Saw this interesting article:

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/ati-radeon-4800,5223.html

 

One thing that popped out to me was that they claim the DDR5 versoin will consume 34.5% less power than the DDR3 version of the 4850 model. 

 

Edit:

Link should work now. I figured it would automatically link if I just pasted the web address. 

great find, i love hardware rumors like this


btw your link isnt working... http://www.tomshardware.com/news/ati-radeon-4800,5223.html

best bet is to just go to the homepage of toms hardware and click the article for the 4800.

Interesting.  But the shaders are still clocked too low.  1050 is better than 775, but Nvidia is still way higher.  Simply adding more isn't enough.  It will be faster than the 3870, but I wonder if it can reach 9800GTX speeds.  Hopefully it does.

And 2GB of memory on a future 4870X2 is overkill.  And on the reverse, 256mb versions available on the 4850?  Hopefully OEMs are smart enough to not make too many of these.  I noticed a lack of 256mb 3850s and for good reason.  Few people buy them, so they are making less.  It's enough for 1280x1024 gaming usually, but it's still not wise.

For the next video card generation,I am more interested in the performance instead of power consumed.I am tired of seeing die shrinks! 

 

coolzonestefan:

For the next video card generation,I am more interested in the performance instead of power consumed.I am tired of seeing die shrinks! 

sorry, but that is just plain... ignorant..

with out die shrinks we would have computers that take up rooms, that are less powerfull, and take up huge energy.
it is earth week cmon take care for the enviroment, plus lower power means less electricty bill and trust me you dont want a video card to take up 300 watts. plus die shrinks mean that they can putt more chips on a board. with out die shrinks we wouldnt have the 3870x2 or the 9800 gx2.

sorry if this post came off as rude, i honestly didnt mean it to but that statement showed a lack of knowledge. hopefully now you have a better idea of the usefullness of dieshrinks.

p.s. with out die shrinks expect to pay upwards of 1000 dollars a video card. seriously die shrinks lower production costs, so with out them we'd be paying through the nose on everything.

 

Just be glad they are not nameing it like Nvida is and going something like 3880 GTX Ultra and the and the 5000 series 3985 GT and the 6000 series 3990 GTS 

Lower power and die shrinks kick ass.  That's basically how the 3870 came out of the 2900XT, and boy what an improvement in power used.

And good point about the naming scheme.  That's why Ati dropped its XT and Pro crap.  Higher number = higher performance (as long as you're within the same family).  Whose to say a GT should be greater than a GS, but slower than a GTS?  But a 3870 is faster than a 3850... makes sense. 

I honestly believe that naming schemes can be somewhat confusing by design. ;)

recoveringknowitall:

I honestly believe that naming schemes can be somewhat confusing by design. ;)

im never confused by names.... its logical to me.... but then again i read every bit of news about video cards that comes my way

My comment was regarding people that pick up vid cards at places like Best Buy or Circuit City... that crowd is often not as "in the know" as most of us here in the forums who build our own and do LOTS of "homework" 1st.

I too have NEVER been confused by the names, but I don't necessarily represent the average consumer.

 

 

Names aren't confusing to us.  But to people who don't know enough, it can be.

GeForce 8800 series, best to worst:

8800 Ultra

8800 GTX

8800 GTS 512mb

8800 GT 512mb

8800 GTS 640mb

8800 GT  256mb

8800 GTS 320mb 

8800 GS 

And even some of that order is debatable.  Notice how many GTS' there are and where they rank.  Confusing to people no used to this stuff.

Crisis Causer:

Confusing to people no used to this stuff.

Exactly... I should have clarified initially.

 

Crisis Causer:

Names aren't confusing to us.  But to people who don't know enough, it can be.

GeForce 8800 series, best to worst:

8800 Ultra

8800 GTX

8800 GTS 512mb

8800 GT 512mb

8800 GTS 640mb

8800 GT  256mb

8800 GTS 320mb 

8800 GS 

And even some of that order is debatable.  Notice how many GTS' there are and where they rank.  Confusing to people no used to this stuff.

