Forums | MacLife

Bat · 2008-09-05 3:10 am

NightCougar_37 wrote:
Man I hope M$ got their Larrabee vaccinations.

Will yours make you break out in hives if you touch a 720? tongue wink

NightCougar_37 · 2008-09-05 3:24 pm

M$ would be stupid to blindly drop in Intel for money reasons. Gotta take a lot into consideration when designing a console. While M$ was a bonehead with the original Xbox, they have learned from their mistakes. Intel would do better by pimping this tech to handheld units or to Nintendo who likes to think more outside the box at times.

Bat · 2008-09-06 7:45 am

NightCougar_37 wrote:
M$ would be stupid to blindly drop in Intel for money reasons. Gotta take a lot into consideration when designing a console. While M$ was a bonehead with the original Xbox, they have learned from their mistakes.

Like when they emphasized reliability in the 360? tongue

NightCougar_37 · 2008-09-07 2:12 am

Well that they didn't learn from much. But overall parts wise and design. They did go with much better parts, its just they forgot how much some people play Halo 3 tongue .

Bat · 2008-09-07 2:36 am

They should've kept the HDD in all units, too. That would've helped performance, and units without haven't sold well. Only now, with the Arcade model at $200, ppl with existing 20GB units and newer, bigger units you can transfer your 20GB data to, does the Arcade model make sense. It has HDMI-out, unlike any original, and once it gets the Jasper mobo it could be a viable upgrade choice for an early adopter. With bigger HDDs, the coming 'install to HDD' option is that much more attractive.

Bat · 2008-09-07 9:37 pm

So, enough with the consoles already.

NVIDIA 9500 GT: Mainstream Graphics Update
The 9500 GT has been out for a while now, and today we take a look at what it has to offer....

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3401

Bat · 2008-09-09 6:05 pm

Nvidia Corp., the world’s largest supplier of discrete graphics processing units, reportedly readies two new higher-end graphics processors that are set to be launched late this year and in the first quarter of 2009.

A slide from a presentation by Elsa, a supplier of Nvidia-based graphics cards, shows that Nvidia plans to release code-named GT206 product made using 55nm process technology sometime in late 2008 or early 2009. Another product that the roadmap reveals is code-named GT212, which is set to be produced using 45nm process technology and which is due in Q1 2009 or even later.

Nvidia’s Enthusiast-Class Product Roadmap Leaked: Code-Named GT212 Due Next Year

Bat · 2008-09-10 2:55 pm

Look out, 9500.

..The RV730 XT is a derivative of the GPU in the 4800 series cards, and it carries over some of the benefits we saw inherent in the architecture changes. Of these, antialiasing saw a major benefit, but we also see changes like increases in cache sizes, texturing power, and z/stencil ability. We won't see performance on par with the 3870 in general, but the 4670 will do some damage in certain situations, especially if AA comes into play.
...

Also of interest is the fact that AMD has added support in the RV730 for 900 MHz DDR3. The move away from GDDR3 toward the currently ramping up and dropping in price system memory solution is quite cool. Let's take a look at that in a little more depth.

So solder one of these on a Mini logic board and.. oh, right. hmm tongue

AMD Radeon HD 4670: Ruling from Top to Bottom

Bat · 2008-09-16 6:22 pm

NVIDIA however, just hasn't gotten the hint. The GT200 launch gave us two simply named cards: the GeForce GTX 280 and GTX 260, but it didn't take long for NVIDIA to confuse the marketplace with the launch of the GeForce 9800 GTX+. I hoped that the naming silliness was limited to the older GeForce 9 GPUs, but today it extended into the GTX lineup.

It's called the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216.

The GeForce GTX 260 Core 216's name is actually quite descriptive, albeit absurdly long. [..]

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 Core 216: Competition for the 4870

Biz:

NVIDIA Fights Two Class Action Suits over GPU Failures

Bat · 2008-09-24 5:13 pm

Red Team's had a few issues too, but minor and responsibly fixed...

EVERY TIME WE write something about Nvidia's woeful reliability record and honest communications, the fanbois come out of the woodwork and ask "what about the bad ATI cards?" We have spent months looking for such beasts, and eventually found out the source of those whispers, but it isn't ATI.
...

To put it in perspective, there were way way more than a million 38xx parts sold, and some sources put the number much closer to two million than one. Even if there were only one million sold, that would put the bad run of parts at two per cent of the total made, and of that five per cent, or one tenth of a percent failed.

