New pictures of ATI's HD 3870 X2 (R680)

[Sedako]

Oversized PCBs are here to stay! From Gizmodo:

Recap of specs:

 

[-Psy-]

teh hugez.

 

[hool10]

ATI is like that depressed person who takes Viagra to get his dick longer or something.

 

[Barney Fife]

ATI is like that depressed person who takes Viagra to get his dick longer or something.

Viagra is not for depressed persons, it does not make your dick longer, or even feel like longer; it just makes whatever you have stick and pinker.

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

Physics processing on board you say? An interesting, if not useless, feature.

I don't understand why they didn't make a nice sized, affordable card like the 8800GT with their new 55nm process. Instead we get this monster which is likely trying to compete with the 9800 line.

 

[Sedako]

Physics processing on board you say? An interesting, if not useless, feature.

Onboard PPU will free up cpu threads to help stream assorted data. This can greatly cut down on loading times and and increase FPS.

I don't understand why they didn't make a nice sized, affordable card like the 8800GT with their new 55nm process. Instead we get this monster which is likely trying to compete with the 9800 line.

They already have, the HD 3870 (~$250):

The 8800 GT kicks it's ass though

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

Onboard PPU will free up cpu threads to help stream assorted data. This can greatly cut down on loading times and and increase FPS.



They already have, the HD 3870 (~$250):

The 8800 GT kicks it's ass though

The issue with the onboard PPU is no games support it right now. All we have is a few games that support the PhysX crap.

 

[Sedako]

The issue with the onboard PPU is no games support it right now. All we have is a few games that support the PhysX crap.

Current GPUs can already handle effects physics and accelerate gameplay physics. A built-in PPU on video cards will automatically take over for the GPU on calculating these physics, and will not require coded support in the games (unlike with Ageia).

 

[Sedako]

double post

 

[Kyorisu]

Last I checked Intel bought out Havoc and has put all plans for physics processing on GPUS on hold to mess around with AMD.

 

[Sedako]

Last I checked Intel bought out Havoc and has put all plans for physics processing on GPUS on hold to mess around with AMD.

Not true. Intel bought Havok to support it's upcoming Larrabee GPU. You can read about it here. For now, Havok is still operating independently. It's true that the Havok FX system was cancelled after Intel bought them, but AMD is partly to blame for that as they had no intention of supporting it.

 

[Nemesis6]

I've seen the physics calculation demos. They're nice, but isn't it an insanely bad idea in graphically intensive games where the GPU is gonna need all its teraflops?