ATi prepares for slaughter as nVidia announces 512MB 7800GTX (1 Viewer)

[Collin]

Ahahahaa:

In all seriousness, here's the card:

Check out the MONSTER cooler.

Apple's new PowerMac G5 workstation line has just been rolled out with workstation graphics...

NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500
26 bit, 512MB ram, 33.6GBs throughput - two dual link DVI ports + stereo3D for CRT montiors.

Pretty cool - check it out here
http://www.apple.com/powermac/graphics.html

Dude, no serious gamer is gonna get a Mac anytime soon as a gaming machine, especially when that thing is designed for serious workstation use and costs practically 1.5 to twice as much as what you'd need for a nice 512MB GTX system.. aswell as the fact that machine only performs a little better than the 7800GT for games.

 

[Templar]

Not to mention half the games don't run on Macs.

 

[SashatheMan]

My first was an old 5mhz one... then came the 10mhz which had a Turbo button to boost it to 20mhz... then came 66mhz Cyrix... then Pentium 133... then Pentium2 400.. then Pentium3 900... then Pentium4 2.6.. then Pentium4 2.8.. and now Centrino 1.7? The irony is that even with all these numerical speed increases- my computer takes longer than ever between login screen/powering on, and actually being able to USE the computer.

hhaa turbo button. my old PC had one of those. changed from like 77mhz to 60 ot something

 

[Collin]

Thinking over this, I should concede to insert-username another super advantage of jumping pipes over clocks (initially).

As you said, it's alot easier to simply up the clock than increase the pipes.. i.e increasing pipes requires quite a bit more R&D..

So beforehand, ATi's X1800 was pretty much on-par with the 256MB GTX.

nVidia did some quick thinking, threw in a new cooling system and some more memory and OCed the crap out of it, so now we have a very high clocked card stable running on standard air cooling.
Now ATi could match this by doing the opposite.. i.e taking their pipes up to 24 too, but again like I said this probably isn't feasible due to the above concept.

So basically we have a similarly clocked ATi card vs. a similarly clocked nVidia card. The life & death difference is one has 24 pipes and one is still on 16.. where it's not feasible to up that from 16 to 24 right now.

Checkmate by nVidia?

 

[Collin]

OH, by the way that old PC I had had one of those turbo buttons too! Ahahaa, mine was 33MHz off, 66MHz on. Great times.

 

[insert-username]

Those are some nice pictures of the hairdryer there.

But holy crap, 1.7 Ghz memory and 580 Mhz clock... that's crazy. 20,000 3DMarks 05 here were come...

As you said, it's alot easier to simply up the clock than increase the pipes.. i.e increasing pipes requires quite a bit more R&D..

So beforehand, ATi's X1800 was pretty much on-par with the 256MB GTX.

nVidia did some quick thinking, threw in a new cooling system and some more memory and OCed the crap out of it, so now we have a very high clocked card stable running on standard air cooling.
Now ATi could match this by doing the opposite.. i.e taking their pipes up to 24 too, but again like I said this probably isn't feasible due to the above concept.

So basically we have a similarly clocked ATi card vs. a similarly clocked nVidia card. The life & death difference is one has 24 pipes and one is still on 16.. where it's not feasible to up that from 16 to 24 right now.

Checkmate by nVidia?

Yeah, you're right on the money there. Double slot cooler with the works - the 512 MB GTX will smash like no tommorrow. At that speed, I wouldn't be surprised if it beat the x1800 is practically everything. Whether or not it's the killer blow will depend on whether ATi's R580 has 24 pipes or not. If it does (it's due out Q1-Q2 next year), then ATi may just have an opening. But if the R580 sticks with 16, then ATi may be stuck in a puddle whilst NVIDIA waltzes away - more cards sold equals more revenue, which equals more money to R&D, which usually means faster cards.


I_F

 

[Minai]

Yes I wonder how these babies will go SLi on 3DMark2005?

 

[Collin]

256MB GTX gets around 8,000 marks.

So based on pure speculation..
512MB GTX + 30% OC would get around 10,000 to 12,000.

Factor in the SLi you'd be looking at perhaps 18,000 to 21,000.

In other words, 3 times more than my X800XT-PE.

Or in layman's terms.. running F.E.A.R @ 16*12 max TSAA/AF with all the eyecandy goodness on at high FPS. Oh man

 

[Templar]

Time for 3DMark07 then.

If ATi doesn't overcome that with a 24 pipe R580, then it is indeed checkmate, but ATi does still have the largest market share of discrete graphics so it should have some buffer. Plus look at nVidia and ATI during the fx and 9000 series, nVidia was able to make a turnaround with the 6 series. So the discrete graphics market wouldn't exactly become a monopoly.

 

[Collin]

Don't think it's gonna be 07 until atleast the R580 or R600s. I read awhile back that Futuremark's paradigm in introducing new 3DMarks is supposedly revolved around the magic '15,000' benchmark, not including unconventional means such as SLi etc. So assuming 512MB GTX hits the 10k mark.. perhaps the R580 will hit 13 or 14k. Around then Futuremark might consider cooking up another.

I do hope ATi makes a turn around though, as a consumer with a passion for quality, I have nothing but the highest regard for competition. But when things start to sway heavily towards one side.. well I think dats velly bad..

