AMD Preparing Radeon HD 5950 for Q1 2010?

[btarunr]

Close to two weeks after launching the industry's fastest graphics card with the Radeon HD 5970 2 GB, it looks like AMD will back the release with another high-end graphics card in Q1 2010, ideally to stack up a lineup against NVIDIA's performance DirectX 11 offerings that are slated for around the same time. The new release comes in the form of Radeon HD 5950, aimed to occupy the gap between the Radeon HD 5870 and Radeon HD 5970.

The Radeon HD 5950 will retain the design methodology of the HD 5970. It will use two AMD Cypress GPUs with the same configuration Radeon HD 5850 uses. It has 1440 stream processors enabled per GPU, 72 TMUs and 32 ROPs enabled, and 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interfaces per GPU probably to hold 2 GB of total memory. Just as the dual-GPU HD 5970 uses lower clock speeds compared to the single-GPU HD 5870 that uses the same GPU, HD 5950 keeps up with the trend. It is expected to have its core clocked between 650~675 MHz, and memory at 900~1000 MHz (3.60 GHz to 4.00 GHz effective).

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[btarunr]

Many Thanks to [IRA]_FBI for sending this in.

 

[Animalpak]

Well the story repeats... New high end dual GPU, new mid end dual GPU from Ati...


I bet will be the same with Nvidia, new single GPU and new dual GPU. They are doing what they did last year.

 

[OnBoard]

I just don't get why didn't they release this when Fermi comes and 5970 if 5950 is beaten by something?

Would help with the 5870 shortage + more promotion to ATI and spoiling NVIDIA launch

 

[Hunt3r]

I just don't get why didn't they release this when Fermi comes and 5970 if 5950 is beaten by something?

Would help with the 5870 shortage + more promotion to ATI and spoiling NVIDIA launch

I think it's fear of losing to Nvidia

 

[qwerty_lesh]

I think if this shortage keeps up, ATi are going to lose many potential customers wanting new gfx around Christmas to the green team.
This shortage sucks lemons

 

[OnBoard]

I think it's fear of losing to Nvidia

Or they wanted the performance crown over GTX 295 now, as 5870 wasn't enough. But 5950 would have done it too.

4 cards in such short period is making them compete with them selves. What's left for the rest of 2010, 5890 & 5990 monster?

Oh but I almost forgot, the ATI price drop™. Come next year everything that loses in performance will drop in price. Now they had couple months to milk some money

 

[Zubasa]

I think if this shortage keeps up, ATi are going to lose many potential customers wanting new gfx around Christmas to the green team.
This shortage sucks lemons

That will require some TSMC bashing.

 

[wolf]

I find it really annoying that 58xx cards don't match up to 59xx cards, in fact very disappointing.

a 5970 should be clocked like two 5870's for easy trifire combo's, with a slightly more aggressive fan profile

and a 5950 should be clocked (and disables sp's) like two 5850's for easier combo's.

It was like that with a 4870X2 and a 4850X2, why can't it be the same now, the numbers wouldn't be so freaking crazy if they at least matched up.

48701gb+4870X2 was a perfect trifire combo, all GPU's and memory clocked the same, this series is an utter mess IMO.

now they've come up with 5750, 5770, 5850, 5870, 5950, 5970 and if you don't know whats what your in trouble, and who knows what combination's will even work, or if they work, work well.

I assume you can Crossfire up to 4 "crypress" cores together and 4 "junipers" too, but even that isn't so clear.

bah, why did they even change their naming scheme.

 

[OnionMan]

That is really nothing new for ATI or Nv.. Back in the day it was ATI pro XT, XTPE on every model #.. That was more confusing to the novice customer than this is.. Plus, some cards shared model #'s with either 128bit or 256bit.. It sucked..

Also limited stock is nothing new for ATI.. Back around the time (and before) AMD took over, higher end product was difficult to find.. This is just a typical pattern for both sides it seems..

What will ATI have to offer in 2010?- Available stock would be a treat I'd think..


@wolf: It's not how many 'cards' you can xfire, it's how many gpu's.. At most (right now) you can xfire 4 gpu's.. If I remember right..

 

[wolf]

@wolf: It's not how many 'cards' you can xfire, it's how many gpu's.. At most (right now) you can xfire 4 gpu's.. If I remember right..

yeah but for instance you cant CF a 5770 and a 5870, so CAN one CF a 5870 and a 5970? I would hope so because they are both cypress, but what shits me is the clocks dont match, for balanced GPU's you'd NEED to o/c your 5970 or u/c your 5870.

 

[Completely Bonkers]

This is just a SKU/shelf stocking strategy by ATI. Make sure you get the maximum number of products onto shelves before nVidia get their competitive product out. That way, the shelves are full, the stockroom is full, the order book is full... crowd out the nV launch.

Good strategy IMO. I'm surprised they havent launched 512MB economy editions of the 5xxx series and the new egg cooler. Silly to replace an existing model... just create a derivative and gain more shelf space.

 

[newtekie1]

This is just a SKU/shelf stocking strategy by ATI. Make sure you get the maximum number of products onto shelves before nVidia get their competitive product out. That way, the shelves are full, the stockroom is full, the order book is full... crowd out the nV launch.

Good strategy IMO. I'm surprised they havent launched 512MB economy editions of the 5xxx series and the new egg cooler. Silly to replace an existing model... just create a derivative and gain more shelf space.

That strategy only works if you can actually keep the shelves and the stockroom full...

 

[Lionheart]

Keep up the good work AMD/ATI and hurry up nvidia, I wanna see your cards

 

[mdm-adph]

yeah but for instance you cant CF a 5770 and a 5870, so CAN one CF a 5870 and a 5970? I would hope so because they are both cypress, but what shits me is the clocks dont match, for balanced GPU's you'd NEED to o/c your 5970 or u/c your 5870.

