***The Official X1950 Pro thread***

[josh6079]

Wasn't the X1950 Pro suppose to launch today?

 

[theprodigalrebel]

I believe the slides said Mid-October.

 

[Ulfhednar]

OMGZPAPERLAUNCHTBQFH.

 

[itsrunninghot]

In stock.

 

[razy70]

Originally posted by: itsrunninghot
In stock.

This is the XTX version not the Pro

 

[JPB]

Yea, I believe I saw the slide that said mid-October. The XTX was the 14th I believe, and right now there are 6 different ones on Newegg. Meaning they werent paper launched, Maybe the same will hold true for the Pro?

 

[Sable]

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/09/15/ati_october_x1950_pro_x1650_xt/

ATI will unveil Radeon X1950 Pro and X1650 XT graphics chips and add-in cards on 17 October, according to reports from Taiwanese moles and leaked documents intended for the company's customers.

The cards are expected to be the first to sport ATI's new internal CrossFire connector, which differs from Nvidia's SLI link by placing two, not one, proprietary connectors on the top of each add-in board.


The X1950 Pro - codenamed RV570 and fabbed at 80nm - contains 36 pixel shader engines in 12 parallel pipelines and eight vertex engines. The core is said to be clocked at 580MHz. It'll hook up to GDDR 3 video memory running at 1.4GHz.

The X1650 XT - aka RV560 - is also an 80nm part, the reports claim. This time there are eight pipelines feeding 24 pixel shaders. It will be clocked to 600MHz and, again, the memory will run at 1.4GHz, albeit over a 128-bit bus. The X1950 Pro apparently uses a 256-bit memory bus. ®

 

[JPB]

So in other words, it's just an overclocked X1900GT ?

 

[josh6079]

Ah, thanks for the replies.

 

[aka1nas]

Originally posted by: x80064
So in other words, it's just an overclocked X1900GT ?

I think because it's a respin it only physically has 12 pipes rather than 16 with 4 disabled. As it is on a smaller process it might use less power and maybe even OC easier than the X1900XT/XTX. What does the dual crossfire connectors on the card allow you to do? Is that for the 3-way crossfire with physics acceleration stuff?

 

[josh6079]

That'd be my guess. Have you seen the DFI board with the RD600 chipset? It has 3 PCI-E lanes for, most likey, that reason.

 

[Cookie Monster]

It has a 67% smaller die compared to the R580. Looks sweet as this card gets a new cooler as well.

 

[Rhezuss]

Wait for the X1950Pro or buy a X1900XT now?

 

[josh6079]

I'd say just get the X1900XT now. The X1950 Pro looks like it may only really be able to get XT(X) levels once paired in CF, and unless you have a CF capable motherboard, an XT(X) just has more flexibility and performance.

 

[coldpower27]

X1900 XT 256 is a really good buy right now for 240US on Newegg.

 

[DeathReborn]

Originally posted by: aka1nas

Originally posted by: x80064
So in other words, it's just an overclocked X1900GT ?

I think because it's a respin it only physically has 12 pipes rather than 16 with 4 disabled. As it is on a smaller process it might use less power and maybe even OC easier than the X1900XT/XTX. What does the dual crossfire connectors on the card allow you to do? Is that for the 3-way crossfire with physics acceleration stuff?

The dual internal bridges is either to get the full performance out of CF internally or just to make it different from the SLI bridge.

My guess is the 3-way CF for Physics will be 2 connected (for graphics) & 1 on it's own (for physics) so not related to the dual bridge CF design.

On a related but not completely so note, it would be interesting to see if the X1650XT can beat a X1800XT though.

 

[Pete]

Originally posted by: Cookie Monster
It has a 67% smaller die compared to the R580. Looks sweet as this card gets a new cooler as well.

67% of R580, not 67% smaller. It's still not a GF7.

Still sweet, and with a X1900XT at $240, prices could be pretty great.

 

[Cookie Monster]

Originally posted by: Pete

Originally posted by: Cookie Monster
It has a 67% smaller die compared to the R580. Looks sweet as this card gets a new cooler as well.

67% of R580, not 67% smaller. It's still not a GF7.

Still sweet, and with a X1900XT at $240, prices could be pretty great.

My bad. That was what i was suppose to say.

Im also thinking the R570 has much lesser transistor count, or its on 80nm compared to 90nm.

 

[coldpower27]

Originally posted by: Pete

Originally posted by: Cookie Monster
It has a 67% smaller die compared to the R580. Looks sweet as this card gets a new cooler as well.

67% of R580, not 67% smaller. It's still not a GF7.

Still sweet, and with a X1900XT at $240, prices could be pretty great.

Hmm that is fairly impressive reduction in die size, if the perspective corrected image is correct. I hope the rumors of the on die Crossfire logic are true.

 

[Effect]

Originally posted by: Cookie Monster

Originally posted by: Pete

Originally posted by: Cookie Monster
It has a 67% smaller die compared to the R580. Looks sweet as this card gets a new cooler as well.

67% of R580, not 67% smaller. It's still not a GF7.

Still sweet, and with a X1900XT at $240, prices could be pretty great.

My bad. That was what i was suppose to say.

Im also thinking the R570 has much lesser transistor count, or its on 80nm compared to 90nm.

Yep and yep, at least from what i can see. Should be an interesting card, especially if it's at the $199US mark.

 

[josh6079]

Since the whereabouts of the card have been answered and the topics were swaying into what it might bring and other ending DX9 technologies, I changed the title to represent the primary focus of the thread: The X1950 Pro.

Particularly interesting about this card is that it will be the first to have the internal bridge connection similar to Nvidia's SLI mini-PCIx_ interfaces. I've heard though that the internal bridge will have less bandwidth than the external dongle. Is that true?

 

[Bnchs]

From now on, it seems that ATI will include a two way internal connector that is on the card, which is supposed to increase bandwith. So Crossfire may no longer depend on the PCI Express bus. This also opens up the possibility of platform independent Crossfire, and of bringing "true" Crossfire to the 965P Chipset.

Internal Bridge for Crossfire