ATI to rebrand some cards

[Wreckage]

Originally posted by: evolucion8
Another Wreckage's ATi bashing thread, hillarious!! But seriously not...

How am I bashing ATI?

 

[Insomniator]

Originally posted by: cmdrdredd

Originally posted by: SlowSpyder
Maybe I missed something, but is renaming a 3600 a 4400 a terrible thing? If they are renaming the 3600 the 4600 or 4700, then that's shitty thing to do in my opinion. But naming a current model card as a lesser model in the next generation is a completely different thing then say the 9800GT garbage...

Well, I sort of agree.

If you have a 4400,4600,4700 which is the faster? One with higher number.

If you have a 8600gt, 8800gt, 9800gt which is the faster? the 8800gt, but the people think 9800gt is faster but Nvidia doesn't tell you it's slower and about the same as the 8600. It is a newer card so a lot of ppl are misled.

So do you always just make shit up?

 

[toyota]

Originally posted by: cmdrdredd

Originally posted by: SlowSpyder
Maybe I missed something, but is renaming a 3600 a 4400 a terrible thing? If they are renaming the 3600 the 4600 or 4700, then that's shitty thing to do in my opinion. But naming a current model card as a lesser model in the next generation is a completely different thing then say the 9800GT garbage...

Well, I sort of agree.

If you have a 4400,4600,4700 which is the faster? One with higher number.

If you have a 8600gt, 8800gt, 9800gt which is the faster? the 8800gt, but the people think 9800gt is faster but Nvidia doesn't tell you it's slower and about the same as the 8600. It is a newer card so a lot of ppl are misled.

what are you talking about? the 9800gt and 8800gt are the same thing. :roll:

 

[ronnn]

Originally posted by: Wreckage

How am I bashing ATI?

Not sure how anyone could think that. I enjoyed your use of the word irony, but wasn't sure if you were referring to yourself?

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: SunnyD
Why would they even still be producing 34xx and 36xx chips though? They already have replacement equivalents in the 4xxx series at the same price points.

They might still have a lot of stock on hand that they want to move. It is also likely that anything with 4xxx sells much better than 3xxx these days. The 2xxx-3xxx weren't exactly the best of times for ATI, so I could see how they'd want to capitalize on really stellar reputation the 4xxx series have gotten from review sites.

...not that I agree with rebranding regardless of who's doing it.

Originally posted by: Zap
Some 9800 GT are rebadged 8800 GT, but these days most are not. And yes, a 9800 GT will kill an 8600 GT.

What's different about the new 9800GTs? Isn't it just a BIOS flash that changes the hardware ID, and otherwise the hardware is identical? I hope companies like BFG, EVGA, etc. were never just putting "9800GT" stickers on actual 8800GTs...

 

[chizow]

8800GT to 9800GT was also accompanied by a 65nm > 55nm die shrink to G92b, for the most part. I believe some early OEM 9800GTs were still 65nm.

As for this thread, just shows you've got to have an appetite for crow if you're going to argue and try to make any sense over arbitrary product designations. To think people would've learned this after CPUs came off the MHz system.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: nitromullet
What's different about the new 9800GTs? Isn't it just a BIOS flash that changes the hardware ID, and otherwise the hardware is identical? I hope companies like BFG, EVGA, etc. were never just putting "9800GT" stickers on actual 8800GTs...

Originally posted by: chizow
8800GT to 9800GT was also accompanied by a 65nm > 55nm die shrink to G92b, for the most part.

There were some 9800 GT that were born as 8800 GT. Some features such as die shrink and HybridPower are not absolutely required to be a "true" 9800 GT. However, I think there is an easy way to identify whether the card used to be an 8800 GT. Look for an SPDIF input. A 9800 GT that was manufactured as such will have this 2-pin input for digital audio passthrough when using HDMI. A 9800 GT that was manufactured as an 8800 GT will not have that input.

As for 55nm, the only sure-fire way to identify it (besides me telling you on BFG products) is to remove the fansink and read the label on top of the core. This works for 9800 GTX and GTX+ as well.

G92-xxx-Ax
G92-xxx-Bx

A = 65nm
B = 55nm

If someone really wants a 55nm 9800 GT, the BFG 9800 GT OC2 and OCX models (the two highest clocked from BFG) are 55nm GPUs. Other brands probably have them too, but I wouldn't be able to tell you without taking one apart. Note that the OC2 and OCX do not have HybridPower, but besides being 55nm they have the SPDIF input. The stock and OC model BFG 9800 GT have SPDIF and HybridPower, but are not 55nm (at least not last time I checked). All of these are "true" 9800 GT and were never an 8800 GT.

Whoops, we got sidetracked here...

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: Zap

Originally posted by: nitromullet
What's different about the new 9800GTs? Isn't it just a BIOS flash that changes the hardware ID, and otherwise the hardware is identical? I hope companies like BFG, EVGA, etc. were never just putting "9800GT" stickers on actual 8800GTs...

Originally posted by: chizow
8800GT to 9800GT was also accompanied by a 65nm > 55nm die shrink to G92b, for the most part.

There were some 9800 GT that were born as 8800 GT. Some features such as die shrink and HybridPower are not absolutely required to be a "true" 9800 GT. However, I think there is an easy way to identify whether the card used to be an 8800 GT. Look for an SPDIF input. A 9800 GT that was manufactured as such will have this 2-pin input for digital audio passthrough when using HDMI. A 9800 GT that was manufactured as an 8800 GT will not have that input.

As for 55nm, the only sure-fire way to identify it (besides me telling you on BFG products) is to remove the fansink and read the label on top of the core. This works for 9800 GTX and GTX+ as well.

G92-xxx-Ax
G92-xxx-Bx

A = 65nm
B = 55nm

If someone really wants a 55nm 9800 GT, the BFG 9800 GT OC2 and OCX models (the two highest clocked from BFG) are 55nm GPUs. Other brands probably have them too, but I wouldn't be able to tell you without taking one apart. Note that the OC2 and OCX do not have HybridPower, but besides being 55nm they have the SPDIF input. The stock and OC model BFG 9800 GT have SPDIF and HybridPower, but are not 55nm (at least not last time I checked). All of these are "true" 9800 GT and were never an 8800 GT.

Whoops, we got sidetracked here...

A little yes, but thanks for the info.

IMO a die shrink is a worthy reason for a new moniker so it's applicable to the thread. Although, none of the 65nm G92 cored cards should have been sold at 9800GTs. If the RV6xx were also getting a shrink along with their new name, then I'd have no qualms with it.

Well, actually doesn't RV7xx have much better AA performance, since they can use the stream processors to do AA?

Looks like it.

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/...UzMiwsLGhlbnRodXNpYXN0

The new Radeon HD 4800 series has a new filter, called ?Edge-detect.? Thankfully, Edge-detect is nothing like Narrow or Wide-Tent, and actually improves image quality.

CFAA ? Edge Detect

The new Edge-detect CFAA filter is unique because it uses the stream processors to carry out its workload, and does not consume memory bandwidth or memory space. The filter uses an edge detect algorithm that delivers 12X and 24X CFAA modes with the same memory footprint as 4X AA and 8X AA respectively. This new filter does not cause blurring like Narrow-Tent and Wide-Tent do. This new filter also fully works when Adaptive AA (the transparency AA mode of the 4800 series) is enabled. First let us walk you through how enabling it works, and what happens, and then we will tell you some important things you need to know concerning Edge-detect CFAA.

...that's why this whole re-naming thing is crap. /sigh

 

[ronnn]

Originally posted by: Zap

It's ironic because people were bashing NVIDIA for renaming GPUs regardless that ATI already had a history of doing that. I guess ATI no longer smells of roses... but then again some people will just hate NVIDIA because it is in people's nature to hate... I guess.

Both companies have been doing things like this for as long as I can remember. I surely remember many threads where ati has been bashed for the same type of thing. Anandtech had a major conniption over the x1950 pro having 2 slightly different models. Now it seems to be ok to have to take the card apart to find out what you bought.

Is ironic that most will accept any deception if both companies partake. Even a fanboy like me doesn't get that logic.

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: ronnn
Is ironic that most will accept any deception if both companies partake. Even a fanboy like me doesn't get that logic.

That's not really what I'm seeing here or elsewhere. Most people in the know don't agree with it regardless of who's doing it. The problem is that most people aren't in the know.

 

[imported_Asianman]

Interesting. Still, ATI is copying NV's move after they renamed the 8600 the 9500 since they had a massive inventory or didn't bother spending R&D money. ATI is probably in the same situation with the 3 series cards, Although I can't see why they wouldn't rename them as the 5 series
eg. 3800-5600
3650-5400 and so on.

 

[nemesismk2]

Both Nvidia and ATI rebrand their cards and it's been happening for years.

 

[HOOfan 1]

Originally posted by: MarcVenice
Wreckage, since you're in the know how about the latest newsreports, how come there isn't one regarding a GTS250/GTS240? Plus this is from fudzilla.

So eat your ati bashing with a big lump of salt.

Most of the info posted here about nVidia rebranding comes from Fudzilla as well....or the Inquirer....which is an even worse source of information.