ATI's Upcoming R700 GPU's Tape Out - Radeon 4000 Series

[InsolenceAndHeresy]

I thought I read somewhere that AMD/ATI isn't releasing any new flagship cards this year? Google it...

[Kougar]

JohnnyVic, you are somewhat correct. R700 is not going to be a giant monolithic GPU core... it is going to be lots of little cores... or at least several medium cores. ATI is aiming to invent a new approach to their GPUs, and it could be big if they do it right.

Nvidia on the other hand... Their last (& still current 1+ year old) G80 design is still a giant massive core. Less is known about G100/D9E's core design than R700's at this point, but so far all indications is that it will be another giant core just as G80 was. Either way it's going to be interesting, as usual come launch dates!

I thought I read somewhere that AMD/ATI isn't releasing any new flagship cards this year? Google it...

Already heard that. And here was the explanation for the mistake, it was false. LINK Is what happens when reporters don't try to at least confirm the facts before running with them. It had as much common sense as reporting Nvidia isn't going to launch G100/D9E this year


Oh, and here is some further info on R700. Apparently ATI is at least toying with the idea of GDDR5. It got a chuckle from me, if nothing else! http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?optio ... 6&Itemid=1

[w00fd06]

Wow , i was just getting used to GDDR4, wonder what kind of speeds we'll be seeing, ~1700mhz?

It seems like DAAMIT is first to market with everything (Software Crossfire/SLI, Integrated memory contoller, Dual core processors, etc.) but then Intel/nVidia 1Ups them with the same thing, but with better performance.

[Kougar]

Well, Nvidia doesn't even use GDDR4, and ATI does not use GDDR4 on many of their cards. The HD 3870 had GDDR4 @ 2250Mhz. The HD 3870 X2 on the other hand uses GDDR3 @ 1800MHz. Based off what I know, there is no real advantage except pure marketing fluff... GDDR4 can surpass GDDR3 but it doesn't have much effect in most games, Crysis being the notable exception. GDDR5 would also be a great deal more expensive than GDDR4, which has been in mass production for a little while now.

Edit: I guess there is a wiki for everything... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GDDR5

[w00fd06]

Well, Nvidia doesn't even use GDDR4, and ATI does not use GDDR4 on many of their cards.

I'm pretty sure ATI started using GDDR4 in the Radeon 2k series, i have a 2600XT with GDDR4 (whooohoo, only cuz it was 150 bucks), but like you said, there really isn't that much to brag about, especially considering the bus width is only 128bits.

[Darksylum]

actualy no! ATi released there Flagship DX9.0c cards the X1950XTX (wich I have 2 of them in crossfire) featuring 512mb of 2000mhz GDDR4 memory on a 256 bit memory enterface capable of 36gbps memory bandwith. Was an awsome design and bold move. Sadly crossfire in the series resulted in the use of the old single link DVI dongle cable witch limited crossfire gamming resolutions to 1600x1200. This resulted in ATi holding the crown as the Dirext 9 champion in signle card systems while Nvidia took the lead with the ultra high resolution capable multi core 7950 chip in SLI. But yea, ATi has been playing with GDDR4 a long time and started releasing it to the public in septempber of 2006 in time to go out with a bang in windows XP.