AMD now uses Sins of a Solar Empire for benchmarking

No Crysis? You'd think that'd be at the top of the list...

- PR-0927

Doesn't seem like they have set the bar that high does it????

Well, since I'll never be buying an ATI/AMD card again due to their screwed up support of various DirectX features, it doesn't really matter to me.

crysis would skew their branding too much. If it took 30 fps in crysis to get the GAME! branding, then they'd be stuck with a bunch of perfectly good gaming cards (well, they could be better by not being AMD as noted above by mine, but still) that people won't think are any good for gaming.

Also, I'd think sins would be better as a cpu benchmark than as a GPU one, personally.

Sins needs multi-core support to be fully useful as a CPU benchmark though, right now it really is just benchmarking one core

I hope AMD begin to be better because right now I really don't like them that much.

Crysis is really Benchmarking for GPU and it would make their cards look very bad.

Well, it _is_ AMD..

Sins of a Solar Empire is a good GPU benchmark in regards to seeing how well a card can handle multiple geometric objects I'd say.

Crysis is an Nvidia 'The Way its Meant to be Played' Game, which is why AMD isn't using it, not to do with any possible performance issues.

Sins really needs multi core support added to it, big single player games get sluggish after a few hours.

I agree , I have a Q6600 overclocked and a pair of 3870's crossfired, on big single player games , changing graphic settings doesnt affect one bit on performance its the lack of multicore support that hurts it.

game! is just an attempt by amd to retain their dwindling gamer population. too little too late. 3 years ago that marketing ploy would have been a hit. now, most of us have moved to core2 processors. and ati...what can i say. i loved my 32mb rage 2 card. it had lastest for nearly 10 years of solid hard use. but the drivers were never quite right and ati ended life on the line before it could be properly fixed. so now i run on the solid nvidia\intel combo.

If AMD/ATI can make Sins run with 41.000 units on 30-40 fps.. Then ill go back to AMD

I wouldn't dismiss the 4x00 series.

It's the first chip in AMD/ATi's new strategy of making powerful and very cost effective GPU's targeted at the mainstream. For the high end they're now going to jam together multiple chips onto a single PCB. AMD/ATi have streamlined their chip production methods and can create more chips, while doing it for less cost, than Nvidia.

The 4850 is rumored to be at least 10% faster than the 9800 GTX at a 200$ launch price. The 4870 is supposed to be 40% faster than the 9800 GTX and will launch for around $300. The 4850 will be out this month and the 4870 will be out in July. The 4870x2 will be out in August at $500 to combat the Nvidia 280.

The new Nvidia chips, on the other hand, cost 100$ per die to make. On top of that Nvidia is getting around 40% yields when they make a batch. This is increasing the launch prices for the GeForce 260 and GeForce 280 to 449$ and 649$ respectively. Granted they are faster chips but they cost a lot more. They also use a lot more power and thus will require a larger power supply than the Radeon 4x00 cards.

So bottom line, Nvidia is sticking with the strategy of making a huge beast of a monolithic GPU. Nvidia then cripples it to market it as a mainstream card, where most GPU's are sold. Their GPU's will be faster but will also be a lot more expensive.

AMD/ATi is taking a new approach of designing chips from the ground up to be targeted at the main stream market. Which is, once again, where the vast majority of GPU's are sold. Chip for chip AMD/ATi's product will not be as fast but, but they will have a very very good price/performance ratio. AMD/ATi are basically hoping they can hit a price performance ratio that Nvidia just cannot match with its more expensive to produce GPUs.

Anywho, we'll see how it goes in the next couple months.

Every time i bought a GPU i chose ATI because they always offered a better Benchmark/€-ratio.
I dint think that will change too soon, but if someday nVidia has a better offer i woud not hesitate to by a GPU of them.
It is exactly the same with AMD an Intel. Intel might have the faster CPUs but even in my dreams i would not pay 30% more for 10% better performance...

Thanks for that informa48tive post Lost_WLd. I too am looking forward to the 4850/4870 release.

The HIS HD3850 I currently have is hands down the best graphics card I have ever purchased. It just gives and gives and was incredibly cheap (at $286 AUD for what is considered to be a premium version of the card with a custom cooler - its now selling for as low as $200 AUD). It lets me play all the latest games on my 22" widescreen LCD with all the settings on high with reasonable levels of AA enabled (just enough to keep the jaggies away). It's twice as powerful as the 8600GT which was the HD3850's rival card at the time with both being priced at the same pricepoint.

It could be considered an additional bonus that my card enjoys running Sins of a Solar Empire without the slighest hint of any minidumps occuring.

I need to correct myself as AMD/ATi have changed their release dates.
The 4850 and 4870 will now both be released on June 25th. I failed to mention in my last post that the Nvidia cards are being released on June 17th.

Also, AMD/ATi have been planting information that was undervaluing the specifications and speed of their new GPU's to throw off Nvidia(I'm guessing Nvidia is probably doing the same thing). This means the cards could be more capable than what was being anticipated by the hardware guru websites.

Those thieving little...

lol, I just despise Nvidia, a/w

Zoo Tycoon and WoW does NOT deserve to be on that list. If anything, EVE Online should be, but I'm just biased

Until I can get an ATI Radeon X1950XTX Pro 512MB GDDR3 (I think) PCI-E Card for about $100, I won't be happy, but by then, bigger, better games will come out, but I have a feeling I'll still be playing Sins, Supreme Commander, Company of Heroes, and Act of War, which don't need an insane amount of processing power.

And of course, if I can't, I'll just whip out Red Alert 2 and Yuri's Revenge!

AMD is the way to go there way cheaper then intel. The chip i have ia a AMD 3.2 GHz duel and a intel at that speed cause onost an extra hundred bucks. As for video cards i always thought the ati ones were smexy, and cheap.

Nvidia has a lot of Green on 'em. Meh

Red on ATI looks great

Their support for Linux drivers sucks, but that's unrelated.