Ati's R600: 64 unified shader units

[cleeve]

Not sure if this is common knowledge yet, but it's nice to see the 64-shader specification nailed down by an Ati rep.

The rumor is this 64-shader beast might hit the Ghz mark on the core. Zing!

Still 16 texture units though. Next gen is where the Nvidian and Ati architectures really start diverging in a big way. Ati will have tons of shaders compared to Nvidia, and Nvidia will have tons of TMUs compared to Ati.
It'll be real interesting seeing if either camp has a huge advantage in anything or if performance stays relatively close...

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/video/display/20060525104243.html

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Still 16 texture units though. Next gen is where the Nvidian and Ati architectures really start diverging in a big way. Ati will have tons of shaders compared to Nvidia, and Nvidia will have tons of TMUs compared to Ati.

I don't know. From the sound of things it looks like ATi's shader advanatage will be less than nV's Texture advanatage.

Supposedly the G80 is 48pixel and texture units but the continued unpaired ROPs (reported to be 24 [so more than the R600 as well]), so the Pixel advantage or the R600:G80 would be 64:48 or 4:3, whereas the TMUs would then be 16:48 or 1:3. Now this is all based on the initial rumour mill, and it's difficult to figure out whats being counted as an ALU and miniALU instead of fully functional units (especially with the nV design [as the GF7600 shows that's getting more complex with nV too]).

What will likely be a big difference as well will be the transistor count between the two parts. I feel it's likely that the R600 will have many less transistors than the G80, and will be built on 80nm vs the G80's 90nm. So it'll be interesting to see die size, transistor count, heat and power consumption, and overclocking.

But yeah, definitely the designs themselves will likely be far more different than we've seen in a while, more so than the R300 vs NV30 IMO.

 

[Heyyou27]

This next graphics card purchase may be very difficult, but I'll definitely be buying ATI this time around if Nvidia doesn't fix the OpenEXR+AA issue.

 

[FITCamaro]

Now if we can just get DX10 in XP we're set. I'm defintely going ATI as well in both this graphics card purchase and the next. I still think the X1900 series has a lot of untapped potential as it is.

 

[HardWareBoss]

With all this new stuff coming I'll have to get a new vid card. Then say goodbye to my ole TI4200.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

With all this new stuff coming I'll have to get a new vid card. Then say goodbye to my ole TI4200.

LOL!

I can get you an R9600P for for real cheap! :twisted:

 

[prozac26]

With all this new stuff coming I'll have to get a new vid card. Then say goodbye to my ole TI4200.

LOL!

I can get you an R9600P for for real cheap! :twisted:
I can get him a 9550 cheaper :lol:

 

[Frank_M]

Fascinating.

64+16; 48+48

Come to think of it, just a few years ago we were happy with 12 and 16 pipelines...

 

[4745454b]

Now if we can just get DX10 in XP we're set. quote]

This is something I've been wondering about. DX10 will have unified shaders, so does this mean ATIs cards will be better then Nvidia's in DX? (I know this is already the case, Nvidia really shines on Opengl.) It seems to me that you really need to know what you want your computer to do before you buy it. Video work? Dual core AMD or Intel. Games? If DX games are your favorite, grab an AMD system with an ATI video card. I'm going to need to go buy some more cases....

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Fascinating.

64+16; 48+48

Come to think of it, just a few years ago we were happy with 12 and 16 pipelines...

Well it'll be interesting because the vertex shader power will be a big difference too (forgot to mention that).

R600 being unified will have as many vertex as pixel shaders, so the design will be 64+16+64+64+16 Pixel+Texture+Vertex+Geometry+ROPS.

The G80 will be 48+48+?+?+(16to24?)

So if the G80 follow current ratios of vertex engines then it'll be 16, but if they follow their trend of scaling back the P:V ratio then it'll likely be somewhere between the current 8 and that prohected 16. IMO it will fall in the 12-16 region.

This isn't terribly impactful as the vertex load still isn't Ginormous except for in 3Dmark, but vertex only titles like X2 could benifit from the 3+:1 advantage that the unified design could bring.

Anywhoo, just another thing to consider, even though it's all still just speculation. :twisted:

 

[pauldh]

Ooooh, you are ready to upgrade. I'll give you options: Ti4600, FX5200, or R9500 pro. All legendary cards for one reason or another. :roll: