HEXUS.beans - World Exclusive Gainward Launch 512MB Graphics Card

[Steve]

Today Gainward will launch a 512MB 6800 Ultra card, called: Gainward CoolFXTM PowerPack!TM Ultra/2800PCX “Golden Sample”TM SLI-ready. Bit of a tongue twister....

Gainward have an exclusive SKU just for their SLI 'CoolFX' solutions. They have coupled the 6800Ultra GPU with 512MB of 1.6ns (1.2GHz) DDR3 memory on each of the boards. This coupled with the water cooled units, these cards of course will run on the PCI-E bus.

I suspect it will not be long until we see Gainward and other manufacturers pushing the 512MB across the board for the 6800Ultra GPU.

[iMc]

My 128Mb 6800nu looks sad

[Spunkey]

my 64Mb GeForce3 looks even sadder

is 512 really needed or is it the Intel virus spreading again? ie Bigger Numbers TM = better.

hell is 256Mb even really needed yet?

[iMc]

I think it does come in handy for the Ultra mode on Doom 3, will probably help in Flight Sims as well.

[Steve]

I think it does come in handy for the Ultra mode on Doom 3

Yeah, Ryszard covered that one in his SLI reviews - Ultra mode will prefer 512MB mem.

[Swafe]

Doom 3 does prefer 512Mb for Ultra settings, as the textures are there abouts uncompressed

Sli tho that would make your total graphics memory 1Gb....insane

[Steve]

It depends which mode you're running it. In AFR mode you'll only get the amount each card has per frame. SFR will pretty much split it.

[Howard]

Beans?

[Spunkey]

...meanz heinz

..., beans the musical fruit, the more you eat the more you toot

[suryad]

lol @ rubbishrubbishrubbishrubbishrubbishey. so seriously before we reach levels of hardware insanity, come on besides Doom 3 which game requires that much memory!!! holy cow! benchmarks! cant wait for benchmarks!

[RoGuE|SaBeR]

Ooo err missus!

Well it's the way things were always going to go. Difference between this and the Intel approach is that more RAM can and will be used. Intel were just lazy and weren't as efficient with their processing power, RAM on the other hand means bigger textures which means better visuals. You can I suppose be more efficient with textures to a certain extent but eventually you really will just need more RAM to hold them.

[St3v3]

I think its all part of the benchmark gimmick anyway. I seriously think that as long as ATi and Nvidia both make money, you'll probably see gfx cards memory outstripping actualy RAM in the not too distant future.

A decent 1Gb 6800U SLi rig is gonna set ya back about £2,000 now at the very least. That'd be skimping on other components just to afford those 2 beasting cards as well!

I'm quite happy with my AGP 6800GT for now .....

[Rys]

It depends which mode you're running it. In AFR mode you'll only get the amount each card has per frame. SFR will pretty much split it.

Due to split frame overhead and the texture and render target usage of current games, it's still basically a 512MB framebuffer with two 512MB cards. Lots of data is shared across both boards, even if visible pixel data is different.

Rys

[Steve]

That's a great shame.

My apologies for the little bit of misinformation there guys.

[Plantag]

I suspect that the present SLI systems will be out stripped by the next range of graphics cards.

ATI seems with the X850PE to have really stolen a lead on a single 6800 Ultra....


With that card bench markingin the 13,000 range then we can expect Nvidia will have to be answering with a card that can at least pull 14,000 to 15,000. As obviously ATI's next card will worth at least a 1000 points I would have thought.

On a side note I am based in Switzerland... I ordered my GForce 6800 Ultra a month ago and have been told this week that it wil be at least 2 more weeks. The same for delivery of the ATI X850 PE otherwise I would have said sod it and taken that. To be honest supply of the latest round of high end PCI Express graphic cards is very poor. It wouldnt surprise me to learn the next new wonder cards have been released before I am even able to buy the present one.

Why am I going for the Ultra over the PE. Well it is about 50-60 pounds cheaper than the ATI. I paid 280 pounds for my Ultra.