does anyone else but me think the right hand side of the card looks like a handle? long gone are the days of having a handle on ur rig alone LMAO, now the cards are so large yuh need to carry it separate so they give yuh a handle on the card too!!!
Actually in April DAAMIT will be realeasing R610 and R630 (I believe those are the codenames) which are their mainstream DX10 parts. They are essentially cut down R600's so I would wait till then if you're considering G81 and G84 or 8300 and 8600 respectively. DAAMIT knows they have to get the mainstream out early and a March-April launch would be good seeing as Nvidia took well over 3 months to get their mainstream parts out the door. The X2300 and X26/700 should be sub $100 and sub $300 repectively. We may even get some unlockable babies in the X26/700 region as I am doubting all the parts are different chips... kinda 9500/X800XL kinda thing.
The four flavours of DAAMITs R600 detailedUFOs existBy Fuad Abazovic: Monday 12 February 2007, 13:07Click hereLAST WEEK, WE GOT the R600 driver code that we dissected and inside we found four cards based on DAAMIT chip. We wrote about it here and here.Now we may have figured out what all four cards are but now it looks now there will be even more than four. If ATI makes the Uber edition water-cooled card we are looking at five cards. Let's first talk about the four we can confirm.Dragonshead is R600XTX and is a full-length 12.4-inch card with 1024MB memory for OEMs. We wrote more about it here.The second card is Dragonshead 2 with the same clock as the R600XTX 12.4 inch card. The only difference is that this card ends up being 9.5 inches long and needs 240W power. It still has 1024MB memory and 512Mbit memory controller. It comes with two 2x3 pins power connectors that we already saw at Geforce 8800 GTX.The third card is codenamed Catseye and comes with R600XT chip clocked 10 to 15 percent slower than the R600XTX. It comes with 512B of GDDR3 memory and is 9.5 inches long and occupies two motherboard slots. In metric world it is about 24 cm long. It eats up 240W and has two power connectors, 2x3 pin ones. It should see the face of the market in April. The first three cards have dual DVI and VIVO option.The fourth R600 based card that we can confirm is codenamed UFO. We wrote about it here. The clock speed will be smaller than R600XL version and the card comes with 512 MB of GDDR3 memory. It has dual DVI and TV out but no Vivo. It is nine inches long and has dual slot cooler. It consumes 180W and has a single 2x3 power connector. It is scheduled for production in April. µ
Radeon X2600XT and X2300 details elaboratedRV610 and RV630 heading for MayBy Fuad Abazovic: Thursday 15 February 2007, 13:28Click here to find out more!WE ALREADY told you that RV610 and RV630 chips are 65 nanometre. Unfortunately not all the details from this article and table are correct.The RV630 is going to be known as the Radeon X2600XT and PRO. Radeon X2600XT is going to end up clocked at 650MHz core and 1600MHz GDDR3 memory with 256MB memory and 64 Shaders. To our surprise the card only supports a 128-bit memory interface. It should cost around $200. This will be ATI's first 65 nanometre chip.The Radeon X2600PRO will end up witha 550MHz core clock with 1400MHz GDDR3 memory and a 128-bit memory interface. The card also has 64 Shader units, so sixteen more than the R580 current high-end chip. It is priced at $150.Radeons X2300XT, PRO and LE are RV610. The top-of-the-line Radeon X2300XT is clocked at 650MHz and has the memory ticking away at 1400MHz. The card uses GDDR3 memory with a 128-bit memory controller and has 32 Shader units. It is another 65 nanometre chip and the card will sell for $100.Necxt up is the Radeon X2300PRO with 500MHz core and 1400MHz GDDR3 memory with 128-bit memory controller. It has 32 Shader units, 65 nanometre and the 256MB version will sell for $80 while the 128Mbyter should sell for $70.The last in this DirectX 10 mainstream and low-end, unified Shader line-up is the Radeon X2300LE. This card will end up clocked at 500MHz core and 800MHz memory. It uses 128MB of 128-bit GDDR 2 memory and will have 32 Shader units. The chip is 65nm, very low power consuming and will sell for around $60. A Direct X 10 card for $60 sounds like a nice bargain for Vista.There cards are expected to launch after around the beginning of May.
All AMD R6xx chips are 65 nanometre chips, nowCeBIT 007 That silicon respin was a die shrinkBy Theo Valich in Hanover: Friday 16 March 2007, 18:56WHEN YOURS TRULY learned of a new respin of the chip in early January, we learned that this respin was caused by one fact, and one fact only.The 80 nanometre chip was bleeding current like a slaughtered pig bleeds blood as said quadruped heads to the Munchner Halle to be served up as a sausage or two. Squealing.However, we did not know then that AMD did not order just a respin, but the company got an attack of bravery, didn't take the R520/R580 route, and scrapped the R600 altogether. Things change.The 80nm R600 die - as it was leaked - will now come to life only in a very limited amount of chips, since AMD decided to solve its problems by pulling all resources to go 65 nano across the board, including this 720 million trannie heavy monster. This drastically reduces power consumption and lets AMD clock the R600 to 1GHz or even more. The mass production R600 will be made on a 65 nanometre process.That means that even though AMD is more than six months behind in terms of the G80 vs. R600 battle, AMD actually now has a six month levy over the NV55, better known to people as ex-G81, currently known about as G90 - or the NV55 in the halls of Satan Clara.We have talked with several high-ranking AMD executives and confirmed this rumour. So, from March 16th at 19:59 CET - the R600 which you will buy in stores in May will be 65nm, and will consume almost one third less power than the 80 nanometre one. µ
R600's secret weapon revealedA sound card, HDMI compliantBy Charlie Demerjian: Wednesday 04 April 2007, 10:42Click here to find out more!R600 HAS A secret weapon, an internal sound card. This is the one thing that Nvidia's G8x can't match, other than HDCP on dual-link HDMI.The ATI sound implementation is not GPGPU code. It is dedicated silicon, probably brought on by the Vista DRM infection and MS twisting arms to force it on people.In any case, R600 will be compliant with the Vista requirements and can send sound directly over a HDCP/HDMI link. We are told this is a full HD sound setup, not a cheesy 2.1 channel thing.In contrast, NV G8x parts can't do this. They have to run an external cable from the sound chip to the GPU. This may not sound like much but it blows out several kinds of auto configuration and worse yet violates Vista logo requirements http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/winlogo/HWrequirements.mspx. One has to wonder if this is why NV can't seem to make a functional Vista driver six months in.The problem with Vista is that the DRM infection mandates that you do not share S/PDIF output over unencrypted links. R600 does this by combining audio and video streams, then pumping them out over HDCP infected links. This is user antagonistic DRM, but it complies with MS logo requirements, and they don't care about user experiences any more than the content mafiaa.Add in that the R600 can do dual-link HDCP and you are going to be swimming in bandwidth, more than enough to pipe sound down.Nvidia's G8x on the other hand can't do dual link HDCP at all, so if you have a 30-inch monitor, you will get a black screen. At that point, sound is the least of your problems.Basically it looks like the sound card in R600 is going to be the killer app for home theatre type apps. G8x simply can not do what is needed here, buggy drivers or not. While the DRM infection stinks, at least R600 will be able to comply. µ
Dell buys tons of AMD graphics chipsOEMs go nuts for DirectX 10 GPUsBy Theo Valich: Wednesday 11 April 2007, 08:55Click here to find out more!AMD'S R6xx SERIES may be having a troubled birth, but the amount of these babies that are being sold numbers in the millions. This is welcome news for AMD, a company that had to revise financial guidance for this year and announce restructuring.As yet unlaunched, its DX10 entry-level chip, R(V)610 is already set to become the fastest-selling graphics chip of all time. OEMs just went beserk for these cards, able to bring Vista capabilities and gaming at baseline resolutions for a very affordable price, thanks to 65nm manufacturing process at TSMC.The biggest buyer is none other than the company from Round Rock, TX. Dell went out and bought all the chips it could get. The company wants to have a DirectX10 push across the board, and needed WHQL drivers for every part of its product line-up. AMD received its R600/610/630 WHQL driver for Vista a long time ago, so it was a non-issue for the "three sticker" program (Every PC brand is enrolled in the three-sticker programme, where up to three stickers are placed on every computer in exchange for money... marketing incentives).According to pur sources, Dell wanted just about every 65nm GPU that AMD will launch to the world in very early May, following the Tech Day in Tunisia. And it had the readies ready.R(V)630 is no slouch either, and the integration of Xilleon video processing technology into the GPUs was a golden move for AMD, because a massive amount of consumer electronic companies already use this chip in their LCD/Plasma TVs.With Xilleon tech inside desktop and notebook parts, expect a lot of crossover devices to feature exactly these graphics chips. It could happen that AMD ships more than 100 million 65nm GPUs by the end of 2007, but this is a very optimistic forecast. µ
