X800PRO on sale with pictures

[LukFilm]

Originally posted by: RussianSensation

Originally posted by: capodeloscapos
When does the NDA ends? When are we gonna see the reviews? anyone know that?
Im really excited about these cards. 🙂

May 4th, dunno what time exactly, maybe someone will have a more detailed time frame.

DNA expires May 4th at 9 a.m. EST.

 

[tm37]

Originally posted by: Chaotic42

Originally posted by: RussianSensation

Originally posted by: ForceCalibur
499 for X800Pro? Ridiculous. I'd get a 6800U anyday if it was the same price.

INitial prices are always ridiculous. After 2 months of introduction that card will drop $100 in price at least. It has happened for the 2 years that I have been following cards and will happen again.

My friend bought a Voodoo 2 12MB card for $450 when it came out.

HAHAHA I only paid $250

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: RussianSensation

Originally posted by: ronnn
So does this mean Nvidia saw the R420, crapped their pants and upped clockspeed at the cost of power consumption, heat and noise? Or does it mean ATI is in trouble? The third option is that Nvidia and ATI are working in sync to convince gamers that to win they must have the newest. :beer:

I definately think if NV ups the core speed, that it is because of their desire to stay on the top even by 5% over the X800xt. Besides if X800xt debuts at 500+mhz and if it is on 0.13 then why should NV40 come clocked at a "measly" 400mhz? Since 9600xt comes at 500mhz already, there is definite room for Nvidia to explore with their core on the same 0.13 process. And I doubt power consumption will increase significantly, and neither will noise. Either way EVEN if you get 6800 or x800pro they will smoke 9800xt and 5950ultra, so regardless the end consumer will win even with the "mid-range high end" cards. In my position with the 8500, even if I buy the lowest of the lowest end of the new generation cards, the performance will be at least double 😀

the consumer wins this round - even if it looks to be confusing for a while.

I believe nVidia wins this 'performance-crown' round. Unless the ATI team can pull off 'magic' with the old core, the 6800U II or (III) will ultimately scale higher then the r420 core (imo).

WHICHEVER card you choose (i'm gonna pick a premium one that O/Cs well) you will come out a 'winner' compared to the curennt hi-end cards . . . and even if you get a 9800 or 5950 variant you will still come out very well as these cards are looking to be heavily discounted.

ATI and nVidia are playing a (serious) game with each other (and the consumer) to get our $$$. For once (as with the 9700pro), i'm feeling confident that these GPUs are worth it. . . . neither of these cards comes cheaply to ati or nvdia . . .

 

[Acanthus]

Gigabyte had a blurb posted on their website for about 25 hours that said they had the NV40 chip running as high as 600mhz in their labs. But im SURE that was with exotic cooling.

Imagine the performance on that monster 😛

And dont forget that both companies can play the 1.6ghz memory card 🙂 micron and samsung have just started producing it.

 

[zephyrprime]

The things are cpu limited in pretty much all games now until you hit 1600x1200 + AA/AF, i dont see what even more speed is going to do for us

Tat may be true for now but game makers can just up the poly count, use higher res textures, use more textures, use more shader effects, etc. and doing these things will up the GPU load while not impacting CPU load a whole lot.

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: zephyrprime

The things are cpu limited in pretty much all games now until you hit 1600x1200 + AA/AF, i dont see what even more speed is going to do for us

Tat may be true for now but game makers can just up the poly count, use higher res textures, use more textures, use more shader effects, etc. and doing these things will up the GPU load while not impacting CPU load a whole lot.

Heres to hoping 😉

 

[RussianSensation]

Originally posted by: Acanthus

Originally posted by: zephyrprime

The things are cpu limited in pretty much all games now until you hit 1600x1200 + AA/AF, i dont see what even more speed is going to do for us

Tat may be true for now but game makers can just up the poly count, use higher res textures, use more textures, use more shader effects, etc. and doing these things will up the GPU load while not impacting CPU load a whole lot.

Heres to hoping 😉

Wow you guys really want to burry my 8500 lol I do want amazing graphics.....but wish 10 year old technology played them at 100FSP too :roll:

 

[GTaudiophile]

I disagree with apoppin about scalability. R420 uses low-k whereas I am pretty sure NV40 does not.

 

[SilentRunning]

Originally posted by: LukFilm

Originally posted by: RussianSensation

Originally posted by: capodeloscapos
When does the NDA ends? When are we gonna see the reviews? anyone know that?
Im really excited about these cards. 🙂

May 4th, dunno what time exactly, maybe someone will have a more detailed time frame.

DNA expires May 4th at 9 a.m. EST.

