Tech News and Gossip thread...

[Det. Bart Lasiter]

i'm still waiting for matrox to come out of left field and blow ati and nvidia out of the water

[Negative Sun]

That'll be the task of the all-consuming monster that is Intel...unless an underground resistance group od 3DFX survivors are planning a revolution

[Q]

BTW: Best Buy is having a 25% off sale on VisionTek video cards through tomorrow (Sat).

 

So if you can find one, you can snag a VisionTek 4850 for $150!

[Astrotoy7]

It soundly beats the 8800GT and trades shots with the 9800GTX for $200. Note how well it does at higher resolutions....

 

soundly beats my foot.. There are no beat downs issued here:

 

 

Q, Im as AMD-happy as the next guy, but this is nothing to be excited about.... ATI hyped it all so much with their bollocks "cinema 2.0" presentations, in the end to match a card over 6 months old, and "trade blows" with a better designed, though obviously 'interim' market filler card in the 9800GTX....

 

What AMD lacks: pushing the envelope! They seem much more content with licking them closed (as far as gaming anyways) <bleh>

 

mtfbwya

[Negative Sun]

 

I'd call 13FPS over the 8800GT in the same game as you've posted quite an improvement. Plus it's more in the region where it matters and at a higher res, the difference between 153FPS (4850), 155FPS (8800GT) and 178FPS (9800GTX) is negligible, so that test is pretty pointless if you ask me

If that was the defining benchmark for these cards I wouldn't hesitate to get whatever is cheapest.

 

And may I remind dear Astro that the 512Mb 8800GT OCX is a pre-overclocked card, while the HD4850 is running at it's standard settings...

 

I agree with Q, a very solid result at a very competitive price point, and we haven't seen the HD4870 yet!

[Astrotoy7]

so that test is pretty pointless if you ask me

 

pointless is correct if you want to base your argument on quoting Max fps numbers

 

Here are some other points people always seem to forget... always, always

 

1. Most people monitors operate between 70-80Hz

2. Most peoples eyes work best at a flicker rate matching 60Hz

 

longstoryshort = AVERAGE fps = 60 will look smooth n silky to our mere human eyes..

 

so in the case of the COD4 at 1600x1200 (and below), where most people still game at, the card offers no huge gains over the older 8800GT.

 

It really does come down to what is cheaper

 

My only concern is that AMD should have released this card 6mo ago, if they want to be in any way near to being competitive. All they seem to be good at is keeping prices down on their competitors mid end. Can you imagine what a 8800GT would cost now if the 4850 came out at the same time?

 

The days of the epic high end struggles between these two manufacturers seem to be over(eg...like the x1900 vc 7900 etc )...

 

this is what we should be upset about !! Right now, nvidia have a license to print money in the high end gamer niche....it seems AMD arent fussed ??

 

mtfbwya

[Negative Sun]

Well what do you expect Astro? They're still licking their wounds from the merge with AMD and people nowadays are more and more power/budget conscious, which is obviously what AMD/Ati are aiming at...There's nothing wrong with that, if I can get a good deal for a card to suit my needs that wouldn't be overkill, I'd go looking in the mid-range, where Ati is putting up a good fight.

[Q]

@Astro:

DAAMIT has decided to aim for the mainstream market and spend their development dollars there instead of trying to produce the highest-performing product that only a select few will be able to afford.

 

Nvida's near-panic-induced midnight paper launch of the 9800GTX+ should tell you something about the performance of the 4850 if nothing else will. They crapped their pants.

 

BTW: That PC Perspective review is one of only two that I know of (the other being Firingsquad's) that show the 4850 in a bad light. The rest show the 4850 beating the 9800GTX in the majority of games, especially at higher resolutions with AA.

[Astrotoy7]

BTW: That PC Perspective review is one of only two that I know of (the other being Firingsquad's) that show the 4850 in a bad light. The rest show the 4850 beating the 9800GTX in the majority of games, especially at higher resolutions with AA.

 

lolz..its hardly a bad light at all. Its just seem AMD is content to, as you say, cater to the mainstream market. It'd be nice to get something from them totally floors their rivals performance wise, not just make nvidias marketing guys shift in their seats a little, which is essentially what happened over the last few days

 

mtfbwya

[Q]

Yes, they are content to cater to the mainstream market. That's where the majority of the money is. It may not be as glorious, but it is practical and has a chance of paying big dividends if the strategy works. I'm just giddy at the return of competition in the market segment that matters to me.

 

If this is any indication, the 4870 has a real chance to challenge and even beat the GTX260 for 75% of the cost, thereby forcing Nvidia to slash prices on that card as well. This can only be good for we, the consumers. Everybody wins! All hail competition!

[Astrotoy7]

looks like the first reviews of the 4870 are starting to trickle out.

