Video interview with AMD about Radeon HD 4890 X2, Catalyst and Windows 7

adrianlee · Apr 4th, 09, 07:59 PM

Quote:

This week AMD introduced the Ati Radeon HD 4890. PC Games Hardware interviewed AMD's Sascha Marenkowic and asked him about the HD 49890 X2, the Catalyst driver and Windows 7.

With the release of the Radeon HD 4890 AMD caused quite a stir this week. On the launch event PC Games Hardware editor Carsten Spille had a chance to interview Sascha Marenkowic. The video of the little chat can be seen below and we got some details on the Ati Radeon HD 4890 X2, the Catalyst drivers and Windows 7.

PCGameshardware - Video at source

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psolord · Apr 4th, 09, 11:06 PM

Lol, look at 6:13, how the reporter smiles like a naughty kid when asking for the X2 version. He didn't get a direct answer though! It was more of a diplomatic one! Dude you should insist more. Something like, tell me or i'll punch you in the nose! Oh well.

It's interesting to know that AMD is positioning the 4890 against the GTX 260, although it can kick GTX 285 in many cases.

As for the X2 part, i don't know if it would be a good move. Ok you could say that a 1000Mhz 4890 is 33%+ faster than a 4870. The problem is that an X2 could not keep such a difference in all benchmarks. That 33% could be held only in cases that there is 100% scaling with a second gpu.

For example, in Crysis you only get 50% more with a second gpu. So if the OCed 4890 is 33% faster than a 4870, two of them would only be half faster when two gpus would be used, so instantly, that 33% gets to be more like 16%ish! Now if AMD would use some new interconnection it could get interesting. I think Lucid is still out of the picture, since the Hydra 100 is not DX10 compatible, let alone DX10.1! But who knows...!

If i were the reporter i would have definitely tortured the guy to learn something about rv870!

Guilherme · Apr 4th, 09, 11:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by psolord

Lol, look at 6:13, how the reporter smiles like a naughty kid when asking for the X2 version. He didn't get a direct answer though! It was more of a diplomatic one! Dude you should insist more. Something like, tell me or i'll punch you in the nose! Oh well.

Oh yeah, maybe Chuck Norris would be the real man to deal with.

iamverysmart · Apr 5th, 09, 12:14 AM

4890 = 190W TDP,
4890x2 would probably need 2 8pin connectors.

HKPolice · Apr 5th, 09, 12:43 AM

Misleading title. No answer about 4890x2. POS.

konstantine · Apr 5th, 09, 12:50 AM

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Originally Posted by psolord

It's interesting to know that AMD is positioning the 4890 against the GTX 260, although it can kick GTX 285 in many cases.

Take a look at this idiotic chart from AMD:

They think that the gap between the gtx285 and the gtx275 is relatively bigger than the gap between the gtx216 and the gtx275....

The gtx275 is a 3% downclocked gtx285 with a slightly smaller memory interface. According to this chart, the 4870 1gig is aimed against the gtx275, while the 4890 is positioned between the gtx275 and the gtx285 "somewhere within the 3% performance gap...!!!".

Quote:

Originally Posted by psolord

As for the X2 part, i don't know if it would be a good move. Ok you could say that a 1000Mhz 4890 is 33%+ faster than a 4870. The problem is that an X2 could not keep such a difference in all benchmarks. That 33% could be held only in cases that there is 100% scaling with a second gpu.

Yes. Thanks to N-shitia, corssfire probably wont scale properly in Crysis... ever.

konstantine · Apr 5th, 09, 01:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by iamverysmart

4890 = 190W TDP,
4890x2 would probably need 2 8pin connectors.

According to xbitlabs, the 4890 consumes less power than the 4870 in both idle and load modes.Put this "from factory" measures aside.
The RV790, as i said earlier in my posts, appeared to be a redesigned RV770 chip and it's slightly bigger than the RV770.

iamverysmart · Apr 5th, 09, 03:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by konstantine

Yes. Thanks to N-shitia, corssfire probably wont scale properly in Crysis... ever.

You being such an ATI fanboy, I would have expected you to know that crossfire has improved significantly in Crysis.

Quote:

Originally Posted by konstantine

According to xbitlabs, the 4890 consumes less power than the 4870 in both idle and load modes.Put this "from factory" measures aside.
The RV790, as i said earlier in my posts, appeared to be a redesigned RV770 chip and it's slightly bigger than the RV770.

When will you learn how to post links to the actual reviews and not just the pictures. Another thing is that the picture shows the GTX285 using 59.9W during idle, doesn't look right.

