Source : Inquirer
R580 Radeon X1900 has 384 million transistors
WE MANAGED to get some of the remaining unannounced information about ATI R580 cards. We reported that you can and will see three different cards. The top one, the Radeon X1900 XTX is clocked at 650MHz core and 1550 MHz memory. This one works in Crossfire but you need Radeon X1900 XT Crossfire edition card clocked at 625 MHz core and 1450 MHz memory to make a pair. Radeon X1900 XT will also be clocked at 625 MHz core and 1450 MHz memory.
The R580 has 48 pixel processors, or should we say pixel shaders, while it still has only sixteen pipelines. We don’t care as long as it gives a high score. The card has eight vertex shaders but you don’t need many of those anyway. It is now the fight of shader information versus pure pixels, as Nvidia can process more pixels per clock while ATI can process more pixel information per clock. There is no right or wrong in this case as it will depend on the game you are playing.
ATI's R580 uses its ring bus memory controller that has a sort of 512 bit internal memory controller. It uses 256 bit 8 channel GDDR 3 and it can support GDDR 4 as well. It is, of course, a native PCIe card and it supports dynamic voltage and clock speed control. So overclocking should not be that hard.
Nvidia is fighting R580 with its G71, but there is still not much information about the chip available. The company has been very quiet but some partners believe that you should see some of those cards out before late February. Nvidia, the doyenne of fabless chip company watchers, can always surprise.
Nvidia needs to clock G71 at 700 MHz+ to match the R580 performance but the question is how many of Nvidia's chips will work at such high speed. Remember, it is all about yields. You can always pick a dozen that will run even higher but you need to have yields to fulfil your demands, make some financial sense and grant your heart's desire.
R580 Radeon X1900 has 384 million transistors
WE MANAGED to get some of the remaining unannounced information about ATI R580 cards. We reported that you can and will see three different cards. The top one, the Radeon X1900 XTX is clocked at 650MHz core and 1550 MHz memory. This one works in Crossfire but you need Radeon X1900 XT Crossfire edition card clocked at 625 MHz core and 1450 MHz memory to make a pair. Radeon X1900 XT will also be clocked at 625 MHz core and 1450 MHz memory.
The R580 has 48 pixel processors, or should we say pixel shaders, while it still has only sixteen pipelines. We don’t care as long as it gives a high score. The card has eight vertex shaders but you don’t need many of those anyway. It is now the fight of shader information versus pure pixels, as Nvidia can process more pixels per clock while ATI can process more pixel information per clock. There is no right or wrong in this case as it will depend on the game you are playing.
ATI's R580 uses its ring bus memory controller that has a sort of 512 bit internal memory controller. It uses 256 bit 8 channel GDDR 3 and it can support GDDR 4 as well. It is, of course, a native PCIe card and it supports dynamic voltage and clock speed control. So overclocking should not be that hard.
Nvidia is fighting R580 with its G71, but there is still not much information about the chip available. The company has been very quiet but some partners believe that you should see some of those cards out before late February. Nvidia, the doyenne of fabless chip company watchers, can always surprise.
Nvidia needs to clock G71 at 700 MHz+ to match the R580 performance but the question is how many of Nvidia's chips will work at such high speed. Remember, it is all about yields. You can always pick a dozen that will run even higher but you need to have yields to fulfil your demands, make some financial sense and grant your heart's desire.