RV790 Essentially An Overclocked RV770

[btarunr]

A lot has been said about AMD's rather mysterious new performance GPU, the RV790. Clues about the new GPU surfaced as early as in November last year, when we first reported about AMD working on a successor to the RV770 before the RV870 comes to be. During the course of time, we were given several scoops about its specifications, with some reports hinting at increased stream processor and TMU counts alongside increased clock-speeds to give out early projections of as much as 20% performance increments, taking its single-GPU flagship product to the domain of the GeForce GTX 285, but as multiple sources confirm now, none of that looks plausible.

The RV790 is essentially a reworked RV770 with higher clock-speeds. AMD seems to have reworked the design of the RV770, perhaps altered or removed rudimentary components that facilitate slightly higher clock speeds. While samples of the RV790 are spec'd to run at 850 MHz, one can expect a slightly increased overclocking headroom. The samples also carried Qimonda IDGV1G-05A1F1C-40X memory chips that are originally specified to run at 1 GHz, yet running at 975 MHz on the samples. The core continues to have 800 stream processors, 40 TMUs and 16 ROPs. It features a 256-bit wide memory interface to support GDDR5, GDDR4 and GDDR3 memory standards. It will be built on the existing 55 nm TSMC manufacturing node. Products based on the RV790 can be expected only by April.

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[GFC]

lame :/ and i thought they would at least give some SP's..

 

[MilkyWay]

just get the older one and oc that sure you wont get as much of an oc but at least it will be hell of a lot cheaper

whats the point of making a whole new core for a stupid oc maybe im missing something i dunno

 

[3870x2]

This may receive criticism, however being that their current GPUs are great and ahead in the market, this isn't a bad move at all. My question is when will we ever see a performance increase on GDDR5 vs GDDR3? I almost believe that ATI would have done better not to invest in the new memory interface, YET.

 

[MilkyWay]

i know man what happened to gddr4? they just skipped a generation seems like it wasnt all that much better than gddr3

gddr5 is better but not spectacular just average better

 

[DrPepper]

Why is everyone negative about this, The gtx285 is essentially an overclocked gtx280. I think this will be about 10-20% faster than rv770.

 

[oli_ramsay]

I thought it would at least be 40nm... I can OC my 4870 to 850MHz anyway, so this card is pretty pointless in my opinion.

 

[Mistral]

All I can say is that if it has lower and and improved power consumption and management than the 4870, I'll actually quite consider getting one.

 

[phanbuey]

Higher Clocks... + higher headroom means 900 - 950+Mhz on the core maybe a ghz with a vmod. A 4870 1GB at 950Mhz core would be awesome.

 

[KBD]

Higher Clocks... + higher headroom means 900 - 950+Mhz on the core maybe a ghz with a vmod. A 4870 1GB at 950Mhz core would be awesome.

thats exactly what i'm thinking. Though somehow i doubt it can overclock as high as 950Mhz, current 4870 struggle to reach 850 even with a voltage increase but if they can it would be great.

 

[newtekie1]

Seems ATi is on the re-branding wagon now. Sounds like RV790 is just a binned re-branded RV770. Doesn't sound like it will be topping GT200b any time soon with those specs. Very disappointing, I was hoping for the 960SP@850MHz 40nm beast, now it seems like none of the advances that made RV790 exciting will actually happen, its just an overclocked RV770 with faster RAM.

This may receive criticism, however being that their current GPUs are great and ahead in the market, this isn't a bad move at all. My question is when will we ever see a performance increase on GDDR5 vs GDDR3? I almost believe that ATI would have done better not to invest in the new memory interface, YET.

Great? Yes. Ahead? Not by a long shot. We'll be lucky RV790 managed to even top the GTX260 216. I was hoping for something to bring GTX285 prices down.

The problem with GDDR5 is that the top end cards that it is currently on don't benefit from it a whole lot. Memory bandwidth isn't what is holding the high end cards back. Drop it on some mid-range cards and then you will see it shine. I would have love to see it on a HD4670.

Why is everyone negative about this, The gtx285 is essentially an overclocked gtx280. I think this will be about 10-20% faster than rv770.

The GTX285 at least had a die shrink, this doesn't even have that, and all the news about RV790 up until now said it would be 40nm.

 

[R_1]

Not bad, but very late.

