Radeon HD 4800 series performance and price estimates
Posted by Hanners
on Fri 16th May 2008
As the launch draws closer, so yet more details about ATI's forthcoming next-generation Radeon HD 4800 come to light. First, VR-Zone have some preliminary performance estimates about these boards.
Apparently, RV770XT with GDDR5 (160W) will run 1.3X faster than RV770PRO with GDDR3 (110W). Two key factors that contribute to the 30% difference in performance between the 2 cards: a 100MHz core clock difference and a faster GDDR5 at 1.96GHz vs GDDR3 at 1GHz. Interesting, RV770PRO will run 1.25X faster than GeForce 8800 GT/9800 GT while RV770XT will run 1.25X faster than GeForce 9800 GTX.
Then we have DigiTimes, who have recommended US retail pricing for these boards.
AMD is planning to launch its ATI Radeon HD 4800 family in the middle of June. The first model to launch will be the ATI Radeon HD 4850 with a price set around US$229.
The company will follow with the 4870 in the late June, with the same specification as the 4850 but will add support for GDDR5 memory. Expected pricing will be set around US$349.
In the fourth quarter, AMD will launch the dual-GPU ATI Radeon 4870 X2 priced around US$529-549.
Posted by Hanners
on Fri 16th May 2008
We reported a couple of days ago about Gigabyte's claims regarding their competitor's EPU energy-saving technology on motherboards - Needless to say, ASUS were none too happy about these claims, and although it's very light on detail, they have released the following statement in response.
It has come to our attention that a certain Taiwanese Motherboard Manufacturer has made false claims against ASUS motherboards. These claims have given rise to false information being communicated in both the mainstream media and technology channels. ASUS wishes to clarify the issues and so avoid any further confusion.
After investigation, it is clear that this company in question made use of a sponsored gathering of local and international media to deliberately spread information that we consider both untrue and without credible verification. This "disinformation" is not only extremely damaging to ASUS but also completely misleading to the consumers.
While it would be nice to hear a more technical response to Gigabyte's claims, it certainly appears that ASUS won't be taking this slight on their technology laying down.
EDIT: Along those more technical lines, it appears that ASUS have been actively demonstrating the latest iteration of their EPU technology to journalists compared to Gigabyte's DES offerings, the results of which you can find at Tweak Town.
In our first testing of EPU and DES, DES came out trumps by quite a margin. When we move up to X48, ASUS is claiming victory over Gigabyte today. We can confirm that both systems were using the exact same hardware and software and as you'll see in just a moment - EPU manages lower wattage at idle at 104 watts (does that provide us with an 80.23% energy saving?) while the X48 DES enabled motherboard had a power reading of 115 watts. While all the hardware was the same on both systems, the DES based system had a CPU core voltage which moved around 1 volt while the ASUS board was steady at 0.992 volts. Also keep in mind that the memory speed on the Gigabyte board was 800MHz DDR while on the ASUS its memory was clocked slower at 722MHz DDR - however, that probably wouldn't have made too much difference but it's something to keep in mind anyway.
Radeon HD 4850 coming June 18, GeForce GTX 280 June 16-20th?
Posted by Hanners
on Fri 16th May 2008
After yesterday's discussion of the Radeon HD 4800 series' likely launch date and specifications, including the thought that NVIDIA may launch their next-generation product before ATI, further news about both architectures release dates seem to have emerged. First, in both terms of our discussion here and its actual launch date according to this report (in some senses at least) comes VR Zone's story about ATI's launch plans.
AMD is set to launch the Radeon HD 4850 on June 18th and it is definitely a hard one with retail availability on the same day. Radeon HD 4870, however, will be launched a week later on June 25th with retail availability in July due to GDDR5 availability. Radeon HD 4870 X2 will come later in Q3. As for the clocks, we won't be revealing them yet but the RV770XT core clock is not going anywhere above 800MHz.
On the NVIDIA side of the coin, Fudzilla is reporting on the likely official product name for their new architecture, alongside a slated launch date.
Nvidia has dared to make a drastic move in its naming convention. According to several sources close to the company, the new flagship chip codenamed GT200 and D10U-30 and D10U-20 will end up with Geforce GTX 280 brand for the faster card.
There will be one more branded as Geforce GTX 260 and this would be the one that many believed will be branded as Geforce 9900GT.
The launch is scheduled for the 25th week of the year and it should take place between the 16th and 20th of June.
