ATI’s Acquisition To AMD: A Look Into Various Engineering Samples & Prototypes From A Saner Era

[erek]

Really fascinating retro news article

"February 15, 2007, marked the first official word from AMD that the R600 chipset would be renamed the Radeon X2900 series. From there, AMD continued basing its designs off the R600 chipset, eventually evolving into the current Zen 4 architecture we see today.

News Source: YJFY.com"

Source: https://wccftech.com/atis-acquisiti...ineering-samples-prototypes-from-a-saner-era/

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

I always disliked the era of GPU's with stickers on the blowers.

They were always of some "sexy" woman, or an orc with a battleaxe or something. Really lame.

My last GPU like that was my MSI GTX470. it had some sticker with characters from some Street Fighter game on it, a franchise I've never played. At least not since the 8bit era. (it may even have included the game, but I don't think I ever redeemed it)

I'm glad that is no longer the norm.

 

[TrunksZero]

Cool look back. But the article is almost none-sense. Suggesting that AMD Zen 4 CPU chips share tech with ATi R600 GPU chips... has to be typo of some type. Because that sounds like complete bs.

 

[Enigma]

Cool look back. But the article is almost none-sense. Suggesting that AMD Zen 4 CPU chips share tech with ATi R600 GPU chips... has to be typo of some type. Because that sounds like complete bs.

The 7***XT and the 7***XTX do technically share Zen Chip Tech..... They are chiplet based just like the cpus. IMO, So if the R600 evolved into the current tech in some form or fashion they do share tech . I do agree with the typo however the cpu chiplet tech came before the gpu chiplet tech.

RyZen 7000 Series

7900 Series GPU

 

[ZeroBarrier]

The 7***XT and the 7***XTX do technically share Zen Chip Tech..... They are chiplet based just like the cpus. IMO, So if the R600 evolved into the current tech in some form or fashion they do share tech . I do agree with the typo however the cpu chiplet tech came before the gpu chiplet tech.

RyZen 7000 Series

View attachment 558002

7900 Series GPU
View attachment 558001

Does this look like it shares anything with those 2 chips?

 

[funkydmunky]

Cool look back. But the article is almost none-sense. Suggesting that AMD Zen 4 CPU chips share tech with ATi R600 GPU chips... has to be typo of some type. Because that sounds like complete bs.

After a read it appears ATi's R600 was named HD 2900XTX by AMD. So the naming scheme has carried on. That is it.

"From there, AMD continued basing its designs off the R600 chipset, eventually evolving into the current Zen 4 architecture we see today."
Of corse the article ending line is just bullshit as ATi's R600, a GPU, has in no way evolved into the current Zen4 CPU arch.

 

[erek]

I always disliked the era of GPU's with stickers on the blowers.

They were always of some "sexy" woman, or an orc with a battleaxe or something. Really lame.

My last GPU like that was my MSI GTX470. it had some sticker with characters from some Street Fighter game on it, a franchise I've never played. At least not since the 8bit era. (it may even have included the game, but I don't think I ever redeemed it)

I'm glad that is no longer the norm.

What about Nalu?

Or Dawn?

 

[Meeho]

I always disliked the era of GPU's with stickers on the blowers.

They were always of some "sexy" woman, or an orc with a battleaxe or something. Really lame.

My last GPU like that was my MSI GTX470. it had some sticker with characters from some Street Fighter game on it, a franchise I've never played. At least not since the 8bit era. (it may even have included the game, but I don't think I ever redeemed it)

I'm glad that is no longer the norm.

I'd take that over the RGB vomit we have today.

 

[Red Falcon]

What about Nalu?

View attachment 558046
View attachment 558047


Or Dawn?

Graphics to drench your senses.
2004, good times!

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

I'd take that over the RGB vomit we have today.

I'd rather have neither

 

[Bankie]

I always disliked the era of GPU's with stickers on the blowers.

They were always of some "sexy" woman, or an orc with a battleaxe or something. Really lame.

My last GPU like that was my MSI GTX470. it had some sticker with characters from some Street Fighter game on it, a franchise I've never played. At least not since the 8bit era. (it may even have included the game, but I don't think I ever redeemed it)

I'm glad that is no longer the norm.

It didn't really matter that much back then since every case was just a metal box with no windows and the only option for GPU mounting was "down".

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

It didn't really matter that much back then since every case was just a metal box with no windows and the only option for GPU mounting was "down".

