ATI users may not see PS 3.0 Until 1st half of 2006

[Dimahnbloe]

Notice that there is not question mark at the end of the title. The reason for this is that I am certain of this, but would love to be proved wrong.

I know I might get flamed for stating this but right now I am so teed off that I don't care.

As they stated, they will indeed launch r5XX sometime in the first half of 2005 (probably May-June) but it probably will not be available until January February of 2006. Sounds crazy huh? At best case scenario, you might be able to pay 300-400$ for one by the end of November of 2005. Oh, did I forget to mention that the price quote did not include the base MSRP of 399-499$? So just take MSRP and add 3-400$ and you'll get the final selling price. Can you tell that I am getting just giddy with anticipation?

Did I also forget to mention that I am one of those lucky people waiting for them to deliver the AIW X800's. To bad I won't be able to purchase one at MSRP from a local electronics store until April-May of next year.

 

[Pete]

Interesting. I had gathered that "Kaleidescope," reported by Anand to be a new IGP in Q1 '06, was also the name for ATi's next, SM3 card, which I assumed would be due in '05.

Guess I was wrong. But why do you say $300+ on top of MSRP? That seems awfully specific info this far out. Are you basing that on XTPE prices?

 

[Thunderbird]

Have you seen the frontpage today or is this in response to that?

 

[Pete]

Frontpage was posted after this, and oddly enough seems to track with it:

The reports state that ATI have confirmed they are due to launch their new architecture, the basis of the R5xx series, in the first half of 2005. Goldman also believes the architecture to be based on Shader 3.0 and be very focused on the memory interface and bus. The expectation is that GDDR4 memory technology will ramp in production in late 2005

Very odd. If Xbox 2 really is SM3, and if ATi thinks SM3 is only feasible at 90nm, and if consoles want to debut at the smallest process possible for all the evident reasons, why couldn't ATi transition this tech to the PC side sooner?

 

[Dimahnbloe]

Sorry guys, I was just venting and being an a$$. I am currently typing this reply from a dual processing Opteron 248 machine with a copy of windows XP MCE 2005 edition just sitting on the table due to the fact that I am so depressed/upset with the fact that the Graphics card in it is a borrowed fx5200 PCI that I just don't want to install it. The sad part is that it’s been this way ever since the beginning of June (sold my AIW 9800 Pro to get a good return from it). I refuse to even load or play any games on it due to the fear that It might be the straw that breaks the camels back and I may go POSTAL (quite my job, stop going to school, pack everything in my car, and take a little trip to Canada to pay ATI a little visit; just kidding, it’s not that serious, but you get my point) Everything that I stated during the earlier post was aimed at being sarcastic about the availability of ATI's current high end gpu's. The post made about r5xx on the front page today had nothing to do with it.

It's just to say that no matter when ATI launches their next gen gpu, due to "high demand" on the OEM side, regular customers will not be able to touch these gpu's at retail outlets on a consistent level until the end of 2005 or beginning of 2006 (much like the current situation).

As in terms of the price, I use to laugh at places like Best Buy and CompUSA for their ridiculous prices of 499, but now they are our saviors and we would be lucky to get a card at MSRP. When the AIW x800XT finally hits the web, I fear it will sell between 800-1000 if the current market is an indicator

I guess all I really want is some honesty from them. It really ticks me off to watch them launch a product fully well knowing that based on their ability to make them that the average consumer will not be able to purchase is it at decent prices. On top of that their PR machine has strung us along making us believe that their is no problem. Message to ATI: If you can’t ramp production enough to meet the needs of the market (especially if it’s the same market you seem to be easily pumping low end parts to) then you have a problem!!! And based on some information obtained in the article on the front page, it seems that you have acknowledged this internally.

 

[991060]

Well, I think this forum is not a proper place to post complaining words, there's a general topic forum for such things.

Anyway, is 6800 series equally hard to find? Maybe you can try jumping the boat this time.

 

[Guden Oden]

Can you tell that I am getting just giddy with anticipation?

Do you mind if I borrow that crystal ball of yours and make some dire predictions of my own with it?

 

[Pete]

 

[Dave Baumann]

AIW X800 has some other issues surrounding - they have to get a new software layer in place with all the new features to cope with the new tuner. I'd wager that is in fact why these have yet to appear - X800 XT's (500/500) appear to have reasonably good availability.

 

[jvd]

I took from the front page post that the sm3.0 card will come out first half of 2005 and it will be scalable with ddr 3 ram or whatever.

Not that it wont come out till the start of 2006

 

[loekf2]

Well, I think this forum is not a proper place to post complaining words, there's a general topic forum for such things.

Anyway, is 6800 series equally hard to find? Maybe you can try jumping the boat this time.

