R600 info

fornowagain · 12 Dec 2006 at 14:54

What did we learn? Unfortunately, some of the more exciting items are under NDA until CES but we did pick up a few tidbits here and there. It appears the AMD/ATI R600 graphics cards are still on schedule for an early Q1 2007 launch and should provide some very serious competition to the GeForce 8800 series. However, all of the expected benefits and performance improvements of this release will also bring some serious power requirements. We heard power consumption numbers hovering around 430~450W for the high-end CrossFire setup while under full load. Those are power requirements just for the cards according to our sources who said the first silicon spins actually consumed even more power. What the final numbers will be is anyone's guess but be prepared to start looking at 800W+ power supplies in the near future if you want to run extreme performance GPU configurations.

http://anandtech.com/tradeshows/showdoc.aspx?i=2887&p=1

Duke · 12 Dec 2006 at 18:05

Spec looks good.. could well be another monster speed card

I'm not too sure why people are concerned about wattage - if you're going to spend £1000 on two high end graphics cards, you probably won't mind spending £60-80 for a good PSU.

HighlandeR · 12 Dec 2006 at 20:26

80 quid barely gets u a 700 watt decent p/s still, was hoping £100 quid would net u a 1000watt decent p/s thats future proof for 3-4 PCI express cards at least....

Oh well

fornowagain · 12 Dec 2006 at 23:53

http://www.*****.net/content/item.php?item=7436 You'll have to figure out the link.

Nanofoil? You gotta be kidding me. More complex than water, that must be pumping out some serious heat. More power needed than quad SLi. Just gets better. Probably just hear say and BS, but there's no smoke without fire, appropriate if this is true.

AMD's recent takeover of ATi may have signicant long-term benfits for both but, right now, it doesn't seem to have done anything for ATI's ability to produce state-of-the-art graphic processors in a timely fashion.

While trawling the night markets in Old Taipei with the ***** Dragon Tour 2006, ol' Willy Deeplung tells us he heard word on the street about ATI's promised R600 part - not only how late it now is but also some of the issues there have been along this yellow brick road.

As many of you know, ATi R600 should be with us now. ATI's AIB manufacturing partners are gagging for it. The biggest trouble they're having is that there are no GPUs floating around. None.

Most makers are feeling very much in the dark over this one, so we thought we'd update you by sharing all of the little information we've been able to gather.
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R600 has had several challenges, principally over power and cooling.

ATi has looked at water-cooling and traditional air cooling. But, the speed of the processor and its resultant heat output have meant that ATi also had to consider more complex hi-tech solutions.

So, the company turned to NanoFoil cooling technology. This, as best we can understand, works by having ultra-thin nanolayers of aluminium and nickel that can be kicked into life by heat, electricity or mechanical or optical stimulation, causing a reaction that gives off heat in a controlled fashion.

But NanoFoil is a solution that's been looking for a problem since the turn of 2003, and hasn't as far as we known, had any real-life use for cooling GPUs, CPUs or anything similar.

At the heart of the cooling problem, though, is the R600's power requirements. These are nothing short of laughable at the moment.

With the clock speeds the company's looking to deploy, R600's requirements seem like they're going to outpace those of NVIDIA Quad parts. Cooling issues only make things worse and it's still unclear what steps ATi can take to solve these dual problems.

trojan698 · 13 Dec 2006 at 00:07

Interesting read, what does it mean by quad parts though? One card consuming more power than 4 8800's or..?

fornowagain · 13 Dec 2006 at 00:10

trojan698 said:
Interesting read, what does it mean by quad parts though? One card consuming more power than 4 8800's or..?

I think they mean 2xGX2, which would put it near 280w. Sounds like like FUD tbh, but it is around the top end of the new PCIe 2.0 spec, so maybe.

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http://www.*****.net/content/item.php?item=7437 A bit more?

We don't know the state of play with the A13 spin but do understand that ATi has got A12 running at a speed of 1GHz.

