IT News HeadLines (Elite Bastards) 12/10/2009

AMD Radeon HD 5870 - Eyefinity performance testing

When we discussed AMD's new "Eyefinity" multi-monitor technology which has arrived alongside the launch of the company's range of DirectX 11 hardware, one of the questions that many of you quite rightly posited was "but what about peformance, surely a single GPU can't handle such huge resolutions?".آ Well, PC Perspective has spent some time seeing how a single Radeon HD 5870 copes with gaming across three 30", 2560x1600 monitors in a handful of current game titles to find out.

With three 30-in monitors, each running at 2560x1600, our total resolution for our Eyefinity display is 7680x1600 - simply massive!آ That puts us at 3x the number of pixels of a single 30-in monitor that the Radeon HD 5870 has to render and push to the screen.آ Obviously this is going to put a significant strain on the GPU itself - while we have been talking for what seems like ages about the sheer power you can get in a graphics card for such a low cost, that was before the idea of pushing 12 megapixels of gaming on a single card!آ You will see in our tests that even the mighty HD 5870 wasn't really enough to power this configuration with top-level IQ settings; but more on that as we go.

One question that I am sure will come up is "why didn't you use multiple GPUs in CrossFire mode?"آ A great question with a sad answer: it doesn't work yet.آ As of this writing, and probably through all of 2009, Eyefinity displays will NOT support CrossFire acceleration.آ Even if you cram a quartet of these cards into your PC you will only be able to see the processing power of a single card when utilizing a multiple panel gaming configuration.آ It is a very disappointing fact we are forced to deal with for now until AMD's driver team catches on.

Check out all of their results here.

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AMD's next-generation GPU architecture to be codenamed Hecatoncheires?

Yes I know, I know, it's far too early to be talking about AMD's next-generation GPU architecture when we're still only just beginning to enjoy the fruits of their current efforts, but nonetheless alledged details have begun to emerge about what the company's ATI graphics division has planned next - A brand-new architecture and an attempt to break out some Greek mythology, by all accounts.

The codename is Hecatoncheires, named after gigantic fifty headed creatures of great strength in Greek mythology which despite being weaker than Titans, managed to beat them. A simple analogy would put Nvidia in the role of Titans, and since Hecatoncheires had more heads, this would suggest a larger chip with more shaders.

In ancient Greek, Hecatoncheires means "hundred armed" and from what we hear this is a brand new architecture and not just improved version of R770, something that RV870 is.

Fudzilla has the speculation.

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Fourteen 1000W+ power supplies tested

Looking for a new power supply with a hefty Wattage requirement?آ X-Bit Labs have tested no fewer than fourteen PSUs that fit the bill, so check out their findings and recommendations.

When I began this test session I did not expect to find any really bad samples of PSUs. There are generally no quality-related problems with 1000W and higher products as yet. Indeed, all of the 14 models I have discussed comply with their specs and show stable and reliable operation. However, there are products that can be specifically singled out as leaders.

First of all, it is the Enermax Revolution 85+ ERV1050EWT. Enermax has promised a power supply with best possible specs and seems to have delivered it. This is a quiet, high-wattage, stable PSU with a generous selection of connectors and excellent efficiency. Enermax is the best product in this review.

Read this round-up in full here.

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