Maximum PC graphics RSS Feed

Stoked about AMD's HD 5970? Good Luck Finding One in Stock

Paul Lilly — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:15:49 -0600

AMD's newest HD 5970 is the fastest videocard on the planet, and as it turns out, it's also the hardest to find. And not just in the U.S. either, the card has been equally elusive in the EU.

According to news and rumor site Fudzilla, several AMD launch partners confirmed there would be limited availability of the card, and that's been the case so far. Newegg showed some stock in the wee morning hours on November 18th, but by the time noon (PST) rolled around, stock was gone. The $625 price tag doesn't appear to be slowing demand.

Fudzilla says it's been told to expect to see stock of the XFX Radeon HD 5970 and 5970 Black Edition sometime today, but it's unclear if that will include the U.S. market, or be limited to Europe.

Seen the HD 5970 in stock somewhere? Post a link in the comments section below.

Multitouch Wind Top AE2220 All-in-One from MSI Now Shipping

Paul Lilly — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:00:21 -0600

MSI on Wednesday announced it has begun shipping its new Wind Top AE2220 all-in-one desktop PC. The AE2220 takes its place as MSI's flagship all-in-one and expands the company's fast growing Wind Top series.

"The MSI Wind Top is an awesome all-purpose family PC. Share photos, edit videos, play games, watch HD video -- our Ion graphics processor means you can have it all," said Drew Henry, general manger for Ion and GeForce products at Nvidia.

In addition to the Ion platform, the AE2220 boasts an Intel Core 2 Duo T6600 processor clocked at 2.2GHz (Pentium dual-core T4300 also available), a 21.5-inch multitouch display, 4GB of DDR2-800 memory, a 500GB hard drive, optional Blu-ray player, 1.3MP webcam, built-in 6-in-1 card reader, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, two mini-PCI-E expansion slots, IR receiver, and Windows 7 Home Premium.

The new all-in-one is still a no-show at most retailers, though Amazon still has it listed for pre-order for $700.

Image Credit: MSI

Nvidia Posts Photo of Working Fermi Card

Paul Lilly — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:50:40 -0600

Perhaps looking to steal a bit of thunder from AMD's awesome HD 5970 videocard, Nvidia PR guy Brian Burke today posted a picture of the green team's upcoming Fermi-based graphics card. Isn't marketing fun?

On his Twitter account, Burke referred to the Fermi card as a GeForce 100, which he said is the first GeForce GPU based on the new architecture. A screenshot in the background shows the videocard running the Unigine Heaven DirectX 11 benchmark.

That's all that was said (and shown), but the bigger message is the unspoken one that says, "Hey, we're still here, and we're poised to kick AMD's tail." No one from Nvidia actually said that, mind you, but they might as well have if they're going to post a pic of their upcoming graphics card when the talk of the town is centered around AMD's flagship GPU.

Image Credit: Brian Burke, Nvidia

ATI Radeon HD 5970: The Undisputed Performance Champ

Loyd Case & Gordon Mah Ung — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:00:00 -0600

AMD’s Radeon HD 5970 takes the performance crown, and now offers DirectX 11 GPUs top to bottom.

You can forgive AMD for stealing a line from Nvidia’s playbook. From the name and marketing materials, it’s not obvious that this card is a dual GPU card. One AMD chart even refers to the card as the “ATI Radeon HD 5970 GPU,” much like Nvidia’s 295 GTX is a dual GPU card that’s sold as if it were a normal graphics card.

Let’s take a quick look at the speeds and feeds of the new card, and then discuss additional features. We’ll compare them to the Radeon HD 5870 single GPU card; there are differences in core and memory clock speeds.

ATI Radeon GPUs Compared

Model	HD 4870	HD 5970
GPU	Single HD 5870 GPU	Dual HD 5870 GPUs
Stream Processors	1600	3200
Core Clock	850MHz	725MHz
Memory	1GB 1200MHz GDDR5	2GB 1000MHz GDDR5
Texture Units	80	160
ROPs	32	64
Memory Data Rate	4.8Gbps	4.0Gbps
Compute Performance	2.72TFLOPs	4.64TFLOPs
Idle Power	27W	42W
Max Power	188W	294W

Most features simply double, since there are two identical GPUs with the same memory per GPU. However, note the memory bandwidth is lower, since the memory clock is lower. Also, overall compute performance isn’t quite double, since the engine clock for each GPU defaults to 725MHz, rather than the single GPU 5870’s 850MHz.

In addition to the paired GPUs, the card maximizes performance with a new second generation PLX PCI Express 2.1 bridge chip. This speeds up communications between the two GPUs.

