Even a monkey can do it!
So.. the Radeon HD 5970 then. Launched today. In stock anywhere? Prob not. Am I going to get excited. Not much. I couldn’t afford one anyway.
As always AnandTech has done a excellent review on this beast. And it is a beast. Way too powerful for a single monitor. Not needed apparently. This card kicks serious bum cheeks. And then some.
It’s not a 5870 x2 and not a 5850 x2, it is somewhere in between. Thats why they didn’t label it a x2 part. It is basically the same specs as a 5870 but with core clocks of a 5850. This is so it would fall under the ATX spec of 300w. They wouldn’t want to break this barrier or they wouldn’t have a compliant card. Instead they leave you too, and even provide you with the tools to do it! Hurrah!
Ah so where is Fermi (Nvidia) then? Officially delayed until January 2010 (CES anyone?).
Within the next 30 days Intel will be paying AMD $1.25 Billion. This is to end all outstanding legal disputes between the two company’s.
Summary:
- Intel has agreed to an important set of ground rules to a free and open market in the microprocessor industry
- New patent cross-license agreement that gives AMD broad rights and the freedom to operate a business utilizing multiple foundries
- GLOBALFOUNDRIES has agreed to terms that allow them the freedom to operate as an independent world-class leading-edge foundry company, going forward, without being a subsidiary of AMD.
- Intel has agreed to pay AMD $1.25 billion within 30 days of this agreement.
- AMD has agreed to drop all pending lawsuits against Intel as well as all regulatory complaints.
This mean a few thing’s; the removal of CPU production restrictions which means GlobalFoundaries can now operate as a independent company and not as a subsidiary of AMD. They now can choose to make their CPU’s at any foundry (TSMC, UMC, IBM) although it would be silly if they didn’t stick with GF. AMD will now be a fabless company.
Another big point is that even though Intel has not admitted to doing any wrong, they can no longer offer rebates to OEM to exclusively use Intel chips (think $6 Billion pay off to Dell in P4 era).
Bare in mind that this is only AMD dropping all private lawsuits against Intel. The EU fine of $1.4 Billion will still stand for Intel as it has already been issued. The NY antitrust case against Intel will still go ahead, however with AMD not onboard (due to this agreement) the NY case could now be dropped.
This is a much need cash injection for AMD, which will certainly help clear their debt after buying ATI for something like $4 Billion. Also with 2010 looking like a very empty year for AMD in the CPU side (Bulldozer not showing until 2011 – AMD unveils Bulldozer core) $1.25 Billion is not to be sniffed at even if most of it will probably go on legal fee’s!
I have never been a big fan of prebuilt machines, and have been pricing together a miniITX system for myself. This would act as a temp HTPC (until I have enough funds for a proper HTPC) then later as a download PC. This is something I could leave on overnight which would only consume a small amount of power. I quoted a custom build as below.
I then came across this, the Asus EeeBox PC EB1006…
This could be an ideal replacement (temp to perm) for my broken Media Center in the bedroom. I would need a new TV too (as it’s only output is HDMI), but hey Christmas is coming up. It’s powerful enough for HD movies thanks the the Radeon graphics. I would also double it up as a download PC and would feel more comfortable leaving this on overnight as it only consumes around 20 watts of power.
There are some trade off for each solution as outlined below:
| Custom | EB1006 | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | £240 | £245 |
| CPU | Intel Atom N330 1.6GHz (Dual Core) | Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz (Single Core) |
| Chipset | Intel 945GC | Intel 945GSE |
| Memory | 2GB | 2GB |
| HDD | 320GB Western Digital | 160GB |
| Graphics | Intel 945 | ATI Radeon 4530 256MB |
| LAN | 10/100 | 10/100/1000 |
| ODD | Yes | No |
| Case | Antec ISK 300-65 (295 x 380 x 195 mm) | Asus (222 x 178 × 26.9 mm) |
Better Graphics or CPU? Hard drive size i don’t really care about, but the Asus comes with WiFi N which could be handy (plus faster LAN). The Asus would also be a lot smaller but will not come with a optical drive.
Personally I am more inclined to go with the Asus.
Linux. When will it’s sheep (or should that be penguins) understand that it will never get to mainstream popularity. I’m fed up of reading constructive Windows articles only then to get to the comments and find a few Linux gimps trying to persuade everyone that “M$” is the devil in disguise. Windows can not be good, Oh no how can it be. Well it is. It’s a lot a fucking better than people realise.
