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View Full Version : Retail R600XTX Pictured & Benchmarked

werty316
03-22-2007, 06:26 AM
We saw some R600 cards at CeBIT but any form of photography is restricted as AMD is keeping a close watch making sure nothing is leaked outside. Nevertheless, we still managed to get some shots on the retail R600XTX (Radeon X2900 XTX) card. The frontal shot contains sensitive information so we can't show it here.

Just a recap of what we have told you before, R600XTX retail card is codenamed Dragonhead 2. It is a 12-layer card at 9.5" long with a max TDP of 240W. It is clocked at 800MHz on 80nm process technology, 512-bit memory interface and has 1GB GDDR4 memories onboard. It has 6-pin and 8-pin PCIe connectors but two 2x3 PCIe power can be used. Rumors surfaced over at CeBIT that the final product may be on 65nm if it can be produced in time with reasonable good yield. So far we have yet to get a confirmation that the first shipping R600 cards will be on 65nm but we can't rule out that there are experimental R600 chips at 65nm now. If our source is right, the yield at 65nm is poor at this point of time and expect a limited quantity of 20,000 pieces of R600XTX by middle of April.

Next, we got hold of some preliminary benchmarks figures of the R600 XTX card with core clock at 800MHz vs a GeForce 8800 GTX card. Using a Core 2 Extreme 2.93GHz processor on an Intel 975X board, the 3DMark06 score at 1600x1200 resolution is 97xx on the R600XTX compared to 95xx on the 8800GTX. Seems like R600XTX is running slightly faster than 8800GTX on the early release of drivers for R600. AMD is still working hard on the drivers and there are some more performance left to unlock. However, the DX10 benchmarking war between ATi and NVIDIA has not started yet. The targeted display driver version for launch in May is 8.361 or later (Catalyst 7.4 or 7.5).

http://img20.imagevenue.com/loc460/th_37312_R600_vrzone_122_460lo.jpg (http://img20.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=37312_R600_vrzone_122_460lo.jpg) http://img174.imagevenue.com/loc443/th_37318_R600_vrzone2_122_443lo.jpg (http://img174.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=37318_R600_vrzone2_122_443lo.jpg) http://img141.imagevenue.com/loc365/th_37318_R600_vrzone3_122_365lo.jpg (http://img141.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=37318_R600_vrzone3_122_365lo.jpg)
http://img137.imagevenue.com/loc352/th_37325_R600_vrzone4_122_352lo.jpg (http://img137.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=37325_R600_vrzone4_122_352lo.jpg) http://img11.imagevenue.com/loc580/th_37330_R600_vrzone5_122_580lo.jpg (http://img11.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=37330_R600_vrzone5_122_580lo.jpg) http://img103.imagevenue.com/loc352/th_37335_R600_vrzone6_122_352lo.jpg (http://img103.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=37335_R600_vrzone6_122_352lo.jpg)
(Click on the pics to enlarge)
http://www.vr-zone.com/?i=4830
Kougar
03-22-2007, 07:08 PM
So they kept the 2x4 pin connector, and increased the clocks yet again to 800mhz now?

I guess it's that time again to release a new 3dmark platform now that the 1600x1200 scores are over 10k before CPU+GPU overclocking...
PP Mguire
03-22-2007, 07:45 PM
Funny as how they are supposed to be X2800s not 2900s.
Kougar
03-23-2007, 01:48 AM
Funny as how they are supposed to be X2800s not 2900s.

By all indications it was changed from x2800 to x2900. That's been confirmed, or at elast confirmed as much as anything else has to date.
PP Mguire
03-23-2007, 05:42 AM
They are only keeping it from the public to try and outdo Nvidia with one card. Not gonna happen.
werty316
03-23-2007, 05:55 AM
I wouldn't count your chickens just yet.
darkorb
03-23-2007, 06:25 AM
its a waste to go for ati, if there card beats nvidia's by like 5 fps, and theres like a $200 difference, waste imo
werty316
03-23-2007, 06:42 AM
How can you say those things when the pricing and performance is unknown at this point? AMD/ATi wouldn't be dumb and make the R600 $200 more than nVidia's fastest card; it'll be priced around the same to compete.
Bio-Hazard
03-23-2007, 06:55 AM
How can you say those things when the pricing and performance is unknown at this point? AMD/ATi wouldn't be dumb and make the R600 $200 more than nVidia's fastest card; it'll be priced around the same to compete.
QFT........;)
sushrukh
03-23-2007, 07:57 AM
How can you say those things when the pricing and performance is unknown at this point? AMD/ATi wouldn't be dumb and make the R600 $200 more than nVidia's fastest card; it'll be priced around the same to compete.

If R600 manages to beat the 8800GTX/GTS,then there r 8800 Ultra & 8950GX2 r coming.The game has just began.The more competition the better our chances to get better technologies with reduced price point.
Kougar
03-23-2007, 08:07 AM
Any 8900 cards are not going to launch in the immediate future. I'm sure they are planned, but there is almost always a minimum of 8 months between launches of entirely new lines of graphic cards, if not longer. The 8800 Ultra will be a hold over until then...

Right now I suspect it would take more than a slight overclock for G80 to best R600. Even if nVidia pulls out a win, it's pretty safe to say for anything gaming with "max" settings at 1920x1200 or higher resolutions then the ATI card will be the better option. With 1gb of memory and a 512mb wide bus it will have much longer legs to tackle XHD game resolutions with all the eye candy possible. The 8800 Ultra is still going to have a 384bit wide bus and most likely 512mb of RAM...
PP Mguire
03-24-2007, 08:47 AM
According to a watercooler manufacturer the 8950GX2 is closer than you might think.
sushrukh
03-24-2007, 09:59 AM
I think that if it's found that R600s are doing marginally better in benchmarks & they r selling more than the 8800GTS & GTX, Nvidia may launch their next series of cards a bit earlier than what they've decided earlier.