Review: ATI Radeon HD 5830 graphics AIB

Posted by Robert Dow on March 2nd 2010 | Discuss (0)
Categories: Hardware Review
Tags: gpu ati amd graphics radeon gpgpu gaming pmark

ATI-AMD continued to roll out products in its Evergreen line this week, adding to the Enthusiast segment with the HD 5830. The HD 5830 fits in the lower end of the Enthusiast segment in between the HD 5850 and the HD 5770 with a $240 price point. The following chart puts the new board in perspective with its peers from AMD. HD 5770 HD 5830 HD 5850 GTX 260 Core 216 1.36 TFLOPS 1.79 TFLOPS 2.09 TFLOPS   850 MHz 800 MHz Core Clock 725 MHz 1.2 GHz Core Clock 800 Stream Processors 1120 Stream Processors 1440 Steam Processors 240 Processor…

Pay a little, get a lot—AMD’s HD 5450 and 5470 sub $100 AIBs

Posted by Robert Dow on February 16th 2010 | Discuss (0)
Categories: Hardware Review
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AMD introduced two additional add-in boards to their expanding product line for the Value segment putting a virtual strangle hold on the <$100 market. Radeon HD 5450 The HD 5450 with a 40nm “Cedar” GPU is a sub $60 card set to take the place of its HD 4350/4550 predecessors. To get to this thrifty price point AMD made some significant hardwaremodifications. AMD cut the cost of manufacturing of the AIB by giving the 5450 a fan-less heat sink which gives the HD 5450 a unique look but also turns this sub $60 AIB into a dual-slot solution. There will be…

AMD’s ATI Radeon HD5670

Posted by Robert Dow on January 18th 2010 | Discuss (0)
Categories: Hardware Review
Tags: gpu ati amd radeon gpgpu pmark hd5670

While multi-card Crossfire/ SLi solutions and chasing record breaking performance get the headlines the bottom line is fueled by the $100 and under AIB’s. The Mainstream segment of the market has always been the monetary sweet spot of the GPU industry. What a company loses in profit margins in the segment is more than made up for in volume. In years past this segment would be reserved for the high-end parts that has fallen from grace and becomes obsolete, however recognizing the importance of this segment (Steam is reporting that 90% of AIB are <$100) GPU companies design GPUs specifically for…

EVGA’s GT 240 - Testing a powerful low-cost AIB

Posted by Robert Dow on December 15th 2009 | Permalink
Categories: Hardware Review
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We don’t just test super high-end AIBs here at Mt. Tiburon Testing Labs; we look at any AIB that is novel or interesting, or controversial. So we decided to take a look at some midrange AIBs, and in particular Nvidia’s newest offering, the GT 240. EVGA loaned us a board for examination and we put it through the usual tests. It’s appropriate to look at midrange AIBs at this time of year and in this economy. Consumers looking for a gift, or for themselves, are looking for value in their purchases and the midrange AIBs offer plenty of that. Not everyone…

Lenovo vs. HP Z800

Posted by Robert Dow on June 25th 2009 | Permalink
Categories: Hardware Review
Tags: nvidia linux lenovo thinkstation

Lenovo S20 ThinkStation workstation. (Source: Jon Peddie Research)The Lenovo S20 ThinkStation we tested had a W5580 Xeon 3.20GHz processors, 3 GB of 1.3 GHz DDR3 ECC RAM, a 7,200 RPM 500 GB HDD, and an Nvidia Quadro FX4800 AIB with 4 GB of GDDR3 RAM. The S20 and the HP Z800 both have a Xeon W5580 @ 3.2 GHz processor, the main hardware difference between the two is that the HP is running with a Quadro FX 5800 AIB and Vista 64, while the Lenovo has Windows XP Pro and a Quadro FX 4800. Not quite the fair fight when it…

The HP Z800

Posted by Robert Dow on June 25th 2009 | Permalink
Categories: Hardware Review
Tags: workstation hp

