Did ATI hold back on R520 to make room for R580?

Jen is all about the money, revenge comes second.

 

But revenge and money is twice as nice. It is the whole kick them while their down strategy. Nvidia can release a higher clocked part to get the performance crown. Thus allowing them to say they have the best card, which in turn transfers into better sales on their lower end parts.

 

Isnt R580 the refresh of R520? (It doesnt have a refresh of its own)

 

Rather than drop R520 down a notch, isn't it more likely ATI will phase it out in favor of R580 and release a new, two quad GPU to fill in the gap b/w the currently single quad RVs and quadruple quad Rs? We've already seen it with X700 and 6600, a separate, mainstream/"performance" GPU.

It's possible they'll go with a 4-5 GPU lineup (RV515, RV530, dual-quad, R520, R580), but I see RV515 ditched in favor of RV530 just as R520 will make way for R580. Then we'll see something in between at the $250-450 level, a dual-quad version of RV530/R580.

Maybe that's too neat, but it does seem a lot simpler in terms of fab space/usage.

As for R580 refreshes, I thought that was the end of the line WRT DX9.

I'm done talking out of my butt, now.

 

I think that price gap between $250 and $450 (or something like this) will be filled in January or Feburary. ATi will bring the price of the X1800XL down to $299 and the X1800XT to $399(256mb), $449(512mb) and will introduce the X1900XT(R580) ,and possible the XL, for $599 and $549 repectively.

These are of course my predictions, but when Nvidia counters the X1800XT(and they will), ATi has the R580 "In house and working" for just that occasion.


Predicted by me Oct. 6th. Let's see if I'm right.

http://66.224.5.66/board/showpost.php?p=1333950620&postcount=33

 

I suspect an X1800 Pro and/or SE model will be coming.

 

X1800XL prices starting to fall!

ATi lowered their price of the X1800XL Board from 449,- to 399,-

http://shop.ati.com/product.asp?sku=2750315

 

Keep in mind that ATi had R590 on their roadmaps. This core was listed as "optional" and is supposedly R580 on a 80nm process. Doesn't 80nm also have low-k? If it does than R590 could very well be the refresh of R580 using higher clockspeeds, but cheaper to produce.

Personally I expect R520 to continue besides R580 in a lower pricerange, until RV560 appears first with RV540 and RV505 coming a bit later (probably Q2/Q3'06).

 

If I take as granted that the R580 will have similar or slightly higher clockspeeds than R520, then I don't see the first being a clear winner over what the competition might have to offer against it.

Furthermore I'm wondering whether ATI will in fact release a X1800XT PE with even higher frequencies, otherwise they might end up losing any so far advantage over the competition in terms of performance.

 

Are you able to flesh out those codenames (RV560, RV540, RV505) at all in terms of process and possible configuration?

- RV540: 80nm die shrink (cost reduction) of RV530?
- RV505: 80nm die shrink (cost reduction) of RV515?
- RV560: 80nm die shrink (cost reduction) of R520 -- the X800XL of R5xx? Or perhaps a beefed-up RV530, i.e. maybe 8-1-3-2?

Are my musings even close?

EDIT: Clarity

 

Interesting....

 

Perhaps they're price-cut refreshes.

Jawed

 

well Nvidia has shown you dont need highest end performance leadership to dominate in sales.

I dont think the R580 will be out in anything less then 3 or 4 months. If ATI wants to drink up sales they can start by attacking Nvidia in the mid and mid-upper ranges.

Not sure if this hasnt been posted in this thread yet, but i'd seriously kill any hopes of ATI launching this as a responce to the 512GTX.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2574

 

They don't become obselete just because DX10 is released. They won't become obselete until games using DX10 as the base featureset are common. Which won't be for years.

 

I agree with you one hundred percent. The point I am making is that ATI under no circumstances would hold back technology on a part about to be released especially when they are late to begin with. Publicly traded companies do not have this luxury unless they are king of their market. Stockholders will come after them with a vengeance.

 

And thats releated to this topic?

One hit wonders.

Sick of promises and Canuck BS. Where the f is my X1800XT?

 

Where did you order it from?