Posted 08/20/2009 at 10:51:22pm

joeyjr

For fun I looked up MaximumPC.COM on Symantec's website to check for any threats and found none listed for this site.

Thanks!

Posted 08/19/2009 at 02:25:49pm

RV870 to become Radeon HD 5870 with 1200 shaders?
Written by Andreas G 27 April 2009 20:59

AMD is fully aware that details on the coming GT300 from NVIDIA implies something phat coming. AMD may not have restructured its graphics design in an equally drastic manner, but it has time on its side. AMD is hoping to deliver RV870 chip in late summer and perhaps as early as July. German site Hardware-infos has published some new rumors on AMD's RV870 chip, which seems to confirm the names HD 5870 and HD 5870 X2.

If we move on to the actual graphics processor there are some substantial improvements over the RV770/790 chips. AMD hasn't just expanded the number of shaders from 800 to 1200, it also increased the number of texture units to 48 [Editor's note: should 60 if the scaling is linear] and doubled the number of ROPs from 16 with RV770 to 32 with RV870. Not to forget the support for DirectX 11.

The site also published a table that specifies the clock frequencies AMD will use with its new 40nm GPUs and it also reveals some bits on the theoretical performance.

                            HD 4870         HD 4870 X2          HD 5870            HD 5870 X2
 
GPU clock              750 MHz        2x 750 MHz           900 MHz             2x 950 MHz
Memory clock         900 MHz        2x 900 MHz         1100 MHz            2x 1150 MHz
Performance      1200 Gflops     2x 1200 Gflops    2160 Gflops       2x 2280 Gflops
Texture fillrate     25.000 MT/s    2x 25.000 MT/s    43.200 MT/s      2x 45.600 MT/s
Pixel fillrate        10.000 MP/s     2x 10.000 MP/s    28.800 MP/s      2x 30.400 MP/s
Bandwidth           115,2 GB/s      2x 115,2 GB/s      140,8 GB/s        2x 147,2 GB/s

With 50% more shader units and higher clock frequencies, and perhaps tuned shaders too, it comes as no surprise that the performance will be reflected by that. Radeon HD 5870 will deliver 2160 Gflops, which is close to twice that of HD 4870.

Considering the pixel performance we see that the extra ROPs almost triple performance, which together with a higher clocked GDDR5 memory should result in some real pixel spraying mayhem.

Interestingly but perhaps not surprisingly, Radeon HD 5870 X2 looks to become a real beast, not just because they will get two RV870 chips on the same card, but also a frequency boost of 50MHz each.

We have no confirmation on these numbers and urge you to consider them with salt, but if AMD can get its RV870 GPU out by summer it is going to be one exciting fall waiting for NVIDIA to release its GT300.

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Related news:
2009-08-11 Radeon HD 4860, 4750 exclusive to China
2009-08-09 Radeon HD 4750 coming, sort of, soon
2009-08-08 The five flavors of GT300
2009-08-08 RV830(?) = RV770 +DirectX 11, X2 part to use SFR
2009-08-01 GT300 tapes out, launch in 2009 possible

Posted 08/07/2009 at 08:18:49am

joeyjr

Speaking for myself, I am not winning, as a reader since the summer of 2003. I buy my copy at the book store and can not wait for the next copy. I love the magizine! If you have followed the Dream Machine for the last few years you would know what it is all about. Maybe you should go back and look at the PDF's of the Dream Machine's from the past. Every year the guys at Maximum PC have taken off the gloves and built the badest system the could at they time that any body would be able too build, if thay had the money. It has been one of the things that has set the magizine apart from the others. This years the Dream Machine's was made with the gloves on. Meaning, because of the economy, the system falls short of that standard that they have set in the past. I think that the system's they did build were very good for the money. If you were to compare them with other system builder venders products you would find that they are much more expensive for what you get for the money. The point is, that the Dream Machines for 2009 did not follow the standard that Maximum had set in the past that many people look forward to seeing every year. If you were to take your date to a five star restaurant and ordered the best food and wine that they offered, because money was no object, and the meal you got was ok, but it did not live up to what you were expecting and seamed somewhat lacking. You deside too complain to the manager. He tells you that, because of the economy, he desided to not use the best ingredients with his signature dishes because he thought poeple would feel more at home.