The older Radeon HD 4870 X2, AMD’s last dual GPU card, often suffered from serious overheating problems, so AIT has taken steps to improve overall thermal efficiency. The first step is to used specially screened GPU chips with the minimum amount of leakage current. The thermal system consists of a vapor chamber, with heat dissipation via a fully vented exhaust system. Finally, a multipoint, programmable PWM fan controller ensures fan speeds consistent with overall thermal output. The whole affair is rated to dissipate 400W, or over 100W of headroom.

The use of low leakage GPUs suggests that the core clock speeds could be pushed higher than the default 725MHz. Given that the card can dissipate 400W of overall thermal output, ATI has decided to leave the card unlocked, letting users overclock it to their heart’s content. The company is even making available an overvoltage tool, and suggests that the card has enough headroom to push the engine clock to above the 850MHz of the single GPU HD 5870 and the memory speeds up to the 1200MHz of the 5870. In The HD 5970 also sports sophisticated digital voltage regulators, real time power monitoring and Japanese pure ceramic capacitors, which facilitate higher clock speeds. (The reason for the more conservative default clock speeds is that the company needs to make allowances for the thermal environment inside PC cases, which may be less optimal.)

What about power efficiency? The HD 5970 offers the same clock gating capability as the single GPU variant. In addition, the card offers an ultra low power state that puts one GPU to sleep, which cuts the overall power draw of that GPU by half the normal idle performance. The card idles at 42W, only 15W higher than the 27W of the HD 5870. Of course, the card sucks 294W at full throttle – and that’s at the default clock speeds. So you’ll need a power supply with the later PCI Express 8-pin power connector – the HD 5970 uses one eight pin and one six pin connector from the PSU.

The onboard connectors are slightly different from the original HD 5870: two DVI-I connectors and one mini-DisplayPort attachment, first popularized with Apple’s MacBook Pro laptops and iMacs. All three can be attached simultaneously, and drive three displays at the same time. Note that most DisplayPort enabled monitors which aren’t Apple displays ship with standard sized DisplayPort cables, so you’ll need to obtain a mini-DisplayPort to standard DisplayPort cable if you want to take advantage of that connection option.

Performance

We tested three graphics cards: the Radeon HD 5970, the Radeon HD 4870 X2 and the GeForce 295 GTX. Note that the 295 GTX only ships with 1792MB of GDDR3 memory (896MB per GPU). The Nvidia GPUs on the 295 GTX have a full complement of 240 shaders, like the 285GTX, but only a 448 bit wide memory bus, similar to the GeForce GTX 260 line of graphics chips.

All games were run at two settings: 1920x1200, 4xAA and 2560x1600 4xAA. All detail settings on all games were maxed out. We also report the results from 3DMark Vantage’sdefault, performance setting and the extreme setting. In addition, we’re tossing in the results from the eVGA GeForce 285 GTX SSC and XFX Radeon HD 5870 at the 1920x1200 resolutions, so you can get an idea as to how much you gain from the dual GPU cards.

We used our standard graphics test system for benchmarking graphics cards:

Test System

Component	Model
CPU	Intel Core i7 975 @ 3.33GHz
Motherboard	Asus Rampage II ExtremeX58
Memory	6GB Corsair Dominator DDR3-1600 @ 1333MHz
Hard Drive	Seagate 7200.12 1TB
PSU	Corsair 850W
Operating System	Windows 7

The HD 5890 seems much better behaved than its predecessor, the HD 4870 X2. Although the HD 5970 fan noise became quite audible at high loads, it seemed much quieter than the 4870 X2. More telling was our experience removing the cards immediately after completed benchmarking runs. The 4870 X2 was extremely hot to the touch – we had to handle it carefully to avoid burnt fingers – while the 5970 was cooler to handle (though still very warm.) Much of this was no doubt due to the vapor chamber covering the back side of the card.

As we expected from our previous experience with the Radeon HD 5870, the dual GPU HD 5970 pretty much smokes the competition. At its targeted $599 price point, the performance needs to be stellar – and it is. Let’s check out the performance charts.

1920X1200 4XAA

Model	eVGA 285 GTX SSC	Radeon HD 4870 x2	GeForce GTX 295	XFX 5870	Radeon HD 5970
3DMark Vantage (Perf)	13941	14458	19342	17089	21089
3DMark Vantage (Extreme)	6276	6574	9241	8312	12084
HAWX	62	78	93	68	104
Far Cry 2 (Action)	47	67	62	62	75
Far Cry 2 (Ranch Long)	56	77	73	74	116
BattleForge (DX10)	46	36	33	47	61
Crysis (DX10)	22	33	29	32	44
Resident Evil 5	87	126	115	100	135
X3: Terran Conflict	93	101	100	101	107
STALKER: Clear Skies	27	38	40	36	53

