVI, HDMI and dual mini-DP

Something about this looks like a really poor photoshop. The back appears to not be aligned correctly.

[spursindonesia]

I don't think that pic is a photoshop product, but i also don't think it's supposed to be a retail card edition either. A sample card for driver development & AIB partners R&D ? Cayman is supposedly taking quite a departure from previous ATi mArch, both in shader arrangement (4D) and uncore (stronger tesselation performance), so the card might be ready physically much sooner than the planned launch date, but the driver needs to be developed further more considering those significant changes.