First pic of R423

[AthlonXP1800]

This is the first pic of R423 from Digit-Life.com (http://www.digit-life.com/news.html?102937#102937)

http://www.ixbt.com/short/2k4-03/cebit-031.jpg


What do you think of it?

I find it very bizzare design, wonder why the heatsink fan moved to the far left, it sit on the edge of VGA, TV-Out/VIVO and DVI ports. I think maybe R423 will have problem with the fan heatsink, it could possible stress or interference the ports' signals.

[Razor04]

Originally posted by AthlonXP1800
I find it very bizzare design, wonder why the heatsink fan moved to the far left, it sit on the edge of VGA, TV-Out/VIVO and DVI ports. I think maybe R423 will have problem with the fan heatsink, it could possible stress or interference the ports' signals.
Actually it isn't bizarre at all if you take a minute to think about it or know some basic heat transfer. The best way to think of it is that wherever the fan is there is a dead spot with no or very little moving air. Heat transfer is minimized in this area leading to a hot spot. Now if you stick the fan directly over the chip then you have a very very hot spot and must rely on enough heat conducting away through the fins for the cooling solution to be effective. My guess is that ATI just improved on their current solution.

As long as it is still one slot I will be happy. I know all the familiar arguments over why two slots isn't a big deal but I personally think it sucks. As if NV cards weren't already long enough they had to get wider too. This is just a preference for me personally but it does play a part in which card I will chose this generation. NV40 definately looks to be a monster if all the rumors being spread by the NV PR department are true.

[Geforce4ti4200]

is such a big and loud fan neccessary? could be one hot card from the 12 pipes and 500MHz clock speeds, might not oc much, not that it matters too much if its so fast stock already

[Razor04]

Originally posted by Geforce4ti4200
is such a big and loud fan neccessary? could be one hot card from the 12 pipes and 500MHz clock speeds, might not oc much, not that it matters too much if its so fast stock already
How can you tell how loud it is from a picture? I surely can't tell and neither can anyone else who hasn't seen the card operating in person (which can't be too many people). Also as for the card being hot...it is all relative. I could just as easily say that the NV40 would be a hotter card with 16 pipelines and even faster clock speeds. We really don't know at this point and any predictions are just idle speculation. Way too soon to draw a conclusion about either card. It is just like the people saying that because one card has more pipelines than another it will be faster. Again we just don't know at this point.

[Ninja Prime]

Looks exactly like the 9800XT's HSF to me, whats the big deal?

[AthlonXP1800]

Originally posted by Ninja Prime
Looks exactly like the 9800XT's HSF to me, whats the big deal?

Yeah I know but look again and compared to 9800XT card

http://www.ixbt.com/video2/images/r9800xt/r9800xt-scan-front-with-cooler.jpg

You can see the fan is approx 1 inch apart from the port. This time with R423 the fan moved 1 inch left to contact with edge of TV-Out/VIVO and VGA port.

[T-Spoon]

Originally posted by Ninja Prime
Looks exactly like the 9800XT's HSF to me, whats the big deal?

Urhm... better make that "It looks exactly like the 9600XT Extreme aluminum HSF from GeCube, which runs at 500/700". And it already said that the samples were from GeCube on Digit-Life, so I don't think this is R423. Why would a hi-end card use a HSF that is inferior to the copper 9800XT HSF?

http://www.gecube.com.tw/files/product/GC-R96XTG-C3_wb.jpg

http://www.digital-daily.com/video/gexcube-radeon9600-xt-extreme/

[Geforce4ti4200]

strange, could what be pictured is really the 9600xt since NDA disallows any pics or speces of the r420 right now? would it technically be legal if you took a pic of a 9600xt and said its similar to the r420?

[zakelwe]

Isn't the r420 supposed to run reallyt cool due to it's production method ? If that is the case maybe they can use the same sort of heatsink and just turn the fan up a notch.

I think the ATi hsf's look pretty cool with the graphics

Regards

Andy

[Miksu]

Dave Baumann confirmed at B3D that this isn't R420. http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10926&start=20

[T-Spoon]

Isn't the r420 supposed to run reallyt cool due to it's production method ? If that is the case maybe they can use the same sort of heatsink and just turn the fan up a notch.

I think the ATi hsf's look pretty cool with the graphics

Regards

Andy

Well, now we all know that it wasn't R423, but I'd still like to react to this.

I believe some developer stated on Beyond3D that, even if R420 runs much cooler due to it's production method, ATi would most likely still be aiming at 70Watt powerconsumption (like R360(?)).

Think of this... if R420 consumes less power because of the productionprocess, it gives ATi more headroom to clock the core higher until it does reach 70W.

They already managed to get 110m transistors at 0.15u to 412Mhz (and higher) without losing stability, so using 0.13u + low-k could bring a R420 with 160m transistors to... God only knows what speeds...

And if NV40 does indeed turn out to be the beast that everyone believes it is, ATi stated that they would be willing to sacrifice margins to obtain the speedcrown... This makes me think that they either have an ace up their sleeves (maybe activate the 4th quad right from the start, also turning it into a fullfledged 16x1?), or the yields of R420 are just very good which allows them to ramp up clockspeed easily (maybe paired with higher clocked memory).

[zakelwe]

Looks like the consumer is going to be the winner whatever, thank heavens for a two horse race.

Regards

Andy

[Geforce4ti4200]

They could have full 16 pipe cards, but I hear thats meant for the r450 refresh so perhaps they just may make higher clocks perhaps 525 or even 550MHz. I hear theres an r420xt so high clocks like 525/1000 may be it. the r450 with its 16 pipes probably will keep its clocks and also have a lower clocked verson.


rv420 400/800 with 8 pipes?
r420 450/900
r420xt 525/1000


just my speculation :) oh and prices could be $600, $450 and $300 with the 9800xt dropping to $250 and the 9800 pro down to $180 :nana: (foshiz)

[ragejg]

... and 9700's down to that oh so magical $140-150 range... :cool3:

[Geforce4ti4200]

... and 9700's down to that oh so magical $140-150 range... :cool3:



you can already get a 9700 on ebay for like $120 to $150. The pros are near $200 but youd be better getting a 9800 pro for a bit more