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Hardware 3D

What about it? My Mac laptop has an ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 graphics with 256MB SDRAM, which is quite a bit of hardware 3D power. Not sure why boot camp would have any kind of monopoly on this as compared to Parallels - can you explain? I mean, Parallels is running in a window normally, but it's got fullscreen mode if you want, so I can see several paths to full use of the 3D capabilities.

Are you saying that Parallels is inherently unable to use this capability?

While the actual flash technology might be capable of that kind of speed, the entire stack isn't. Compare the MB/s throughput of several hard drives here with the throughput of several USB flash drives here (both benchmarks done with SiSoft's Sandra).

Bottom line: The USB drives are topping out at an average of 8 MB/s, the hard drives are in the 60 MB/s range. That alone puts hard drives an average of 7.5 times faster.

Flash drives have great single block seek times because they don't have to move a head, but most benchmarks show that their ability to move large quantities of data quickly sucks.

the FX-70 uses two dual-cores in two sockets

the FX-70 uses two dual-cores in two sockets

http://www.hothardware.com/printarticle.aspx?artic leid=911

has another review that says reaffirms the same findings. Performance is not beating Intel yet and the AMD/ASUS solution is very expensive. I feel the only market here is those that cannot wait and have money to burn.

We go into NVIDIA's "CUDA" (Compute Unified Device Architecture) here and it's pretty interesting actually.

NVIDIA also launched a new enthusiast line of motherboard chipsets today in support of Intel's Core 2 Duo/Quad and AMD Athlon 64 processors. NVIDIA's nForce 680i SLI and nForce 680a SLI motherboard chipsets will also allow a pair of GeForce 8800 series graphics cards to run in tandem for nearly double the performance. The new chipset also offers a ton of integrated features, like Gigabit Ethernet Link Teaming, FirstPacket traffic priortization and MediaShield RAID technologies.

Hot Hardware has another review

NVIDIA has officially launched their new high-end 3D Graphics card that has full support for DX10 and Shader Model 4.0. The GeForce 8800 series is fully tested and showcased at HotHardware and its performance is nothing short of impressive. With up to 128 Stream Processors under its hood, up to 86GB/s of memory bandwidth at its disposal and comprised of a whopping 681 million transistors, it's no wonder the new GPU rips up the benchmarks like no tomorrow. NVIDIA is also launching a new enthusiast line of motherboard chipsets in support of Intel's Core 2 Duo/Quad and AMD Athlon 64 processors. NVIDIA's nForce 680i SLI and nForce 680a SLI motherboard chipsets will also allow a pair of these monster graphics cards to run in tandem for nearly double the performance and the new chipset offers a ton of integrated features, like Gigabit Ethernet Link Teaming etc.

NVIDIA has officially launched their new high-end 3D Graphics card that has full support for DX10 and Shader Model 4.0. The GeForce 8800 series is fully tested and showcased at HotHardware and its performance is nothing short of impressive. With up to 128 Stream Processors under its hood, up to 86GB/s of memory bandwidth at its disposal and comprised of a whopping 681 million transistors, it's no wonder the new GPU rips up the benchmarks like no tomorrow. NVIDIA is also launching a new enthusiast line of motherboard chipsets in support of Intel's Core 2 Duo/Quad and AMD Athlon 64 processors. NVIDIA's nForce 680i SLI and nForce 680a SLI motherboard chipsets will also allow a pair of these monster graphics cards to run in tandem for nearly double the performance and the new chipset offers a ton of integrated features, like Gigabit Ethernet Link Teaming etc.

NVIDIA has officially launched their new high-end 3D Graphics card that has full support for DX10 and Shader Model 4.0. The GeForce 8800 series is fully tested and showcased at HotHardware and its performance is nothing short of impressive. With up to 128 Stream Processors under its hood, up to 86GB/s of memory bandwidth at its disposal and comprised of a whopping 681 million transistors, it's no wonder the new GPU rips up the benchmarks like no tomorrow. NVIDIA is also launching a new enthusiast line of motherboard chipsets in support of Intel's Core 2 Duo/Quad and AMD Athlon 64 processors. NVIDIA's nForce 680i SLI and nForce 680a SLI motherboard chipsets will also allow a pair of these monster graphics cards to run in tandem for nearly double the performance and the new chipset offers a ton of integrated features, like Gigabit Ethernet Link Teaming etc.

