Retail R600 undergoing testing/benching

[Creig]

Gibbo, a member of OcUK, has received a retail R600 for testing purposes.

Gibbo is getting an R600 thread

Hi there

It arrived at 10:30am this morning, had to sign some NDA forms meaning I cannot disclose to much info.

Initial thoughts are it looks good, its very silent. Having issues at the moment with the alpha/beta drivers and no doubt due to the fact the OS had a NVIDIA card previously installed.

But on noise its quiet, pretty much silent. It runs hotter than a GTX but does not burn to the touch like previous ATI cards.

I will report back later in regard to performance once I've got past installation gremlins.

and

Hi there

Nope its a retail, OEM won't be available to end users to purchase.

This is the same size as a GTX card, no bigger so will fit in cases fine.

It has a 8-pin and 6-pin PCI-E connectors but you can plug a 6-pin connector into the 8-pin without issues so you won't need to upgrade your PSU's to the new types.

So far, it's looking fairly good. Running warm, but not hot and also quiet. From his initial posts it looks like he's using two six-pin PCI-E connectors to power the card, which SHOULD put power consumption at somewhere under 225w. Although I'm not sure on that part. I know the spec says that the connector is rated to supply a maximum of 75 watts. But if a device attempts to draw more than 75w through it, will the PS self-limit it to 75w or can it overdraw?

I'm surprised he didn't just reformat the computer and reinstall everything instead of just swapping out his 8800GTX. That would have negated any possible driver conflicts. So now it could either be a driver conflict or possibly the drivers themselves causing his initial installation problem.

 

[Creig]

Hi there

Well got a few things running, though I am not confident at all with the drivers as things do see glitchy, might possibly need a fresh OS installation.

Am impressed though by the fact whilst underload it still remains nice and quiet, the fan control seems to work quite well, certainly a lot better than the old X1950's which seem to be just either on or off with the volume so the improved fan control is an nice improvement as it means now whilst gaming it still remains quiet.

Performance can't really say but at the moment its a mixed bag, some things its very impressive and others am unsure about but the image quality does seem some what better than the GTX with certain settings which could account for the lower FPS on some test, just seems more sharper and more details thrown into the image.

All I can say is wait for official reviews to get the real info on benchmarks and how it performs. For the moment I can not come to a conclusion on the performance until I've had more time with the card.

I feel it will be around GTX performance but has more features, better Vista performance and cost quite a lot less than a GTX.

 

[MichaelD]

Thanks for posting this. First info I've seen.

He didn't say much of anything; at least he's sticking to the NDA, so good for him. I wish he didn't though. :evil:

He should've done a fresh install. I mean, what real hardware review site doesn't have a fresh OS-only ghost image ready to load? How long would it take? 10 minutes? :roll:

DriverCleaner works well, but there's nothing like "nothing", as in no drivers from another manufacturer to worry about!

 

[Creig]

All testing is done on both XP and Vista. The system is setup to dual boot. As we know performance differs greatly on the two OS especially for NV cards.

Surprisingly the openGL performance is menacing, which surprises me greatly, I am just having issues with D3D stuff which has got to be the drivers or due to it been an OS with an NV card in previously.

 

[nemesismk2]

Unless I am mistaken didn't AMD-ATI mention a couple of months ago that they were working on greatly improving OpenGL performance with their video cards? If I am right I hope this new improved driver doesn't just benefit the dx10 cards but for older dx9 cards too like the x1950 pro

 

[Creig]

Hi there

Yes the system had an NV 8800 GTX OC installed previously. Drivers were uninstalled and then card removed. ATI card installed and drivers installed.

I am useless at testing games so you guys are gonna have to wait for official benchmarks as it would appear the new ATI drivers are very different to how AA and AF works. As the drivers with this card are all new and must say they have a fantastic interface. Gone is the racing car and now you have proper stuff that shows you in detail what each setting does. Plus the drivers under Vista are fantastic, very polished, so am impressed by that

 

[TanisHalfElven]

from the thread it seems the guys isn't really saying much.

 

[yacoub]

This is the same size as a GTX card, no bigger so will fit in cases fine.

Uhm the GTX is OVER-sized. GPU boards need to be SMALLER than it to fit in some cases.

The GTS is slightly smaller (right?) and thus actually fits in pretty much all cases. I know the GTS is reported to fit in the Antec P150/SOLO cases, which is what I have, where as the GTX does not fit.

