ATI R600 (X2000?) – What We Know

So, with specs of the Nvidia GeForce 8800 Series released, the question is being asked around the web, and on many forums of what ATI has in the pipeline.

Well, if they have something big coming, they’re keeping it tight to their chests.

To give a bit of background, their current best offering is the Radeon X1950. This is a DirectX 9 card, but is arguably the best DirectX 9 Card.

Ultimately, since Nvidia’s G80 8800’s aren’t actually on shelves yet, ATI is not losing. In fact since Nvidia seems to be treading water, ATI may be inching ahead. We may yet see the 8800’s mid-November launch pushed out, which would leave ATI in a stronger position. There is nothing to stop ATI announcing their R600 cards a week before they’re shipped, and as long as the 8800’s have’t been out for months, they should be ok.

Timeline

13th October – R600 has an external 512 memory bus

2nd October – R600 has over 500 million transistors

15th June – ATI Talks Direct3d 10 – Paraphrase: “We’re in the Direct3d 10 game”

12th June – Some sites reported that ATI’s R600 chip for Direct3d 10 had been “taped out”. What this apparently means is that mass production is a number of months away, and these sites expected the chip to be on sale before the end of the year.

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13th April 2007 – Update and links to pics at The Inquirer.