AMD Radeon HD 5970 Specs Surface

[inferKNOX]

i actually have a tool that lets you mod exe files to make the large address aware - very handy.

worked well on games like stalker, supreme commander (original/early patches) and even the sims 3, preventing eventual crashes as they hit the 2GB barrier.



I'm not entirely sure that all 4GB is addressable, i think its another case of "in a perfect world"

a large address space aware app can use whatever is available, if windows sees only 3.25GB of ram, i get the feeling the app may find a similar limit.

Yes, but that requires modding, it is not active by default in the system.
EDIT: from what I know, there are registers (or something) that take the ~0.8GB chunk out of the 4GB, making it 3.2GB addressable, and out of that, some goes to the kernel, etc leaving the lower (numbered) address spaces to apps. Don't quote me though, I'm not spot on... but that's the idea as I know it.

 

[pr0n Inspector]

50/50 memory splitting? 2GB is just the maximum address space limit a single application is given within a 32-bit system at any given time.

source

half for the kernel half for the app. 50/50. 4/2= 2
Where do you think the "2GB limit" came from?
Not to mention, there won't even be 4GB of usable RAM in the first place.

And please for the love of the $readers_preferred_deity$, stop bringing up numbers like 3.2GB, 3.25GB, 3.3333GB 3.456789GB. They are meaningless. It's not a fixed value, it's what's left of the available addresses after all other devices grabbed their own.

 

[imperialreign]

You needed that for the ASUS MARS as well. Besides anyone who bought the HD 4870 X2 (a 2 GB card) with 2 GB of system memory was expected to be running 64-bit OS anyway, so it's not a big deal for its target consumers.

Agreed.

TBH, the whole market really needs to start moving more towards x64 anyways. Between some of this new video hardware, and the fact that WIN7 includes a fully licensed copy of x64 at no additional cost . . . there's really no excuse why the end user can't move over to x64, either (although, I'm sure there will be a ton of excuses like always).

Regarding these cards - looks good. I'm planning on two of these beasts once they're released.

 

[Depth]

I might have room for a few of those if I saw out my HD enclosure.

 

[vagxtr]

It seems the temperature issues rumours were true... too bad AMD engineers couldn't find a way to keep the stock speeds.

The problem wasnt in overheating cause heatpipes and cooling meshes could easily cool a way more than measilly 300W but they tried to stay under 300W pro pcie sake compliancy 2x6-pin pcie graphic plugs=2x75W and 2x8pin should be ~200W, while pcie16 port itself could provide 75W of power so it maximises 275W for safe operating and most of cards top out that with 300W+ in their peaks. This card is designed to be GPGPU failsafe in 27/7 operating mode, so that's reason why they keep TDP as low as they could.

 

[eidairaman1]

That needs a Sticky

i actually have a tool that lets you mod exe files to make the large address aware - very handy.

worked well on games like stalker, supreme commander (original/early patches) and even the sims 3, preventing eventual crashes as they hit the 2GB barrier.



I'm not entirely sure that all 4GB is addressable, i think its another case of "in a perfect world"

a large address space aware app can use whatever is available, if windows sees only 3.25GB of ram, i get the feeling the app may find a similar limit.

 

[vagxtr]

I'm not entirely convinced that these are 5950 & not 5970, but here you go. Source.

First pic has it next to a regular 5870.

Weird thing is that supposedly HD5970 on that pics has old analog tv-out/rgb connector on it's backplate which no other card from HD5000 series doesn't have. Didnt ATi cutout that tv-out analog support since Cypress?

 

[vagxtr]

Nonetheless, calling it HD5900 instead of HD5800X2 makes sense to me.

It's about time we get to have shorter names in ATI's lineup.


In fact, I think it's about time that both ATI and nVidia drop the Radeon and Geforce brands. It's been 10 years now, we need new names!

I still remember when nVidia was so confident about NV30 that they even publicly stated that they'd drop the Geforce brand and call it a different name. When the architecture turned up as bad as it was, they had to use the Geforce brand again, for marketing purposes.