2560x1600 4XAA

Model	Radeon HD 4870 X2	GeForce GTX 295	Radeon HD 5970
HAWX	53	54	76
Far Cry 2 (Action)	18	59	65
Far Cry 2 (Ranch Long)	50	55	82
BattleForge (DX10)	23	20	39
Crysis (DX10)	19	18	24
Resident Evil 5	88	85	102
X3: Terran Conflict	90	59	101
STALKER: Clear Skies	22	20	31

There’s no question the Radeon HD 5970 is the fastest single desktop graphics card you can buy today. The real question is if it’s worth $200 more than a single Radeon HD 5870. Certainly if you’re running a 1920x1200 display, we’d recommend the single GPU card. But if you’re running triple displays, or a 30-inch, 2560x1600 monitor, and you want to push polygons at full resolution, you should consider the Radeon HD 5970. But make sure you’re willing to pay the cost.

Another note: this card is enormous. It’s an actual foot-long graphics card; make sure you’ve got a case deep enough to handle it.

Then there’s the whole issue of CrossFire. The HD 5970 is essentially a pair of downclocked HD 5870s in CrossFire mode. When the game can take advantage of CrossFire – as it does in our benchmarks – you can see huge performance gains. If the game can’t make use of CrossFire, then you own a pricey single GPU card that doesn’t run as fast as the HD 5870.

But what about running TWO of these cards in CrossFire mode? Find out on the next page.

Dual-5970 CrossFire Performance

We were fortunate enough to get not one, but two 5970 cards to test in our lab. The two cards came in Falcon Northwest's brand new Talon PC, which is the first 5970-equipped system we've reviewed.

You can read our full review of the kick-ass Falcon Northwest Talon here, but the system specs are below for your reference. Note that the Talon is a Lynnfield-based Core-i7 system, overclocked to 3.93GHz, as opposed to the 3.33GHz Core i7-975 Bloomfield proc we used in our testbed to benchmark the lone 5970 card.

Specifications

Processor	Intel 2.93GHz Core i7-870 @3.83GHz
MOBO	MSI P55-GD65
RAM	8GB Crucial DDR3/1600
Videocard	Two MSI Radeon HD 5970 in CrossFire mode
Soundcard	Onboard
Storage	Two Intel X25-M 80GB in RAID 0; 1TB Samsung Spinpoint 7,20rpm hard drive
Optical	Lite-On 22x DVD burner
Case/PSU	Silverstone case with Exotix paint job and 1,000 Silverstone PSU

In addition to a 48-hour plus burn-in period, we wanted to push Falcon Northwest’s dual-Radeon HD 5970 cards on something a bit harder so we connected the FNW Talon to a 30-inch 2560x1600 panel and cranked several benchmarks to maximum. The result? Impressive. Although, the drivers we used were still fairly early, the performance of the card is unquestionable. We had some concerns of running the card in a dual x8 mode (a limitation of the P55 chipset and Lynnfield platform) instead of full x16’s that an X58 platform would give us but the results don’t seem to show too much to be concerned about. The cards seem to offer better than expected scaling, even with early drivers.

Dual-5970s on Falcon Northwest's Talon PC

	HD 5970 Crossfire On	HD 5970 Crossfire Off
3DMark Extreme Overall (1900x1200)	18954	11686
3DMark Extreme GPU (1900x1200)	18763	11384
3DMark Extreme CPU (1900x1200)	23498	23561
3DMark Extreme GPU (2560x1600)	13494	9076
3DMark Extreme CPU (2560x1600)	23387	23399
Crysis, Very High, (2560x1600)	34.4 FPS	27.1 FPS
Far Cry 2 Ultra High (2560x1600)	185.2 FPS	107.4 FPS

Crysis, 1900x1200 (NO AA)	66.3 FPS	(did not run)
Crysis, 1900x1200 (16X AA)	64.3 FPS	(did not run)

Note that in Crysis, enabling 16X Anti-Aliasing doesn't seem to affect the framerate with CrossFire enabled.

Finally, a note on overclocking. The AMD overvolting tool has two settings for core and memory. You can overvolt the GPUs, overvolt the memory or both. Using the tool, we pumped up both voltage settings, then found the card to be stable at 870MHz core and 1250MHz memory (17 and 25% respectively.) Curiously, though, we saw little actual performance gain. 3DMark Vantage (extreme setting) only saw a 1% increase, from 12084 to 12182. We got two additional FPS in Crysis and either no increase or slight decreases in frame rate for Far Cry 2 and STALKER: Clear Skies. We probably need to do a better job of balancing memory and core clocks, but our initial experiences suggest that overclocking may not be worth the effort.

