Hasta La Gadget!

AMD’s Radeon HD 6870 and HD 6850 graphics cards are here, but they might not be what you expect — though alphanumerics suggest they’d succeed the lauded Radeon HD 5870 and 5850, these new “Bart” chips are actually a pair of solid plays for the PC gaming mainstream. $180 buys you a Radeon HD 6850 with 960 stream processors, a 775MHz core clock and 1GB of GDDR5 memory at a 1GHz effective rate, and $240 nets the HD 6870 with 1120 stream processors and 900MHz / 1,050 MHz clocks respectively. On paper that puts them a good bit behind the finest, but a collection of reviews show they can keep up with the pack, as the 6870 consistently manages to surpass the framerates possible with NVIDIA’s $200 GeForce GTX 460, and even the cheaper 6850 can do the same in certain games. Some reports indicate they run a good bit hotter than their predecessors, however, so despite the bevy of ports they’re probably not right for your next HTPC. Hit up the reviews below for some promising benchmarks, and if you aren’t turned away by AMD’s lipsticking of the pig, you’ll find ten varieties already for sale at our source link. PR after the break.

Update: NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 460 768MB now sells for $170, so there’s definitely still some mid-range muscle in the green camp.

Read – AnandTech
Read (1), (2) – Guru3D
Read – HardOCP
Read (1), (2) – Bit-tech
Read – PC Perspective
Read – Legit Reviews
Read – Techgage
Read (1), (2) – TweakTown
Read – Hexus
Read (1), (2) – TechPowerUp
Read – HotHardware
Read – TechSpot

Continue reading ATI Radeon HD 6870 and HD 6850 reviewed, deemed worthy of the midrange

ATI Radeon HD 6870 and HD 6850 reviewed, deemed worthy of the midrange originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 Oct 2010 23:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you had any doubts that the 3D bandwagon was taking no prisoners in an attempt to fill up and overflow, look no further than Lenovo’s 3D IdeaPad Y560d. Yeah, a 3D laptop from Lenovo. The folks over at Hot Hardware were able to spend a bit of quality time with this beast, but unlike many of Lenovo’s machines, this one wasn’t exactly an easy sell. In fact, they firmly stated that it’s only a surefire recommendation to those who will be utilizing the 3D panel with great frequency, noting that the decision to toss a power-hungry Core i7 into an otherwise portable machine led to subpar battery life that would frustrate frequent travelers. Gaming performance was found to be satisfactory, though, and while the overall performance seemed fine, the 7200RPM hard drive in their test unit is apparently unavailable in the shipping unit (which holds a 5400RPM drive). At any rate, they did state that other units in the Y560 line would be better options for more well-rounded consumers, so unless you plan on living with a set of 3D glasses on, you’re probably better off passing over this one. Hit the source for the full skinny.

Lenovo’s 3D IdeaPad Y560d reviewed: for three-dee fanatics only originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Oct 2010 16:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If somehow you were able to choke up the FirePro V8800 and its 2GB of graphics buffer — traveling across an autobahn-wide 147.2GBps interface — here’s the card for you. ATI has just announced the V9800, which doubles its predecessor’s memory allowance to a mighty 4GB of GDDR5, but otherwise looks an almost identical beast. It maintains the 1,600 stream processor count of the V8800 and makes some small advances in performance and power efficiency, but on the whole it’s the same card, just strapped up with more buffer muscle. We shouldn’t neglect the new array of six mini DisplayPorts — the retail package will include six DVI adapters, worry not — which will let you have your full six-screen Eyefinity cake driven by just this one card. So, is this future collector’s item worth your time? Well, at $3,499, the V9800 is a whole two thousand dollars pricier than the V8800, but then if you have the highly specialized needs it’s looking to cater for, we’re guessing that won’t be too much of a hurdle for you.

Update: Oh, about the price, AMD just got in touch to say it’ll suggest a $3,499 tithe, not the $2.5K indicated on the slide below. Sorry is we misled you into selling up your entire 3D rendering farm with the lower price we had before.

Continue reading ATI FirePro V9800 runs out of ideas, shoots up with 4GB of GDDR5 and six mini DisplayPorts

ATI FirePro V9800 runs out of ideas, shoots up with 4GB of GDDR5 and six mini DisplayPorts originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 07:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When ATI, makers of graphics processors and video cards, was purchased by AMD, CPU and chipset maker, back in 2006, most people wondered whether or not the two arms could co-exist under the same roof. After today, it will be all but a moot point, as AMD announced that they would be dropping the ATI name from all of its branding and graphics products, renaming them “AMD Graphics.” Fans of the Radeon line of graphics cards and EyeFinity multi-display technology will find them renamed as “AMD Radeon” and “AMD EyeFinity” starting later this year.

AMD claims that today’s announcement is a move designed to simplify their product offerings and reduce consumer confusion. It’s also likely due to the coming release of its Fusion combination Graphics and CPU technology in a single package, and is an attempt to present a single, unified front against their major GPU challenger, NVidia, and their major CPU competitor, Intel. 

This, dear friends, is a sad, sad day. ATI, the name of hope for all PC gamers who were sick and tired of NVIDIA rebadging the same GPU over the past couple of years, is to be no more. The callous souls over at AMD have decided that our little consumer brains aren’t sophisticated enough to handle two awesome brands, so they’re just axing the use of the ATI moniker from here on out. Product line names will be retained, with the Radeon and FirePro branding still intact, but ATI Eyefinity will now be known as AMD Eyefinity. The first graphics cards to, erm, benefit from the new nomenclature will ship “later this year,” and the whole thing is said to have been motivated by AMD’s move to Fusion APUs — hybrid CPU and GPU chips — where it’s considered beneficial to have a unified branding strategy. Great, but did anyone consider the fact that the graphics wars will now be fought between two teams wearing green jerseys?

Continue reading AMD kills ATI brand, you can look forward to blood-stained Radeons

AMD kills ATI brand, you can look forward to blood-stained Radeons originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Aug 2010 03:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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