Albatron 9800GX2 Pictures and AMD 780G Update (new)
by Gary Key on March 4, 2008 12:15 AM EST- Posted in
- Gary's First Looks
Albatron was kind enough to send a few pics of their upcoming 9800GX2-1GX video card. Unfortunately, we are still under NDA as to the actual specifications on the card but the power requirements and bracket configuration already tell quite a story.
AMD 780G Update -
We just received several retail 780G boards and started testing for our upcoming roundup in the next few days. In the meantime, AMD dropped the 8.3 Catalyst build on us today along with version 2 of the AOD utility, both of which will be released in the coming days. While the 8.3 Catalyst drivers have generated some headaches for us in early CrossFire X testing, their improvements have been dramatic in some areas for us during 780G testing today.
In fact, the improvements in Hybrid CrossFire compatibility, HD playback/image quality, HD and SD HQV testing, along with general bug fixes from the 8.47 RC driver releases has given us enough reasons to retest all of our applications on our 780G launch board from Gigabyte. So with that, we will start our coverage late today with the chipset introduction, followed by an in-depth analysis of video out-put quality and performance, and then wrapping up it all up with a mini-roundup (ASUS, Gigabyte, J&W, Biostar) of 780G boards with comparisons to the current NV and Intel chipsets.
Unfortunately, the upcoming NVIDIA GeForce 8200 will not be included for a couple of reasons, first, retail boards on not available yet, second, the drivers are still immature to the point of needing separate builds for either PQ or Performance. After several conversations with the motherboard suppliers, it appears the GF8200 should make its first appearance by the end of March in the retail channels, provided drivers are ready. Not bad for a chipset semi-released in January. ;-)
In the meantime, the AMD 780G boards should be showing up in volume this week for the Americas and European markets. While Gigabyte, ASUS, J&W, Biostar, and others will have boards "officially" ready this week, it appears we will not see retail boards from the likes of Foxconn, MSI, ASRock, and abit until later this month. However, we do have pictures of early boards we have been testing from Biostar and MSI below.
Update - Final 8.3 Catalyst driver testing is complete, first results later today.
MSI K9A2GM -
Biostar TA780GM2+
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jkresh - Tuesday, March 4, 2008 - link
Hauppauge is releasing a tuner with component in? Do you have any idea what resolution it can take? I have yet to see one with component in that could do better then 480p (at least for less then $1000).BigLan - Tuesday, March 4, 2008 - link
They mentioned 1080i, I don't think it was 1080p (though maybe I'm wrong.) It's an external box with a hardware mpeg 4 encoder and connects to your pc with usb.I think the reason they went 1080i was the cpu requirements for playback would have been too high.
BigLan - Tuesday, March 4, 2008 - link
They mentioned 1080i, I don't think it was 1080p (though maybe I'm wrong.) It's an external box with a hardware mpeg 4 encoder and connects to your pc with usb.I think the reason they went 1080i was the cpu requirements for playback would have been too high.
BigLan - Tuesday, March 4, 2008 - link
stupid double post... looks like it is rumored to be 1080p, here's a linkhttp://blogs.snapstream.com/2008/02/07/more-on-the...">http://blogs.snapstream.com/2008/02/07/more-on-the...
bpt8056 - Tuesday, March 4, 2008 - link
Cost was a big factor when I built my HTPC. Glad to report that my 690G board has run every HD DVD/Blu-ray movie out on the market without a hitch.kiwik - Tuesday, March 4, 2008 - link
I guess power saving is for another day then, with these 2 connectors...madgonad - Tuesday, March 4, 2008 - link
If you are plugging it into one of their Hybrid Power MBs the discrete video card would only turn on when the 3D power was needed. When running 2D or movies the integrated graphics would be the only video processor running.So you will only hear the vacuum cleaner fire-up when you turn Crysis on.
C'DaleRider - Tuesday, March 4, 2008 - link
[quote]I haven't even seen a PS that has a 8-pin PCIe power connector yet. [/quote]Then you haven't been looking at ANY power supplies produced in the last year or so, have you? Almost the entire Corsair line has them, my Ultra X3 1kw has several as does the entire X3 line, most of Silverstone's line has them, Seasonic's recent builds have them, PCP&C have them, Gigabyte units have them, BFG 's have them, a whole host of CWT builds have them, Enhance builds have them, Anctec have them, and I could go on and on.....(of course, they're found only on the appropriately sized power output units....you wouldn't expect to find them on much of anything under 400W, would you?)
strikeback03 - Tuesday, March 4, 2008 - link
Also, the HD2900 cards used both a 6 and 8 pin, so this isn't even the first card to use the 8-pin connector.dwd - Tuesday, March 4, 2008 - link
check out the newer power supplies like the Enermax Modu82+ 625W and you'll see that there are 8 to 6 pin adaptable pce power connectors