The LAST R600 Rumours & Speculation Thread

[vertex_shader]

Given that the last 3" of that render looks to be just fan perhaps the oem is 12" single slot and the retail one is 9" Dual slot with the fan in a more traditional position.

Not quite sure why but I could imagine it would be possible that box shifters would prefer a singe slot solution - avoiding having to sell systems where a motherboard slot is unusable or form factor advatages perhaps.

Its looks like not as a single slot cooler, because there is a cooling channel, somewhere the air need to be go out, and the only exit in the cooler is the left side of the card.
Coolers what working with this schem its HIS iceQ3 or ATi reference x1950xtx cooler, all dual slot.

 

[turtle]

If that's true, it really does make R600 sound like the 7900GX2 vs 7950GX2. OEM's got the long version, retail mostly got the updated version. 7900gx2 was 12.2 inches (~12), 7950gx2 is 8.9 inches (~9).

I find that rather hilariously coincidental. Sounds like OEM's get pre-revision boards.

edit: Single-slot vs dual slot makes sense.

 

[compres]

It really does make me wonder sometimes when a 7900GS out sells the X1950 Pro. The X1950 Pro being faster in nearly every case, has more features, and better image quality and coming in at around $10 of each other. Add to the fact that the 7900GS really does not run cooler or use less power than the X1950 Pro and I generally just go with "Nvidia really does have kick ass marketing".

It might have something to do with linux support and performance. At least on the geek croud this is seen as desirable.

I think beyond3d should start to include linux benchmarks on their reviews.

 

[KimB]

I rather doubt that Linux support is that big of an issue. I mean, it's the primary reason why I haven't really considered an ATI card, but I doubt it's an issue for most.

Personally I think it'll be much more important for the GPGPU stuff, where the G80 architecture in particular seems to excel. I wouldn't be surprised if we started to see some supercomputers built with dozens of G8x cores available for computing (I doubt we'll see anything really big until nVidia puts out some cores with double precision floating point capabilities).

 

[compres]

I feel the same chanloth. I think the current ATI drivers are quite decent, but nVidia's are faster.

For me who use linux 90% of the time lately is a big deal. I am not in the market for a video card right now, but later this year linux support is going to be a top priority. And with the high requirements of vista, and the ever existing headache of viruses and such, I am telling all my friends and family to use linux, a lot of them are switching now and liking it.

So all in all linux support is getting more important lately.

 

[icecold1983]

Give or take 50%!

? November, December, January, February, March. almost half a year

 

[icecold1983]

It was/did?

yess, x800 xt was faster than 6800 ultra in most games and if i recall correctly, had much less shimmering.

 

[Geo]

? November, December, January, February, March. almost half a year

Depends on when in March. Nov 8th to March 8th is 4 months on my fingers (didn't even have to take my shoes off for that). 6 months is 50% more than 4 months.

 

[chavvdarrr]

Depends on when in March. Nov 8th to March 8th is 4 months on my fingers (didn't even have to take my shoes off for that). 6 months is 50% more than 4 months.

can your fingers count how many people buy pc components in Nov-Dec period and how many in March-April ?

 

[icecold1983]

Depends on when in March. Nov 8th to March 8th is 4 months on my fingers (didn't even have to take my shoes off for that). 6 months is 50% more than 4 months.

well at or around cebit with quantities available for purchasing shortly thereafter would seem like april retail availability.

 

[turtle]

Supposedly R600 has been pushed back to Q2 [April] according to the same source that came with previous GPU news. This news was told to him today by contacts in Taiwan. He forgot to ask if this was for R600 in general or for the GDDR3 or GDDR4 version. A couple of weeks ago ATI told him that R600 would be launched in February.

You deserve a cookie. Your source seems to be correct.

Availability anytime after CeBIT pretty much means Q2. (April) while the launch may indeed be in February or March.

 

[trinibwoy]

Depends on when in March. Nov 8th to March 8th is 4 months on my fingers (didn't even have to take my shoes off for that). 6 months is 50% more than 4 months.

Wasn't it launch in mid-March with availability sometime after?

 

[Geo]

Wasn't it launch in mid-March with availability sometime after?

Was it? I thought we were talking about the Feb 28 press/manufacturers one. Anyway, I think we can all agree that "March" anything is later than we'd like.

 

[trinibwoy]

Oh my bad, thought we were going off of the Inq's latest spiel.

 

[compres]

yess, x800 xt was faster than 6800 ultra in most games and if i recall correctly, had much less shimmering.

I'll take the x800 over the 6800 any time. However tha nv sold more as usual: marketing competence.

 

[nutball]

The Inq's latest spiel makes zero sense.

They're pathologically late to market, but they're so worried about the bad press that a "soft" or "slightly firm" launch would get them they're going to wait another ~month so that they can make it hard? *sniff* *sniff* hmm...

This maybe makes sense if R600 is so uber it will kick even G81 butt, or it's so lame that release date hardly matters any more, but in a situation of approximate parity I'm not sure why that choice would make sense.

 

[IbaneZ]

I'll take the x800 over the 6800 any time. However tha nv sold more as usual: marketing competence.

Yeah? Tell that to those who are trying to play Rainbow Six Vegas on an X800.

I agree, the NV PR is superb, but it takes a couple of years to kick in.

 

[Andrew Lauritzen]

I'll take the x800 over the 6800 any time. However tha nv sold more as usual: marketing competence.

I dunno, IMHO the 6000 series was hands-down a winner over any competition from ATI at the time. However the X1900 series was arguably superior to the 7000 series. This sort of leap-frogging is pretty common.

The interesting part will be this generation, where both companies have a sort of "forced synchronization" due to DX10/Vista. G80 certainly hits the mark - hopefully R600 will too!

 

[TG01]

Yeah? Tell that to those who are trying to play Rainbow Six Vegas on an X800.

That game is an affront to any self respecting video card..

No AA whatsoever in a 2006 game.. !? tss

 

[Sunday]

The GPU is really done. To produce mass quantities of card is not easy task if you consider it'll be THE most complicated VGA card ever build.
Also next facts are to be considered:

February 18, 2007 is the first day of the Chinese new year
(http://www.chinapage.com/newyear.html)

Chinese New Year starts with the New Moon on the first day of the new year and ends on the full moon 15 days later. The 15th day of the new year is called the Lantern Festival, which is celebrated at night with lantern displays and children carrying lanterns in a parade.
(http://www.educ.uvic.ca/faculty/mroth/438/CHINA/chinese_new_year.html)
Fifteen bloody days!!!
You don't need to be genius to figure out that it's mission impossible to stockpile enough cards for hard launch by the end of February!
Premiere needs to be before CeBIT, 'cos "education" will require more time then simple press session in Messe Press Center...