If your DNA expires May 4th at 9 a.m. EST then I guess you will miss reading about ATI's card when the NDA expires. 🙁
You will be missed, I wish we all could know our exact time of death like you. 😀

 

[BullsOnParade]

Interesting point GT. Searched on the matter because i figured that
low-K dielectrics would have been an industry standard by now, however
it seems like if its not TSMC then its something else. In this case IBM's doing
NV40 on FSG rather than Dow's SiLK

:IBM will start out this summer making Nvidia graphics products on its 0.13 ... glass (FSG)
dielectric, rather than the more challenging low-k SiLK dielectric. ...

http://216.239.41.104/search?q=cache:xhrabwGcznMJ:www.semiconductorfabtech.com/industry.news/2002/05.08.02-top1.shtml+nvidia+and+low+k+dielectrics&hl=en

edit: dow invented SiLK not dupont

Here's a good explanation of why low k dielectrics are important

http://nepp.nasa.gov/index_nasa.cfm/934/

 

[ronnn]

Originally posted by: zephyrprime

The things are cpu limited in pretty much all games now until you hit 1600x1200 + AA/AF, i dont see what even more speed is going to do for us

Tat may be true for now but game makers can just up the poly count, use higher res textures, use more textures, use more shader effects, etc. and doing these things will up the GPU load while not impacting CPU load a whole lot.

So the question is, will an upgrade make a big difference now, or is it best to wait until the games can use this stuff or faster cpus.

 

[RussianSensation]

Originally posted by: SilentRunning

If your DNA expires May 4th at 9 a.m. EST then I guess you will miss reading about ATI's card when the NDA expires. 🙁
You will be missed, I wish we all could know our exact time of death like you. 😀

lol

 

[GeneralGrievous]

Besides if X800xt debuts at 500+mhz and if it is on 0.13 then why should NV40 come clocked at a "measly" 400mhz? Since 9600xt comes at 500mhz already, there is definite room for Nvidia to explore with their core on the same 0.13 process.

I believe the NV40 has many more transistors, thus creating more heat and limiting their clockspeed. You really cant compare the 9600xt as that is a much much simpler core.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: GeneralGrievous

Besides if X800xt debuts at 500+mhz and if it is on 0.13 then why should NV40 come clocked at a "measly" 400mhz? Since 9600xt comes at 500mhz already, there is definite room for Nvidia to explore with their core on the same 0.13 process.

I believe the NV40 has many more transistors, thus creating more heat and limiting their clockspeed. You really cant compare the 9600xt as that is a much much simpler core.

NONsense. 😛

The nV40 is a NEW core . . . nVidia engineers would have to be retarded to release a product that can't easily ramp up it's speed. :roll:

OTOH, r420 is not new. . . .



Worth REpeating

NVIDIA WILL CHANGE its Geforce 6800 Ultra clock speeds. It will clock their cards faster to beat ATI, we learned yesterday, and I believe that was the message it told its partners at its recent Sardinia shindig.
Geforce 6800 Ultra will end up faster then 450MHz. It's being achieved through the BIOS, and apparently some print magazines have already tested the new cards that are clocked faster. . . .

my money's on nVidia (w/apologies to GTA) 😉


edit: THE INQUIRER and its staff wish to apologise unreservedly for an article written on Friday which suggested that the fact both ATI and Intel turned up in the same hotel on the same day was not a coincidence. . . . :roll:

 

[GTaudiophile]

We'll find out this week, apoppin...and find out if you bet on the right company.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: GTaudiophile
We'll find out this week, apoppin...and find out if you bet on the right company.

Sorry amigo, but it's gonna take longer than a week . . . we're only gonna get an idea with the x800pro preview . . . we won't know (but can extrapolate a bit) how the XT's full 16 pipes will function against the 6800 Ultra II with higher clock and mem . . .

and 'my money' isn't spent yet . . .

:roll:

. . . it IS 'saved', however 😀

 

[bluemax]

Sounds like good ol' nVidia.


"ATI's new card is a little faster than ours, boss...."
"Well clock ours higher then! We have to be the fastest!!"

"...But sir, it'll get too hot if we do that!"
"Then put a bigger fan on it!!"

"...But SIR! Then people will complain it's too loud!"
"Hey, we're in GRAPHICS here, boy.. not Sound! NOW DO IT!!"

"Yes, sir....." *whimper*



Same old story. Again.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: bluemax
Sounds like good ol' nVidia.


"ATI's new card is a little faster than ours, boss...."
"Well clock ours higher then! We have to be the fastest!!"

"...But sir, it'll get too hot if we do that!"
"Then put a bigger fan on it!!"

"...But SIR! Then people will complain it's too loud!"
"Hey, we're in GRAPHICS here, boy.. not Sound! NOW DO IT!!"

"Yes, sir....." *whimper*



Same old story. Again.

