R420 soon

Well, but at least you do on occasion. I know quite a few who do on a regular basis. But, of course, that sure doesn't mean everyone does. Many simply don't have the time, especially on the eve of a new product cycle and bus architecture.

 

of course, it has: nomen est omen.

The answer to the meaning of life, the universe and everything is: 420.

 

The latter requires to stop producing them or, at least, significantly lower its production.
Did it happen with 9800 Pro? I don't think so.

 

I don't mean to be rude but i honestly don't see the "news" part in Tahir's post.

Yeah ATI will have a big AIB probably mainly a ATI only AIB to be the first one or the one that will be promoted along side R420. Isn't that kind of expected :?
I don't think anyone seriously expected GeCube to be there main promotion partner for R420
Well shortly i mean that ATI will probably have a big well known AIB to promote the R420 with besides themselves, and that isn't something unexpected.

And is Tahir the first to mention May? Not really. There's been mention of April-May THIS YEAR by other from what i've read on both this board and others.

BTW the jokes were funny

And now back to the topic, whatever is left of it

Edit: Don't mean to insult the poster with this post if it can be read like that somehow.

 

I think its down to several factors:

1.) why cannibalize current high end card sales if your release is over a month away?
2.)why let hype over your cards reach a fever pitch if they arent available for purchase? Better to let reviews come out a few days before the cards are on the shelves.

 

To tell you the truth, the ball is in nvidias court ATI can sit back and relax for quite a long while their graphic cards are no doubt the best at the moment and they will run any game even the next gen half life 2 and doom III with everything on. Software hasnt caught up yet and it wont for quite a while. And it didnt happen with 9800 pro because the performance between 9700 pro and 9800 pro and XT wasnt as huge as an increase from 8500 where you suddenly receive double the pipelines.

Theres no absolutely nothing thats pushing ati to reveal or send out anything new not even new software. Even if they were to release another 2-3x jump do you honestly think it'll be good for the company? The consumer yes but having such a big increase will leave software so far behind what will keep you from buying another card? look at it this way 2002-08-19 thats around the time 9700 pro was released and its still a high end performance card most likely capable of running HL2 and DOOM 3 with everything on. thats almost 2 years as a top of the line card most things are considered dated by 1 year. Its just bad buisness strategy.

 

I agree. Personally I'm beginning to think the R420 and NV40 won't be released until Half Life 2 and Doom 3 are literally a month or so away. There's certainly no compelling software reason today to release these cards when you've got super powered 9800XTs and 5950 Ultras on sale that can run games at high res, AA/AF and other eye candy. Hell, the main reason I upgraded my entire system last June was because I thought Half Life 2 was coming in September. Little did I know.

With the system I've got today, there's no way I'm going to upgrade again anytime soon. But if R420 is indeed the same jump over the 9700/9800 as the 9700 was over the 8500 as that ATI rep said a few weeks ago, then I'll get it, but only because I want to play Half Life 2 with all the eye candy. Software pushing hardware and all that.

 

Let's see Far Cry: should be out ~2 weeks.

 

5900's & 9800Pro's are crashing in price in the UK which indicates stock clearing to me.

 

how low is crashing low?

215 US or 300 CAD for a 9800 pro 128mb retail right now.

 

Well, in France, the drop is around 20€ and the sapphire 128 MB (wich is the lowest price) cost at best 235€.

 

Well, for my part, i found this "news" interesting, and i do hope that you will continue to post this sort of information. For the rest, well i do agree with the B3D staff.

 

But ATi should know they have a NEW chip in the pipe when they order how many of their CURRENT chips they want to have manufactured, so they could adjust their level of stock around the estimated completion date of their already mentioned new chip...

Sure, perhaps there's not competitive pressure right now to unveil a successor, but there's something called 'cementing your lead' too. By unveiling a successor before competitive pressure requires it would further strengthen the impression of ATi as the current leader, maybe even continue to give that impression even if Nvidia introduces a fiercely competitive part of their own.

If ATi has the market to themselves for a while it would sure lead to a lot more goodwill for them than if both NV and ATi introduces pretty much even-powered chips at about the same time...

 

At last Hitch Hikers' Guide to Galaxy quote.

someone asked ME (can you believe that?) via private message about what I am hearing...

well, here comes to my answer:
"excelent old game music boosting via loud speakers connected to my amplifier and..." (excitement rises) "...random noise on frequency band between 100Hz and 18 KHz(+-200 Hz)"

 

Probably as much to do with the weak dollar as anything. Dollar is tied to the Chinese Yuan and Sapphire cards are produced in China.

Whether they are clearing stock is down to whether they're abandoning the R300 chip entirely. Not sure if thats been clarified 100%.

 

"Cementing your lead" doesn't make much sense if the market share numbers already suggest that the high end lead is pretty well cemented and, as ATI have already stated, their next high end product will eat into their margins.

 

Well i don't think so. Lately, Euro has lost some ground to $, change rate is not the reason, at least. It must be something else. Now what, is what i don't know.
http://www.boursorama.com/graphique...&choix_bourseComp=pays=33&i1=1&i2=0&i3=0&st=6

 

This goes along with their, "we're going to hold the top card spot at all costs!" philosophy, yes?

That's what gots me excited about this round of graphic card releases, both companies are bound and determined to be #1...we should be the winners in this round.

 

If a 160 million transistor GPU @ .13 will eat into ATI’s margins what kind margins would nVidia have with +200 million transistor GPU (assuming similar yields)?