Posted by Hanners
on Thu 15th May 2008
Earlier today, we reviewed OCZ's Freeze thermal paste, so be sure to check out our thoughts. Otherwise, here's our usual round-up of the latest content web-wide.
Thermaltake's all new PW850i Internal DIY Liquid Cooling System is suitable for any type of demands in any system environment; best choice for a quiet and efficient liquid cooling system! They are now available and will retail for estimated street prices of $139.00, available through major retailers, e-tailers and distributors. The PW850i are backed by Thermaltake's 3-Year Warranty for parts and labor.
Posted by Hanners
on Thu 15th May 2008
TG Daily is claiming to have the latest on the pending launch of ATI's next-generation graphics boards. The bad news (for ATI anyway) - It appears that NVIDIA's GT200 architecture will now be launching first.
Yes, we know, we previously said that the 4800 series would launch in May, but as it stands right now, we won't be seeing the first new cards until mid-June. According To AMD's current introduction schedule, the Radeon 4800 series will launch in week 25, which puts the day of the introduction somewhere between June 15 and June 22. What is significant about this time frame is that ATI will trail Nvidia and their new high-end chip GT200.
This comes as a major surprise, because it was widely expected that ATI will debut its RV770 chip first, followed by Nvidia's summer part. But as it stands right now, Nvidia has the pole position in a new round of the graphics wars. Of course, the GT200 and RV770 are actually not entirely comparable, because of their huge price difference. But performance-wise, we're in for a possibly close race.
Posted by Hanners
on Thu 15th May 2008
The market for thermal interface materials seems to be growing by the day, with more and more companies bringing products to market. With the market becoming more crowded, how can OCZ's latest 'Freeze' offering compete? We take a look.
Opening up that packaging, the tube of OCZ Freeze itself is a rather small, stubby affair. Beyond that, the actual thermal compound itself is a reasonably thin and easy to spread paste, which makes application a piece of cake. Another bonus of this particular compound is that OCZ claims that it requires no 'burn-in' time to reach its optimum efficiency - While many thermal interface materials require around 48 hours of use to reach their most effective level of cooling, OCZ's Freeze should immediately start to show the full cooling benefits it has to offer.
Posted by Hanners
on Thu 15th May 2008
We've been hearing lots of negativity around the PC gaming industry of late, so it's nice to hear at least some positive words coming from those in the know - In this case, no less than the CEO of Electronic Arts John Riccitiello.
"One of the things we try to look at at EA is the total business represented on PC game software, and we're seeing a growth in business there. It's been growing for several years," Riccitello said during a financial conference call yesterday.
"It's just been categorized wrongly by looking simply at the box side of the equation, he added. "The fastest growing [sector] is subscription, microtransactions-based and casual games, many of which are pretty much centered on the PC."
Posted by Hanners
on Wed 14th May 2008
There must be something in the water at the moment, as it seems to be the season for hardware producers and manufacturers attacking one another in presentations and the like. The latest to join the trend is Gigabyte, who are currently promoting their DES energy saving motherboard technologies while claiming that ASUS have been making false claims around their own similarly focused EPU technology.
According to Asus' own documents, motherboards labeled with an EPU logo contain an "Asus Energy Processing Unit." Essentially, these motherboards are supposed to contain components designed specifically to lower power consumption and provide better electrical efficiency throughout - there's really no logical "processor" involved. Asus claims that EPU motherboards can deliver up to 80.23-percent "power savings" from motherboards without EPU components.
At this point, Gigabyte claims that there are no truths to Asus' claims of 80.23-percent, and in fact is more realistic at 58.6-percent. Gigabyte says that Asus made no changes to its motherboards via firmware, design or component changes - only numbers were changed on product advertisement and packaging. Gigabyte noted that Asus was "playing numbers marketing" and "cheating end users."
Posted by Hanners
on Wed 14th May 2008
The headline says it all really, doubtless leaving plenty of disappointed gamers in its wake.
According to reports coming from a recent Microsoft Gamers Day in San Francisco, Alan Wake has been delayed yet again. The game is now aiming for a 2009 release date.
Described as a free-roaming, psychological thriller, Alan Wake was first announced three years ago by Remedy Entertainment. The Max Payne developer first unveiled the game at E3 2005 back when E3 was still worth talking about.
Radeon HD 4800 series performance and price estimates