That is true. You didn't have to see it.

Despite my builds usually being relatively clean, but the longest time I insisted on buying cases without windows, as I though windows were dumb.

I still think they are dumb, but I've pretty much given up on this now, as just about everything has a window.

I did recently get a Phanteks Enthoo Pro for my testbench build that didn't have a window through! I like it. Looks nice and professional.

Funny story.

My GTX470 was a golden sample overclocker. I was running it faster than GTX480's (at least stock). It just wouldn't quit. It was probably the best overclocking GPU I've owned.

I also had it in a Shuttle SX58H7 SFF case like this:

To say it didn't have good airflow is the understatement of the year.

The adhesive on the sticker on the GTX470 actually melted, and it slowly slid off the GPU

 

[Armenius]

What about Nalu?

View attachment 558046
View attachment 558047


Or Dawn?

 

[staknhalo]

I always disliked the era of GPU's with stickers on the blowers.

They were always of some "sexy" woman, or an orc with a battleaxe or something. Really lame.

My last GPU like that was my MSI GTX470. it had some sticker with characters from some Street Fighter game on it, a franchise I've never played. At least not since the 8bit era. (it may even have included the game, but I don't think I ever redeemed it)

I'm glad that is no longer the norm.

Everything during the frog/mermaid/robot/ruby/merman mascot era of GPUs was ugly - it made everything look cheap - change mind mind- you can't

Phanteks Enthoo Pro for my testbench build that didn't have a window through!

^ my current case also

 

[Armenius]

That is true. You didn't have to see it.

Despite my builds usually being relatively clean, but the longest time I insisted on buying cases without windows, as I though windows were dumb.

I still think they are dumb, but I've pretty much given up on this now, as just about everything has a window.

I did recently get a Phanteks Enthoo Pro for my testbench build that didn't have a window through! I like it. Looks nice and professional.

Funny story.

My GTX470 was a golden sample overclocker. I was running it faster than GTX480's (at least stock). It just wouldn't quit. It was probably the best overclocking GPU I've owned.

I also had it in a Shuttle SX58H7 SFF case like this:

View attachment 558103

To say it didn't have good airflow is the understatement of the year.

The adhesive on the sticker on the GTX470 actually melted, and it slowly slid off the GPU

Fair warning that the Phanteks was a pain in the ass to work in. I have the same case (the Luxe is just the Pro with RBG lighting) and there are things I like about it and things I hate. In particular it was a pain in the ass to get my 360mm radiator installed on the top. It seems like the screw holes didn't line up correctly. Most things in the case seemed to have been made with little to no tolerance built into it. It is a gorgeous case, though.

 

[staknhalo]

I didn't pay attention that the Phanteks only takes slim 200mm (or it was the 140mm slim only or both) fans when buying, and had the regular thickness 140/200mm Noctuas to put in it.... I had to do some hacking and sawing

 

[Armenius]

I didn't pay attention that the Phanteks only takes slim 200mm (or it was the 140mm slim only or both) fans when buying, and had the regular thickness 140/200mm Noctuas to put in it.... I had to do some hacking and sawing

Which case? Standard form factor fans fit in the Enthoo. The new 719 looks pretty sweet.

https://phanteks.com/Enthoo-719.html

 

[staknhalo]

Which case? Standard form factor fans fit in the Enthoo. The new 719 looks pretty sweet.

https://phanteks.com/Enthoo-719.html

Enthoo Pro (without side panel opening)

After mentioning it I recalled more specifically - The front facing intake spot, regular thickness 200MM Noctua wouldn't fit (and default installed there from Enthoo was a thin profile 200mm that just snugly fit) - had to do cutting, making the thickness of the opening bigger, to fit it in there - and the back top exhaust, 200mm regular thickness Noctua wouldn't fit, had to do cutting there too

The 140mm Noctua fans I have are/were fine (bottom intake and back exhaust)

I bought mine back in summer of 2020 - maybe they changed specs/design since, maybe the back top exhaust was just a tolerance/manufacturing issue for mine - but the front intake was absolutely only supposed to be thin profile on mine - can take pics next time I dust it out you can see from where I started cutting - there was no way any normal thickness fan was fitting in the front

Edit:

And yeah, I also recall now - this is what I saw so why I assumed I was good to go - from the front fan allotted space though I can tell you 100% not the case it's meant to be thin profile only

Double edit: It also could be they screwed up and ONLY 200mm fans in this case are supposed to be low profile, but just didn't list it

 

[staknhalo]

...