Meet AMD's 65nm R600 - the R650Analysis Making a dynamic product mixBy Theo Valich: Wednesday 11 April 2007, 11:18Job searchTop INQ jobsICT Development Officer - Transport for LondonIT Support Analyst - post production - LondonTools Developers - Cambridge - JagexTechnical Solutions Engineer, Mobile - London - GoogleLead Developer/Programmer - GameloftSearch for a job: Job searchWHEN WE FIRST wrote that AMD is working on 65nm R600 chip, half the firm itself did not have an idea of what was going on.We never wrote that 80nm GPU would be scrapped, but we did state that it would be quickly surplanted by a 65nm part.Now it seems our old chum Fudzilla has been converted to our point of view and we can now finally go out and say what 65nm R600 is and what will happen with this chip.In short, AMD's CPU manufacturing strategy will be introduced to the world of GPUs. This should result in more affordable and better performing parts. Even though AMD is not using its own manufacturing facilities or facilities that use AMD's own procedure called APM, some elements of it will be used to get flexible manufacturing with GPUs as well.First, R600 is going to be more affordable than any GPU part after Radeon 9700Pro and 9800Pro. AMD wants to undercut current high-end price bracket by $100-150, so expect an 8800GTX performing part for the price of 8800GTS. This is not all.The company is getting the 65nm part on line as soon as possible, as this will enable savings in power well within the 60-100 Watt range, depending on what part are we talking about.As we already wrote months ago, AMD developed four completely different PCBs and the company wants to cover every possible demand from its partners. We have talked with mid- and high-ranked executives and they told us that AMD plans to bring its customer centric mantra to every aspect of business.This also means redefining the way graphics and chipset wars are fought. And we have to say that we cannot wait to see the slaughter-fest between AMD, Intel, and Nvidia in 2009. Somehow, we feel that AMD is the best-positioned company, especially if the flexibility that we were told about actually ends up implemented across the board.If 65nm high-end GPUs end up on boards for $300, $350, to $400 a new era will begin indeed. Some of our AMD sources claim that most price brackets are achievable, the only real limit is yield. If AMD gets great yields from the 65nm R650, company will ship not hundreds of thousands of high-end chips, but rather millions and millions of these chips, bringing prices down and redefining its GPU sales profile. µ
AMD preps lineup including 1024 HD babyFive models at launch, HD Audio and HDMI supported all the wayBy Theo Valich: Saturday 14 April 2007, 08:32AMD MADE a mess of its own naming conventions, because it has already launched rebranded RV510 and RV530/560 products as Radeon X2300. So it decided to ditch the "X" prefix, which was introduced to mark the introduction of the PCI Express standard, even though many cards were shipped with an AGP interface.The HD models really have a reason to be called that, since from RV610LE chip to R600 boards, the HD Audio codec is present, and HDMI support is native. However, there are some video processing differences, such as a repeat of RV510/530 vs. R580 scenario, albeit with a different GPU mix.First of all, we have received a lot of e-mails from readers asking us about HDMI support and how that's done, since leaked pictures of OEM designs do not come with HDMI connectors, rather dual-link DVIs only. Again, we need to remind you of our R600 HDMI story, and that story is about elementary maths.A single dual-link DVI connector has enough bandwidth to stream both video and audio in 1280x720 and 1920x1080 onto HDMI interface by using a dongle. On lower-end models, it is possible that the dongle will be skipped and that a direct HDMI connector will be placed onto the bracket.The RV610LE will be known to the world as Radeon HD 2400 Pro, and will support 720p HD playback. If you want 1080p HD playback, you have to get a faster performing part. In addition, the HD2400Pro will be paired with DDR2 memory only, the very same chips many of enthusiasts use as their system memory - DDR2-800 or PC2-6400, 800 MHz memory. The reason for the 720p limitation is very simple - this chip heads against G86-303 chip with 64-bit memory interface, the 8300 series. It goes without saying that the RV610LE is a 64-bit chip as well.The second in line is RV610Pro chip, branded Radeon HD 2400 XT. This pup is paired with GDDR3 memory and is the first chip able to playback Full HD video (1920x1080), thanks to the fact that this is a fully-fledged RV610 GPU, no ultra-cheap-64-bit-only-PCB. RV630 Pro is an interesting one. Formally named Radeon HD 2600 Pro, it sports the very same DDR2 memory used on HD 2400Pro and GeForce 8500GTs we have, but there are some memory controller differences that will be revealed to you as soon as we get permission to put the pictures online.The RV630XT - the Radeon HD 2600 XT - is nearly identical to the Pro version when it comes to the GPU, but this board is a monster when it comes to memory support, just like its predecessor, the X1600XT. However, this is the only product in the whole launch day line-up that has support for both GDDR-3 and GDDR-4 memory types. Both GDDR-3 and GDDR-4 memory will end up clocked to heavens high, meaning the excellent 8600GTS will have a fearsome competitor.The R600 512MB is the grand finale. R600 is HD 2900 XT, as our Wily already disclosed. This board packs 512MB of GDDR-3 memory from Samsung, and offers same or a little better performance than 8800GTX, at a price point of 8800GTS. R600 GPU supports two independent video streams, so even a dual-link DVI can be done, even though we doubt this was high on AMD's priority list. This product is nine months late, and a refresh is around the corner, unless AMD continues to execute as ATi did.The R600 1GB is very interesting. Originally, we heard about this product as a GDDR-4 only, and it is supposed to launch on Computex. We heard more details, and now you need to order at least 100 cards to get it, it will be available in limited quantities only. We expect that ATi will refrain from introduction until a dual-die product from nV shows up, so that AMD can offer CrossFire version with 2GB of video memory in total, for the same price as Nvidia's 1.5GB. Then again, in the war of video memory numbers, AMD is now losing to Nvidia flat-out.AMD compromised its own product line-up with this 512MB card being the launch one, and no amount of marketing papers and powerpointery can negate the fact that AMD is nine months late and has 256MB of memory less than a six month old flagship product from the competitor. µ