 

[Templar]

Well I am a nVidia supporter, but in the end my aim is not to see ATi being pushed to the brink, rather the same competition you hold in the highest regard so that the consumer benefits. Although at times I do like to know that the nVidia card I have bought was the best available at the time of purchase for my budget.

Just in case it gets misread, I will not buy nVidia simply because it is nVidia. I will consider all the factors and while in the end nVidia does get a little bias, I will not buy a product that is vastly inferior to the competitor's. I was considering a 9800XT before the 6 series came out, since the fx5 series are so crap in comparison it's not funny.

 

[insert-username]

I was considering a 9800XT before the 6 series came out, since the fx5 series are so crap in comparison it's not funny.

Ah, the good old Dustbusters...


I have nothing but the highest regard for competition. But when things start to sway heavily towards one side.. well I think dats velly bad..

The good thing about the graphics card industry in particular though is that price is everything, and now ATi and nVidia, regardless of market share, almost have to bring their cards in at certain price levels or they just won't sell. The pendulum has swung back and forth between the two companies over the years, but prices haven't ballooned as one side bests the other. Besides, even if nVidia checkmates this round, the game goes on, and I'm sure ATi will bounce back before too long. History tells us they will, and that can only be a good thing.


I_F

 

[Templar]

ATi has just got killed.

 

[Collin]

LoL.. check out Doom 3 4xAA/8xAF. Infact, the 512MB pretty much kicks butt everywhere on high AA/AF.. which is extremely bad for ATi since one reason the X1800 was critically praised for was due to it's kickbutt AA/AF performance due to better memory controllers & cache. It's also nice that the 30% OC actually does translate to mostly proportional increase in performances too.. infact in alot of those figures, again when AA/AF is high, you get around 25%-30% better benchmarks over the 256MB.. that's really nice to see.

BTW, ATi is about to OC the X1800 aswell.. forgot the link to the article, but it's not a major OC by any means. Pretty much a 25MHz raise to the core and mem.. that's it. I would say they're in panic right now.

Also nice (for nVidia that is) they've managed to take the HL2 crown at a particular res/AAAF setting.. although not by much, but still symbolic.

One good thing for ATi though; atleast it's not selling cheaper than the 256MB as originally rumored.. then that would be complete death.

Dissappointing still the Geforce 7s unlike the X1800s don't support HDR with AA.

Now assuming this baby retails at atleast $1,100.. I'd still stick with 2x 7800GTs SLi, considering you can get em at around $600 each right now.

 

[Collin]

See I can afford that right now.. but the problem is I'd be forced to upgrade everything.. and be better off getting a new computer instead. I think that's the problem with these cards in terms of money.. alot of people CAN afford that, just that when you track down the collateral costs for it (i.e other stuff).. then you can't afford it.

For me:

New card.
Crap, need PCI-e board. Get PCI-e board.
Crap, then need new CPU.
Well with a top of the line card and a high end CPU, my 1GB of RAM might start to get dragged in games like F.E.A.R.. so why not grab another gig.

$700 bucks turns into thousands.. that's my problem, unfortunately.. or else I'd get one of these babies right now.

 

[SashatheMan]

See I can afford that right now.. but the problem is I'd be forced to upgrade everything.. and be better off getting a new computer instead. I think that's the problem with these cards in terms of money.. alot of people CAN afford that, just that when you track down the collateral costs for it (i.e other stuff).. then you can't afford it.

For me:

New card.
Crap, need PCI-e board. Get PCI-e board.
Crap, then need new CPU.
Well with a top of the line card and a high end CPU, my 1GB of RAM might start to get dragged in games like F.E.A.R.. so why not grab another gig.

$700 bucks turns into thousands.. that's my problem, unfortunately.. or else I'd get one of these babies right now.

yes and if yuor like me, you have a ship monitor , add mor emoney for a good monitor to enjoy the good graphics. otherwise no point of good graphic cards i reckon

 

[Collin]

Well I've got a nice 19" CRT so I'm happy in that department. Even if I had a PCI-e mobo right now, my Athlon 3200+ would seriously bottleneck a GTX. I never buy hardware unless it works pretty optimisedly (sp?).. which is why everytime I 'upgrade', I just build a new PC. Shockingly expensive hobby, I know.

 

[insert-username]

That thing is insanely fast. ATi's R580 had better be better than that, or else nVidia will have beaten them to market again with a faster card.


I_F

 

[Collin]

512MB GTX reviews:

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2607

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=ODg1

http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/285/

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1886278,00.asp

http://www.beyond3d.com/previews/nvidia/78512/

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=3904&key=1131950738

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/nvidia_geforce_7800_gtx_512mb/

http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20051114/index.html

 

[darksbane]

Well I've got a nice 19" CRT so I'm happy in that department. Even if I had a PCI-e mobo right now, my Athlon 3200+ would seriously bottleneck a GTX. I never buy hardware unless it works pretty optimisedly (sp?).. which is why everytime I 'upgrade', I just build a new PC. Shockingly expensive hobby, I know.

Your not the only one who has that hobby =/ although I havent spent a great deal on it of late, my money all seems to be going elsewhere, though I'm not quite sure where >.<