Any news on HD2950XT?

psychas · 11 Oct 2007 at 11:56

So far i know that its 65 nm and has 528 gigaflops could it be faster then 98** hundreds or same performance what do you think ?

SS-89 · 11 Oct 2007 at 11:57

Im pretty sure all of Ati's parts from now on are 55nm...

psychas · 11 Oct 2007 at 12:32

oh ye sorry 55 nm and 249$

http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3573&Itemid=1

Scougar · 11 Oct 2007 at 13:18

What is interesting about that though is the gigaflop value. Based on a quick and dirty calculation:-

R600 @ 742Mhz = 474 GFs
R670 @ 825Mhz = 528 GFs
but... R600 @ 825Mhz = 527 GFs

The give with one hand (more mhz, die reduction) and the other hand they taketh away (memory bandwidth down to 256bit from 512bit)

So basically all they are doing getting better yields, higher frequency from this and claiming better performance due to the mhz. I'm not complaining as it may mean potential to easily reach 900Mhz on the core (575 gigaflops)

but it does seem that it doesn't really bring that much to the table

(Apart from a potential lower price according to Fudzilla - not a good source)

If it is truly gonna be around $249 (£150 as it's always marked up

) then it would be worth waiting for it to come out I suppose. What do you guys think?

Matthew

gareth170 · 11 Oct 2007 at 13:37

Scougar said:
What is interesting about that though is the gigaflop value. Based on a quick and dirty calculation:-

R600 @ 742Mhz = 474 GFs
R670 @ 825Mhz = 528 GFs
but... R600 @ 825Mhz = 527 GFs

The give with one hand (more mhz, die reduction) and the other hand they taketh away (memory bandwidth down to 256bit from 512bit)

So basically all they are doing getting better yields, higher frequency from this and claiming better performance due to the mhz. I'm not complaining as it may mean potential to easily reach 900Mhz on the core (575 gigaflops) but it does seem that it doesn't really bring that much to the table (Apart from a potential lower price according to Fudzilla - not a good source)

If it is truly gonna be around $249 (£150 as it's always marked up ) then it would be worth waiting for it to come out I suppose. What do you guys think?

Matthew

but as i said before even if it can be clock to 900+ on the core it doesn't mean it'll go faster, the fps may stay the same or even drop.. the 2400/2600 is 65mm but they are very different to overclock.. e.g past 857mhz theres no different even if u clock it to 891 or to 901, the fps just stays the same or slows down not speeds up..

Scougar · 11 Oct 2007 at 13:41

gareth170 said:
but as i said before even if it can be clock to 900+ on the core it doesn't mean it'll go faster, the fps may stay the same or even drop.. the 2400/2600 is 65mm but they are very different to overclock.. e.g past 857mhz theres no different even if u clock it to 891 or to 901, the fps just stays the same or slows down not speeds up..

What about current R600's then? Does the extra Mhz actually increase performance at 900Mhz compared to 825Mhz? (for those crazy enough to do that on water?)

I find it hard to believe they'd price a 2950xt at 'only' £150 though. I am guessing it will be more like £200 +

Matthew

gareth170 · 11 Oct 2007 at 13:53

Scougar said:
What about current R600's then? Does the extra Mhz actually increase performance at 900Mhz compared to 825Mhz? (for those crazy enough to do that on water?)

Matthew

i know the r600 as no problem overclocking.. but im just saying don't get your hopes up to high about the rv670 overclocking mate... we'll only know when it's released

i can overclock my 2600xt's to 904mhz but don't see any increase in performance... and i know it clocked it because the temps go higher, (56 ida, 65 load)

Scougar · 11 Oct 2007 at 13:57

lol buy r600 pro now for 800-850Mhz , or 670 later with possibility of 850-900mhz lol. the new Dilema... and less heat / noise / elec bill hehe.

EDIT: Think about it for a few seconds more... it will pretty much have to cost more than the current XT anyway, unless they do a price cut, which I can't really see them doing. Is this the reason for the pro's? trying to get rid of r600 cores so they can release the R670? Although, no one has mentioned End of Life for the 2900xt as yet?!?

Matthew

gareth170 · 11 Oct 2007 at 14:08

Scougar said:
lol buy r600 pro now for 800-850Mhz , or 670 later with possibility of 850-900mhz lol. the new Dilema... and less heat / noise / elec bill hehe.

Matthew

why buy a r600 pro? my 2 2600xt plays all my games very well at max settings..

if i buy rv670 maybe i need to change my motherboard also so it'll be more cost...

gareth170 · 11 Oct 2007 at 14:14

Scougar said:
EDIT: Think about it for a few seconds more... it will pretty much have to cost more than the current XT anyway, unless they do a price cut, which I can't really see them doing. Is this the reason for the pro's? trying to get rid of r600 cores so they can release the R670? Although, no one has mentioned End of Life for the 2900xt as yet?!?

