AMD 6000 series GPU is out
By
Bubblerella,
Posted on: 2010-10-22 14:39 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs
Nice! My dream computer (from my thread from earlier this month/september) on cyberpower's total dropped $20 because the cards I had selected were knocked down by this release 
.
Then again, $20, the total is still $1563 haha
http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/saved/1CR4M7 (The Link I have in my bookmarks if you're interested 
)
10 50's To Date! Check out Titan Sentinel; it got my CoH presence synced online
The long and the short of it.
The 6850 is positioned to compete better with the GTX 460 than the older 5830. It's faster than the older 5830 (but slower than the 5850) but priced around $180.
The 6870 is faster yet less expensive than the 5850 (before the rebates and sales we will see to flush the 5850 inventory). While the GTX 470 is still a bit faster, the 6870 like the 5850 still uses around 80 watts less power.
Both cards close the performance gap with nVidia while priced aggressively enough to make them attractive. Of course the scuttlebutt is nVidia will be slashing prices on the 460 and 470 again, soon. We'll see.
Also there seemed to have been a problem in the 5xxx series filtering algorithm that's been fixed on the 6xxx, the reviews make a point about it. I wonder if that was the cause of some of the "spots" in UM that people have been reporting.
Reviews of the 6850 and 6870 on the majority of the various tech review sites.
Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
$725 and $1350 parts lists --- My guide to computer components
Tempus unum hominem manet
Quote:
Kiss Nvidia goodbye if they do another price drop. Nvidia's cost to actually physically produce the GTX 470 and the GTX 480 graphics cards was already over the retail MSRP of the cards, as evidenced by the price-points Nvidia kept talking about in the months prior to the release of the GTX 470 and 480. It was well known that the GTX 470 and GTX 480 were not exactly bringing in profits, one of the reasons Nvidia pushed the GTX 465 out the door despite the 460 respin that was only a few weeks away. The GTX 470's new price point reportedly places the MSRP way under the physical construction cost.|
Originally Posted by Father Xmas
The long and the short of it.
The 6850 is positioned to compete better with the GTX 460 than the older 5830. It's faster than the older 5830 (but slower than the 5850) but priced around $180. The 6870 is faster yet less expensive than the 5850 (before the rebates and sales we will see to flush the 5850 inventory). While the GTX 470 is still a bit faster, the 6870 like the 5850 still uses around 80 watts less power. Both cards close the performance gap with nVidia while priced aggressively enough to make them attractive. Of course the scuttlebutt is nVidia will be slashing prices on the 460 and 470 again, soon. We'll see. |
The example given before with the GTX 200 series of cards is that Nvidia was having to wrap the chips with $20 bills in order to get board partners to take the chips. With the GTX 470, if the information I have is accurate, Nvidia's having to wrap the GTX 470 with a $50 bill.
The GTX 460, from the best information available, was possibly the first chip Nvidia had since the GTS 250 that cost less to actually make into a graphics card than the targeted price point, hence the swiftly dropped price on the GTX 460 784mb cards. However, the new price point of the 460 may once again put the card in the area where Nvidia is having to pay vendors to take the chips since the physical manufacturing cost is probably greater than the MSRP cost. I say probably because I don't actually know the exact break-down of the factory reference Foxconn GTX 460 1gb card. It is possible that the GTX 460 1gb might still be profitable at it's new price point.
I do know that many board vendors, such as Galaxy, Sparkle, Zotac, MSI, and Asus, were cutting corners on construction of various Nvidia cards in order to eek out profits. Given that little bit of information, I'm inclined to believe that the price drop on the GTX 460 and GTX 470 is likely to decrease the number of Nvidia board partners.
Basically, I don't know what Nvidia's strategy is right now, and I look forward to upcoming investors calls. Reports have been brewing of a GTX 580 card, presumably a suped-up version of the GF104 used in the GTX 460.
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| Also there seemed to have been a problem in the 5xxx series filtering algorithm that's been fixed on the 6xxx, the reviews make a point about it. I wonder if that was the cause of some of the "spots" in UM that people have been reporting. |
AMD has a new Anti-Aliasing implementation currently listed as: Morphological Anti-Aliasing
Now, I don't actually know all that much about MAA. According to Guru3D the new feature will also work on RadeonHD 5x00 series cards, and can be used under DX9, DX10, and DX11 API's: http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=331108
If what Guru3D says is true then MAA should also work across OpenGL 2.x, 3.x, and 4.x API's, which should mean it will work in City of Heroes. The big question is whether or not AMD will backport MAA to any previous graphics cards. As I understand the previews MAA has a significant performance penalty, and there's a chance that previous generation cards simply may not be able to process MAA.
Also, the HotFix driver lists some issues with OpenGL acceleration, which may indicate some other uncovered errors that would affect City of Heroes rendering.
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| Reviews of the 6850 and 6870 on the majority of the various tech review sites. |
I must say, that for me, it was the performance/price/power draw that really made me take notice with the new AMDs. Less power, more FPS on something that's near a 5870, no brainer IMO.
You have to keep in mind that these are replacements for the 5770 and 5830. Next month will cover the 5850/5870 cards and maybe the 5970. Heck, they run cooler than the current generation, why wouldn't there be a 6990!
