Windows 7 series: NVIDIA and AMD Graphics and Gaming Performance
March 24, 2009 by Cabro · Leave a Comment
Though officially in beta, Windows 7 is probably the most talked about subject in the world of PC technology today. Released to the public on January 7th, 2009, Windows 7 has quickly found its way onto many computers including netbooks, laptops, virtual machines and even gaming and enthusiast PCs. Users that were once distrusting of Vista and even Mac-lovers have spent the last few months complementing Microsoft of their latest operating system and for good reason: it slick, fast, visually appealing and runs on all ranges of hardware quite nicely. Here in my office I have installed it on an Eee PC, a separate hard drive in my main system, my MacBook Pro (gasp!), the NVIDIA ION platform and a couple of benchmarking and testing rigs as well.
This article will be the first in a series of performance and feature reviews on Windows 7 that will be updated and added to up through the final retail release of the Windows 7 operating system; whenever that might be. As the title obviously suggests, today we are going to be looking at GPU and gaming performance on Windows 7 in comparison to Windows Vista. There are two primary goals with this article: first we would like to see how, in general, performance on this beta version of Windows 7 compares to the performance of gaming on a more mature Vista operating system with Service Pack 1. Secondly, we would like to compare how both NVIDIA and AMD are doing in terms of driver optimizations and performance for Windows 7 compared to each company’s support on Windows Vista.
AMD Announces ATI Stream SDK v1.4
March 16, 2009 by Cabro · Leave a Comment
The ATI Stream Software Development Kit (SDK) is a complete development platform created by AMD to allow you to quickly and easily develop applications accelerated by ATI Stream Technology. The SDK allows you to develop your applications in a high-level language, ATI Brook+. The Brook+ compiler and runtime layer handle the low-level details for you so that you can concentrate on implementing your algorithms on the GPU. Brook+ is built on top of ATI Compute Abstraction Layer (CAL), which gives you low-level control and programmability of the hardware.
When combined with other AMD tools and libraries optimized for ATI Stream, the ATI Stream SDK offers a complete development platform for implementing, debugging and optimizing your applications to take advantage of the tremendous parallel computational power available with ATI Stream products.
» What’s New
» System Requirements
» Related Tools and Libraries
» Support
» Download
What’s New in v1.4-beta
- Significant feature enhancements to Brook+:
- Support for multiple GPUs in a single program.
- Support for 8-bit and 16-bit integer types.
- Interoperability with DirectX API.
- Access to thread-level data sharing.
- Improved support for Microsoft Visual Studio 2008.
- Performance enhancements to the Brook+ runtime:
- Support for memory pinning to optimize data transfers.
- Support for asynchronous stream write requests.
- Additional hardware features exposed in CAL:
- Support for texture sampling (bilinear).
- Support for FETCH4.
- Support for the ATI Radeon HD 4870X2 and 3870X2.
- Support for the ATI FirePro 3D V8750, V8700, V7770, V7750, V5700 and V3750.
Source: AMD
Sphere: Related ContentAMD Radeon HD 4850 – the preliminary benchmarks!
June 19, 2008 by Cabro · Leave a Comment
To say that AMD’s Radeon HD 4850 launch has been a little unusual would be something of an understatement.
Cutting a long story short, AMD’s forthcoming card managed to make its way into retail at various locations on various continents. As a direct result, AMD, to the delight of customers, decided to let things be and has brought forward the NDA to today.
To the delight of customers it may be, but to the dismay of media, we can assure you. Having not expected to be able to publish a review for a little while longer, we’ve literally been caught with our pants down trying to put the HD 4850 through its paces to provide you, our readers, with some highly sought-after numbers.
Well, following our very early look at the card this morning, we’ve managed to get our pants half-way back up, and we’ve got you some of those numbers. We’ll make it clear before we get started, however, that this is another early look. We’ve benchmarked four games as a taster, but an in-depth review will be forthcoming.
AMD Radeon HD 4850 512MB Preview
June 19, 2008 by Cabro · Leave a Comment
The AMD Radeon HD 4000-series of GPUs is one of those company “secrets” that no one actually tries to hide. AMD has gone out of their way to discuss these products without exactly disclose all the details – just this week we were at a “Cinema 2.0″ event AMD hosted that described the architecture without detailing the product. The scheduled release for the RV770 parts, the HD 4850 and HD 4870, were scheduled for just this next week.
Well someone in Europe didn’t get the memo, cards went on sale and thus our NDA on HD 4850s was lifted. The result? You cannot get a very quick preview of HD 4850 performance. We aren’t supposed to be talking about the architecture, or the HD 4870, so let’s just cut to the chase…
AMD hooks up with game giant Havok
June 13, 2008 by Cabro · Leave a Comment
AMD will work with game giant Havok to tailor Havok’s game technology to AMD processors, the companies said Thursday.