Below is a comment from some obvious Linux fanboy goon, the article was based on rumors of 128bit support in Windows 8 & 9.
I have been trying to use a full 64bit linux system for years but still not all software is written for 64bit so I end up reverting to 32bit on some programs. Can you imagine trying to get your system to work with 128, 64 and 32 bit programs!!! Only M$ could have such a great idea, especially when there is not even the hardware yet! Who owns your Data? Who ever controls access to it. That why I moved to linux, to get away from crazy M$ ideas.
Um, does this guy realise that Windows 64bit works flawlessly with 32bit and 64bit software. No. His beloved Linux apparently can not though. Windows 1, Linux 0.
They are all the same, over exaggerating minor flaws of Windows, often they are incorrect, and then ending it all with something like “Time to move to Linux” (as if you not been geeking out on it already for years). Trying to get as much support for their precious OS as they can. But what if Linux did have global domination? What would the gimps moan about then. In truth they like their little club. They like that it’s not as popular, and in truth they probably know it’s not as good as Windows, but they forced the relationship upon themselves so much (to be in THE club) that it is all blind love.
When Linux can offer the same application support natively (don’t give me any Wine bollocks), game support, and hardware support that Windows can then maybe I will look at it again.
Oh and people criticise Microsoft for many different versions of Windows, how many different “builds” of Linux are out there.
Ah yes but it’s free. Shame though that it’s shit.
Fudzilla reports that Nvidia will not be making any more chipsets for AMD. Hurrah! Considering Fudzilla is quite pro Nvidia I expect this to have quite a lot of truth in it. Apart from the bit when Nvidia explains why; they claim it is because AMD CPU business is doing SO badly, there is no point. To be fair, AMD CPU business is doing a hell of a lot better now then it was a year ago.
So no chipsets for Intel and now no chipsets for AMD.
Semi-Accurate (<3 Charlie) are reporting that Nvidia are killing off the GTX285, GTX275, GTX260. If this is true then it will be a few months before the ramifications of it. They kind of seem to be in a bad state at the moment. That’s Karma for you.
Just hurry up on the Fermi will you Nvidia, so it will bring the ATI 5870 down in price!
The follow up to the HTC Touch HD (my phone) has been announced. It is called the HTC HD2. It looks gorgeous, sex on phone legs. Come with a 1GHz Snapdragon processors and the new Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional.
More info over at HTC
I used to like reading Fudzilla, but seriously what the..? This site is publishing so much horse shit these days, all about Nvidia too, think they are in the Green Goblins pocket.
If it weren’t for them, PC games will look like console games
Talk more shit please.
You may think I love AMD. If you do, then you are correct.
You may think I hate Nvidia. Well, this is not entirely true, but I do believe they are arrogant.
The way they rebranded the same product several times is disgusting in it’s own right. 9800 GT is a rebranded 8800GT, 9800GTX is a rebranded 8800 GTS, GTS 250 is a rebranded 9800 GTX+ which is a rebranded 8800 GTS with slightly higher clocks. All of these cards use pretty much the same core. You then get dumbasses who shop at PC World who know no different and think its a new generation.
Then they do dirty tricks like forcing developers to force non Nvidia cards to disable AA in games (Batman: Arkham Asylum – A “The way it’s meant to be played” title), or forcing developes to patch their game (Assasins Creed – Another “The way it’s meant to be played” title) to disabled Direct 10.1 cause their cards did not support it.
Anyhoo, Nvidia have been in the tech news quite a bit this week, trying to spoil AMD’s glory of its new ATI Radeon cards. First they release the codename for it’s GT300. They call Fermi. It is a new architecture for them, with a lot of effort being put into Cuda (They have renamed their stream processors to Cuda cores, you see they like renaming).
They are expecting it to be faster than the 5870, but they are late with it. At the very earliest it will probably ship in the last weeks of December, thats 3 months after the ATI Radeons.
It also looks like Nvidia chipset business is drying up. They are not making (or not licensed) chipsets for the Intel Core i3/5/7 range. Instead they are licensing the use of their SLI chip for motherboard makers.
The last chipset they made for AMD was the nForce 980a which was nothing more than a nForce 780a with DDR3 support (yet another rebrand).
Luckily they have Tegra, Tesla and the ION platform if their new GPU blows.
Oh and to add insult, the new Fermi boards they were showing off at GTC this week, they were not real, they were fake boards, nothing on them worked.
