Jump to content

Home

Tech News and Gossip thread...


Negative Sun

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 835
  • Created
  • Last Reply

you must have misunderstood my post surely :p My SN27 AM2 mainboard in a shuttle P2 case will need some 'after market solutions' to make a 27cm card fit due to wires and bits in the way. Im actually investigating an interesting option using server tech known as wearout extenders. The card may fit that way without any dremel action reqd.

 

I'd never sell my 1600p monitor, though I'll probably eventually upgrade our main TV(SHD only) to a 1080p one for the ps3.... no hurry though.

 

I loves me shuttles, I just bought another G5 t'other day :) One of those luverly silver ones... theyre just so cool. I'll likely add one of those VFDs in future. This will be used as a htpc mainly.

 

SHuttle has just released their very first models with hybrid mainboards, which will be interesting for us htpc-ers in particular. Im not jumping at them though, I think fusion is going to revolutionise media pcs....when fusion eventually arrives, that is!

 

sb83g5_3d6.jpg

 

mtfbwya

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just for fun, here's a graph of an HD4870 beating a GTX 260 in 2 out of 4 benchmarks, and matching it's perfomance in Crysis, and technically only lower than the GTX 260 in the ARMA: Armed Assault benchmark (really, who plays that game anyways :xp: )

 

260perf.gif

 

Here in the UK, the HD4870 is about £20 ($40) cheaper than the GTX260, on average!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here in the US, Nvidia's board partners have lowballed their prices on the GTX260 so much that for now it's the better deal. Right now you can get the EVGA GTX260 Superclocked Edition for $225 after rebate at GougeEgg. These two cards are so evenly matched that it all comes down to which one is cheaper.

 

EDIT: Oh yeah, and I'm hearing definite buzz about a GT200 die-shrink (55NM) due to come out soon after the release of the 4870X2. DAAMIT has really kicked nVidia in to high-gear damage control. This is a full-fledge, take-no-prisoners price war that we've got on our hands. Gotta love competition. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think it's about time the focus is now firmly and Keenly on the GPU side of a gaming setup. For the moment, cpu news is almost at a stand still as the world awaits the 4870X2 and nvidia's response.

 

I think we should also spare a thought for the tech nerds at Qimonda -It's their GDDR5 wizardry that is the core of AMD's success.

 

mtfbwya

Link to comment
Share on other sites

....I think we should also spare a thought for the tech nerds at Qimonda -It's their GDDR5 wizardry that is the core of AMD's success.....

 

lolz. straight after I wrote that I read a report spelling out Infineon have ditched their Qimonda subsidiary. Maybe GDDR5 wasn't enough for them to keep an kicking on :p

 

mtfbwya

Link to comment
Share on other sites

lolz. straight after I wrote that I read a report spelling out Infineon have ditched their Qimonda subsidiary. Maybe GDDR5 wasn't enough for them to keep an kicking on :p

 

mtfbwya

Astro you jinx!!!

 

I'm gonna give them your address!

 

Astro, what's your address?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Im sure some people out there will be curious and/or pleased to learn that on August 12 nvidia will be releasing drivers to enable physX functionality on their GPUs

 

I wonder if the enabling of these advanced physics capabilities will make TFU a possibility on PC? [/speculation]

 

anyway. more info HERE

 

mtfbwya

Link to comment
Share on other sites

LA being too lazy is all that's keeping TFU away from the PC, if it can be coded for a friggin' PS2...

 

Official name for Nehalem revealed

^ Core i7??? Really doesn't improve my opinion for all things starting with a lower case "i" (with one major exception being the iPhone)

 

Larrabee structure officially revealed!

^ All seems quite impressive, in theory, which is all it is just now I suppose...

 

AMD's Fusion "Shrike" details leaked

^ Nothing too exciting though, but the move to 40nm and later 32nm can't come too soon for AMD!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@ Astro:

 

FOLDING

 

"A single HD 4870 scores 1783ppd while using Stanford's Folding@home GPU client and drew 349W while folding. Using a single instance of the folding client with the HD 4870 X2, only generated 1,237ppd while the system drew 334W. Clearly both cores weren't engaged and we couldn't, at the time of writing, convince an instance to run on each of the card's GPUs."

 

From this review of the HD 4870X2

Link to comment
Share on other sites

AWESOME work negsun. I should have thought to check custompc, as they are pretty proud of their folding team ;)

 

Well, I have to say, the 280 is *sortve* starting to look like my next card..... My 8800GTS gives me nearly 4000 PPD. The other(perhaps more telling) factor is that the 280 seems to play happy with the shuttle smallforms PSU. The only people running the 4870X2 are those who have thrown full ATX PSUs into their shuttle, which defeats the purpose of a small footprint rig, IMO.

