The cores could be clocked higher (RV250 seems to have been kept artificially low) and/or they could be a 4x2 pipe/tmu arrangement.
So, MuFu, Now that R300 is not longer a mystery...
- Thread starter Dave Baumann
- Start date
Yes, but why doing this when you can get the same by clocking an existing chip lower? No new design, no $$$ for XX engineers doing another complex hardware implementation, no $$$ for TSMC for another masking/prototyping session ....
Doing a new chip only makes sense if the market you targed at is a very high volume market. A $299 product doesn't fit there.
Doing a new chip only makes sense if the market you targed at is a very high volume market. A $299 product doesn't fit there.
Little quote from Dave Orton over cocktails in the Cirque room : Radeon 9700 ( I substituted the word R300 in the conversation) is very nice, but for me $399 is a bit too much for a videocard to make any kind of penetration in the market. When might we see a card under $199 with all of the DX9 features
A: First half next year. Maybe as early as Spring (
A: First half next year. Maybe as early as Spring (
Because the economies of the chip may not scale to the lower end particularily well. i.e. - this thing is big: its expensive silicon, expensive board, expensive cooling, expensive packaging; even with the cost of everything you state there may well still be more room in the margins if they make a new chip to cut down on these areas. Think about it - R300 is on the same process as R200, made less than a year ago; although I'll wager process stability has settle prices downward a little they still basically have (I assume) double the wafer costs for each R300 core -- is that feasible to sell at the price Radeon 8500 was introduced at? (and thats discounting the other elements)
ben6 said:
Radeon 9700 -> $399
Radeon 9500 -> $299
the product Mr. Orton is talking about coming next spring: -> $199
The Radeon 9500 is still an expensive, relativly low volume product, while future products coming in spring target for the mainstream (and therefore need a cut down core to reach that price tag).
