The LAST R600 Rumours & Speculation Thread

Agreed. Unless the price for R600 is completely out of whack (in which case I don't see how an extra couple of weeks can really help), they could release it (even at a premium price and in limited quantities), even if it's to get some mindshare. That would slow down G80 sales at the high end and even at the medium level. So I don't buy the PR line of "we chose not to compete in order to compete better later".

Something is definitely very wrong, I think.

If they have the absolute best performance, they can release their part, and promise lower priced parts for later.

 

Exactly. PR these days dont run cheap and if AMD could pull off simultaneous releases of a new CPU core AND a new GPU, it would certainly make a lot of noise both in cyberspace and the regular financial news. Heres hoping AMD can pull something so gutsy.

epic

 

Let's not forget that AMD "Barcelona" is a server CPU...

I doubt the desktop variants would be ready by Q2, unless AMD did a paper-launch of selected CPU's inside R600 review kits, which doesn't make sense anyway.

 

They can't really release it at a f.e 30% premium if it's only 15% faster either. They could perhaps accept very low margins just to get some mindshare back though.

 

I'm sure it would make shareholders feel all warm and fuzzy if it happened, but Barcelona isn't due until July.

OK, so a paper-launched Barcelona in April with R600 hard-launched wouldn't be horrible. But what are the chances?

Jawed

 

No, I was suggesting lowering performance expectations. Assuming that the R600 is larger than the G80 and requires a more expensive cooling solution, these factors will not change by delaying its introduction. My speculation is that they need time to showcase (demos etc.) what it brings to the table vs. the G80 because performance alone won't compelling.

 

Desktop quad-core isn't due for another year after. So the only way enthusiasts are going to get their hands on quad-core AMD is by buying some variant of Barcelona, as far as I can tell.

Anyway, I don't want this to happen. I just want to know the techie stuff.

Jawed

 

Maybe 3DMk07 is delayed, so AMD has decided to delay the release until 3DMk07 is ready?

Jawed

 

This is true.

Well my "wipe the floor" was purely in respect of their ability to charge what they like for the top-end part. It was (intentionally) the extreme end of the spectrum They still may yet do this of course, but the wording says to me that they don't feel that have a product which will show a clear and compelling advantage over NVIDIAs current and imminent products at the very high-end, so they're shifting their focus elsewhere.

Even so, the timing and manner of the shift is rather strange. Given the limited life-time of GPUs it would certainly smack less of disaster management to launch it anyway and quietly change your plans for the update a few months down the line. As it is it now looks rather like they've totally lost the plot (there I go with the doom scenarios again )

 

Maybe R600 is delayed so Futuremark are delaying the 3D Mark 07 release

 

Hey, I think it's pretty strange that 3DMk07 hasn't been released now that Vista and D3D10 are here.

Jawed

 

The connection might not be direct, but the way the IHVs use 3DMk as a significant feature point when aligning products for performance comparisons is hard to ignore.

Jawed

 

Aye, it's been delayed but I don't think they ever promised a Q1 release (or a simultaneous release with Vista)?

 

This is bad. Very BAD.

On the other hand, I'm don't care much about high resolutions, my monitor is still a 17"
So as long as there are no games out there that will MAKE me buy a new card, I can wait, probably even for R650 or NV's counterpart...

 

The question to ask is then, what are they planning to do in a couple of months that will address the current issues, assuming that it has to do with the price. 384 bit mem bus ?

 

Duke^H^H^H^H R600 Forever

 

I'm pretty baffled by the suggestions that a further delay bodes well for the future...but I'll keep reading. Maybe I'll understand eventually