Except ati will be needing the bigger fan this time. 😛

:roll:

 

[yhelothar]

NVIDIA doesn't even need such a big fan. I think they were too conservative with their fan, and allowed it to run well in even the hottest cases.
The fan died on my 5900 flashed to 5950(even hotter), and it ran fine in 2D, never got past 60C, yes with passive cooling.
It ran farcry for a good 20 minutes with passive cooling, until it ran at 100C for 5 minutes, then there were tons of artifacts, that's when I closed the game.
There was TONS of headroom for clockspeed. I overclocked it from 400MHz to 520MHz, and the memory from 850MHz to 1.02GHz
Now I switched the card to a RADEON 9800PRO and this thing can't overclock one bit without crashing. I can't even overclock the core 20MHz to 400MHz core without it crashing.
Often now in the summer, my case gets hot, and my computer locks up. Looks like ATI skimped on the fan to me.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: virtualgames0
NVIDIA doesn't even need such a big fan. I think they were too conservative with their fan, and allowed it to run well in even the hottest cases.
The fan died on my 5900 flashed to 5950(even hotter), and it ran fine in 2D, never got past 60C, yes with passive cooling.
It ran farcry for a good 20 minutes with passive cooling, until it ran at 100C for 5 minutes, then there were tons of artifacts, that's when I closed the game.
There was TONS of headroom for clockspeed. I overclocked it from 400MHz to 520MHz, and the memory from 850MHz to 1.02GHz
Now I switched the card to a RADEON 9800PRO and this thing can't overclock one bit without crashing. I can't even overclock the core 20MHz to 400MHz core without it crashing.
Often now in the summer, my case gets hot, and my computer locks up. Looks like ATI skimped on the fan to me.

NV40 new shoes outed as GeForce 6800 Ultra Extreme

OUR INQUIRER STORY here suggests that Nvidia's just released ? but not yet shipped to retail - high-end sixth-generation GeForce 6800 Ultra (NV40), has had its clock frequencies raised.
We can now clarify this further and say that all the indications are that these higher-clocked parts will be introduced under the model name 'Nvidia GeForce 6800 Ultra Extreme'.

For any Nvidia board partner to ship a GeForce 6800 Ultra, the GPU clock must be set to at least 400MHz and the memory at 550MHz. These frequencies are as per the NV40 reference samples Nvidia initially shipped to the press during the last few weeks, and upon which all reviews to date have been based.

As we also indicated, the press samples of the 'GeForce 6800 Ultra Extreme' that have just been shipped feature a 450MHz core but with the same 550MHz memory clock (1100MHz G-DDR3).

But if you want any 6800 Ultra you better raid your piggy bank fast, because we've heard that only 2000 of the 10,000 NV40 GPUs produced are expected to qualify at the '6800 Ultra' clock rate of 400MHz.

If that's not, "Limited Edition" enough and you want some of the 6800 Ultra Extreme action that select reviewers are receiving just now, you should be forming a line outside retailers that specialise in only Gainward, and maybe XFX products.

This is because it's been suggested that only 200 or so pieces might make the grade as a '6800 Ultra Extreme' with its 450MHz clock.

Gainward will almost certainly introduce both air and liquid cooled variants of GeForce 6800 Ultra. Two of the models seem likely to be called the Gainward PowerPack! Ultra-2600 TV/DVI and the Gainward CoolFX Ultra-2600 'Golden Sample'.

We suggest that the 450MHz 6800 Ultra Extreme core will form only the starting point for Gainward's overclockers wet-dream, the liquid-cooled CoolFX Ultra-2600 'Golden Sample', and we suggest that 500MHz is Gainward's target for the GPU Core.

If Gainward can mate such a core with GDDR3 that is officially rated to 600MHz, and extract a bit more frequency there too, then as things look, such a product may be the only one based upon Nvidia GeForce 6800 Ultra that could topple ATI's most high-end 16x1 R420 offering.

Oops, this is an ati thread . . . the latest

And if you thought Nvidia's recently launched GeForce 6800 Ultra (NV40) was incredibly rapid ? which it definitely is, and impressively so ? hold on to your hats for the ATI Radeon X800XT, er well, no, not the Radeon X800XT.

All is definitely not as it seems in the battle of 3D graphics marchitecture, and the product being analysed by hardware reviewers everywhere is in fact named the Radeon X800XT Platinum.

In contradiction to earlier reports, the ATI reference boards seeded to hardware reviewers, and clocked at 520MHz VPU and 560MHz memory, will be called the XT Platinum range.

Indeed specs of 'vanilla' Radeon X800XT seem as yet unconfirmed, so on Tuesday the line up will run from 12x pipeline Radeon X800PRO to 16x pipeline Radeon X800XT Platinum.

