Graphics Cards - Page 263

Remember all the rumors about bad yields of the GT300? Well nVidia has come out to confirm what we told you before. GT300 yields are fine and they are on schedule for a Q4 2009 launch. This launch should be at GTC in November with retail availability by the end of November.

Fudo over at Fudzilla is also confirming this with a direct statement from NVIDIA on the subject. They are claiming that the reports of less than 2% yields were based on a mistranslated report from AMD's competitive analysis team.

Also they say that the reports that the GT300 is a rebranded/respun GT200 are baseless. According to the report the GT300 is a ground up redesign and a new GPU. This is good news for the NVIDIA fans out there as recently AMD has been hogging all the press with the DX11 40nm Radeon HD5870.

Still we will have to wait and see what the GT300 bring to the table in terms of performance. Traditionally AMD has been a little better at implementing new versions of DX while NVIDIA has been better at the brute force approach. Either way the last month of the year will be interesting to be sure.

You know, I think we need to start a new section (to go with the random stupidity awards) maybe we will call it DX11 watch. After all with AMD and NVIDIA going back and forth about DX11 and its importance, why not see what the real state of DX11 is.

For starters, let's cover some things that we know. AMD has a DX11 card out. It is launched, public and available. There will be a DX11 operating system, Windows 7, available starting on the 23rd of October. Despite this future date, Steam is reporting a large number of early adopters.
Codemasters are implementing partial DX11 support (much like the DX10 surfaces in Bioshock) for DiRT 2 and the Battle Field Engine has been ported to DX11 completely.

So we see a massive two companies that are announcing DX11 support. But what about those that have not announced DX11 support? There are a large number of companies that have not really made a statement one way or the other. Interestingly, these are the same companies that sat back as DX10 went by. Yes, it is true that DX10 did not offer much and had performance issues that caused many gamers to be unhappy with it. However, the blame was not entirely DX10's fault. In many cases the DX10 support was bolted on or poorly coded to get it in quickly. These poor attempts at adoption caused DX10 to be almost globally disliked. There were bright spots like Assassin's Creed that used DX10 and even DX10.1 to great effect, but they were few and far between.

So what then of DX11? Well, I have heard from a few sources that many companies are quietly porting their engines over for DX11 support. Why the behind the scenes support? Well, there are a couple of reasons; the first is to be sure that they have something if DX11 and Windows 7 really do take off and the second is probably a sort of company embarrassment / shame over taking sides. Too many companies that are part of the "TWIMTBP" gang do not want to upset NVIDIA by working to support something that NVIDIA is currently saying is of no great importance. In fact, they recently stated that AMD's support for DX11 is a sort of "punishment" for gamers. That makes it hard to work on DX11 support and maintain friendships with the green team.

Looking at the signs and listening to the whispers, I feel that DX11 will have some of the best "closet" support of any version of Direct X that Microsoft has even released.

I love the launch of new graphics cards, especially when it comes to AMD products. The main reason for this is that NVIDIA normally send over an email asking if we've got samples and when we respond with a yes, we get some questions that they think we should be asking ourselves.

This time was no different; the email came through right on time with NVIDIA asking the "tough" questions. To be honest though, I'm not AMD, I don't really feel great about answering questions on behalf of AMD, so with an email sent we had someone who was willing to respond. That person was Chris Hook who is AMD Global Communications, now with Global Communications in your title, you've got to feel pretty safe that the right person is responding.

So, what did NVIDIA ask and how did AMD respond?


UPDATE - NVIDIA's PR company for Asia Pacific in Singapore, CIZA Concept, has contacted us and claimed that the source of the questions was from them as "our observations, as industry watchers" and not NVIDIA. We always get these types of questions and they seem to read like they are from NVIDIA, so we are unsure. We were asked to state this in this news post, which has been done here.

We were also contacted by phone about this by NVIDIA and we have offered them the chance to do a follow-up. We are in the process of preparing questions and will have them answered early next week in a new news post.


Why is AMD focusing so much on DX11 when most games are on DX9 console ports?

Today and over the life of the Radeon HD 5000 series, dozens of triple A titles will leverage DirectX11 features. If NV was able to produce a DirectX11 card today, they'd be delivering a much different narrative on DirectX 11 to the press. If NV really believes that DirectX11 doesn't matter, then we challenge them to say that publically, on the record.


Aren't they punishing PC gamers by pushing out the schedule of PC titles such as Dirt 2 in order to support DX11?

Proprietary standards punish gamers, not industry standards like DirectX11. Why is NVIDIA punishing gamers by putting in proprietary and closed standards like PhysX in games?


When are GPU-accelerated Havoc titles going to be shipped? Do they have a list of games that will support Havoc?

