As we have expected, a bit later after the announcement of RADEON 9700 graphics chip (see this news story) intended for the gaming desktop market, ATI pushed it to the professional market as well. And they did it in a very unusual way I should say. Instead of announcing RADEON 9700 under a new name (with Fire GL part in it) the company… launched a "professional Fire GL X1 graphics card based on RADEON 9700 chip". In other words, they no longer conceal that there are the same chips used in desktop and professional cards, which made a very positive impression on me at least (now NVIDIA should do something like that :)

The differences between the professional Fire GL X1 and the desktop RADEON 9700 based graphics cards are pretty standard: more memory onboard (256MB against 128MB) and special drivers for professional applications. Also Fire GL X1 is likely to work at higher frequencies, but they never reported them, which is a disappointment. The cards are expected to start shipping in October this year (RADEON 9700 based gaming cards are scheduled for August). Then things should get clear finally, I mean the frequencies and the expected retail pricing.