It seems as if the sales schedule for the new ATI RADEON 9700 based graphics cards has been finally settled. A few days ago, due to the info from Hercules, we understood that the sales are to start in September. But now we are ready to mention a more exact day. According to the latest info, RADEON 9700 will be available after September 19.

What made us think so? Well, first of all it is the fact that some online stores offer ATI RADEON 9700 128MB foe order now with the anticipated delivery date of September 19. For instance, you can order the newest ATI based graphics card here. RADEON 9700 128MB costs $399, which corresponds to the recommended price from ATI. However, ATI sometimes changes the schedule, so we wouldn’t be hundred percent sure that they will stick to these dates in a month.

At the same time, if RADEON 9700 really appears in shops on September 19, or even in early October, it will allow ATI to win the leading position in the high-performance 3D graphics accelerators market for a while. The competing solution from NVIDIA, which is now known as NV30 and was initially supposed to be launched in October is very likely to be delayed for some production problems. According to the info we received from one of the NVIDIA’s partners in the private conversation, NVIDIA will lay itself out trying to launch the new NV30 at least by the end of November.