[Eug Wanker]

HotHardware Preview

MOBILITY RADEON 9800 - The New Face of Mobile Gaming

� Based on ATI RADEON X800 technology
� Advanced DX9 and OpenGL shader support
Displacement Mapping
Super-long shader capabilities
true cinematic effects in real time
3Dc technology (compressed/normal bump maps)
Even faster shader math functions
� First mobile graphics with 8 pixel pipes
8 pixel and 4 vertex pipes
� First mobile graphics with 256-bit memory I/F
256MB/256-bit in a notebook
Full AA in highest resolutions
Full support for ATI POWERPLAY

3Dc Normal Map Compression
� More detailed graphics
Use memory savings to store higher resolution normal map
Saves memory bandwidth
� Easy to implement
Uses existing art assets
� Fully compatible with key 3D rendering and image enhancement techniques
AA, AF, shadows, HDR, post-processing
� Supported in Microsoft DirectX 9 and OpenGL

SMARTSHADER HD
� 1536 instructions
� Flexible shader architecture
� New high-performance shader compiler

ATI POWERPLAY Technology
� POWER-ON-DEMAND dynamically adjusts clocks and voltage based on activity
� Multiple user-controlled settings when in both AC and DC modes
� Clock Gating for control over unused blocks of the chip

[Eug Wanker]

[Thinine]

It'll likely be in the next PowerBook revision, whenever that is. Hopefully with a 256MB option and 128 MB standard.

[JohnM15141]

I'm saving my $'s now! This is a good reason to upgrade my version A 17"PB...next year?

Originally posted by Thinine:
It'll likely be in the next PowerBook revision, whenever that is. Hopefully with a 256MB option and 128 MB standard.

[rareflares]

now that would be a true gamer's laptop. incredible.

[Eug Wanker]

Originally posted by Thinine:
It'll likely be in the next PowerBook revision, whenever that is. Hopefully with a 256MB option and 128 MB standard.

2005, with a G5. Hey it rhymes... It must be true. Yeah, I suspect it will have a minimum of 128 MB, with the extra 128 MB option, esp. since games can make use of it now.

Eug's 2005 PowerBook:

G5 970FX 1.8
450 or 600 MHz bus
DDR333 single-channel
OS X.4 Tiger 64-bit

BTW, one concern. Tom's Hardware says it uses one-third more power than the 9700. If that power increase is only during gaming (and the heatsink/fan design can handle it) then that's OK. Hopefully, during standard 2D business app type stuff it doesn't use much more than the 9700.

[Minch_Yoda]

Originally posted by Eug Wanker:


Eug's 2005 PowerBook:

G5 970FX 1.8
450 or 600 MHz bus
DDR333 single-channel
OS X.4 Tiger 64-bit

i thought they were planing on the ppc970mp for the pb not the 970fx

[RonnieoftheRose]

Originally posted by Eug Wanker:
2005, with a G5. Hey it rhymes... It must be true. Yeah, I suspect it will have a minimum of 128 MB, with the extra 128 MB option, esp. since games can make use of it now.

Eug's 2005 PowerBook:

G5 970FX 1.8
450 or 600 MHz bus
DDR333 single-channel
OS X.4 Tiger 64-bit

BTW, one concern. Tom's Hardware says it uses one-third more power than the 9700. If that power increase is only during gaming (and the heatsink/fan design can handle it) then that's OK. Hopefully, during standard 2D business app type stuff it doesn't use much more than the 9700.

Not to disappoint but I think Apple has always underclocked graphics chips compared to the PC side in order to get more battery life. Looking at the benchmarks for the 9700 vs the 9600 in PBs confirms that. The difference is far less than on Dells or Alienwares. They should allow the consumer to adjust the clock speed. Many graphic card providers offer such tools. On a Mac there hasn't been any way to do that as yet.

[RonnieoftheRose]

I'd like:

2Ghz, doesn't matter whether it's a G4 or G5.
128MB 9800 minimum
100GB HD minimum
1600x1000 resolution

That would be a nice upgrade.

[MindFad]

[homer]Mmm, PB G5 with mobile 9800.[/homer]

[Eug Wanker]

Originally posted by Minch_Yoda:
i thought they were planing on the ppc970mp for the pb not the 970fx

Not a chance, considering the power output of the PowerPC 970MP would be far too high at any reasonable clock speed.

Originally posted by RonnieoftheRose:
Not to disappoint but I think Apple has always underclocked graphics chips compared to the PC side in order to get more battery life. Looking at the benchmarks for the 9700 vs the 9600 in PBs confirms that. The difference is far less than on Dells or Alienwares. They should allow the consumer to adjust the clock speed. Many graphic card providers offer such tools. On a Mac there hasn't been any way to do that as yet.

Gaming on the Mac just is worse generally, even at the same GPU clock speed.

[Peter]

Originally posted by JohnM15141:
I'm saving my $'s now! This is a good reason to upgrade my version A 17"PB...next year?

sig alert!

[bma_mat99]

For playing my games im using a Dual G5 1.8 ghz (the first one, not the second one that replaced it, upgradable to 8gb ram... ) anyway, its with 512 ram, 900 mhz bus speed, 64mb nvidia video card... most games work fine, but im thinking in getting the 256 chip... that would be nice ... for doom3 when it comes out

[[APi]TheMan]

Originally posted by MindFad:
[homer]Mmm, PB G5 with mobile 9800.[/homer]

Too bad my Powerbook only has a Mobile 9600... It's still sweet that I just discovered the Performance settings in Energy Saver, switching my 15" Aluminum seems to have sped my system up noticeably (Snappy� style). I had always thought that "Automatic" would make it "Highest" when plugged into AC (like I always am) but I guess not.