ATI Radeon X1000 Series Preview

Reviews: Hardware

Motherboards | Power Supplies | Memory | Systems | Video Cards

Author:
Editor:
Sponsor:
Published:

Kurtis Kronk
Brian
ATI
Oct. 5, 2005

<< Previous

Next >>

Architecture & New Features

The X1000 family is touted by ATI as a "no-compromise design," consisting of a "ruthlessly efficient, ultra-threaded" SM 3.0 core, 512-bit Ring Bus memory controller, AVIVO video display technology, and 90nm technology from top to bottom.

A new shading architecture allows for full-time 32-bit floating point precision, fast dynamic branching and also makes it the first capable of doing High Dynamic Range with Anti-Aliasing. When ATI talks about having an Ultra-Threaded core, what that actually refers to is the size and number of threads. On the X1000 cards you have a small thread size of 16 pixels (4x4) whereas NVIDIA's 7800GTX has a thread size of 64 pixels (8x8), which is obviously a bit larger. ATI argues that their smaller thread size is more efficient, particularly when dealing with dynamic branching.

Click here for the full-size version of this image
The 512-bit Ring Bus memory controller supports the fastest available rendering engines, has a new cache design, improved Hyper Z with better compression and hidden surface removal (removal of 60% more hidden pixels over X850), and programmable arbitration logic which maximizes memory efficiency and can be upgraded via software. There are actually two internal 256-bit rings running in opposite directions to minimize latency which help to reduce routing complexity as well as permitting higher clock speeds. There is one ring stop per pair of memory channels which are linked directly to the memory interfaces. The X1800 has 8x32-bit memory channels compared to the X850's 4x64-bit. As mentioned earlier, the newly improved Z Buffer comes into play when you run into scenes with a large amount of overlapping objects to help reduce overdraw.

Click here for the full-size version of this image

One exciting thing about the X1000 series is that ATI is promising to open the platform by documenting the GPU architecture for DPP and they will seed developers with tools and prototype applications. Something that was discussed at the Tech Days event was that modern GPUs are powerful processors which can be utilized for non-graphics applications such as physics simulation, medical imaging, speech recognition, protein folding, matrix/vector operations, FFT, Ray Tracing, Sort/Search! By opening the platform to developers, it will be possible to create more non-game applications to take advantage of this powerful piece of hardware.

AVIVO is a new technology which, among other things, allows for "universal connectivity" - ATI actually went so far as to say "You got a cable, we can support it." I'm betting I can find a cable that isn't supported, but I suppose they didn't mean it literally. With AVIVO you can encode H.264, VC-1, WMV9, WMV9 PMC, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, and DivX, and you can decode H.264, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, VC-1, and WMV9. All of the X1000 cards are equipped with a Xilleon TV Encoder and will have a dual-link DVI (X1800 has two dual-link DVIs), 10-bit/16-bit DVI output, as well as HDCP and HDMI support.

Speaking of dual-link DVI, I'm reminded of the already infamous 1600x1200 @ 60Hz issue with a pair of X850s in Crossfire. This issue has in fact been addressed with the X1000 series, thanks to a new compositing engine. It turns out that dual link DVI was required for the amount of bandwidth needed to play at high resolutions with high refresh rates. Just for your reference, you will be able to run a pair of X1800s at 2048x1536 @ 70 Hz. Of course, NVIDIA didn't have to worry about that since they went with an internal connector for their dual graphics solution.

AVIVO can also map any input to 10-bit integer, including 8 and 10-bit integer, 16-bit integer (INT16) and 16-bit floating point (FP16). FP16 output via dual-link DVI means HDR on capable displays (such as the Brightside display shown at the event, more info on that in the Tech Days event coverage article coming soon). You can send FP16 or INT16 data.

<< Previous

Page 3 of 11

Next >>

Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: Re-Introducing R520 / Availability
Page 3: Architecture & New Features
Page 4: Question & Answer Session
Page 5: The Cards
Page 6: Test Setup
Page 7: Benchmarks - Half-Life 2
Page 8: Benchmarks - Day of Defeat: Source
Page 9: Benchmarks - Doom 3
Page 10: Benchmarks - Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
Page 11: Image Quality / Closing Thoughts

Subscribe to Video Cards [more info]

Add Comment

8 User Comments

1 - Posted by Frosty on October 5, 2005 - 5:37 pm

i am gonan keep my 7800gtx thank you very much, i really dont feel the need to upgrade now......

2 - Posted by sean478 on October 5, 2005 - 7:37 pm

Hi :) thanks for the review dude :)

I was wandering if you could email me the bioses for these cards?

i was planing on makeing flash mod guides for them :)

for example x1300np to x1300 pro mod and x1800xl to x1800xt mod ect. :)

my email is rswisfamly@cox.net :)

getting the bioses:

try using a bootable dos disk with flashrom.exe on it
http://www.techpowerup.com/bios/bios/flashrom240.z...
also try ati flash
http://www.techpowerup.com/bios/bios/atiflash309.z...

command to enter: atiflash -s 0 .bin

you could also try dumping the bios from ati tool (try the latest beta)

http://www.techpowerup.com

ati tool/settings/misc./dump bios

btw do you have access to the demos for the x1800s? do you think i could get ahold of them? :)

Edit: you could also try winflash for ati :)
http://www.techpowerup.com/bios/bios/winflash105.z...

3 - Posted by Dyrewolph on October 5, 2005 - 9:27 pm

Haha... hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha hahahahah... oooo that's a good one Kurtis! almost made me wet myself!

4 - Posted by Kurtis on October 5, 2005 - 10:29 pm

hehehe... glad someone catches my little funnies. :-D

of course, it's true... but it sounds funny! ;-)

5 - Posted by Frosty on October 13, 2005 - 7:27 am

it amazes me that with just 16 pipelines they are able to beat the 7800gtx...

6 - Posted by handrail on October 13, 2005 - 10:52 pm

the x1800xt does have a higher mem and clock speed though. maybe they can just muscle their way through to higher performance?

7 - Posted by Brian on October 13, 2005 - 10:54 pm

This is a good read:

http://www.thetechlounge.com/news.php?id=7669

Looks like ATI put a lot of work into the new chip and have plenty of room to grow.

8 - Posted by JGFgKnnI on March 18, 2008 - 11:28 pm

Nice site!

Add Comment

To add a comment without being a member, you may omit the password field, but you must enter your name (or nickname) along with your comment. * Denotes required fields.