2008/05/17

r800 blog is moved to PCZILLA.NET/EN

In order for better conformity, now r800 blog is moved to PCZILLA.NET/EN.

Thank you for your support!

2008/05/15

ATI now focuses on improving the RV770 drivers

We learnt that ATI's Catalyst team is now working hard to improve the performance of RV770 drivers.

With current driver ATI can get, there's no obvious performance differentia between 4850 and 4870 with same clocks. So this means the current driver can not dig the potential of GDD5 out of 4870. Graphics Cards maker in Taiwan told us that the GDDR5 video ram sample of RV770 came from Qimonda with 512Mb(16Mbx32-bit) configuration and 4GHz default speed, but due to the complexity design of the 4870 PCB which is not the same as 4850 PCB, and the immature driver, now 4870 can not reach to 4GHz.

If the video ram of 4870 can not be steady at 4GHz in time, ATI may use the alternate plan to use GDDR5 video ram from Qimonda at 4.5GHz default speed, apparently the plan B will increase the cost of 4870 tremendously.

Information leaking! Radeon HD 4800 VS. GeForce GTX 200!

Information leaking! Radeon HD 4800 VS. GeForce GTX 200!

We learned from HKEPC that long subsided graphics card market will break out again, NVIDIA and AMD will both introduce an entirely new generation of high-end graphics cards in June. AMD will introduce the new ATI Radeon HD 4800 family, and for the first time it will use GDDR5 video memory. NVIDIA will introduce so-called second-generation Unified Shader the GeForce GTX 200 family, to secure hegemony in high-end graphics cards market.

According to Taiwan's graphics cards maker, on June 16 AMD plans to release the new ATI Radeon HD 4800 family, the core code-named RV770, the first introduced model is ATI Radeon HD 4850, the numbers of Shader Processing Units will be 480, using GDDR3 video memory, the price is about $ 229 U.S. dollars.

June 23, AMD will release ATI Radeon HD 4870, its specifications will be the same as Radeon HD 4850, but the core clock will be further improved, and video memory will switch to the new GDDR5, its price will be at $ 349 U.S. dollars.

However, industry noted that the release of ATI Radeon HD 4870 at June 23 will be Paper Launch, the official shipping date will be slightly delayed, mainly because GDDR5 memory supply shortage. The supply of GDDR5 video memory will be key point for the situation of Radeon HD 4870 availability.

In addition, AMD also plans to introduce a new generation of dual-chip graphics cards-R700, or ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2, it’s expected to formally be shipped at the end of the third quarter to the beginning of the fourth quarter, the price is about $ 549 U.S. dollars.

Facing a new generation of AMD Radeon HD 4800s, NVIDIA dare not neglect, in the June 18, it will launch brand new GeForce GTX 200 series, high-end graphics card to secure hegemony. The code name once was G100, then was GT200, now officially known as D10U, meaning the 10th generation of the Ultra graphics chip, and the product name is also changed from GeForce 9900 family to GeForce GTX 200 family, which means the second generation of Unified Shader architecture, it will market a new market image.

It's said that, GeForce GTX 200 will be launched with two models, including the GeForce GTX 260 and GeForce GTX 280, but the price, specifications have not yet announced.

2008/05/14

AMD will announce RV770 at June 11

We learned that AMD will announce RV770 series Graphics Cards at June 11 in CHINA.

2008/05/13

The core speed of RV770 Pro now can be reached 990MHz

We learned that the core speed of RV770 Pro now can be reached 990MHz, using the ATI RV770 reference single slot cooler with 100% fan speed. We estimated the core speed of retail version won't be set at 990MHz; it may be at 860-910MHz. We hoped the core speed of RV770 will break 1GHz obstacle with air-cooling oc.

2008/05/10

What's wrong with Ubi Software?

We remember Ubi Software’s official statement about Assassin's Creed DX10.1 support like this:

- In addition to addressing reported glitches, the patch will remove support for DX10.1, since we need to rework its implementation. The performance gains seen by players who are currently playing Assassin’s Creed with a DX10.1 graphics card are in large part due to the fact that our implementation removes a render pass during post-effect which is costly.

We remember Charles Beauchemin, the tech lead for the Assassin's Creed development team, his word about Assassin's Creed DX10.1 support like this:

- With DirectX 10.1, we are able to re-use an existing buffer to render the post-effects instead of having to render it again with different attributes. However, with the implementation of the retail version, we found a problem that caused the post-effects to fail to render properly.

Now we PCZILLA conducted a test comparing the difference of pictures quality between DX9, DX10 and DX10.1 modes at the same save point in Assassin's Creed using Radeon HD 3870 and official Cat 8.4 drivers for Windows XP 32-bit and Windows Vista 32-bit. You can see DX10 provides the worst picture quality, there’s no AA on the left side of the birdcage located on the right side bookshelf, there’s no HDR lighting effect, compared with DX9 and DX10 modes.

If Ubi Software’s official statement and the conclusion from Charles Beauchemin are right, then the DX10 and DX9 modes pictures which have correct AA processing on the edge of birdcage and HDR lighting should be the rendering error pictures! It’s ridiculous, isn’t it?

Caution: The compared picture below has large size about 3MB, use the picture link to download it: http://www.pczilla.net/upload/1.gif


2007/12/28

World First 8800 GS Pics

Mydrivers.com has some world first 8800 GS Pics. This card is from YESTON, a graphic cards vender in CHINA.

Learnt from YESTON, GeForce 8800 GS have 112 stream processors, as same as GeForce 8800 GT, but the only difference between GeForce 8800 GT and GeForce 8800 GS is that GeForce 8800 GS only has 192-bit memory controller inside. GeForce 8800 GS graphics card will have 384MB or 768MB video memory. There'll be slight performance gap, compared with GeForce 8800 GT, and it will give enough pressure to AMD Radeon HD 3850.

GeForce 8800 GS 384MB graphics card will have 575MHz core speed and 1700MHz memoryspeed, GeForce 8800 GS 768MB graphics card will have 650Mz core speed and 1900MHz memory speed, the retail price are 1199 yuan($164) and 1499 yuan($205).

We will see these two graphics cards in CHINA market on this Sunday.