Another thing to realise is that these parts are most definitely not the reference design made by ATI. An ODM or AIB changed something, or somethings, that they should not have, and that lead to problems. The stock parts are fine, and no other vendor that we talked to had heard of the problems, so they look to have been contained to a single run, caught and mostly fixed before many got into the wild.

Diamond isn't shirking responsibility like certain competing GPU vendors out there, and if you have one of these cards, you should contact them so they can make things right. In any case, due to the tiny number of bad parts out there, it is unlikely that you will ever see one, much less have one die on you. A tenth of a percent is a pretty small number.

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/ … 3870s-fail

..while it just gets worse for the Other Guys.

Nvidia chipsets are defective too
BumpGate Only 630, 7050, 7100 and 7150 changed for no reason

Nvidia stiffs the channel over 9500/9600s
Let them eat silicon-flavoured cake

Bat · 2008-09-25 1:13 am

The Radeon HD 4870 1GB: The Card to Get
Many have been waiting for the higher memory variant of AMD's 4870 since its launch. It is now available...
September 25, 2008

Ooh.

With the launch of the Radeon HD 4870, AMD showed us that they are not only still in the game, but they are back. Their hardware either out performed or was on par with NVIDIA hardware priced significantly higher. As a result, NVIDIA was forced to significantly adjust their prices downward to remain competitive. And, currently, they are competitive in terms of pricing and performance.
...

Of course, the core 216 might also have been anticipating the eventual availability of the Radeon 4870 1GB. In which case, the core 216 falls short.

Well, it isn't just that the GTX 260 falls a little short. The fact is that the extra RAM really does make a significant difference in many high quality high resolution situations when playing current games. We didn't expect the gains we see here, and combined with the original stellar performance of the Radeon HD 4870, we have to say that we are impressed.

big_smile

Last edited by Bat (2008-09-25 1:18 am)

Bat · 2008-09-29 5:27 pm

This could as well go in In Tech News.

NVIDIA and ATI would each pay $850,000 to settle price fixing allegations

NVIDIA has offered to settle some of the pending lawsuits against it out of court. The suits in question that NVIDIA is trying to settle stem from allegations of price fixing in the GPU market.

NVIDIA filed an 8-K form that outlines the settlement offer to close the litigation against it out of court. The agreement to settle claims from the class action suit that alleged NVIDIA and ATI conspired to fix pricing for their respective GPUs to inflate and stabilize GPU prices. Settlement of the claims will have NVIDIA paying $850,000 into a fund for the class with ATI/AMD providing a matching $850,000 contribution.

While NVIDIA filed the 8-K form outlining and making its intent to settle the claims public, no official statement has come from AMD on the proposed settlement. Courts still need to approve the class action suit before the case is over. The settlement with the class waiting for approval by the courts does not obligate NVIDIA to pay for the plaintiffs’ attorney fees, costs, or any other payments besides the $850,000.

NVIDIA Offers Settlements in Suits Over GPU Price Fixing

A black eye for each on top of NV's ongoing woes over defective chips.

Bat · 2008-09-30 10:27 pm

Oooh, new GPUs from AMD - however these ones aren't going to be breaking any performance records, they are both priced below $60.

The Radeon HD 4350 and 4550 are slotted in between integrated graphics and the set of hardware we took a look at recently in our Radeon 4670 review. The Radeon HD 4550 will run you around $45 - $55, while the Radeon HD 4350 will be priced at $39. Generally speaking, if you're a gamer you're not spending any less than $150 for a graphics card - so these GPUs are mostly for enabling hardware Blu-ray acceleration or providing a boost in performance over games running on integrated graphics.
...

The Perfect HTPC Cards

Like the rest of the Radeon HD 4000 series (4870, 4850, 4670 and 4650) the new Radeon HD 4550 and 4350 both support 8-channel LPCM over HDMI. This makes these two cards the perfect addition to any HTPC for use in a 6 or 8 channel home theater setup. The Radeon HD 4550 reference design is a full height PCI Express x16 card but it's completely passively cooled, making it an even better HTPC solution than the 4670 and cheaper. If you don't care about gaming performance but want a good way of upgrading your PC to full hardware H.264/VC-1/MPEG-2 acceleration, the 4550 is perfect, especially if the multi-channel LPCM over HDMI output matters to you.
...

