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Posts Tagged ‘amd’

INTRODUCTION

The first member of the Evergreen family hit the market back in September (2009). AMD has since then not said much about what would follow.

AMD chose to release the 5670 card at last week’s CES 2010 event. The 5600 series chip is called Redwood and currently only includes the Radeon HD 5650 and 5670 chips. The 5600 series is clearly directed to the mid range segment of the market as illustrated in AMD’s release strategy below. AMD has release two versions of the HD 5670 card, one with 1GB GDDR5 and another with 512MB GDDR5. This review covers the latter one.

The 5600 series adopts the technologies of its big brothers like ATI Stream and ATI Eyefinity. Here are AMD’s own words about their new “ATI Stream” technology:

ATI Stream technology is a set of advanced hardware and software technologies that enable AMD graphics processors (GPUs), working in concert with the system’s central processors (CPUs), to accelerate enabled applications beyond traditional graphics and video processing. This enables balanced platforms to run computationally-intensive tasks more efficiently, providing a better application experience to the end user. The 5600 series also has full support for Microsoft’s DirectX11 API. I guess most people buying a graphics card in the middle range segment don’t really know what the big deal is but anyone interested in the GPU industry knows that if you want to see the latest innovations in gaming you want to be on the latest DirectX train.

ENGINEERING SPECIFICATIONS

The test sample I will be reviewing today is a generic AMD ATI Radeon HD 5670 512MB GDDR5. It is a pre production unit which AMD sends out to selected publications before other outfitters’ versions hit the store shelves. I am actually a bit late out with my review, but hey, what’s the hurry anyway?

Here are the specifications for the HD5670 512MB GDDR5:

AMD ATI Radeon HD 5670 512 MB GDDR5 GPU Redwood (Radeon HD 5670) Transistors 627 Ms GPU Speed 775 MHz Stream processors 400 Performance calculation 620GFLOPS Texture units 20 Texture fill rate 25.2 GTexels/s ROPs 16 Pixel fill rate 6.2 Gpixel/s Z/Stencil 24.8 GSamples/s Type of memory GDDR5 Speed of memory 1000 MHZ Amount of memory 515MB Bandwidth of memory 64 GB/s Bus width 128-bit Consumption Normal (61W)/IDLE (14W)

IN DETAIL:

I’m not going to spend too much time rambling about what the card looks like since most outfitters will be mounting their own cooling solutions. In short however, the card has a one slot cooler which is great and expected with a middle range card.

The card is manufactured with a 40nm technology which is great since it will increase its energy efficiency and decrease the generated heat in relation to performance.

A good thing about the fact that this card is fairly small and thin is that it fits in smaller cases suitable for HTPC and media PC projects. The length of the Radeon HD 5670 is 170mm.

The card has no PCI- Express power connector which should be considered as something positive I guess. It means that the card will never draw more power than what the PCI-Express bus can handle.

The 5670 generic card has 3 connectors; a Display Port; a HDMI and a DVI connector. It supports the “ATI Eyefinity” technology which means you can use monitors on each connector simultaneously. The HMDI connector support s HDMI 1.3a which means full support for Dolby True HD and DTS Audio Masters.

TEST SYSTEM I used my normal test system for this review, here are the specs:

Test equipment Processor Intel Core i7 920 Fan Prolimatech Mega Shadow Motherboard Asus Rampage II Gene Graphics card ATI Radeon HD 5670 512MB GDDR5 Soundcard Integrated Memory 3 x2 GB GSkill Trident 1600 MHZ (6-7-6-18) Hard disk Intel X25-M G2 Postville 80 GB Power supply Corsair HX850W

Operating system and software Operating system Windows 7 64bits System dirvers Controller 8.69_RC3 (BETA) DirectX August 2009 Benchmarking software 3D Mark 06 3D Mark Vantage Furmark 1.7 Unigyne Heaven Benchmark Games The Last Remnant Street Fighter IV Resident Evil 5 Weak May Cry 4 S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Prypiat DIRT 2 Far Cry 2 Crysis Warhead Other software CPU-Z 1.49 GPU-Z 0.3.7 OCCT 3.1

During my test I set the in-game graphics settings to the highest quality. I set the filter settings to “medium” because of the fact that this card is not intended for people who “must” have the filter settings to max.

