ATI's R420XT is the Olympic Snowboard

[ChrisRay]

8x6 is not 8 pipelines with 6 vertex shaders.

Most people assume 8x2 to be 8 pipelines with 2 TMU per pipe so thats what I'd assume.

Oh well..

No way :)

[MUYA]

Originally posted by Nv40
probably the 6 vertex pipelines are for Hl2 performance. which should be ATI
primary target in the R420. i have heard that Doom3 doesnt use vertex shaders.. only PS for the lighting. HL2? Nah for HL2, it would be the "extreme" pixel pipelines. I wish they leaked a few more details. :D The 6 VS is well, I thought they would double the VS units but they are going to double the VS performance it seems. 2 extra revised VS units and higher clocks should = double r3XX. All good stuff!!!

[bkswaney]

Originally posted by MUYA
HL2? Nah for HL2, it would be the "extreme" pixel pipelines. I wish they leaked a few more details. :D The 6 VS is well, I thought they would double the VS units but they are going to double the VS performance it seems. 2 extra revised VS units and higher clocks should = double r3XX. All good stuff!!!


I agree.
Nvidia should have a good guess
on the performance mark they need to beat the R420.
It will not be long now before we start seeing the reviews. :D

[MUYA]

Originally posted by bkswaney
I agree.
Nvidia should have a good guess
on the performance mark they need to beat the R420.
It will not be long now before we start seeing the reviews. :D

The waiting is what kills me :(
hehehehe

then comes another 6-8 months of speculating on the next part lol :D

[MUYA]

U know I remember now some Israeli website saying the NV40 would be 16X1 or something....kinda odd they guessitmated right. :D

We will have to wait and see if indeed it is 16X1

[MUYA]

OK it was here

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7550&highlight=NV40

hehhe

8X4???? ;)

[Geforce4ti4200]

I somehow get the feeling we wont be seeing reviews quite so soon. most likley not in March either. ATI is making NDA signed for cebit, so its a private showing. I think ATI may be waiting for Nvidia to release theirs first then ATI may one up Nvidia

[nobie]

I dunno I think by now both R420 and NV40 must have specific performance/clock speed targets. If NV40 turns out to be a powerhouse, it's not like ATI can just clock R420 at 1GHz in response and be done with it. They won't put up with terrible yields just to say they have the fastest card. A more likely response would be to sell their "pro" cards at non-pro prices, or just focus on competing in the mid-range market segment (which does more volume anyway).

OTOH if NV40 doesn't live up to all the "16 headed beast" hype, Nvidia can just fall back on their famous Cheatanator™ drivers and TWIMTBP crap.

[Geforce4ti4200]

I doubt either company can change what clocks this late. They already speed binned for clock speeds and they cant recall and test em again. What could be done is make a revision 2 like what happened with the fx5600 to compete with the 9600 pro. Ati and/or Nvidia may do just that when their yields improve or maybe they save the higher clocked ones for the nv45/r450 instead? as far as we know, the r420 is probably gonna be 450/900 but could be as high as 500/1000 while nv40 is probably gonna be 550/1200 but if they use 16 pipes, they may need to clock the core down to 400-450

[Spiritwalker]

nV releases the nV40 first.
if nV40> 3 quad R420 then ATi releases the 4 quad version as the pro and the 3 quad as the np.
if nV40</= 3quad R420 then ATi release it as the pro and a 2quad version as the np

In either case clock speeds can still be tweaked to set performance goals in relation to the competitors card.

[Geforce4ti4200]

(inv) so ati is gonna hold back their card and let nvidia make the move first? this could hurt ati as people that cant wait will upgrade to the nv40 and some may not bother reselling their nv40, too much hassle. I think ati can not waste time and just release the 12 pipes as the pro/xt and 8 pipes as the non pro. then counteract nvidia with their 16 pipe r450 :)

[bkswaney]

(inv) so ati is gonna hold back their card and let nvidia make the move first? this could hurt ati as people that cant wait will upgrade to the nv40 and some may not bother reselling their nv40, too much hassle. I think ati can not waste time and just release the 12 pipes as the pro/xt and 8 pipes as the non pro. then counteract nvidia with their 16 pipe r450 :)


If we see a pipe upgrade on a refresh card it will the the first time in history.

[Spiritwalker]

nV releases the nV40 first.
if nV40> 3 quad R420 then ATi releases the 4 quad version as the pro and the 3 quad as the np.
if nV40</= 3quad R420 then ATi release it as the pro and a 2quad version as the np

In either case clock speeds can still be tweaked to set performance goals in relation to the competitors card.


I just had to quote myself in light of todays news :D

[Dazz]

A dustbuter wouldn't make a difference to me relly as I have 2 screaming fans on me setup. one 80mm screaming delta on the SLK-900A and another 92mm fan blowing across my zalman heatpiped 80a fitted on my 9700pro. Those two are loud enough already.

I would think it leaned more towards the performance than a cooling setup. As gamers (most of) would consider such a trade off.
I agree although i don't use such things i use 120mm fans so i can keep the noise down :D

[MUYA]

I agree although i don't use such things i use 120mm fans so i can keep the noise down :D

Unfortunately my case cannot take 120mm for input or output , but my SLK900A does...I wonder...

[Dazz]

My case takes 2x 120mm fans and i cut myself an blow hole for another 120mm fan. My GPU and case/CPU and mroe so GPU temps dropped ALOT :)