AMD states that while both the 4550 and 4350 support full hardware Blu-ray decode acceleration, the 4350 may not be able to fully accelerate a high bitrate 2nd stream for picture in picture scenarios. We didn't have the opportunity to test this on our 4350 but we'll be following up with more HD decode tests in a future HTPC article. Both GPUs should decode a single stream 1080p Blu-ray movie without any issues, offloading 100% of the decode pipeline to the GPU; we confirmed that the 4550 works as expected and we're assuming the 4350 is the same given that the hardware is identical.

And who could resist

As usual, Intel's integrated graphics are the biggest joke of the bunch. But that's not any sort of feather in AMD or NVIDIA's cap here: Intel's G35 is just really horrible hardware for 3D.

tongue

ATI Radeon HD 4350 and 4550: Great HTPC Solutions

Bat · 2008-10-03 2:20 pm

NV becomes Confuse-a-Cat. Ltd.

AS IF ITS OLD naming scheme wasn’t complex enough, Nvidia has gone and done it again, hoping that by adding a few more Gs 'n' T and Ss into the mix, it can make its old cards seem more appealing.

Rumours of the Nvidia name shuffle have been floating around for a while now, but today a VR-Zone forum thread established that a file in the Forceware 178.15 beta graphics drivers did indeed have details about the changes.

Apparently, the Nvidia_G92.DEV_0615.1 is to become Nvidia Geforce GTS 150, whilst Nvidia_G94.DEV_0626.1 becomes Nvidia Geforce GT 130 and Nvidia_G96.DEV_0646.1 magically transforms into Nvidia Geforce GT 120.

The re-branding will reportedly apply to all 55nm GeForce 9-series cards although it remains unclear whether current cards will also get the peel-off-old-and-stick-on-new-name sticker treatment.

Nvidia sticks new names on old cards, hopes no one will notice

NightCougar_37 · 2008-10-03 4:18 pm

So instead of 9 series boards failing, we'll have 1 series boards failing....yay!

CG5Addict · 2008-10-03 7:15 pm

Bat wrote:
The Radeon HD 4870 1GB: The Card to Get
Many have been waiting for the higher memory variant of AMD's 4870 since its launch. It is now available...
September 25, 2008
Ooh.

With the launch of the Radeon HD 4870, AMD showed us that they are not only still in the game, but they are back. Their hardware either out performed or was on par with NVIDIA hardware priced significantly higher. As a result, NVIDIA was forced to significantly adjust their prices downward to remain competitive. And, currently, they are competitive in terms of pricing and performance.
...

Of course, the core 216 might also have been anticipating the eventual availability of the Radeon 4870 1GB. In which case, the core 216 falls short.

Well, it isn't just that the GTX 260 falls a little short. The fact is that the extra RAM really does make a significant difference in many high quality high resolution situations when playing current games. We didn't expect the gains we see here, and combined with the original stellar performance of the Radeon HD 4870, we have to say that we are impressed.

Well as I posted in a differant forum, I still plan shortly on buying a Mac Pro with Two 3.2GHz, 8GB of memory, 2 500GB hard drives and a 30" Apple Display monitor. Now this may sound like a dumb question, will this card be available for Mac computers? If so, should I have Apple install the ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT, then install this card? and yes I'm a gamer. tongue

Booksley · 2008-10-03 11:43 pm

CG5Addict wrote:
Well as I posted in a differant forum, I still plan shortly on buying a Mac Pro with Two 3.2GHz, 8GB of memory, 2 500GB hard drives and a 30" Apple Display monitor. Now this may sound like a dumb question, will this card be available for Mac computers? If so, should I have Apple install the ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT, then install this card? and yes I'm a gamer.

The HD4870 might be available in a year or two, if The Steve wills it to be so.

If you're purchasing this for work or something, then it makes sense to go all out, with the gaming just being a side benefit. But if you're purchasing this just for gaming, I would strongly urge you to reconsider.

You could pick up a basic Mac Pro, a top of the line gaming tower, an Xbox 360, a PS3, a Wii, games for all 3 systems, and a 30" monitor (from Dell or Samsung or anyone other than Apple, really) for cheaper than what you said you wanted to purchase. And it'd be a helluva lot better at gaming than any Mac Pro you could get your hands on now.

ScifiterX · 2008-10-04 1:22 am

It strikes me for MacBook Pro & iMac he probably asks for the best onboard video card(s) he can get within specific heat and cost parameters. For the Mac Pros, he asks for a reasonably priced card that's superior to the both the iMac card & the last standard card used in the Mac Pro plus any superior cards that the card makers will sell them, however since Apple's line isn't usually video upgrade friendly that tends be a limited selection and quantity.