It will depend on how the card is tested. If you look around, other reviews can get a much higher power consumption. Considering the 4890 is clocked higher, uses a 5 phase power circuit, said by ATI will use more power, no significant architectural changes, I would expect it to use more.

Less:
GIGABYTE Radeon HD 4890 1GB Graphics Card Power Consumption Tests :: TweakTown
ATI Radeon HD 4890: The RV790 Unveiled - HotHardware

More:
Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 1GB Review - Page 21 - Hardware Canucks
Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 RV790 Video Card | Radeon HD 4890,RV790,Sapphire,GDDR5,Video Card,Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 RV790 GDDR5 Video Card Performance Benchmark Test Graphics Frame Rate Review | Benchmark Reviews Performance Tests
Translated version of http://www.hartware.de/review_925.html
Power Consumption, Overclocking - Page 4
Bjorn3d.com -Asus HD4890 Voltage Tweak Edition, Satisfying Your Daily Tech Cravings Since 1996

Nuker_ · Apr 5th, 09, 04:10 AM

AFAIK the 4870 TDP was 215W, 25W more than this.

power666 · Apr 5th, 09, 06:53 AM

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Originally Posted by psolord

Now if AMD would use some new interconnection it could get interesting.

The Radeon 4870X2's have the side band port but at launch it was disabled. Future driver revisions were expected to enable its usage and boost Crossfire scaling. I was kinda expecting this to happen to counter the GTX 295 launch. However, I haven't heard either way that it has since been enabled.

Regardless, I do predict that AMD will stick a Hypertransport bus on their GPU's at some point. GPU-to-GPU communication would get a bandwidth boost in addition to a lower latency connection. Additionally, Hypertransport can be coherent which would allow for two GPU's possibly to share their memory pools. The result of memory sharing would be that if each GPU has 1 GB of memory, that X2 card would act as if it has one large 2 GB frame buffer. Currently Crossfire and SLI require duplicated data in each frame buffer which wastes resources. Hypertransport would also allow for a higher bandwidth, lower latency communication between the GPU-to-CPU if the GPU was placed on the motherboard. Hell, at this point they could even release a GPU to fit into a G34 socket also used by future Opterons.

Note that the idea of putting a GPU into a CPU socket isn't that crazy of an idea. Slides from Intel have shown a Larrabee chip in a Xeon socket using QPI between devices.

adrianlee · Apr 5th, 09, 07:08 AM

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4890 X2?

As far as ATI is concerned, a Radeon 4890 X2 could be produced at some point if the demand is there. Right now they’re unsure if system vendors would be willing to put up with a card that draws up to 300W of juice; they’re polling them now to see where the interest level is. Obviously if the system builders won’t get onboard, the chances of a Radeon 4890 X2 ever seeing the light of day dwindle significantly, as it doesn’t appear ATI would do this without them considering where the economy is right now.

Cross your fingers enthusiasts…

Firingsquad

Sapphire, where are you?

konstantine · Apr 5th, 09, 07:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by iamverysmart

You being such an ATI fanboy, I would have expected you to know that crossfire has improved significantly in Crysis.

The last tiime i crossfired my 4870 with another 4870 and tested crysis warhead, which was about a month ago, i got additional 13fps over 21fps. My friend's dual gtx285 setup gets over double the fps of a single gtx285.

Improved my a$$.
I don't post crap that im not sure of.I own a 4870, and my friends who are fortunately top end gamers like me, own the latest cards from both ATI and N-vidia.Those shitty hardware sites can't fool me.....

Quote:

Originally Posted by iamverysmart

Another thing is that the picture shows the GTX285 using 59.9W during idle, doesn't look right.

It will depend on how the card is tested. If you look around, other reviews can get a much higher power consumption. Considering the 4890 is clocked higher, uses a 5 phase power circuit, said by ATI will use more power, no significant architectural changes, I would expect it to use more.

The 4890 uses 7 phase gpu/memory voltage regulator not five.The 4890 power circuits management is more complex and advanced than that on the 4870 that uses only 3 phase power regulator.The decoupling circuitry and the revised internal power distribution system implemented in the 4890 are two new featured designs that make the card consume power more efficiently and reduce the power loss to the minimum level/s

This is what AMD claims.

I can edit my bios and adjust the frequencies of my card in different modes using ATI tray tools.So the idle power consumption is not a problem for me, nor the load is.I play most games with my gpu clocked at 625/700 on 3D mode.