The LAST R600 Rumours & Speculation Thread

[Megadrive1988]

I myself just read about the R600 delay this afternoon.


DOH!

i'm sure it'll be worth it when it arrives. 512-bit bus, more mature Vista drivers. I think the delay of the R600 is not as huge a deal as some make it out to be.

this is no NV30 ~ GeForce FX type of blunder, at least not from what is known.

 

[icecold1983]

so possibly 7 to 8 months after g80 launched. wow, just wow

 

[Oushi]

So we can expect Nvidia to release the 8900GTX before 2900XTX?

US

no need too, but i am sure about 8600\8300 series.

 

[Arty]

The original release was planned in November last year already.

Just like how the G80 was supposed to ship in the fall of 2006?

That Guru3d article is taking it to an exteme, IMO.

 

[Geo]

so possibly 7 to 8 months after g80 launched. wow, just wow

Err, what? How did you get 8? If it launches first week of May that's 6 (not that this would be cause for celebration).

 

[R300King!]

Drats, I was too late to seize the opportunity.
Looks like I sure AMD'ed myself.

It's now a verb.

Another Motherfkn' Delay

or Always More Delays

Make sure you don't get AMD'd out in the middle of nowhere. LOL

 

[KimB]

Or, hey, we could redefine ATI:
the Always Tardy Initiative.

Seriously, though, this is just bad news all around. This first new high-end part after the merger should have been ATI's easiest to pull off. That it has apparently experienced technical difficulties may just hasten the end I have predicted, that ATI will pull out of the high-end market altogether in a few years. You guys know I've always been a bit NV-biased, but I can't say I'm happy about this.

 

[wishiknew]

I see ATI doing another 'why it was late' presentation just like the x1ks.

 

[RobertR1]

Just plain awful news for Ati. The x1900 series has been around for some time now.

Nvidia will likely release the 8900GTX before the R600. Early to market clearly has proven to be a winner for the past few years.

 

[Skrying]

Just plain awful news for Ati. The x1900 series has been around for some time now.

Nvidia will likely release the 8900GTX before the R600. Early to market clearly has proven to be a winner for the past few years.

Why would Nvidia do that? Unless the 8900GTX was cheaper to manufacturer then there would be no reason at all to do so.

 

[RobertR1]

Why would Nvidia do that? Unless the 8900GTX was cheaper to manufacturer then there would be no reason at all to do so.

To stay on a good production cycle. If you span out your releases you can make more by keeping the product in the market longer instead of squeezing releases closely together and such as r520 and r580. Also, the 8900GTX is likely a refresh than a whole new architecture and historically speaking, the refreshes are generally more cost effecient to the business, along with having a new sku starting at the higher price range than one that has been falling in price.

I would not be shocked to see the 8900GTX or whatever the refresh card is, to come out before the R600.

 

[INKster]

To stay on a good production cycle. If you span out your releases you can make more by keeping the product in the market longer instead of squeezing releases closely together and such as r520 and r580. Also, the 8900GTX is likely a refresh than a whole new architecture and historically speaking, the refreshes are generally more cost effecient to the business, along with having a new sku starting at the higher price range than one that has been falling in price.

I would not be shocked to see the 8900GTX or whatever the refresh card is, to come out before the R600.

Unfortunately, it doesn't depend solely on the designer, the manufacturer (TSMC, UMC, Chartered, SMIC, etc) has to do its part.
If the process isn't ready or economical yet, there's no point in doing a shrink just for "kicks".
ATI clearly designed (maybe, re-designed ?) R600 for 80nm or less, since the 90GT process wasn't that great for their previous top parts, power consumption-wise.

Somehow, i doubt Nvidia would shrink G80 down to the 80nm half-node.
My bet it that they'll unveil a top GPU on the 65nm process sometime in the Fall, or maybe even late Summer, but it will not be a simple die-shrink.
That 65nm G72 is a too suspicious "experiment", when they could have used that process for the G86 to make a truly "killer" low end GPU...

 

[Unknown Soldier]

no need too, but i am sure about 8600\8300 series.

Actually, I would see it as a throat slitting move, especially if it comes in at around 1-3% of the performance of the X2900XTX. I still expect the X2900XTX to be quicker, sometimes.

US

 

[icecold1983]

Err, what? How did you get 8? If it launches first week of May that's 6 (not that this would be cause for celebration).

someone said may/june, so if its june that puts it at 7 or 8 depending on how u count. i also said possibly.

 

[Moloch]

If the R600 doesn't kick major G80 ass I'm gonna change my name...
Before I used to buy nvidia parts because their midrange parts have been superior but wanted a high end ati part.
Now I dunno...

 

[Skrying]

If I head the money I'd personally go ahead and buy a G80 based part if you were holding out for R600. I personally do not expect miracles and might as well treat yourself. However, my money just went to a new monitor. On the other hand if you've waited this long what is a bit more waiting going do? Meh.

 

[kemosabe]

Seems like AMD brass are only now beginning to discover ATI's consistently dismal execution. Hey Wavey, how long before they offer you Orton's job?

 

[compres]

Or, hey, we could redefine ATI:
the Always Tardy Initiative.

Seriously, though, this is just bad news all around. This first new high-end part after the merger should have been ATI's easiest to pull off. That it has apparently experienced technical difficulties may just hasten the end I have predicted, that ATI will pull out of the high-end market altogether in a few years. You guys know I've always been a bit NV-biased, but I can't say I'm happy about this.

I have to say I have noticed you are biased, but right now you are absolutely right, biased or not.

 

[R300King!]

It looks like DAAMIT has 2 reasons for the delay as said by vr-zone

AMD has delayed R600 launch from March to unconfirmed date in Q2 according to INQ and TechPowerup. The reason cited by AMD is that their R600 series is not where they want it to be yet, so they decided to move the launch to be able to deliver a competitive product. We will also see more than just GPU related stuff for the launch in Q2.

However, this decision is no surprise to us. Two weeks back, we have heard that ATi was considering pushing back the schedule for R600. It is mainly due to 2 reasons. AMD wants a hard launch like what NVIDIA has been doing so far so availability of the retail cards at launch is the key. Also AMD is still working on enhancing the performance of the drivers for R600 and we heard that the performance few weeks ago is just almost on par with GeForce 8800GTX and there is a potential to go another 20-30% more. Last week, AMD has decided on the marketing name for R600 as X2900 series so we can presume the performance is already higher than 8800GTX now.

Also posted at Rage3D

 

[KimB]

Well, the problem with that for AMD/ATI is that there is no reason to expect that nVidia won't be able to pull another 20%-30% performance out of the G8x drivers.

My personal guess is that over the next 1-2 months nVidia is going to be working hard on Vista compatibility and performance, and should bring that up to par in that time, giving them another couple of months, apparently, to get further performance tweaks to spoil ATI/AMD's launch.