Upcoming Radeon HD 6000 Series Is All-New Architecture

[tigersty1e]

you guys upgrade drivers like there's no tomorrow.

if a driver set works for you then use it. always upgrading to new drivers to get .4 fps will screw your system up.

 

[toyota]

you guys upgrade drivers like there's no tomorrow.

if a driver set works for you then use it. always upgrading to new drivers to get .4 fps will screw your system up.

yeah I agree. unless you are having an issue with certain game then just stick with the drivers you have. I think I have only updated my drivers once this year.

 

[zerocool84]

i don't know why you guys are arguing with wreckage.

When the 4850x2 was cheaper and faster than the gtx 285, wreckage would say "dual gpu cards do not matter, only single gpu cards do". When the 5870 came out and the gtx 295 was a tad faster in half of the benchmarks, wreckage would say "the only thing that matters is who has the performance crown, it doesn't matter if it is dual gpu or not and dx11 doesn't matter". When the 5970 came out, wreckage would say "the only thing that matters is market share, it's obvious that whoever has the most market share has the best cards, whoever has the performance crown doesn't matter". And when the gtx 480 came out, wreckage would say "the only thing that matters is the single gpu performance king, dual gpu cards do not matter and dx11 is the most important thing there is" and when it was realized that nvidia is actually the new underdog when it comes to marketshare, wreckage stopped saying marketshare was important.

🙄

pwahahahahahaha

 

[Tsavo]

Truly elite gamers code their own drivers!

 

[nonameo]

Truly elite gamers code their own drivers!

in hex at that!

 

[Tsavo]

in hex at that!

In HTML, actually. It's that easy! ()🙂

 

[Caribbean Geek]

Java based drivers FTW!!! ()🙂

 

[Grooveriding]

you guys upgrade drivers like there's no tomorrow.

if a driver set works for you then use it. always upgrading to new drivers to get .4 fps will screw your system up.

I usually upgrade drivers the first few releases after a new card comes out that I'm using.

After that I don't really bother. It's usually just the first 2 or 3 driver releases that give you more performance on a new card, after that it's just bug fixes and refinements.

 

[bryanW1995]

i don't know why you guys are arguing with wreckage.

When the 4850x2 was cheaper and faster than the gtx 285, wreckage would say "dual gpu cards do not matter, only single gpu cards do". When the 5870 came out and the gtx 295 was a tad faster in half of the benchmarks, wreckage would say "the only thing that matters is who has the performance crown, it doesn't matter if it is dual gpu or not and dx11 doesn't matter". When the 5970 came out, wreckage would say "the only thing that matters is market share, it's obvious that whoever has the most market share has the best cards, whoever has the performance crown doesn't matter". And when the gtx 480 came out, wreckage would say "the only thing that matters is the single gpu performance king, dual gpu cards do not matter and dx11 is the most important thing there is" and when it was realized that nvidia is actually the new underdog when it comes to marketshare, wreckage stopped saying marketshare was important.

too bad that's so long, I'd like to make it my sig!

 

[Dark Shroud]

too bad that's so long, I'd like to make it my sig!

I was thinking the same thing. Well you could always use this.

http://yfrog.com/bgwreckagep

 

[Bateluer]

yeah I agree. unless you are having an issue with certain game then just stick with the drivers you have. I think I have only updated my drivers once this year.

Eh? I always keep my drivers current. Sometimes I lag a little, updating a few weeks after the drivers were released, but I'm nearly always current.

 

[toyota]

Eh? I always keep my drivers current. Sometimes I lag a little, updating a few weeks after the drivers were released, but I'm nearly always current.

why? if you are not having a problem or the driver doesn't bring any new feature then whats the point? I just sit back and laugh at people that think every driver is going to improve their games. nowadays you have a better chance of screwing up more games than anything else. heck just think of all the people that installed that official Nvidia driver that had to be withdrawn for causing overheating. :hmm:

 

[psoomah]

I'm sure most people want actual game benchmarks.


Either way, I suspect if AMD did indeed have a new architecture they would be promoting it already. Just like they did with Fusion/Bulldozer/Cypress. They seem to always paper launch specs and die shots long before the product comes out.

Such information release is situation specific. AMD doesn't currently NEED to pre-promote it, they already own the mid-upper graphics board market. Why cannibalize sales of their extremely lucrative 5700/5800 cards with trumpetings of a brand new architecture until the very last minute before release (and keeping Nvidia in the dark and blindsiding them if possible). They're not going to be making any fatter profits with the new cards, which will be on the same process node, than they already are with their current cards. After all if Nvidia had been on their game the 5850 would now be selling ~ $200 and the 5870 ~ $300.

The reason for their very early promotion of the 5000 series architecture was to build on the favorable buzz of the 4000 series, with their mind boggling price drops, and give those in the market for a mid/high end board a reason to WAIT to see the capabilities of this exiting new architectuture before buying (especially Nvidia cards) ... and buying a 5000 card at a substantially fatter profit margin than the 4850/70 boards now afforded, the margins of which were sacrificed to gain market share.

 

[psoomah]

You know things are looking good for AMD when NVIDIA's shills are out in full force and this scared. 😀

Here's what I find interesting - the leaked benches we've seen so far are of a card that is 30-40% faster than a GTX 480. For the sake of argument, I'll assume they're legit (hell, even Wizzard said the screens of GPU-Z looked original). I'm going to guess that means AMD really is following up with the 6970 right after, as I doubt the "6870" will have that kind of performance.