Maingear Stuffs Two HD 5970 Videocards into Shift PC

Paul Lilly — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:30:13 -0600

A little prerequisite reading is in order. If you haven't done so already, be sure to check out Lloyd Case and Gordon Mah Ung's article covering ATI's Radeon HD 5970, a videocard we've dubbed "The Undisputed Performance Champ." Once you read through that feature, you'll be in a better position to appreciate the awesome power that comes from cramming two HD 5970 videocards into a CrossFire X configuration, and that's exactly what Maingear has done.

The boutique system vendor today announced the immediately availability of said cards into its Shift PC. By doing so, Maingear says gamers are afforded 10 teraflops of pixel pushing power when enhanced with the company's Redline technology.

"The Maingear Shift was designed specifically to harness the incredible amount of GPU power that is on the horizon," said Wallace Santos, CEO and founder of Maingear. "The ATI Radeon HD 5970 truly ushers in a new era of everyday supercomputing for the consumer. Besides having a total of 3200 stream processors each for an incredible gaming experience, with Windows 7 and DriectCompute, these cards can be used to accelerate everything from video editing and transcoding to advanced photo manipulation."

As we previously reported, the Shift can be configured with either an Intel P55 or X58 foundation, and you can outfit either one of them with a pair of HD 5970 videocards. All that power doesn't come cheap, however, and you'll be looking at about an additional $1,500 over the base configuration, which includes an Nvidia GeForce GTS 250.

Image Credit: Maingear

Following $1.25 Settlement, Nvidia CEO Wants "Further Action" against Intel

Paul Lilly — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:30:32 -0600

With the $1.25 billion settlement between Intel and AMD the talk ot the tech industry, Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang used the situation as an opportunity to take more potshots at Intel and call out its business practices in the mobile sector.

"Intel's tactics with Ion have been the most aggressive we've seen from a competitor. They have offered the Atom [a total of three chips] for $25, but when the one-chip Atom is used with Ion, it sells for $45," Huang said in a statement to CNet. "A customer can't even choose to resell the chipset and use Ion instead. What's the point of Nvidia getting an Intel bus license if it's impossible to overcome Intel's pricing bundles?"

Huang went on to say that "further action needs to be taken to protect consumers," but Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy says Nvidia's CEO is only telling part of the story.

"He's playing a trick of numbers," said Mulloy. "He's giving you a $45 list price -- that nobody pays -- for a part and then a negotiated price (which is more realistic). He's mixing apples and oranges. We have scrubbed and continue to scrub our pricing practices as it relates to chipsets and processors. It's all above cost. And that meets the legal standard worldwide."

Intel and Nvidia have publicly criticized the other on numerous occasions, most often relating to chipset licensing issues. Huang at one point went so far as to declare the CPU a decaying business, while Intel released a document bashing Nvidia's Ion platform.

Image Credit: TGDaily

Fermi Delay Unlikely to Impact Nvidia's Short-Term Sales

Paul Lilly — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:25:05 -0600

Like everyone else, we're chomping at the bit to see what Nvidia's next-gen Fermi graphics chipset (GT300) brings to the table, so we're a little bummed it's been pushed back until Q1 2010. The delayed launch, however, isn't expected to negatively impact Nvidia's sales for the remainder of 2009, DigiTimes reports.

When Fermi does ship, Nvidia will position the GPU into three different product lines, including the GeForce brand, Quadro, and Tesla, according to company CEO Jen-Husn Huang.

While the delay is unlikely to hurt Nvidia's bottom line, that could change if Fermi gets pushed back a second time, some analysts warn. They say Nvidia could start to lose some of its market share should Fermi arrive in April 2010, as AMD will in all likelihood have already started shipping its entry-level Radeon HD 5600 and 5300 GPUs.

Image Credit: Nvidia

Karmic Koala Causes Anger and Frustration amongst Early Adopters

Pulkit Chandna — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:56:09 -0600

Exactly a week after the much anticipated launch of Windows 7, Canonical rolled out Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala). Although it may not have been as keenly awaited as Windows 7, Karmic Koala's launch was special for a particular demographic that romances Linux, and especially its subset that dotes on Ubuntu. But early adopters of the latest Ubuntu release are having a torrid time.

Excited users have been rewarded with a plethora of problems in exchange of their bravura and enthusiasm. Karmic Koala's poor handling of graphics drivers - blank and flickering screens are quite common - and its failure to install the latest 2.6.31 Linux kernel figure prominently on the list of flaws. Also, the latest version of Ubuntu is not too good at spotting hard drives, according to initial reports.

According to a poll on Ubuntuforums.org, more than one-third of about 1,500 people polled so far have encountered some major flaws. Users upgrading to 9.10 are experiencing more issues than those opting for a fresh install.

Image Credit: EeePc.Itrunslinux.com