Radeon 9700 w/ DDR2 announced

[Crusher]

A few questions come to mind, maybe they've been discussed elsewhere...

Was that DDR2 demonstration done with a 128 bit bus or a 256 bit bus?

If the former, wouldn't that actually be slower than the current 9700 Pro, even with 1GHz DDR2?

How much more would a 9700 with 1GHz DDR2 on a 256 bit bus cost?

Would that much bandwidth be useful with the current speed of the R300 core, or would it be overkill?

 

[BRiT]

I don't see how ATI announcing technology innovation they've accomplished that doesn't once mention a competitors' product can be construed as FUD. It would be different if they announced what they planned on doing sometime in the future. At least not in the way most companies do their FUD-compaigns (Nvidia's bash of Kyro-II or ATI's AniscopicFiltering).

--|BRiT|

 

[Joe DeFuria]

All it means is to spread Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt about a competitors product.

Right. So how is ATI's PR about DDR-2 in any way, shape or form, FUD?

An example of FUD would be, say some nVidia rep downplaying the usefulness of a 256 bit bus....

 

[Nagorak]

I'm more interested in the R9700 non-pro and R9500/R9500 pro being released than any of this DDR-II nonsense. I honestly don't care whether or not a new overpriced top of the line card is released, except that it might bring the prices of the other cards down a little bit. That said, right now what prices is it going to bring down? Get those damn cards out, ATi!!!

 

[JF_Aidan_Pryde]

FUD = ?

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Excuse me?

I'm an ATI owner and am extremely pleased that (for once) ATI seem to be a nose ahead in both technology and mindshare. What I am not, however, is an ATI fanatic and get equally annoyed when people treat non-existant ATI products as the 'next best thing' as I do when I hear the same things being touted by Nvidia fanatics.

If that makes me a troll then so be it. Rather that than a zealot.

Can I ask you something Cellarboy. I know only a few handful of ppl in South Africa who have bought the R300 and although they all seem pleased with the card(they actually say it's as fast as hell), they all pulling their hair out of there heads as they seem to have problems with the drivers and certain games that they can't play. This doesn't just affect the ppl with the R300 though as I hear complaints coming from ppl with the 9000 and 8500 series too.

So my question.. have you had any problems with any games or drivers?? If not.. can you give me your Driver version so that I can pass it on the the unfortunate souls who are pulling out their hair.

US

 

[Sabastian]

Can I ask you something Cellarboy. I know only a few handful of ppl in South Africa who have bought the R300 and although they all seem pleased with the card(they actually say it's as fast as hell), they all pulling their hair out of there heads as they seem to have problems with the drivers and certain games that they can't play.

US

Now this is what they call FUD spreading....... What games?

 

[BoardBonobo]

FUD = ?

Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt.

[Flame Shield On]
ATi are spreading FUD because they Fear the R300 can't beat the NV30, they are Uncertain about the robustness of the R300, and they Doubt they'll stay ahead of nVidia for long.

 

[jb]

Typically when you see FUD its pitched by one company at another company's products and thus causes Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt in that product. Displaying a new tech working is not FUD. It would have been FUD if they directly attacked a specific company's product but they did not. Its not FUD IMHO. Its just PR.

 

[BoddoZerg]

How the hell is this FUD? If demonstrating a super-powerful product that you can't buy yet is FUD, then surely every Pentium, Athlon, GeForce, and hell even motherboard releases are FUD. In fact, then NV30 is surely FUD, as the very rumors of its existence is causing lots of gamers to postpone buying a R300. There's been tons of rumors of NV30 being much more powerful than R300, even a Tiler - how is that less FUD than a presentation of an actual working DDR-2 R300?

Now if ATi said, "the NV30 is crap because it has less than a third of the memory bandwidth of a R300 with DDR-2", that would be FUD. But they said nothing of the sort - they just did a tech demo, the same way AMD would show off a ClawHammer or Intel would show off a 4 GHz liquid nitrogen cooled Pentium 4.

It's utterly hypocritical to call ATi's tech demo FUD. If you believe that's FUD, then nVidia deserves 10 times the criticism for their NV30 hype.

 

[RussSchultz]

Sigh. If its timed to co-incide or trump another companies product, it certainly adds to the uncertainty of who'll be out first or that that competing product will be better.

All of marketting is based on making people fear using anybody elses product than yours. Whether its that they'll be beaten on cost, features, support or whatever its still about fear.

 

[Joe DeFuria]

Sigh. If its timed to co-incide or trump another companies product, it certainly adds to the uncertainty of who'll be out first or that that competing product will be better.

I don't follow that logic at all, or perhaps put differently, I do not agree with your definition of "FUD" at all.

THere is a distict difference between spreading FUD about a competitor product, and hyping your own products. Both CAN be done simultaneously, but they are not inexorably linked.

You seem to be saying that in this case, the ATI DDRII announcement is timed to trump what? NV30? Isn't the announcement for that a month away? And wouldn't hyping DDR-II products, by your definition, be FUD against ATI's own current products / technology?

All of marketting is based on making people fear using anybody elses product than yours.

Again, I strongly disagree that all marketing is FUD. Of course, all marketing is based on persuading people to choose your product over someone elses. FUD is a specific mean used to that end, but not the only one.

 

[Bigus Dickus]

I agree that it takes a great stretch of the imaginiation to label the 9700 DDR-II demo as FUD.

 

[demalion]

Sigh. If its timed to co-incide or trump another companies product, it certainly adds to the uncertainty of who'll be out first or that that competing product will be better.

Well, by that definition the 9700 Pro release (available to buy in a realistic time frame) was FUD. Are you saying every product launch of a product that is faster than a competing product is FUD?

All of marketting is based on making people fear using anybody elses product than yours. Whether its that they'll be beaten on cost, features, support or whatever its still about fear.

I'd say "FUD" is the result of a concerted effort to spread F, U, and D as a primary goal, or else the label loses meaning (see the 9700 Pro example above). If you'd make that case about the DDR II tech demo you'd need to provide a new definition and then answer the comments prior to this pointing out why many don't think it is.

 

[RussSchultz]

No, I did not say every release was marketting warfare/FUD.

However, if its timed to co-incide with a competitors product release, it isn't there just to 'get the word out', now is it? No, its meant to inject uncertainty/doubt in the competitors product in relation to yours.

 

[GetStuff]

I think you all need hugs.

 

[Snap]

Isn't this 'anti-FUD'? The FUD is all the talk of NVIDIA's current non-existant product using DDR-II, thus infering its technically better than other current products. ATI are just demonstrating their current products are just as capable of using said memory types to stem NV's FUD.

 

[Luminescent]

I had never thought of it that way, Snap. Sad thing is, it seems to be true.

 

[jb]

I agree with Joe since they never really said anything about their competitor then its not really FUD. Also DD2 has been on the R9700 road map for a long time. The time was never know. The fact that it happened sooner is interesting but maybe instead of FUD is their response to the NV30?

 

[Joe DeFuria]

However, if its timed to co-incide with a competitors product release, it isn't there just to 'get the word out', now is it?

Come on Russ....

For starters, again I ask you, what exactly is this DDRII PR "timed with"? Certainly not the NV30 launch?

Regardless, timing has little to do with whether something is FUD or not. It's mostly about the content....