[chief barker]

Originally Posted by Razor

Yeah it's an awesome movie, I have lost count how many times I have seen it.

Lmao @ changing your name. I think you did well on the sale and I would of done the same thing if offered a good price. Now time to spend it all and get a shiny new toy.

Will you go for 2 x7970 or buy one and wait till Kepler is out and then make up your mind?

I am set on dual 7970s at the moment. but if anything is announced by the 15th of march then will re-consider as it's pay day Then.

[Razor]

Originally Posted by chief barker

I am set on dual 7970s at the moment. but if anything is announced by the 15th of march then will re-consider as it's pay day Then.

Sounds good to me mate.

[wolvers]

AFAIK Chief, the NV cards due in April aren't even the top of the range cards. No idea when they'll be. So the big question is, can you wait that long?

[chief barker]

Originally Posted by wolvers

AFAIK Chief, the NV cards due in April aren't even the top of the range cards. No idea when they'll be. So the big question is, can you wait that long?

Ah Wolvers glad you popped in mate.

i had a feeling you would.

I can wait a month I think.

How's your 7970 mate?.

[wolvers]

All good in the hood so far bud. They're mental clockers. TBH, if you're just playing BF3 at 1080p, one 7970 is enough. I can get you some fps number if you want.

Although that's not to say I won't be looking at what comes out in the next few months with interest! I reckon they'll be really fast. The only thing that might be a downer is if they only appear with 2gb VRAM. I always thought it would be plenty but I'm so glad the 7970 has 3gb as I'm already up to ~2gb usage in Skyrim and I don't even have that many mods running really, which is great because I can add more no problem. It's the combination of the larger loaded grids, high res textures and 8xAA that is using up so much VRAM. Who knows if there will be any other games like that though.

[Razor]

Originally Posted by wolvers

All good in the hood so far bud. They're mental clockers. TBH, if you're just playing BF3 at 1080p, one 7970 is enough. I can get you some fps number if you want.

Although that's not to say I won't be looking at what comes out in the next few months with interest! I reckon they'll be really fast. The only thing that might be a downer is if they only appear with 2gb VRAM. I always thought it would be plenty but I'm so glad the 7970 has 3gb as I'm already up to ~2gb usage in Skyrim and I don't even have that many mods running really, which is great because I can add more no problem. It's the combination of the larger loaded grids, high res textures and 8xAA that is using up so much VRAM. Who knows if there will be any other games like that though.

Congrats on the upgrade mate.

I agree that if nvidia only bring out 2gb on the top end cards it will be a massive disappointment for me. I will probably wait for the 4gb specials before I jump in as I want longevity from what ever card I go for next.

[wolvers]

It might turn out to be BS, after all 2gb isn't much more than the 480 has and they've been out some time now. It wouldn't be the first time that early rumours turned out to be BS!

[Razor]

Originally Posted by wolvers

It might turn out to be BS, after all 2gb isn't much more than the 480 has and they've been out some time now. It wouldn't be the first time that early rumours turned out to be BS!

I really do hope it is BS. I have my fingers crossed.

[chief barker]

Originally Posted by Razor

I really do hope it is BS. I have my fingers crossed.

Nvidia would commit corparate suicide if their flagship card had 2GB of Vram.

So i can't see it being so.

[Chox1988]

I cant imagine their flagship card will take a step backwards and have 2gb of vram, given that half of 580's available come with 3gb and the 590 comes with 3gb as standard

[namuk]

if the flagship nvidia card does endup 2gb which will be odd as the 580 cards come with 3gb, then i am going Amd.

[wolvers]

Gonna hold you to that Nam. No going back now!

[Stockholm]

I just can't see - hope! - nvidia being that short-sighted by only providing their top-end card with 2GB DDR5 Vram.

Just wild guessing on my part but I can imagine cards like the 660ti coming with 2GB Vram, 670 with 2.5GB, and the 680 & 690 coming with 3, 3.5 or 4GB Vram, with the 690 having nothing below 3.5GB and more than likely having 4GB.

Here's something I've been thinking about recently:

- The DDR5 Vram is, I assume, connected by dimm slots to the PCB of the vcard?

- So, is it ever likely that'll we'll see a motherboard with dedicated DDR5 dimm slots that we can plug directly into the mobo and which come with your graphics card in a separate baggy/box?

