AMD Releases Final R600 Specs

[flintlock]

Six weeks from now, the world will get the first retail Radeon X2900 XTX

Originally Posted by DailyTech.com

Late yesterday DailyTech was briefed on the final details for the upcoming R600 retail specifications, just in time for everyone to go on vacation for Chinese New Year. AMD has briefed its board partners on the specifications that will appear on the marketing material for the card launches.

AMD's guidance claims R600 will feature 700 million transistors. By comparison, the Radeon X1900 series R580 GPU incorporated 384 million transistors into its design; the half-generation before that, R520, only featured 320 million.

As disclosed by DailyTech earlier this year, the GPU features a full 512-bit memory interface with support for GDDR3 and GDDR4. R580 was also similar in this regard as it supported GDDR3 and GDDR4.

On March 30, 2007, AMD will initially debut the R600 as the ATI Radeon X2900 XTX in two separate configurations: one for OEMs and another for retail. The OEM version is the full length 12" card that will appear in high-end systems.

ATI guidance claims the X2900 XTX retail card comes as a two-slot, 9.5" design with a vapor chamber cooler. Vapor chambers are already found on high-end CPU coolers, so it would be no surprise to see such cooling on a high-end GPU either. The OEM version of the card is a 12" layout and features a quiet fan cooler.

1GB of GDDR4 memory is the reference configuration for Radeon X2900 XTX. Memory on the reference X2900 XTX cards was supplied by Samsung.

Approximately one month later, the company will launch the GDDR3 version of the card. This card, dubbed the Radeon X2900 XT, features 512MB of GDDR3 and lower clock frequencies than the X2900 XTX. The X2900 XT is also one of the first Radeons to feature heatpipes on the reference design.

AMD anticipates the target driver for X2900 XT to be Catalyst 8.36. WHQL release of the X2900 XTX drive will appear around the Ides of March.

Radeon X2900 will feature native CrossFire support via an internal bridge interface -- there is no longer a need for the external cable found on the Radeon X1000 series CrossFire. There is no Master card, as was the case with other high-end CrossFire setups. Any Radeon X2900 can act as the Master card.

A much anticipated feature, native HDMI, will appear on all three versions of Radeon X2900.

One 6-pin and one 8-pin (2x4) VGA power connectors are featured on Radeon X2900, but both connectors are also backwards compatible with 6-pin power supply cables.

AMD claims the R600 target schedule will be a hard launch -- availability is expected to be immediate. Board partners will be able to demonstrate R600 at CeBIT 2007 (March 15 - 21), but the only available cards will be reference designs.

Why was there such discrepancy with the board layouts and designs up until now? An ATI insider, who wished to remain nameless, states "The original Quad-Stealth design is what we build the R600 on: GDDR4, full-length and dual-slot cooling. As the silicon further revised, [ATI] took up several alternative designs which eventually included GDDR3 and heatpipes into the specification. The release cards demonstrate the versatility of R600 in each of these unique setups."

Final clock frequencies will likely remain estimates until later this month.

http://www.dailytech.com/AMD%20Relea...rticle6138.htm

[Roads88]

Huba, huba, huba...thats my speak for "seriously cool"

I wonder what the power draw is? Being two slot, most likely a bunch.

[flintlock]

Good question.

Haven't been able to find any credible info on this, though it'll likely be similar to NVIDIA's 8800 GTX, and probably require a bare minimum 400W PSU (combined 12V current rating of 26A+) for a single card setup.

The video card question has had me holding off building a new gaming rig, and I hope once I see this GPU benchmarked, I can go ahead and finally get it built. I'm curious to see how it will fare against the 8800 GTX, or whatever product bump NIVIDIA will likely introduce around the same time to take some steam away from AMD's launch.

[CptSimFreak]

Sight....my poor 6800GT is nervously smoking in the corner.

[geetrue]

I'll have to wait till it's in the under $250 range ...
probably sometime in early 2009, uh?

My, my what is the world coming to ..
700 million transistors and 1 GB of GDDR4 memory too ...

If that don't fly FSX nothing will

[flintlock]

If that don't fly FSX nothing will

FSX on a native resolution of 2560x1600 with all settings maxed plus 8xAA/16xAF would likely turn even a X2900 XTX CrossFire setup into a slideshow.

[elite_hunter_sh3]

actually no it would run at a good 60-80 fps on full graphics, keep in mind FSX is still dx9 and a dx10 card will easily run the game, ive ran it on that resoulution and ive gotten around 64 fps average after paying for a few hrs

[JSLTIGER]

All I know is that it's gonna be priiiicey.

[elite_hunter_sh3]

ive already started planning for my first true Quad core AMD athlon X4 Agena quad core rig,

thermaltakearmour full tower case with 25cm side fan
http://www.thermaltake.com/product/C.../va8003bws.asp

Enermax galaxy 1000 watt power supply (for my r600 crossfire setup)
http://www.enermax.com.tw/english/pr...y1.asp?PrID=60

corsair 2gb ddr2 800 RAM
http://www.pccanada.com/viewitem.asp?id=4851

im planning on first starting off with one ati r600 and after the rig is done ill save up more money and buy a second one and enable crossfire.


the amd quad core aint out yet till this summer or the motherboards for the quad core so i have to wait

[flintlock]

Originally Posted by JSLTIGER

All I know is that it's gonna be priiiicey.

I'm hoping it will be in a similar price range as the 8800 GTX. AMD has a little more leeway with respect to price than ATI did on their own, so I remain hopeful. I also imagine that the 8800 GTX will go down a little in price thanks to the new competition on the block. Always a better proposition from a consumers standpoint.

Speaking about video cards and prices, it wasn't too long ago when NVIDIA and AMD got slapped with those subpoenas on allegations on price fixing. Remember that little fiasco?

[JSLTIGER]

Indeed I do...as I recall, they're still fighting it.

P.S. @ Flintlock, check your PMs.

[geetrue]

Do I understand this correctly ... AMD now owns NVIDIA and ATI?

Isn't that a little unfair to Intell?

[elite_hunter_sh3]

no AMD owns ATI they didnt have enough pocket change to buy nvidia without downsizing their company and they didnt want that.

edit* intels graphics chipset is surprisingly doing good because of it being integrated into 90% of company computers like HP, compaq, dell etc..

edit again lol* intel sucks end of story :rotfl::rotfl::rot fl::rotfl:lol

[flintlock]

Originally Posted by geetrue

Do I understand this correctly ... AMD now owns NVIDIA and ATI? Isn't that a little unfair to Intell?

Back in October last year, AMD completed the acquisition of ATI to the tune of 5.4 billion after jumping through all the necessary regulatory hoops. I don't think it's unfair to Intel, as they could've tried to aquire ATI too. It definitely will make things a little more challenging for Intel though.

AMD's official press release:
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Corporate/VirtualPressRoom/0,,51_104_543~113741,00.html

[Boris]

I've always sided with AMD anyway, as I've always seen Intel as the evil empire of CPUs.
I'll definitely be looking at buying one (or maybe an 8800) depending on price. My x1950xt won't have lost too much resale value either.