HardOCP 6990 sneak-peak

[Wag]

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/02/26/amd_radeon_hd_6990_antilles_sneek_peek

Enjoy.

 

[mnewsham]

That was a lot of interesting nothing. Good vibe though, i hope it comes out soon! but ultimately that didnt tell us much of anything

 

[busydude]

What is sneek peek?

 

[Lonbjerg]

4xAA/2xAF

That had better be a typo or driverbug, because otherwise we are back to year 2000 :\

 

[(sic)Klown12]

That had better be a typo or driverbug, because otherwise we are back to year 2000 :\

They think it's a driver bug and have told AMD about it. It could also be an issue with the demo itself.

 

[3DVagabond]

So, typically how long from the time the press gets their hands on something to end of NDA? 1wk. - 2wk. - 1mo. ??? Can someone who knows NDA's, but possibly isn't under one at this point give us some enlightenment, please?

I think it's great, and as was said in the article, it's real... it works... and they've got it in their hot little hands! No worries that it's just a mock up.

 

[happy medium]

So, typically how long from the time the press gets their hands on something to end of NDA? 1wk. - 2wk. - 1mo. ??? Can someone who knows NDA's, but possibly isn't under one at this point give us some enlightenment, please?

I think it's great, and as was said in the article, it's real... it works... and they've got it in their hot little hands! No worries that it's just a mock up.

less then 2 weeks usually, from card in hand to review.
I'm expecting reviews on the 7th or 8th as they usually fall on a monday or tuesday.

That leaked release of March 13th seems very possible though.

 

[ArchAngel777]

That had better be a typo or driverbug, because otherwise we are back to year 2000 :\

The performance hit for AF is relatively small these days. In fact, it has been small for a long time now. There is no reason anyone shouldn't always slide that setting to the max (16X AF). So, my guess is driver bug.

From there, we wanted to see how AA and AF faired in this game. One would think that Anisotropic Filtering should be a given with today's graphics cards and games. However, in this game, we actually found Anisotropic filtering to affect performance to a large degree. We don't know if it's just a driver bug, or game bug, or something that needs optimization in, or if it's just really that demanding for this game.

Whatever the case, moving from No AF to 16X AF in this game caused a large hit. We have informed AMD of this, so hopefully it can figure the issue out. Again this is just the demo; it's entirely possible this is not affected in the full version game. We must also mention the terrain is detailed in this game as there is a high degree of texture quality. This game also has a vast landscape of textures in play, therefore Anisotropic Filtering does have a lot to do in this game, and does go a long way to improving the image quality. We found that the performance hit occurs at 16X, 8X and 4X AF. At 2X AF there is not a big hit, so the best option for image quality and performance right now is to use 2X AF.

The reason they notified AMD is because any card produced in the last 3 years takes an extremely minor performance hit when enabling 16X AF. In this case, it took a large hit like it was a card from year 2000. So, definitely a driver bug.

 

[Rubycon]

That had better be a typo or driverbug, because otherwise we are back to year 2000 :\

Haha as are the graphics in those screen shots on the last page. The rendering looks horrible for a modern game. Not bashing the hardware in any way but the game just does not do any justice.

 

[mnewsham]

Haha as are the graphics in those screen shots on the last page. The rendering looks horrible for a modern game. Not bashing the hardware in any way but the game just does not do any justice.

Because all of the DX11 features are disabled in the demo as well as very high detail settings i believe. turn most games down and it wont look like a graphically intense game.

 

[Rubycon]

Even funnier is the HARDCORE FPS gamers play at reduced resolutions with no AA, etc. These folks want the absolutely smoothest gameplay at ALL times regardless of what's on the screen. Fortunately one does not have to drop to 640x480 16bbp any more! D:

I have to agree though when playing at 2560x1600 with full eye candy if the framerate drops below 60fps at times these people will not be happy.