- The benefit of that is that you can easily buy more DDR5 vram to plug in your mobo in the future

- Also, this would free up space on the graphics card for other components (dedicated physx processor?).

- Or, why not go the full hog and do away with graphic cards that plug into pci slots and have the motherboard gurus build a dedicated socket, similar to current CPU sockets, on the mobo that you can plug your GPU directly in to. You can buy your own waterblock or air cooler to cool it.

Just trying to think of a different scenario for graphics cards. Not suggesting one way is better than the other either.

[Hillskill]

What a great idea. Could be a tough design fit for chipsets so to ensure good bandwidth but no doubt workable.

[chief barker]

Originally Posted by wolvers

Gonna hold you to that Nam. No going back now!

I love your signature change.

[Stockholm]

Originally Posted by Hillskill

What a great idea. Could be a tough design fit for chipsets so to ensure good bandwidth but no doubt workable.

Thanks Hillskill. Yeah, I was thinking about bandwidth and how they'd deal with reading/writing instructions to two different types of memory via the motherboard DIMM slots. Also, the instruction queue for the different processors plugged into their sockets on the motherboard would have to be sorted out. Still, the software gurus and hardware magicians that work for these amazing companies will no doubt find solutions to these kinds of problems.

I don't think we'll see something like I've suggested any time soon since AMD and Intel seem keen on following a path of integrating GPUs with CPUs, i.e. APUs. Potentially this could be even better than having two separate sockets for the GPU and CPU, and it would surely require motherboards to have individual DDR5 DIMM slots since where will the Vram go if the GPU and CPU are combined on one AMD or Intel APU chip?

[wolvers]

Originally Posted by Stockholm

I just can't see - hope! - nvidia being that short-sighted by only providing their top-end card with 2GB DDR5 Vram.

Just wild guessing on my part but I can imagine cards like the 660ti coming with 2GB Vram, 670 with 2.5GB, and the 680 & 690 coming with 3, 3.5 or 4GB Vram, with the 690 having nothing below 3.5GB and more than likely having 4GB.

Here's something I've been thinking about recently:

- The DDR5 Vram is, I assume, connected by dimm slots to the PCB of the vcard?

- So, is it ever likely that'll we'll see a motherboard with dedicated DDR5 dimm slots that we can plug directly into the mobo and which come with your graphics card in a separate baggy/box?

- The benefit of that is that you can easily buy more DDR5 vram to plug in your mobo in the future

- Also, this would free up space on the graphics card for other components (dedicated physx processor?).

- Or, why not go the full hog and do away with graphic cards that plug into pci slots and have the motherboard gurus build a dedicated socket, similar to current CPU sockets, on the mobo that you can plug your GPU directly in to. You can buy your own waterblock or air cooler to cool it.

Just trying to think of a different scenario for graphics cards. Not suggesting one way is better than the other either.

It's not at all inconceivable that the 680 will have 2gb on the stock card. NV aren't pushing the really high res multi screen technologies like AMD are, so may not see the need for more VRAM on this generation of cards. Minimal VRAM on stock cards = maximized profits. Besides, as Razor points out, there would likely be someone that produces a 4gb version.

VRAM slots or GPU sockets on a mobo would make mobos too big to be workable. Think about the size of dual CPU board, and then some.

As for a 690, dual GPU card, if the 680 does end up with 4gb then the 690 has to have 8gb because each GPU needs to be able to access the same amount of VRAM in duplicate. If a dual GPU 7990 appears it will have a total of 6gb on board.

[chief barker]

Wolvers mate, do you fancy giving me some fps numbers with your 7970.

If possible on a 64 man server.

Screenies would be nice too with the fps counter.

Cheeers mate.

[Stockholm]

Thanks for the input Wolvers.

How much bigger do you anticipate that motherboards would become if they integrated the GPU socket and DDR5 DIMMs directly into the PCB?

There are some pretty big cases out there. Perhaps it would be offered as a choice from independent graphic card companies rather than the default config on their products. Obviously that would increase R&D and manufacturing costs for them, so it's unlikely to ever happen unless it offers them the opportunity to increase their profit point on each unit sold in this way.

The Vram stuff I mentioned is obviously just conjecture, and you're probably correct in that it will be left to the independent GC companies to put additional DDR 5 ram onto their products.

