^I thought you didn't have money.....
November's big news was, of course, the release of Nvidia's GeForce GTX 580. The GF110 GPU shows us what Nvidia originally intended Fermi to be, with all 512 shader cores fully functional. The card has 64 texture units and 48 ROPs, running at 772/1544 MHz core/shader clocks and 1002 MHz (4008 MT/s effective) GDDR5 memory. Simply put, Nvidia's single-GPU flagship gives the dual-GPU Radeon HD 5970 a run for its money, though neither card can claim clear superiority, as both take their share of victories in the benchmarks. A dual Radeon HD 6870/GeForce GTX 470 setup offers more raw performance, but the GeForce GTX 580 and Radeon HD 5970 get honorable mentions for delivering their frame rates in a single-card form factor, rather than eating up as much as five upgrade slots worth of expansion. Unfortunately, both look like they're suffering limited availability right now.Soon after the 580 appeared, Nvidia also released the GeForce GTX 570. This card uses the same GF110 GPU featured in the GeForce GTX 580, but slightly crippled down to 480 shader cores, 60 texture units, and 48 ROPs. If this sounds familiar, that's because those are the same front-end specifications used to create the GeForce GTX 480. The back-end is dialed down to GeForce GTX 470-like specs, with a 320-bit memory interface, but the 732/1464 MHz core/shader clocks and 950 MHz memory clock are higher than anything from the GeForce GTX 400 generation. The real news is that these cards are readily available for $350, pushing GeForce GTX 480-class performance down to a new low price.Soon after the release of the GeForce GTX 570, AMD's counter-punch arrived with the Radeon HD 6950 and 6970, both armed with the company's Cayman GPU. The Radeon HD 6970 is now AMD's fastest single-GPU option, featuring 1536 shaders, 96 texture units, 32 ROPs, a 256-bit memory interface, and 880/1375 MHz core/memory speeds. The Radeon HD 6950 is slightly crippled with 1408 shaders and 88 texture units enabled, but the same 256-bit memory bus with all 32 ROPs enabled. The 6950 also employs slightly lower 800/1250 MHz core/memory frequencies. To make a long story short, the Radeon HD 6970 is roughly as fast as the GeForce GTX 570, and the Radeon HD 6950 is roughly as fast as the Radeon HD 5870. But the Radeon HD 6950 and 6970 are available at $300 and $360, respectively, and at these prices they are both compelling buys.Not really a unique card so much as a variant, there is a new cut-down GeForce GTX 460 available called the GeForce GTX 460 SE. It has 288 shader cores (instead of the reference model's 336), and lower 650/1300 MHz core/shader clocks coupled with a 850 MHz (3400 MT/s effective) memory clock. On the other hand, it has the full 256-bit memory interface of the GeForce GTX 460 1 GB. Although we have seen this card sold for $160 on Newegg, it's as low as $140 after rebate. At this price, it may be good competition for the Radeon HD 5770, but without having tested the product, we can't make a call on its performance just yet.On a final note, keep in mind that AMD has made it no secret that the Radeon HD 6990 will be a Q1 2011 product. It'll be driven by two Cayman GPUs that we'd expect to demonstrate performance similar to a pair of Radeon HD 6950s in CrossFire. We're very curious to see if Nvidia will allow AMD to once again grab an undisputed title to the fastest single graphics card in the world, or if the company has an alternative dual-card solution up its sleeve. Wouldn't it be interesting if the green team surprised the red team with a well-kept secret ahead of AMD's 6990 debut? That'd really be something.
January Updates:Happy new year! Two thousand ten was a big year for powerful graphics cards, and 2011 will be no different. Having just been introduced to the Radeon HD 6900-series and GeForce GTX 570, we're on the cusp of a dual-GPU Radeon 6990, code-named Antilles. Our hope, of course, will be that Nvidia counters with its own GF110-based board to make the ultra-high-end a lot more interesting early on.What about the market as it stands today, though? Cards are disappearing off of store shelves and prices are shifting. The Radeon HD 5800-series is already becoming scarce, but blowout pricing makes these cards a potentially great deal (with some Radeon HD 5850s and 5870s as low as $170 and $270, respectively). We can't give them a solid recommendation because availability is limited, but at these prices you should certainly consider a discounted Radeon HD 5800 card if you can find it.The new Radeon HD 6800s recently dropped a few dollars, too, with the 6850 and 6870 found as low as $180 and $230. The GeForce GTX 460 is priced close to the 6850, but the GeForce GTX 470 typically costs $30 more than the 6870, at the time of writing. This spread is a little higher than it should be from a price/performance valuation, so we're taking the recommendation away from the GeForce GTX 470 until the cost falls a little more in line.The flagships from both camps are increasingly becoming hard to find, especially the Radeon HD 5970. This makes sense, since it will soon be replaced, but the GeForce GTX 580 is also looking limited, especially on Newegg and Zipzoomfly (TigerDirect and Mwave both have a handful of brands in stock). Perhaps the shortage is due to the inevitable demand of the holidays, but we'll keep an eye on retail stock nevertheless.Aside from this, the world waits to see what Sandy Bridge and Fusion will soon do for integrated graphics, and we wait with baited breath for the new dual GPU-equipped high end to arrive.
There was one major graphics launch last month: Nvidia's GeForce GTX 560 Ti. In summary, this new card offers the performance of GeForce GTX 470 with the power signature (roughly) of a GeForce GTX 460. It's based on the new GF114 GPU, which is essentially a re-spun GF104 with all of its 384 CUDA cores enabled, plus 64 texture units and 32 ROPs.In comparison, the GeForce GTX 460's GF104 graphics processor had one of its streaming multiprocessors disabled, resulting in cut-back 336 CUDA cores and 56 texture units. The GeForce GTX 560 Ti also sports relatively high 822/1644/1002 MHz core/shader/memory frequencies. The bottom line? At $250, this card offers a great price/performance ratio, just like the GeForce GTX 470, but with lower power usage. This card gets our recommendation out of the gate, and you can read more about it in: Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 Ti Review: GF114 Rises, GF100 Rides Off. On a side note, Nvidia resurrected the premium Ti suffix with this card. We suspect this move was made with an eye to the future, so lesser models based on the same GPU might be designated with a different name (hopefully to avoid confusion, rather than to create more of it).The same day that Nvidia announced its GeForce GTX 560 Ti, AMD launched a Radeon HD 6950 1 GB to counter it. In testing, we found the 1 GB card is every bit as fast as the pricier 2 GB version. It only gives up performance at quality levels that exceed the 1 GB frame buffer (Metro 2033 with 4xAA and High Quality settings, in our experience). Frankly, that's a more attractive value play than the 2 GB model. That is, unless you're interested in trying to soft-mod your 2 GB board into a Radeon HD 6970.We've seen a lot of reported success modding AMD's Radeon HD 6950 2 GB to a full Radeon HD 6970 2 GB with a BIOS flash. Both of these cards are based on the exact same Cayman GPU, but the Radeon HD 6950 is crippled, with two of its 24 SIMD engines disabled. AMD can choose to purposely handicap its GPUs physically or via firmware. Apparently, the retail Radeon HD 6950s currently available are soft-moddable for the most part, and can be unlocked with a relatively simple BIOS flash.The real beauty of this is that the 6900-series cards come with a BIOS-backup switch. So, if a flash fails, there's a way to resurrect the card. Keep in mind that there's always a chance of damaging your hardware or rendering it unstable with such an update. After all, there's no guarantee that the disabled SIMDs passed validation to begin with. On top of this, AMD could very well be scrambling to change the way it disables logic on the 2 GB Radeon HD 6950s, and unlocked cards might dry up at retail. There's certainly no guarantee that the card you buy will be easily modified.Successful modification results in a card with the full 1536 shader processors and 96 texture units enabled, just like the Radeon HD 6970, although some modified BIOS files out there allow the card to run the 6950's lower 1250 MHz GDDR5 memory speed.There have been relatively few price changes, and that's likely a result of the very crowded (and competitive) mid-range. There's simply not as much room for prices to shift with fast products in each pertinent segment and few obvious holes left. We have seen a few deals on Newegg that stand out, so we'll mention them: we found a Palit GeForce 9800 GT for $60, which is about $45 less than other models. And according to its specs, it's a fully-functional 112-shader card that will outperform a Radeon HD 5670. There's also a Diamond Radeon HD 5870 for $235, which is very impressive when you consider that this card is notably faster than the Radeon HD 6870 and about as fast as the Radeon HD 6950. The prices of these cards are an anomaly compared to the rest of the playing field, so we can't give them full recommendations in the list below. As individual values, they're uncontested, though.
