ATI to scrap X700XT in favour of X800?

[Dave Baumann]

As I made note in the thread by Chris, if you look at any indicators or roadmaps prior to the release of R430 its was only every described as a 12 pipe part; I was quite surpised to find the ASIC was 16 capable, so in that respect the X800 XL is the oddity in comparison to previous indicators.

 

[Mulciber]

As I made note in the thread by Chris, if you look at any indicators or roadmaps prior to the release of R430 its was only every described as a 12 pipe part; I was quite surpised to find the ASIC was 16 capable, so in that respect the X800 XL is the oddity in comparison to previous indicators.

I agree. This is why I'm still skeptical of their future availability. I think it would be extremely hard for ATI to match availability of the 6600gt with the x800 at the same price point while theirs is a 4 quad asic and nvidias is a 2 quad asic; regardless of architectural differences, the die size disparity isn't negligible. RAM prices won't be a factor if ATI simply cannot produce enough chips.

 

[kemosabe]

As I made note in the thread by Chris, if you look at any indicators or roadmaps prior to the release of R430 its was only every described as a 12 pipe part; I was quite surpised to find the ASIC was 16 capable, so in that respect the X800 XL is the oddity in comparison to previous indicators.

I agree. This is why I'm still skeptical of their future availability. I think it would be extremely hard for ATI to match availability of the 6600gt with the x800 at the same price point while theirs is a 4 quad asic and nvidias is a 2 quad asic; regardless of architectural differences, the die size disparity isn't negligible. RAM prices won't be a factor if ATI simply cannot produce enough chips.

But the X800XL is in fact competing with the 6800GT (and possibly for $50-100 less) which is also a 4-quad ASIC; it's the vanilla X800 (3 quads) with cheaper DDR1 that's going up against the 6600GT at $199. And while there's good reason to be skeptical, ATI continues to insist that XL availability will not be an issue. What baffles me (being a shareholder and all) is how ATI will achieve its profit margin goals when the XL ships in volume. Despite the 0.11u cost savings, a large die + GDDR3 at $299 would seem to make little business sense even if yields are decent - I see no reason why the XL can't become popular enough to cannibalize X850XT/PE sales. This runs counter to recent high-end pricing trends and has all the makings of an effort to castrate 6800GT sales.

 

[Bjorn]

... the board vendors just thought that was more trouble than it was worth.

That's what happens when you make a unrealistic spec.

I should imagine they are rather pleased that the X800 has filled its price point.

It will be really interesting to see if Ati can produce enough X800's at that pricepoint considering that it's a native 16 pipe chip with 4 pipes disabled. But it sure will be a great card for that amount of money.