X-bit labs

ATI Condemns NVIDIA’s RADEON X700 Criticism.

Category: Video

by Anton Shilov

[ 09/29/2004 | 03:17 AM ]

ATI Technologies might have released a document that is potentially aimed to train employees of its partners to respond to a set of the RADEON X700 criticizing documents that hit the web last week. By releasing the paper, ATI Technologies continues the fierce competitive race with the rival NVIDIA Corp. not only in technology, but also in “shady” marketing.

A source has send X-bit labs a document marked with ATI Technologies’ logotype and entitled “X700 Series and the competition, September 24, 2004”. The whitepaper in PDF format was created on the 28^th of September, 2004, the author of the document is unknown. A label on the slides says “Confidential: Internal Only”.

The text reckons documents and presentations presumably coming from ATI’s rival NVIDIA Corp., who has admitted responsibility for at least some of them, including a document with 3DMark03 critics, allegations of integrating AGP-to-PCI Express bridge into single-chip PCI Express solutions against ATI, claims that low-k process technology was dangerous, incorrect image quality comparisons in an attempt to praise Shader Model 3.0, misrepresenting of graphics processing units’ performance and comparing performance numbers in “outdated and heavily optimized” games.

Citing external sources, including hardware-enthusiast media, the document claims that ATI’s RADEON X700-series is the best-in-class graphics solution for those looking forward advanced 3D gaming and video with some future-proof. It is unclear, however, whether all the articles the author of the document refers to are up-to-date and correct.

Last week a set of documents with ATI RADEON X700 critics possibly created by NVIDIA Corp. hit the web. The authors of the documents said that the RADEON X700 PRO was not PCI Express certified, did not support multi-GPU technology and was slower compared to the GeForce 6600 GT in Doom III. Additionally, the document claimed that ATI RADEON X700 was “a new name, but old technology”, while ATI’s CATALYST drivers were unlikely to get WHQL certification while sustain support for geometry instancing, a graphics feature that reduces load on central processing unit. There was a stress in a separate document that ATI’s PCI Express solutions are electrically incompliant with PCI Express standards.

ATI Technologies officially responded to PCI Express incompatibility allegations on Friday.

Representatives for ATI Technologies and NVIDIA Corp. did not comment on the news-story.