For those of you who are not too familiar of how to measure the performance of a graphics card, here’s a table with frame rate numbers and what they actually mean in real life gaming experience:

FPS (Frames per second) FPS lower than 30 Not a good gaming experience 30 – 40 FPS OK but not good gaming experience 40 – 60 FPS Good gaming experience Higher than 60 FPS Excellent gaming experience

I always do the tests with the benchmarking software first because it often gives a glint of the overall performance of the card. In this case the results tell me that the performance of this card is a bit above what I had expected from a medium range card in the new AMD generation.

As a comparison a Nvidia GT 240 GDDR5 card I have tested in the same system obtained around 7000 points in 3DMark 2006 and in my last review of a GT220 card (a card more towards the lower end segment) it achieved 6700 points. The Radeon HD5670 card came in at 11700 points which exceeds the NVIDIA cards by quite a lot.

As I have experienced with all the DirectX11 compatible cards I have reviewed, the performance diminishes with the jump from DirectX10 to DirectX11. This is strange because “higher performance” is one of the major selling points with the new API from Microsoft.

The Radeon HD 5670 actually turns out to be even more powerful in the first batch of games that I had expected based on the results achieved in the benchmarking tests. I was actually somewhat surprised that this medium range card, at a price level below $100, could move these games with great fluidity.

Games like The Last Remnant, Street Fighter IV and Devil May Cry 4 actually ran really well no matter what level of graphics quality setting, resolution or filter I set. Even Resident Evil 5 ran OK

A strange thing about the results above is the case of the games STALKER: Clear Sky and STALKER: Call of Prypiat. The first one uses DirectX10 and the second DirectX11. STALKER Clear Sky (DX10) offers a very limited gaming experience while STALKER: Call of Prypiat (DX11) has much better results. I mean, those games are part of the same series. It raises questions like: is DirectX11 more efficient than DirectX10 after all? Or; do these two games have different 3D motors? I am afraid I cannot answer those questions for you, just thought that I’d bring it to your awareness.

There are however clearly two games in this batch which this card cannot handle; Far Cry 2 and Crysis Warhead. The performance of the Radeon HD 5670 in Far Cry 2 at a resolution of 1680

So how do you make sense of all the CPUs out there? Well, let’s start by splitting them into four broad categories:

Obsolete Processors Budget Processors Mid-Range Processors High-End Processors
Obsolete Processors

These would refer to those processors which were around 5 or more years ago. They will typically come with older refurnished or budget computer systems. Be very careful if you are purchasing such CPUs as your system’s speed will definitely slow to a crawl. Worse still, some software on the market today simply cannot be run using older processors.

The Windows XP operating system, for example, needs the newer crops of CPUs to function. Overall, I’d only recommend buying these processors if you want to do extremely simple tasks with your PC – like word processing or general web browsing. Some examples of processors in this category would be: the older AMD Athlon CPUs and Intel Celeron CPUs, AMD Duron CPUs, and Intel Pentium III CPUs.

Budget Processors

Strapped for cash? Consider purchasing CPUs in this category – which include yesterday’s top-of-the-line CPUs which have been discontinued or the newer budget CPUs. While you may not get extremely good performance, these CPUs will give you the best bang for your buck.

While you’re not going to get super-duper performance for more CPU intensive activities like gaming and video editing, the speed provided by these CPUs will be more than enough for general applications. Under this category, you’d be looking at processors like the AMD Athlon XP, AMD Sempron, Intel Celeron (2.4 GHz and higher), as well as the Intel Pentium 4 (2.6 GHz and lower).

Mid-Range Processors

The CPUs in this category would have been king of the hill just 6 months ago. Due to the entry of newer, faster CPUs, processors will drop in price and become more affordable. These processors will still scream in performance and are very popular among current PC owners.

Whenever I upgrade my computer, I always go for CPUs in this category. To sum up: thes CPUs here give slightly outdated but extremely powerful performance. Examples include the AMD Athlon XP (2800+ to 3500+) and the Intel Pentium 4 (2.8GHz and higher) CPUs.

High-End Processors

Want drop-dead performance? The CPUs in this category will scream even if you run the most demanding gaming or video editing applications in the market today. Of course, be prepared to fork out serious cash. If you absolutely want no less than the best, be an early adopter and go for one of these CPUs.

