Items tagged with R600
Some fresh rumors regarding ATI/AMD's upcoming R600 have hit the web. According to this post on VR-Zone, R600 A15 silicon can hit 1GHz, but cards are going to launch with A12 silicon at somewhat lower frequencies. It seems like ATi has successfully taped out a A15 silicon that is able to work at 1GHz probably we can hope to see another series of R600 cards with higher working clocks in the near future. The article suggests ATi's next generation R680 is scheduled for Q3 launch but suggested that NVIDIA will have G81 and the next gen. GPU ready to compete. According to our sources but still a rumor revealed R600 as X2800 series. There are 2 variants for XTX; 1GB and 512MB. X2800XTX runs at...
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The gang over at The Inquirer report that sources are indicating AMD/ATI will be forced to re-spin the company's upcoming R600 GPU, resulting in yet another delay for the flagship graphics chipset. This must be especially painful for ATI as NVIDIA's GeForce 8800 series is enjoying its spot on top of the performance charts and does so without any other challenger. Some "preliminary" benchmarks which were leaked last week suggest some exceptional performance from the R600 GPU and seems to indicate ATI will retain the performance crown. However, with critical issues still plaguing the GPU it is hard to put any faith in the numbers until we can get our own hands on some...
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The Inquirer reports that their sources are indicating that ATI...er...make that AMD...will be strictly offering the next generation R600 GPU with GDDR-4 memory. Initially, two codenames were developed to distinguish between a GDDR-3 variant (UFO) and a GDDR-4 model (Pele). On top of news that the GPU will launch in February instead of January, the latest decision to opt for the latest GDR-4 memory should assure some exceptional performance especially with 1GB's worth of memory. How will this new GPU stack up against a G80-refresh (likely at 80u) with higher frequencies? Per usual, time will tell though we can be sure the Rumor Mill will have some interesting tidbits long before these...
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It looks like some spy photos of ATI's upcoming R600 DX10-class GPU have hit the web. Zol.com has some photos posted of a chip that is allegedly an R600. According to the site the chip is comprised of over 500 million transistors and it's manufactured on TSMC's 80nm half-node. If this information is correct, that would make the R600 about 180 million transistors "smaller" than the G80 and about 116 million transistors "bigger" then R580. This coupled with the news that the chip is built at 80nm, means the R600 should be cheaper to produce than the G80. And it also means that the die is a bit larger than R580's, despite being manufactured on the more advanced...
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The Rumor Mill is working hard over at The Inquirer as they report that ATI's next-generation R600 GPU faced yet another bug which helped attribute to the lengthy delay to market. Aside from the initial bug which locked core frequencies at a ceiling of 500MHz, the second issue found disabled Multi-Sampled Anti-Aliasing (MSAA). Regardless, A1-variants of the core will have at least one of the major bugs ironed-out with a likely A2-stepping being the version which will be released to market and (ideally) bug-free. In either case, some new information is also making itself known with regards to the R600 architecture. Supposedly, the RingBus configuration remains though the external...
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The folks at VR-Zone have posted a rumor that ATI is currently reworking the already delayed R600 GPU in an effort to minimize PCB size and get a better handle on thermals. Supposedly already at a staggering 12" in length, the original PCB layout is easily one of the longest graphics cards in history. The obvious goal here is to design a PCB which will be at least as "short" as the GeForce 8800 GTX, though there are some considerable design hurdles to overcome to do so. In addition, the team will be utilizing this time to further increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the heatsink assembly to keep the hot new GPU running cool. With the GeForce 8800 GTX...
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Fudo over at The Inquirer reports that ATI's next-generation R600 GPU is rumored to have an external 512-bit bus. Should the rumor prove true it might go a long way in explaining why the industry won't see ATI's flagship DX10 GPU until Q1 2007. Here, the use of an external 512-bit memory bus requires a significantly more complicated PCB design as more physical pins are required and appropriate traces need to be made. There is little doubt that once ATI is able to deliver R600, it will be more than enough to give NVIDIA a run for their money. However, with NVIDIA's next generation G80 rumored to be launching within the next few weeks one has to wonder if...
