ATI the King again

[vdf22]

Originally Posted by biff

I've been an ATI user for a lot of years and my 8800GT is my first nVidea card in well... ever. Nice to see ATI starting to get their wheels again being the home team and all. That merger with AMD just about sunk both companies or I suppose the ONE company but I have no idea how that could possibly happen given each success prior to the merger but apparently it did. Or was it a take over??? Either way I'm sure it's hard to develop a product with no $$$.


Nice to see that there may be some good competition again to hopefully help spur some new developments.

Yup, it's always nice to have competition.

Originally Posted by Jmac

Well the merger happened at a really bad time for both companies. Both of their competitors came out w/ stellar products that were well beyond expectation (8800 series from Nvidia, Core 2 Duo from Intel) shortly after the merger and AMD/ATI has just been trying to keep its head above water ever since. ATI's making progress slowly but surely ... AMD, on the other hand, needs to get fast Phenoms on shelves quickly at low prices ...

Looks like they have their work cut out for them. And their financial situation right now really isn't helping any.

*Waits for Phenom 4GHz*

[Thund3rball]

Originally Posted by vdf22

Consider that the 8800GT SLI beats the 3870 CF in most benchmarks. And the 9800GX2 looks like two 8800GTS's it will likely be even faster than that. But ATI should have better drivers by the time the 9800GX2 is released, especially if they keep working on them like they have this past week. And it is all speculation. Although I would love it if the 3870X2 beat the 9800GX2 I just don't see it happening. It might have a better price/performance ratio though.

Just my thoughts.

Ya that's what I am guessing to. And not to say that 3870x2 isn't dabomb... For $300-$400 video card you are getting some serious gfx power and if I had the means I'd probably buy one just to tinker with cuz it looks awesome-o!

[vdf22]

Originally Posted by Thund3rball

Ya that's what I am guessing to. And not to say that 3870x2 isn't dabomb... For $300-$400 video card you are getting some serious gfx power and if I had the means I'd probably buy one just to tinker with cuz it looks awesome-o!

Yup. The 3870X2 is the most powerful card you can get ATM and for a (sort of) decent price too. 1 teraflop! Imagine folding with one of those!

[10e]

I agree,

Time will tell, but if the 9800 performs like 8800GT or GTS in SLI it will outperform the x2. But at what cost? New technology always demands a premium so it will COST $$$, and imagine if ATI certifies CrossfireX for Intel X38 or X48 motherboards? Having an x2 and 3870 or two x2s will blow away everything in the water. AMD/ATI are not quite as arrogant as nVidia in that regard. Additionally, the drivers will improve over time lessening the performance difference, and it's possible newer games may not show as big of a difference. ATI's Vista drivers seem far more polished than nVidia's and exhibit less performance difference than in XP.

Now one can say "What about two 98xx cards in SLI?" and my answer would be "Enjoy spending the money on a 780 motherboard and 1200w power supply", whereas an x2 and 3870 combo might work fine with a 750 watter, dual 98xx SLI won't. I guarantee that.

Not a fanboy, I have both cards and love them, but speculation is always fun :)

10e

[Eldonko]

I wouldnt go as far as call ATI king lol, but at least they are keeping AMD afloat..

[NuxTux]

I don't know much about what makes up a video card but could they be able to make a video card with 2 GPU cores and not 2 whole GPU dies? or maybe a 4 core GPU?

[Babrbarossa]

I don't know why not- just a matter of cooling the beast which is difficult using air in the space that is available.

As for ATI being King- they obviously aren't King in terms of dominating the market- but they do hold the current performance crown. And while the X2 isn't the most elegant solution, if there's one thing that you can say about AMD/ATi, it's that they are innovative- more so than NVidia- too bad they didn't have the cash flow to execute their elegant solutions better.

[vdf22]

Originally Posted by NuxTux

I don't know much about what makes up a video card but could they be able to make a video card with 2 GPU cores and not 2 whole GPU dies? or maybe a 4 core GPU?

From what I've heard, that's what their doing with R700. Of course, it's all speculation at the moment, but R700 looks like it could be top, depending on what nVidia does. They'll probably overclock their new cards way too much and release them early just to beat ATI.

[vdf22]

Originally Posted by 10e

imagine if ATI certifies CrossfireX for Intel X38 or X48 motherboards?

It looks like they will. And nVidia still isn't letting anybody else use SLI. Since most people like Intel motherboards, Crossfire support on Intel motherboards would be a plus.