It's not done to shorten elongated enthusiastic X2 names, AMD just once again practice their copycating naming intel/nVidia scheme solution. Well seems AMD marketing herd thinks of intel/nv as smarter than themselves. I never liked it but. ... So since nVidia break with their gx2 naming scheme for sandwiched cards with 9800gx2 ATi decided to follow path and get rid of nicely fitting name like X2 (or R800 codenames in fact) in favor of blatantly confusing names. Since their official introduction in 3870 X2 series ATi tried to explain themselves as how great that names fit into their CPU/GPU naming lineup with X2 and X4 Athlons on their way and now abandoning that just cause nV also did release sandwiched dual g200b card just based on cutdown chip (as this 5970 should be) not having full 512 bit as gtx 280/285 but just 448 as gtx260/275 and claiming throne over 4870X2 with it. So they did just as nV did use affordable GPUs and lower clockspeeds but retaining not so complex 256b memory bus for each chip. And they didn't want to mislead customers, as they said, into believing that 5970 (or ex 5870X2) is really 5870 x2 when it's not just downclocked version of fully functional RV870 chip x2

And as ATi and nVidia abandoning their long established code naming scheme as Rx00 series or recently Gx00 series in favor of newcomer Intel's larabee is just too stupid. They now have some next to nothing meaning names instead down to earth numbering scheme. And we all know where i leads ... spending more and more money on stupid marketing "wisdom" instead of trying to made way better chips (at least they have traditionand great starting ground) than richy rich player that wants to bully itself to market. As long for nV they at last tried to praise their CUDA capable gpus with scientist names either none of them was great mathematician afaik. And they skipping from one concept scientist to another in blink of an eye. Not dedicated at all. But probably there's reason why cause no one claims rights to use that scientist names. Duh what gutterly low way of promoting their products in patent ruled world.

 

[W1zzard]

the postman just delivered two packages. oh what it could be

 

[W1zzard]

i actually have a tool that lets you mod exe files to make the large address aware - very handy.

worked well on games like stalker, supreme commander (original/early patches) and even the sims 3, preventing eventual crashes as they hit the 2GB barrier.



I'm not entirely sure that all 4GB is addressable, i think its another case of "in a perfect world"

a large address space aware app can use whatever is available, if windows sees only 3.25GB of ram, i get the feeling the app may find a similar limit.

for that to work the app must not be coded in a way that makes it limited to 2 gb allocation, windows must be running in /3GB mode, then the app can allocate 3 gb of memory maximum (no matter how much physical ram you have, paging file will handle it)

 

[shevanel]

the postman just delivered two packages. oh what it could be

how soon before we can see reviews? )wondering if there was a nda date or something)

 

[mtosev]

the postman just delivered two packages. oh what it could be

one HD 5970 X2

and a mind altering substance that causes you to buy only AMD products. MUST HAVE MORE MORE!!!!!!!!!!1111

 

[pantherx12]

the postman just delivered two packages. oh what it could be

You know what, I'm going to straight up say it, I hate you man

I wish I got free toys to play with!

 

[btarunr]

how soon before we can see reviews? )wondering if there was a nda date or something)

19th. A full-fledged launch-o-rama (main review(s), CrossFireX review, possibly PCI-E scaling).

 

[W1zzard]

I wish I got free toys to play with!

free except for the time invested to make the review, the time invested to learn how to do reviews, the time to learn about graphics cards, the time to establish as credible source of reviews, probably more.

 

[shevanel]

what happens to the cards that you review after theyve been reviewed?

 

[DanishDevil]

He puts them up on a giant GPU billboard with oversized thumb tacks and carries it around with him to show off.

 

[W1zzard]

what happens to the cards that you review after theyve been reviewed?

where do you think does all the data for older cards come from in reviews?

 

[Kenshai]

where do you think does all the data for older cards come from in reviews?

Your gigantic box of video cards? I lost the picture of it but it was pretty amazing

 

[mtosev]

free except for the time invested to make the review, the time invested to learn how to do reviews, the time to learn about graphics cards, the time to establish as credible source of reviews, probably more.

when you started the site your reviews consisted mainly on fans, cheap stuff < 50Eur,... how did you came to this what the site is today? when i came here in 2005 the site wasn't well known at all, the forum didn't have a lot of users, etc,...?

 

[jaredpace]

NDA Press deck slides here:

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showpost.php?p=1638260&postcount=114

 

[verona]

No, you don't need a 64-bit OS just because there's 4GB of RAM on the card. The 4GB limit is system addressable memory- not graphics memory. No matter how much memory is on the graphics card itself, it only uses up 256MB of system addressable memory. That's it. I spent a really boring week plugging in all kinds of graphics cards and recording base address registers to verify this. I'm just glad I got paid to do it.

 

[eidairaman1]

it appears the 5970 is a Downclocked 5870 without any shaders disabled, running at 725MHz which is 5850 speed, and the Memory Clock is running at 1GHz