Radeon HD 5870

[Petros]

Just read a few things on the GT300, either it's going to be HOLY CRAP THIS IS THE BEST CARD EVER< EVER EVER EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! or it's going to suck. Of course no strong details are known yet. It shouldn't be long though, so that is a good thing.

If it's the best ever, I'll probably pick one up, too (provided it's at least 20%-30% and costs under $350 and there are actually games that need it over my 5870). I have come to accept that I buy two GPUs a year without fail. It's a blessing and a curse!

 

[Not Bman]

If it's the best ever, I'll probably pick one up, too (provided it's at least 20%-30% and costs under $350 and there are actually games that need it over my 5870). I have come to accept that I buy two GPUs a year without fail. It's a blessing and a curse!

Wish I had that kind of money, well I did for awhile. Hopefully things will pick up again lol

 

[rotjong]

Just read a few things on the GT300, either it's going to be HOLY CRAP THIS IS THE BEST CARD EVER< EVER EVER EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! or it's going to suck. Of course no strong details are known yet. It shouldn't be long though, so that is a good thing.

From the bits and pieces that have been released regarding the GT300, yes, it is either going to be amazing or anything but. I have no doubt that the card will be powerful but that doesn't make it a hands down winner. Most of what I've seen so far really relates to the card used in a business environment. I'm more interested in seeing information that relates to home consumers and gamers.

 

[Johnny]

Man I can't wait to get this, or the next version !!

YouTube - Radeon HD 5870 ATI First Look (NCIX Tech Tips 51)

I am liking that three monitor set up. That is awesome.

 

[rotjong]

I just ran across this article concerning the GT300 and it made my jaw drop. If what they say is true the ATI will be walking all over NVIDIA for some time to come. I'm sure the finalized GT300 will be powerful but given the numerous points made in the following article, that I link to, NVIDIA may well have faked their demonstration and the repercussions to that are enormous.

Nvidia fakes Fermi boards at GPU Technology Conference: SemiAccurate :: Nvidia fakes Fermi boards at GPU Technology Conference

Meanwhile, the 5870 is already on the market and people are loving it.

NVIDIA was caught off guard by ATI last time around and never saw the power of the 4870 coming. NVIDIA did end up winning the crown but it took some time to accomplish this. ATI supported DirectX 10.1 while NVIDIA poo-pooed it. ATI now has a 40 nm, high-end, DirectX 11 card on the market while NVIDIA is merely discussing it and possibly giving a fake presentation.

Why would NVIDIA fake this? Maybe they didn't want to come up short. Maybe they realize they are already behind ATI as far as the release cycle but they desperately needed to demonstrate that they had the Fermi GPU working so that people didn't shift to ATI. If they openly admitted that they couldn't even use a real and fully working card for a demo then that would most definitely not help their PR war against ATI who already has a card released.

Regardless of the reasonings for why NVIDIA might do this, ATI has, once again, demonstrated to a lot of people, IMHO, that they are making up for past mistakes. I was a 3dfx fan until it died. I became an NVIDIA fan but my interest began dropping during the FX hair-dryer fiasco time period. The NVIDIA 8800 was a beatiful card. Since then I've shifted to ATI. I'm definitely not a fanboy with regard to videocard brands. I go by what card fits my needs. I'm most definitely happy with ATI for the 4xxx cards and what I've seen from the 5xxx cards thus far.

Anyway, sorry if this pulls the thread off-topic. That wasn't my intent. I just feel that this information concerning the NVIDIA Fermi GPU is directly related to the ATI 5870 because if NVIDIA is going to claim it'll kick ATI's butt then it needs to produce a real working Fermi GPU and show us why we should want to go with the Fermi GPU over the ATI 5xxx cards.

 

[rotjong]

Nvidia fakes Fermi boards at GPU Technology Conference: SemiAccurate :: Nvidia fakes Fermi boards at GPU Technology Conference

The card was, in fact, a mock-up. The real thing simply wasn't ready for public consumption and is not a pretty picture at all. It was described as an octopus of wires and modules.

Fudzilla as a short article here (Fudzilla - Fermi Tesla board is a mock-up). An NVIDIA Vice President commented on the situation.

ATI has a card on the market and it looks very pretty. NVIDIA has a card that hasn't made it to market and they had to use a mock-up at a presentation. A nice win for ATI.

 

[Petros]

Re:fermi

I think Nvidia won't be taking any steps backward, and I'm sure they're going to have a pretty good card on the market. The questions are when and how much.

This is Nvidia's first venture into 40nm (aside from low-end OEM cards that are not currently available), and it's an entirely new architecture. Yields are bound to be very, very low, and the die size of the GT300 is very, very large. We know roughly how much TSMC charges for 40nm silicon, so this is bound to be expensive.

Few consumers will be able to afford it, unless Nvidia does one or more of these things:

• Neuter their currently announced specs by decreasing transistor count/die size
• Take losses on the cards' sales (which would prompt FTC investigations for anti-competitive behavior)
• Delay mass-production of the card until the silicon is more affordable.

Personally, I think they bit off more than they can chew this time around, at least as far as consumers are concerned. For the server and supercomputer market, they haphazardly poked Intel, Cray, Sun, HP, and IBM in the eye all at the same time. During a single conference.

 

[Not Bman]

I try not to be a fanboy in terms of any company vs company, but I have always gone with Nvidia, if because of the drivers or some other reason, it's always been like that. Yet so far it seems I will be going with ATI, thumbs up to them!

I am hoping to buy the 5870 in 3 months or so, depending on what comes out and pricing at that time. Can't wait. My 8800GT is starting to sound like a rocket having a heart attack lol