FIGURE 1: Parallels’ Workstation Extreme software allows access of graphics AIBs directly inside VMs (Source: Parallels) ERRATUM: The Z800 does not support hot swap disks. This capability requires a server OS. We are unable to support this on our client OS architecture. When we wrote about the Parallels Workstation Extreme software (Workstation graphics difficulties fixed, p.13, Volume 9, Number 9, April 27, 2009) we were anxious to see it in action. Due to a lot of travel and various other obstacles (such as learning the ins and outs of Linux) it has taken us until now…

Acer Aspire Revo

Posted by Robert Dow on May 14th 2009 | Permalink
Categories: Hardware Review
Tags: windows acer thumbs up reviews desktop

The Aspire is a slick looking little computer, really little, measuring only 180mm x 180mm x 30mm (7.1in x 7.1in x 1.2in) about the size of a wide book. Watching a blu-ray movie on the Acer Playing Stalker on the Acer Figure 1: Performance comparison of three PCs (Source: Jon Peddie Research)The unit is powered by an Intel 1.6 GHz N230 single-core Atom processor, 2 GB of DDR2 RAM, an Nvidia 9400M GPU (aka “Ion”) and a HOW MANY GB drive and it’s running 32-bit Windows Vista Home Premium. The RAM is segmented into 1,792 MB for the system and 320…

What you can do with 55nm and a gig

Posted by Robert Dow on April 2nd 2009 | Permalink
Categories: Hardware Review
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The HD 4890 is a dual-slot solution with two DVI-connectors FIGURE 1: The HD 4890 compared to its competitors.ATI announced two new top-of-the line single GPU AIBs this week: the HD 4890 and the HD 4890 OC. Both AIBs are based on the RV790 GPU. The new GPU is a revamped "shrink" version of the RV770, the GPU that powers the HD 4870. The RV790 is built on a 55nm process and it has 959 million transistors. ATI turned up the core clock to 850 MHz in the standard HD 4890 and 900 MHz in the OC version, which represents a…

Nvidia’s GeForce GTS 250

Posted by Robert Dow on March 3rd 2009 | Permalink
Categories: Hardware Review
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Nvidia’s new old GeForce GTZ250.(Source: Jon Peddie Research) Figure 2: GTS 250 benchmark scores.(Source: Jon Peddie Research)Nvidia’s “new” AIB isn’t new at all; it’s the branding and marketing effort that is getting the true overhaul. It’s not the fastest card in the world, but it’s got style, vive and brand—who needs anything else? The GTS 250 is a reintroduction of our old friend the G92 first introduced in the 8800 series back in Q4 2007—it was then shrunk from a 65NM to a 55NM part and rolled out as the 9800 GTX+. The GTS 250 has virtually the same specs as…

AMD Introduces the Phenom II

Posted by Robert Dow on February 18th 2009 | Permalink
Categories: Hardware Review
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Figure 1: Benchmark results for the AMD and Intel processors.(Source: Jon Peddie Research) Figure 2: FPS results for the AMD and Intel processors.(Source: Jon Peddie Research) At this point, it is almost impossible for AMD to take on Intel from a technology perspective. By all accounts, the i7 processors by Intel are a huge performance step forward. Plus, with 32nm processing on tap for Intel later in the year, AMD is looking to take on their rival on different fronts; the obvious one being the cost/performance ratio. The new Dragon platform with the 45nm Phenom II line features the x4 940…

ATI takes the flag

Posted by Robert Dow on August 18th 2008 | Permalink
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By Alex Gorvoi, Robert Dow, and Jon Peddie Sapphire’s HD4870x2(Source: Jon Peddie Research) FIGURE 1: Comparison of three new AIBs.(Source: Jon Peddie Research) FIGURE 2: Power consumption of three new AIBs.(Source: Jon Peddie Research) FIGURE 3: P4 values for the new AIBs.(Source: Jon Peddie Research) FIGURE 4: Benchmark points per dollar for the three new AIBs.(Source: Jon Peddie Research) ATI launched their new dual-GPU AIB, the Radeon HD 4870 X2, and reclaimed the flag from Nvidia with regard to performance. The timing couldn’t be better—occurring at Siggraph and nicely sidestepping the noise of the Intel Developer Forum and Nvision—not just a…

