News for Apr. 2004

Source From : www.xbitlabs.com

ATI RADEON X800 Gets its Face
First RADEON "R420" X800 Pictures Sighted
(April 22, 2004)

An Asian web-site OC.com.tw has published pictures from ATi Technology Days 2004 event hosted by ATI Technologies, including a photo of a graphics card that is believed to be the highly anticipated RADEON X800.

Official dates and specs of ATI’s upcoming code-named R420 products are still to be decided, but according to the latest unofficial information, the RADEON X800 PRO will be launched on the 4th or the 5th of May, while the RADEON X800 for AGP 8x and RADEON X880XT for PCI Express x16 are scheduled for June, not May introduction, if the information is correct.

If the information is correct, the more or less final revision of ATI RADEON X800 graphics cards looks as shown. The card has a massive cooler for the visual processing unit, but does not equip its GDDR3 memory with heat-spreaders. Large coolers on VPUs typically imply on high core-clock speeds, while the absence of memory cooling may indicate relatively low memory frequency.

ATI Technologies reportedly plans to roll-out various versions of the code-named R420 VPU branded as RADEON X800 PRO, RADEON X800 XT, RADEON X880 XT and RADEON X800 SE. The solutions will enable different number of rendering pipelines: 12, 16, 16, 8 and will function at different clock-speeds that are still to be decided. Higher-end graphics cards, such as RADEON X800PRO, X800XT and X880XT will have 256 or 512MB of GDDR3 memory functioning at clock-speed in the range of 1000MHz. The performance-mainstream offering RADEON X800 SE will use memory with 128-bit bus that is clocked at lower clock-speed compared to high-end products.

Officials for ATI Technologies typically do not comment on unreleased products.

Source From : www.xbitlabs.com

NVIDIA Debuts Quadro FX 4000 Series
NV40 Goes Professional Graphics
(April 19, 2004)

NVIDIA Corporation unveiled its new professional graphics accelerator based on the recently announced GeForce 6 also known as NV40 architecture. Along with quite some new capabilities compared to the previous-generation Quadro products, the new Quadro FX 4000 also boasts with improved performance.

The heart of the new Quadro FX 4000 is NVIDIA's latest graphics processor GeForce 6800 Ultra containing approximately 220 million of transistors that form 16 pixel pipelines, 6 vertex processors as well as other important integrated circuits of the chip. Higher fillrate and geometry power typically allow graphics cards to demonstrate higher performance in various applications.

Designed for professional CAD, DCC, and scientific applications, Quadro FX 4000 delivers 7%, 8% and 45% improvements in proe-02, 3dsmax-02 and ugs-03 professional benchmarks respectively, according to NVIDIA.

In addition to performance improvements, NVIDIA Quadro FX 4000 also features Pixel Shaders and Vertex Shaders 3.0 functionality that enhance the feature-set of the current DirectX X 9.0 version and are likely to be eventually exposed by professional and gaming applications. The main idea of Shader Model 3.0 is a great expansion of Shader Model 2.0 specs and allowing software makers to create longer and more complex programs for modern graphics processors.

The Quadro FX 4000 graphics card also features 256MB of GDDR3 onboard memory functioning at 1000MHz. The card also features two DVI-I connectors to drive multiple very high-resolution displays at up to 3840x2400 resolution rates, satisfying demanding medical, satellite, and geospatial imaging application requirements.

NVIDIA said that its latest professional graphics solution will be available in May and will be sold by original equipment manufacturers like HP and add-in card partners such as PNY (US and Europe), Leadtek (Asia/Pacific), and Elsa (Japan), as well as value-added resellers and system builders. Pricing of the Quadro FX 4000 was not declared, but typically this class of products from NVIDIA cost from $2000 to $3000. (ztj042104)

Source From : www.xbitlabs.com

NVidia Promises 'Cinematic Computing'
New GeForce 6800 graphics chips boost realism in games.
(Arp. 14, 2004)

The promise of cinematic computing is coming closer to reality with the announcement of new graphics chips from industry leaders NVidia and ATI Technologies.

NVidia's GeForce 6800 chips were formally unveiled Tuesday on San Francisco's Nob Hill at a "Graphics to Drench Your Senses"-themed party. The daylong event featured flashy demos of upcoming games and graphics effects that leverage the new processor's capabilities, including Microsoft's DirectX 9.0 Shader Model 3.0 feature set.

The new processors are "the biggest graphics generational gap we've ever done," says Dan Vivoli, NVidia's marketing executive vice president.

"We're only seeing the tip of the iceberg in what these programmable GPU [graphics processor units] can do," says Jen-Hsun Huang, NVidia's president and chief executive officer.

ATI is expected to release its own chips that will rival NVidia's later in April.

The DirectX 9.0 technology is a collection of APIs (application programming interfaces) that let games and other multimedia programs take advantage of the full capability of advanced graphics chips. Shader Model 3.0 will allow graphics designers to realistically portray human characteristics such as flesh tones to create some of the most compelling video games and movies yet, says Jon Peddie, president of Jon Peddie Research in Tiburon, California.

"If the graphics are good enough, you don't see the graphics. You get directly involved in the story," Peddie says.

The new chips are a stepping stone on the path to cinematic computing, or the ability to create sophisticated images on an everyday PC. Movie developers for projects such as Finding Nemo require expensive high-performance graphics workstations to create the images for the movie.

Source From: www.pcworld.com

Source from: www.anandtech.com

Source from: www.nVidia.com