We didn't see any new graphics card launches in the past month, but that will change in March.As we reported at the end of February, the GeForce GTX 550 Ti specifications were already leaked. Rumor has it that this card is an overclocked GeForce GTS 450 designed to take on the popular Radeon HD 5770. Now found online as low as $125, AMD's card has been a price/performance leader for some time, with no direct competition. So, it makes sense that Nvidia would launch an alternative. With no official word from the company, we'll have to wait and see if the rumors are true, or if the new GeForce GTX 550 Ti is a different animal.Whatever happened to the dual-GPU flagships we were supposed to see last year (in the case of the Radeon HD 6990) and earlier this year (in the case of the GeForce GTX 590)? Recall the Radeon HD 6800 launch, where AMD suggested its dual-GPU "Antilles" card would arrive before Q4 2010. We saw the Radeon HD 6990 at CeBIT. Rumor has it that this board performs similarly to a pair of Radeon HD 6950s. But as this column is being written right on the cusp of the launch (and Chris won't share any of the specs or performance data), you'll want to keep your eyes peeled for our review.Rumors abound of Nvidia's response to the Radeon HD 6990, a card suspected to be called the GeForce GTX 590. We can't divulge much about it, aside from the Internet-based speculation. However, a dual-GF110-based solution would seem likely. If the card is, in fact, on its way, we imagine it would follow relatively soon after the Radeon HD 6990 launch. But even that is postulation at this point.While not strictly graphics-oriented news, AMD recently released a little information about its upcoming "Llano" APU. This is the next Fusion-based design, which will find itself in notebooks and also desktops. Whereas the Brazos-based platforms already shipping center on AMD's Bobcat processing cores, Llano centers on the existing Stars architecture found in Phenom II and Athlon II CPUs. The YouTube demo pits AMD's A8-3510MX processor with its integrated Radeon HD 6620M graphics against a Core i7-2630QM and its integrated Intel HD Graphics 3000. In the comparison, admittedly controlled entirely by AMD's own lab, Llano wipes the floor with mobile Sandy Bridge. Based on transistor counts we've seen before, Llano's integrated Radeon HD 6620M might very well be as powerful as a Radeon HD 5570. This is something we're really looking forward to from integrated graphics, as we believe it may have the potential to bring budget-class 720p gaming to the PC.Last month did present us with the usual and expected price fluctuations, of course. First off, we're mentioning a deal that may not last: the HIS Radeon HD 5550 GDDR5 is on Newegg for $61 right now. The Radeon HD 5550 with GDDR5 never seemed to take off, but HIS was an early adopter, and with the only model that we can find, we're wondering if the low price reflects a discontinued product. If there was more than a single model available, we'd easily give this card a full recommendation. But, it sits in too precarious of a position to take that. Suffice it to say, budget graphics card buyers probably don't need to look further than this card, assuming availability lasts. It performs about as well as the Radeon HD 5570 for a few dollars less, but in cases where the memory bandwidth is taxed, it can beat the 5570.With the superior Radeon HD 5770 dropping to $125, it becomes very difficult to recommend the Radeon HD 5750 or GeForce GTS 450. Because of this, the 512 MB GeForce GTS 250 at $100 takes a recommendation for performance, as it maintains enough of a spread between the 5770 to make it worthwhile. In addition, the 1 GB Radeon HD 6950 at $250 removes the recommendation for the Radeon HD 6870 and GeForce GTX 560 Ti, as it's price is close enough to the lower-end cards to discount them as recommended buys.
