After long entertainment with the renaming of old video cards and rolling out the "new episodes" AMD introduced the present next generation – board Radeon HD 6970 And HD 6950 On the processor Cayman. We immediately got the older card for tests and figured out what this was in AMD and what the new architecture is capable of.
In line
Before moving on to the analysis of video cards, you need to say a few words about their place in the market. Battle of GD 6970 and GTX 580 It won't. Senior map, HD 6970, competes with GTX 570 And GTX 480. But the youngest, HD 6950 , There are no opponents yet, it is located somewhere between the GTX 570 and GTX 470. In the upper price segment without changes: there remains HD 5970 , which is still successfully fighting GTX 580.
Despite the fact that AMD deliberately abandoned the competition with GF110, the GTX 580 core, Cayman processor is surprisingly interesting. From Cypress there were only fundamental elements in it. So, Cayman uses the same principle of supercularity: operations are divided into simple actions and are performed in parallel. Accordingly, in place and nuclei with SIMD technology, which are engaged in cyclic operations conducted simultaneously with several arrays.
But the layout of the nuclei has changed. In the last architecture, VLIW5, they were combined into groups of five pieces on one stream processor. Four cores were responsible for simple actions such as addition and multiplication, and the fifth, called T-UNIT,-for special calculations like a sinus, logarithm, extraction of root, etc.p. Unfortunately, the efficiency of the processor’s efficiency strongly sagged with such a layout: it is difficult to download asymmetric architecture evenly, and the nuclei often idle idle.
Now AMD has switched to vliw4 architecture. Instead of five nuclei, four were left on a stream processor, but three of them were taught to work with complex functions. This noticeably easier for programmers, allowed to more evenly load the nuclei and increase productivity in the calculation for the area.
Otherwise, the layout is similar to Cypress. Stream processors are combined into SIMD massives-16 pieces in each. There are 24 such sets in total-four more than in Cypress-but the SIMD nuclear yider themselves, 1536 versus 1600. Due to this, AMD managed to save space and leave four texture blocks for each array. As a result, Cayman has 96 TMU – 16 more than the old processor.
The number of rasterization blocks remains the same, 32 ROP, but they work faster: AMD accelerated the processing of 16- and 32-bit values and began to more efficiently load the memory bus.
And here she
A separate mention is a tesselation. As you know, last generation AMD graphics cards have greatly lost NVIDIA. While the latter have long been used to calculate parallel functioning engines, AMD even in the series Radeon HD 6800 continued to work with only one tesselia processor. In Cayman, the number of graphic engines (tesseller, rasterizer, vertical and geometric compilers) increased to two. Due to this, according to AMD, the rate of calculation of the tesselar increased three times.
Continues AMD engage in and improving the image. In HD 6800, we received a new anti -aliasing mode, Morphological AA, in which the processor does not work with geometry, but with a finished picture. Another smoothing mode appeared in HD 6900 – Enhanced Quality Anti-Aliasing (EQAA). On the principle of operation, it is similar to traditional multi -clinging (MSAA), but, unlike the old standard, it allows you to make more samples for one pixel without additional memory load. As a result, the quality is higher, and performance practically does not suffer.
We also note that, despite quantitative changes, even with an old 40-nm process of Cayman, the Cayman chip remained relatively small, only 389 mm2 is against 334 mm2 Cypress. The number of transistors did not increase much – from 2.19 to 2.64 billion. Compare with the GF110, the GTX 580 processor, which is equipped with 3 billion transistors and occupies an area of 529 mm2.
Quick and economical
Another novelty of AMD is high frequencies and competent energy consumption management. In the GTX 580 review, we mentioned that Nvidia has installed a power supply sensor that does not allow synthetic tests like Furmark artificially overload the fee. AMD went the same way, but instead of simply limiting access to some tests, it set total control.
Many sensors were built into the processor, which in real time monitor what blocks are included, how they are used, how much energy may be required, and so on. As a result, AMD taught the boards to predict energy consumption and reduce the clock frequency in advance. Moreover, this works not only in synthetics, like NVIDIA, but also in games.
Thus, AMD was able to protect boards from overheating and failure and raise the processor frequency to impressive 880 MHz, and memory – up to 5500 MHz. At the same time, a decrease in speed during overheating should not affect performance: Trottling turns on for a split second and does not affect the average FPS indicator.
For overclocking lovers, AMD has provided a partial shutdown of protection. In the settings AMD Catalyst a special Power Control item has appeared. Through it you can increase or, conversely, reduce the amount of energy consumed. Want to disperse the fee, and Trottling brings all your efforts to naught? Please move the energy -consumption slider by +20% and continue the experiments. It is necessary, on the contrary, to slow down the processor? Shift the slider by –20%, and the video card will do everything yourself.
Another gift to overclockers is double BIOS. AMD placed two memory sets on the board: one with rigidly sewn factory settings, the second for our experiments. In the case of unsuccessful firmware, you just need to move the lever next to Crossfire connectors – and roll back to standard settings. So we, honestly, see for the first time.
