DailyTech tips R600 to be released in March

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defiant007

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http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=5630

DailyTech has just finished its briefing on the upcoming AMD ATI Radeon launches. The company has three major launches over the next few months: codenamed R600, R610 and R630.

The R600, ATI's ultra-high-end Radeon X1950 successor, has a production date scheduled for February 2007. The card will launch at or around the Cebit 2007 convention in mid-March. Shipments will follow shortly after.

Our latest roadmaps indicate R600 will support unified shaders and GDDR4 or GDDR3 memory. GDDR3 versions of the card running revision "A12" silicon appear to be making rounds in the blogsphere, and select press can even take a sneak peak of the card under embargo here at CES. The final silicon for R600 will be "A13."

A GDDR4 version of the card will be the flagship launch product. Clock frequencies on any R600 card have not been set officially yet, and will not appear on marketing material until just a few weeks before the launch.

The company has also added the R610 and R630 GPUs to the roadmap. In the past, ATI has used lower number codenames to denote entry-level products. We would suspect R610 would be the entry-level R600 cutdown, and R630 would be the mid-range chipset. The Radeon roadmap puts both of these products on the shelf before June 2007.

All R600-series GPUs from ATI are compatible with DirectX 10.
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Talk about late......Nvidia would have had their flag ship card in the market for close to 5 months w/out any competition?! :eek:
 
Something doesn't seem right with the info on R610/R630, because ATI has still used RVxxx to denote cut-downs right up to the RV560 (X1650) and RV570 (some dispute here as to R570 or RV570, but X1950Pro in any case). I wonder why that is.
 
Its a shame they are going to be so late to the party. Maybe by then some dx10 benchmarks will be out and we will know which is better.

If they are going to be that late they better come out fully stable and with some decent drivers. By then (maybe) Nvidia will have some stable 8800 drivers for xp and vista. It will be hard to justify then to drop all that money if its going to have driver issues.

This thing better be pretty good cause its not only going to be battling against the 8800 but also most likely the 8800 summer refresh.
 
BrainDanceR said:
I was referring to the 8800 Drivers. Was not trolling, was joking.

See: Humour.

:)
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Please indicate with facts and statistics on what exactly is not working on the nvidia drivers? Vista drivers are out and the current driver set is working perfectly for me with good scores and 100% stability.
 
I have seen several forum posts on various sites indicating issues with drivers for the 8800.

From what I have heard the vista drivers are not working so well.

Yes this is not factual, but if fellow enthusiasts are reporting problems then I believe its worth taking notice.
 
Whats the point. There is no DX10 yet, and nothing on the horizon short of Crysis will even make a dent in NEEDING the R600. So whats all the crisis (pun) about?

Nothing I play cries out for more horsepower than the X1900XT tweaked is giving me right now. Once you are hitting 100 FPS how many more FPS is needed.

Like, I have a Ferrari but I guess Ill really need a McClarren and WHY OH WHY hasn't McClarren started shipping yet so I can drive 75MPH even FASTER than I do now. Wtf.
 
Exactly.
Just cause nVidia came out with their DX10 card WAY in advance, doesn't mean that it's the right thing to do.

Time will tell who made the best decision. But you can't short ATi for releasing their next-gen card in March, well before DX10 gaming will even be available.
 
I hope the cards aren't super long. I need something that will fit in my Praetorian.
 
There are only a hadful of DX10 games in 2007. The spotlight is on Crysis which is scheduled for release Q3 2007, it's perfect timing on ATI's part because at least they have more time developing their product. I hope the prices remain competitive though, Don't feel like shelling out 400+ bucks to play Crysis.
 
reswob said:
I hope the cards aren't super long. I need something that will fit in my Praetorian.
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The cards are supposed to be the standard 9". I also do not think it is "Late". The 8800 is a great card and has plenty of power, that is for the .01% of computer users that "Need" one. The X1900XTX can hold its own is most any game out there.

When the R600 is released it will be about 1.5 months after Vista and DX10 are released and lets be honest here, how many people will actually have DX10 (Vista) by March. And if you do the will be maybe 1 game out that can utilize DX10 by then.

The only that that ATI is late for is a card that can beat the 8800 GTX is every benchmark or performance on a high resolution monitor with all the settings maxed out in games.
 
cooter said:
TThe 8800 is a great card and has plenty of power, that is for the .01% of computer users that "Need" one.
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And as long as nvidia can satisfy the .01% of the market place who demand the best (prob more if you factor in the GTS), then thats .01% of the business that ATI is loosing, and at this point its all profit for nvidia. Also its nice to be 100% DX10 / vista compatible, and its a bit extra future proofing for the people who can afford it.

This may play out well for ATI if they don't delay there mainstream cards, but they need to be on top of there drivers, and if you look at how many problems rv570 (x1950pro) is having, it may be an indication that ATI is going to be running into many of there own problems for vista/xp drivers.

Only time will tell, ATI usually gets the benefit of the doubt in these situations. But my money is on nvidia in the long run, ATI has been slipping in some departments.
 
Aren't R600 products late if they miss ATi's timeline? I won't pretend to know at what time ATi originally targeted to launch these things, but if March is past that date, then it's technically late, isn't it?

That's_Corporate said:
Exactly. Just cause nVidia came out with their DX10 card WAY in advance, doesn't mean that it's the right thing to do.
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The 8800s are generational leap cards, and they came out pretty much in accordance with NVIDIA's generational release schedule. I really don't believe there's any reason for NVIDIA to not have released a DX10 card when considering the landmark success of a former "before-its-time" product, the 9700 Pro.

What would be the reaction if NVIDIA did release a DX9 card instead of 8800? I assure you: the reaction wouldn't have been nearly as overwhelming as it was. I think NVIDIA was right on target, but let's just hope the Vista drivers are just as on target.

cooter said:
The 8800 is a great card and has plenty of power, that is for the .01% of computer users that "Need" one. The X1900XTX can hold its own is most any game out there.
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Depends greatly on the circumstances, really. For newer games, like RS: Vegas and Oblivion, last generation cards struggle at upper resolutions and especially with advanced settings like AA and AF. In no uncertain terms, my own XTX is barely scraping by these days driving my very modest 1680x1050 display.

The last generation can hold its own, but if you want a card that surpasses that baseline, your options right now are slim. This is the 8800's market. ATi has failed to/decided against tapping that market for the past couple months with competitive products.

Ockie said:
Please indicate with facts and statistics on what exactly is not working on the nvidia drivers? Vista drivers are out and the current driver set is working perfectly for me with good scores and 100% stability.
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There are no Vista drivers for the 8800-series cards. You may be enjoying life in the Vista lane (with its "revolutionary" widgets and equally "revolutionary" search functions, no doubt) with your older NVIDIA card, but it seems obvious that they're fumbling with the 8800 drivers.
 
March should be perfect as it has given some time for Vista and more directx10 hype to saturate the market. Sure ati has lost some ground in the top end but it also strengthened its mid range and low end to cushion the loss which everyone seems to be forgetting.
 
tisb0b, AMD/ATI lost ground in every vga market segment over the last financial quarter (look it up, I can't be bothered). ATI may have some great products right now, but NV's marketing strength is monstrous.
 
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