If the R600 card he has is as over-sized as the GTX, that actually sucks.

 

[nemesismk2]

Gibbo talks about Vista drivers and how quiet the R600 is!

"Hi there

Right so you all get the chance to find out some first hand information on ATI's latest card but in your view its all pointless?

So the fact it is indeed quiet, also remains quiet underload and runs cooler than previous X1950's is all meaningless?

The fact this card has much improved Vista drivers over the Current ATI CAT drivers with new features is also meaningless?

The fact that in OpenGL performance, DOOM3 and Aquamark is quicker than the GTX card is meaningless?

The fact image quality is on par or better than the GTX is meaningless?"

I am liking the sound of the R600, especially the bit about how quiet the R600 is and how good the Vista drivers are (HEAR THAT NVIDIA?)!

 

[thilanliyan]

Originally posted by: Creig
and cost quite a lot less than a GTX.

That's some VERY good news.

Originally posted by: tanishalfelven
from the thread it seems the guys isn't really saying much.

If he's under NDA then he CAN'T say much.

 

[nemesismk2]

Originally posted by: thilan29

Originally posted by: Creig
and cost quite a lot less than a GTX.

That's some VERY good news.

Originally posted by: tanishalfelven
from the thread it seems the guys isn't really saying much.

If he's under NDA then he CAN'T say much.

It seems he is talking about the R600 performance and how quiet it is a bit more now!

 

[otispunkmeyer]

i dont think gibbo is a member.... more like the owner of the store isnt he? i cant remember

 

[Creig]

Originally posted by: otispunkmeyer
i dont think gibbo is a member.... more like the owner of the store isnt he? i cant remember

I believe you're correct. He's an employee at the very least.

Hi there

This card is not the 1GB card.

So it appears he's received a 512mb XT.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally posted by: Creig

Originally posted by: otispunkmeyer
i dont think gibbo is a member.... more like the owner of the store isnt he? i cant remember

I believe you're correct. He's an employee at the very least.

Hi there

This card is not the 1GB card.

So it appears he's received a 512mb XT.

he's pretty high up to say the least.... the dude drives a freakin Saleen S281

 

[ShadowOfMyself]

Originally posted by: Creig

Originally posted by: otispunkmeyer
i dont think gibbo is a member.... more like the owner of the store isnt he? i cant remember

I believe you're correct. He's an employee at the very least.

Hi there

This card is not the 1GB card.

So it appears he's received a 512mb XT.

That means not only is it not the high end version, but according to other forum members, his 8800GTX is an overclocked version... Factor in alpha/beta drivers and its starting to look very good

 

[n7]

"Very silent" is extremely good news to me, as the previous high end ATi cards haven't been.

This is very good to hear, as it's unlikely i'll be going with an 8800/8900, & low noise is imperative to me.

 

[ronnn]

I have my doubts about the very silent stuff, as salesmen seem to think all cards are very silent. The stuff about price is very good. Lets get some competition.

 

[yacoub]

Originally posted by: otispunkmeyer

Originally posted by: Creig

Originally posted by: otispunkmeyer
i dont think gibbo is a member.... more like the owner of the store isnt he? i cant remember

I believe you're correct. He's an employee at the very least.

Hi there

This card is not the 1GB card.

So it appears he's received a 512mb XT.

he's pretty high up to say the least.... the dude drives a freakin Saleen S281

What year?

Anyway, I'd love to hear measurements of the card's length. Is it really as long as a GTX? Cuz that would suck.

 

[Keysplayr]

Finally!!! Now we have at least "some" potential for some leaked information...

 

[mooncancook]

If ATi can produce a R600 1GB VRAM that runs relatively cool and quiet and at least matches the performance of 8800GTX at the price of GTS then it'll be great news. I hope the pricing info is true.

 

[ronnn]

Can't help but thinking with all the delays that the top end will not be great. The real value may be in the mid range. We need some games to test these things out.

 

[Munky]

If the r600 offers 8800gtx performance for 8800gts price, I might be getting one soon.

 

[yacoub]

depends on if it's closer to a normal card size so it'll fit in my case. if it fits and meets those other desires, yeah i'd get one too.

 

[Pugnate]

Yea I was hoping that it would blow away the 8800GTX so I could get the R600 but the fact that they are pricing it so low says to me that they are trying to compete.

 

[Matt2]

Speculation aside, it looks like it's a winner.

Well, it WOULD have been a winner 6 months ago. This could have been a serious blow to Nvidia.