ATI confirms: R6x0 Dx10 GPUs are compatible with AGP bridge

[cleeve]

In an interview at PCgameshardware:

http://www.pcgameshardware.de/?article_id=573129

Vijay Sharma of Ati:
"We have a bridge chip and it works with 600 family."

 

[blade85]

ah good old AGP

still ticking...and may continue ticking for a while yet.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Well that's good news, I wonder about the vpu-host communications still, but it's alot better than the previous unknown.

 

[Dr_asik]

I'm not following these news too closely, but did ATI ever confirmed in one vague way or another that the R600 will actually be faster than the G80? If they did not, can we reasonably expect that anyway? For one thing the X100 wasn't significantly faster than the GF6 and the X1K was very similar to the GF7.

 

[cleeve]

Everybody implies their new stuff is faster than the competition, wether it is or not.

Having said that, I'll be very surprised if the R600 isn't noitably faster than the 8800 GTX. The wildcard is Nvidia's 8900 (or 8800 Ultra... whatever it's called)... will it be a minor speed bump from the 8800, or will it be enough to blow the R600 away?

 

[bourgeoisdude]

Everybody implies their new stuff is faster than the competition, wether it is or not.

Having said that, I'll be very surprised if the R600 isn't noitably faster than the 8800 GTX. The wildcard is Nvidia's 8900 (or 8800 Ultra... whatever it's called)... will it be a minor speed bump from the 8800, or will it be enough to blow the R600 away?

Yes. Perhaps the entire reason that ATI originally "delayed" the release of the R600 back last year is that they realised they NEEDED to bump up the next gen. gpu another notch--and decided to move to a newer prototype as the X2800 first rather than releasing it as the X2900 later. Who knows?

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Having said that, I'll be very surprised if the R600 isn't noitably faster than the 8800 GTX.

I still think that the R600 will be slower in older apps and faster in newer apps.

I think the R600 was designed for DX10 more than legacy DX8 and simple DX9, and only the rare DX9 game would show it the equal or better to the G80.

I have a strong feeling that it will be features of the R600 that make it better in some ways, but it's hard to sell on that compared to 3Dmarks and results in more 'usual' games.

Expect the R600 to do well in some particular configurations of FEAR, FSX, and Oblivion, but overall to no be impressive, but then when DX10 games actually show up then it'll have a lead, whether noticeable or minor.

That's just my feel for it based on the current areas of strength for the G80, and the comments even in that interview about the potential strength of the R600.

 

[chunkymonster]

Given the recent article paraphreased below, it won't be too much longer before 8x AGP does not provide enough bandwidth for high-end gaming. So, I really have to question releasing AGP compatible DX10 cards. If high end games are beginning to be limited by 8x PCIe, then what chance does 8x AGP have?

The conclusion of our 2004 PCI Express analysis was simple: x4 PCIe bandwidth typically was sufficient to run single graphics cards without creating an interface bottleneck. At that time, x8 or x16 link widths were not necessary, and AGP was still powerful enough...However, the situation clearly is different today, as we found that only 4x PCI Express links are no longer adequate. ..The benchmark results make pretty clear that chipsets and motherboards need to be capable of supporting all graphics cards at the full x16 PCI Express speed. If you run high performance graphics cards on inadequate interfaces such as PCI Express x8, you give away performance.

I hate to say it, while AGP DX10 cards may allow legacy hardware to gimp along for another 12-18 months, I bet any new cards that are released will be watered down (less shaders/pipelines/lower clock speed/less memory, etc..) and/or release for the value and budget markets. If so, really tho, what's the point?

 

[raven_87]

Too keep whining, old people happy who are unwilling to switch to a PCI-E platform because their too damn sentimental.

 

[cleeve]

I bet any new cards that are released will be watered down (less shaders/pipelines/lower clock speed/less memory, etc..) and/or release for the value and budget markets. If so, really tho, what's the point?

AGP cards have been second-tier performance offerings since Nvidia decided to limit AGP to the 7800 (and subsequently, the 7600 GT), banning top-tier cards from AGP.

Ati restricted AGP to third-tier offerings like the X1600 PRO until very recently when the X1650 XT and X1950 PRO have been available in AGP. Gecube went and released the X1950 XT on it's lonesome.

It's a given that the R600 and G80 won't be available in AGP, and if they are it'll be a half hearted effort in two years.

What people are interested in however is the midrange DirectX 10 stuff. That will make the AGP playing field a much more interesting place in the next year or two...