That's around half the target speed of the production version, which is now set to arrive some time in "early" 2007 and not before Christmas as originally promised. That gives NVIDIA's faster-than-a-ferret-on-pheromones, DirectX 10 GPU - the G80 - a quarter's head-start or more.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but they're saying a 2GHz core? Maybe not the core, doesn't say, but still WTF? BS?? :eek:

Tom|Nbk · 13 Dec 2006 at 00:13

trojan698 said:
Interesting read, what does it mean by quad parts though? One card consuming more power than 4 8800's or..?

i think they may mean two 7950 gx2's :confused:

shrek2 · 13 Dec 2006 at 05:33

fornowagain said:
I think they mean 2xGX2, which would put it near 280w. Sounds like like FUD tbh, but it is around the top end of the new PCIe 2.0 spec, so maybe.

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http://www.*****.net/content/item.php?item=7437 A bit more?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but they're saying a 2GHz core? Maybe not the core, doesn't say, but still WTF? BS??

If thats the core speed then this card will be smoking crack

D.P. · 13 Dec 2006 at 11:01

locutus12 said:
when in the last ten years has ATi ever had a problem with IQ ???

My, we have short memories.

ATI's IQ used to be dire. Only with the R300 did they really catch up and excell.

LoadsaMoney · 19 Dec 2006 at 19:11

Anyone heard about it being pushed back to March sometime as they found a bug in the board. :confused:

Firegod · 19 Dec 2006 at 19:30

LoadsaMoney said:
Anyone heard about it being pushed back to March sometime as they found a bug in the board.

What kinda "bug"?

But March, jeez they'd be loosing some serious money to Nvidia with this long a delay. Gives more time as well to Nvidia to re-work the G80.

Rizz · 19 Dec 2006 at 19:51

Hmm I may have to put off buying a 8800gts.

LoadsaMoney · 19 Dec 2006 at 20:01

Firegod said:
What kinda "bug"?

But March, jeez they'd be loosing some serious money to Nvidia with this long a delay. Gives more time as well to Nvidia to re-work the G80.

Don't know can't find anything on it, someones heard it from a very reliable source, looks like were going to just have to wait and see how reliable, as if it is true then it has to come out, they can't just not release it when everyones expecting it to come out.

Firegod · 20 Dec 2006 at 19:07

LoadsaMoney said:
Don't know can't find anything on it, someones heard it from a very reliable source, looks like were going to just have to wait and see how reliable, as if it is true then it has to come out, they can't just not release it when everyones expecting it to come out.

Very true.

Macro · 20 Dec 2006 at 19:24

I'm not sure the "official" date was ever Jan, some people just assumed it would coincide with the consumer launch of Vista....

Devious · 20 Dec 2006 at 19:28

Athanor said:
I'm not sure the "official" date was ever Jan, some people just assumed it would coincide with the consumer launch of Vista....

Agreed, ive always heard March, not that the fanboys wanted to believe that

Otaku Punk · 20 Dec 2006 at 23:07

So ATI/AMD is planning on letting nVidia get an even greater lead? Sounds like the sort of business mind that would come up with the 4x4 idea. I was planning on including a r600 in my new build in jan, but i guess that plan will have to be re-thought.

HighlandeR · 20 Dec 2006 at 23:45

I think March + release date would be very bad tbh, by then Nvidia would have launched a full range of cheap and highend and midrange Vista compatible cards and would be the only choice for major manufacturers..... all pouring in liquid gold to Nvidias banks.

ATI have no other choice but to release in time for Vista, besides u dont wanna be 6 months late after your competitor do u ?

As for Jan well it looks like Intel are releasing new quad cores and massive price cuts but thats in Jan + so will have to see......

LoadsaMoney · 20 Dec 2006 at 23:55

They were well late with the x1800 dont forget.

FrankJH · 21 Dec 2006 at 15:38

HighlandeR said:
I think March + release date would be very bad tbh, by then Nvidia would have launched a full range of cheap and highend and midrange Vista compatible cards and would be the only choice for major manufacturers..... all pouring in liquid gold to Nvidias banks.

ATI have no other choice but to release in time for Vista, besides u dont wanna be 6 months late after your competitor do u ?

As for Jan well it looks like Intel are releasing new quad cores and massive price cuts but thats in Jan + so will have to see......

I agree with the majority of that - but didnt the 9700 series skip a generation (ie ATI hadnt previously released a card for over one generation I seem to recall but beat nvidia not only on their newest cards, but also the next gen at the time also)

I would agree its highly worrying though

Maybe its just nv's turn at their 12 months or so in the limelight