Hardware Discussion Thread

Tea_Bag

i posted this in C&T, but no replies at all..

Sold on Physx - advice needed
Right so im playing Mafia 2 atm, and it runs alot better than the demo on my GTX460, and boy what a difference PhysX makes. its quite amazing. anyway, the game (or my GTX460) bogs down occassionally when there is heavy explosions/gunfire/crazy stuff happening all at once, still well playable, but i feel i could get more out of it.

so i thought i could move the physX engine off the GPU by buying a second hand (maybe 9800gtx??) card and throwing the physx onto that, hopefully getting me better fps/gameplay.

is it worth it?

whats yer suggestions?

whats a good/cheap card for the job?

marco_polo

This will have to do since there is no wild speculation thread.

Has anyone else seen the supposedly leaked AMD slides doing the rounds over the last few days?

Obviously I would treat with a pinch of salt as absolutely anyone could have knocked these up. (There was another fake one going around some time ago as I recall so healthy skeptism advised) But is seems if true that the 6700 series will be pitched at fairly close to 5800 performance levels.

We will find out soon enough I suppose (No until November now apparently )

Unregistered.

marco_polo wrote: »

This will have to do since there is no wild speculation thread.

Has anyone else seen the supposedly leaked AMD slides doing the rounds over the last few days?

Obviously I would treat with a pinch of salt as absolutely anyone could have knocked these up. (There was another fake one going around some time ago as I recall so healthy skeptism advised) But is seems if true that the 6700 series will be pitched at fairly close to 5800 performance levels.

We will find out soon enough I suppose (No until November now apparently )

I think they should be nice and price the 6770 at the 5770 mark and so on...

Icyseanfitz

from what ive heard the 6770 is supposed to be competing with the gtx 460 so im guessing prices around the 200 mark (witch is class if the performance is true)

Lu Tze

Only a couple of days before the HD6870 and HD6850 are released.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/19/amd-radeon-hd-6870-and-hd-6850-officially-pictured-coming-this/

Presumably most of the reviews are written at this stage and will become available after release. Hopefully it delivers what it is promising. Just worried though as to power draw etc. If the 6870 is replacing the 5770, it has 2 power connectors vs 1 on the 5770, just wondering if this will run much hotter etc?

AlmightyCushion

Lu Tze wrote: »

Only a couple of days before the HD6870 and HD6850 are released.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/19/amd-radeon-hd-6870-and-hd-6850-officially-pictured-coming-this/

Presumably most of the reviews are written at this stage and will become available after release. Hopefully it delivers what it is promising. Just worried though as to power draw etc. If the 6870 is replacing the 5770, it has 2 power connectors vs 1 on the 5770, just wondering if this will run much hotter etc?

Going by the naming convention the 6870 is going to be high end like the 5870 of the current gen. Two power connectors wouldn't be out of place on a higher end card.

Lu Tze

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

Going by the naming convention the 6870 is going to be high end like the 5870 of the current gen. Two power connectors wouldn't be out of place on a higher end card.

I think they are changing the naming convention - this card will be slower than the current 5870. Dont know what the 5870 equivalent will be, 6890?

AlmightyCushion

Lu Tze wrote: »

I think they are changing the naming convention - this card will be slower than the current 5870. Dont know what the 5870 equivalent will be, 6890?

I did not know that. Hope it's not true, I'm sick of learning new naming conventions.

Lu Tze

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

I did not know that. Hope it's not true, I'm sick of learning new naming conventions.

I hate change or anything different as well :pac:

marco_polo

Busy week for AMD, they were giving their first public public demos of Llano yesterday as well

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/computers/amd-shows-fusion-power-first-public-32nm-llano-demonstrations/4095

marco_polo

Lu Tze wrote: »

Only a couple of days before the HD6870 and HD6850 are released.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/19/amd-radeon-hd-6870-and-hd-6850-officially-pictured-coming-this/

Presumably most of the reviews are written at this stage and will become available after release. Hopefully it delivers what it is promising. Just worried though as to power draw etc. If the 6870 is replacing the 5770, it has 2 power connectors vs 1 on the 5770, just wondering if this will run much hotter etc?

I guess as this is more of an moderate refresh generation than anything and with the 6870 now looking like it will be pitched at or slightly above the 5850 in performance terms the the power draw was always going to be similar I suppose.

The rumoured max TDP of the 6870 is about 150W (Same as a 5850, the 5770 was 108W or so), According to Fudzilla the 6850 on the other hand will manage to have have just a single PCIe connector and 127W max TDP.

We were somewhat spoiled in the current generation as such great strides were made in efficency by AMD, to put it back into in perspective 150W TDP is still about 30W shy of the HD4870 :pac:.

cherryghost

They're almost pulling an Nvidia tbh

Unregistered.

