Sapphire Radeon 4870 X2

For a long time, we’ve considered videocards that sport two GPUs second-class citizens. They have all the problems of multi-card solutions—namely application incompatibilities and no multi-monitor support—but fail to perform as well as dual-card solutions, since multi-GPU cards usually use slower midrange GPUs. That’s finally changed with the new RV770-powered Radeon 4870 X2, which mounts two of ATI’s fastest GPUs on a single card, without sacrificing power-user features like multi-mon support.

The 4870 X2 is essentially two Radeon 4870 HD cards running in CrossFire mode packed onto a single board: The X2 has the same GPUs, the same 800 shader cores running at the same 750MHz core clock, and the same GDDR5 memory running at 900MHz. But, there is one difference. The single-GPU 4870 includes 512MB of memory, while the X2 has a whopping 2GB. However, the memory is duplicated between the two GPUs, so the effective frame buffer for the card is just 1GB. The X2 also features a high-speed PCI Express interconnect between the two GPUs, which should, theoretically, boost the efficiency of the shared GPUs. However, in our tests, we didn’t see an appreciable performance difference between a traditional CrossFire solution and the X2.

The 4870 X2 outperformed the previous single-card performance champ in most of our benchmarks, delivering playable frame rates at 1920x1200 and 2560x1600 in nearly every game we tested. Naturally, the exception remains Crysis, which, at its highest quality settings, punishes nearly every system we’ve tested. We’re slightly concerned about the accuracy of our Crysis benchmarks; the ATI card seemed to render far-off textures at a higher resolution than the Nvidia card. We’ll test further and report back next month.

As always with high-end cards, if you’re running a low-resolution display—pretty much anything below 1920x1200—you won’t be able to harness the full power of this card. At lower resolutions, the 4870 X2 performs exactly the same as the single-GPU 4870. For anyone running a high-res panel, the X2 truly kicks ass.
This card is a significant upgrade if your GPU doesn’t support DirectX 10—and is much better than some last-gen cards that do. If you’ve been waiting to make the jump to DX10, now’s the time to shell out the bucks—you won’t see a better performer for quite a while.

Benchmarks

	Radeon 4870X2	GeForce GTX 280
Crysis 4X AA/Very High (fps)	16.3	17.4
Crysis noAA/Very High (fps)	21.6	20.8
Call of Duty (fps)	81.8	68.3
Vantage Game 1 (fps)	10.8	17.6
Vantage Game 2 (fps)	13.0	12.1
UT3 (fps)	131.0	124
Grid (fps)	35.9	46.0

Best scores are bolded. Benchmarks are run on an Intel Core 2 Quad Q9770 Extreme, with 4GB of memory running Windows Vista. All tests are run at 1920x1200, with 4x AA and 8x anisotropic filtering, unless otherwise noted.

Asus ENGTX480 Review

The fastest single GPU can be made even faster

Just about everyone knows that Nvidia’s hot new Fermi graphics chip is literally hot. So, when Asus bundled its new ENGTX480 card with a custom voltage tweaker for overclocking, we wondered if it was such a good idea.

After all, do you really need the card to run hotter? And with the speed of the ENGTX480, you probably don’t need the higher clocks anyway. The ENGTX480 ships with 32 shader processors (what Nvidia calls “CUDA cores”) disabled, yet the card still manages to be the fastest single-GPU card you can buy today.

Asus's ENGTX480 ships with a voltage tweaker for additional overclocking--and heat.

In addition to 480 shader processors, the GPU also offers 60 texture units and a whopping 48 render output (ROP) units in its render back end. This incarnation of the Fermi GPU is built onto a board with 1.5GB of GDDR5 VRAM. The GPU core clock is 700MHz, while the shader units run at 1,401MHz. The GDDR5 memory frequency is 924MHz, suggesting that Nvidia’s GDDR5 memory controller is less efficient than AMD’s, which runs GDDR5 at 1,200MHz on the Radeon HD 5870.

All this graphics goodness comes with a double whammy: a high price and high power consumption. The Asus card typically costs $520–$550, somewhat higher than the expected $500. System power consumption at idle is 159W (versus 134W for a stock Radeon HD 5870) and a whopping 399W at full throttle (compared to 268W for a stock HD 5870).

We popped the Asus ENGTX480 into our standard Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit test system, which is built on an Asus P6X58D Premium motherboard and an Intel Core i7-975 Extreme Edition. We ran six very different games, all at 1920x1200 and 4x AA, with graphics detail maxed out, plus the Unigine Heaven 2.0 benchmark, with tessellation set at extreme. We compared the GTX 480 results to three AMD cards: the dual-GPU Radeon HD 5970, a factory overclocked Radeon HD 5870, and the similarly priced Sapphire Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity Edition (which offers 2GB of 1,200MHz GDDR5.)

While the Radeon HD 5970 won most of the benchmarks, bear in mind that it is a dual-GPU card, so it may have issues running some games in dual-GPU mode. The 5970 is also hard to find for $680. Most 5970 cards break the $700 mark. Even then, the ENGTX480 card won a couple of benchmarks. If you compare just single-GPU cards, the ENGTX 480 won every contest except Crysis, which was a dead heat.

Despite the added power consumption and higher cost, the ENGTX480 impressed us with its overall performance. It’s very much a forward-looking card—performance in recent games is excellent, indeed. It is pricey, though, at up to $150 more than a stock Radeon HD 5870. So while performance is excellent, the price differential is pretty substantial. Bear this in mind when deciding between AMD and Nvidia.