Matthew

2900xt,pro, gt is EOL at the end of october..
http://www.vr-zone.com/articles/Radeon_HD_2900_GT_Launch_on_Oct_8th_for_US$_199/5297.html

AMD plans to launch Radeon HD 2900 GT on October 8th at US$199 while HD 2900 Pro continues to be in limited supply at US$249. The existence of these 2 cards are just to get rid of the R600 stock that didn't attained XT speeds before RV670 comes along in November. However, HD 2900 XT, GT and Pro will reach EOL by end of October so the lifespan of the two new cards is really short. Radeon HD 2900GT will sport only 240 stream processors instead of 320 and a 256-bit memory interface instead of 512-bit for the 2900 Pro. HD 2900 GT card uses 256MB of GDDR3 memories while 2900 Pro card is able to use 512MB to 1GB of GDDR3/4 memories. Both cards are clocked at 600MHz core and 1.6GHz for the memories.

psychas · 11 Oct 2007 at 14:24

i stick with 2900xt could not be assed selling buying stuff wasting time i run on 900 anyway so no point

Scougar · 11 Oct 2007 at 15:08

Gareth> I wasn't say directly to you to buy an r600 pro now, i meant that's the option peeps have if considering between cards. Not suggesting you should sell your 2 cards!

Thanks for the heads up on that document from vr. I didn't realise the 2900xt was EOL as well in october! wow.

Matthew

gareth170 · 11 Oct 2007 at 15:18

i would love to buy the 2950pro but it depends if i need to change my motherboard, i really don't wanna change it because all my hardware works perfectly on it.. also more cost..

Scougar · 11 Oct 2007 at 15:22

Why would you replace the motherboard? Far as I can tell they are backwards compatible with pci-e 1.1. I have more to worry about as I'm only on 4x pci-e eek (asrock 4coredual).

Matthew

gareth170 · 11 Oct 2007 at 15:30

Scougar said:
Why would you replace the motherboard? Far as I can tell they are backwards compatible with pci-e 1.1. I have more to worry about as I'm only on 4x pci-e eek (asrock 4coredual).

Matthew

asus m2r32-mvp motherboard as the 580x ( x16/x16 crossfire) north bridge which is pcie 1.0a...

andyr · 12 Oct 2007 at 10:44

Hi , how do you all think the HD2950 XT/Pro will compare to the current Nvidia 8 series , only i am getting a x38 chipset board and was wondering about crossfire again , last used ati cards and crossfire with two 1800xt's and since been with Nvidia.

gareth170 · 12 Oct 2007 at 11:35

andyr said:
Hi , how do you all think the HD2950 XT/Pro will compare to the current Nvidia 8 series , only i am getting a x38 chipset board and was wondering about crossfire again , last used ati cards and crossfire with two 1800xt's and since been with Nvidia.

a 2950 should be as fast as the 8800 or even faster....

crossfireing 2 2950pro/xt would last u a lot longer and now ati are adding crossfire in they drivers to a lot more games...

J.D · 13 Oct 2007 at 16:49

gareth170 said:
but as i said before even if it can be clock to 900+ on the core it doesn't mean it'll go faster, the fps may stay the same or even drop.. the 2400/2600 is 65mm but they are very different to overclock.. e.g past 857mhz theres no different even if u clock it to 891 or to 901, the fps just stays the same or slows down not speeds up..

gareth170 said:
i know the r600 as no problem overclocking.. but im just saying don't get your hopes up to high about the rv670 overclocking mate... we'll only know when it's released

i can overclock my 2600xt's to 904mhz but don't see any increase in performance... and i know it clocked it because the temps go higher, (56 ida, 65 load)

Gareth. If it's your GPU you are not seeing the performances from then I'd suspect a limit of 857Mhz for your core on stock voltages. I got to these kind of stages where raising my core and passing 3dmark06 flawlessly would result in a lower score. My default core voltage is 1.150V and raising it to 1.213V started to raise my score at the higher GPU clock. There were 4 increments between 1.150v and 1.213v and I tried every one of them so my GPU was definitely held back by volts.

Install ATI Tool 0.27 b2 and then start raising voltages a little. Find out what your exact stock volts should be for your card and then raise Core, MEM or Memory outbuffer voltages as required. (Tip. I found raising the memory buffer(MVDDQ) volts to help me get higher memory clocks better than raising memory(MVDDC) volts.

gareth170 · 13 Oct 2007 at 18:00

J.D said:
Gareth. If it's your GPU you are not seeing the performances from then I'd suspect a limit of 857Mhz for your core on stock voltages. I got to these kind of stages where raising my core and passing 3dmark06 flawlessly would result in a lower score. My default core voltage is 1.150V and raising it to 1.213V started to raise my score at the higher GPU clock. There were 4 increments between 1.150v and 1.213v and I tried every one of them so my GPU was definitely held back by volts.

Install ATI Tool 0.27 b2 and then start raising voltages a little. Find out what your exact stock volts should be for your card and then raise Core, MEM or Memory outbuffer voltages as required. (Tip. I found raising the memory buffer(MVDDQ) volts to help me get higher memory clocks better than raising memory(MVDDC) volts.

the 2600 haven't got voltage controls. i think it does it by itself..

anyway since i've overclocked the cpu to 3.4gz. it seems to be a different now at 884 its added 2 fames extra

LoadsaMoney · 13 Oct 2007 at 18:18

As far as im aware these 2x cards are essentially just what we have now from ATI, but changed to a 55nm process, and also have their bus's cut to 256bit, so why would you want to get rid of a 2900 XT for another 2900 XT, but on a smaller process, and a bus cut, or even a 2900 pro for another 2900 pro on a smaller process with a bus cut, makes no sense at all, and also the Dx10.1 is pointless.

They justa big con, ATi "i know what well do, we'll change the procesc to a 55nm, and call them 2950's instead of 2900's, but we'll also give em a bus cut, that way ppl will think they new cards when they aint and so buy em, as really were just putting the same cards on a smaller process" KERCHINGGGGGG.