ATI to introduce Radeon 9500 in mid-3Q

[Guest]

ATI to introduce Radeon 9500 in mid-3Q


Graphics chip designer ATI Technologies has scheduled to introduce a new R300 core-based chip, the Radeon 9500, around the middle of the third quarter, company chairman and CEO Ho Kwok-yuen told DigiTimes after a new product presentation in Taipei.

Though based on the same R300 core, the Radeon 9500 will be priced lower than the company’s top-end Radeon 9700 and offer certain specification variations and a different pin count. ATI said that it would announce the official quote in mid-August.

ATI’s decision to launch the Radeon 9500 is regarded as a move to fill the gap between its current target market segments. The Canada-based company only recently launched three new products – the RV250 core-based Radeon 9000 and Radeon 9000 PRO in one line and the R300-incorporated Radeon 9700 in another – with respective card prices reaching US$109, US$129 and US$399. As the price differential between the two lines is US$270, ATI needs to introduce another medium-range to high-end product to cover the US$200-300 segment, which is the primary battleground in the present marketplace.

Given its marketing position, the Radeon 9500 is expected to compete directly with Nvidia’s GeForce4 Ti 4200 chip. As integrated chipsets like Intel’s 845G gradually impact shipments of low-end graphics cards, manufacturers have started adjusting their portfolios to accommodate more higher-end products. The GeForce4 Ti 4200, given its better price/performance, has been gaining in popularity. According to Nvidia, its shipment ratio of the GeForce4 Ti 4200 chip is now closing in on that of the cheaper GeForce4 MX 440.

Before unveiling its new-generation chips, ATI already stopped placing orders for Radeon 8500 products, sources said. ATI evidently decided to launch the Radeon 9500 slightly later than the three chips it recently launched so as to not affect the clear-out of Radeon 8500 inventory.

http://www.digitimes.com/NewsShow/Article.asp?datePublish=2002/07/31&pages=04&se q=21

 

[Dave Baumann]

'Reduced Pin count' would suggest a 128bit bus - at least that would seem the most likely to be affected by a reduced pin count. (Perhaps a 192bit bus?)

 

[Guest]

'Reduced Pin count' would suggest a 128bit bus - at least that would seem the most likely to be affected by a reduced pin count. (Perhaps a 192bit bus?)

Yeah prolly 128bit bus.. It will probably perform about as well as the geforce 4 ti4600 or better.. hard to say. They wouldn't target a poor performer at nvidias mid range the Radeon 9500 is ment to place a solid body blow.. IMHO. It seems nvidia has nothing to come back with at all so far... what about the rumored nv28?

 

[RussSchultz]

I wonder at that point if it isn't the same die as the R300, but crippled in packaging (to reduce the bus width) and in software (to enable only half the pipes).

 

[oNe22]

actually it says: "certain specification variations and a different pin count" not a reduced pin count ..

 

[pascal]

Some cheap DX9 card for Xmas 8)
Maybe 128bits data bus, 4 pixel pipe and 2 VS

 

[Dave Baumann]

I wonder at that point if it isn't the same die as the R300, but crippled in packaging (to reduce the bus width) and in software (to enable only half the pipes).

If it is actually the same core would they really want to halve the number of pipes? Technically speaking R300 has the same texture rate as R200 and R200 is still only on a 128bit bus; R300 also has the benefit of crossbar and a better (on paper) Hierarchical Z buffer scheme (assuming all this makes it across).

I'm still astonished, if it is the case, that the R300 core could scale down to this type of price range - they must only be getting half the cores per wafer in comparison to R300 (and thats before yeild issues).

 

[pascal]

See the R300 chip in this picture: http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=1656&p=2
Lets speculate the 9500 has only 128bits, half the pixel pipes and half the vs pipes then probably the die size could be only half of that. With smaller die it will need less power, smaller packaging.

Lets say a 300MHz core speed and we get 1.2GTexels/s, but with improved memory architecture (compared to R200), maybe better caches, etc.. and it will be able to sustain the performance much better than the R200.

But the real gain will be with next generation games (like Doom3) with performance and specially QUALITY.

I hope to see some good DX9 deals from ATI, Nvidia and others.

 

[bdmosky]

But doesn't DX9 specifications call for 4 VS pipes thus rendering your 9500 part a non-DX9 compliant video card? Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Hyp-X]

But doesn't DX9 specifications call for 4 VS pipes thus rendering your 9500 part a non-DX9 compliant video card? Correct me if I'm wrong.

In one word: no.

The number of VS pipes is transparent to the programmer. The 4 pipe does the same work paralelly on 4 different vertices, effectively quadrupling the troughput of the VS.

Actually its partly a marketing stuff, as the original GF3 operates on 3 vertices at once by default so it could be called 3 piped. And the 2 piped GF4 has similar computing power as the 1 piped R200. (Not to mention Parhelia with its 4 pipes.)
So the number of VS pipes means near to nothing in practice.

 

[Pete]

So, we're looking at a lower-clocked R300 with 128-bit DDR2? And possibly (but not likely, IMUneducatedO), a halving of pixel pipes?