The fastest ATI 5870 card achieves 3TFLOPS

A 950 MHz clock for the GPU is nothing to be sneezed at - you get 3.04 TFLOPS of computing power, a nice 10% boost over the original.But this 10% boost in clock you get to go beyond 3TFLOPS, a first single ASIC ever to do so. With 5850X2 and 5870X2,we get shivers if you take into account that a single board will deliver well over 5TFLOPs.

[Pandamobile]

Dayum.

[FantasyStar]

Dayum +1

[El_Colombiano]

Dayum +2

[STONEY4]

Dayum +3

[gta_cb]

Dayum +4

[bratman]

c-c-c-c-combo breaker ;)

[El_Colombiano]

Asshole.

[Lemon Jelly]

I can't deiced whether to buy one of these or wait it out for GT300.

[Kakkoii]

Wait for the GT300, then make your decision. GT300 should be even more epic.

[Major_Tom]

Lol, the only thing epic about the GT300 will be its price tag, I can guarantee you that.

[Blasphemy]

Why wait this is out now. If you are going to upgrade might as well and do it. If your going to wait why don't you just wait for the GT 400 or maybe how about the next generation and wait for the 6870?

I don't see the point of waiting for something when we really don't know when the next thing will be out. Of course it will be better but 6 months later there will be something better then the next best thing on the market now. It's always been that way and it seems it just going to continue to stay that way.

[Fishy Fingers]

300 series should be out by the end of the year I believe so the wait wouldnt be to long. I see what Blasphemy is saying but a month or two wont hurt and you'll kick yourself if the 300 performs better for what might end up being just a little more.

Personally, I'm tempted by the 5870 but my 295GTX will keep me going for a while, so I'll wait and see what Nvidia brings.

[Shane Kim]

I was going to buy a 4890, but should I just wait for the 5850/70 or should I go for the 4890? I currently have a 4650.

[Kakkoii]

@Blasphemy:
Fail argument is fail. Of course you can keep waiting. One must choose when is the best time to upgrade though. Waiting 2 more months isn't a big deal to see what the other team is going to put out. It's called being a smart buyer. If your someone who has money flowing out their ass and can afford to buy a new card every year, then sure, buy now if you want. But if your someone who is planning on sticking with a certain card for a few years, then it's always best to see what both teams will be offering and go for the best choice.

@Shane Kim:
5870 is already out, and 5850 soon also.

@Major_Tom:
You need to lay off the Charlie aid. The GT300 is a full architecture redesign. The 8800 series was also, and that was one of the best GPU's released, it made waves in the industry.

[GamerPS360]

waiting myself for 5870 x2.
gtx280 in sli at the moment. I need to ebay those now :(

[edhe]

This will be the kind of tech that's in the next batch of consoles.

If not better.

Apply dedicated architecture, APIs & 'forwardly'-compatible engines [because they already use directx so any current-gen optimisation will still be applicable] and you'll be looking at a stunning generation at 1080p/120Hz {for 3d} next time around.

All with the engines and code that are currently being used.

Except for playstation who may or may not ditch the cell/nvidia combo next time.

[Kakkoii]

"Except for playstation who may or may not ditch the cell/nvidia combo next time."

That makes no sense. What does the cell/nvidia combo have to do with anything? Nvidia and ATI GPU's support the same API's. Nvidia just has a little extra with CUDA/PhysX. So doesn't matter if Sony uses an ATI or Nvidia GPU in their next console. And CPU is even more irrelevant.

[edhe]

Well, it does actually.

I don't thikn the ps3 uses directx, why would it? It's OGL iirc meaning the ati/nvidia support may be different.

And considering how much the Cell SPUs charge the GPU if you alter something at the core of that combination the engine will need reworking from the ground up. That's time lost from development.

Best thing sony could do imo is upscale their Cell tech and create a custom nvidia gpu that they buy the rights to, meaning all the ps3 development can carry into the next gen.

You can bet your bottom dollar that MS will do similar, and Nintendo will continue to do so.

[Xi]

not really. ATI runs opencl which benchmarks faster then cuda and it has better performance with havok, which they have a partnership with.

Sony might drop nvidia all together and just go with a straight GPGPU processor, while MS is likely to adhere to a similar format with thier GPGPU strategy for the xenos but with a dedicated system for the xenon.

[Kakkoii]

@Xi:

Both ATI and Nvidia will be supporting OpenCL. ATI doesn't "have it". Apple holds the rights to it, but it's developed by the Khronos Group, the same people who work on OpenGL.

CUDA isn't just an API for computing on GPU's. It's an extension of C++ for use with GPU's. That is why adoption of it by industries other than gaming has been so good. Because it doesn't take much work to port your C++ app to CUDA, or to program for CUDA if you already know C++.

Also, what exactly does Havok "bench better" than? Havok is a dated engine. It was good back in the days of Half Life 2, and still works good for games like Team Fortress 2. But as a serious game engine, it's dead. The physics in the Havok engine are major crap compared to PhysX and new engines that have come out. Not to mention PhysX isn't a whole game engine, just a physics middle ware that can be used along side a game engine.

[DeadlyFire]

As far as the Cell/Nvidia combo. Its very likely Sony will aim at Intel next gen. Either way the all will support same APIs and Intel's own API would be a bonus as well if Intel is used.

Also Playstation 3 uses Open GL 2.x or Open GL ES or something to that extent I believe.

Next Consoles won't see these chips unless they are coming in 2010. If they are coming in 2011 they will see 2010 chips in them. Its the way it has worked the last time.

[TABSF]

I'm gonna wait till December and see what everyone's hand are, then I will make my call.

[skip2mylou]

that thing is fuking huge from that picture