PhysX has been around for years and years, but today, GPU-accelerated PhysX titles are still in the single digits. The physics experiences that many of those titles delivered have disappointed gamers and were widely panned by the press worldwide. GPU accelerated game physics will only be accepted in the marketplace when industry standards are embraced.

Back in the days of the X19xx series Radeon GPUs, AMD and ATI were talking about using the GPU to process in game physics. This was in contrast to anything that was being thought about over at NVIDIA and, at the time, was even denounced by NVIDIA as a bad idea.

Unfortunately, AMD and ATI did not put much effort into moving physics onto the GPU and NVIDIA did. NVIDIA even went so far as to buy Agiea, so that they would own the complete PhysX library. This left AMD out in the cold as yet another AMD idea was openly taken and implemented by another company.

Well now, a few years later, AMD is getting back to physics on the GPU. They have partnered up with Pixelux and Bullet to bring an Open Physics library to not only the Radeon GPU, but to pretty much any GPU. This move should help to bring a more standardized physics library to developers.

Why is that important to you? Well, for starters it allows game developers to use a standard set of tools for in-game physics. As it stands right now, about 26% of developers use PhysX. This means they have to code triggers in the game to know when an NVIDIA GPU is present and when it is not. If an NVIDIA CUDA enabled GPU is not there, they have to offload the PhysX load to the CPU properly. This creates code overhead and reduces performance on non-PhysX enabled systems.

Now, this is great for NVIDIA as they feel it will compel (to say it nicely) to buy an NVIDIA GPU. But it is bad for developers and consumers. A completely open source physics library allows for anyone to use the GPU they want. Yes, it will still require triggers, but they should be less complex and the offload to CPU is usually much simpler to code.

There is a new nVidia Vs ATi rumor out. It revolves around the latest leaks of ATi/AMD HD 5870 performance. You see those numbers have gotten to people that have seen a demonstration of nVidia's GT300 product.

If their word is to be believed then the new GPU from the Big Green Machine might still out perform AMD's latest offering.

The GT300 has been kept carefully under wraps with surprisingly few leaks about performance, design or even what is going on over at TSMC. Yes there are rumors about bad things happening at nVidia, but from what we have been able to find out those rumors might not be accurate at all.

Still when you are dealing with people willing to talk at that level it is all a game sorting through what the contact would actually know and what they might have on heard from someone else. Where it really is only nVidia really knows, but I have a feeling it is closer to launch than many might think.

After all if all the rumors were true then we would have already seen the GT300 in stores AND have to wait until 2011 to get one.

So what is better than dual monitor gaming? How about putting six or more of them in a nice mount and gaming from there? Sounds nice huh? Well this is what AMD's Eyefinity is aiming to give you.

This technology approaches the resolution of the human eye and according to AMD is 12 times the resolution of 1080p. To do this AMD is enabling their latest DX11 cards to push the signal out to multiple monitors and to allow them to become part of the whole (just like a monitor wall).

AMD and Samsung are working on this together and in fact Samsung has just announced a six monitor setup.

The advantages of this have yet to be seen as any multiple monitor rig (while extremely cool) is held back by the width of the bezel around the edge of the individual displays.

Still the thought of having up to 24 monitors (in either landscape or portrait) is very impressive and has my imagination working as I am sure yours is.

Information about AMD/ATi's pricing for the upper end of the new DX11 cards has hit the internet.

If the rumors about the naming structure are correct we should see a single PCB Dual GPU card called the 5870X2 hit the stores at $599. While the single GPU version will be called the 5870 and only set you back about $399. At the bottom end of the 58xx line we will see the 5850 sell for about $299.

This fits in with what is typical of a new GPU. You can also bet that once nVidia responds AMD will be quick to offer incentives which should filter down to the consumer.

AMD plans to launch these three upper end cars on September 10th, this will give them a good lead on the launch of Windows 7 and DX11.
Their plans are to pretty much wage war with nVidia over DX11 gaming. So far nVidia has not fired back at the shots that AMD has sent their way. But then again nVidia has an event planned for the same day as the AMD launch and there is no telling what they will show.

I love marketing and PR. Not because I enjoy it or because I like dealing with most PR people. No I enjoy it because of the funny things that are done all to gain more press time.

For example AMD is often found right across the street from Intel events to make sure they can counter anything that Intel says. Products are launched in "leap-frog" style or many times on the same date in an attempt to drown out the attention competitors get.

ATi and nVidia have been known to schedule events on exactly the same date and in different locations just to split the press. This last one has not happened in some time but has reared its ugly head again.

On September 10th AMD/ATi will hold a public launch of their new DX11 Evergreen family. This is great news for AMD as they stand to have the only product ready before the launch of Windows 7 and DX11. This means they can have hardware ready and in the stores before the first DX11 games hit. These should hit shortly after Windows 7 in October.

So what do you do if you are nVidia and have not yet demoed your own DX11 hardware? Well you schedule an event on the same date and hint that you might show your own DX11 hardware. At least that is the rumor right now. This, if true, will nicely split the press. After all do you want to cover the launch of something that has already been in the news or something entirely new?

Earlier today we made a mention that nVidia might have a demo of their GT300 (NV70) DX11 GPU ready for September. Well we have a little more information.

If the information we are reading is correct, nVidia already has the GT300 and has only been working out driver issues. Add-in-Board makers should be setting the timelines for demoing the new product. The Demos should start in September.

One thing that is interesting. While we hear that technical demos of the GT300 are starting in September, we hear from another source that the GT300s that will be shown will be renamed GT200 parts.

But while Charlie says that they will be using DDR3 on the new GT300s we also hear that nVidia plans on
ECC functions in the memory controller. This should require DDR5 to work.

So in the end while we know that nVidia is working on the GT300 we are really not any closer to knowing what its final form will be or when we should see it. I am leaning towards an official demo to AIBs in late September with at least a paper launch right before Windows 7 hits. This should cause people to wait to purchase a DX11 card. They will want to see who has the best price/performance before making an investment.

Earlier today we told you that AMD/ATI would probably launch the Evergreen GPU family before the scheduled launch of Windows 7. We felt that they would want to get these out with plenty of lead time.

As it stands Windows 7 should have a good adoption rate and having DX11 parts on the shelves at launch will help AMD/ATi.

Well it seems we were right. According to new information September 10th looks to be the launch date. The launch will take place on the USS Hornet. This is plenty of time for the media to be sampled, reviews to be published and the stores to get stock before Windows 7 hits the retail shelves.

The launch timing and location in the US is significant as Patriots and Heroes Week runs from September 5th to the 11th. The USS Hornet is a Decommissioned Ari Craft Carrier that is now a museum.

With all the news on ATi DX11 hardware coming out of Quakeconn it is interesting to see that someone finally managed to get a good picture of the whole adapter used.

The picture that we found comes from Chiphell and shows us what the 40nm Juniper will look like.

The new card will look familiar as it closely resembles the HD 4770 with the exception of the black PCB. The card pictured also shows two DVI ports, one HDMI, and one Display Port. Not bad for connectivity.

There is still no word on when these will be ready nor how much they will cost but you can expect them before the holiday season, more than likely just before the launch of Windows 7 so that people will have hardware to support the new DX11 OS from MS. I would also expect to see Grid-2 and Dirt-2 around this time to take advantage of the launches. Maybe we will see a nice bundle...

What's in a name? After all a rose... ok no Shakespeare this morning. But you know, you really have to wonder about that. I can remember a time when naming was simple. CPUs were nammed after their speed. For example the Pentium 133 was a 133MHz Pentium CPU. The K62 333 was a 333MHz CPU. They we got into equivalent performance Like P1200+ meaning that it should run like a competing 1.2GHz CPU. But nothing on how fast it was.

Well over the years this has gotten worse and worse, especially with companies like nVidia renaming and rebranding continually in an attempt to confuse the consumer.

Well it looks like nVidia is at it again with another name change for the upcoming 40nm GPUs. Gone is the GT and GTX labeling and back is the old GeForce so we are going to see things like GeForce 210 (like the old GeForce 3 and 4 series. I suppose next we will see the GT and GTX go at the end of the number again just to keep things simple...

I have already talked about how much I enjoy new operating system releases but to be honest with you I enjoy the hype that leads up to and following any product launch.

Since we have word that ATi/AMD is launching Evergreen in September we need a new rumor about nVidia. Well we have one. According to a few sources we hear that nVidia will be pushing out a dual GT300 card. This will be a direct competitor to ATI's planned dual RV870 card.

There is not much information to go on other than what we already know about the GT300. The big thing to ask will be what form factor will this be. Traditionally nVidia has chosen to implement dual cards with a dual PCB solution. However recently nVidia allowed for a single PCB design that worked very well.

Since we know that GT300 has taped out and might be in at least preproduction silicone (called A1) it is possible that we will see this card before the end of the year in at least demo form but it is unlikely that it will hit the retail shelves before q1-q2 2010.

Ok this seems like a line from about two years ago, but nVidia's CEO and all around top guy Jensen Huang says that DX10.1 is not important. No, what's important is that two stood against...Oh sorry slipped into a movie there.

