Review AMD's Radeon-HD-5670-[HD]

In a discourteous endeavor to dominate every segment in the DX11 market ATI is covering all the bases with very strong products in the high-end and mid-range segment. The slowest DX11 card one can buy is in fact the Radeon HD 5750 and good gosh man, that card oozes performance.

It's therefore not exactly a surprise or even secret that there is a gap left in the now very wide range of ATI DX11 card lineup. Yes my fellow Guru's today we are going second base in the upper budget segment. Cards that typically can be found in a 75 EUR / 95 USD price range often offering a somewhat below average gaming experience. However with the right monitor resolution and settings, one is almost always getting most bang for buck.

Today ATI releases thus the Radeon series 5600. Actually Radeon HD 5650 and 5670 today to be specific -- we'll be looking at a couple of these cards. These cards offer a wide variety in functionality, but even in the new budget products, ATI put in enough transistors to allow you to play modern games well -- if you give them the right circumstances that is. The card we'll be testing today is lined up directly against NVIDIA's GeForce GT 240 products, with the Radeon HD 5670 being slightly faster, DX11 compatible and sure .. ATI threw in Eyefinity as well.

But wait -- there's more though. Obviously we will all agree that a new trend that has been up and coming over the past two to three years are HTPCs. And that's exactly an area where the Radeon HD 5670 will rise and shine hard, as it has more than enough shader power to post process your high-definition content and it's armed with the very best in image quality outputs with the digital HDMI and DisplayPort even supporting 7.1 audio and Dolby True HD and DTS Master Audio as well.

Overall features? Much like the rest of the Radeon HD 5000 family ATI has been focusing on three primary features, and key selling points for the series 5000 products. First off, the new graphics adapters are of course DirectX 11 ready. With Windows 7 and Vista being DX11 ready, all we need are some games to take advantage of DirectCompute, multi-threading, Hardware Tessellation and new shader 5.0 extensions. DX11 is going to be good.

Another big feature of the product that you already learned about is Eyefinity, the ability to connect one to up-to six monitors (depending on AIC/AIB choices in outputs) to your videocard and use it in a desktop environment, or to create an incredibly wide monitor resolution to play games in. It's nice, it is niche and yes... certainly not an option many of you will use... but really it is breathtaking as well. Though really too little power to do so, the card does support Eyefinity up-to 4 monitors.

Though ATI's Series 5000 cards have been hard to get, due to yield issues at TSMC's 40nm node, things seem to be slowly picking up now and as such that was a good for AMD to cease the moment and add a new product series to their already extensive DX11 lineup.

Intel's Core i7 Processor

There are only a select few events in the PC hardware world that get hardcore enthusiasts truly excited. For example, when popular trade shows like Computex, IDF, and CES take place, there is a fair amount of buzz. Also, anytime the major players in graphics release next-generation GPUs, things definitely heat up; or likewise when a hot new game hits. Finally, when either of the processor big guns, Intel or AMD unleash new CPU micro-architectures on the world, you can almost bet on the community to come alive with enthusiasm. We're sure we've missed a few other momentous occasions as well, but you get the gist. It takes something new and exciting to get a PC Enthusiast's pulse racing.

Thankfully, today is one of those times. Although Intel won't be officially launching their Core i7 processors, formerly codenamed Nehalem, and the X58 Express chipset until sometime later in the month, we've had them in house for a while now and can finally show you all the goods. We've tested every Core i7 speed grade that will be available at launch, along with at trio of X58 Express based motherboards. We've even thrown in some high-resolution multi-GPU SLI and CrossFireX testing for good measure as well.

Specifications & Features
•Core Frequencies - 3.2GHz (965), 2.93GHz (940), 2.66 (920)
•QPI Speed - 6.4GT/s (965), 4.8GT/s (940, 920)
•TDP (Thermal Design Power) - 130W
•Stepping - 4
•Number of CPU Cores - 4
•Shared L3 Cache - 8MB
•L2 Cache - 1MB (256K x 4)
•Processor input voltage (VID) - 1.160v
•.045-micron manufacturing process
•Shared Smart Cache Technology
•PECI Enabled
•Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology (EIST)
•Extended HALT State (C1E) Enabled
•Execute Disable Bit (XD) Enabled
•Intel 64 Technology
•Intel Virtualization Technology (VT)
•Packaging - Flip Chip LGA1366
•Total Die Size: Approximately 263mm2
•Approximately 731M Transistors
•MSRP - $999 (965), $562 (940), $284 (920)

Display ATi RV635 XT

The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) unveils a new interface dubbed Display port which will supplant DVI and VGA connections eventually and its micropacket architecture offers significantly more bandwidth with multi-monitor support over a single cable. Like HDMI, a DisplayPort connection can carry 8-channel 24-bit audio, but also offers a dedicated auxiliary link for control communications of things like panel I/O and microphone connections. There are hundreds of big brand name companies behind the standard that is set to compete with HDMI for desktop and notebook dominance, including the likes of AMD, Intel, NVIDIA, Samsung and Dell. However, DisplayPort is more likely to co-exist with HDMI, since HDMI is specifically targeted for consumer electronics like set-top boxes, DVD players etc, while DisplayPort was designed from the ground up for computing.

