Whoops, ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT Lacks UVD

[overclocked_enthusiasm]

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=7447

Lucy, you got some splainin to do...

So in addition to the assurance from Henri Richard that "we don't do soft launches" that the delay with R600 was to launch the whole "10 SKU stack at once" and that drivers were "very mature" we have this? I find that the entire AMD management and marketing team at this point is unreliable and disingenous.

It now appears that Barcelona may be delivered later than expected at lower clocks than expected as well.
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AMD Barcelona launch schedule up in the air

Shawn Chen, Taipei; Esther Lam, DIGITIMES [Wednesday 16 May 2007]

AMD's original plans to introduce Quad-Core Opteron (Barcelona) CPUs are unlikely to be on schedule with a concrete launch-time still unknown, according to sources at Taiwan server makers.

The sources noted that AMD has informed them that the introduction of Barcelona will be delayed until August or September, instead of the originally planned June. However, the sources also noted that this schedule is still subject to change. The Barcelona CPU samples they have currently are not the final versions and bugs are still being discovered, they added.

Some Taiwan-based server vendors commented that their confidence over AMD will be affected by the delay. Roadmaps for new product launches were mapped out by the vendors in 2006, and the delay of Barcelona will interrupt these schedule. Comments gathered from vendors show that the majority believe a critical impact will be seen amid Barcelona's delay.

Besides that the postponement may discourage confidence among server makers, AMD also has to face the potential threat from rival Intel whose 45nm-made Harpertown and Wolfdale-DP CPUs are still on schedule to be both launched as planned, according to sources.
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First the laughability of financial guidance, then the R600 fiasco, now possibly Barcelona late and rumored at lower clocks? This is a certifiable trainwreck with AMD management and marketing FUD spread thick. Add to the list press releases from AMD last week about their mid 2008 mobile platform. You have to ask yourself one simple question...WTF?

 

[Zaphod]

This has already been discussed for page upon page in The Official RV630/RV610 Rumours & Speculation Thread (post #452->), but it might be better suited for it's own thread. Perhaps one of the mods will do some cleanup.

 

[Robin B]

Well they have them self to blame, its like Amd never thought that Intel would come up with something better than the P4, so they milked the Opty serie without have a backup plan..... So it seems, Ati did the same they never thougt that NV would come out with a card like the G80, wondring why they never thougt about that? Nv is not new to shader domain clocked higher than the Gpu so they should have seen it coming.

Well maby Ot and Noobish.

But i hope Amd is doing alot better in the future, if not the G92 is going to be priced well above the sky, like the Ultra.

 

[neliz]

Firstly, define what you mean with UVD and the declare that R600 lacks it.

 

[overclocked_enthusiasm]

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=39884

I am not going to defend everything in this article. However, it is safe to say that AMD should have done a better job toning down the hype on UVD since the only product they released so far is 2900 XT and it doesn't have it. Blaming it on a driver upgrade is total BS as they have had months to get it working and numerous delays all the while stating how mature the drivers were compared to you know who. They created hype about a new feature, they IMPLIED it worked on all 2000 series cards and they got caught being disingenuous...AGAIN.

They simply overpromised and under delivered on this launch in so many ways it is laughable.

Henri "We don't do paper launches" Richard from AMD assured us there would be (10) DX10 based SKUs at launch as the reason for the latest R600 delay. How many were paper launched? 8/10 from what I can tell. So, what are we to assume from the second in command at AMD saying "no paper launches" then paper launching 8/10 SKUs in addition that this was his reason for NOT launching R600 earlier? In fact, it is obvious it wasn't launched earlier for driver reasons, there was still hope for 2900 XTX GDDR4 or the silicon was partially broken...which it is appearently. Another clear example of spin from AMD that is disingenuous at best and delibertly misleading at worst.

How many times did we hear about how stable and far along the Vista drivers were in comparison to the green meanies in Santa Clara? Yet how sucky and immature have the drivers turned out to be? We are still waiting for the next set of "just wait for these drivers and you will see" to come out to magically fix all the problems. Another FUD campaign waged and lost by AMD as it turns out.

How many times did David Orton defend the R520 manufacturing process? How many times did he say all was well with R600? I don't know the exact number of times but it was ALOT. Yet the R520 was broken and required a completly new respin and R600 has hardware issues as well in addition to the horrible thermal characteristics. Again, spin and FUD that proved to be misleading and not factual.

This UVD incident taken by itself means nothing and could be just an honest mistake. HOWEVER, taken in context of what else is happening at AMD and ATI it is a continuation of a disturbing pattern that leaves me questioning the ethics, character and truthfulness of all AMD/ATI management at this point.

Somebody over there better clean this shit up or they are going to PR themselves right into bankruptcy.

 

[AlexV]

And once you realize that they`re running a business you`ll understand that there`s no way in hell they can come out and say:this and this and this sucks with us, our arch is having these issues coming out, our drivers are just as problematic as our competitor's etc. It`s logical...and I hope it clears the aura of holiness that surrounds ATi since their R300 days and turns them back into what they always were:a company after your money, no better or worse than nV, Intel, AMD, Microsoft etc.

 

[Arun]

Please discuss this problem and controversy in this new thread instead.
I don't want to be too blunt, but I'd have used this one (since it was in the right forum at least) if the original post wasn't that apocalyptic and borderline trollish. No offense whatsoever, just not the best way to start a civil discussion!