Lil Dragon & 4850X2

[Prototype]

RV870 codenamed "Lil Dragon", 40nm

It's been known for some time that RV870 would be a shrink of RV770. The node following 65/55nm would be 45/40nm, but we weren't sure if AMD would go to 45nm or directly to half-node 40nm. It's now clear that AMD will go directly to 40nm and aim for a performance per watt ratio twice that of RV770. RV870 has been code-named "Lil Dragon", which does indicate that this will be something small, yet something to fear.

The overall performance has been suggested to be somewhere around 20% better than RV770 with a significant drop in power consumption. This points to 960 shaders (192x5), 48 texture units, 24 ROPs and so forth. If this is the case, TDP of the RV870 should be around 150W at most with today's frequencies. This is just an estimate on our part as technical specifications are still hard to come by. We also presume AMD to stay at DirectX 10.1 for now.

SOURCE

Radeon HD 4850 X2 to be priced at $399, GTX 280 price cut needed

After the drama of losing the performance crown, Nvidia should be preparing for another hard hit from AMD as the company is promoting the upcoming Radeon hD 4850 X2 as a cheaper and faster alternative to the GeForce GTX 280. Making use of two RV770 GPUs, the 4850 X2 will offer 2GB of GDDR3 memory and 1600 Stream Processors and, according to AMD, it will be faster than any single-chip card out there, including the beefy GeForce GTX 280.

Priced at $399, the HD 4850 X2 should not only be faster but also cheaper than the GTX 280 (currently found at $429+) and this situation may 'convince' Nvidia to cut the price of its flagship card further. Hopefully for the Green Team, the 55nm GT200 GPUs will be ready to ship next month and see to the release of a few +-equipped cards (GeFoce GTX 260+/280+). Hate it or love it, you can't stop competition (BEd: Or Rock and Roll)

SOURCE

 

[Apokalipse]

It's now clear that AMD will go directly to 40nm and aim for a performance per watt ratio twice that of RV770.

Now that I would like in my system

 

[Peter.Cort]

directed at nvidia.

owned.

 

[wafflehammer]

ati just kicked nvidia in the balls and stole their cookie with this lol

nvidia better hurry up with their shrink n drop some prices really soon

 

[SirCyber]

lol, as an nVidea fan, this is exactly what I like to see.... finally some competition! now lets see if AMD will rise above Intel.... get some juices cranking for the *lead* companies!

 

[Wildside]

ati just kicked nvidia in the balls and stole their cookie with this lol

nvidia better hurry up with their shrink n drop some prices really soon

ROFL!! OMG that made me laugh!

Wow! Now i am definitely waiting for the RV870 now! I wish it can support DX11 though.

 

[veg1992]

Kicking them while they're down... that's not like AMD at all... I'm kind of not liking them... but nVidia did that for 8 series and 9 series... I guess its revenge time?

but its great that its already at 40nm

 

[Puddle Jumper]

Kicking them while they're down... that's not like AMD at all... I'm kind of not liking them... but nVidia did that for 8 series and 9 series... I guess its revenge time?

but its great that its already at 40nm

It's business. They will (and should) do whatever it takes to stay on top.

 

[veg1992]

I wonder if this will drive the HD 4850's prices down and if they give a super good cooler on that HD 4850X2

EDIT: Why 2GB GDDR3, they should have gone for GDDR4 or GDDR5 and when is the Havok Physics coming?!

 

[wafflehammer]

i still think the company that makes a duel-core GPU will take the prize :| i'd rather see it instead of die-shrinks or duel-GPU cards