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DDRII Radeon makes its debut on TechTV!!!

J

JackBurton

Lifer
Holy sh!t, does nVidia have its hands full or what! ATi's first showing of their new DDRII card came out on The ScreenSavers today, and it was no paper release either. They showed a working card with images being rendered! This card WILL be ready for when nVidia releases their NV30 or maybe even sooner! Things are looking good for ATi! If this card is released before the NV30, it just might send nVidia back to the drawing board....again. 😀
 
If it's GDDR-3, then it must be an early sample. DDRII(and GDDR-3 even more so) are still too new and untested for use in a major product.
 
edit-- It's not DDR-2, but the recently announced GDDR3 they were demonstrating. Doesn't mean we'll see a 9700 using it soon. Maybe once they go to .13u with higher core speed.
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No, it was DEFINITELY DDRII. The ATI guy (I think he said he was director of techonology at ATI) stood there and said, "here are the DDRII modules." (DDRII chips look to be BGA chips if any of you are interested in that little detail) He did say however they were working on DDR3, but from what it sounded like, it wasn't a finished process yet. But be assured, ATI has a finished product and since Leo was holding the fulling functional test card in his hand, I'm sure the card will be out VERY soon. I'm think probably in time for the Christmas season but of course that is pure speculation. 🙂
 
Originally posted by: JackBurton
I'm think probably in time for the Christmas season but of course that is pure speculation. 🙂
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"[P]ure speculation" or not, this is exactly how stupid rumours get spread around the internet. Intel demos core speeds long before they are available to the general public (see the various Intel Developer Forum articles at Anandtech.com). Do people get the crazy idea, these speeds will be released in the next couple months? I think you're jumping the gun.
 
Jack, Knight is right. There aren't even decent quantities of DDRII availible yet. Every last roadmap I've seen; CPU, GPU, memory, are all saying the same thing. And that is DDRII won't be in full swing until Q2 2003 at the earliest. For ATI to "pull this off," they'd need to find a stable source of high-quality DDRII(this is an oxymoron at this point), and they would need to reconfigure the Radeon to use it(that part seems to be done). After that, they still need to do validation, and get a final design stamped out; that's hard to do if you want to ship it in under 2 months. ATI is on a roll, but let's not give them too much credit here.
 
nVidia is in a very unenviable position. Whenever you're playing catchup it makes it very dificult to ever regain top position again.
 
Originally posted by: ViRGE
Jack, Knight is right. There aren't even decent quantities of DDRII availible yet. Every last roadmap I've seen; CPU, GPU, memory, are all saying the same thing. And that is DDRII won't be in full swing until Q2 2003 at the earliest. For ATI to "pull this off," they'd need to find a stable source of high-quality DDRII(this is an oxymoron at this point), and they would need to reconfigure the Radeon to use it(that part seems to be done). After that, they still need to do validation, and get a final design stamped out; that's hard to do if you want to ship it in under 2 months. ATI is on a roll, but let's not give them too much credit here.
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A working 9700 DDR2 card puts them a little beyond even NV30 at this point doesn't it?

 
:Q

It's as if ATI is saying to all the uneducated nVidia fanboys.... "Wake up, kids! It's time to get a REAL video card!" 😀

Top dog already for speed/quality and they're still poised for even faster in the event the competition actually catches up....
Fanboys or not, you gotta' admit...... that's pretty darned impressive!
 
Originally posted by: Taz4158
A working 9700 DDR2 card puts them a little beyond even NV30 at this point doesn't it?
Click to expand...

At this point, the NV30 is already tapped out, and Nvidia has cards. However, they have not begun to show them off, as they're still working out a bug or 2 no doubt.
 
Originally posted by: ViRGE
Originally posted by: Taz4158
A working 9700 DDR2 card puts them a little beyond even NV30 at this point doesn't it?
Click to expand...

At this point, the NV30 is already tapped out, and Nvidia has cards. However, they have not begun to show them off, as they're still working out a bug or 2 no doubt.
Click to expand...
I think you mean taped out. ATI IS showing off their NEXT gen card right now.

😀
 
I'm not going to speculate on when this card is going to be released. However, I do know that I will probably be upgrading my video card around the time the DDRII version of the 9700 comes out because it will inevitably drop the prices of all lower level cards.
 
Originally posted by: JackBurton
edit-- It's not DDR-2, but the recently announced GDDR3 they were demonstrating. Doesn't mean we'll see a 9700 using it soon. Maybe once they go to .13u with higher core speed.
Click to expand...
No, it was DEFINITELY DDRII. The ATI guy (I think he said he was director of techonology at ATI) stood there and said, "here are the DDRII modules." (DDRII chips look to be BGA chips if any of you are interested in that little detail) He did say however they were working on DDR3, but from what it sounded like, it wasn't a finished process yet. But be assured, ATI has a finished product and since Leo was holding the fulling functional test card in his hand, I'm sure the card will be out VERY soon. I'm think probably in time for the Christmas season but of course that is pure speculation. 🙂
Click to expand...

I don't think so . . . Can you post a link to it being "DEFINITELY DDRII"?

Everything I can find shows ATI committed to GDDR3:

ATI and DRAM Industry forge ahead
MARKHAM, Ontario (October 7, 2002) - In a collaborative effort with the world's leading dynamic random access memory (DRAM) vendors, ATI Technologies Inc. has announced the completion of the specification for the third generation of double data rate (DDR) DRAM for graphics, known as GDDR3.

While today's DDR DRAM allows for speeds of up to 400MHz, GDDR3 was designed to initially provide memory clocks of 500MHz, with headroom for up to 800MHz. GDDR3 is targeted for introduction in 2003..
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ATI Unveils New DDR Memory Spec
If there's one thing graphics chipmakers crave, it's infinite memory bandwidth. GPUs have grown their capacity, complexity and bandwidth demands at breakneck speed, but memory has failed to match this growth, and often keeps GPUs from achieving their full potential. Not content to retrofit higher-clocked system memory to meet 3D graphics' insatiable bandwidth appetite, Canadian GPU maker ATI today unveiled a new specification it is calling Graphics DDR3, or GDDR3.
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EDITed (again)😱 - Perhaps the DDRII is an "interim" solution for the 9700 . . . I'd sure like to see some links.
YEP - found it . . . see next post . . .
 
You're right . . . found it (Rage 3D, of course):

Today's News:
Radeon 9700 DDR II on Tech TV - 9:54 am EST - MrB
An ATI rep was on TechTV last night and he brought along a nice new toy out of ATI's labs, a Radeon 9700 with DDR II ram. I didn't catch it but McTurok from the forums wrote a good summary.

It wasn't really a "HUGH" interview about the "new" ATI Radeon 9700 Pro with DDRII memory.
It was basically to talk about DDRII memory and describe how it works and functions on/with a video card, etc.

However, I will restate this again. The ATi guy had in hand a ATi Radeon 9700 Pro with DDRII memory "fresh from the labs" he said.

They did show a screen with the DDRII card running next to another card (9700 Pro DDR RAM???) I'm not sure. There was a lot more detail with the DDRII card. Again I'm not sure what the other card was, they didn't say.

Nothing was mentioned about a release of the DDRII card or anything. I think the ATi guy wanted to talk about it more but he got pushed/cut off a bit by Leo the host. Got to keep it on topic I guess.

The card that was on the show was only 128 MB of DDR II memory.

Basically what he was outlining on the show was that DDR II is the same thing as DDR memory just that fact they have tweaked the inside of the DDR to make the clock cycle much fasters. Therefore they can raise the clock speeds of the GPU and RAM to get more data through the card, improving FPS, and image quality and detail.

He also said that "they" (ATi, I'm guessing) thinks they can get over 550 Mhz or greater out of DDR II.
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It also looks like Nvidia might be interested in GDDR3 from following the links in my previous post. :Q

rolleye.gif
 
I don't think so . . . Can you post a link to it being "DEFINITELY DDRII"?
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I would if freakin' TechTV posted exactly what was on their show! :| I'm glad someone on the Rage forum posted the same story, otherwise some people in here might of started calling me a liar. 😉
 
ill take a 10% hit in fps, for rock solid drivers.

ill buy ati for tv-out and AIW features. ill keep my nvidia for 3d at the moment thank you.

i do hope AMD and ATI beat the sox of Intel Nvidia though, i would prefer to have there cards in my boxes.

I saw the show also, and they never said GDDR3, they only referred to it as DDR2
 
I love the fact that the ATI / Nvidia and AMD / Intel have so much competition. It only benefits the consumer and drives technology. ATI seems to be really making stride against Nvidia. Although Nvidia is a powerful foe and NV30 promises to be amazing, ATI has really beat them to the punch as of late. Could we see ATI take the market share lead in desktops ? They already own the notebook market!
 
Originally posted by: Taz4158
Originally posted by: ViRGE
Originally posted by: Taz4158
A working 9700 DDR2 card puts them a little beyond even NV30 at this point doesn't it?
Click to expand...

At this point, the NV30 is already tapped out, and Nvidia has cards. However, they have not begun to show them off, as they're still working out a bug or 2 no doubt.
Click to expand...
I think you mean taped out. ATI IS showing off their NEXT gen card right now.

😀
Click to expand...

Everything I've had the liberty to see says that Nvidia could show off the NV30 right now. However, much like the first Radeon 9700 Anand had, it could come with a few bugs in its current state, which is why I believe Nvidia isn't showing it off. I would expect the DDRII Radeon to be in the same position, and possibly slightly worse with stability due to the early nature of DDRII.
 
Originally posted by: ViRGE
Originally posted by: Taz4158
Originally posted by: ViRGE
Originally posted by: Taz4158
A working 9700 DDR2 card puts them a little beyond even NV30 at this point doesn't it?
Click to expand...

At this point, the NV30 is already tapped out, and Nvidia has cards. However, they have not begun to show them off, as they're still working out a bug or 2 no doubt.
Click to expand...
I think you mean taped out. ATI IS showing off their NEXT gen card right now.

😀
Click to expand...

Everything I've had the liberty to see says that Nvidia could show off the NV30 right now. However, much like the first Radeon 9700 Anand had, it could come with a few bugs in its current state, which is why I believe Nvidia isn't showing it off. I would expect the DDRII Radeon to be in the same position, and possibly slightly worse with stability due to the early nature of DDRII.
Click to expand...


Well, if ATi has working silicon now of the Radeon 9XXX with DDRII, then they have two months to prepare it just like nVidia does with NV30. I think we can expect an interesting shooting match come late November/early December, and I can't wait to watch.
 
Man, I haven't been this excited about PC hardware in a loooong time. GraniteBay is around the corner with Intel's 3GHz+ HT P4 to be release along side it. Also nVidia and ATi are releasing their new cards around the same time frame. This should be REALLY sweet! 😀
 
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