The other thing I'm wondering is if the 6870 will have performance that's on par with the 5850/5870. After all, it's supposed to have 320SP. I can't wait until next month 😀.

If AMD had produced a 5870 chip comparable in die size to the 480 chip, the 5870 card would have substantially beat the 480 card in gaming benchmarks.

6870 = New architecture + die size increase = 480 beating performance.

 

[Daedalus685]

why? if you are not having a problem or the driver doesn't bring any new feature then whats the point? I just sit back and laugh at people that think every driver is going to improve their games. nowadays you have a better chance of screwing up more games than anything else. heck just think of all the people that installed that official Nvidia driver that had to be withdrawn for causing overheating. :hmm:

Unfortunately the crossfire profiles (and AA profiles for forcing it) are not stand alone entirely. The packs that release after a new driver seem to require that driver. though I've never tried, they are merely worded this way in the downloads. AA on the other hand is certainly built into the drivers. The last couple of times I've had to update was for AA support in a game.

 

[bryanW1995]

when you buy a card one of the things you are getting is the assumption of better performance over time via driver improvements. if you never update drivers then you're stuck at the performance level of the card when you bought it.

 

[toyota]

when you buy a card one of the things you are getting is the assumption of better performance over time via driver improvements. if you never update drivers then you're stuck at the performance level of the card when you bought it.

thats why you pay attention to whats going on and decide if updating is necessary. when I had an 8600gt it was joke with release drivers and barley better than a 7600gt in some cases. the next two driver releases gave massive performance increases so of course I updated. after that though there was no compelling reason to update for nearly a year. with the gtx260 there has only been about three driver updates that were worth fooling with in the last two years. again updating just for the sake of updating is usually not a good idea because you can actually end up causing more issues.

 

[HurleyBird]

again updating just for the sake of updating is usually not a good idea because you can actually end up causing more issues.

On my old 8800GTS I didn't update drivers too often. I've found myself updating more often with ATI in an attempt to get drivers that will actually force anti-aliasing on certain older games... Or newer unreal engine 3 games because supposedly AMD can't just make a general workaround for that engine....

 

[BD231]

why? if you are not having a problem or the driver doesn't bring any new feature then whats the point? I just sit back and laugh at people that think every driver is going to improve their games. nowadays you have a better chance of screwing up more games than anything else. heck just think of all the people that installed that official Nvidia driver that had to be withdrawn for causing overheating. :hmm:

Telling people not to update their drivers for fear of " possiblities " is downright bad advice. If you really want the skinny on a driver set then let others test it out and take some time for comments to surface before the install if anything.

There are typically some serious game specific performance gains to be had with new driver sets so I'm always sure to get the latest and greatest. Why stick with an old driver when newer drivers are out with the focus of enhancing current titles?

 

[toyota]

Telling people not to update their drivers for fear of " possiblities " is downright bad advice. If you really want the skinny on a driver set then let others test it out and take some time for comments to surface before the install if anything.

There are typically some serious game specific performance gains to be had with new driver sets so I'm always sure to get the latest and greatest. Why stick with an old driver when newer drivers are out with the focus of enhancing current titles?

what the heck do you think I have been saying all along? even though its common sense, I thought I made it clear to see what experience others have first. that's how I knew the newer drivers for the 8600gt were better but its also how I knew about the set that caused cards to overheat. of course just wait and see and not update for no reason just because a driver is released. I also said IF there are no specific reasons or needs then why update. I swear some of you can make an argument out of the dumbest crap.

Infraction reversed...my apologies to toyota for misunderstanding the context of his statement, thanks for explaining by pm toyota :thumbsup:

Moderator Idontcare

 

[HurleyBird]

I also said IF there are no specific reasons or needs then why update. I swear some of you can make an argument out of the dumbest crap.

pot kettle black.

Know what is also a stupid argument? "I don't really know why, and I know that GPU makers have made die harvested 320-bit memory controllers. But because no one has every made a native 320-bit controller there must be *something* that makes it actually impossible to do"

And you call other people's arguments stupid 😛

 

[toyota]

pot kettle black.

he made an argument even though we were saying basiclly the same thing.

and yeah let me know when that 320bit native 5 64bit controller card comes out. 😀

 

[taserbro]

he made an argument even though we were saying basiclly the same thing.

and yeah let me know when that 320bit native 5 64bit controller card comes out. 😀

It could simply be that there was never any need for spending time and money to redesign a 320bit crossbar memory controller when there is a proven and available solution that works just as well?
Unless you know something I don't, it just doesn't strike me as conspiracy theory material at all.

 

[toyota]

It could simply be that there was never any need for spending time and money to redesign a 320bit crossbar memory controller when there is a proven and available solution that works just as well?
Unless you know something I don't, it just doesn't strike me as conspiracy theory material at all.

well I have wondered too why they are always in pairs on the higher end card. they never make a native 448, 320, or 192 bit card. I didn't say it was impossible but I said there must be a technical reason why they never have used it. surely somebody knows because if it was doable then AMD/Nvidia would certainly do it as the controllers use up space.

 

[Grooveriding]

Now that it is all but confirmed the 6770 coming out next month is 256 bit. Perhaps we just might see a bigger bus on the 6870, so far all info is pointing to it being a bigger chip with higher power needs.

AMD may be going for a monster single gpu with this new generation.