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retsam
06-13-06, 01:03 AM
hmmm interesting stuff

http://www.vr-zone.com/?i=3724

there is also some interesting stuff on r570 and the bridged crossfire.


http://xbitlabs.com/news/video/display/20060612121554.html

ATI Technologies, a leading supplier of graphics processors, has reportedly taped out its code-named R600 graphics processing unit (GPU), which means that the company may release its new chip by the end of the year.

A news-story over VR-Zone web-site claims that ATI’s processor internally called R600 has been made at a fab using 65nm process technology. Usually the “tape out” term means that the chip developer had received working sample of a processor from its foundry partner. Usually, it takes chip companies several months before such chip can be finalized and sold to end-users.

While the news about tape-out of ATI’s next-generation high-end graphics chip is generally good one for ATI, it does not mean that the company will release the chip on time. ATI’s code-named R520 GPU was taped out in late 2004, but it took ATI ten months to make the chip work properly and the firm only released its Radeon X1800 product lineup in October, 2005.

According to sources familiar with the plans of ATI Technologies as well as some media reports, ATI R600 will have 64 unified shader processors – an unprecedented number so far, 16 texture units – inline with today’s GPUs, clock-speed beyond 650MHz and support for high-speed GDDR4 memory controller.

Traditional GPUs have dedicated pixel shader and vertex shader processors. In cases, where a frame being rendered contains a lot of geometry and just a few pixel shaders to determine colour, the performance is limited by vertex shaders, while pixel processors are standing idle. GPUs with unified shader processors will have special scheduler inside them, which will determine the load from pixel, vertex and geometry shaders and then assign appropriate number of processors for every kind of work. This will allow to utilize all the computing power of the GPU, believes ATI. Nevertheless, rival Nvidia Corp. believes that implementation of a unified shader architecture should be gradual and cautious.



i wonder how close M$ is to finishing dx10?... ati seems to be closer to M$ then nvidia, so i think this could be an indication how close they are to finishing the API..
nvidia seems to be very tight liped about g80/nv50. makes you wonder what they have up there sleave

jAkUp
06-13-06, 01:10 AM
64 unified shaders :drooling:

retsam
06-13-06, 01:22 AM
64 unified shaders :drooling:
i tend to think that this unified shader thing is only as good as the scheduler behind it, i think thats why nv is going with a hybrid model.

retsam
06-13-06, 01:27 AM
i really hope that nvidia comes up with somesort of SLI memory map so that both boards can combine memory so that it looks like 1gig instead of two seperate 512 cards....

mike686
06-13-06, 02:33 AM
hmmm interesting stuff

http://www.vr-zone.com/?i=3724

there is also some interesting stuff on r570 and the bridged crossfire.


http://xbitlabs.com/news/video/display/20060612121554.html



i wonder how close M$ is to finishing dx10?... ati seems to be closer to M$ then nvidia, so i think this could be an indication how close they are to finishing the API..
nvidia seems to be very tight liped about g80/nv50. makes you wonder what they have up there sleave

I sure hope G80 is rock solid unlike the 7900 series.

retsam
06-13-06, 02:51 AM
edit...sorry got carried away...

Fotis
06-13-06, 04:28 AM
i tend to think that this unified shader thing is only as good as the scheduler behind it, i think thats why nv is going with a hybrid model.
Well this is going to be ATIs second unified architecture after the Xbox360 GPU(Xenos) so I think R600 will be mature enough.

Doesn't 64 unified shader processors look kinda low when R590 already has 48 pixel processors +8 vertex pipelines/processors?Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

retsam
06-13-06, 04:35 AM
Well this is going to be ATIs second unified architecture after the Xbox360 GPU(Xenos) so I think R600 will be mature enough.i think this is the third, nintendo flipper?..i could be wrong ( too lazy to google it right now)

slaWter
06-13-06, 05:37 AM
Some news about the G80 would be nice. I hope nV is on track!

Siskods9
06-13-06, 07:29 AM
Some news about the G80 would be nice. I hope nV is on track!

Your G80 news Sir :D

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=32385

retsam
06-13-06, 07:42 AM
Your G80 news Sir :D

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=32385
im calling bs on this one, if this was true then what in the world has all those nv's engineers been doing this whole time? playing solitair!!