Lu Tze wrote: »

I think they are changing the naming convention - this card will be slower than the current 5870. Dont know what the 5870 equivalent will be, 6890?

57** -> 68**
58** -> 69**
59** -> 699*

VenomIreland

So, AMD have shown a lot of info about the new Graphics cards, yet I still want to hear whether or not Bulldozer will run on AM3 as I've read conflicting reports from representatives.

Solitaire

Fairly sure neither Fusion nor BD will as they're migrating more of the chipset features onto the CPUs so different mobo topology is needed. Treasure those BDs, I suspect they might be the last OCable CPU :(

VenomIreland

I'm wondering, should I become an early adopter of BD?

Solitaire

I'd like to but I doubt there'll be any mITX mobos available before 2012

RobertM

Hey guys,

Being bored, I was just browsing through elara. I've heard that these mobo's are very good. Is this overpriced ?

http://elara.ie/products/detailsfull.asp?productcode=ECE1971218

Solitaire

Not too shabby, even HWVS are charging €170 for that model

RobertM

Solitaire wrote: »

Not too shabby, even HWVS are charging €170 for that model

That's what I was looking at ... + the 3.99 + 30 euro delivery, makes more sense getting it from here

Lu Tze

Guru3d review of the 6850 and 6870 got leaked. Both are consistently bettering the reference GTX460 1 GIG, the 6850 settling generally between that and the 5850 (bettering it in some benchmarks) and the 6870 between the 5850 and the 5870 (bettering the 5870 in some benchmarks).

If this pricing from ebuyer is correct ye may want to jump on these before they start increasing in price like last time!

Solitaire

Who leaked the review? AMD?

It seems a little hinky - the HD6850 was supposed to replace the HD5830, and the HD6870 supplanting the beloved old HD5850. The drastically altered balance and rearranged texture/shader topology might have given it a leg up though...

Lu Tze

Who knows!? It was up on guru3d and taken down quickly - but too many had saved/screengrabbed the lot of it.

Could just be all about the hype machine. Also wonder if these things go the way of games reviews i.e. to get the game pre release they have to give favourable reviews etc.

That said the 6850 seems like a bargain - seemed to have a decent overclocking overhead built in as well - but again this is just one review, will have to wait and see

marco_polo

If prices stay around those levels, that could do some damage to the GT 460 profit margins, NVidias only really outstanding DX11 card. Those ebuyer cards are priced well under even the 768Mb models. :eek:

Appear the 3dGuru leak was correct anyway

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/10/21/amd_radeon_hd_6870_6850_video_card_review/

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-6850-6870-review/

http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=1022

Monotype

The reviews are up and they're for sale around the place. You wouldn't be running away with any bargain with them anyway. The recent drop of the GTX 460 1GB still makes it worthy although we see the 6850 beating it on some occasions. We might see some bargains in people throwing away their 5850s to 'upgrade' though!

I hope they throw in a mini-displayport -> display port adapter with the cards.

marco_polo

Prices are a bit higher that those Saphires on Ebuyer last night (which seem to have have dissappered BTW ) makes it a slightly different ballgame. These guys aint happy either.

http://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/ironlaw/radeon-hd-6800-pricing-shambles/

Just noticed the overclocking results on 3dGuru review very poor for the 6870, almost 4870-like in the underwheming stakes.

Lu Tze

marco_polo wrote: »

Prices are a bit higher that those Saphires on Ebuyer last night (which seem to have have dissappered BTW ) makes it a slightly different ballgame. These guys aint happy either.

http://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/ironlaw/radeon-hd-6800-pricing-shambles/

Just noticed the overclocking results on 3dGuru review very poor for the 6870, almost 4870-like in the underwheming stakes.

That sapphire is still there

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/244430

but the 6850 has jumped by almost 20 sterling!

Solitaire

Pricing shambles my arse AMDs board partners and even the retailers are hiking prices to make a killing on the initial rush :rolleyes: The prices are now artificially high, and I suspect nVidia will be going "What price drop? We're not dropping prices! Who told you that? " for a good few weeks until the initial rush peters out and/or AMD *****-slaps their board partners and also get more units into the retail channel :rolleyes:

Still... regret missing that HD6850. A true HD4890 successor that can *****-slap the GTX460 1GB as well as the HD5830 on the cheap? :D:D

IrishGrimReaper

So guys, since I've got my KFA2 480, I'm gonna sell my 275 on adverts. It's a PNY one. The warranty is gone, but it's lifetime registered to me as original purchaser I think.

How much do you think I could get for it? Would 100 be about right? It works fine.

cherryghost

120 would be about right