ATI Radeon 9800: [H]ardOCP Scews the Benchmarks (Again)

[CheapTOFU]

hm.. GeFX Ultra.... overclocked version of FX..

Here's ATI 9700 pro SE... Overclocked version of R9700 pro and NO FAN!!!

 

[First]

NVIDIA told me at IDF that the 5800 Ultra was just like any of NVIDIA's other high-end launches, and that it has indeed not been canned. They didn't specify availability, but we'll see about that soon enough, as 5800 Ultra cards will be available in the retail channel and at certain OEMs this month.

So far, we know the following will have 5800 Ultra cards:

1. EVGA
2. MSI (I'll be getting their card in the next couple days in fact. And no they will not stop producing NV cards ketchup79).
3. Leadtek
4. Gainward
5. PNY
6. ASUS
7. Chaintech
8. BFG

And several others that I can't remember off the top of my head. So far all we have is a statement from BFG that says they will only be producing 5800 non-Ultra cards after finishing their initial shipments of 5800 Ultra cards. Does this mean all the other manufacturers have canned their 5800 Ultra cards? Are you kidding me?

Who knows though, maybe Kyle knows for a fact that all 8 manufacturers I listed above (and the ones I forgot) will not be producing 5800 Utlra cards. Or maybe he's guessing. Either way, he should have included 5800 Ultra AND non-Ultra numbers. There's no point in not including numbers of a video card that SOME people will definitely be using.

 

[Ketchup]

Thank you for the reply Evan. It is good to hear from somebody who is actually in the know about these sorts of things. Also good to see MSI releasing an FX 5800 Ultra. My current card is an MSI, and they make some pretty good stuff.

 

[Ketchup]

I will say one thing for HardOCP, they are consistent. Here is what they have to say about Gainward's FX Ultra, which was recently posted on their website: GFFX Ultra Pics: Gainward has posted a picture of their own cooling solution for the GeForceFX Ultra (and possibly non-Ultra as well). These will be collector items for sure.

I guess they could mean that everyone who buys this card will save it and it will be worth a lot of money some day for no apparent reason, but somehow I doubt that's what they meant.

 

[jiffylube1024]

Originally posted by: ketchup79

Originally posted by: jiffylube1024

Originally posted by: ketchup79


Ketchup talking...

Me talking...

Hey, I am flattered that you think I work for nVidia. So, since you stick up for HardOCP so much, should I assume you work for them? (don't worry I don't .)

I just think it's strange that they totally left out the Ultra benchmarks, and really didn't mention it except for those precious few words on the test setup page. Heck, you did more explaining than they did. You sure you don't work for them? j/k

Hey Ketchup. I know you're just kidding about the "accusation" that I work for HardOCP, but I wasn't the one pondering aloud of HardOCP conspiring against nVidia or something. I didn't mean to speak so bluntly, I was just stating my opinion that HardOCP (not exactly the most credible site online, but at least they don't doctor pictures of CPU cores ) made a decision to not include the benchmark results of a card that will barely make it into anyone's hands over the next 6 months. Every other site showing the 9800 or doing roundups of current video cards includes the 5800 Ultra, so if one site doesn't include it for reasons they clearly explain on their site, I don't think they are doing anything underhanded. They are actually trying to protect us from their marketing.

I do see your point, I was just trying to show you the other side... Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to my cubicle @ HardOCP while you get back to yours @ nVidia .

 

[chsh1ca]

Originally posted by: ketchup79
Ok, let's go through these, shall we?
First Gainward: http://www.gainward.com/d-5.html?id=100
Gainward Co., Ltd, the leading manufacturer of high performance 3D graphics and home entertainment accelerators, announces its new products Gainward FX PowerPack! Model Ultra/1000 Plus Golden SampleTM and Gainward FX PowerPack! Model Ultra/800 Plus Golden SampleTM are available worldwide now. Both are the world's most powerful series of 128MB 3D graphics processor boards based on NVIDIA's GeForce FX 5800 technology. The most powerful graphics board of the series; the Gainward FX PowerPack! Model Ultra/1000 Plus Golden SampleTM features NVIDIA¡¦s fastest GeForce FX 5800 Ultra while the Gainward FX PowerPack! Model Ultra/800 Plus Golden SampleTM is based on the NVIDIA GeForce FX 5800.

[...]

Well, either I totally missed the GeForce FX5800 Ultra bit, or during the time between when I surfed to the site, and you surfed to the site, they added it. While I'm pretty certain it said only FX5800, and I believe I was pretty thorough, I'll err on the side of human error, and assume I just missed it.

Even still, of all the manufacturer's sites, two even mention it, and one showed a product for it that you can reportedly "order now" (Gainward). It certainly makes the rumour of nVidia not pushing the product as they had other Ultras quite believable, do you not agree?

This information does show the Ultra has not been canned, and that some manufacturers definately have plans to release an Ultra.
Does this mean they will sell fewer of these cards than they sell of any of their other top-of-the-line cards? Not necessarily. If you looked at all the cards ATI currently sells, the 9700 PRO's would make up less than 5% of current sales. The FX Ultra is not out to set sales records, this should come as a surpise to no one.

It certainly doesn't, however there is a huge disparity between "filling pre-orders only" and "make up less than 5% of current sales".

This entire argument is rather moot at this point anyways. We have word from a presumably trustworthy source that they will indeed be retailing this card. There's the answer everyone is looking for.

Personally, I'm happier that they WILL be retailing the FX5800 Ultra, because the more competetive the two companies are, the better the cards will get, which is a good thing for everyone.

 

[BFG10K]

I'd have to agree with the sentiments here in general.

That is I understand and agree with [ H ]'s reasons for using non-Ultra speeds but for testing purposes they should have also included Ultra scores but made it clear that the Ultra version is probably unlikely to fully make it into the retail channels.

 

[FrgMstr]

Originally posted by: jiffylube1024
I do see your point, I was just trying to show you the other side... Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to my cubicle @ HardOCP while you get back to yours @ nVidia .

Dude, was it you that just stole my pen off my desk?

 

[recon6]

Just a thought, but what if HardOCP didn't have a GFFX 5800 non-ultra to test. I'm not saying the he shouldn't have posted the ultra reviews in that article but HardOCP had already done a review of the Ultra and did show that it was somewhat faster w/o aa/as.

 

[recon6]

Sorry just looked again, it was compared to a 9700 pro not the 9800.