Anyway, I know I'm looking forward to the Kepler cards. I prefer nvidia graphic cards over AMD for a couple of reasons, one of them being because of the drivers that are created for nvidia cards. Absolutely nothing inherently wrong with AMD cards, and in some cases they are better graphic cards than their nvidia equivalent.

[wolvers]

Yeah there's big cases around but I think it's more to do with the big OEMs. They wouldn't be keen to make the standard mobo size bigger. Plus I think it would stifle GPU development a little if it wasn't on it's own add in board.

Chief, is Sharqui 64 man OK? Here's the settings I'm using now, which is basically the Ultra preset with 2xMSAA, and some screenshots. 7970 is running at 1150/1575.

It was running in the high 60s to the low 80s. I don't remember seeing it drop into the 50s at all so I could cap it at 60fps. Here's the graph from AB.

[wolvers]

Just had a quick blast on Karkand and the results were the same, if not a little higher. Also checked the fps without the MSAA and it shoots up anywhere from 20 to 40fps.

[chief barker]

Originally Posted by wolvers

Just had a quick blast on Karkand and the results were the same, if not a little higher. Also checked the fps without the MSAA and it shoots up anywhere from 20 to 40fps.

Looks awesome to me mate. Everything maxxed with 2xAA including HBAO.

Your'e getting great frames there.

My old cards struggled on high textures, and no SSAO/HBAO. And that was in tri-fire

Thanks for taking the time to post them for me.

I think i'm going to get only one for now, unless I can get a good deal on two.

You have a great overclock going on there.

Once again thanks mate

[wolvers]

That's a fairly average overclock tbh and should be easily attainable on the stock cooler. It'll do 1200mhz on the core with a slight vcore bump and it would probably go beyond that but I haven't had chance to test it.

[namuk]

Originally Posted by chief barker

I love your signature change.

oh dear what have i said Moment of madness worst case scenario though i have some Amd stickers which will prove having an Amd card, and brush up on the Photoshop skills for the driver panel

[wolvers]

Moment of clarity more like.

[namuk]

Originally Posted by wolvers

Moment of clarity more like.

Chuck thinks so.

[wolvers]

Wow, massive L2 Cache!!

[Sniper Ash6]

Originally Posted by Stockholm

I just can't see - hope! - nvidia being that short-sighted by only providing their top-end card with 2GB DDR5 Vram.

Just wild guessing on my part but I can imagine cards like the 660ti coming with 2GB Vram, 670 with 2.5GB, and the 680 & 690 coming with 3, 3.5 or 4GB Vram, with the 690 having nothing below 3.5GB and more than likely having 4GB.

Here's something I've been thinking about recently:

- The DDR5 Vram is, I assume, connected by dimm slots to the PCB of the vcard?

- So, is it ever likely that'll we'll see a motherboard with dedicated DDR5 dimm slots that we can plug directly into the mobo and which come with your graphics card in a separate baggy/box?

- The benefit of that is that you can easily buy more DDR5 vram to plug in your mobo in the future

- Also, this would free up space on the graphics card for other components (dedicated physx processor?).

- Or, why not go the full hog and do away with graphic cards that plug into pci slots and have the motherboard gurus build a dedicated socket, similar to current CPU sockets, on the mobo that you can plug your GPU directly in to. You can buy your own waterblock or air cooler to cool it.

Just trying to think of a different scenario for graphics cards. Not suggesting one way is better than the other either.

1. The memory chips are directly on the PCB.
2. That would be too far away and therefore too slow, plus it's a pain to design.
3. See point 2
4. Why not *just* use another graphics card for PhysX? Or considering cards are getting more powerful, we're nearing the point where it's not too problematic to run the game and PhysX on the same card.
5. What's wrong with PCIe for this?

Originally Posted by wolvers

...
If a dual GPU 7990 appears it will have a total of 6gb on board.

*cough*

 

12th March

*cough*

[=adrian=]

Originally Posted by chief barker

Looks awesome to me mate. Everything maxxed with 2xAA including HBAO.

Your'e getting great frames there.

My old cards struggled on high textures, and no SSAO/HBAO. And that was in tri-fire

Thanks for taking the time to post them for me.

I think i'm going to get only one for now, unless I can get a good deal on two.

You have a great overclock going on there.

Once again thanks mate

Yeah, one is enough. Send the other one here

[chief barker]

Originally Posted by =adrian=

Yeah, one is enough. Send the other one here

I'd love to ADA you know I would mate