ATI's HD 49x0 coming soon-ish
WITH NVIDIA'S GTX 295 announcement just around the corner, the satanic rumourmill - as Nick fondly puts it - is in overdrive once again, fuelled by leaked specs and a vivid imagination, it seems.
What are we talking about? Well, several Chinese forums were a-buzz today with talk of a RV775XT and RV775Pro, alleged derivatives of the current RV770 marchitecture with some odd bits and pieces of additional tech - smaller dies on the same process without a re-design, for example. This included a return to GDDR4, die sizes mysteriously shrinking on a 55nm process, and some extra stream processors and TMUs.
The most interesting part of the posts was the one about DAAMIT having refined the fabbing process resulting in better yields that would allow it to put out parts with lower redundancy, that is, less silicon set aside for the eventuality of a manufacturing defect. This would mean some serious cherry-picking taking place and a limited supply of cards, at best, not to mention the economics of the thing...
We rang up ATI's Chris Hook about this and he clarified several points about those specifications. The general consensus is that someone compiled fragments of possible products and put them in a nice looking table. While, in good PR fashion, not admitting or denying anything we threw at him, he did help us figure out what's wrong with the info.
ATI won't be launching anything in January, that's more or less guaranteed. A refresh to the current range of cards will be launched over the course of 1H-09, but not as early as January (CeBIT sounds like as good a time as any). That will include a delayed RV740 derivative and a suped-up RV770, which should receive the HD 49xx moniker. GDDR3 and GDDR5 will remain the memory bits and pieces, but ATI has dropped GDDR4 for good... too expensive and too much like GDDR5, said the Cap'n. Now the juicy bit is that AMD has narrowed down the 40nm parts launch to the first half of 2009 too, so between the derivatives and the shrinks there will be plenty of options on the market in 2009.
Last, but certainly not least, the 58xx series cards will be reserved for Q4 2009 and will pair up with Microsoft's DirectX 11 launch. So fanbois and fangoils, you'll have to wait a while.
There was more but we were sworn to secrecy, under penalty of death by Sasquatch buggery. We'll keep it to ourselves. µ
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Say it ain't so! This is a sad day, breaking a long tradition at the Inq!
Whatever happened to "biting the hand that feeds IT".
The Inq has ceased to be the Inq if it does not break NDAs and offend publicity managers the world over.
Breaking NDAs is the reason why Inq reporters have to skulk in corners bars eavesdropping on other peoples conversations because noone will talk to them.
Do you really get more info by respecting NDAs or do you get less but more easily?
I believe the website revamp has gone to peoples heads! Why dont you go and work for Anand?
Totally agree with Richards post.
If what is said in the article is true (regarding not disclosing more info) then the Inq has lost it's true self and is just another scrap technews site and is now dead to me.
RIP.
I don't think it's such a disappointing thing. "L'Inq" must have a reason good enough to say they won't break the NDA this time, otherwise they wouldn't have admitted that there was more to say...
I've been reading this red page for quite a long time and I think I will give this guys the benefit of the doubt :)
Their titles and subtitles leave me rotfl most of the time, and I'm grateful and faithful for the future.
Who the hell said anything abount any NDA? Paul just said he was sworn to secrecy, that means there were "off the record" comments. Any journalist with the slightest bit of ethics respects that, otherwise it's just dishonesty.
Wheres' ALL Articles Written by Msr. Mike Magee? Especially with New Style Front Page? Well, Mike Told Lots of Truth about Equipemnt Still Hidden behind scene Screen & Mike apparently took Beating For it. From Culture standpoint Bangalor Must Be Exciting earthly Place, Thills Abound, yet its NOT Comfort of Ones Own Study, It could Pay Off. Any NDA Info on Duncie? Not One word. There be NO INQ without Prognostications of ye Michael, yet now there be NO Michael. Sos Goes Figures. Be Great or BE Chimp. Drashek
The problem I believe is, that the inq cannot reveal anything juicy in THIS post.
We are sure to here bits and pieces as rumors are tongue in cheek confirmed or denied, and we will all have it worked out soon enough.
We already have a good idea the 58xx will have more shaders and more frequency, perhaps 1200 at close to 900mhz is feasible if it seriously wants to compete with Nvidia. The limiting factor will be heat dissipation.
It's better new card don't follow too soon, because ATI (nvidia too I think) quickly drops decent driver support for 'old' cards, so as long as they don't have that stream(/OpenCL) stuff and other new things stable and complete in their drivers it's best they don't get new cards out, until you don't need to update drivers much anymore because they have no longer much to offer for the card you use.
What's with all these LONG @$$ed comments? Looks like the site redesign got to the heads of commenters also!
In kinda … http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_Information_Act_(United_States)#Expansion_of_the_FOIA_during_the_Clinton_Administration
…similar document by Intel in around 2030 we'll read ... We at Intel were in so much panic that we had to first time create a version soup of SSE (SSE4, 4.1, 4.2) and running like hell to 32nm. When we were at 45nm with CPUs AMD was 55nm with GPUs. In Q2-2009 AMD was 40nm with GPU (Radeon 49xx) ringing alarm bells in Intel control rooms. AMD had then everything in 4x-nm (40/45-nm) where we Intel had only CPU in 45nm but GPU x4500 still on 65nm. So on top all prev described panic moves, we Intel had to again make a panic & this time news that we will launch 32nm CPUs in Q4-2009. Humiliation for Intel with IGP/GPU X4500 still sitting on 65nm and further humiliation to Intel with AMD's ease to go 32nm from 40nm around same time as Intel i.e. Q4-2009 (despite GPU shrinking skill does not apply on CPU shrinking skill)
It's great that video card makers keep coming out with new video cards, but what about games? These days the only thing available for PC is console ports. What's the motiviation these days to buy a new video card? So you can play Crysis on the next higher resolution or turn on a little higher detail?
Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with porting a game from a console to the PC, the game companies have been doing it for years. But it seems like anymore, EVERY new PC game is nothing but a console port. At least the games I want to play on the PC are ports. If I want to play a game with console grade graphics, well then I'll just play it on the console. I'll take a couch and a 50" LCD TV over an office chair and a 24" LCD monitor any day.
Let's face it folks, it's mostly been PC games that have pushed new develpment in graphics, memory and CPU's. Without the games to push the hardware, what's the consumers motiviation to buy new hardware? Sure some people need a high end PC for audio or video editing and in the scientific fields, but I think that at the end of the day, the people buying high powered hardware are gamers.
Overall, I think piracy has killed PC gaming. That and the fact that there are MANY more people who own a console than a PC that can handle cutting edge graphics. I believe that it's just not worth it financially for the game developers to devote time and money towards PC exclusive games or to improve them for the PC.
I'm sure many will disagree with what I've said but I don't care. Those are my opinions and I'm sticking to them.
I'd have to agree completely with Rick. People just don't "buy" PC games anymore, thus developers make them for consoles then they get ported to PC later after the console market is fully milked. That's not to say people don't have modded 360's, but MUCH less of a percentage of people have modded consoles vs people who just download games off their friendly newsgroup / rapidshare / torrent of choice.
I recently upgraded from a 2900xt to a 4870x2 and honestly, I feel like I wasted money doing it. I'm really not seeing a whole heck of a lot of improvements like I used to when I upgraded after skipping a generation (and no, I'm not CPU-bound).
Maybe PC developers need to take new approaches to getting people to buy their games. Heck just get Blizzard to release an MMORPG that requires high end hardware and you'll see a stupidly insane jump in the sales of higher teir hardware.
um,.. any news on PhysX?
Piracy has killed PC gaming ? ...No !
Prices of PC Games has killed PC gaming ! No more no less.
Flipping madness! Offer free flip-flops to binge Sasquatch INQers who keep falling over in heels! Itsh not their fault, you shee. Itsh the shoesh.
DrINQ's who stagger about in high heels are to be protected!
Sasquatch buggery has prompted fears that stilettos or similar footwear could tumble over. So in the prevention of bootleg, flip-flops will be given to anyone inappropriate or soiled' and will be paid for with a Home Office grant. So throw in your shoes for the public good. Pleafferably pflip-pflopsh, or any flats shall do. Iraqi journalists are already throwing their shoes at bush. Altogether, now...
Console games are hovering around 70 dollars a piece and they're selling GREAT. The only motivation anyone has for buying a PC game is if they want to play it online. And even then, somtimes that can be achieved with a pirated game.
When it comes to the price of a console game, I'll say this. Although I can't prove through experience or knowledge that the price of a game is validated by the effort needed to produce it, my gut tells me that even if that 70 dollar game was priced at 35 dollars, everyone involved would still make plenty from it. The fact of the matter is that prices are what they are because the companies producing them know that regardless of price, people will still buy them. In terms of PC game prices, the makers firgure that if people will pay an outrageous price for a console game, they might as well inflate the price of the PC version as well. Plus, if they didn't inflate the price of the PC game in line with the console version, people might actually buy the PC version which would potentially give PC games a larger market which in turn would be bad for the game companies in the long run. That's because while more people would be buying PC games, after awhile, more and more people would be pirating PC games than buying them and it would lead to a total collapse of the industry. Why? Because people who were once buying console games turned to buying PC games which killed the console game market. Then after all those new PC gamers started pirating games instead of buying them, NOBODY would be buying games anymore.
The way I see it, based on the increase in game prices from generation to generation, the price of a major title console game will easily be over the 100 dollar mark next generation. I don't know what's worse, the companies charging that much for a game, or the fact that people will still continue to buy them left and right.
like Rick just said, console games are so expensive cos Sony and Microsoft have to get their money back from selling the console at a loss. Then, PC games can't be sold for that much less than console games, otherwise everyone would buy the PC version and not the console. So PC games are inflated to keep up. And thus, everyone pirates them. So few games are developed for the PC because of this. It's sad.
Those who know, know that the Inq doesn't sign NDAs, ever.
Some of the commentators here are adding up two and two and getting five rather like tabloid journalists.
There is no mention of NDAs here, and nothing in the article belives me to think there are NDAs at work...
If you think differently, read again and again until you get it. If you are still re-reading it tomorrow and still don't get it... 'nuff said.
Who cares if it does Direct flop 11. Can it run open GL and play Linux games??
After GTA 4 Flop. Im not buying any more games for Windowz with their Direct junk. Switching to Linux now. I know there are not that many games for Linux now but that is changing.
You've forgotten how important DX11 is when it comes to GPGPU and physics on the card.