HotHardware also shows big gains for the the new quad-core and its power consumption and thermals are in check as well!

Most Athlon 64 mainboards support (unbuffered) ECC as well, I have seen consumer boards for less than 100 Euros that do. So the Quad father might support ECC too.

OTOH, you will be limited to a smaller max. amount of RAM. If you follow the links in TFA
http://www.hothardware.com/image_popup.cfm?image=b ig_4x4mobo.png&articleid=891&t=a
you will see a mainboard with only four memory slots. The biggest unbuffered DDR2 ECC module I can find is the MDT DIMM 2 GB DDR2-533. That makes a maximum of 8GBytes.

For socket 940 or socket F there are plenty of two-processor boards that support 16 Gbyte (four memory slots for each CPU slot).

AMD is pushing multitasking, a model of parallel processing that will never do desktop users much good beyond a small handful of processors. (Yes I know you currently have 57 processes running, and no that does not mean you'd benefit from 57 processors). If AMD presents these silly examples like being able to play two instances of a video game simultaneously, nobody will see any value. Instead, AMD (and for that matter Intel) should be doing all they can to promote fine-grained parallelism so individual applications can easily harness multicore chips without a huge extra developer burden. All too often I am sitting waiting for a job and my CPU utilization is only 50% because the app can't use both cores. (Come on, where's dual-core gzip?) You can say it isn't the chipmakers' problem, but if it prevents me from needing their products, it is their problem.

Hot Hardware had another review today.

He spoke of the upcoming mobile "Santa Rosa" platform that will incorporate NAND storage, Core 2 Duo CPUs, 802.11n WiFi, and G965 chipset. Santa Rosa will be a big step up in performance, and will have better battery life through advancements in manufacturing and the use of NAND storage. NAND will be integrated onto the motherboard in Santa Rosa and we can see its obvious usefulness in a sort of scratch-pad application, allowing drives to spin down while data is cached in NAND memory perhaps. A NAND flash array should also allow for faster access to OS functions for enhanced instant-on capabilities. He then spoke of the progress with WiMAX and stated that WiMAX will be part of the Centrino platform in the future, as part of a total WiFi solution.

ANNOUNCING THE
$1,000,000
Intel Core 2 Challenge

Last week, NVIDIA launched the affordably priced, sub-$200 GeForce 7900 GS and announced the higher-end, $299 GeForce 7950 GT with just a preview. It seems NVIDIA and their partners only needed a week to get the 7950 GT ready. This article at HotHardware.Com details the specifications and performance of the new GeForce 7950 GT as it relates to NVIDIA's and ATI's current products. Another interesting facet to this article is that the card tested, was HDCP ready, factory-overclocked and passively cooled.

Last week, NVIDIA launched the affordably priced, sub-$200 GeForce 7900 GS and announced the higher-end, $299 GeForce 7950 GT with just a preview. It seems NVIDIA and their partners only needed a week to get the 7950 GT ready. This article at HotHardware.Com details the specifications and performance of the new GeForce 7950 GT as it relates to NVIDIA's and ATI's current products. Another interesting facet to this article is that the card tested, was HDCP ready, factory-overclocked and passively cooled.

There's actually a much better review at Hot Hardware:

http://www.hothardware.com/viewarticle.aspx?articl eid=864&cid=10

According to them, there's rough parity on battery usage (within 10% by clock) yet the chip is anywhere from 15-50% faster than the Core Duo depending on what you're doing.

This is seriously a massive step forward, and I for one plan on buying a laptop equipped with one of these.

The article linked in the post is pretty light on substance and heavy on the fluff. A much more thorough look at Merom can be found here, at HH: http://www.hothardware.com/viewarticle.aspx?articl eid=864&cid=10

HotHardware looks at other important aspects of the card, like image quality in addition to the benchmark numbers. Not all cards render the same IQ and don't forget about HDR with AA on at the same time, which can't be done in hardware currently for NVIDIA cards.

