Ati shipped 1 million native PCI-express graphics cards.
- Thread starter Mendel
- Start date
Some perspective is probably in order, though, with respect to general PCIe rollout:
*I think this PR was done primarily to let the markets know that ATi is the only IHV presently shipping PCIe-compatible graphics in meaningful numbers.
*This is a "units shipped to system OEMs" PR, not a business-consumer deployment report, or a market-share estimate.
*The number of AGP products shipped in the same time frame is likely a multiple of this number.
*Considering the ~140M machines shipped in '03, this number is well below 1% in terms of total annual market saturation for '04, I'd guess.
*Considering the total current worldwide deployment of several hundred million non-PCIe machines, only a few hundred million more PCIe boxes need to be sold into the market to achieve a 50-50 deployment split with non-PCIe.
Still, though, from ATi's perspective as opposed to a PCIe marketshare deployment picture thus far, this is a fairly impressive PR announcement. I suspect, though, that much of it has to do with the general advantages of ATi's reference designs over that of the competition moreso than because of native PCIe support versus an AGP to PCIe bridge implementation (which certainly is an advantage, but a minor one I would think from the OEM perspective versus considerations like size, weight, power consumption and heat dissipation, etc.)
*I think this PR was done primarily to let the markets know that ATi is the only IHV presently shipping PCIe-compatible graphics in meaningful numbers.
*This is a "units shipped to system OEMs" PR, not a business-consumer deployment report, or a market-share estimate.
*The number of AGP products shipped in the same time frame is likely a multiple of this number.
*Considering the ~140M machines shipped in '03, this number is well below 1% in terms of total annual market saturation for '04, I'd guess.
*Considering the total current worldwide deployment of several hundred million non-PCIe machines, only a few hundred million more PCIe boxes need to be sold into the market to achieve a 50-50 deployment split with non-PCIe.
Still, though, from ATi's perspective as opposed to a PCIe marketshare deployment picture thus far, this is a fairly impressive PR announcement. I suspect, though, that much of it has to do with the general advantages of ATi's reference designs over that of the competition moreso than because of native PCIe support versus an AGP to PCIe bridge implementation (which certainly is an advantage, but a minor one I would think from the OEM perspective versus considerations like size, weight, power consumption and heat dissipation, etc.)
Moose said:WOW!! ATI has shipped a million PCIE graphics chips!!!
Now all we need is a PCIE board to run them in.
They shipped one million cards, not chips.
http://ati.com/companyinfo/press/2004/4771.html
PS: If they shipped only chips, why they call it cards int the title?
ATI has invested and diverted a lot of effort into the PCIExpress technology and is a contributing member of the PCIExpress spec. Their implementation in this release of the graphics war is definitely better than Nvidia's although unfortunately for them, 1) Most people at this stage care more about AGP and 2) Nvidia's cards don't fare that badly overall in comparison even in PCIExpress guise.
By the next refresh though this advantage will most likely be gone, so the narrow window of opportunity that ATI had / has to proclaim it's superiority in this respect is gradually closing. By the spring refresh when more retail AIB sales of PCIExpress are likely with Nforce4 and the inevitable VIA, SiS, Intel and even ATI chipset mobos, Nvidia will likely have both bridged PCIExpress boards and native implementations available, with the added confusing factor of SLI thrown in, even though only a relatively small number of people will actual go the SLI route.
Announcements like this still show that despite our particular fascination with the aftermarket, its the OEM market that drives the bottom line and has made ATI a bigger player than Nvidia.
By the next refresh though this advantage will most likely be gone, so the narrow window of opportunity that ATI had / has to proclaim it's superiority in this respect is gradually closing. By the spring refresh when more retail AIB sales of PCIExpress are likely with Nforce4 and the inevitable VIA, SiS, Intel and even ATI chipset mobos, Nvidia will likely have both bridged PCIExpress boards and native implementations available, with the added confusing factor of SLI thrown in, even though only a relatively small number of people will actual go the SLI route.
