ATI dual-GPU DirectX 11 card by Christmas

**topgear** · 06-09-2009, 06:44 AM

More info (well the code-name really) on AMD's upcoming DirectX 11 cards and mentions the company's dual-GPU Radeon HD 5870 X2 "Hemlock" graphics card have surfaced on the web. The Dual-GPU card will likely arrive by the end of the year, thus the silly season aka Christmas.

Based on the currently available information, ATI’s DirectX 11 family will consist of the following products:

Evergreen family:

Hemlock - dual-chip flagship graphics solutions powered by two RV870 chips (originally known as R800);

Cypress – single-chip high-performance graphics solution based on RV870 chip that will replace ATI Radeon HD 4890;

Juniper – single chip performance graphics solution that will replace the remaining Radeon HD 4870 and 4850 graphics boards. It is highly likely that this one is based on the RV870 as well;

Redwood – single chip mainstream graphics solution(s) based on RV830 chip that will replace both RV730 and RV740-based solutions;
Cedar – single chip entry-level graphics solution(s) based on RV810 chip;

Starting at DX11 class product, you will no longer see product numbers like RV7700 / RV870 etc etc yet code names like shown above, well at least on the consumer side. Internally we know for sure they still will use the numbering. I guess it's another way of marketing.

It is rumored that the dual-GPU solution will costs a hefty $599. Radeon HD 5870 is set to go on sale for $379-399, while the cheapest entry into the 5800 series, the Radeon HD 5850 is priced in the $279-299 bracket.

These prices are highly speculative, and we expect them to be lower really.

Source : http://www.guru3d.com/news/ati-dualg...-by-christmas/

desiibond · 06-09-2009, 10:12 AM

^^I think ATI would start with high piricing as they really won't have anything from nvidia to compete with their cards. Once nvidia gets ready with their dx11 cards, ATI may do drastic price cuts. As a result of this they will make early profits with heavy margins and will not allow nvidia to get good margins on their cards.

**Krow** · 06-09-2009, 10:46 AM

If only ATI could buy HW acceleration 4m Intel... Havok would wreck PhysX!

desiibond · 06-09-2009, 10:49 AM

^^ATI Stream
-----------------------------------------
Posted again:
-----------------------------------------
GPU Technology for Accelerated Computing

ATI Stream technology is a set of advanced hardware and software technologies that enable AMD graphics processors (GPU), working in concert with the system’s central processor (CPU), to accelerate many applications beyond just graphics. This enables better balanced platforms capable of running demanding computing tasks faster than ever.

Along with leading third party industry partners and academic institutions worldwide, AMD is building a complete ATI Stream computing ecosystem, one that delivers the performance, applications, software and tools necessary to turn AMD's low-cost application acceleration vision into reality.

Characteristics of GPU acceleration:

* Enable new applications on new architectures
* Parallel problems other than graphics that map well on GPU architecture
* Transition from fixed function to programmable pipelines
* Various proof points in research and industry under the name GPGPU

**Krow** · 06-09-2009, 11:25 AM

Good, but this is in ATI marketing lingo, which I expect to be of the highest-quality-fastest-material-best-in-the-world types... I am eager for the launch and some benchmarks! Then we will see what ATI Stream is capable of.

**topgear** · 07-09-2009, 05:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by desiibond

^^I think ATI would start with high piricing as they really won't have anything from nvidia to compete with their cards. Once nvidia gets ready with their dx11 cards, ATI may do drastic price cuts. As a result of this they will make early profits with heavy margins and will not allow nvidia to get good margins on their cards.

You said all I wanted to say! yup, that's ATI's marketing policy.

But I think nvidia is going to offer better performance than HD5xxx with their GTX3xx series and they will also publish some value based cards to give the red monster a big hit. That's why they are very calm & working silently to give us a big surprise with their DX11 range of gpu's

shrihara · 10-09-2009, 04:42 PM

would have been great if the card had used PCI Express 3.0 slot and hence double the bandwidth

**topgear** · 11-09-2009, 06:03 AM

PCI-e 3.0 has not officially released yet as there are some test to be done about it's backward compatibility. It will release on Q2 of 2010 and we may see PCI-e 3.0 mobos on Q4 of 2010 or Q1 of 2011. So ATI did not ( actually was not able to ) use it with their first generation DX11 GPU.

I think PCI-E 2.0 bandwidth is enough to handle the requirements of

BTW, I will wait for nvidia's GT3 series cards