ATI's RV635 XT board is beeing testing it out on an unreleased LCD panel that we'll be showing you in the coming weeks. On the board you'll note that the surrounding circuitry for each DisplayPort connection is minimal and devoid of those all-too familiar Silicon Image TMDS chips that add cost to any dual link DVI-D connection. Since each DisplayPort cable can run multiple monitors in a daisy-chain configuration, imagine a four panel setup from a single graphics card and even possibly a single cable connection!!!!

We've got an RV635 XT board here and have been testing it out on an unreleased LCD panel that we'll be showing you in the coming weeks. On the board you'll note that the surrounding circuitry for each DisplayPort connection is minimal and devoid of those all-too familiar Silicon Image TMDS chips that add cost to any dual link DVI-D connection. Since each DisplayPort cable can run multiple monitors in a daisy-chain configuration, imagine a four panel setup from a single graphics card and even possibly a single cable connection. We'll have more to come on the LCD side of the equation, soon.

NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Chip

The nVidia GeForce FX 5200 Chip
GeForce FX 5200 offers 2 pixel pipelines and 4 texture units. But all this is very relative, because to date you can judge a video card only by the number of pipelines of one type or the other. This is caused by that the driver configures operation of the chip for each particular scene of a computer game.

All in all, we can say the 3D handling potentials in NV34 are not different from those in NV30/31. NV34 supports API DirectX 9, thus shaders 2.0 and 2.0+. There are differences of course: the GeForce FX 5200 chip does not offer IntelliSample optimization.

The memory interface in GeForce FX 5200 is also different from the higher-end brother - NV30. The chip uses a standard DDR memory controller, which in theory results in essential performance drops, especially with the anisotropic filtering and FSAA enabled.

GeForce FX 5200 chips do not have support for the HDTV, but can boast having the integrated TV codec, a TMDS-transmitter and two integrated 350 MHz RAMDACs. But today you are unlikely to surprise anyone with this.

For the long period of its development and short life, the GeForce FX 5200 has changed the "recommended" clock speeds for the core and memory at least 10 times. The problem is the first tests of pre-production samples demonstrated a performance so astonishingly low that it would be out of the question and even fatal to launch video cards in such a bad condition on to the market. We'd better refrain from bringing in those first raw results - that simply won't be fair to nVidia, but I can assure you the results were much lower than for MX440. The cause of that was primarily in buggy Detonator drivers not fit to an entirely new chip architecture and really low clock speeds of the new chips. Gradually, things broke even - the standard recommended clock speeds had to be raised, and every new revision of the driver streamlined the performance of video cards, with the yield ratio was bit by bit coming to reasonable technology norms. In our comparison table in the beginning of the article we brought in the "original" values of core and memory clock speeds, but they may prove different in reality which you can see for yourself buying a card in the shop close to you. Video card manufacturers are not shy about varying these values within wide ranges ...

Direct competitors of the new chips are Radeon 9000 and 9000 Pro which will be soon replaced with Radeon 9200 and 9200 PRO.

NVIDIA NEWS : EVGA GeForce GTX 295

EVGA GeForce GTX 295
The GeForce GTX 285 and GeForce GTX 295 are NVIDIA's first consumer-based GPUs manufactured at a 55nm fabrication process. This was likely a requirment for the GeForce GTX 295 as its specifications are derived from the 65nm fabricated GeForce GTX 280 and GeForce GTX 260.

SPECIFICATIONS
The GeForce GTX 295 looks to be a hybrid GPU designed to provide a balance between performance and power efficiency. Similar to the GeForce GTX 280 are the 480 (2x240) stream processors and 160 (2x80) texture filtering units while the 448-bit memory interface and 896MB of memory per GPU core are from the GeForce GTX 260.