The plans call for optimizing game-physics effects utilizing AMD’s multicore processors and graphics processing units, or GPUs.
Game physics brings the laws of physics–or physical-world simulation–to a game. For example, explosions may be modeled differently depending on the terrain.
Havok, which Intel acquired in September of last year, provides development tools and services used by digital-media creators. Havok’s technology has been used in game titles such as BioShock, Stranglehold, Halo 2, Half Life 2, and has been used to create special effects in movies such as The Matrix and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
AMD Radeon HD 3870 for Mac Pro launched
June 13, 2008 by Cabro · Leave a Comment
Optimized exclusively for Apple Mac® Pro systems, the ATI Radeon HD 3870 Mac & PC edition can help drive productivity with built-in 256-bit 512MB GDDR4 frame buffer memory and 320 stream processors to deliver maximum performance for graphics-intensive applications such as 3D modeling, animation and games. Users also can expand visual workspace using twin dual-link DVI ports to connect two 30” Apple Cinema HD displays®.
“AMD is introducing the ATI Radeon HD 3870 Mac & PC Edition to enhance the Mac experience to maximum levels of 3D gaming and HD performance,” said Matt Skynner, vice president of marketing, Graphics Products Group, AMD. “Mac users demand the best when it comes to HD graphics performance, and the ATI Radeon 3870 Mac & PC Edition is designed to meet and exceed that need by delivering The Ultimate Visual Experience™ to our customers’ displays.
RV770 Launch On 25th June, Clocks Finalized
June 10, 2008 by Cabro · Leave a Comment
VR-Zone has posted that AMD has finalized the clock speeds of the RV770.
AMD has informed their partners that the new launch date for Radeon HD 4800 (RV770) series is now 25th June therefore Radeon HD 4850 (RV770PRO) and Radeon HD 4870 (RV770XT) will launch together. AMD has also finalized the core clocks of the 4850 and 4870 cards and they will be clocked at 625MHz and 750MHz respectively. Radeon HD 4870 with GDDR5 is expected to perform 1.3x better than the Radeon HD 4850 with GDDR3.
Sphere: Related ContentAMD HD 4850 – RV770 GPU die shot
June 6, 2008 by Cabro · Leave a Comment
Never, ever leave a bit-tech person in reach of a screwdriver and an unattended next generation graphics card; otherwise this happens. People, there’s your RV770 core, the eight Qimonda memory chip layout and general red PCB goodness.
AMD Unveils XGP External Graphics Card
June 4, 2008 by Cabro · Leave a Comment
ATI XGP is an exclusive technology that capitalizes on PCIe 2.0 to deliver enthusiast-class graphics via a connected cable to an externally powered and cooled device. This unique innovation delivers up to 4.0 Gbyte/s in each direction in bandwidth communication between the notebook and external graphics, whereas previous consumer level external solutions were limited in graphics bandwidth. ATI XGP is fully optimized for new AMD Turion X2 Ultra notebook platforms, also announced today.
ATI XGP Technology is being first launched with the newly announced ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3800 series for eye-catching HD graphics. As an industry first for notebooks, ATI XGP Technology delivers multi-GPU capabilities of scalable performance with ATI CrossFireX technology. The additional high bandwidth of the included USB 2.0 connectivity allows users to connect to a wide variety of USB-based devices, including external TV tuners, external Blu-ray players, and much more.
Björn Fehrm, head of Strategy and Innovation Consumer, EMEA, Fujitsu-Siemens Corp., said: “Powered by ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870 in an external AMILO GraphicsBooster, the ultra mobile AMILO Sa 3650, with ATI XPG technology, takes on two very different but equally compelling personalities. Use it for your daily computing with the internal graphics for outstanding mobility and battery life. Dock it to your AMILO GraphicsBooster when coming home, in a hotel room or at a LAN event and now your gaming and multimedia performance is in another world.”
ATI XGP Technology is contained in an external chassis connected to the notebook via a specially designed self-latching, easy-connecting PCIe 2.0 cable from Japan Aviation Electronics Industry, Limited, a leading provider of electronic devices and connectors. Based on AMD’s dedicated research and development, the cable also provides USB 2.0 connectivity directly to the notebook allowing for additional USB functionality. Independently cooled and powered, ATI XGP Technology offers the potential for higher performance than traditional entry-level graphics solutions. Notebook users can take advantage of the varied usage scenarios including multiple monitor support, high performance gaming, Blu-ray video playback, and increased graphics performance for video editing.
AMD Radeon HD 4850 Pictured
June 2, 2008 by Cabro · Leave a Comment
Bitnet visited a Taiwanese manufacturer and took the photo of the upcoming HD 4850 graphics card. Below is a picture of the card.
