What the heck- a question I asked Dave Orton at SF

[ben6]

At the pre-launch cocktail party. Thought some might find it interesting.

Q: I'm very excited by the Radeon 9700. The problem I have with it is it's projected $399 MSRP. When do you think we might see a mainstream DX9 card?

A Next year, maybe as early as Spring.


(Note, as previously mentioned he wasn't talking about Radeon 9500)

Edited sorry .

 

[Saem]

Well what did you expect, they milk the money from the early adopters and then lower prices to stay competitive. This is one of the first times where Nvidia doesn't have the luxury of doing this. The tables are turned this time. It'll be interesting to see what both companies do with price points.

 

[pascal]

Call me when IHVs have a cheap (~$140) DX9 card, then I will consider the upgrade

 

[ben6]

pasqual , that is what I believe he was talking about, as I was talking about under $200 videocards in the conversation.

 

[Tahir2]

Hi ben

Call me thick if you like but who is Dave Orton?

 

[Dave Baumann]

CEO of ATI - came with the purchase of ARTx and KY put him in charge while KY side stepped aside a little.

 

[ben6]

misae President and COO of ATI.

 

[Tahir2]

Another potentially stupid question but can you divulge what Dave Orton mentioned about the NV31?

Was is something like, 'expect NV31 to be crippled down version of NV30 and much more expensive than what we [ATI] are working on,' or something to that effect?

 

[ben6]

It was a interesting conversation really. And I'm thinking hard as to how I want to present the entire conversation, as due to obligations and a hiccup it looks like I'll miss the deadline for the 9700 reviews...

 

[LittlePenny]

Call me when IHVs have a cheap (~$140) DX9 card, then I will consider the upgrade

The price of a phonecall to Brasil probably cuts down on the cost savings!

 

[pascal]

send me a e-mail, no need to hurry

 

[JF_Aidan_Pryde]

This may mean it is not possible/feasible to make a cheap DX9 card on the 0.15-micron process. Even if you cut the bus and pipes, it may still be too expensive to fall into the sub 200 catagory. I'd imagine that once the transition is made to 0.13, everything (die size, power etc) will be a lot easier..

 

[multigl2]

This may mean it is not possible/feasible to make a cheap DX9 card on the 0.15-micron process. Even if you cut the bus and pipes, it may still be too expensive to fall into the sub 200 catagory. I'd imagine that once the transition is made to 0.13, everything (die size, power etc) will be a lot easier..

or it may mean ATi have deemed it not necessary to do it this year.

 

[Nagorak]

Keep in mind he is refering to a mainstream card as in <$200 (ex: not R9500 as mentioned above).

I'm not really sure why people would be expecting a value DX9 card so soon when they just released the R9000. We've just now got DX 8.1 cards coming out in the value segment, expecting DX9 is sort of jumping the gun, isn't it?

 

[noko]

Too bad Intel doesn't buy out ATI and use their 90nm process to produce the Radeon 400 chip so that they can succeed in taking over the world .

Skip the .13 process, just think of the R300 on a 90nm process, how about a sub $100 product?

 

[MfA]

I think the profit per mm2 for their Prescott processors will be slightly higher than what you would get for a 3D chip, especially if it was to be used for sub $100 products.

 

[noko]

think the profit per mm2 for their Prescott processors will be slightly higher than what you would get for a 3D chip, especially if it was to be used for sub $100 products.

Hmmmm, you make a very good point. Using 300mm wafers on the 90nm process should yield alot of R300 or R400 per die if the process is perfected. The mark up Intel processors are very high even today while competing with AMD which Intel seems to be gaining the edge again as time goes on. Still the cost overall should be cheaper on a 90nm process then the current .15micron process the R300 is being done presently.