Core2Duo E8400

Intel® Core™2 Duo Desktop Processor E8400
Supported Features:
Dual Core
Enhanced Intel Speedstep® Technology
Intel® EM64T 1
Intel® Virtualization Technology
Enhanced Halt State (C1E)
Execute Disable Bit 2
Intel® Thermal Monitor 2

Processor Specifications:
Package Type: LGA775
Manufacturing Technology: 45 nm
Core Stepping: C0
CPUID String: 10676h
Thermal Design Power: 65W
Thermal Specification: 72.4°C
VID Voltage Range: 0.85V – 1.3625V

sSpec Number: SLAPL
CPU Speed: 3 GHz
PCG: 06
Bus Speed: 1333MHz
Bus/Core Ratio: 9
L2 Cache Size: 6 MB
L2 Cache Speed: 3GHz

Intel's Core 2 Duo E8400 processor is physically similar to the Core 2 Duo E6750 (Conroe) and Socket 775 Pentium D processors that came before it. All of these processors use the Land Grid Array 775-pad package. Intel's move to a 45 nanometer manufacturing process means the silicon die here is approximately 104mm2 in area and contains around 410 million transistors. While the Core 2 Duo E8400 is a Socket 775 CPU, it isn't compatible with all Socket 775 motherboards, due to different voltage requirements and processor power envelopes.

Currently the Intel X48, X38, P45, P35, G35, G33 and G31 chipsets have native support for 45nm 'Wolfdale' processors and will support the 1333MHz Front Side Bus speed. Motherboards with older chipsets may support Wolfdale processors like the E8400 processor though BIOS updates, although compatibility isn't universal.

Core 2 Duo E8700

Core 2 Duo E8700: 3.5 GHz Equals Zoomy Standard

In a development that could not have been foreseen by Intel during its planning stages, Nehalem / Core i7 was introduced at a time when the global economy seems to be melting down before our very eyes. Computer users everywhere are seriously questioning whether an upgrade should include a new, expensive motherboard and totally different RAM sticks to go with their new processor, or whether they should just simply upgrade their CPU while maintaining their trusty old 775 socket motherboard and DDR 2 RAM.

As you can read in my series of Hubs: Step By Step Guide To Ordering A Dell PC, I have taken the leap into Nehalem territory by ordering (but as of the time of writing not yet receiving) a monster Core i7 920 system with 12 GB of RAM, a VelociRaptor boot drive, 1 TB of RAID 1 mirrored hard drives and lots more goodies.

The reason why I took this step is only because of Photoshop. I use it a lot and some of the files I work with are gargantuan. This system is attuned exactly to the requirements of Photoshop Extended CS4 and nothing else. I can't stress that enough, since the vast majority of my readers won't need anything near this powerful as the functions that they use their computers for are much less demanding. There is no point (other than pathetic showing off on computer forums) to spend the significant amount of cash in a recession for a way over powered computer when you really don't need it, nor use its power in any meaningful way.

Quad cores are the hot set up these days and many enthusiasts are going the Quad way for their new rigs, completely disregarding the very clear fact that the software they use has absolutely no requirement for that many cores and can't even access them!

Unless you are using some form of highly specific application, Photoshop, 3D, Video rendering, etc. (and very few games for that matter), or running several active apps at the same time, cores number 3 and 4 will likely just sit there like bumps on a log, doing nothing other than making your Task Manager look good.

The Q6600 has been the standard of Quad core-dom for a good long while now. Although not the fastest or most advanced Quad, it is by far the most popular, even though its 65 nm manufacturing process has been superceded by the 45 nm process used in the Wolfdale Duals, Yorkfield Quads, and the Nehalem Core i7s.

However, the Q6600 runs at 2.4 GHz. That is a respectable speed, but many people (even ones who actually own Quads) seem to think that gives the Q6600 a total effective speed of 9.6 GHz. Absolutely nothing could be further from the truth. The Quad will process multithreads as it is instructed by the software. If your software is essentially a single threaded version (as is 99% + of all commercial software on the market today) your Operating System will run on one core, your software application will run on the other and that's the end of that. Yes, all at 2.4 GHz and not one Hertz faster.

For the vast majority of computer users, I would recommend that unless they plan to keep their system for a minimum of three years, that they avoid Quads right now and stick with the superlative Wolfdale Core 2 Duo lineup. And today's news makes my recommendation even that much more relevant.

Reports have just surfaced on the Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E8700 (6 MB Cache, 3.5 GHz, 1333 MHz FSB). This master of all Wolfdales reaches a pure speed level which has been untouched since the late and completely unlamented Pentium Ds. However, with the various advantages of the Wolfdale 45 nm manufacturing process, this new E8700 can be counted to blow away the generally underperforming and overheated Pentium Ds, in every possible respect. And it will do all of this while operating in a Thermal Design Power envelope of just 65 W.

If we compare the E8700 with the fastest current "mainstream" 45 nm Core 2 Quad, the Q9650, we find that each core is 500 MHz faster. In single threaded applications this clearly means that the PC will run them faster by one sixth on the Duo as they would on the Quad!

Hopefully the pricing of the E8700 will be competitive and will provide a blazingly fast CPU to the millions of Socket 775 owners who aren't quite ready to take the Nehalem Core i7 step but want to run their standard apps at light speed