Bat · 2008-10-04 3:21 am

CG5Addict wrote:
Well as I posted in a differant forum, I still plan shortly on buying a Mac Pro with Two 3.2GHz, 8GB of memory, 2 500GB hard drives and a 30" Apple Display monitor. Now this may sound like a dumb question, will this card be available for Mac computers? If so, should I have Apple install the ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT, then install this card? and yes I'm a gamer.

It wouldn't make any difference what the original card was, really, unless you stick with a CTO config. For upgrading, what Books said. Maybe in future, but the retail market seems almost dry, and well behind the curve. Don't count on even the base 512M 4870 being available anytime soon, if ever. As released it's not Mac-compatible. And I know... Books, Cee, Cee, Books; both of [MA], as in Cee & Driven.

The 1GB model mainly exels at very high, i.e. 19x12 res and up with FSAA enabled. The only exceptions, like Crysis, need Boot Camp and will never make it to OSX. Ever. Sorry.

Booksley wrote:
CG5Addict wrote:
Well as I posted in a differant forum, I still plan shortly on buying a Mac Pro with Two 3.2GHz, 8GB of memory, 2 500GB hard drives and a 30" Apple Display monitor. Now this may sound like a dumb question, will this card be available for Mac computers? If so, should I have Apple install the ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT, then install this card? and yes I'm a gamer.
The HD4870 might be available in a year or two, if The Steve wills it to be so.

If you're purchasing this for work or something, then it makes sense to go all out, with the gaming just being a side benefit. But if you're purchasing this just for gaming, I would strongly urge you to reconsider.

It's vain. Cee will never boot Winders nor buy anything with an MS brand. PCs, 360s etc. are off the table.

ScifiterX wrote:
It strikes me...

You're struck. Missing all the above details and out of the loop. You make our little contest easy, non-MA heathen.

But I/we'll be happy to rub salt in when you get your tree-sitty. Remember Halo has no cheat codes. wink

But feel free to strike back with a witty "Oh, yeah?" tongue

Last edited by Bat (2008-10-04 3:24 am)

NightCougar_37 · 2008-10-04 4:04 am

Really Cee, if you want to game and do it on a Mac. Get a copy of Vista and use Bootcamp but go either 8800GT or 3870 for the GPU. Don't even mess with midrange. Should give you enough power to deal with the poor OSX GL drivers for when you do game in OSX as well as plenty of power for Windows.

Until Steve leaves Apple, I just can't see hardware or game software getting any better for the Mac side. The guy has a serious anti gaming thumb up his butt.

ScifiterX · 2008-10-04 7:59 am

Not so out of the loop that I can't understand simple physics or business concepts.

Steve like any other CEO want his products in good working order and overheating prevents that in a way his company could potentially be held culpable for. Steve wants to keep fabrication costs as low as possible. The best is expensive and on board solutions (which are necessary for AIO & laptops) are more expensive than card based solutions to implement. Steve has to show product progress each upgrade cycle but chooses to keep producing the line in such a way that little product marketing overlap exists. He obviously chooses to not have any graphics cards which are inferior to the baseline card in the Apple Store (evidenced by the fact you usually cant find the within a few weeks of a product upgrade).

In AMD/ATI & NVidia's defense, you are correct that it does not make a lot of sense to mass manufacture a wide range of products to serve a small segment of Apple's products particularly if they are higher end and (presumably) more expensive to manufacture. (I still say future proofing the technology a little better might ease that burden for them a little in the long run though.)

CG5Addict · 2008-10-04 6:05 pm

NightCougar_37 wrote:
Really Cee, if you want to game and do it on a Mac. Get a copy of Vista and use Bootcamp but go either 8800GT or 3870 for the GPU. Don't even mess with midrange. Should give you enough power to deal with the poor OSX GL drivers for when you do game in OSX as well as plenty of power for Windows.

Until Steve leaves Apple, I just can't see hardware or game software getting any better for the Mac side. The guy has a serious anti gaming thumb up his butt.

Well to get the 3870 it looks like I would have to buy the Mac Pro with the stock card (the 256MB 2600 XT), then get the 3870 which is what $190 to $200. confused Seems like it would cheaper to get the 8800 GT for just $150 more at the Apple store already installed. I'm already spending a little over $8,500 plus tax (that includes Apple Care wink ) for this system.