 

Still, I will wait and see what nvidias response to the 4870X2 is ;)

 

mtfbwya

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You're wise to wait, Astro. There's a 55NM version of the GTX280 due to be released very soon in an attempt to steal some of the 4870X2's thunder. It should boast higher clocks and lower temps and power draw. It will probably be reasonably priced in order to be competitive because it won't be able to beat the X2 in sheer performance. It won't have any of the multi-GPU scaling issues, however, and it will be the fastest single-GPU card out there. And, of course, with CUDA it will be a F@H monster. Definitely an option for those who dislike multi-GPU setups. ;)

 

I'm loving it. No matter what team you buy from, your options are going to be far better thanks to ATI's being competitive again. Since the 48xx series is selling like crack, :xp: I hope this means that DAAMIT isn't going to fold any time soon.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yep. nvidia announced they will release the GTX 280+ during the upcoming nvision2008 expo Which will be running on August 25-27th. Not too far away at all ;)

 

As for AMD, its unlikely they will fold, though they are breaking off their manufacturing division. With R800 being announced as sitting on fusion CnGPUs, theres going to be alot riding on how fusion does. It could be a deal breaker for them. Then again, you have intel tinkering away on Larabee too :p

 

Here's something you probably already know, being a CPU guru..

 

Intel developer forum shows Octo-core roadmap.. Looks like Octo-core will hit us at about the same time as Windows7.

 

8-15-08-ticktock.jpg

 

Does that mean Haswell is Dodeca-core(12)? Sometimes even I get the creeps thinking about where tech will be in 20 years time..

 

damn that Mr Moore was right :p

 

Being a display-phile, all I really want is true 3d holographic projection! I know things like the heliodisplay exist, but they are a bit far from sitting on our desktops just yet...

 

mtfbwya

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd just be satisfied with an affordable OLED that blows LCD and plasma away. ;)

 

Everything I've read about Haswell points to its being a native octa-core, though all of these cores will be rendered superfluous in the absence of multi-threaded software to take advantage of them, niche products aside. Software developers really need to catch up with CPU development. We've only had multi-cored CPUs on the desktop for, what, 3.5 years now? :p

Link to comment
Share on other sites

OLED isnt far away from hitting the shelves, but still a distance from being cheap :) I must admit, the low power footprint OLED is promising is appealing to those of us who like to keep our power bills trim !

 

Yep, its only animators, video editing/rendering folk that get the most out of all their cores(and folders too not to mention)

 

Gaming will get there, slowly. The minimum specs for a game nudge up each year, but that optimised multi-core standard isnt here yet, and probably wont be until windows7(if then)

 

The initial scuttlebut was that W7 was not going to support single core or x86 setups, but this was likely just a fanboy rumour :p

 

It definitely would be the prod devs needed to start optimising for higher end setups, but from a marketing perspective, would make W7 less popular than even vista :D

 

mtfbwya

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just want to get a CPU that has a faster clock and can run more threads than a PS 3 and Xbox 360. So the hyperthreaded Bloomfield @ 3.3GHz or better is what I'm waiting for. I know it's not an apples to apples comparison but I want to have a single socket PC that can boast it has more processing power than the consoles. :D

 

And personally I'm fine with the idea of Windows 7 only having multi-processor kernel support.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
For the RAM-Fans amongst us... you may get excited at Gigabytes Core i7 prototype, unveiled at the recent nvision conference...

 

4 PCI-e x16 slots, up to 24GB of DDR3(Triple dual channel)

 

I wonder if chainz has one on pre-order yet :p

 

mtfbwya

Oh see, now you've gone and done it... because I figured out my vid card problem. It's a bad (as in poorly specced, wussy-fied, unable to support my parts) board. I AM now definitely in the market for a new mobo :D

 

Hmm..... I wonder if they accept Mastercard :lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For the RAM-Fans amongst us... you may get excited at Gigabytes Core i7 prototype, unveiled at the recent nvision conference...

 

4 PCI-e x16 slots, up to 24GB of DDR3(Triple dual channel)

so, this is for the enthusiast that wants to play Mass Effect and UT3 simultaneously??

 

with that much available horsepower, you might be able to run Crysis on your monitor Astro. :xp:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

so, this is for the enthusiast that wants to play Mass Effect and UT3 simultaneously??

 

with that much available horsepower, you might be able to run Crysis on your monitor Astro. :xp:

 

The prototype in that linkie is actually the x-fire version. Im sure that with two 4870X2s(or 4x 4870s) on there, Crysis would be mince meat at 1600p. But then again, who wants to pay for such kit, and its associated power bills.

 

Nope. Poppin a (most likely)280+ in my shuttle will be fine for me ;) Eventually maybe an x4 phenom eventually. 3 cores can fold, one can hop in a hammock and keep a lazy eye on the fort ;) My rig can take up to 16GB. I currently have just pulled a stick out and have 3GB. Even with all the folding/gaming etc, I never seem to use RAM at more than 40%, and thats on x64. As it stands, I cant think of what Id do with 16GB. I think 4GB sticks are out, but they are far from cheap...

 

mtfbwya

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.


×
×
  • Create New...