Posted 08/04/2009 at 02:12:16am

joeyjr

I ran some bench marks to see what people were saying.

Negatives: For professionals who judge other venders stuff you could have done better and give the name Dream Machine. Also, it was a big let down for many.

Positives:  You guys built some pretty good systems that most people liked and wished they had.

Verdict 3    with a Dumb Ass Award

Posted 07/31/2009 at 04:19:27pm

joeyjr

Posted 07/30/2009 at 07:25:21pm

joeyjr

Every man's dream may not be another man's dream.

Posted 07/30/2009 at 10:38:51am

 joeyjr

I do enjoy and looking forward for the Dream Machine from Maximum PC every year. This year I can understand the change, but I wish it wasn’t so.  I think you guys did a very good job on them and they are systems I would build, but I would add a sound card to the lists. They just as well are DM’s to me right now because I am collecting unemployment from a job which closed and building a new rig will have to wait for a while.  I hope that the Holy Grail of the magazine, the Maximum PC Dream Machine, is not changed forever.  Last years DM case was extreme at 5000 dollars, but I did like it. Also, I wish you could have added a compromise to the to this years list of systems with a kick ass DM, maybe without the extra bling ., or at least the a parts list of the system you would have built. Politics SUCKS!!! Oh, and did you know that bling is not a real word, go figure.  More on that at the link below, and maybe if you read a little between the lines, their, you’ll catch my meaning. One more thing, what happened to the rig of the month and BEST OF THE BEST? This years DM is really a DM, because it left me dreaming of what it should have been!

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/13/technology/circuits/13goog.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print&position=

The more I learn, the more I realize I need to learn. So, am I really getting smarter or am I learning that I am not so smart?

Posted 07/27/2009 at 05:59:33pm

joeyjr

That,s alot of dough. In-fact, that's enough too make about 632,912 loaf's of french bread using 316.45 tons of flour. Maybe you could get a discount if you buy in bulk. LOL. Guess I will have to take a class on writing an algorithms. Maybe I could get a slice of that with lots of butter.

Posted 07/27/2009 at 11:22:42am

joeyjr

And neither will PC gaming.  Went you remove all of the politics behind consolds verses PC's you will find that thay are both computers.   When your making a ton on money on one or the other the other is said to be dead.  I don't see anything bad about consolds, thay are what thay are, but not for me.  PC gaming sets the standard in quality, performance, and range of uses.  When a consold upgrades many of the newer games are not compatable with the older ones and you will have to buy a new one.  On a PC you can upgrade your system or build a new one.  Hardware has been moving pretty fast for the last few years and a minimimal system can do alot  Vista's a hardware requirement sets a standard and from there PC game developers can use it as a guide. I do miss 3D sound for now but, you can have the DRM and some of the annoying GUI in Vista. I have not installed Windows 7 as of yet, but it looks to be very well received and should be better for PC gaming because of it's range of use on older systems. As for XP inside of Windows 7, I wish it could play games, and was a full version of XP or XP MCE with a few tweaks. To me it makes sence, would make it even more appealing for someone to upgrade, and should be standard making an OS backwards compatable, at the same time more secure.  All that said, I'd have to agree that Windows 7 will be a redeemer, as long as is is ready when it does hit the shelves.  nuf said.

Posted 07/27/2009 at 07:57:01am

joeyjr

NO, it just got more evil!

 Looks good and I can't wait..  Computers are here to stay and so are PC games. I hope everyone knows this by now and with Windows 7 there will be a new standard that all gaming platforms should look up too.