Toms hardware crowns ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 King!

[HeXploiT]

ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 - Fastest Yet!

3D is intrinsically parallel. We find parallelism at the level at which data is manipulated (4 component vector), but also with the instructions applied to that data. GPU manufacturers have understood that fact well and it's around this main idea (which constitutes the main difference between graphics and CPUs) that 3D chips are built.

Consequently, an increase in parallelism is the best way to increase GPU performances. Whether you're talking about geometrical units, pixel pipelines or steam processors, the history of the evolution of graphic card performances is largely related to the one telling the number of those units. The only limit is the physical size of the chip, the increase in which has slowly led to an explosion of production costs. In the end, optimization of processes is the only thing that allows us to increase the quota of transistors that a GPU architecture can hold (their size doesn't vary too much) and thus the number of computational units.

To outgrow this limit, the founding fathers of 3D introduced the idea of multiplying chips. Once again, this approach is largely beneficial in the GPU world, as tasks can be easily parallelized and assigned to a specific chip while still limiting the number of exchanges between the different GPUs, unlike what you might have seen with multi-CPU solutions. Thus the Infinite Reality from Silicon Graphics was conceived and meant to be largely configurable, the different parts of the graphical pipeline being implemented on independent cards: Geometry Engine, Raster Manager, Display Generator.

Display Generator

It could be set up using multiple configurations and it was even possible to add cards to increase workstation performances. The Rasterization diagram is complex and aims to intelligently balance the workload, either between the 80 image engines of each Raster Manager, or the different Raster Managers. To do so, it operates using tiles that vary in size depending on the number of Raster Manager.

Continues at Toms Hardware

Time for Nvidia to unleash the 9XXX and blow this thing out of the water.

 

[Aberforth]

Originally posted by: Perry404
Time for Nvidia to unleash the 9XXX and blow this thing out of the water.

why do you think GX2 was delayed?

 

[Rusin]

We don't know. We know that it should 99.5% certainity outrun HD 3870 X2 and power consumption shouldn't be too big problem

 

[tuteja1986]

lalalalalalalalalal land

 

[HeXploiT]

I don't think Nvidia has lifted a finger in the past six months. I get the feeling they've been sitting around the lab playing crysis with the 9XXX just waiting for ati to hit the market with something that can actually compete so they can finally release the card. Of course I am being facetious however I think there is some truth to this. Why release the 9XXX when the 8XXX is already dominating the market. It makes no sense from a business perspective.

 

[Aberforth]

a true next gen card will be able to max crysis @ 1920 with 16xAA, i don't think it will be GX2.

 

[Rusin]

True next gen cards come late Q2 (AMD R700 and Nvidia G100)

 

[40sTheme]

Wow, Tom's Hardware... Break out the party hats... :roll:
I suppose this is good news for AMDATI, though.

 

[LittleNemoNES]

"...Toms's Hardware..."

Yikes!

::Steps away from topic slowly::