My encodes finished so I was able to grab pics while fresh in my mind - you can see how little tolerance I left myself after cutting - and looking at it again now IIRC it's that specifically the corners were rounded off in such a way, only thin profile would fit (the top one I can't recall if that was it + more/tolerance defects - but I can't be bothered lol)

Edit: And I didn't have all my tools here with me at the time cause I was in the middle of moving (and of course couldn't wait) - I had to do this with a freaking hacksaw lol that's why the hack job is so pretty

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Fair warning that the Phanteks was a pain in the ass to work in. I have the same case (the Luxe is just the Pro with RBG lighting) and there are things I like about it and things I hate. In particular it was a pain in the ass to get my 360mm radiator installed on the top. It seems like the screw holes didn't line up correctly. Most things in the case seemed to have been made with little to no tolerance built into it. It is a gorgeous case, though.

It was mostly fine for me, but it wasn't a particularly complicated build. Just my testbench made from spare parts I use for such things as testing hard drives, flashing firmware, imaging stuff, etc.

More of that here.

Heck, I tested my 4090 in this case to make sure it was functional before ripping off the cooler and slapping on thee water block.

That's one large GPU

I didn't pay attention that the Phanteks only takes slim 200mm (or it was the 140mm slim only or both) fans when buying, and had the regular thickness 140/200mm Noctuas to put in it.... I had to do some hacking and sawing

Yeah, I had this issue too. It's designed specifically for those 200mm fans that use 180mm(?) screw holes, and get rid of much of the larger frame to squeeze them in there. I didn't like that the included fan wasn't PWM controlled, so I bought a 200mm Noctua fan to go in there, and had to dremel the crap out of the fan to fit it, but it did work eventually.

The Noctua fan had both the standard 200mm screw holes and the 180mm(?) screw holes, so I just kind of laid the existing fan on top and dremeled away all the extra material that was in the way and made it for.

It's an older case, but I appreciate its basic aesthetics, and it has worked well for my testbench build.

 

[staknhalo]

Ah, so that's what the issue was.

By the time I got my 5950x, because of PC Apocalypse going on at the time, all the other parts of the build were past their return period. So no matter what, there was no way I was not gonna make it work lol

And yeah, you can see the rounded corners in your pic here I had to hack away.

 

[Enigma]

Does this look like it shares anything with those 2 chips?

View attachment 558044

Actually yes, The R600 Supported Dx10 and 10.1, Contained 320 stream processors, supports openCL, Supports Avivo/UVD. These are all supported by the Navi 31 Architecture, Ryzen 1000, 2000, 5000 Series apus and soon to be Ryzen 7000 Series apus. So there are alot of technologies that have evolved from the R600 and are still in use today.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radeon_HD_2000_series

 

[ChadD]

Cool look back. But the article is almost none-sense. Suggesting that AMD Zen 4 CPU chips share tech with ATi R600 GPU chips... has to be typo of some type. Because that sounds like complete bs.

You would be surprised. R600 was ATIs first unified shader part. It was Terrascale Arch V1. That is the real gold AMD got from ATI. AMD just settled a suit with LG a few years ago... where LG claimed ATIs unified shader patents where too vague and based on prior work. A judge ruled with AMD... ATIs patents where their own work and predate LGs claimed prior work by years. Anyway that is an aside. Terrascale was a HUGE step forward for AMD (and was far technically superior to what Nvidia was doing at the time)... its why they where able to best Nvidia for a number of years there. Terracale is a VLIW SIMD... it was more like a CPU arch then any GPU prior. It interduce a ton of novel ideas and unique patents such as its memory ring bus ideas that are yes used in Ryzen chiplets today. The ATI team at AMD went on with Terrascale 2 and 3... and eventually designed GCN which still lives on GPU side. Many of AMDs Ryzen engineers actually came over from ATI. ATI was also on the leading edge of GPU compute before AMD bought them. AMD Firestream was GPU compute cluster tech... and was on the go long before Nvidia touched that stuff. (its those patents that are the foundation of Ryzen)

AMD rebranded it and really didn't have the money to keep up which is a shame. Anyway ya they have been iterating on ATI patents for 17 years... and its too bad they didn't keep the half of the portfolio they had to liquidate. A lot of people don't know things like "Adreno" Arm GPUs... where from ATI. I mean Adreno is a Radeon anagram for a reason.