- http://www.madshrimps.be/gotoartik.php?articID=482
- http://www.hothardware.com/viewarticle.aspx?articl eid=861&cid=1
- http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=6538
- http://www.mvktech.net/content/view/3357/48/
- http://pcper.com/article.php?aid=287
- http://uk.theinquirer.net/?article=33872
- http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/08/23/review_ati _radeon_x1950_xtx/
- http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ATI/X1950XTX
- http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=954
- http://techreport.com/reviews/2006q3/radeon-x1950x tx/index.x?pg=1
- http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2007324 ,00.asp
- http://www.tgdaily.com/2006/08/23/ati_releases_rad eon_x1950/
- http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/375/
- http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/131
- http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/view.php?id=2 020&cid=3&pg=1
- http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/ati_radeon_x19 50_xtx_performance/
- http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews/X1950XTXreview /

up to date list: http://www.madshrimps.be/forums/showthread.php?s=& threadid=26526

anybody notice that in the pictures they had 4 vid cards but no CPU? http://www.hothardware.com/articleimages/item772/b ig_nvidia_7.jpg its cause after buying 4 overpriced GeForce 7950 GX2s they had no money left for the overpriced CPU.

Dood, i was looking at the pics...
because you are using 4 cards, your system doesnt need ram or a second processor to run! check out the e3 pic!
http://www.hothardware.com/articleimages/item772/b ig_nvidia_7.jpg
Look Ma No ram .... then again i didnt see a power/keyboard/mouse cable.... maybe its a new wireless mac board?
flamebait......

http://www.hothardware.com/printarticle.aspx?artic leid=856

Nope, looks like they are checking the referrer, and offering the print version to not-Slashdot.

Copy-paste the parent's URL, which is

http://www.hothardware.com/printarticle.aspx?artic leid=847

(don't mod me up, and for God's sake, don't mod me down either! karma bonus relinquished as ritual sacrifice for good will...)

http://www.hothardware.com/printarticle.aspx?artic leid=847

There's a much more detailed review up at HotHardware.com

There's a much more detailed review up at HotHardware.com

There's a much more detailed review up at HotHardware.com

NVIDIA has officially taken the wraps off of their new ultra high-end Graphics card dubbed the GeForce 7950 GX2. HotHardware has a full review and showcase posted that shows performance with this new single card design that employs a pair of GeForce 7900 GPUs on a single card. One of the more interesting aspects of the card is its PCI Express switch that provisions a X8 PCI Express connection to each GPU, back down to a single X16 PCI Express Graphics slot. The new card certainly rips up the benchmarks pretty much as well.

NVIDIA has officially taken the wraps off of their new ultra high-end Graphics card dubbed the GeForce 7950 GX2. HotHardware has a full review and showcase posted that shows performance with this new single card design that employs a pair of GeForce 7900 GPUs on a single card. One of the more interesting aspects of the card is its PCI Express switch that provisions a X8 PCI Express connection to each GPU, back down to a single X16 PCI Express Graphics slot. The new card certainly rips up the benchmarks pretty much as well.

If you RTFA the reviewer is supprised at the lack of vents on the bottom of the machine and mentions that heat was never a problem.

Of course if you had it on your lap it would probably just crush your legs before it would burn your vitals.

Printer Friendly Version

looks pretty sweet ... very nice results on it

Here's the hothardware link:

http://www.hothardware.com/viewarticle.aspx?articl eid=822&cid=1&page=21

Look at the graphs at the bottom, the increase in power when the CPU is loaded is presumably due to the CPU. The EE adds 80W when going to peak power, the AMDs add almost 90W. Make of it what you will. To me it looks like the AMD is a hog. I say this because I know the EE is a hog.

I dunno why you list 130W as AMDs TDP. Are you considering that a good thing? That's an assload! My entire system doesn't take that, counting inefficiencies. (and I have an Athlon X2).

Clock-for-clock, Intel is beating AMD with Core Duo. In performance per Watt, they are KILLING them. AMD does win out on the top end, because Intel doesn't have high-end chips out yet. This will probably change when Core 2 Duo comes out.

See link:

http://anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2750

The Intel chip beats the AMD in every test that measures CPU performance. It only falls to even or a bit worse in tests which test primarily the speed of peripherals.