Basically Huang feels that incremental updates to DX are not enough to get excited about. This is interesting as ATi's support of DX 10.1 allowed them to outperform nVidia DX10 cards in Assassin's Creed. This was enough to prompt Ubisoft to pull the DX 10.1 support; at least according to the rumors at the time.

Still Huang says that nVidia is very excited about DX 11. They are working hard to support these features but feel that DX 11 games are probably about two years away. This is due to the lack of acceptance of DX 10 by many game developers who are still coding for XP to keep the majority happy.

AMD/ATi has been having a pretty good year. In addition to beating nVidia to 40nm and actually getting a 40nm part in the market first (although supply is still an issue) they have shown DX11 parts while nVidia has been lagging behind.

So it comes as no surprise to hear that AMD has launched a new 3D Workstation part. This new part is an addition to their "Fire" line of cards. Called the FirePro V8750 it is the fastest that AMD has made to date.

AMD put the FirePro V8750 up against the nVidia Quadro FX4800 and found that it was able to keep up and in many spots outperform the Quadro.

The down side? AMD still has a ways to go in the GPGPU department. This means that while in raw OpenGL performance you might see the FirePro out in front, when there is OpenCL enabled acceleration nVidia will still have the upper hand. Oh, that and it is not for gaming, despite the 2GB DDR5 and triple monitor support.

With AMD's recent announcement that they will be launching a complete line of DX11 parts in time for the Windows 7 launch we have to wonder what nVidia has up their sleeve.

Many are saying that nVidia has nothing or at least nothing new. In fact several of the better known anti-nVidia gang are claiming that nVidia will only be launching refreshed parts or little more than a Die-Shrink.

They claim that what is to become the GT300 will not hit the market until mid to late 2010.

I said many, but not all. In fact there are a couple of sites claiming the opposite. They agree that AMD will release DX11 40nm parts to the market before nVidia. But they go on to say that the GT300 will be ready and in the greedy hands of gamers in Q4. This will put them out by the holiday shopping season.

If this is true then perhaps we will a consumer friendly shopping season instead of a one sided one. nVidia is keeping quite about this but according to some of the sources I have spoken to it looks more like this is a reality than a fantasy.

It was not that long ago that Mushkin announced its UltimateFX line of add-in video cards. The announcement showed that Mushkin was ready to enter the world of graphics (just like OSZ did) and they had some nVidian offerings in the works.

Today we hear that Mushkin is now working on an UltimateFX version of the Radeon HD4850. The new Radeon HD 4850 will feature a completely custom build. The cooling system looks a lot like the one found on the Sapphire HD4670 offering though. Specs are; 800 stream processors, 256-Bit memory interface, 625MHz/1986MHz CPU/Memory stock clock and 700/2020 for the OCd version. There will be three ports for output (DVI, D-Sub and HDMI).

All this will come in a handy wooden box. There is no indication on when you can get these nor how much they will cost you once ready.

MSI has come clean about its new Cyclone Radeon HD 4890. The new line of will all feature the RV-790 GPU, 1GB of GDDR5, a 256-Bit Memory interface, Solid Capacitors, SSCs and a monster of a fan.

The fan itself will be a full two slots and have four heatpipes. These will be cooled by a 100mm fan.

The three models will be the R4890 Cyclone (850Mhz/3900Mhz), the R4890 Cyclone OS (880Mhz/3900Mhz) and the R4890 SOC (1Ghz/4000MHz). Availability should be in the next few weeks. There is no word on pricing as of this writing.

We told you yesterday that nVidia was pushing out to low-end desktop 40nm GPUs. Well now we have confirmation that these cards have reached OEMs and should be popping up in systems soon.

The two quietly launched GPUs are the G210 and the GT220. Both will have DX10.1 support as well as HDMI outputs. They will differ in number for cores (16 got the G210 and 46 for the GT220).

Speeds will be different as will the amount of memory and width of the memory controller.

What is interesting is that these new cards we launched without any fan fare from nVidia. One reason for this is that they do not have quite the punch that ATi's 4770 40nm part has. It is not known if these parts will end up on retail shelves or if they will stay an OEM only product.

After being out shown by eVGA it looks like nVidia is finally catching on to what their users want; more frequent updates for gaming.

eVGA has been getting great press as they put out their SLI enhancement patches. These handy little patched include updated SLI profiles for games and often provide for much faster and stable performance running SLI.

nVidia traditionally does not do interim updates to the SLI profiles and instead waits for driver revisions to add them in. However, nVidia has just pushed out its own SLI patch which does pretty much the same thing as the eVGA patch.

This could signal the end for the eVGA patches but as the new nVidia patch is still listed as a Beta it could be some time before we see this on a routine basis from the big green machine.