OCZ's Vertex SSDs Reach 250MB/s Read and 240MB/s Write Speeds

OCZ has been pretty clear that the delays on their Vertex drives was due to the state of their firmware, and now that they appear to have that part out of the way, they’re boasting some mighty impressive numbers.

The latest version of their firmware speeds up sequential read and write performance, so much that it can keep up with Intel’s X-25E Extreme series. But, the Vertex will feature lower prices and higher capacities.

The Indilinx Barefoot SSD controller that the Vertex uses was initially specified to work at 200MB/s sequential read and 160MB/s sequential write, whereas the latest version was able to blow those old numbers out of the water, now moving at 250MB/s sequential read and 240MB/s sequential write.

OCZ Officially Unveils Vertex Turbo SSDs with Increased Host Clockspeed

Last month, we learned that OCZ would be releasing a Turbo Vertex SSD line with hand picked parts, but no specifications had been finalized at the time. That's no longer the case, as OCZ officially introduced the new series this week, which is being aimed at the performance sector.

"The new Vertex Turbo makes use of the fastest SDR DRAM cache available and a proprietary FTL level firmware that provides an even faster solid state drive for enthusiasts looking for the ultimate desktop or laptop storage upgrade," said Ryan Edwards, Director of Product Management for OCZ.

Available in 30GB, 60GB, 128GB, and 250GB capacities, the new drives sport 64MB of 180MHz DRAM cache. Primed for performance, the flagship 250GB model registers up to 270MB/s read and up to 210MB/s write speeds (the 128GB model checks in with a slightly slower 200MB/s write speed, while both the 30GB and 60GB offer up to 240MB/s and 145MB/s read and write speeds, respectively).

Still no word on price or availability.

Image Credit: OCZ

OCZ Shoves New SSDs at Enterprise Clients

Few other companies are as active in the solid state drive (SSD) space as OCZ, which not only focuses on desktop consumers, but the enterprise market as well. Taking aim at the latter, OCZ has just unveiled a couple of new high-performance SSD lines, the Vertex 2 Pro and Vertex 2 EX.

Both drives come built around the latest SandForce SF-1500 controller. The Vertex 2 Pro is a multi-level cell (MLC)-based drive boasting transfer rates of up to 285MB/s read and up to 275MB/s write, while the Vertex 2 EX flavor uses single-level cell (SLC) memory and features the same speed rating. The difference, says OCZ, is that the EX has ten times the program/erase (P/E) cycles as the Pro.

"OCZ is committed to enabling our enterprise clients with the latest solid state drive technology in a variety of interfaces," said Ryan Petersen, CEO of the OCZ Technology Group. "With our new Vertex 2 EX and Pro series SSDs, we are able to deliver robust solutions that address the critical requirements of enterprise applications, including enhanced endurance, write performance, and data protection, with the option of either MLC or SLC NAND. These are truly best-in-class solutions designed for the most rigorous computing environments."

The Vertex 2 Pro and EX will both be made available in 50GB, 100GB, and 200GB capacities. No word yet on price.

Image Credit: OCZ

Gartner: Semiconductor Equipment Spending Skyrockes

While the tech industry might like to forget that 2009 ever happened, things are shaping up much more nicely in recent times. So much so that market research firm Gartner predicts worldwide semiconductor capital equipment spending to shoot past $35.4 billion by the end of 2010, which would represent a 113.2 percent increase from one year ago.

"The drive to new technology nodes will drive semiconductor equipment growth in 2010," said Klaus Rinnen, managing vice president at Gartner. "The demand for 40nm and 45nm devices is now ramping up, resulting in heavy foundry-based capital spending. Investment at the 3x node by Intel, an increase in spending by NAND memory producers, and the transition to the next generation DDR3 DRAM memory are the key investment growth drivers."

At the same time, Rinnen warns that the growth will start to taper off in 2011 as orders start to slow down. Rinnen predicts the market will still see an upwards trend, but only to the tune of 6.6 percent.

""We could see a slight slowing in orders as 2010 ends, and the industry focuses on macroeconomic conditions. We expect capital equipment growth to continue through 2011, but at a reduced rate, as spending responds to slower growth in the semiconductor markets," Rinnen said.

Lenovo's Latest All-in-One is all Business

Lenovo has launched what it claims is the "industry's first large business-focused 23-inch all-in-one desktop," the ThinkCentre M90z. Unlike traditional all-in-one PCs, the M90z includes several IT features designed more for work than play.

"While more and more people are using mobile devices, there are lots of environments where desktop products simply make more sense, and these latest Lenovo products showcase how our new innovations are leading in all-in-one desktops," said Peter Hortensius, senior vice president, Think Product Group, Lenovo. "We believe all-in-one is the future of desktops, so we created the ThinkCentre M90z to deliver everything large enterprise customers need: no compromised performance, customized ergonomic features and a full web conferencing experience."

Part of the IT focus includes a full complement of manageability features for large businesses through Lenovo's ThinkVantage Technologies productivity tools. The M90z supports Intel vPro and Lenovo's Hardware Password Manager for encrypted hard drives, and users are able to remove the back to upgrade the PC, typically a weak point of AIO systems.

The M90z is available now starting at $900.

Image Credit: Lenovo