Personally, I tend to avoid buying top-of-the-line CPUs for two reasons – the high prices and stability. These CPUs are not only expensive, they are also unproven – I’ve heard cases of extremely new CPUs crashing or overheating. CPUs like the AMD Athlon 64 FX and the Intel Pentium 4 Extreme Edition fall into this category.

Conclusion

In summary, always consider your computing needs when selecting a CPU. If you want to do simple word processing or general computer tasks, go for the budget or low end processors. If you are more into gaming or do CPU intensive work like video editing, go for a mid-range or high-end processor.

In the business for nearly a decade, ATI driver is one of the products of the AMD Corporation that gave us the famous and affordable processors that we all use. An ATI catalyst driver is one of the most sophisticated drivers that you will find in the market today. What makes it so special? Her we will understand its components and then you will see for yourself if this is what you need in a driver.

Many computer drivers are just made up of several small files or codes. On the other hand, the ATI catalyst driver contains more than these things. In fact, it is considered as a complete program by itself. With this driver, you can even make adjustments in the graphics and tweak graphic settings based on your preference. With this kind of driver, you as an end-user will be able to control DTV Support, VPU recovery, power settings, multiple monitors, hardware acceleration, and other things.

An ATI catalyst driver can support a vast number of ATI products or hard wares. This means you do not have to buy several different drives for each hard ware you buy under the ATI hard ware family. ATI also supports the latest or most updated operating systems for Windows and this includes Vista. On top of that, the driver also supports other operating systems such as MAC and LINUX.

With these features in mind, you know that you have more advantage having the ATI catalyst driver than getting an ordinary device driver. Although there are so many other upgrades to choose from, you should not get confused. As long as you know what you need, ATI can provide you exactly what you need to keep your computer in pristine condition. Your other option is to look for websites that specialize in explaining and troubleshooting driver issues so you will get a good recommendation which driver is the best for you.

Gone are the days when the norm was that business could only be done in the office. Dell made this series of laptops to be able to withstand spills, moisture, and falls, to some extent. It has a feature that shuts off the hard drive as soon as the laptop enters a state of free fall in order to avoid data loss. The Dell Vostro Series laptops are also relatively lightweight and not as bulky. Wireless capability is long-range and the laptops come with security software that is useful for preventing the release of vital information. The screen size is available from 8.9″ to 17″ and its processors range from AMD to Intel Core Duo.

There is no one choice of laptop that fits everybody. The buyer would have to consider the specific tasks that the laptop will have to be able to handle well. The Dell Vostro Series is easily upgradeable so if the needs of your business change, then it would be simple to remedy.

The Dell Vostro Series is preferred by a majority of businesspersons and working professionals as a result of these features that are mentioned above. The consumer laptops would fall short of what entrepreneurs seek to accomplish. However, high-end corporate laptops would be an overkill too. Dell discovered that there was a niche in between the two that needed to be filled.

The laptops provide the ultimate in simplicity and sturdiness. The styling is elegant and understated, which is what we think people in business like. Because each of the Dell Vostro Series laptops give a good performance, that fact has taken a toll on the battery life, which isn’t mediocre by any means, but fails in comparison to other companies’ strides in this aspect.

The Dell Vostro Series has the following notebooks currently available: the 1220, 1320, 1520, 1720, A90 and A860. The most recently released is the Vostro 1220, which became available on July 1, 2009. The Vostro 1320, 1520 and 1720 were released on April 2, 2009. Meanwhile, the Vostro A860 went on sale on Nov. 13, 2008, and the Vostro A90 was released on April 15, 2009.

Vostro 1220

The Vostro 1220 is nearly as tiny as a netbook but it has features that only laptops can offer. Its battery also lasts considerably longer than netbooks. The Vostro 1220 is able to handle daily office tasks well; however, the screen is too small to really be able to effectively do editing. With heavy use, the Vostro 1220 could only run for three hours. The keyboard just feels too cramped and the keys aren’t as responsive as we would have liked. Considering that it is priced very low, we’re not surprised that it doesn’t impress us.