 

verdict: a decent option. Not the uber card to ruin nvidias hopes and dreams, but should help keep the prices of the 260 and 9800 down a bit

 

mtfbwya

[Char Ell]

Rather disappointing power consumption figures for AMD's 4800 cards. I'm rather surprised by this. I'll wait for some more reviews to see if the numbers hold up.

 

I feel the need to vent a bit and say that if NVIDIA releases a 9800 GTX+ instead of a 9900 GTX I'm going to fly over to Santa Clara and bust some heads!!! Seriously. Since when has NVIDIA ever released a card with the + sign in the product name? And now after a die shrink they decide to add a + at the end? Bah. Whatever.

[Astrotoy7]

lolz, not worth getting upset at such things Char, GPU have the weirdest naming conventions out, quite similar to hotrod cards, the more X's and Zs the faster it sounds Why not add a (+)plus to the mix !! hehe

 

Heres one for the UHD fanboy(s)

 

Tri-SLI GTX 280 Destroys Crysis at 1600p/Medium, also destroys bank account en route

 

longstoryshort=

19X1200: 82FPS average

1600P: 81FPS average (well over the 60-70fps butter zone)

 

At least rich basteds and reviwers have finally got to see this game in 1600p at a super framerate.... interestingly, on high settings, its still under 40FPS. Much better than the single figures of the 8xxx series

 

now nvidia >> your mission is: DO IT WITH ONE CARD! Methinks PCI-ex 2.0 will help a bit in achieving this too

 

mtfbwya

[Q]

Well, Here is Anandtech's review, and while the power consumption figures are disappointing I think that Nvidia should be ashamed of itself for demanding $650 for a card that in most cases barely outperforms one that costs $300. I hope the greedy bastards get what they deserve in the form of dismal sales for GT200 cards. They're going to have to slash prices just to keep from getting raped by DAAMIT at this point.

 

Now if only DAAMIT could improve Crossfire scaling to the point where it's not so hit-or-miss.

 

And I've come to the conclusion that Crysis must be the most poorly coded game evar.

[Astrotoy7]

...And I've come to the conclusion that Crysis must be the most poorly coded game evar.

 

O come on Q. Designing a game engine erstwhile trying to get your head around the parameters of a new OS(Vista) and new DX SDK isnt exactly a stroll in the park.

 

Crytek have turned the hardware focus back on GPUs, pre crysis, we were all nattering on about C2D, now its always 'what can this GPU do against crysis!'

 

However it is coded(I definitely am not qualified to judge what is good or bad!) ...it's become the best functional test of the grunt of any gfx kit.

 

Not everyone gets what 3DMark and Cinebench scores mean, but any gamer knows 'rez vs fps' and its gameplay implications

 

mtfbwya

[Darth333]

More reviews of the new video cards:

 

Tom's hardware (4850, including benchies of the latest two nvidia cards): http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-4850,1957.html

 

The noise level of the nvidia card is something worth of attention if that matters to you (It matters to me at least, especially when the card is at idle and I try to do some serious work)...ouch!

 

This French site has also published a review of both Ati cards ( warning: funny translation...but babelfish is normally slightly better than google for French to English. (I really laughed when I saw this at page 3 of the english translation: "Lastly, and it is a surprise for us, AMD gives up the boxing ring drunk so much praised with the preceding generations"...err..."boxing ring drunk " should read "ring bus" )

 

I might replace my current 8800gts 512MB with one of those. The card is powerful enough for me but I have not been impressed at all by nVidia's drivers released in the past 6 months. In fact I've never had so many texture flickering and corruption issues and even game freezes when enabling certain graphic options (no, its not my system as everyone playing the games I've been playing get the same problems).

 

Edit: xbitlabs article on the HD 4850: http://xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/ati-radeon-hd4850.html

[Astrotoy7]

I might replace my current 8800gts 512MB with one of those.....

 

I'd wait 12 months D333...this current batch of cards are a interim filler from a design process POV. The next gen of carda, combined with pci-ex 2.0, will be a significant step forward, not the mild incrememnt shifts that are 8x-9x-2x, 2x-3x-4x. If you want to throw some cash at something, get yourself a Samsung 305T..... I loooooove mine

 

mtfbwya

[Q]

@D3: I think that many people are fed up with Nvidia's drivers that only seemed to "magically" improve when DAAMIT's performance started to encroach on their territory. The nerd rage was palpable when Nvidia's 98xx cards turned out to be practically identical to the G92-based 88xx cards only with the support of better drivers.

 

I would suggest waiting until the 4870 is available at MSRP or below as the 4850 won't be a huge improvement over your 8800GTS 512MB (aside from the driver issue). The single-slot cooler on the 4850 is quite inadequate and the card runs friggin' hot. However, there have been recent deals where the 4850 was so cheap that it could be bought along with a great aftermarket cooler for less than $200. There will also be 4850s and 4870s from DAAMIT's board partners that come already equipped with with non-reference coolers as well as 1GB versions of both cards very soon.