If you are looking at an Athlon X2 4400+ or below and you don't need 64-bit, you're making a big mistake buying an AMD. The Intel is superior. That's why I say "clock-for-clock". If you need a processor in the speed range that Intel covers with Core Duo, the Core Duo is the winner. They just top out at 2.16GHz (almost the same speed as my Athlon X2 4200+), so if you want more performance than that, you have to go to AMD (because going to P4 makes zero sense).

If what we hear about Core 2 Duo is correct, AMD won't have much left to crow about next week. Intel will have 64-bit in Core 2 Duo. AMD willl be beat on performance/Watt. They'll be beat on performance/MHz. They'll be beat on performance in multiprocessing situations. They'll be beat on performance "at any cost" (max performance). If they're lucky, AMD will keep the performance/dollar measure. That's a pretty big fall for a company that had a clear edge just a few months ago.

I don't have anything against AMD. My primary machine is an Athlon 64 X2 4200+ and I love it. And it was exactly the right thing to buy at the time. But that's changed for the mainstream today, and it look like it'll change for the top end too next week.

I wish AMD the best. I hope they have something up their sleeve to top Intel again. But AM2 isn't it. I really hope they can get to 65nm (and presumably competitiveness on power) sooner than the December they state.

There is better and more balanced reviews here and here

Small selection:
- HardOCP
- X-Bit Labs
- HotHardware

up to date list here

The folks over at HotHardware.com also have a very detailed performance evaluation of AM2 Athlon 64, right here

The folks over at HotHardware.com also have a very detailed performance evaluation of AM2 Athlon 64, right here

We all already know it has poor FPU performance, poor blah and that Intel is evil, we have to thank all those AMD fanboys to remember it to all Intel fanboys ( im either one, i hv systems from both and even from VIA, they all hv their place ).

I'm more interested in Conroe aka Intel Core 2. It has all the 'goodies' that u all want like EM64T ( wich 90% of the consumer market will not use anytime soon ).
Plus it will give some serious performance boost and will have lower power consumption. Conroe, if things continue as they are now, will reverse that benchmark scenario, with the stock Conroe beating the overclocked FX-60 to a 'pulp', with a 20% performance boost average coming from an early sample is considerable http://www.hothardware.com/viewarticle.aspx?articl eid=794&cid=1.

From what has been seen ( search anandtech for that ), the new AMD socket won't bring anything very new, so we can at least assume that Intel might be in a position to be the king of performance.

Can I get Octa-SLI with four of those cards on this Motherboard?

Air is extracted from the case by an integral transparent blue LED fan, passed through the radiator and vented out of the case at the rear mounting bracket.

Check out this picture. It looks like it just dumps the heat inside your case... great...

Is this some sort of lame pun?

From the init. parent post article, a quote:

"They've been getting beaten in the press pretty soundly by AMD of late"

Have they?

* See here with the CONROE chip utterly smoking the finest AMD has to offer:

[url]http://www.hothardware.com/viewarticle.aspx?a rticleid=794&cid=1%5Burl%5D :)

(So much for that I guess...)

APK

To combat the new GeForce 7600 GT and GeForce 7900 GT, ATI just launched the new Radeon X1800 GTO. The only review I can find so far is at Hot Hardware.

NVIDIA has launched the latest refresh of their GeForce 7 series of 3D Graphics for the desktop today and took the wraps off their new GeForce 7900GTX, GeForce 7900GT and GeForce 7600GT cards. There's a full review and showcase at HotHardware, along with benchmarks that show these new 90nm built GPUs have very strong performance with lower power and even better price points. In fact the GeForce 7900 series will cost much less than NVIDIA's former high-end the GeForce 7800 series. The GeForce 7900GT in particular offers $500 graphics card level performance, reportedly at a much more palatable $299 price point.

NVIDIA has launched the latest refresh of their GeForce 7 series of 3D Graphics for the desktop today and took the wraps off their new GeForce 7900GTX, GeForce 7900GT and GeForce 7600GT cards. There's a full review and showcase at HotHardware, along with benchmarks that show these new 90nm built GPUs have very strong performance with lower power and even better price points. In fact the GeForce 7900 series will cost much less than NVIDIA's former high-end the GeForce 7800 series. The GeForce 7900GT in particular offers $500 graphics card level performance, reportedly at a much more palatable $299 price point.