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How much will the 2950PRO cost?

C

collection

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 18, 2006
Messages
202
The best one, I heard that there is two versions. I need something to replace my X1950XT, which is chugging in quite a few games, 1680 x 1050 is not too good for my poor 256MB card :(. Does anybody know how much the 2950PRO will cost? Really hope its less than $300. Also, how much better is the 2950PRO 512MB over mye X1950XT 256MB?
 
It should kick the everlivin' shit out of your 1950xt, if the initial reports are true, and sell for around $250-$300. Plus it's a single slot card/cooler.
 
collection said:
The best one, I heard that there is two versions. I need something to replace my X1950XT, which is chugging in quite a few games, 1680 x 1050 is not too good for my poor 256MB card :(. Does anybody know how much the 2950PRO will cost? Really hope its less than $300. Also, how much better is the 2950PRO 512MB over mye X1950XT 256MB?
Click to expand...

It shouldn't cost much more than $250. Given that, as far as we know, this HD 2950 Pro is essentially the same as the HD 2900 XT, for less money and probably a few new features, it will be better than your X1950 XT. What remains to be seen is performance with AA, which is not mentioned in any rumor.,
 
I run @ 1680 x 1050, wount the 256 bit controller hurt performance? And how much better would it be than my x1950xt? 20%? 50%?
 
collection said:
I run @ 1680 x 1050, wount the 256 bit controller hurt performance? And how much better would it be than my x1950xt? 20%? 50%?
Click to expand...

The fact that it supports a 256 bit memory bus, is what makes it cheaper, since everything else is pretty much the same as the HD 2900 XT. It will be slower, as you increase resolution and AA levels (which is not R600 forte anyway), but I don't expect it to be much slower, than the HD 2900 XT. Even more so, because there's a version with extreme clock frequencies of 825 Mhz. At least, that's what rumors say.
 
55nm process instead of 80nm is really what makes it cheaper, not the memory bus.

It'll also use ~40% less power than the 2900xt, is a single slot cooling solution, and requires just one power connector.

And there's plenty of bandwidth on the 256 bit memory bus (especially with GDDR4), the 512 bit looked good for marketing but didn't really get much use with the 2900 cards and even the mighty Nvidia 8800 cards only have 320 or 384 bit. In any case, at 1680x1050, you won't be running into any memory bandwidth problems, if there are any it'll be at resolutions beyond 1920x1200.

As for performance, the rest is rumour, but that rumour claims ATI fixed the AA issues that haunted the 2900, and clock for clock the RV670 is as fast or faster than the R600, while also being a DX 10.1 part.

The RV670 XT version (based on engineering samples) is 825mhz core and 512mb of 1.2ghz GDDR4, and the RV670 Pro is supposed to be 750mhz core and 256mb of 900mhz GDDR3. And by the way, those are not extreme clock freqs for the 55nm part, if anything they are conservative...expect an even higer clocked version early next year with dual slot cooling.

Keep in mind with the 55nm chips, there may be a lot of overclocking headroom, since heat and power draw are much lower than the R600.

All of this is informed speculation of course, but we should know for sure in a few weeks.
 
Croak said:
55nm process instead of 80nm is really what makes it cheaper, not the memory bus.
Click to expand...

Actually, both reasons are related. Doing all the traces for a 512 bit bus, using 80 nm is hard and expensive enough, to make the move to 55nm almost unfeasible at this point.

Croak said:
As for performance, the rest is rumour, but that rumour claims ATI fixed the AA issues that haunted the 2900, and clock for clock the RV670 is as fast or faster than the R600, while also being a DX 10.1 part.
Click to expand...

There is not even a rumor to support that yet. Shader based AA continues to be the norm for R600 based cards. The true question is in fact related to ROPs and TMUs, which need to be increased.
 
I too am looking to replace my X1900XTX, I am wondering if this card will be able to run 1900x1200 res well or should I go for a more powerful card?
 
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