Overclockers get to test R520?

[hovz]

maybe its me, but it doesnt make sense to unveil a new nvidia card that blows everything ati has out of the water at an ati sponsored event. i also doubt its the r520. dual radeons of current tech make the most sense.

 

[Martin Eddy]

I'm thinking it's the new "Bullhead" motherboard. Apparently it overclocks better than any other board available.

 

[nagus]

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/050223/235513_1.html

ATI Invites Gamers to Tweak Their PCs With the PROs and Get a Sneak Peek at the World's First 512MB Gaming Card
Wednesday February 23, 9:38 am ET
ATI sponsors the Ultimate LAN at Texas Gaming Festival


MARKHAM, Ontario--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 23, 2005-- Gamers from around the world are invited to join ATI Technologies Inc. (TSX:ATY - News; NASDAQ:ATYT - News) and its marketing partners at the Ultimate LAN, held in association with the Texas Gaming Festival in Dallas, February 25th to 27th. In addition to offering gamers three days of top-notch gaming, the event will include an overclocking demonstration and a PC modding event. Attendees will get the opportunity to preview the world's first 512MB gaming card and one lucky gamer will even get to take one home.
"Participating in events like this gives us the opportunity to find out what gamers want and need for competitive gaming," said Rich Heye, Vice President and GM, Desktop Discrete Products, ATI. "And to say thanks for supporting ATI, we are giving attendees at this event an opportunity to check out the world's first 512MB gaming cards before we send them out to our software partners for development of next-generation games."

In addition, world champion overclockers will test their mettle - and their silicon - to set new world records. Top overclockers Eric Kronies, Charles Wirth and Sami Makinen will also take a break from overclocking their own systems to answer attendees' system-tweaking questions and offer tips for overclocking PCs for ultimate performance.

Attendees will vote on whose PC at the event is most in need of an overhaul. The lucky winner will have his or her PC rebuilt by modding experts using the latest technology from ATI and its partners.

And as is the norm at ATI-sponsored LAN parties, participants can expect lots of giveaways and prizes, including high-end desktop and notebook PCs powered by ATI hardware. Other sponsors of the event include ABIT, AMD, ArenaNet, ATARI, Corsair, Gigabyte, Kingston, LG, NCSoft, OCZ, Running with Scissors, Sapphire and UBISOFT.

For more information or to register, please visit ATI at www.ati.com/gitg or the Texas Gaming Festival at www.txgf.com.

 

[kemosabe]

ATI PR wrote:

"And to say thanks for supporting ATI, we are giving attendees at this event an opportunity to check out the world's first 512MB gaming cards before we send them out to our software partners for development of next-generation games."

New hardware going out to game developers means R520, so this whole fuss is about a first peek at a GPU that won't be on sale for another few months at least. No impact on the consumer/gamer anytime soon.

 

[digitalwanderer]

Ermm .. that was a Quote from TehInq (misspelt "The" on purpose).

Just fer interest sakes .. you saying faster RAM wouldn't help???

No, of course faster RAM would help...but that's not what you said, you said more RAM was why it was going faster.

More RAM wouldn't have helped worth spit in that particular benchmark, period. Faster, yes; more, no.

I think it's the Bullhead with a Reviewer's Edition® X850 XT PE SE XL.

 

[digitalwanderer]

New hardware going out to game developers means R520, so this whole fuss is about a first peek at a GPU that won't be on sale for another few months at least. No impact on the consumer/gamer anytime soon.

No impact on the average consumer/gamer anytime soon....

(If the 520 is out there, I want one! )

 

[CATALYST MAKER]

Anyways, Im just heading to the airport now to catch a flight to the Dallas Lan Party. If anyone from B3D is there make sure you come by to say hi to me.

CM Out

 

[kemosabe]

"Attendees will get the opportunity to preview the world's first 512MB gaming card and one lucky gamer will even get to take one home."

Have they ever given away engineering samples of next-generation hardware before? This is the only part of the R520 hypothesis that might not stick, although I can't imagine game developers being interested in turbocharged R420 boards for development of "next-generation games". :?

