Dave Baumann
15-Jul-2002, 17:03
Digitimes is reporting (http://www.digitimes.com/NewsShow/Article.asp?datePublish=2002/07/15&pages=04&seq=24) that Radeon 9000 and 9000 'Pro' based on ATi's, much talked of but as yet unncounced, RV250 core will be announced on July 17. Likewise the similarily rumoured and often sighted R300 based board will also be announced under the name Radeon 9700.
Heres a snip:
<blockquote>"Lacking new products for some time, the graphics card market is expected to be able to be boosted by ATI's latest chips. The ATI-camp graphics card makers predict that they should enjoy rather good sales from the RV250 products at least until September. However, card manufacturers said that they are also facing a challenge in positioning their products, as the performance of the RV250 chips is not particularly greater than that of ATI's older Radeon 8500."</blockquote>The performance numbers seen so far and the moniker 'V' in RV250's code name suggests that this is a value board, and depeding on the price ATi may be lining this one up to replace Radeon 7500. However an R300 based Radeon 9700 is likely to be fairly pricy if the common speculation proves to be accurate and that may mean Radeon 8500 will remain in the mid-range for the time being.
Digitimes also indicate that ATi have been working on .13um version of R300 to be introduced later in the year. While this seems to make sense in order to maintain competition with NVIDIA once their NV30 is released it is not typical of ATi's prior practices. In the past ATi have relied on longer product schedules, for instance its been 10 months since Radeon 8500 was announced with no interm products. Many board manufacturers now making ATi based products cited that they liked ATi's longer product schedules so if this were the case then some may not be too welcoming of a refresh so soon. So, is this hot air or are we seeing a change in ATi's focus?
Heres a snip:
<blockquote>"Lacking new products for some time, the graphics card market is expected to be able to be boosted by ATI's latest chips. The ATI-camp graphics card makers predict that they should enjoy rather good sales from the RV250 products at least until September. However, card manufacturers said that they are also facing a challenge in positioning their products, as the performance of the RV250 chips is not particularly greater than that of ATI's older Radeon 8500."</blockquote>The performance numbers seen so far and the moniker 'V' in RV250's code name suggests that this is a value board, and depeding on the price ATi may be lining this one up to replace Radeon 7500. However an R300 based Radeon 9700 is likely to be fairly pricy if the common speculation proves to be accurate and that may mean Radeon 8500 will remain in the mid-range for the time being.
Digitimes also indicate that ATi have been working on .13um version of R300 to be introduced later in the year. While this seems to make sense in order to maintain competition with NVIDIA once their NV30 is released it is not typical of ATi's prior practices. In the past ATi have relied on longer product schedules, for instance its been 10 months since Radeon 8500 was announced with no interm products. Many board manufacturers now making ATi based products cited that they liked ATi's longer product schedules so if this were the case then some may not be too welcoming of a refresh so soon. So, is this hot air or are we seeing a change in ATi's focus?