 

It has gotten better as the prices have stablized. When the GT was introduced, the G80 GTS cards were selling for a higher price for quite some time. Which helped me get rid of mine for $250.   But looking at the price sort of gives everyday people an idea of a model's performance in relation to the other's in the same family. As long as someone at the store knows it, it is just up to the customer to ask. It isn't that time consuming to recommend a good card for a particular customer.

RyuGTX:

It isn't that time consuming to recommend a good card for a particular customer.

Yup!

 

Ice_73!People are not attracted by the cards that consume less and less power!

People buy graphics cards for their newer games to work good!A LOT of them do this!

I really do not get it how my previous statement showed lack of knowledge!I have graphics cards since Trident and I know very well what I am talking about!

 Performance sells!Die shrinks sell much less! Because of this,a lot of cards considered only die shrinks remained in stock at all the stores,because there are a lot of people that read speciality forums and get it why it does not worth it to 'upgrade' if they already own a 8800GTX

Die shrunken GPUs cost less and so they can afford to sell less.

You have a point about performance, but a lot of people like lower power now.  The X1800s and X1900s used a lot of power, but people still bought them.  Still, many were not happy.  And the the 2900 line just went too far.  3850/70 is very low power, and also lower in price thanks to die shrink.

And the 9800GTX is not worthy as an upgrade to the 8800GTX.  Nor do I think it was meant as one, judging by the relatively low price.  Nvidia just as using the "9" as a selling point.  It's rather stupid because it's the first time a new 1000 series performs the same.  But that's what the 9900 series is for.  The real next-gen from Nvidia.

I think I understand both of your arguements.

I think they complement each other rather than being opposite opinions.  I think it is just how you guys originally worded them which made it seem like 2 arguements.

coolzonestefan:

Ice_73!People are not attracted by the cards that consume less and less power!

People buy graphics cards for their newer games to work good!A LOT of them do this!

I really do not get it how my previous statement showed lack of knowledge!I have graphics cards since Trident and I know very well what I am talking about!

 Performance sells!Die shrinks sell much less! Because of this,a lot of cards considered only die shrinks remained in stock at all the stores,because there are a lot of people that read speciality forums and get it why it does not worth it to 'upgrade' if they already own a 8800GTX

die shrinks cause increases in performance. think about it like this with out die shrinks cards would just be getting bigger and bigger and then were back to the old harvard computer that takes up a whole room. seriously if you like pc's being "small" and by that i mean not being a whole room, and consuming thousands of killo-wats an hour then die shrinks are good.

im not implying that die shrinks are worth upgrades. the 9800 is ***. and alot of people do buy for performance but we wouldnt get that much performance increase with out die shrinks.

 

coolzonestefan:

Ice_73!People are not attracted by the cards that consume less and less power!

People buy graphics cards for their newer games to work good!A LOT of them do this!

I really do not get it how my previous statement showed lack of knowledge!I have graphics cards since Trident and I know very well what I am talking about!

 Performance sells!Die shrinks sell much less! Because of this,a lot of cards considered only die shrinks remained in stock at all the stores,because there are a lot of people that read speciality forums and get it why it does not worth it to 'upgrade' if they already own a 8800GTX

die shrinks cause increases in performance. think about it like this with out die shrinks cards would just be getting bigger and bigger and then were back to the old harvard computer that takes up a whole room. seriously if you like pc's being "small" and by that i mean not being a whole room, and consuming thousands of killo-wats an hour then die shrinks are good.

im not implying that die shrinks are worth upgrades. the 9800 is ***. and alot of people do buy for performance but we wouldnt get that much performance increase with out die shrinks.

 

Die shrinks are good because they cause increases in performance.Maybe...but what happened in reality from nVidia's side wasn't at all a noticeable performance increase with the new series of videocards