 

[Skurge]

I love the way they kept saying it was real

So uhm since a 6970 runs at around 40fps at 5760x1200 and that was "noticeably slower", can we assume the 6990 runs it at 60 or more?

 

[badb0y]

Beast Card. I might buy one lol. How long is this card??

 

[bryanW1995]

dx 11 codepath was a slideshow for me with my i7 rig. the demo code is several months old, they should have waited for the full game or used a different game entirely.

 

[Skurge]

Anyone suspect this card do be any different from the normal 2 chips on a PCB with a PLX chip?

I don't know, maybe some unified framebuffer or some other method of connecting the GPUs? Like Sideport?

Oh well, I'll just speculate by myself?

 

[RaistlinZ]

Hm, it'll be interesting to see what price this thing is. We can already get two 6950's and unlock them to 6970 spec for about $540.00

 

[Mistwalker]

dx 11 codepath was a slideshow for me with my i7 rig. the demo code is several months old, they should have waited for the full game or used a different game entirely.

THIS.

It's great they got an early sample, confirmation the cards are out there is well and good, but...come ON. If Bioware/EA dropped the ball and didn't get a copy of promised software to you, use something else, NOT a demo with unsupported features and performance nothing like anyone will be getting next week once retail copies hit.

I get that it's not a proper review, but if you're basically just gonna say "man, it feels faster than a 6970" what's the point either way.

Now we just need AMD to launch the darn hardware.

 

[WelshBloke]

dx 11 codepath was a slideshow for me with my i7 rig. the demo code is several months old, they should have waited for the full game or used a different game entirely.

THIS.

It's great they got an early sample, confirmation the cards are out there is well and good, but...come ON. If Bioware/EA dropped the ball and didn't get a copy of promised software to you, use something else, NOT a demo with unsupported features and performance nothing like anyone will be getting next week once retail copies hit.

I get that it's not a proper review, but if you're basically just gonna say "man, it feels faster than a 6970" what's the point either way.

Now we just need AMD to launch the darn hardware.

Demo runs fine for me apart from the bit where Flemeth (sp?) appears and breaths fire everywhere.

Thats with everything turned up as far as the demo allows and 2xAA and a much weaker computer than you guys (c2q@3gz and an HD6950).

 

[Dropmachine]

Of course its going to be blisteringly fast and brilliant and blah blah blah. Seeing the fps in games is almost pointless, as they are going to be damn good.

All I want to know is how much the big b#stard is gonna be. THAT is what will determine if its worth it or not.

 

[Skurge]

Demo runs fine for me apart from the bit where Flemeth (sp?) appears and breaths fire everywhere.

Thats with everything turned up as far as the demo allows and 2xAA and a much weaker computer than you guys (c2q@3gz and an HD6950).

Argh!!! You could have used a spoiler alert or something. I didn't know Flemeth would be back.

 

[WelshBloke]

Argh!!! You could have used a spoiler alert or something. I didn't know Flemeth would be back.

Opps, sorry .

 

[Idontcare]

Argh!!! You could have used a spoiler alert or something. I didn't know Flemeth would be back.

Dude, how could you possibly not know that Flemeth would be back? I mean Morrigan only freaken mentioned that nothing you did would actually kill her, that it would only set her back a spell before she returned. I mean, you knew that, right?

 

[Skurge]

Dude, how could you possibly not know that Flemeth would be back? I mean Morrigan only freaken mentioned that nothing you did would actually kill her, that it would only set her back a spell before she returned. I mean, you knew that, right?

Well, yes she did say that, but I haven't finished the 1st game yet. Now it I know she won't appear until the second and I KNOW she will appear. Kinds kills the mystery of that part of the story for me.

At least before I could just chalk it up as folk lore or something and not believe it.

 

[Stoneburner]

it should be "peek"

 

[Skurge]

it should be "peek"

Its funny isnt it. [H] spells it Sneek Peek and the OP spells it as Sneak Peak.