PERFORMANCE UPDATE: NVIDIA GeForce 6100 vs. ATI RS482
by Wesley Fink on October 6, 2005 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
RS482 versus RS480
The first question that many of you may have is why we are testing the ATI RS482, instead of the RS480, against the NVIDIA 6100? The RS480 and the RS482 are the same chipset, with the RS482 having undergone a die shrink. We believed that the Grouper was still equipped with the RS480 chipset, when in fact, the Reference Board had the .11 process RS482 when we checked under the heatsink.
The die-shrink theoretically reduces costs, which was a primary motivation for the move to .11. The RS482 is the currently-shipping ATI integrated Graphics solution for AMD, and has replaced the RS480 in AMD integrated graphics from ATI.
The RS482 is the current ATI mainstream integrated graphics chipset, which is officially called Radeon Xpress 200. This would make the new NVIDIA 6100 the comparable chipset to RS482. NVIDIA also announced the higher-clocked GeForce 6150 chipset, which will be released in coming weeks. As you have seen in our past roadmaps, ATI will also be releasing a higher-performing integrated graphics solution in the future called RS485. It appears that this may be a higher-clocked version of RS482, which would make it a logical competitor to the upcoming NVIDIA 6150.
The AMD Integrated Graphics market is the exact opposite of what we have recently seen in discrete graphics. Where NVIDIA had a several-month lead over ATI with the 7800 GTX, ATI introduced RS480 almost a year ago. In that market, it has taken NVIDIA almost a year to respond with the GeForce 6100 Integrated Graphics.
The first question that many of you may have is why we are testing the ATI RS482, instead of the RS480, against the NVIDIA 6100? The RS480 and the RS482 are the same chipset, with the RS482 having undergone a die shrink. We believed that the Grouper was still equipped with the RS480 chipset, when in fact, the Reference Board had the .11 process RS482 when we checked under the heatsink.
The die-shrink theoretically reduces costs, which was a primary motivation for the move to .11. The RS482 is the currently-shipping ATI integrated Graphics solution for AMD, and has replaced the RS480 in AMD integrated graphics from ATI.
The RS482 is the current ATI mainstream integrated graphics chipset, which is officially called Radeon Xpress 200. This would make the new NVIDIA 6100 the comparable chipset to RS482. NVIDIA also announced the higher-clocked GeForce 6150 chipset, which will be released in coming weeks. As you have seen in our past roadmaps, ATI will also be releasing a higher-performing integrated graphics solution in the future called RS485. It appears that this may be a higher-clocked version of RS482, which would make it a logical competitor to the upcoming NVIDIA 6150.
The AMD Integrated Graphics market is the exact opposite of what we have recently seen in discrete graphics. Where NVIDIA had a several-month lead over ATI with the 7800 GTX, ATI introduced RS480 almost a year ago. In that market, it has taken NVIDIA almost a year to respond with the GeForce 6100 Integrated Graphics.
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johnsonx - Friday, October 7, 2005 - link
Since the only testing we have for Xpress 200 with Sideport Memory was done nearly a year ago on pre-release reference hardware, with early drivers and on only 2 games at one resolution, perhaps some new tests are in order? (as always, easy for me to say since I don't have to do any of the work!)The complete AMD integrated video test, which would be very informative:
Socket 939 & 754 GeForce6100
Socket 939 & 754 GeForce6150
Socket 939 & 754 Xpress200
Socket 939 & 754 Xpress200 w/32Mb Sideport (UMA interleaved)
Socket 754 K8M800
Socket 754 760GX
For processors, it should be Sempron64 2600+ (on 754), Athlon64 3200+ (on both 754 & 939), and finally Athlon64 4000+ (on 939). That'd be two CPUs for each board.
So that's 20 board/cpu/video memory configurations. No sweat, right?
What's the point of all this testing? Simple. Which platform gives the best integrated gfx performance and which gives the best integrated graphics value? Is the ATI Sideport Memory worth the added cost ($20) vs UMA alone?
DigitalFreak - Thursday, October 6, 2005 - link
Wesley,Any idea when the 6150 based boards will be available? Also, any info on DFI 6150 boards?
johnsonx - Thursday, October 6, 2005 - link
Yeah, you're right... the JetWay RS480 PRO boards all have 32Mb of dedicated video RAM.Anandtech, please test!
Is there any info on whether GeForce 6100 boards can or will be equipped with dedicated RAM as well?
Cybercat - Thursday, October 6, 2005 - link
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the reference grouper board they were using did have a small bit of dedicated memory onboard.And since NVIDIA was the first with the memory fetching technique (TurboCache) I would think they could do it with their chipset as well. However it may be that TurboCache isn't a completely driver-enabled feature like HyperMemory is with ATI. The other problem is that in order to incorporate some dedicated memory, it requires quite a bit of extra space on the board, and when dealing with mini-ATX, you don't have a lot of space to work with. Many board makers don't see the speed boost as a worthwhile justification for the extra leveraging they would have to do, considering that most onboard is only there for 2D functionality primarily, with little consideration for 3D performance given the sort of market the chipset is aimed at.
johnsonx - Thursday, October 6, 2005 - link
As near as I can tell from consulting several past AT articles concerning the Grouper reference board, it looks like it does NOT have Sideport memory. The original Bullhead board did have 16Mb sideport memory, and the AT article for that board even included benches of various memory configs (http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?...">here). None of the articles that mention the Grouper board mention Sideport, and I don't see any memory chips in the photos of the Grouper board (or of the Sapphire Pure Innovation board, which follows the Grouper reference design). The chip was easy to spot on the original Bullhead board photos, as they are on the Jetway board photos.Perhaps Wesley could clarify whether the Grouper board being tested does or does not have Sideport memory?
DigitalFreak - Thursday, October 6, 2005 - link
Read the article Wesley referred to. You gain at most 2 fps with the 16MB of sideport memory on the ATI board.johnsonx - Thursday, October 6, 2005 - link
if 2d is the only issue, save your money and buy Via K8M800 or SiS 760GX... ATI and Nvidia market these things as 3d, and they do a pretty competent job of it as well.as to all the extra space required, it appears to be only 2 small memory chips. They're almost tough to spot on the Jetway Pro boards.
HarbingerM - Thursday, October 6, 2005 - link
So it looks like they are compareing a $75 tforce 6100 vs $95 Xpress 200http://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/Wishlist/WishS...">http://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/Wis...700496&a...
That so with price added the 6100 dose not look that bad compared to geting a xpress 200 with sideport. If they would test it UMA only then I think the 6100 might be much more ahead. Toms did some testing with the 3 setings of sideport memory and thier board only had 16M and there was a noticable difrence in game and in GUI because of not stealing all of the cpu memory bandwith. With the price difrence of $20 it is hard to go with the xpress200 it lacks so much. And if the benchmarks where on a board with 32M sideport it make the tforce6100 that much better. If not it put them at the same preformance level. So that only the features like full speed USB and SATA300.
yacoub - Thursday, October 6, 2005 - link
Worst photoshop of a "2" ever.Wesley Fink - Thursday, October 6, 2005 - link
I was embarrassed by my "2" so I redid it :-) At the last minute ATI told me they didn't have any usable images of the RS482, so I did a 2-minute improvise. After your comment I did it as it should have been in Photoshop.