AnandTech's R520, RV530 and RV515 Pre-NDA Extravaganza
by Kristopher Kubicki on September 13, 2005 9:24 PM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
ATI's RV530 aka Radeon X1600
Targetting the upper midrange is the Radeon X1600 (RV530), built on the same 90nm process as the Radeon X1800 (R520). All of these RV530 series and lower are single slot products, according to the roadmaps.
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ATI RV530 Roadmap
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| Card | Pipes | Std Core Clock | Std Memory | Power Consumption |
| X1600 XT | 12 | 600MHz | 700MHz | 60W |
| X1600 Pro | 12 | 500MHz | 400MHz | 40W |
Radeon X1600 will actually be very similar to X1800LE, but with a smaller internal bus (256-bits) and a smaller memory bus (128-bits). The X1600 cards also have H.264 support like the R520 series.
Like X600, there will be many vendor dependent options for the cards. The configuration roadmap allows for DDR1, DDR2 or GDDR3 in both the XT and Pro cards, with memory sizes ranging anywhere from 128MB to 512MB. In fact, we even have claims from one manufacturer that they will produce 64-bit versions of the card en masse; so potential buyers will need to be wary of buying Radeon X1600 Pro cards with the smaller bus (like with the Radeon 9800SE). Another noteable is the support for HDCP and HDMI on many cards. Also, like with the GeForce 7800 series, vendors are allowed (perhaps even encouraged?) to bin chips for higher clock speeds. We've received reports from AIBs that some RV530 Pro cards will ship with 525MHz clock speeds even though the roadmap indicates 500MHz is the standard configuration.
Perhaps one of the more interesting aspects of RV530 is the low power consumption. Reference 64-bit boards of RV530 using GDDR3 at 500MHz core clock speeds have a power consumption of just 25W. 128-bit boards were estimated at 40W and X1600XT boards with all the goodies were estimated by AIBs to be 55W.
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yacoub - Thursday, September 15, 2005 - link
And me still waiting for my four-speed, dual-quad, positraction 409...JarredWalton - Wednesday, September 14, 2005 - link
I asked Kris this exact question. The answer: we don't know. The roadmaps/PDFs don't say anything about vertex pipelines. However, consider this:G70: 8 vertex @ 430 MHz / 4 = 860 MV/s
R520: 6 vertex @ 600 MHz / 4 = 900 MV/s
Basically, with the higher clock speed there's no point in having more than 6 vertex pipelines. With R580, if they move to 24 pixel pipelines, it would make more sense to go to 8 vertex pipelines. 32 pixel pipes would probably need 10 vertex pipes. Then there's the whole "unified architecture" that we're moving towards.
Anyway, the main point is that I have yet to see anything officially stating that R520 has 6, 8, 10, or whatever pipes. Everything is pretty much a guess, and Ocham's Razor suggests that if 16/6 was good for last generation, and R520 has 16 pixel pipes, it probably has 6 vertex pipes again. :p
Questar - Wednesday, September 14, 2005 - link
What if the 16 pipe card performs like a 24 pipe 7800?Is an eight cylinder engine always better than a six?
jkostans - Wednesday, September 14, 2005 - link
Exactly, this is a new architecture we're talking about. Chances are it's a good deal more efficient than the last generation of cards.nserra - Wednesday, September 14, 2005 - link
"First of all, ATI's traditional core design can do "more" per clock cycle (at least on the R3xx design) than NVIDIA."Ati 9700 with just 275Mhz core speed, and ONLY 270Mhz(540Mhz) memory speed killed any card, even the ones that worked at 500Mhz core and 500Mhz(1000Mhz) memory speed (nvidia 5800).
Put all these new cards at 275Mhz (memory and core) if possible (under clock them) to see who does more work.
I don’t think the phrase is correct for the R4xx design since it as higher memory and core speed than nvidia 6xxx and 7xxx.
arturnow - Wednesday, September 14, 2005 - link
"First of all, ATI's traditional core design can do "more" per clock cycle" - I have to disagree. X850XT has higher fill rate and memory bandwidth then GeForce 7800GT but slower in most games...Griswold - Wednesday, September 14, 2005 - link
The X850XT also has 16 pipes vs. the 20 pipes of the 7800GT. And the GT is only faster in "most" games, not all and then also not by that much. So, all in all, what they said sounds right.arturnow - Wednesday, September 14, 2005 - link
of course not. Who cares if it's 20 pipelines oraz 16 pipline. It all depends on core clock and pipline. X850XT PE is 540/1180 MHz, 7800GT 400/1000MHz theoretical Radeon is faster but in games GeForce prevail :-]Griswold - Wednesday, September 14, 2005 - link
I dont think you understand what you're talking there. The 850XT PE is faster in a few games under certain resolutions with AA/AF cranked up. That is due to clock speed and weaker AA/AF modi. But in most games under normal conditions, the 7800GT is faster - due to the 4 more pipes...Jep4444 - Wednesday, September 14, 2005 - link
the pipeline performance is theoretically negated by the higher clock speed so you are actually wrongthe reason the X850XT PE is slower is becuase its based off older technology and hasn't had any improvements made to its effeciency from the Radeon 9700 days which is why GeForce 6800 cards operate at lower clock speeds for the same performance