Benchmarks? Where are they?
No benchmarks?
ATI, the graphics arm of AMD, in its infinite wisdom, decided that the NDA (non-disclosure agreement) lift would expire at 5am this morning. It left product sampling for the new Radeon HD 3000-series GPUs to its range of partners. Nothing wrong with that, right?The problem with having an optimistic NDA expiration date, trumping similar announcements from your competitor, has meant that partners have been unable to sample the majority of the Press in time. Indeed, we only received our Sapphire Radeon HD 3450 512MiB yesterday and still await the first Radeon HD 3650. Further complicating the issue was ATI's decision to move the NDA date for a high-end SKU (can you guess what it is?) from today until, well, later. We were informed of the move only yesterday, too, thereby tying up testing assets further.
HEXUS is in the process of obtaining samples of Radeon HD 3470 and Radeon HD 3650 GPUs. Once obtained, we shall compare the performance, both 2D and 3D, against the incumbent Radeon HD 2400/2600-series of GPUs and, of course, NVIDIA's low-to-mid-range GeForce 8-series parts.
Summary
The new GPUs from ATI bring the expected range of 3000-series benefits on to what are, essentially, Radeon HD 2400/2600 GPUs. Given that they will ship at or below the current pricing for the equivalent 2000-series parts, we see no reason why anyone looking for a low-to-mid-range ATI discrete graphics card would look towards the incumbent models.Whether they actually offer significant value for money and just how well they stack up against the competition from NVIDIA can only be answered once exhaustive testing has been undertaken. Until then, it's only fair to reserve judgment on the overall attractiveness presented by the new SKUs.
HEXUS related reading
HEXUS.net - HEXUS.reviews :: ATI Radeon HD 3870: the new midrange DX10 king?HEXUS.net - HEXUS.reviews :: ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT and Radeon HD 2400 XT - saviours or sinners?
HEXUS.net - HEXUS.reviews :: ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT
