Radeon HD 4000 series specifications surfaces

[PCXL-Fan]

Originally Posted by ian209

well the Geforce 9800GX2 is gonna be $600+, and it's not much difference from an 8800Ultra from what i've heard

I'm willing to take a little heat from you guys and venture into the conspiracy theory realm. I'm going to say that maybe nvidia is purposefully weakening the card, just like intel purposely keep the clock low on the 8000 series cpus by cutting the size of the heat sinks in half.


Point 1: They are forbidding the various card manufacturers from overclocking the fairly moderately clocked 9800GX2 yet some manufacturers are going adhead and doing it.

Point 2: Nivida absorbed 3DFX and all its SLI and multi gpu on 1 board experience, its patents and far more of 3DFX engineers than ATI. Also the team writing the Nvidia drivers for the most part superior to ATI's, Especially of late.

Point 3: By keeping the new gpu weak it doesn't make their previous card lineup obsolete. Once the marketplace has sold more 8000 series cards (particularly the g80 8800GTX, Ultras and OLD GTS), they can lift the ban on Superclocking the cards, and release far superior drivers that give huge performance increases for the 9800GX2 card. This is a great idea business wise as it lets them sell off their old cards for big dollars still.


So am I smoking crack or do any of these points have an inkling of sanity?

[mudlord]

It would sound like when you buy an ATI product you don't expect the video cards to work or something....

Correct. In my experience and with all the ATI cards I tried and thier drivers, thier OpenGL support is absolute hell. ATI under Linux...don't get me started.

So, I just avoid the whole brand until AMD/ATI release a properly working ICD.

[ViperXtreme]

@StriderVM: Pre, ATi FTW ba? hehe
Anyway looks like naming would reminiscent of the GeForce 4 Ti series now lol (nVidia is using the 9xxx series of ATI )

[Phil]

because they are seriously obssessd with numbers. it would be cool to give the cards actual names like "NOOB Ultra" for an 8500 equivalent and "Pure Pwnage Total Bad*** Ati Slayer" for an 9800GX2 equivalent...

[skoreanime]

ATI should go file a lawsuit for naming trademark violation!

[Phil]

hmm that would be interesting....but if they did that, then Saab could sue THEM for using the 9000 tagline, since Saab put it on cars first.

[StriderVM]

ViperXtreme :

Well, not really. More like, I've toyed with a Radeon 9250, X550 and then the Radeon 3850. Every game I threw at it worked fine. OpenGL? Check (Doom 3, Half-Life) ...... I think it's just a very gross exaggeration, but perhaps they're talking about different things, like Linux drivers.....

[ViperXtreme]

the only ATi card that i was able to handle was the Radeon 9250. But everytime i want to get an ATi card, something always come up and i ended up getting the nVidia variant (TNT2-> 9600XT 5900XT comes out/5900XT->9800Pro/XT 6600GT comes out/6600GT ->X1650XT i find the 8600GT a better deal/8600GT ->HD 3850 or 3870 i find the 9600GT a better deal)

[Phil]

because nvidia *waits* for ati to bring there stuff out, then they bring there own guns and lowers the price

[Cheesus]

Bump.

Comparison of ATI graphics processing units - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[John Aiton]

Originally Posted by PCXL-Fan

I'm willing to take a little heat from you guys and venture into the conspiracy theory realm. I'm going to say that maybe nvidia is purposefully weakening the card, just like intel purposely keep the clock low on the 8000 series cpus by cutting the size of the heat sinks in half.

So am I smoking crack or do any of these points have an inkling of sanity?

you're right, there's no way the 9800gtx should be as much an improvement on the 8800gts as it is

I suspect the 8800gts drivers are deliberately reducing performance

[PCXL-Fan]

Originally Posted by John Aiton

you're right, there's no way the 9800gtx should be as much an improvement on the 8800gts as it is

I suspect the 8800gts drivers are deliberately reducing performance

Are you being sarcastic? You forgot the tongue smilie . I didn't mean neccesarily drivers. I don't think those could play that huge a role when the card is pretty much the same as the g92 8800GTS other than a difference in core and mem speeds.

