The newcomer will support DirectX 9 and AGP 8x interface. The card will be equipped with 128MB DDR SDRAM and a VGA, FVI-I and S-video Outs, supporting two ways of signal receipt (HYDRAVISION technology). The chip will work at 325MHz and the memory – at 620MHz.

The recommended retail price of the new RADEON 9700 PRO makes $399, and the sales are supposed to start on August 19. The similar products from ATI’s partners based on ATI RADEON 9700 chip are expected to begin later this summer.

However, I doubt that we will be able to purchase RADEON 9700 based graphics cards in August. Our sources insist, and this info gets proven by the reports coming from many hardware stores, that the actual sales of the new RADEON 9700 PRO will start in mid September at the earliest.

Well, there is not so much waiting left before we find out if ATI will keep its promise to start selling its RADEON 9700 PRO on August 19 or not. However, on my part I would like to remind you that on July 14, when the company announced its RADEON 9700 chip the sales were promised to start 30 days later, which hasn’t ever been the case as we see now.