Announcements like this still show that despite our particular fascination with the aftermarket, its the OEM market that drives the bottom line and has made ATI a bigger player than Nvidia.
chavvdarrr
Veteran
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=18758
I wonder if buying PCIe cards now is a good idea....
I wonder if buying PCIe cards now is a good idea....
We need all the people here to verify or tear apart the statements in the inquirer article. You notice even good ol walt called them compatible, and not compliant
Early adopters get screwed often though so it is no big deal really.
What I want to know though is if this is true, does that mean it is likely that NV is fighting a change in the spec? Or would VIA SIS and other chipset manufacturers also not want it for reasons unrelated to the war between ATI and NV
Oh and by tear apart I mean provide information that refutes not to get on here and write a thesis about why you like ATI better and they are really nice and friendly.
Patricia Mikula, an ATI’s spokeswoman
That is from xbit and ATI's refutation. Of course you notice it doesn't actually say anything relevant. It states that it could pass the eletrical tests, which means that the picture actually does show whether it is passing the electrical test. Of course it could fail at another point, such as if there was no displayed output That is like saying just because you are not speeding you could still get a ticket, well um yes... but then not speeding defeinitely helps you not get a ticket compared to someone that is speeding.
Early adopters get screwed often though so it is no big deal really.
What I want to know though is if this is true, does that mean it is likely that NV is fighting a change in the spec? Or would VIA SIS and other chipset manufacturers also not want it for reasons unrelated to the war between ATI and NV
Oh and by tear apart I mean provide information that refutes not to get on here and write a thesis about why you like ATI better and they are really nice and friendly.
Patricia Mikula, an ATI’s spokeswoman
That is from xbit and ATI's refutation. Of course you notice it doesn't actually say anything relevant. It states that it could pass the eletrical tests, which means that the picture actually does show whether it is passing the electrical test. Of course it could fail at another point, such as if there was no displayed output
That is like saying just because you are not speeding you could still get a ticket, well um yes... but then not speeding defeinitely helps you not get a ticket compared to someone that is speeding.Actually I already read that as well. However I am sorry to say that it doesn't convince me.
Just b/c a motherboard functions with it doesn't mean it isn't out of spec. Remember in the past this sort of thing has happened at first as well. The VIA board could have been built with what PCI cards are actually sold in mind, ati has >1 million I tend to doubt that VIA or SIS would release a board that wouldn't work just to prove that ATI was not compliant. That would seem a little counter productive not to mention financial suicide.
What does this mean? It means it could either be a non-issue but nevertheless interesting, or it means that as these PCIe cards age there may be a point when new chipsets do not work with them. I am not saying I know, I am saying that it certainly seems that wherever the smoke has come from there actually is something kind of weird going on. Perhaps Intel was actually at fault and their chipset was not compliant originally who knows, but I think that something actually is going on.
Just b/c a motherboard functions with it doesn't mean it isn't out of spec. Remember in the past this sort of thing has happened at first as well. The VIA board could have been built with what PCI cards are actually sold in mind, ati has >1 million I tend to doubt that VIA or SIS would release a board that wouldn't work just to prove that ATI was not compliant. That would seem a little counter productive not to mention financial suicide.
What does this mean? It means it could either be a non-issue but nevertheless interesting, or it means that as these PCIe cards age there may be a point when new chipsets do not work with them. I am not saying I know, I am saying that it certainly seems that wherever the smoke has come from there actually is something kind of weird going on. Perhaps Intel was actually at fault and their chipset was not compliant originally who knows, but I think that something actually is going on.
PatrickL said:
You can do that easily by proving a mutually exclusive positive. If they would simply come out and say that XYZ is compliant that would do the trick. This whole PCIe compliance topic is a bit trifling though. I'm sure ATI will have whatever certification they need by the time it matters.