Sister
The youngest video card of a new generation, Radeon HD 6950 , which we have not yet managed to get on tests, in the layout and capabilities practically no different from the older. AMD only cut the processor slightly: SIMD arrays remained 22 instead of 24, the number of stream processors decreased from 1536 to 1408, and texture blocks – from 96 to 88. The frequencies of work were also reduced, but not much – up to 800 MHz on the processor and 5000 MHz on video memory. Nothing else was touched: in place 32 ROP, 2 GB GDDR5 and memory bus 256-bit.
As you can see, for a mid -level card HD 6950 it turned out very powerful. From the senior version, it lags behind some 10%. And all due to the fact that there is nowhere to reduce the characteristics further, otherwise the HD 6950 will begin to compete with the HD 6800 series, which AMD definitely does not need. So it turns out that the youngest in the HD 6900 line costs almost 12,000 rubles.
Radeon HD 6950 turned out to be a great gift for overclockers. It turns out that the board has the same Cayman as in the senior version, with 24 SIMDs and the speed of 880 MHz, and all restrictions are made through BIOS. This means that if you write a firmware from the older fee in HD 6950, you get a full -fledged HD 6970! According to Internet enthusiasts, the result is one hundred percent. In extreme cases, you can always roll back to factory settings: there is a double BIOS on HD 6950. However, the freebie will probably end even earlier than this number appears on sale. AMD knows about the loophole and prepare an updated video card with iron lock by SIMD blocks with might and main.
Red Baron
At the time of launch of the new AMD series, I introduced only two video cards – Radeon HD 6970 and HD 6950. It was very difficult to get them for tests at the same time. With great difficulty, we found the senior version of PowerColor , And the youngest fee in our country was not at the time of delivery of the number.
PowerColor Radeon HD 6970 – Standard sample of the video card from AMD, only with a proprietary sticker PowerColor. Externally, the board is similar to the previously considered Radeon HD 6870: the entire surface is closed by a large angular casing resembling a black-red layer pie. On the far side there is a 75-mm fan that drives the air through the map and throws it outside the case. On the processor itself, according to tradition, there is an evaporative camera connected to a completely copper radiator.
The set of connectors is the same as that of Radeon HD 6800: two DVI, the same number Mini-DisplayPort 1.2 and one HDMI 1.4a. All this allows you to connect up to six monitors to the video card, watch Blu-Ray 3D on stereoelines and display the sound in Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio formats.
During operation, the card consumes 250 watts and requires the connection of 8- and 6-pin power plugs.
Tests
We have already talked about competitors, so now we will give only a list of test participants – Radeon HD 6970, GeForce GTX 580, GeForce GTX 480, Radeon HD 5870 and Radeon HD 5970. Unfortunately, we did not have time to get the GEFORCE GTX 570 to the delivery of the number, so we will talk about it next time.
The list of tests is standard – synthetic benchmars 3DMark Vantage And Unigine Heaven Benchmark 2.0 , Two projects on DX10 – Resident Evil 5 And Devil May Cry 4 , Two games on DX11 – Lost Planet 2 And Aliens vs. Predator.
The results will surprise you a little. 3dmark Vantage, according to the GPU test results, put the Radeon HD 6970 in third place – after the GTX 580 and HD 5970 and exactly before the GTX 480. Unigine Heaven Benchmark 2.0 generally gave the card second place – immediately after GTX 580! Could we think that in the most difficult test with the DX11 Radeon HD 6970 it would be a little faster GTX 480? After all, this means only one thing: AMD has finally selected its main trump card from Nvidia-the calculation of the transcendental levels of the tesselaries.
In games, the situation was preserved. In the first test, Resident Evil 5, all cards worked at about the same level, showing a little more than 100 FPS. In Devil May 4 to HD 5970 and GTX 580 with their incredible results for 210-230 FPS, not a single video card got. But from the fight against the GTX 480, our Radeon HD 6970 came out the winner, overtaking the opponent by 9%.
The situation has not changed in the DX11 games. In the test aliens vs. Predator AMD novelty not only confidently overtaken GTX 480, but also kept at the level of GTX 580. But the results of Lost Planet 2 seemed strange to us. HD 6970 lagged behind GTX 480 by 18%, and this somehow does not fit with previous tests.
Total
In general, testing results are boring. No breakthroughs, revelations or speed records. Anyway, if you forget about secondary technologies and look at the numbers, it will become noticeable that nothing but work with Tesselia was taught a new card. The difference in DX10-game between HD 5870 and HD 6970 is only 3-6%.
It seems to us that the release of Radeon HD 6970 was dictated not so much by commercial considerations as the need to answer Nvidia, whose maps worked much better in DX11. In addition, it was a great occasion to spur interest in AMD products and, of course, a wonderful chance to run into the new vliw4 architecture. Something tells us that it will be used on new video cards created on 28-nm production standards. In general, we still do not see the point either in HD 6970 or in the GTX 580 – at least until games that can load them appear.
