Cayman to have enhanced rendering scalability and off-chip buffering for DX11 applications.

[An Exception]

I thought the following was pretty interesting...

Sounds like Cayman will have processors off the main chip for buffering and scalability!

I'm guessing the buffering is for either Tessellation, with the scalability part maybe being used in the dual chip 6990?

"November will see the release of the Cayman XT-based HD 6970 and Cayman Pro-based HD 6950 which have all of the features seen in Barts plus enhanced rendering scalability and off-chip buffering for DX11 applications. These will be the spiritual successors to the HD 5870 and HD 5850 and should go head to head with the higher end Fermi cards.

December will see the introduction of Antilles which is meant to be the lynchpin of AMD’s renewed assault on the DX11 market. The HD 6990 will bring untold performance to the table through the use of a pair of Cayman GPU cores and additional features we can’t divulge at this time."

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/37286-amd-radeon-hd-6870-hd-6850-review-3.html

 

[An Exception]

What like xfire 5870's were pointless with the 5970 doing the rounds...

5970 didn't have off chip processing etc etc

 

[An Exception]

I'm looking forward to round #2 of the ATI cards also . . . it's interesting that they have released their most affordable cards first to be followed up by their more expensive cards some time later . . . it's normally the other way around!

If enough peeps resist the urge to buy either a HD 6850/6870 and wait for the next round of cards then the prices should drop all round . . . i.e if you fairly sure you want a HD 6850/6870 then do you best to hold out if you fancy a discount!

Also hoping nVidia have got something waiting in the wings!

Apparently they have, and according to 'rumours' at semi accurate they have improved the leakage of GF100 and that the GTX570 is faster than the GTX480.

http://www.semiaccurate.com/forums/showpost.php?p=78460&postcount=116
http://www.semiaccurate.com/forums/showpost.php?p=78459&postcount=125

 

[An Exception]

If they can eliminate micro-stutter with this off chip processing, then I might actually go multi-GPU again but I have a feeling it won't happen.

 

[An Exception]

What makes you think the off chip processing has anything to do with multi gpu? The statement clearly states that it's aimed at improving DX11 games so surely it's to improve stuff like tessellation performance.

"November will see the release of the Cayman XT-based HD 6970 and Cayman Pro-based HD 6950 which have all of the features seen in Barts plus enhanced rendering scalability and off-chip buffering for DX11 applications. These will be the spiritual successors to the HD 5870 and HD 5850 and should go head to head with the higher end Fermi cards."

 

[An Exception]

Well you said;



Regardless, 'enhanced rendering scalability' doesn't necessarily mean that it's anything to do with multi-gpu either.

If they can eliminate micro-stutter with this off chip processing, then I might actually go multi-GPU again but I have a feeling it won't happen.