Bat wrote:
And I know... Books, Cee, Cee, Books; both of [MA], as in Cee & Driven.

Didn't think anybody remembered me and my sons old nicks in [MA] (CeeMKM and sons nick Driven)when I had my OC G4 my son had a OC G3. Brings tears to my eyes. cry

Bat wrote:
Booksley wrote:
[The HD4870 might be available in a year or two, if The Steve wills it to be so.
If you're purchasing this for work or something, then it makes sense to go all out, with the gaming just being a side benefit. But if you're purchasing this just for gaming, I would strongly urge you to reconsider.
It's vain. Cee will never boot Winders nor buy anything with an MS brand. PCs, 360s etc. are off the table.

You Got that Right! wink

Last edited by CG5Addict (2008-10-04 9:50 pm)

Bat · 2008-10-08 8:28 pm

Good news for *koff* certain folks hereabouts...

Early verdict: Catalyst 8.10 is going to rock!

So over the weekend I ran some benchmarks with the Catalyst 8.10 RC2 driver that I mentioned in news last week. My first impression? WOW! In testing with a Radeon 4870 512MB I saw double-digit performance improvement in games like Company of Heroes and Lost Planet. On top of that the new driver adds manual fan control adjustment for Radeon 3000 and 4000 series cards. It's definitely a must download driver if you own a Radeon 4800 card.

http://www.firingsquad.com/news/newsart … chid=20903

NightCougar_37 · 2008-10-09 2:03 am

Wasn't it awhile back that Capcom on Lost Planet had to patch things cause the 10.1 abilities on ATI boards gave them the advantage over 10.0 nVidia cards? nVidia wasn't happy or something so it was done?

Bat · 2008-10-09 2:12 am

IIRC that was Assassin's Creed. 10.1 was patched out after shipping with support, initially; rather than spruce up any minor bugs, they were apparently pressured to just remove it. It saved a rendering pass on ATi cards and gave them quite a boost.

Perhaps it will return when NV releases DX11 parts. 11 is a superset of 10.1 and 10 features.

Forums | MacLife

#101 2008-09-05 3:10 am

Re: The Summer/Fall videocards

NightCougar_37 wrote:

#102 2008-09-05 3:24 pm

Re: The Summer/Fall videocards

#103 2008-09-06 7:45 am

Re: The Summer/Fall videocards

NightCougar_37 wrote:

#104 2008-09-07 2:12 am

Re: The Summer/Fall videocards

#105 2008-09-07 2:36 am

Re: The Summer/Fall videocards

#106 2008-09-07 9:37 pm

Re: The Summer/Fall videocards

#107 2008-09-09 6:05 pm

Re: The Summer/Fall videocards

#108 2008-09-10 2:55 pm

Re: The Summer/Fall videocards

#109 2008-09-16 6:22 pm

Re: The Summer/Fall videocards

#110 2008-09-24 5:13 pm

Re: The Summer/Fall videocards

#111 2008-09-25 1:13 am

Re: The Summer/Fall videocards

#112 2008-09-29 5:27 pm

Re: The Summer/Fall videocards

#113 2008-09-30 10:27 pm

Re: The Summer/Fall videocards

#114 2008-10-03 2:20 pm

Re: The Summer/Fall videocards

#115 2008-10-03 4:18 pm

Re: The Summer/Fall videocards

#116 2008-10-03 7:15 pm

Re: The Summer/Fall videocards

Bat wrote:

#117 2008-10-03 11:43 pm

Re: The Summer/Fall videocards

CG5Addict wrote:

#118 2008-10-04 1:22 am

Re: The Summer/Fall videocards

#119 2008-10-04 3:21 am

Re: The Summer/Fall videocards

CG5Addict wrote:

Booksley wrote:

CG5Addict wrote:

ScifiterX wrote:

#120 2008-10-04 4:04 am

Re: The Summer/Fall videocards

#121 2008-10-04 7:59 am

Re: The Summer/Fall videocards

#122 2008-10-04 6:05 pm

Re: The Summer/Fall videocards

NightCougar_37 wrote:

Bat wrote:

Bat wrote:

Booksley wrote:

#123 2008-10-08 8:28 pm

Re: The Summer/Fall videocards

#124 2008-10-09 2:03 am

Re: The Summer/Fall videocards

#125 2008-10-09 2:12 am

Re: The Summer/Fall videocards

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