 

[DarkMatter]

They can't be 40nm, because AFAIK TSMC has some problems with that node and wouldn't be ready until second half this year. Add a pair of months more for Ati (or Nvidia) to be ready to go after that.

But this is certainly dissapointing, a mere overclock, and not even an outstanding one. Even if the cards launched at ~950 Mhz (very unlikely), that's around a 25% higher clock. That 25% applied to a GTX260 puts it at 720 Mhz, that is what most (to not say all) 260's can reach with a good cooling. Some people can say whatever they want, but the more I see, the more I believe Nvidia's architecture is way superior. Things like this expose that reality.

 

[1Kurgan1]

SAhead? Not by a long shot. We'll be lucky RV790 managed to even top the GTX260 216. I was hoping for something to bring GTX285 prices down.

Don't rely on benchmark scores from cards to determine how they play games. The 4870 sticks right with the 280's in games, synthetic benchmarks are just that synthetic. Heck even 8800's can almost bench as well as a 4870, check the comparison out in a game and the difference is pretty large.

 

[ShadowFold]

Reworked RV770 doesn't sound too bad. Even if people are hitting those speeds with current 4870's, these will most likely run cooler and OC higher if it's really a reworked design.

 

[spearman914]

lame :/ and i thought they would at least give some SP's..

Hell no, the 4xxx already has too much shaders. They need more rops to keep up.

 

[leonard_222003]

The only good thing about this is the drivers , they are already matured and at launch there will be no excuse the drivers aren't ready , what we will see there this is it.
Let's hope good websites will review the product and we won't see it at hardocp or some other kiss ass website.

 

[DarkMatter]

Don't rely on benchmark scores from cards to determine how they play games. The 4870 sticks right with the 280's in games, synthetic benchmarks are just that synthetic. Heck even 8800's can almost bench as well as a 4870, check the comparison out in a game and the difference is pretty large.

Game benchmarks are not synthetic and represent exactly the same you will have when playing the game, with very few variations and a pair of exceptions.

GTX2xx cards have a significantly better lower fps's ingame and when playing at low fps's (40 average) that trully helps for a better experience.

Anyway, the single GPU Radeons touching the 280?? What did you smell? Maybe in a pair of games, but that's all.

 

[Megasty]

Well anyone who hasn't bought a 4870 & was still thinking about it will be glad to look into this. My main rig is pretty much set for this year.

 

[Valdez]

But this is certainly dissapointing, a mere overclock, and not even an outstanding one. Even if the cards launched at ~950 Mhz (very unlikely), that's around a 25% higher clock. That 25% applied to a GTX260 puts it at 720 Mhz, that is what most (to not say all) 260's can reach with a good cooling. Some people can say whatever they want, but the more I see, the more I believe Nvidia's architecture is way superior. Things like this expose that reality.

if you overclock the core clock on the 260 by 25%, the card won't be 25% faster, because you need to overclock the shader clock too.

 

[DarkMatter]

if you overclock the core clock on the 260 by 25%, the card won't be 25% faster, because you need to overclock the shader clock too.

Both clocks are tied.

And you can overclock them further with no problem too.

 

[DrPepper]

Game benchmarks are not synthetic and represent exactly the same you will have when playing the game, with very few variations and a pair of exceptions.

GTX2xx cards have a significantly better lower fps's ingame and when playing at low fps's (40 average) that trully helps for a better experience.

Anyway, the single GPU Radeons touching the 280?? What did you smell? Maybe in a pair of games, but that's all.

I picked a gtx260 over a 4870 1gb because it did better in games.

 

[leonard_222003]

GTX2xx cards have a significantly better lower fps's ingame and when playing at low fps's (40 average) that trully helps for a better experience.

Depends on the game and resolution , you can't generalize and say GTX2xx does much better.
There are lot's of games where gtx260 in high resolutions and details doesn't do so well against a 4870 1gb.
Please present some proof ( google tons of reviews until you find one that suits your argument ) that the GTX2xx is having a much better minimum framerate and don't post me one two games , you generalized like it's happening in most of the games if not all of them so please , show us the proof.
I know you like your video card very much ( Nvidia fan , stated as a good thing of course ) , but there has to be some limits to where you defend your video card.

 

[LittleLizard]

and what about names, 4970 or 4870 II

 

[PCpraiser100]

Who cares if it is OC'ed cores, I just like the stream processor counts the most. I think it is almost time to swap my HD 3870 if DX11 isn't coming soon.