* * *
Is it worth buying Radeon HD 6970 – a separate question. If you already have a Radeon HD 5870, then giving 14,500 rubles for Tesselia is not a reason. If you collect a new computer and throwing between HD 6970 and GTX 480, then it will probably be better to take a new card. Still, AMD brought many interesting ideas, connected HD3D support, added several types of anti-aliasing and learned to effectively distribute energy. As for the senior segment, GTX 580 still dominates it. So if there is an extra 19,000 rubles and you need 240 FPS in Devil May Cry 4, then the GTX 580 is the only choice. Table 1
Technical characteristics
Characteristic AMD Radeon HD 6970 Nvidia GeForce GTX 580 Nvidia GeForce GTX 480 AMD Radeon HD 5870 AMD Radeon HD 5970
Cayman GF110 GF100 Cypress Hemlock Nuclear
The number of transistors is 2.64 billion 3 billion 3 billion 2.15 billion 4.3 billion
Process process 40-nm 40-nm 40-nm 40-nm 40-nm
The number of stream processors is 1536 512 480 1600 2x 1600
The frequency of the graphic nucleus is 880 MHz 772 MHz 700 MHz 850 MHz 725 MHz
Frequency of stream processors 880 MHz 1544 MHz 1401 MHz 850 MHz 725 MHz
Type, memory of GDDR5, 2 GB GDDR5, 1536 MB GDDR5, 1536 MB GDDR5, 1 GB GDDR5, 2 GB
Memory frequency 5500 MHz 4008 MHz 3696 MHz 4800 MHz 4000 MHz
Data bus 256 bits 384 bits 384 bits 256 bits 256 bits
The number of texture blocks 96 64 https://sister-site.org/heyspin/ 60 80 2x 80
The number of rasterization blocks 32 48 48 32 2x 32
Energy consumption 250 W 244 W 250 W 188 W 294 W
PCIe 2 interface.0 x16 PCIE 2.0 x16 PCIE 2.0 x16 PCIE 2.0 x16 PCIE 2.0 x16
The price of January 2011 is 14,500 rubles 19,000 rubles 13,500 rubles 11,500 rubles 19,000 rubles
Table 2
Synthetic tests
3DMark Vantage
GPU CPU OVERALL video card model ratio
AMD Radeon HD 6970 19 098 175 18 578 100%
Nvidia GeForce GTX 580 22 468 48 353 25 940 140%
Nvidia GeForce GTX 480 16 526 47 711 19 796 107%
AMD Radeon HD 5870 17 402 17 326 17 383 94%
AMD Radeon HD 5970 21 848 17 347 20 517 110%
Unigine Heaven Benchmark 2.0
FPS Overall video card model ratio ratio
AMD Radeon HD 6970 24.8 626 100%
Nvidia GeForce GTX 580 31.6 796 127%
Nvidia GeForce GTX 480 24.6 617 99%
AMD Radeon HD 5870 11.4 288 46%
AMD Radeon HD 5970 19.9 502 80%
Table 3
Game tests (personnel per second)
Settings AMD Radeon HD 6970 Nvidia GeForce GTX 580 Nvidia GeForce GTX 480 AMD Radeon HD 5870 AMD Radeon HD 5970
Resident Evil 5 (DX10)
High, 1680×1050, AF 16X, AA 8x 110.1 113.8 105.2 105.8 112.7
High, 1920×1080, AF 16X, AA 8x 108.5 108.1 106 99.4 106.7
High, 1680×1050, AF 16X, AA 16X 114.5 108.8 106 108.5 109.8
High, 1920×1080, AF 16X, AA 16X 108.7 106.1 103.7 104.5 105.7
Performance ratio 100% 99% 95% 95% 99%
Devil May Cry 4 (SC2, DX10)
Superhigh, 1680×1050, AF 16X, AA 8x – 242.5 147.5 – –
Superhigh, 1920×1080, AF 16X, AA 8x 157.9 240.8 138.2 131.5 218.7
Superhigh, 1680×1050, AF 16X, AA 16X – 222.6 148.7 – –
Superhigh, 1920×1080, AF 16X, AA 16X 144.7 217.6 136.7 163.2 211.8
Performance ratio 100% 151% 91% 97% 142%
Aliens vs. Predator (Demo, DX11)
Veryhigh, 1680×1050, AF 16X, AA 2X 53.9 62.3 42.4 48.7 74.7
Veryhigh, 1920×1080, AF 16X, AA 2X 48.3 34 39.2 43.5 61.7
Veryhigh, 1680×1050, AF 16X, AA 46.9 55.7 38 39.4 66.8
VERYHIGH, 1920X1080, AF 16X, AA 42.1 47.4 35.1 35.2 55.1
Performance ratio 100% 104% 81% 87% 135%
Lost Planet 2 (DX11, Test A, SC2)
High, 1680×1050, AF 16X, AA 8x 41.2 71.5 47.5 32.7 47.5
High, 1680×1050, AF 16X, AA 16X 40.1 75.5 48.2 34.3 49.7
Performance ratio 100% 180% 118% 82% 120%
Price ratio 100% 131% 93% 79% 131%
Performance ratio 100% 134% 96% 90% 124%