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Fudo over at The Inquirer reports that their sources are indicating ATI's next generation R600 GPU will consume an obscene 250W of power! By comparison, the current flagship GPU's consume less than 150W under the most taxing conditions. Should this figure prove true, it is no wonder we're hearing rumors of factory-watercooled graphics cards and other exotic cooling solutions. With the card now slated for launch sometime in Q1 2007, we have a fair amount of time before ATI shows us what cards they have up their sleeve with this GPU. This means that the R600 will consume twice as much power, and probably will end up close to twice...
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Fudo over at The Inquirer reports that their sources have indicated that ATI's next-generation R600 GPU will be delayed until Q1 2007. For the last year, the industry has heard endless accounts of how focused ATI has been upon R600 with a significant amount of effort being applied towards the GPU even as early as R520. As such, many assumed R600 was poised and ready to launch at a moment's notice. Obviously, something is amiss with the GPU as the delay will now have ATI missing the Christmas season entirely with their next-generation part. Could ATI have uncovered something with NVIDIA's G80 that made them want to alter R600's specifications or is there an underlying...
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Fudo over at The Inquirer reports that their sources are indicating ATI's next generation R600 flagship GPU will feature a full 64 physical pipelines. Looking at the current number of pipelines in NVIDIA's flagship cards, there is little doubt that the company's upcoming G80 GPU will need to have a healthy increase in pipelines in order to remain competitive. Unfortunately, little to no details are known about the architectures for either vendor's part at this time. As a result, it is nearly impossible to say either GPU will have an advantage over the other. One thing is certain though, ATI has raised the bar in terms of specs and is making a serious stride towards capturing the...
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Fudo over at The Inquirer reports that their sources are indicating that ATI's next generation flagship R600 GPU will be made with an 80u process. Apparently, TSMC's 65u process is moving along well though it is not quite mature enough to handle a chipset as complex as a high-end GPU. With the 80u process in mind, it is realistic to expect core frequencies to remain well under 1GHz with Fudo's estimates landing in the 700MHz range give or take 50MHz. Some concern could be had by the reference to further possible delays, though ATI does have the R580+ GPU supposedly coming in October to appease the masses in the interim. "ATI and its partners have high hopes about this chip and they...
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More breaking news in from the Inq... The collective ears of ATI fans worldwide can rejoice as Fudo over at The Inquirer has confirmed that ATI will be changing to a new heatsink assembly design for the company's upcoming R600 flagship GPU. Although effective, the dual-slot heatsink assembly on all high-end R520/R580 graphics cards is painfully loud and obnoxious and is nearly on par with the infamous GeForce FX 5800 cooler. ATI's engineers will have to be creative in their design however as recent flagship GPU's have already taken advantage of the performance benefits allotted by heatpipes, blower fans, and using copper in place of aluminum. "We have confirmation that ATI plans to do something...
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Just in time for Vista? According to the inquisitive folks at The Inquirer, ATI's next-gen R600 GPU is taped out and running well in the labs. Seems plausible considering the R600 is technically ATI's second-generation unified shader GPU. The first being the GPU used in the XBox 360... "WE JUST learned that ATI managed to tape out its next big chip. R600 is taped out and it works well, we're told. When we say big, it will be physically big, very fast and very marchitecturally advanced. It is the first of the DirectX 10 bits of kit from ATI and we expect it to appear some eight to ten weeks after Nvidia's G80."...
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Fudo over at The Inquirer reports that ATI's upcoming flagship R600 GPU will be the company's first graphics card to support cable-less Crossfire with zero limitations. As you might remember from our review of the Radeon X1800 GTO, that GPU also touted cable-less Crossfire support. However, some limitations are present in that configurations whereas R600 will supposedly have full bandwidth between the cards. For many, the lack of needing a specific Master/Slave card is the last hurdle to be overcome before Crossfire can be considered a viable alternative to SLI so this feature is a welcomed addition to ATI's lineup. ATI will implement this bridge in its upcoming RV570...
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