Fotis
06-13-06, 07:47 AM
Calling bs on the september release date or that G80 won't have the full implementation of Shader Model 4.0 according to the inquirer.

A september-october launch ,which puts it around 6 months after the 7900GTX seems reasonable.No need to bring G80 earlier than that IMO.


On vr-zones rumor about R600 beeing made on 65nm its seems that TSMC (http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/05/17/78400_HNtsmcadvances_1.html) is ready for 65nm mass production.

agentkay
06-13-06, 08:03 AM
that G80 won't have the full implementation of Shader Model 4.0 according to the inquirer.


The only way this might work is when MS decided to play some foul game and give ATI more information about the final DX10 implementation than they did to Nvidia. I don´t know how realistic it is, but then again I remember how people said for months that you don´t need a unified shader architecture to be fully SM4/DX10 compliant. The upcoming first-gen DX10 battle (G80 vs. R600) will be very interesting.

Fotis
06-13-06, 08:20 AM
I predict the SM3.0 compliancy battle will repeat itself with SM4.0.:D :fanboy:

Superfly
06-13-06, 08:54 AM
unified shaders are a part of the shader model 4 spec I believe?? so thats most likely why they say it wont have full support, other than that I would expect the chip to be feature complete. or complete-sih lol.

as for speed I think G80 is gonna be pretty mind blowing.

walterman
06-13-06, 09:40 AM
What about the memory speed & bus width ?

GDDR4 @ 3.2GHz -> 100GB/s ? :drooling:
512bit bus ? :drooling:

retsam
06-13-06, 10:50 AM
unified shaders are a part of the shader model 4 spec I believe?? so thats most likely why they say it wont have full support, other than that I would expect the chip to be feature complete. or complete-sih lol.

as for speed I think G80 is gonna be pretty mind blowing.
the spec only calls for unified shader model on the software level, not the hardware level....these are two seperate things.

Fotis
06-13-06, 11:39 AM
What about the memory speed & bus width ?

GDDR4 @ 3.2GHz -> 100GB/s ? :drooling:
512bit bus ? :drooling:
No 512bit bus and I think GDDR4 at 2.2-2.4GHz would be more reasonable.
ATIs bus is all new and I doupt there will be any significant change in R600.About G80 I would expect a major revision on the bus but I wouldn't be surprised if it remains the same as G71 with a few changes here and there.

walterman
06-13-06, 11:16 PM
Sure, but, try to imagine a card with GDDR4@3.2GHz with 512bit bus :drooling:

Zelda_fan
06-14-06, 02:14 AM
I would be SHOCKED if ATI's nextgen card didn't have USM seeing that the 360 GPU they developed has it. They've already developed the technology so why not?

And since nVidia wouldn't want to be left behind tech-wise, I'm sure they will follow suite.

Fotis
06-14-06, 02:59 AM
I would be SHOCKED if ATI's nextgen card didn't have USM seeing that the 360 GPU they developed has it. They've already developed the technology so why not?

And since nVidia wouldn't want to be left behind tech-wise, I'm sure they will follow suite.
According to most info-rumors G80 wont be unified in the hardware level but I imagine G90 will.

Sure, but, try to imagine a card with GDDR4@3.2GHz with 512bit bus .
It sure would be nice!:D

Mr_LoL
06-14-06, 01:55 PM
So according to the inquirer, the G80 will not be fully SM 4.0 compliant. I call BS. Well I hope it is BS.

Red_Shift
06-14-06, 04:06 PM
It will be SM 4.0 compliant cause it'll fully support all SM 4.0 features which don't need USA to be run. Heck Nvidia is being so strict in following directx shader models' features since NV40 introduction, on the oher side Ati is applying some features that may be equivalent but not the SM ones (eg. vertex texture fetch).

Zelda_fan
06-15-06, 01:44 AM
The next video card I buy will be unified shader architecture. That IS the future, and I have a feeling USM will preform much better in Vista.

jAkUp
06-15-06, 02:42 AM
Supposly moving to a 512bit bus will require like a 14 layer PCB. Just not feasable ATM :(