 

I would also wait until RivaTuner is updated for these cards, as I'm sure it will be soon, in order to see how well they overclock. Since they have identical GPUs, an adequately cooled and overclocked 4850 might end up being the better bargain. If money is no object, then a 4870 or even a 4870X2 will be the way to go.

[Negative Sun]

^ Sounds like a plan.

 

Ati revives "All In Wonder"

^ Wow, it's been a while since we've last seen one of those huh?

 

 

UK based review of the HD4870 (and 4850)

^ Ouchies, like AMD always likes t say:"It's not a spint, it's a marathon", and at least they've proven themselves worthy this time...I'd love to see the HD4850 1GB in action though, but I suppose we'll get that in due time... there's some good offers on already on the 4850 with aftermarket coolers in the UK.

[Q]

I just can't believe how well R770 is doing, given that it's based on the craptastic R6xx. Apparently there was something good about that architecture after all.

[Darth333]

I would suggest waiting until the 4870 is available at MSRP or below as the 4850 won't be a huge improvement over your 8800GTS 512MB (aside from the driver issue).

I know but the driver issue has gotten on my nerves and that is enough reason for me to change! (yes, I am that fed up by nVidia drivers which only seem to be "optimised" *cough* for the latest popular FPS - I have to admit that I have been overworking lately and I have little patience ).

 

 

@ Astro: been thinking about one of those monitors since a while but I think I'll wait for the next generation for extra connectivity options. Besides I don't have much room to put one of those in my current "near downtown" condo...well I could but I'd have to move some things around quite a lot and I have other bigger plans! (Like taking a sabbatical beginning in 4 weeks )

 

Btw...just a suggestion to the mods here. What about making a separate "video cards news and gossip thread" in order not to hinder other tech news? (just my 0.02$ as it seems to take a lot of space )

[Astrotoy7]

Btw...just a suggestion to the mods here. What about making a separate "video cards news and gossip thread" in order not to hinder other tech news? (just my 0.02$ as it seems to take a lot of space )

 

GPU is the dominant topic for the gamer-centric, which isnt entirely suprising in present context. IMO, leave it all where it is, who needs two separate things to read Jumping between CPU and GPU discussions is natural when discussing those unfashionable clowns known as AMD

 

however, I will leave the final decision with Negsun, as he is the chief newsdude, with 1337 mod powerz to boot

 

mtfbwya

 

How about renaming this thread? Any other tech gossip besides GPU/CPU would be out of context and lost on the readers. ~tk102

[Q]

I know but the driver issue has gotten on my nerves and that is enough reason for me to change! (yes, I am that fed up by nVidia drivers which only seem to be "optimised" *cough* for the latest popular FPS - I have to admit that I have been overworking lately and I have little patience ).

You're not being impatient at all. A cry has risen up from all corners of the internets about Nvidia's lousy drivers causing the very problems you describe; problems that haven't been fixed since the GeForce 8 series was introduced in late 2006!

 

Anywho, you could probably get quite a bit for your 8800GTS 512MB if you sold it right now. Maybe almost enough to cover the cost of a 4850 if you can find one on the cheap, which shouldn't be too hard to do. While 4870s are very hard to find right now, 4850s are rather plentiful as well as cheap. You would also gain a little performance boost as well, especially at high res with AA.

[Astrotoy7]

admins: thank you for your !public! suggestions

 

My POV is always going to be the same. If we had the traffic that any major tech news place did, sure, buts its essentially a handful of us talking shop. Theres no 'wanderers by', or people who come here googling answers etc. Keeping it all in here also makes it easier to keep tabs on, and *not duplicate*

 

Im not saying anymore, the rest is up to our news editor!

 

OT:

A **succession** of driver builds making their PC/GPU not work nice is quite often a sign that people need to rethink their hardware vs gaming choices.

 

What is funny is that people then go out and buy a more capable card(from rival brand) and then spend the rest of their internet juices complaining how the other brand was so bad.

 

@ Astro: been thinking about one of those monitors since a while but I think I'll wait for the next generation for extra connectivity options.

 

dual link DVI and HDMI too low tech for ya D333? Thats what the 305T has

 

mtfbwya

[Negative Sun]

Btw...just a suggestion to the mods here. What about making a separate "video cards news and gossip thread" in order not to hinder other tech news? (just my 0.02$ as it seems to take a lot of space )

I thought that was the unofficial title of this thread...Take that kinda news away and it doesn't leave us with much in this one

 

 

dual link DVI and HDMI too low tech for ya D333? Thats what the 305T has

My thoughts too, DisplayPort doesn't look like it's coming around in a hurry, and when it does it'll probably jack up the price of stuff that could be good bargains with "just" DVI or HDMI.