Updated List of Video Card GPU Voodoopower Ratings!!!!!

BoFox · Posted: Sun Jan 30, 2011 9:00 am

cusideabelincoln wrote:

Well it's obvious why the 560 looks exceptionally good in bit-tech:
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphi ... b-review/3

They are using older drivers for every single card besides the 560.

Also Guru3D's 560 article is using older drivers for every other card in their 1920x1200 charts.

So if there is a discrepancy, then check the testing methodology. The sites that re-tested their cards with all the latest drivers are the ones basically showing these cards perform how they are priced.

True, but Tweaktown showed almost zero differences with the new drivers: http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/3798/ ... index.html
Maybe it's just the games that TT tested that didn't show anything.. you're right, it's worth considering, though.

Anyways, just came over this:

To my surprise, in like 5 out of 7 games benched, there are some rather visible gains with using the 2GB buffer over 1GB for the 6970. Most other sites don't show this at all, really.

Also, a chart on the performance differences between 11.10 and 1.11a:

http://pctuning.tyden.cz/component/cont ... eni-vykonu

Finally, a "new" website that covers some games that are rarely benchmarked by review sites:
http://www.techreaction.net/2011/01/25/ ... is-mean/4/

cusideabelincoln · **Joined:** Fri Feb 06, 2009 5:33 am **Posts:** 77

BoFox wrote:

cusideabelincoln wrote:

Well it's obvious why the 560 looks exceptionally good in bit-tech:
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphi ... b-review/3

They are using older drivers for every single card besides the 560.

Also Guru3D's 560 article is using older drivers for every other card in their 1920x1200 charts.

So if there is a discrepancy, then check the testing methodology. The sites that re-tested their cards with all the latest drivers are the ones basically showing these cards perform how they are priced.

True, but Tweaktown showed almost zero differences with the new drivers: http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/3798/ ... index.html
Maybe it's just the games that TT tested that didn't show anything.. you're right, it's worth considering, though.

Anyways, just came over this:

To my surprise, in like 5 out of 7 games benched, there are some rather visible gains with using the 2GB buffer over 1GB for the 6970. Most other sites don't show this at all, really.

Also, a chart on the performance differences between 11.10 and 1.11a:

http://pctuning.tyden.cz/component/cont ... eni-vykonu

Finally, a "new" website that covers some games that are rarely benchmarked by review sites:
http://www.techreaction.net/2011/01/25/ ... is-mean/4/

TT doesn't test any of the same games as bit-tech and Guru3D. Also TT doesn't test any of the games Nvidia specifically list as having performance improvements in the release notes.

Concerning HardwareCanucks I would say the way they test their games is probably favoring the 2GB over the 1GB. I don't think they use the same testing methodology as a lot of other sites, including Anandtech. Most of the times the difference is only marginal, and then in extreme cases the difference is bigger. I don't really find anything surprising about their results, because that's how I would expect 1GB vs 2GB to behave.

BoFox · Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2011 4:11 pm

It was just surprising because at least 5 out of 7 games showed some improvement even at 1680x1050 without AA. I mean, at such a low resolution, isn't this where 1GB is supposed to be plentiful???

Anyways, this:

is a godly review done by apoppin! It leaves Tweaktown's review in the dust. With TT testing only a couple of games, we couldn't even see anything. This makes me really appreciate Apoppin's work.

BTW, having a difference percentage in a 3rd column for ATI and also for NV cards would've been nice, with a total average on the bottom row. Makes it even more convenient and useful, IMHO..

apoppin · Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2011 5:36 pm

Well, eventually i intend to track maybe twice the amount of configurations that i do now with an emphasis on multi-GPU. How would you do percentages of gain (for example) for Nvidia when they include single GPU and multi-GPU across multiple resolutions and 2 or more generations of cars?
:scratch:

-- there is no such thing as an "average percentage of gain or loss" ... it only applies to each game.

i mean i can do it .. but how do i do it so it is both useful and not terribly time-consuming for me to implement? (realizing that i have to do other pressing things)
:?:

LeonHyman · Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2011 6:12 pm

You can use a formula to compute it and automatically put it in the column.
I'll send you a sample you could use. :good:

BoFox · Posted: Sun Feb 27, 2011 10:42 pm

It is rather disappointing of NV, at least according to the rumors, to rename GTS 450 to GTX 550 Ti, with the same castrated 16 ROP's and 128-bit bus (but with about 15% higher clock). In a better world, we'd be seeing the full GF116 following in an expected manner after full GF110 and GF114 were released. That means 24 ROP's and 192-bit bus, a whopping 50% increase. One problem here is the buffer size. NV knows that most buyers of lower mid-range cards are not quite so knowledgeable enthusiasts, so they would just be appealed by the 1GB buffer size. As the much slower GTS 450 has been selling for nearly as much as GTX 460 768MB. A full GF116 means either 768MB or 1.5GB, but doing a 1.5GB part would make most of the higher-end versions (even GTX 570's 1.25GB) look bad to the "average" consumer. Or it could just be that NV is changing a bit of its strategy to try to catch AMD off-guard by doing a one-two punch combination with a castrated GF116 then a full GF116 right after AMD responds to the first punch. If NV provokes AMD to release the 6830 right away after the first punch, then NV will know exactly where to position the GTX 560 SE (same as GTX 460 1GB, but with higher clocks).