Numerous reports indicate that the Radeon X800XT Platinum is quicker overall, and by some margin, than the initial Nvidia GeForce 6800 Ultra reference boards that have been reviewed.

Quicker everywhere that is except, we understand, in OpenGL where GeForce 6800 Ultra and Nvidia's superior OpenGL ICD decidedly has its measure.

But it's with Direct3D games like Far Cry - ironically much promoted by Nvidia under it's The Way it's Meant To Be Played programme, and being rolled out as one of the first Pixel Shader 3.0 (PS 3.0) games where PS 2.0 Radeon X800XT Platinum shines the most.

Indeed we understand that at a resolution of 1280x1024 with 4xAA (Anti-Aliasing) and 8xAF (Anisotropic Filtering), with all the eye-candy on max, X800XT Platinum can easily sustain an average of more than 47FPS on a system based around an AMD Athlon 64 FX 51.

As we reported earlier Nvidia has been rushing around to reinvent it's flagship 3D accelerator ? previously reviewed as the GeForce 6800 Ultra - as an even higher-clocked GeForce 6800 Ultra Extreme. No doubt, this rather predictable kneejerk reaction has been based upon the extremely positive feedback to Nvidia from friendly journalists on the performance of ATI's forthcoming Radeon X800XT Platinum.

But, as we reported earlier, availability of GeForce 6800 Ultra is limited and GeForce 6800 Ultra Extreme, frankly non-existent, though we can elucidate further on this.

The suggested 200 pieces of GeForce 6800 Ultra Extreme mentioned in our earlier story are very likely to be the projected limit of allocation to the likes of graphics overclocking meisters Gainward, and maybe new boy XFX, but we have also learned that very limited numbers of 6800 Ultra Extreme will be supplied to three particular US systems integrators who focus on the enthusiast and gaming markets: Alienware, Falcon PC and of course the really l33t Voodoo PC.

That said, samples of even Radeon X800XT are not exactly as common as muck, and it seems that apart from seemingly 'special sampling circumstances' by ATI's PR engine in Muenchen, the whole of the trusted UK Press has no more than two 16x pipeline boards to juggle between them all.

:Q

 

[Xernex]

Yeah read that earlier apoppin. Only 2000 out of 10000 NV40 will make the 6800 grade and a further 200 will only make the extreme edition? Correct me if im wrong but thats not many cards. If its true nvidia is going to run into some serious supply issues and we wont see prices fall any time soon.

 

[imported_NoGodForMe]

Originally posted by: Acanthus
The things are cpu limited in pretty much all games now until you hit 1600x1200 + AA/AF, i dont see what even more speed is going to do for us 😛

We need intel and amd to hurry up now 🙂

That's exactly right. Look at the benchmarks and a card like the Nvidia 5900XT is right there in most benchmarks at the lower resolutions. For that reason, I bought a Leadtek 5900XT for my new system, only $189. I'll wait for the new cards to drop in price. And besides, just because ATI announced May 7th, that's when review sites get the card. It won't be in stores for another couple months. The 6800 was announced last month, have you seen it yet on pricewatch? No. That's the problem with all the hype, is the review sites get the cards months before they are available to the general public.

 

[Regs]

I'm surprised we heard nothing from the CEO'sof ATI. A simple "Yeah we are excitied about our next generation hardware" etc.. would help.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: Regs
I'm surprised we heard nothing from the CEO'sof ATI. A simple "Yeah we are excitied about our next generation hardware" etc.. would help.

A
this is DElibERate on aTi's part . . . they are the "anti-nVdia" and don't want to be confused with their competitor's hype-machine . . . 😉

consequently, no 'official launch party' . . . 🙁

just a bad@ss GPU on steroids . . . shortly . . . 😀

:roll:

 

[Markfw]

Originally posted by: NoGodForMe

Originally posted by: Acanthus
The things are cpu limited in pretty much all games now until you hit 1600x1200 + AA/AF, i dont see what even more speed is going to do for us 😛

We need intel and amd to hurry up now 🙂

That's exactly right. Look at the benchmarks and a card like the Nvidia 5900XT is right there in most benchmarks at the lower resolutions. For that reason, I bought a Leadtek 5900XT for my new system, only $189. I'll wait for the new cards to drop in price. And besides, just because ATI announced May 7th, that's when review sites get the card. It won't be in stores for another couple months. The 6800 was announced last month, have you seen it yet on pricewatch? No. That's the problem with all the hype, is the review sites get the cards months before they are available to the general public.

The card is available for sale now. They started to ship on April 26th. The reviews will be out tomarrow, and the cards will be on the shelves in stores then. This is what separates ATI from nvidia, they don;t sell vaporware.