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View Full Version : ATI R600 and G80 Speculation News


werty316
09-16-2006, 01:41 AM
Next month, ATi will launch two cards X1650XT and X1950Pro. Right after that, we should be expecting a new card based on the R600 core.

From our friends who saw it, the size is like the 7900GX2. The length is 33cm and takes up the space of 3 PCIe slots. It uses a single GPU and require 200W with a 8 pin power connector.
http://www.ocworkbench.com/ocwbcgi/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1158301575,93080,
What?!? 200W! 3 slot cooling? That's INSANE :shock:

ATI's R600 delayed until next year

WE EXPECTED to see R600 up and ready by the end of the calendar year but it looks like we are out of luck this time.

The acquisition of ATI made things and people a little bit insecure and out of focus, so the chip won't be read for December as originally planed.
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=34373

YESTERDAY I SAID I was chasing more info on the Nvidia G80 chip (http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=34319). The more I dug, the more my head hurt, nothing concrete, so take this with a pretty big grain of salt. In any case, there is some interesting info here.

The first thing is I was a little off on the dates, the tech day now seems more likely in late October with a launch in early November. What's a few weeks between friends? If they have not gotten back the latest silicon though, it is going to be really tight to make that schedule, chips take time to fab.

What they will talk about is the odd part. First is the arrangement of the chip, physically we are hearing that it is 2 * 2 cm, or about a 400mm die. Ouch. One of the reasons it is so big is the whole dual core rumor that has been floating around. G80 is not going to be a converged shader unit like the ATI R500/XBox360 or R600, it will do things the 'old' way.

Some people are saying that it will have 96 pipes, split as 48 DX9 pipes and 48 DX10. While this may sound like a huge number, we are told if this is the case, it is unlikely that you can use both at the same time. Think a 48 or 48 architecture. That said, I kind of doubt this rumor, it makes little sense.
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=34359

Mirrim
09-16-2006, 04:04 AM
Taking the news on both with a grain of salt... but neither sounds too nice at this stage. We're going to need bigger cases and 250mm fans soon!

Kougar
09-16-2006, 08:57 AM
ROFL 3-Slot cooling?!?!

That is all I need to know right there!! :lol:I can't wait to see just the PICS of that card!

I guess I better go read that article anyway...

Edit: And after reading those articles, The Inquirer basicaly knows nothing and only quoted the already most commonly expected dates. Driverheaven already published more/better info on nVidia's G80 core structure in their DX10 Briefing early last summer, that I've linked to in these forums at least three times if not more. :roll: (Go to google, type in: DX10 briefing then hit the feeling lucky button).

And I really do hope INQ was making those ATI dates up, whatever daunting power and cooling requirments it might have, it should make G80 seem like a mid-range card in performance (And power consumption :lol:) comparison...

Scott
09-16-2006, 02:19 PM
I love my G80.

Kougar
09-16-2006, 03:20 PM
I love my G80.

Does that mean I get one of your GX2's then? I can trade ya a nVidia Geforce2 400MX... :mrgreen:

werty316
09-19-2006, 06:05 AM
WE LEARNED that ATI's highly anticipated next GPU will consume up to an incredible 250 W to work. No wonder we reported on many occasions that the chip will be one of the hottest ever.

It is the 80 nanometre chip and we talked about it here saying a 65 nanometre chip is simply not possible for such a complex chip.

We also said that cards based on it will need a new "super doper" cooler, here.

And Charlie D has something to say, here.

We can now confirm that the new ATI card will consume around 250W. The currently fastest ATI, R580+ or Radeon X1950 XTX consumes up to 125W i a worst case scenario and heavy 3D while you can suck up 145W out with the dual chip X7950 GX2 card.

This means that the R600 will consume twice as much power, and probably will end up close to twice as warm but we also hear it will get much faster then the current cards with sixty four pipelines. It could easily end up twice as fast than the current ATI offerings.

It is now a January/February chip, so it will be a while until we have this baby on our desk but after a long time we are getting mildly titillated at the prospect. µ
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=34446

Talk about crazy specs, and requirements.

werty316
09-20-2006, 02:10 AM
Bump

* Unified Shader Architecture
* Support FP16 HDR+MSAA
* Support GDDR4 memories
* Close to 700M transistors (G71 - 278M / G70 - 302M)
* New AA mode : VCAA
* Core clock scalable up to 1.5GHz
* Shader Peformance : 2x Pixel / 12x Vertex over G71
* 8 TCPs & 128 stream processors
* Much more efficient than traditional architecture
* 384-bit memory interface (256-bit+128-bit)
* 768MB memory size (512MB+256MB)
* Two models at launch : GeForce 8800GTX and GeForce 8800GT
* GeForce 8800GTX : 7 TCPs chip, 384-bit memory interface, hybrid water/fan cooler, water cooling for overclocking. US$649
* GeForce 8800GT : 6 TCPs chip, 320-bit memory interface, fan cooler. US$449-499
Read the rest here: http://www.vr-zone.com/?i=4007
http://forums.vr-zone.com/showthread.php?t=94128

This is looking damn good and it uses a unified shader architecture too. TOo bad its delayed til Nov :(

Kougar
09-20-2006, 06:05 AM
Werty, could ya please fix that link? I can't seem to find that article either... Hope they didn't remove it.

This has to be a first I've seen a memory interface above 256bits for gamer's graphics cards. The x1950XTX and 7900GTX both only have a 256bit wide memory interface! Only seen a few ultra-expensive workstation cards that offered 512mbits. Those are truly some bizarre specs on the 8800GTX/8800GT!

Holy smokes, I just realized the G80 has more transistors than a quad-core Kentsfield... ~700M vs 582m transistors... :shock: No bloody wonder it is such a power hog! A little under three E6700's worth of transistors, I can't seem to count. Still works out to be about 5 single Core 2 Solo's worth of transistors though. ;)

werty316
09-20-2006, 06:37 AM
The link worked before but now it doesn't... Not sure why. Good thing I quote the main info ;)

EDIT: The main page link doesn't work but I found the forum post and added it.

From VR-Zone (http://www.vr-zone.com/?i=4034&title=G84%20&%20G86%20Info) Supposely the mainstream range will be the G86 (8600 Series) and low end will be the G84 (8300 Series) both released in Q1 of 2007 but as they said: "Information is really scarce at this point of time so take this with a pinch of salt."

werty316
10-22-2006, 05:11 AM
Since we have to go quiet for the G80 now, we will focus our attention on the ATi next generation R600. We got to know that R600 is a 300W beast built on 80nm process technology. To cool off that beast, you need a 4 heatpipes cooling solution. The R600 card is long from what we have seen, around G80GTX length but the cooler is longer than the PCB. It has two power connectors like the NV flagship card and it is dual slot of course. Also we knew that the last spin at TSMC is less than ideal so we can conclude it is suffering from poor yield at this point of time. It is slated to launch in Q1 2007 according to ATi's roadmap but it might delay further.

Article Source: http://www.vr-zone.com/?i=4181
Holy crap talk about a beast if all of this is true :shock: