ATI's R580+ revealed

[Richdog]

ATI high end goes 80 nanometre http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=30623

NVIDIA put some extra pressure on ATI with its G71 generation. The X1900 XTX can put up a fight but ATI's cost is still quite a bit higher. Nvidia's chip is cheaper and cooler but this is about to change in the next few months.
G71 should be Nvidia's last Geforce 7 generation card, and after than it will move to G80, the eight generation powered with Unified Shaders. ATI, on the other hand, is preparing to move to 80 nanometres first.

It informed its partners that it has a R580+ card up at its corporate sleeves. It is nothing more than 80 nanometre R580 core, but this shrink will make the chip cooler, smaller and cheaper to produce. ATI will probably be able to get some higher clocks out of it as well.

Samples are scheduled for May, while production should start in Q3 between June and August. Such timing clearly indicates that ATI is not in a rush to release the R600 and we know that R600 is actually doing just fine. The R600 needs Vista to glow.

We heard about the R580+ before, but it was called R581. Obviously ATI changed its mind about the name. The card naturally supports all that R580 can bear, including Avivo, Crossfire and it is a native PCIe component. µ

Very interesting, looks like ATI are taking a leaf out of Nvidias book and going for maximum efficency.

This can only be good, the less power cards consume the more they can be overclocked and the easier it is to place them in dual-card configuration without needing your own perosnal Chenobyll power plant to fuel them.

 

[Dutch Guy]

Very interesting, looks like ATI are taking a leaf out of Nvidias book and going for maximum efficency.

They have to really, the current cards are already very power hungry, hot and noisy.

 

[clone]

I was going to go back to ATI and get the x1900xt but ive been put of a bit by people having trouble with them,lets hope the next lot are better.

 

[Goksly]

Wouldnt say they have too... the X1900 are proving excellent sellers.
It seems more to me that they dont want to mess with their usual release dates, so instead of rushing out the R600 (or missing the usual release date altogether), why not speed bump the R580 to combat what ever Nvidia release then and release the R600 with Vista in Jan/Feb.

 

[kdd]

They have to really, the current cards are already very power hungry, hot and noisy.

Yeah it's a pretty surprising turn of events that nvidia has a card in the 7900gt that has a small cooling soltuion, cool, quiet and uber powerful, whilst all ati's cards are big and power hungry.

 

[Bennah]

Definatly a good move for ATi to move in nvidia's footsteps.

Cant wait to see the samples results in a couple of months time...

 

[ScarySquirrel]

whats wrong with a card being power hungry? does it effect performance at all? or is it just a case of the PSU being under more stress?

 

[Nelly]

I'm not quite sure but I think the X1900XT-X draws about 150W right? & the 7900XTX draws around half of that but I guess it really doesnt matter unless your running a lower end PSU, depends how fussy you are I guess - I've got on problem with Nvidia or Ati the only justification I have on purchasing Ati is the actual detail is better in terms of graphics.

Will be nice to see these improvements.

 

[Dutch Guy]

whats wrong with a card being power hungry? does it effect performance at all? or is it just a case of the PSU being under more stress?

It costs a lot more money to run as leccy costs money, the PSU has to be a good one to be stable and it needs a noisy cooler to run.

 

[Goksly]

My X1800XT runs just fine on a 350w PSU and I can barely hear it

 

[smids]

I'm not quite sure but I think the X1900XT-X draws about 150W right? & the 7900XTX draws around half of that but I guess it really doesnt matter unless your running a lower end PSU, depends how fussy you are I guess - I've got on problem with Nvidia or Ati the only justification I have on purchasing Ati is the actual detail is better in terms of graphics.

Will be nice to see these improvements.

No, the GTX HAS to use more than 75W as the PCI-e bus supports 75W max power through the slot itself. The reason cards need external connectors is when they exceed this. As a 7900GT needs an external connector, it uses more than 75W and the GTX uses more. It is probably closer to 100W GTX/90W GT and 125W XT. I seriously doubt at stock the XT uses 150W. My X2 clocked as it is uses about 180W.

 

[Dutch Guy]

There are power uasge graphs in this article but that does not include the 7900GT(X) cards and iirc a 7900GTX uses less power than a 7800GTX 512

 

[Duke]

Sounds good

 

[smids]

There are power uasge graphs in this article but that does not include the 7900GT(X) cards and iirc a 7900GTX uses less power than a 7800GTX 512

So both the 7900GT/GTX use between 75 and 95W. Not exactly the big difference I was expecting as everyone was making out. I mean the X800XT uses about 80W as did both the 7800 and 6800 series cards so we'e not talking revolutionary power saving here, nor Chernobyl power requirements. 110W for the XT isn't really that bad, however on lower end PSU's, that 20-30W difference can make a difference, or in SLi/Xfire.

 

[Nelly]

No, the GTX HAS to use more than 75W as the PCI-e bus supports 75W max power through the slot itself. The reason cards need external connectors is when they exceed this. As a 7900GT needs an external connector, it uses more than 75W and the GTX uses more. It is probably closer to 100W GTX/90W GT and 125W XT. I seriously doubt at stock the XT uses 150W. My X2 clocked as it is uses about 180W.

Ahhh thats not so bad then!

 

[amdnv]

LOL, My 6800Ultra (agp 2molex's)was said to be power hungry at new, but the specs were lowered by Nvidia after launch for the PSU claiming they overspeced to allow for headroom for overclocking, Im not too bothered as them specs are peek not constant running, Im not sure how many watts Ultra uses but spec on box says requires a MIN good quality 480watt PSU lol.

This is why you can now buy 700+watt PSU's her in UK and 900+watt PSU's in Asia, imagine 2x 7900GTX is sli with amd FX60 and 4x 150raptors lol, then all normal parts like 2 x optical drives etc etc.

 

[fornowagain]

however on lower end PSU's, that 20-30W difference can make a difference, or in SLi/Xfire.

And some high end.

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1932947,00.asp

512MB gaming cards in SLI/CrossFire will pull anywhere from around 15A to slightly over 20A (taking 120W divided by 12V = 10A per card) meaning that our +12V3 rail was overloaded as it has to share the power draw from the motherboard as well (which typically draws around 2 ~ 3A on its own). Since we rate our power supplies conservatively, the ST60F could actually run Kelt's 7800GTX 512MB SLI system for a while despite being technically overloaded on the +12V3 rail. As soon as the over current protection point of 20A on the +12V3 is reached, the power will automatically shut down.

 

[smids]

And some high end.

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1932947,00.asp

I already said that. I said low end PSU or in SLi/Xfire - you even quoted me on that.

 

[fornowagain]

I already said that. I said low end PSU or in SLi/Xfire - you even quoted me on that.

I was just sharing some info, backing it up, no need to get snippy. Saying that high end PSU suffer as well, did I say you were wrong?

 

[smids]

I was just sharing some info, backing it up, no need to get snippy. Saying that high end PSU suffer as well, did I say you were wrong?

Sorry - I thought you had misread the post I made and didn't understand why you posted, I was just clarifying what I had said. . I meant to stick one of these in, but didn't at the time.