Although during the launching of ATI RADEON 9700 chip there was no mention of its "Pro" version, we suspect that it will nevertheless appear after mass shipments start. ATI seems to love this "Pro" suffix too much to refrain from using it.

The indirect proof of the point has been recently received when C.P.Technology Company announced one more Evil Commando 2 RADEON 9700 PRO with the model marked as R9700A-B3 (all RADEON 9700/Pro based cards are manufactured under Evil Commando brand name, as we told you in this news story).

We wouldn’t call it an actual announcement, because they never reported the specifications and the schedule for this product. Moreover, there was even no picture of the card or the box at least. However, it is not of top interest to us. The interesting thing is the "Pro" suffix, which is used in the name of the card. If there is a "Pro" version, then there should evidently be a "non-Pro" version as well. And in this case it means that the situation with R300 chips might turn out the same as with RV250: ATI will produce only RADEON 9700 Pro based solutions (with higher working frequencies), and the others – RADEON 9700 and RADEON 9700 Pro based ones. Anyway, the only thing that matters is that no RADEON 9700LE, RADEON 9700LELE and the like ever appear.