ATI and Nvidia chips

Posted by Robert Dow on July 28th 2008 | Permalink
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Alex Gorvoi, Robert Dow, Jon Peddie, and Scooter Now that the dust and hysteria have settled, we thought this was a good time take a look at the two new competing architectures from the leading GPU suppliers. Actually it’s taken us this long to collect all the information and run the tests. We ran so many tests and got so many results we stand in awe of the web boys who manage to pump them out in a day or two. Just getting all the eight- pin power connectors worked out ate up hours of time. Nothing is simple anymore. Fortunately,…

AMD’s ATI Radeon HD 3870 on Vantage

Posted by Robert Dow on May 5th 2008 | Permalink
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Figure 1: AMD Radeon HD3870X2 driver tests on Vantage. (Source: Jon Peddie Research) AMD released a 3DMark Vantage Hotfix (Catalyst 8.4.71.1 for those of you scoring at home—not quite Tinker to Evers to Chance but you get the idea. The new driver release is designed to deliver performance enhancements and bug fixes for 3DMark’s new Vantage Benchmark. The new driver applies to Radeon HD 3870 Series through the Radeon HD 2400 Series. Vantage is a benchmark solely for Windows Vista 32 and 64-bit DirectX 10. We ran the tests on the SkullTrail. For our testing purposes, we employed the Radeon 3870…

Pinnacle Video Transfer – no computer needed

Posted by Robert Dow on April 21st 2008 | Permalink
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We watched some movies and TV this week at MTTL, on the big screen and the tiny screen. We remember the old days, not that long ago, when testing video software was truly a pain, a pain to get the drivers to install and the programs to run, and when we finally got the videos to run, were a pain to look at, the quality was so poor. Those days are thankfully behind us now and watching videos on a PC or a handheld device is now actually a pleasure. CyberLink’s DVDSuite 6 Ultimate By Jon Peddie Downloaded the SW, installed…

ATI’s new AIBs

Posted by Robert Dow on October 31st 2006 | Permalink
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TI introduced two new AIBs last week with the x1950 Pro and X1600. The X1950 Pro is targeted at the performance segment and can be categorized as a totally new product for ATI despite the fact the RV570 is a very close relative to the R580. The RV570 is manufactured in an 80-nm process as opposed to the 90-nm. ATI obviously has confidence in its 80-nm proc-ess because the X1950 Pro cooling fan is significantly smaller allowing the x1950 Pro to be a sleek single-slot solution. The X1950 Pro comes equipped with a 330 million transistor processor with a 575-MHz core,…

Asus EAX1800XT breaks speed limits

Posted by Robert Dow on December 5th 2005 | Permalink
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If the reviews for the Asus EAX1800XT TOP are as good as the initial reviews of the ÒKing KongÓ movie then Asus will be getting gaming converts. Asus, is making the connection by bundling the official game of ÒKing KongÓ with the new Asus offering. Figure 1. Asus EAX1800XT TOP over-clocked AIB. (Source: Asus) Asus promises that the R-520 based EAX1800XT will be the fastest AIB using the X1800XT GPU, with the core clock speed cranked to a racy 700MHz and a memory clock of 1.6 GHz (800 MHz GDDR3). ThereÕs 512 MB of GDDR3 on board. The 700MHz core clock…

No wonder about ATI using R520 for TV

Posted by Robert Dow on November 21st 2005 | Permalink
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As the 1800 XT is finally hitting the market ATI will introduce its latest card in the All-In-Wonder series, the Radeon All-In-Wonder (AIW) X1800 XL. In the past the All-In-Wonder additions to the ATI family usually didn't appear until months after the launch of the flagship products. However, ATI wanted to change things up this time around. By releasing the All-In-Wonder closer to the main product launch they are hoping that they can entice graphics and multimedia enthusiasts to purchase the combo board rather than running straight out to buy just the graphics AIB. For the price it would be hard…