Specifications

- CPU: Intel Celeron 900, Intel Core 2 Duo T6600, P8600, P8700, or T9550 – Display: 12.1″ WXGA w/TrueLife – Memory: 2 GB Single Channel DDR2 SDRAM @ 800 MHz, 2, 3, 4, or 8 GB of Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM @ 800 MHz – Optical Drive: 8X DVD+/-RW drive, Blu-ray Disc Combo drive – Video Card: Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD – Security Hardware: Fingerprint reader w/DigitalPersona software, Wave Encryption software – Hard Drive: 160 GB SATA @ 5400 RPM, 250, 320, or 500 GB @ 7200 RPM w/Freefall Sensor, 250GB Encrypted Hard Drive @ 7200RPM w/Free Fall Sensor & Wave software, 128 GB Solid State Drive – Wireless: Dell Wireless 1397 or 1510 mini card, Intel WiFi Link 5100, WiMAX/WiFi Link 5150, or 5300 mini card – Bluetooth: Dell Wireless 365 Bluetooth 2.0 – Webcam: Integrated 1.3 MP webcam w/digital mic, optional free video chat software – Battery: 4-cell or 6-cell Lithium-Ion battery

Vostro 1320

Lugging the Vostro 1320 around isn’t a problem due to its size, weight, and sturdiness. In a mass of mostly black laptops, we welcome its burgundy-colored lid and black base. Opening several office applications simultaneously was uneventful. The Vostro 1320 can deal with the workload well. Photo and other multimedia editing can also be done with no hassle too. We don’t like that it only has a 2-hour battery life and its keyboard doesn’t provide much comfort.

Specifications

- CPU: Intel Celeron 900, Intel Core 2 Duo T6600, P7550, P8600, P8700, or T9550 – Display: 13.3″ WXGA Anti-Glare, UltraSharp WXGA w/TrueLife – Memory: 2 GB Single Channel DDR2 SDRAM @ 800 MHz, 2, 3, 4, or 8 GB of Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM @ 800 MHz – Optical Drive: 8X DVD+/-RW drive, Blu-ray Disc Combo drive – Video Card: Integrated Intel GMA 4500MHD, NVIDIA GeForce 9300M GS – Security Hardware: Fingerprint reader w/DigitalPersona software, Wave Encryption software – Hard Drive: 160 GB SATA @ 5400 RPM, 250 or 320 GB @ 7200 RPM w/Freefall Sensor, 250GB Encrypted Hard Drive @ 7200RPM w/Free Fall Sensor & Wave software, 128 GB Solid State Drive – Wireless: Dell Wireless 1397 or 1510 mini card, Intel WiFi Link 5100 or 5300 mini card – Bluetooth: Dell Wireless 355 Bluetooth 2.0 – Webcam: Integrated 1.3 MP webcam w/digital mic, optional free video chat software – Battery: 4-cell, 6-cell, or 9-cell Lithium-Ion battery

Vostro 1520

Weighing just 2.5kg and measuring 357 x 258mm x 38mm, the Vostro 1520 is a very portable device. But with a display of 15.4″, many working professionals will find that the screen size is satisfactory. The Vostro 1520′s anti-glare screen is a plus. While it isn’t really the most stylish of the lot, it meets most requirements of small to mid-sized companies.

Specifications – CPU: Intel Celeron 900, Intel Core 2 Duo T6600, P7550, P8600, P8700, or T9550 – Display: 15.4″ WXGA Anti-Glare LED, WXGA+ Anti-Glare, WXGA+ w/TrueLife – Memory: 2 GB Single Channel DDR2 SDRAM @ 800 MHz, 2, 3, 4, or 8 GB of Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM @ 800 MHz – Optical Drive: 8X DVD+/-RW drive, Blu-ray Disc Combo drive – Video Card: Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD, NVIDIA GeForce 9300M GS – Security Hardware: Fingerprint reader w/DigitalPersona software, Wave Encryption software – Hard Drive: 160 GB SATA @ 5400 RPM, 250 or 320 GB @ 7200 RPM w/Freefall Sensor, 250GB Encrypted Hard Drive @ 7200RPM w/Free Fall Sensor & Wave software, 128 GB Solid State Drive – Wireless: Dell Wireless 1397 or 1510 mini card, Intel WiFi Link 5100 or 5300 mini card – Bluetooth: Dell Wireless 355 Bluetooth 2.0 – Webcam: Integrated 1.3 MP webcam w/digital mic, optional free video chat software – Battery: 4-cell, 6-cell, or 9-cell Lithium Ion battery

Vostro 1720

Meant to replace the desktop, the Vostro 1720 packs a lot of power and allows for the user to handle office applications and even some minor editing and design work well. The display is topnotch and this makes watching videos and viewing images a delight. With a 17″ display, comparing documents and multitasking are made easy. The keyboard is comfortable and typing for long periods of time can be done with no cramping. Battery life is ample even when it is used heavily.

