ATI's R420's pipelines, decreased, again?!?

[GlowStick]

New articleup at anandtech

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=2018

Basicly states the X800 has 8pipes, X800 Pro has 12pipes and X800XT has 16pipes. Sounds plausable to me. Also says they use the same chip, just with pipes disabled.

[Skynet]

Why does that mean the number of pipes is decreasing? Different models (read price points) have different #'s of pipes enabled, just like the current line-up. This is very similiar to speed-bin'ning of a CPU, the best ones end up top of the line in mhz, the not so good are sold as slower speed parts. Same thing.

[GlowStick]

Why does that mean the number of pipes is decreasing? Different models (read price points) have different #'s of pipes enabled, just like the current line-up. This is very similiar to speed-bin'ning of a CPU, the best ones end up top of the line in mhz, the not so good are sold as slower speed parts. Same thing.
Well, with all the rumors R420's pipes keeps going up and down, i though it would be a nice topic.

But its not really like CPU's where they share the exact same chip, but diffrent clocks. For example, we could have 3 R420s running at 500mhz, but each would preform diffrently via whats enabled/disabled in the chip.

[GlowStick]

Also, The INQ is stateing that R420 has two molex connectors also

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=15246

[DivotMaker]

Also, The INQ is stateing that R420 has two molex connectors also

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=15246

And Dave Baumann at B3D has indicated that the Inq is wrong about that.....I tend to go with what Dave says over the Inq ANYDAY....

At then end of the day, only the employees of 2 companies know the FACTS about the upcoming cards. Until they are launched and released, everything being stated is PURE SPECULATION.....

[GlowStick]

And Dave Baumann at B3D has indicated that the Inq is wrong about that.....I tend to go with what Dave says over the Inq ANYDAY....

At then end of the day, only the employees of 2 companies know the FACTS about the upcoming cards. Until they are launched and released, everything being stated is PURE SPECULATION.....
I dunno, but i love all these rumors and leaks, bring so much joy to my life!

I also feel that now, every major review website has "had" NV40 and R420 to bench. I quote 'had' becuase usually they dont get to keep it : \

[bkswaney]

I dunno, but i love all these rumors and leaks, bring so much joy to my life!

I also feel that now, every major review website has "had" NV40 and R420 to bench. I quote 'had' becuase usually they dont get to keep it : \



My mouth is watering so bad right now waiting to see real benchmarks. :drooling:
I just sold my asus 9800 getting ready for the NV40 or R420. :D

Tho I hate hearing the rumors ATI got caught with there pants down
and we will be getting a XT in a month or so.
EVERYONE should have known Nvidia was not going to loose this round.
They have been eating crow sense the NV30 hit the market.
You can bet they will counter the XT when they need to.

[Riptide]

The anticipation has certainly hit high gear now hasn't it? It's a shame that we're going to truly end up having to wait, what, another 2 months before we can get the XT model? :(

[GlowStick]

The anticipation has certainly hit high gear now hasn't it? It's a shame that we're going to truly end up having to wait, what, another 2 months before we can get the XT model? :(
Thats what it looks like so far, unless ATi speeds up the schedule, witch i could see them doing if they get hurt bad by NV40's launch.

[Riptide]

Would you pre-order one? Or would a person be best served just waiting until their local BB gets them in? Which would be the faster way to obtain the card, price aside?

[DivotMaker]

Thats what it looks like so far, unless ATi speeds up the schedule, witch i could see them doing if they get hurt bad by NV40's launch.

IMHO, I think ATI's move is brilliant because many power users might have second thoughts about plunking down 5 Benjamins before finding out what ATI's high end will perform like. Especially after NV30.

Not sure, but I am going to assume that most of us don't have a GRAND laying around just for video cards....

[GlowStick]

Would you pre-order one? Or would a person be best served just waiting until their local BB gets them in? Which would be the faster way to obtain the card, price aside?
Tough Call, For the 9800 Pro's people who preorderd got them mailed to them around the week that they were avalible in stores. Some started appearing Tuseday and Wendsday of that week, i orderd mine Friday and got it Saturday. Retail stores didnt seem to stock them for a while. But online stores like newegg seem to get them pritty quick.

IMHO, I think ATI's move is brilliant because many power users might have second thoughts about plunking down 5 Benjamins before finding out what ATI's high end will perform like. Especially after NV30.

