ATI Radeon Xpress 200: Performance, PCI Express & DX9 for Athlon 64
by Wesley Fink on November 8, 2004 6:00 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
Radeon Xpress' Integrated DirectX 9 GPU
Although we generally focus on the performance of desktop chipsets with the fastest discrete graphics solutions, in order to truly be successful in the chipset business, you have to gain significant OEM market share. And what do the majority of computers sold use? Chipsets with integrated graphics.The integrated graphics core on a North Bridge comprises almost 90% of the die, but despite this figure, in terms of GPU performance, integrated graphics solutions generally perform far worse than even the cheapest discrete graphics solutions. Part of the reason behind this phenomenon is that the major chipset manufacturers (Intel, SiS, VIA) are not graphics companies, and they operate on fairly long 2-year product cycles for major changes in their graphics designs.
When NVIDIA first made an effort to get into the chipset business, they brought their graphics expertise to the market - quickly raising the performance bar with integrated graphics solutions. But with the nForce4, NVIDIA lacks an integrated graphics solution for the Athlon 64 platform, paving the way for ATI's Radeon Xpress 200 to make a splash.
In the past, you could integrate the slowest desktop GPU into a chipset unmodified, but with the extreme complexity and FP requirements of DirectX 9 GPUs, this is no longer possible. The Radeon Xpress 200 features a modified version of the X300 core, modified to have only two operational pixel pipelines. As a desktop part, only having two pipes would be terrible for performance, but keeping in mind that the market for integrated graphics solution is much less performance-conscious, then it's much more acceptable.
With only two pixel pipes, the Radeon Xpress integrated graphics core can render up to two pixels per clock, with the ability of applying one texture operation per pixel per clock. Compared to Intel's Graphics Media Accelerator 900 (the integrated graphics core of the 915G chipset), ATI is actually at a disadvantage here, with the GMA 900 capable of rendering 4 pixels per clock. Where the Radeon Xpress integrated graphics pulls ahead in the specs is in its two hardware vertex engines. Intel's GMA 900 features no hardware vertex acceleration and instead, depends on the host CPU to handle all vertex operations.
The Radeon Xpress 200 is built on a 0.13-micron process, a larger process than what the 110nm process the X300 is built on, and thus, the integrated GPU runs at a slower core clock speed of 300MHz.
Since the Radeon Xpress' integrated graphics core is based on the X300's core, game compatibility - a weakness for Intel's GMA 900 - should not be an issue with the integrated graphics. If you look back at our recent review of NVIDIA's GeForce 6200, out of the 8 games that we tested, only 5 would run on Intel's integrated graphics solution. Given that integrated graphics is usually all that first-time gamers have access to, game compatibility is quite important.
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ImJacksAmygdala - Monday, November 8, 2004 - link
Good job Wesley and Anandtech staff, very nice article! Thanks for answering all the questions Wesley...Things are really heating up for AMD64 chipsets... I might just have to wait for Q1 2005, but then dual core CPUs will be the rage of rumor and HL2 is right around the corner ARGH!!!!!!
I might just bite the bullet and pull the trigger on an AMD64 3500+ with a Nforce4 or ATI chipset this holiday season because I really can't run HL2.... I cannot continue to wait for the next best thing. I have been waiting to upgrade since dual DDR was just a rumor... LOL!
xsilver - Monday, November 8, 2004 - link
Are these going to be shipping mainly for s754 or s939? I think determining factor will be price, cheaper than nforce 4 ultra? isnt that going to be $150+? I think they need to get closer to $100 for any serious challenges..Penty - Monday, November 8, 2004 - link
I don't know, I still want Tyan's new dual Opteron with dual SLI board.http://my.so-net.net.tw/brandon640410/NF41/004.JPG
Zebo - Monday, November 8, 2004 - link
Nice article. But I'm afraid, like the out-standing SiS ref board, these may never see light of day but in budget off brand products like ECS, FOXCONN, MATSONIC etc nVidia just seems to dominate the enthusiast sector.:(Wesley Fink - Monday, November 8, 2004 - link
#29 - A new Sounthbridge, called SB450, is due to debut the first of the year. It will feature High-Definition audio and other updates.RAID - Here is the reply from ATI regarding RAID on the Rx480/SB400:
"Your Raid answers are as follows:
Our Raid implementation will support up to 8 SATA devices. This is limited by ODM implementing appropriate amount of SATA channels on pcb.
1) Currently SB400 supports RAID on SATA, not on IDE (PATA).
2) IDE cannot be combined with SATA in RAID. Limited to SATA only.
3) We only support RAID 0 and RAID 1.
4) We do support hot swap for RAID 1. We can replace the failed hard disk and rebuild a new driver in RAID 1"
The review will be updated.
keitaro - Monday, November 8, 2004 - link
Here's a hardware question for you folks. Given that SLI is becoming more and more of an option, I'd like to know if the scenerio I thought up can be possible. Also, a general question is "What can a HyperTransport link be used? Is it specifically a link from CPU to north/south-bridge or is it a general link for general access?"The above question will basically determine if the scenerio I thought of is possible. Basically have a HT link big enough for an additional chip where it supports additional PCI Express lanes for 1x, 2x, or 4x slots. I see current chipsets designed with 20 lanes, or in ATi's case 22 lanes, and it got me to wondering if such a scenerio is truly possible that a full dual 16x instead of dual 8x can be a reality. If you can explain or answer this, that'll be great.
mctmcpoop - Monday, November 8, 2004 - link
The main problem of the ATI chipset will be the compatibility of south bridge ... Their south bridge sucks and that's why some of the RS350 motherboard use ULI south bridge instead of their solution ...http://techreport.com/reviews/2004q4/radeon-xpress...
You can check with the USB performance ... That can be called the most worst that I have ever seen ... And we still do not know if there is any compatibility issue of the USB interface unless there is a lot of ATI chipset based retail board hit the market …
And a preview board of chipset vendor is nothing important ... Where is the highly phrased SiS 755/755FX chipset based and good quality motherboard we can buy ? Sometimes there is something inside the chipset that we can reveal from the demo board if all the motherboard maker does not have the solution …
Anyway , time will tell …
FinalFantasy - Monday, November 8, 2004 - link
#27 I doubt ATI is doing that. If the mobo's that ship are noticealbe different (performance wise) from the one's ATI are sending out for review, I know that there will be a huge backlash from the hobbyist community and ATI knows this.blckgrffn - Monday, November 8, 2004 - link
Is no one else suspicious that ATI shipped out hand picked, thouroughly tested MOBO's that may not be representative of shipping boards? I will wait until I see a review of boards using this chipset in the future before I make up my mind.FinalFantasy - Monday, November 8, 2004 - link
Wow...ATI really stepped it up with their new chipset and integrated graphics solutions. This chipset should really give nVidia's NF4 a run for it's money. Also I agree w/#22...let's see some HDD performance benchies and what about an integrated software firewall or on-board RAID controller (article says similar to NF4's "Any-Drive")...how do these components compare to NF4's or does ATi's chipset even have them.I know I was skeptical about ATI coming out with an A64 chipset, but they've really gone above and beyond what I've expected with their "first" board. I am VERY impressed with their OC'ing performance.
I don't want to say that this new chipset is the best thing since sliced bread (I'm sure nVidia has a response to ATI's chipset in the works), but when it comes time to buy my 90nm A64 rev E0, ATI looks like they might have my business/money/whatever the hell you want to call it ;D.