Just overclock the 5970, Jesus -- every review (including the one here at TPU) I've seen shows that it overclocks easy as hell. This isn't a problem.

 

[human_error]

yeah but for instance you cant CF a 5770 and a 5870, so CAN one CF a 5870 and a 5970? I would hope so because they are both cypress, but what shits me is the clocks dont match, for balanced GPU's you'd NEED to o/c your 5970 or u/c your 5870.

It's not the model number that needs to match for xfire, just the GPU design. Also xfire does not require all gpus to operate at the same speed - you can xfire a stock 4870 with an ocd 4890 and both will run at their correct gpu speeds (no oc/uc required and preformence matches up with the correct gpu speeds). The only thing which needs to match on xfire other than gpu is the memory on the cards, which defaults to the lowest value of all the cards crossfired.

 

[Skywalker12345]

how much is the question?

 

[1Kurgan1]

This looks to be another killer, I really like that they downclock it, because it seems they only do it to make it cheaper than buying 2x of the normal single GPU cards. So they are like "here take 2x 5850's, but take them at a reduced cost" I respond with "Oh yeah, it will be mine".

Well the story repeats... New high end dual GPU, new mid end dual GPU from Ati...


I bet will be the same with Nvidia, new single GPU and new dual GPU. They are doing what they did last year.

Actually that doesn't repeat, the 4850x2 was a Sapphire made card, no other manufacturer released one.

how much is the question?

Whatever the cost of 5850's is at the time, expect it to be a bit under 2x of their costs. For example, right now on newegg the cheapest 5870 is $409 and the cheapest 5970 is $599, that would be $200 less than 2x 5870's and it clocks very close. Here's the real funny thing, even 5850's are $309, so the 5970 is actually cheaper than 2x 5850's.... By the time the 5950 comes out, I would expect it under $500 or dead at $500.

 

[Skywalker12345]

not bad

 

[Polarman]

What's next... The single card 5770 X3 ??

 

[Hunt3r]

What's next... The single card 5770 X3 ??

uhasuhuhasuh
no no..To just waiting for the launch of fermi next year..I think that ATI will be a little upset with the news of Nvidia

 

[erocker]

uhasuhuhasuh
no no..To just waiting for the launch of fermi next year..I think that ATI will be a little upset with the news of Nvidia

I doubt it, since ATi has all this time to come up with a 5890/5990 to counter whatever Nvidia comes out with, minus whatever exclusive "features" Nvidia comes up with.

Yes, these dual GPU cards don't match up in the performance category to their respective siblings in CrossFire but you need to keep in mind:

-Power consumption
-Heat output
-Price

Two HD 5870's are going to run around $800 bucks. A single 5970 runs about $620. The cost is built in to it's relative performance. The big plus is, the 5970 has excellent overclocking headroom.

 

[Hunt3r]

I have to believe that the new VGA Nvidia's dual GPU will now only'm sure it will be absurd, ventilation will be the same GTX 285.275 .. something you understand?

 

[wolf]

Just overclock the 5970, Jesus -- every review (including the one here at TPU) I've seen shows that it overclocks easy as hell. This isn't a problem.

What bothers me is the neccessity to do this to have it all match up right.

It's not the model number that needs to match for xfire, just the GPU design. Also xfire does not require all gpus to operate at the same speed - you can xfire a stock 4870 with an ocd 4890 and both will run at their correct gpu speeds (no oc/uc required and preformence matches up with the correct gpu speeds). The only thing which needs to match on xfire other than gpu is the memory on the cards, which defaults to the lowest value of all the cards crossfired.

when cross-firing uneven cards, for instance a 5870 and a 5850, performance will be slightly under 5850CF due to the overhead of matching uneven cards, I can't remember which review I saw this in but a 5870+5850 was consistently 1-3% slower than 5850CF, meaning you lose the extra you paid for with the 5870 Unless you OC.

EDIT here it was; http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1107/1/

One thing that shocked me was that the CrossFire gaming performance of a Radeon HD 5870 + 5850 was lower than that of a pair of Radeon HD 5850 video cards in CrossFire in all of our testing with the exception of one game. I would assume it is because the higher capacity card (the Radeon HD 5870) gets brought down to the lower one (the Raeon HD 5850) plus some overhead. This basically goes to show that while mixing and matching video cards to run CrossFire works for better performance it isn't the route to take for peak performance. If you want the most from a CrossFire configuration it is clear that you should pair two identical cards together. Just to be sure of this I contacted ATI and got a chance to speak with Dave Gotwalt – Crossfire Architect.

"The percentage is very small and the difference is likely do to the additional overhead of having unbalanced cards." - Dave Gotwalt

 

[1Kurgan1]

What bothers me is the neccessity to do this to have it all match up right.

when cross-firing uneven cards, for instance a 5870 and a 5850, performance will be slightly under 5850CF due to the overhead of matching uneven cards, I can't remember which review I saw this in but a 5870+5850 was consistently 1-3% slower than 5850CF, meaning you lose the extra you paid for with the 5870 Unless you OC.

EDIT here it was; http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1107/1/

With the 4000 series it was the opposite as far as I recall. I would chalk up the 5000 series drop in performance from needing time for drivers to mature. CF is all about scaling, even performance increases have been seen on single cards, add more cards to a single cards issues just is going to get worse. I mean it isn't bad since those cards are powerful.

Also regarding the GPU mhz clock vs 5870's, they did it to drop costs. They OC to the same levels, they use the same GPU, yet per GPU, the 5970 is significantly cheaper, its fantastic!