Anand's Gigabyte 9700 is a ATI engineering sample

[ben6]

http://www.anandtech.com/video/show.../reviews/video/ati/radeon9700pro/cardback.jpg

http://www.anandtech.com/video/show....com/reviews/video/gigabyte/r300/cardback.jpg

http://www.anandtech.com/video/show...reviews/video/ati/radeon9700pro/cardfront.jpg

http://www.anandtech.com/video/show...com/reviews/video/gigabyte/r300/cardfront.jpg

Thanks to a buddy of mine at ATI for pointing it out ! Things to look for

1. backside sticker the torn sticker is a ATI engineering sample sticker, the ATI card, on the other hand is from a retail 9700
2. part number

 

[Hellbinder]

yes but.. what does it all mean???

Please help me with why you posted that.... I know I am supposed to be going ... ahhhhh now i get it... or something like that...

instad... all i feel is *huhhh???*

 

[antlers]

I think it means Gigagbyte hasn't actually put a board together yet, and the differences between the "Gigabyte" board and the ATI retail boards are in fact the differences between the ATI engineering samples and the ATI retail boards.

In other words, the ATI engineering samples had an early version BIOS and a real loud fan.

Takes some of the interest out of the Anand piece, but does not diminish the "revelation" that the 9700 is apparently quite overclockable.

 

[David G.]

Everybody knew that ... I think ...

 

[ben6]

antlers got it. Heh had a good laugh as to Anand calling it a "Gigabyte engineering sample" though . The ATI engineer had a real good laugh at that

 

[gkar1]

And we care because?

 

[MuFu]

All the samples have suffixes after the board designation. R300 boards are all PN (part number) 109 (meaning a board product) - 942 (denotes R300) 00 (digits for board-specific variations) - 00 (no idea) and then the ES's have a letter afterwards indicating the PCB revision; A, B, C, etc... Production boards don't have the suffix.

If Gigabyte designed and qualified their own boards I doubt they would use exactly the same nomenclature. PowerColor have produced their own design based around 964 (the RV25A) and perhaps also 942, but they have been given different part numbers to ATi's reference designs.

Plus, all in-house cards have the caps marked up for polarity like that - it was suggested to me that this is due to some mishap in the past.

MuFu.

 

[MuFu]

antlers got it. Heh had a good laugh as to Anand calling it a "Gigabyte engineering sample" though . The ATI engineer had a real good laugh at that

I bet.

 

[MuFu]

ben6, can your friend at ATi shed any light on these things...?

*How come they didn't add an NTSC/PAL dipswitch to 942?

*Where is the 958 RV250 BGA board? Will we ever see it?

*Will we see the Silicon Image-chipped TDMS DC available in a consumer-level R300 combo?

*Did they ever manage to get YPrPb ouput working with RV250?

*Do you know whether the 3D engine of R300 was conceived in-house or by a start-up company?

If not... don't worry. I may do some digging myself if I get time.

Regards,

MuFu.