If I were AMD, I'd just go ahead and release HD 6830 that performs right at around 100 Voodoopower, or as close to 6850 as possible. That way, it's completely untouchable by a fully unlocked GF116 (probably to be called GTX 555 Ti), and obliterates both GTX 460-768 and GTX 460 SE, while serving as a buffer to keep the 6850 "up there" in pricing. NV knows that 6850 beats GTX 460 1GB, and could easily replace it with GTX 560 SE that runs faster, and then aggressively price it down like they did with GTX 460-768.

If AMD wants to halve the ROP's on the Barts chip like they did with the 5830, AMD would need to make sure that it has all of the 1120sp, and leave it running at over 820MHz, since the bandwidth in addition to the ROP's would also be gravely affected in real-world tests, i.e. color-fill rate (even if AMD claims the bus to still be 256-bit). In a few cases, it might beat 6850, but usually lose most of the time. Heck, it could still beat GTX 460-1GB overall. Estimated Voodoopower: 101-106. $20 cheaper than 6850

Two other options would be to:
1) Do a castrated 800sp part and retain all of the 32 ROP's, but clock it high, at over 850MHz. Nvidia is hoping that AMD takes this route. The clock would be pretty much the same as HD 5770, with the same number of sp's (except that it's improved VLIW4 instead of VLIW5, plus 32 ROP's and 256-bit bus. Think HD 4890 with 32 ROP's and VLIW4. It would end up with ~100 Voodoopower at 850Mhz). $25 cheaper than 6850.

2) Just simply reduce the clocks on HD 6850 by ~ 50MHz and call it 6830. This one would piss Nvidia off. It'd be so close to GTX 460 1GB. At least it's not as bad as X1900XT being only 25MHz slower, but $100 cheaper than X1900XTX. 101-102 Voodoopower, $25 cheaper than 6850.

Heck, AMD could do two of the above 3 options, or even do all of those just to flood the market like with X1950GT, X1900GT, X1950GT Rev.2 and so on! Let's see how messy this gets.. (or not). It's not ATI anymore.

Let's just hope that AMD doesn't just go "soft" again like they did with HD 5830 and simply halve the rop's on a Barts Pro 6850 instead of 6870, or worse. But I guess it won't hurt low-end gamers too much since they shouldn't try to use FSAA anyways in the latest games. Well, at least if they do one with 90 Voodoopower and then another one with 100 Voodoopower, then NV would be royally pissed, but I think that AMD's more inclined to go soft and just do a 90 Voodoopower part until the need arises, because they know that even a fully enabled GF116 would have a hard time matching up against HD 5830.

Ocre · **Joined:** Mon Nov 22, 2010 5:22 am **Posts:** 2236

BoFox

the best i can see the there is a something brewing, I am not so sure you will have disappointment but rather a few surprises. Nvidia and AMD are at it fierce in this current time, its a heated fight. I am not sure you can even trust the "leaks" as it could be a powerful tool for battle if one learned how to take advantage of it..... how clever, huh!

Its hot and ugly. Let sit back and watch them have it out!!

BoFox · Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2011 9:03 am

Hey, I like to speculate while sitting back at the same time, hehe..

What do you really know, Ocre???????

If AMD really did launch HD 6770 and 6750 for OEM's as rebrands (the only changes being HDMI 1.4a support).. see http://vr-zone.com/articles/amd-quietly ... 10910.html

Then that leaves no room for an improved VLIW4 "Juniper-like" part. Unless AMD calls it HD 6780 and 6790, or even 6775. A number like 6785 would be too complicated. HD 6820, 6840 perhaps?

Maybe that would be the surprise?? AMD needs something to one-up the 5770 by a few percentage points, just to fight GF116. Maybe NV just wants to make 100% sure of that first before unleashing FULL GF116?

Or maybe the rumors are wrong and that GTX 550 Ti will indeed have 24 ROPs and 192-bit bus???

Ocre · **Joined:** Mon Nov 22, 2010 5:22 am **Posts:** 2236

There is nothing wrong with speculating! I can tell you gots all kindsa stuff firing in your brain. As far as knowing....not really. not sure who to believe just yet. I have heard some conflicting things and then i began speculating as to why thats all.

Lets wait and see what hands are gonna be played. The next few weeks should be very good.

BoFox · Posted: Sun Mar 27, 2011 6:00 am

Updated List of Video Card GPU Voodoopower Ratings!!!!!

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