Specifications – CPU: Intel Celeron 900, Intel Core 2 Duo T6600, P7550, P8600, P8700, or T9550 – Display: 17″ WXGA+ Anti-Glare LED, UltraSharp WUXGA w/TrueLife – Memory: 2 GB Single Channel DDR2 SDRAM @ 800 MHz, 2, 3, 4, or 8 GB of Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM @ 800 MHz – Optical Drive: 8X DVD+/-RW drive, Blu-ray Disc Combo drive – Video Card: Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD, NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GS – Security Hardware: Fingerprint reader w/DigitalPersona software, Wave Encryption software – Hard Drive: 160 GB SATA @ 5400 RPM, 250 or 320 GB @ 7200 RPM w/Freefall Sensor, 250GB Encrypted Hard Drive @ 7200RPM w/ Free Fall Sensor & Wave software, 128 GB Solid State Drive – Wireless: Dell Wireless 1397 or 1510 mini card, Intel WiFi Link 5100 or 5300 mini card – Bluetooth: Dell Wireless 355 Bluetooth 2.0 – Battery: 6-cell or 8-cell Lithium Ion battery

Vostro A90

Vostro A90 is the rebadged Inspiron Mini 9. Its display measures 8.9″ and while most business users would probably not pick it up because there is such a thing as too small, there will be those who purchase it simply for that feature. The Vostro A90 provides images that are sharp and bright. The processing speed is limited though.

Specifications

- CPU: Intel Atom N270 – Display: 8.9″ WSVGA – Memory: 1 GB DDR2 SDRAM @ 533 MHz – Optical Drive: None – Video Card: Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 – Hard Drive: 16 GB Solid State Drive – Wireless: Wireless 802.11g card – Webcam: Integrated 0.3 MP webcam – Battery: 4-cell (35 WHr) Lithium-Ion battery

Vostro A860

The A860 is marketed to be a budget laptop and hence, it only has the most basic features. Its appearance is run-of-the-mill and does not hide the fact that it is a low-end model. We think that two ports is too few and will pose major problems later on. Since the usb ports are located on the left, a wired mouse used by a right-handed person would prove to be a problem. Its processor may not be the fastest but if your tasks are limited to browsing and office applications, it should be enough.

Specifications

- CPU: Intel Celeron M M560, Intel Core 2 Duo T5870 – Display: 15.6″ WXGA – Memory: 1 or 2 GB DDR2 SDRAM @ 800 MHz – Optical Drive: 8X DVD+/-RW drive – Video Card: Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 – Hard Drive: 160 or 250 GB SATA @ 5400 RPM – Wireless: Wireless 802.11b/g – Webcam: None – Battery: 4-cell or 6-cell Lithium-Ion battery

Yesterday, AMD has officially presented its new family of video cards top of the range. Talk models ATI Radeon HD 3870×2, solutions that easily as the name suggests are the combination of two of the series GPU Radeon HD 3870 mounted on the same PCB.

Such a solution requires a complex cooling system; two heat sinks are mounted on each of the GPU, with a plastic cover that covers the card for its entire length and strength to the movement of air blown by a fan turbine. This approach leads to good overall effectiveness, but for the most fans there right now the prime alternatives.

We speak of the kit to liquid CoolIT Systems, the Canadian company specializes in cooling solutions for processors and video cards, is developing solutions specifically for the ATI Radeon HD 3870×2. As can be seen clearly from the cooling system was designed to occupy only one slot on the motherboard, against the 2 required by the traditional system of cooling air chosen by AMD.

CoolIT Systems has announced that it has obtained, with the same levels of temperature, clock frequencies of 900 MHz for both GPU and 1000 MHz (2000 MHz effective) for 1024 Mbytes of video memory, respectively, against the values equal to 825 MHz and 900 MHz (1800 MHz effective) for the reference design developed by AMD.