Guess you're going to have to go to Dallas a provide a full report, Dig.

 

[nagus]

it could also mean, that the introduction of R520 is much closer than we think...

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

New hardware going out to game developers means R520, so this whole fuss is about a first peek at a GPU that won't be on sale for another few months at least. No impact on the consumer/gamer anytime soon.

If R520 is confirmed as on it's way in a few months, that's going to have a heck of an impact on consumers, gamers, sales of X8x0 line and plans for upgrades to PCIe, etc.

 

[Joe DeFuria]

Late February and March is the traditional time to "unveil" the spring architectures. May / June is typically the availability date...

 

[dan2097]

Late February and March is the traditional time to "unveil" the spring architectures. May / June is typically the availability date...

As the X800s are selling well though, wouldn't they be more likely to try and stock up inventory and then both launch and have availability in may/june? (unless Nvidia turns up with a 24 pipeline nv4x before then)

 

[digitalwanderer]

Guess you're going to have to go to Dallas a provide a full report, Dig.

I actually thought about doing just that since my wife has off this weekend, but since we got the puppies yesterday it is out of the question for a while.

I'm gonna be a hermit for at least the next 2-3 months just getting these pups housebroken/trained, and loving every minute of it. 8)

G'luck with your trip Terry & Snipe, and anyone else who is attending that I may know! If there are any extry 939 mobos lying around try and pick one up for me.

 

[Joe DeFuria]

That all depends on the expected availability levels of both products.

 

[Blazkowicz]

ATI PR wrote:

"And to say thanks for supporting ATI, we are giving attendees at this event an opportunity to check out the world's first 512MB gaming cards before we send them out to our software partners for development of next-generation games."

New hardware going out to game developers means R520, so this whole fuss is about a first peek at a GPU that won't be on sale for another few months at least. No impact on the consumer/gamer anytime soon.

512MB by itself is of some interest if you're developing a doom 3 or UE3 based game with high resolution textures. Doom 3 the game is still quite low res due to the numerous layers (bumpmap, diffuse map, specular map, whatever map etc.)

 

[CMAN]

I would suspect ATI wouldn't want to show the new hardware unless it was going to launch soon. Therefore I suspect it will launch immenently whether it is an 850 refresh (as the 3D mark picture suggests it will be called 950) or if it is a new product such as the 520.

I seriously doubt they'd launch a product to the public, then wait a couple weeks or months to send it to reviewers, then wait a nother couple months to get it into retail. They've been getting enough hate recently for bad availability, so I don't think they'd show this if it wasn't going to be released very soon (maybe Dave even has one already...).

 

[CMAN]

If R520 is confirmed as on it's way in a few months, that's going to have a heck of an impact on consumers, gamers, sales of X8x0 line and plans for upgrades to PCIe, etc.

Maybe that is what ATI wants, or ATi has given up on X8x0 line sales (at least the 500+ range. Could help explain why they cancelled X850 XT orders from their website if they were not going to make many more...

 

[digitalwanderer]

If R520 is confirmed as on it's way in a few months, that's going to have a heck of an impact on consumers, gamers, sales of X8x0 line and plans for upgrades to PCIe, etc.

Maybe that is what ATI wants, or ATi has given up on X8x0 line sales (at least the 500+ range. Could help explain why they cancelled X850 XT orders from their website if they were not going to make many more...

I'm wondering if'n maybe the X8xx line is just too expensive for ATi to make money on for some reason, mebbe the 520 is cheaper to produce?

 

[PatrickL]

I think you are giving way too much importance to ATIshop. It works only in North America and is often expensive so i doubt it sells millions of cards

 

[Joe DeFuria]

I would suspect ATI wouldn't want to show the new hardware unless it was going to launch soon. Therefore I suspect it will launch immenently whether it is an 850 refresh (as the 3D mark picture suggests it will be called 950) or if it is a new product such as the 520.

Why wouldn't an R520 be called a 950XT?

R520 is a new product...but not radically different than the current cores by all (rumored) accounts.