I look forward to running CoX UM maxed @1920 X 1080 for $240
I have nothing against Nvidia, I'm no fan boy of either, but like Je_Saint said, if they don't get their Sh*t together they're not for long.
Edited for spelling.............. What can I say, it's Friday
@MARTy McFly
Quote:
The build I was referring to gave me a pricing change notification when I clicked my link for it this week, referencing the nvidia 460 768mbs, and lowered the total $20. Since there were 2 in the build for SLI that means cyberpowerpc has lowered the cost of their 460 768mb $10 already.|
Originally Posted by Father Xmas
Both cards close the performance gap with nVidia while priced aggressively enough to make them attractive. Of course the scuttlebutt is nVidia will be slashing prices on the 460 and 470 again, soon. We'll see.
|
You are expecting them to drop again soon? About how much lol? That would be awesome for me, CoHs graphics went up with UM and Praetoria, but I don't expect another graphics upgrade from them again soon so my requirements are still the same, I'll keep the currently selected cards instead of jumping on the new ones and enjoy the discount
10 50's To Date! Check out Titan Sentinel; it got my CoH presence synced online
Well when they were first announced, the 768MB GTX 460 was $200 while the 1GB card was $230. Then ATI dropped it's prices across the board. Then the 768MB GTX 460 was dropped to $170-180 and now I'm seeing it at $160 and $200 for the 1GB card.
It's great for us when there's competition. I'm just hoping that AMD's Bulldozer CPU will close the performance gap with Intel. Problem is Intel is now one gen ahead of AMD and by the time these new AMD CPUs are out, Intel will already have their next gen out as well.
Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
$725 and $1350 parts lists --- My guide to computer components
Tempus unum hominem manet
ooo CPUs are about to have competing new releases, do they have an approximate releasedate yet? Even as vague as a month (lol)?
10 50's To Date! Check out Titan Sentinel; it got my CoH presence synced online
Well Intel's new "Sandy Bridge" CPUs are due the quarter, in theory. However one rumored drawback is they will be extremely locked down for overclockers and they all, including the "replacement" to the i7-8xx series, will have onboard graphics. They will only work in the new Socket 1155 with the P/H6x motherboards. Intel will sell "unlocked multiplier" versions for overclockers.
AMD's is reported to be ready I think 2Q 2011. Also a new socket, AM3+. Current AM3 CPUs will work in it but the new CPUs won't work in the older AM3 motherboards.
For an overly technical analysis of the two designs. Talking senior college material, well it was when I was in college.
Intel's Sandy Bridge
AMD's Bulldozer
Extremely less technical info about the two.
Intel's Sandy Bridge
AMD's Bulldozer
Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
$725 and $1350 parts lists --- My guide to computer components
Tempus unum hominem manet
Quote:
I wouldn't say that.|
Originally Posted by Father Xmas
AMD's is reported to be ready I think 2Q 2011. Also a new socket, AM3+. Current AM3 CPUs will work in it but the new CPUs won't work in the older AM3 motherboards.
|
Some of the Bulldozer demonstrations have been on existing AM3 motherboards that you can buy today.
The catch is the same as the Socket AM3 to Socket AM2 compatibility. The Bulldozer chips won't be as fast on the existing Socket AM3 infrastructure, and will need the new socket in order to achieve maximum performance.
Morphological AA is a post-processing filter; it looks at an image and smooths out edges, without looking at how the image was made.
You know in a SNES or Megadrive (Genesis) emulator you had different ways of upsampling the games, like 2xSAI, Super eagle, all the rest? This is kind of like that. It smooths out jagged edges without knowing what the edge was meant to be in the first place. It's very fast, but will screw up text rendering and possibly degrade the image.
Necrobond - 50 BS/Inv Scrapper made in I1
Rickar - 50 Bots/FF Mastermind
Anti-Muon - 42 Warshade
Ivory Sicarius - 45 Crab Spider
Aber ja, nat�rlich Hans nass ist, er steht unter einem Wasserfall.
Quote:
Damn it je_saist, just do your research first.|
Originally Posted by je_saist
I wouldn't say that.
Some of the Bulldozer demonstrations have been on existing AM3 motherboards that you can buy today. The catch is the same as the Socket AM3 to Socket AM2 compatibility. The Bulldozer chips won't be as fast on the existing Socket AM3 infrastructure, and will need the new socket in order to achieve maximum performance. |
Desktop Bulldozer Processors Will Require New Platforms - AMD
And before you poo-poo X-bit Labs or Planet3DNow (which is in German so I didn't bother to link it here);
20 Questions Part 4 from AMD's own blog. Search from AM3+ and you will find the following in the comment section.
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Eek October 22, 2010 Bulldozer will work with AM3 MOBO? John Fruehe October 22, 2010 Only works in AM3+ Yuhong Bao October 22, 2010 So a new mobo will be required for desktop version of Bulldozer? Just to clarify. John Fruehe October 23, 2010 yes |
Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
$725 and $1350 parts lists --- My guide to computer components
Tempus unum hominem manet
AMD has just released two mid ranged cards, the 6850 and 6870.
I orderd my 6870 last night before the first batch of Asus ran out
Happy review reading!
http://www.amd.com/us/products/deskt...n-hd-6000.aspx
@MARTy McFly