Yeah, that can allways happen, but people who would wait to see both, would also be the people who might then wait for prices to come down, witch is smart, but not impulsive : )

[OWA]

I'd rather be first and ahead for a while...even if briefly. I'll just have to gloat more often to make up for the small window. :)

ATI probably has a little more chance of being okay if they're late whereas I think it would have been bad for nvidia to be later this time around. I really don't think ATI wants to be later it just looks like it might be that way. So, I'm not seeing any brillance but whatever...

[Nv40]

1)And Dave Baumann at B3D has indicated that the Inq is wrong about that.....I tend to go with what Dave says over the Inq ANYDAY....

2)At then end of the day, only the employees of 2 companies know the FACTS about the upcoming cards. Until they are launched and released, everything being stated is PURE SPECULATION.....


mmm.. contradicting yourself?

[DivotMaker]

mmm.. contradicting yourself?

No. Simply stating that Dave Baumann is a more reliable source of info than Inq.

It is all speculative at this point and only the people producing the cards know the facts. How is that a contradiction?

[EMunEeE]

My mouth is watering so bad right now waiting to see real benchmarks. :drooling:
I just sold my asus 9800 getting ready for the NV40 or R420. :D

Tho I hate hearing the rumors ATI got caught with there pants down
and we will be getting a XT in a month or so.
EVERYONE should have known Nvidia was not going to loose this round.
They have been eating crow sense the NV30 hit the market.
You can bet they will counter the XT when they need to.

I dunno, the more I hear about the NV40 the more I think how bad it is going to get for NVidia. There are rumours that the clocks on the NV40 may not be as high 475MHz...more like 425MHz or lower due to overheating/artifacting at 475MHz. Also, the fact that we do not know the pipeline configuration for sure of the NV40 (whether its 16x1 or 8x2, or whatever)

More rumours I have been hearing...R420 will have 8 vertex shader units :drooling: with at least 1200MHz GDDR3 memory :drooling: more AF/AA modes and redesigned AF algorithm (no more MIP lines/bands) :drooling:

but its all speculation and we will hear more about the NV40 this coming week... :drooling:

[Geforce4ti4200]

wow even if the nv40 is 16 pipes, if the core is only 400MHz, the 12 pipe x800 pro at 600MHz would match or beat it! then ati has their 16 pipe they can release next year when nvidia catches up

[Viral]

I wonder if with all this, we are going to start seeing 16x1, 12x1 etc in marketing? The X800SE will have lower clocked DDR1, but even then, to the consumer there wont look to be much reason to buy a X800XT given the specs that are usually advertised with video cards.

I'm all for this kind of generation layout.. i think it mixes the greatness that was the G4 Ti series with the wonderful overclocking of the 9500 series.. it might be a little different this time though. I'm planning top-end this time, but not until the PCI-E cards arrive and have matured a little.. perhaps Q3.

[GlowStick]

wow even if the nv40 is 16 pipes, if the core is only 400MHz, the 12 pipe x800 pro at 600MHz would match or beat it! then ati has their 16 pipe they can release next year when nvidia catches up
ATi's notes stated that "try to remind them that 500mhz is a really fast vpu"

So it seems 500 is their goal target.

[-=DVS=-]

I just read newest summary from Inq http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=15265 and NV40 suddenly doesn't look so attractive :eek2: maybe its just me.
I guess there is nothing can be done just wait for magical 13th :p

[killermmn]

it on 13 at 7 pm at san-fransico!!
it will be 10 pm here on east!!

[Geforce4ti4200]

So, 220 million transistors, 16 Pipelines, 400MHz GPU clock, 550MHz memory clock, memory specifications, thermal power of circa 150-160W, thermal control designs, power requirements, retail product name, product briefing dates, launch dates, retail availability and 3DMark 2003 performance scores

[Fiver]

wow even if the nv40 is 16 pipes, if the core is only 400MHz, the 12 pipe x800 pro at 600MHz would match or beat it! then ati has their 16 pipe they can release next year when nvidia catches up

It isn't that simple.
For example: In Doom 3, the NV40 is going to absolutly slaughter the r420. Why? Because of the 32x0 mode.
The NV40 should also win in ps performance. If the Alus/mini alus are set the same in this gen, as they were in last gen, then NV40 will have 16 ALU's and 32 Mini ALU's. The r420 will only, at best, have 16 full and 16 mini alus.(And the reg problem should be lessened this time around so hopefully that won't be a factor)