It could have been the gpu core architecture as well. They chose to keep as many stream processors as the 8800GTX already has and despite a faster clock and mem speed and somewhat more efficient architecture its memory bandwidth is less and overall the card is perhaps 15% faster at most, excpet at high res w/wo AF and AA.

They deliberately have not realeased a single core card in the ultra high end market. The 9800GTX isn't a ultra high end card. When the 8800GTX came out it was ~$700 CDN, and right now the initial release price of the of the 9800GTX is ~300 CND.

[John Aiton]

Originally Posted by PCXL-Fan

Are you being sarcastic? You forgot the tongue smilie . I didn't mean neccesarily drivers. I don't think those could play that huge a role when the card is pretty much the same as the g92 8800GTS other than a difference in core and mem speeds.

It could have been the gpu core architecture as well. They chose to keep as many stream processors as the 8800GTX already has and despite a faster clock and mem speed and somewhat more efficient architecture its memory bandwidth is less and overall the card is perhaps 15% faster at most, excpet at high res w/wo AF and AA.

They deliberately have not realeased a single core card in the ultra high end market. The 9800GTX isn't a ultra high end card. When the 8800GTX came out it was ~$700 CDN, right now at the release of the 9800GTX it is ~300 CND.

no sarcasm, if I had either card I would try third party drivers to see
...just a hunch i have

[Linktothepast]

Originally Posted by PCXL-Fan

Are you being sarcastic? You forgot the tongue smilie . I didn't mean neccesarily drivers. I don't think those could play that huge a role when the card is pretty much the same as the g92 8800GTS other than a difference in core and mem speeds.

It could have been the gpu core architecture as well. They chose to keep as many stream processors as the 8800GTX already has and despite a faster clock and mem speed and somewhat more efficient architecture its memory bandwidth is less and overall the card is perhaps 15% faster at most, excpet at high res w/wo AF and AA.

They deliberately have not realeased a single core card in the ultra high end market. The 9800GTX isn't a ultra high end card. When the 8800GTX came out it was ~$700 CDN, and right now the initial release price of the of the 9800GTX is ~300 CND.

Well, maybe because there is a 9900gtx around the corner .

GT200 to become 9900GTX and 9900GX2, launch date set to July - Expreview.com

[John Aiton]

I honestly have the money waiting right next to me for the next worthy card,

my pile of cash remains here untill a card can crack crysis,
as soon as it happens I'll buy it

regardless of it's uber high cost

[StriderVM]

Well, part of me thinks it's just about economics, yeah sure, they may release a massive video card, that will cost $800 will people still buy it? When there are also video cards which may not be as fast (Say Radeon 3870x2), only about 6/10 as fast but is 1/4 the price of that "fastest" video card? Making it better "value" wise?

My mom and me always agree that a good performer with a cheap price will net you more profits than a product is that is the best performance but has a huge price as well. People just buy the cheaper ones nowadays.

Besides, they still haven't broken their product cycle, the 9800GTX is still about 10% faster than the 8800GTX. Usually......

[runawayprisoner]

Originally Posted by John Aiton

I honestly have the money waiting right next to me for the next worthy card,

my pile of cash remains here untill a card can crack crysis,
as soon as it happens I'll buy it

regardless of it's uber high cost

I'll take my luck with nVidia... and keep on waiting for a card worth stepping up to. Maybe the search is almost over... and I may be able to post results next week!

[John Aiton]

Originally Posted by runawayprisoner

I'll take my luck with nVidia... and keep on waiting for a card worth stepping up to. Maybe the search is almost over... and I may be able to post results next week!

I don't care which company I buy, as long as it's super fast
I'm late for bed

maybe I should make a lulz picture of my cash and write 9800gx2 on it

[runawayprisoner]

Don't go for the 9800GX2. Get the 9800GTX and overclock the hell out of that card instead!

[John Aiton]

Originally Posted by runawayprisoner

Don't go for the 9800GX2. Get the 9800GTX and overclock the hell out of that card instead!

i'm probably going for the 9900gx2 or ati follow up