It surprises me as well. A few weeks back in the US I saw a whole wall of 6800 cards at Frys. Here in the Netherlands they are still rare beasts. Except for 6800LE cards.

Hmm... if 6800LE cards are easier to get, including a flood of new annoucements of 6800 vanilla cards (see sits like nvnews.net).. could this be a sign of bad yields at Nivida ? Not suprising considering the large die size (over 300 mm2 ?)

 

[Fodder]

I took from the front page post that the sm3.0 card will come out first half of 2005 and it will be scalable with ddr 3 ram or whatever.

Sure, like how the X800 and 6800 came out in April. :?

 

[jvd]

I took from the front page post that the sm3.0 card will come out first half of 2005 and it will be scalable with ddr 3 ram or whatever.

Sure, like how the X800 and 6800 came out in April. :?

I dunno. I don't recall ati saying it be out in april . Actually it wasn't even announced till the begning of may and i got my x800xt pe a month and a half later on june 15th which is the date best buy told me from april thati t would be in

 

[Nick]

It surprises me as well. A few weeks back in the US I saw a whole wall of 6800 cards at Frys. Here in the Netherlands they are still rare beasts. Except for 6800LE cards.

Come buy one in Belgium. In my local store they get them by the dozen, and the next week they are sold out. It's not a matter of bad supply, I just think the demand is huge. The game industry has become big business, DirectX 9 has matured, and people learned that the graphics card is most important. Now with Doom 3 and Half-Life 2 everbody wants a high-end card.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

As in terms of the price, I use to laugh at places like Best Buy and CompUSA for their ridiculous prices of 499, but now they are our saviors and we would be lucky to get a card at MSRP. When the AIW x800XT finally hits the web, I fear it will sell between 800-1000 if the current market is an indicator.

Hmm .. shame .. here they sell the X800XT PE for R6000 .. that's about US$900+ .. so if I can buy the card overseas for US$499 I will.

US

 

[BrynS]

...sell the X800XT PE for R6000 .. that's about US$900+ .. so if I can buy the card overseas for US$499 I will.

US

Are you living in/from South Africa?

If no, then the following does not apply. If yes, then I can definately appreciate your situation -- low volume, premium components (e.g. latest GPU) have always been excessively priced there, I assume due to the very small market relative to say the UK, for example, although I would think that it is by far the largest IT market in Africa. I seem to recall availability and delays due to low allocation also sometimes being a problem.

I don't really have a sense of who the best suppliers/online retailers are in SA at the moment anymore, not having lived there for a couple of years, however I do recall speccing some parts from a company called Cyberdyne Systems http://www.cyberdyne.co.za/. I've just checked their most recent pricelist (available for download off the website) and they have the following high-end graphics products available:

All prices here include VAT @ 14% (The prices on the actual pricelist exclude VAT)

1. MSI ATI RX800 PRO-VTD256 256Mb AGP 8X + TV+ VIVO + DVI (Retail)
Cash Price: R4418 / Standard Price: R4862

2. MSI ATI RX800XT PLATINUM EDITION-VTD256 256Mb AGP 8X + TV + VIVO + DVI (Retail)
Cash Price: R5238 / Standard Price: R5763

3. MSI ATI RX800XT 256Mb PCI EXPRESS + TV Out + DVI (Retail)
Cash Price: R5238 / Standard Price: R5763

4. MSI GeForce NX6800 Ultra-T2D256 AGP 8X + TV Out + VIVO + DVI (Retail)
Cash Price: R5187 / Standard Price: R5706

5. MSI GeForce NX6800GT 256 AGP 8X + TV Out + DVI (Retail)
Cash Price: R4047 / Standard Price: R4452

I don't know if that helps or not, although ideally it would be cheaper to get one from the states or Europe and hopefully not get hit with a customs charge.

Cheers,

BrynS

 

[fallguy]

Notice that there is not question mark at the end of the title. The reason for this is that I am certain of this, but would love to be proved wrong.

If you are so certain, why use may?

 

[Megadrive1988]

haw! we may well see PS 3.0 demos in January running on ATI R500

 

[Pete]

And the R500 will be just as available to the general public as the XTPE was at launch--that is, not.

The real question is will Xobx2 be as hueg as Xobx 1? B/c that sucker looks frickin' hideous next to the new PS2.

 

[kemosabe]

And the R500 will be just as available to the general public as the XTPE was at launch--that is, not.

If you're referring to R520, I wouldn't be too sure about that. Unless they run into major yield problems, the capacity for 0.09u parts should be very good (TSMC is still begging for customer demand), and thus far ATI has no competing products using that process, unlike their grocery list of parts at 0.13u low-k which are largely contributing to availability issues.