Sources close to ATI Technologies have said that the company has been testing its forthcoming high-end graphics processing unit (GPU) since July, 2005. The chip, which is due to be out early in 2006 is claimed to be a rapid one by persons familiar with the matter.
“It is really fast,” a person who knows approximate performance estimates of the code-named R580 graphics processor said. Another source noted that ATI Technologies has been “playing” with the code-named R580 part since early July, 2005, at least, trying to clock it at different speeds and measure its performance afterwards.
Rumours that have been circulating around the Web indicated that the internally known as the R580 graphics chip supports up to 48 pixel processors, 8 or more vertex processors and work at high clock-speeds. The chip, however, is expected to have from 16 texture mapping units (TMU), less that could be expected. The product is to support Shader Model 3.0, ring-bus memory controller, GDDR4 memory type and other innovations.
Earlier this year an Asian web-site published a slide entitled “ATI’s 90nm Technology Advantage” that described the company’s success with the 90nm process technology at TSMC manufacturer. According to the slide, not only code-named R520, RV530 and RV515, which are to ship under RADEON X1800, X1600 and X1300 names respectively, but also R580 – which is believed to be a faster incarnation of the R520 – were “in house and working”. The slide also claimed that the products were “ready for Fall shipments”.
ATI did not comment on the news-story.
Comments currently: 16
Discussion started: 11/11/05 03:13:32 PM
Latest comment: 11/26/05 01:56:47 AM
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1.
pure speculation at best.
Not another paper launch coming up.
I often wondered if this site was bias towards ATI.
It still hasn't published any stories on the X1800XT rival, the Geforce 7800GTX/ULTRA 512MB card.
Which is on sale from next Monday with immediate availabilty.
[Posted by: ho hummm | Date: 11/11/05 03:13:32 PM]
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I don’t want to be bad, but....
7800GTX 512MB vs 7800GTX 256MB is different in....
[Posted by: Kaz | Date: 11/14/05 06:14:58 AM]
2.
It's all about the money and sponsors.
[Posted by: Heh | Date: 11/11/05 05:22:16 PM]
3.
No worry really. Nvidia had the G80 taped out about 4 months ago, and could probably move that up quickly to launch if needed.
Since the 600mhz G70 series is plenty there is no need.
I'm not unpleased however that the ATI products are doing well, but I doubt highly they are staging any kind of a comeback.
[Posted by: Anemone | Date: 11/11/05 09:16:44 PM]
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R520 come out delayed by 9 months.
R580 is on track, 3 months and is here.
R580 was 1 year behind R520.
[Posted by: lazy | Date: 11/14/05 06:13:31 AM]
G80 accounts for roughly 420M.
[Posted by: Figo | Date: 11/18/05 09:13:38 AM]
4.
nVidia plans to keeep availability on the 7800GTX 512MB low enough that they can keep prices around MSRP, doesn't sound any better than what ATI did with the X800XT PE
PS ATI had the R580 taped out for quite awhile and it apparently never suffered from the issues the R520 had(a different team worked on it)
[Posted by: Jep4444 | Date: 11/11/05 09:28:19 PM]
5.
so nvidia is doing quite well...
[Posted by: whathell | Date: 11/12/05 11:10:19 AM]
6.
just to backup Jep4444, but this is something Nvidia often talks about as well. Both have several different products in motion at any time, so while there may be one or two architects covering the overall design, the actuall groups handling that design and process are not the same. This is why ATi is able to vield the Xbox 360, Revolution, add-in cards, and IGP systems all at once, and why Nvidia is able to field PS3, Geforce, and Nforce all at once.
I would also like to mention to those who read this that there is a significant problem with the Geforce 6 and 7 series. They are not Shader Model 3 compliant or compatible. Has anyone here actually bothered to run Microsoft's DX certification test? I have, and no shipping Geforce product is able to complete the requirements for the test. Okay, I may not be the greatest fan of Microsoft, and I may despise the platform lock-in that DirectX offers, but I will admit that their DX team does know what they are talking about. Compare this to the Radeon x1x00 series, of which all versions, even the "low-end" x1300 pass all Shader Model 3 tests. The only "test" ATi's products fail is a vertex shader technique that's... not actually in the Shader Model 3 specification.
The situation is nearly identical to the events with the GeforceFX and Radeon 9x00 (well, 95xx series and up). Nvidia promoted DirectX 9 compliance, but as it turned out the architecture was just a hardware DirectX 8.1 with extensions to support "some" DirectX 9 features. ATi's products however, offered full DirectX 9 compliance and compatability.
And now we are looking at the same thing. Once the tests actually start coming in Nvidia is still trying to pull the wool over gamers eyes.
And um, by the way, G80 has not been taped out. Just FYI.
While I won't say that ATi is going to stage a comeback, those who actually bothered to pay attention to what's going on will realize Nvidia is up to their same old tricks, and are going to be willing to wait on ATi.
[Posted by: Saist | Date: 11/12/05 09:53:11 PM]
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You ought to do a lookup on that G80 thing. Cross reference NV50. Bet you find a bit of news out there :)
Not passing the 3.0 model test. Actually neither ATI nor Nvidia fully pass the tests, just fail in different areas, and neither are fully a part of the "active spec", which as you know is quite different from the technical spec. This has been addressed publicly, check the news for this. If you have any trouble running 3.0 games, please tell us here and make sure we're informed! Of course if you'd prefer to just run MS tests all day, by all means, go to it.
Let's see same old tricks... You might mean like making a press release of a product then delivering it months later? Oh wait, that would be ATI. You mean promising a product speed then failing to deliver? Oh right, think we can guess that one too.
For months you've been able to get a product that delivers in games. Similarly you've had a product that RUNS SM 3.0 games on the market, again for months. I don't find that "the same old tricks" but you might.
ATI leaves me less than impressed, despite having owned some of their more well done products. I am very happy with their driver improvements, yet dismayed at the number of released software programs that still have issues on ATI hardware. To counter that dismay, they clean up a set of them every release, so they are actively working on the issue which is quite nice. But don't color me impressed on their hardware. That needs some more work, and so far I'm not thinking they are ready to release something that would put them back on top.
We'll see of course.
[Posted by: Anemone | Date: 11/13/05 05:38:28 AM]
7.
quit playing with it and sell me one
[Posted by: phil verhey | Date: 11/13/05 02:07:10 PM]
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I second that motion!
[Posted by: mlau | Date: 11/14/05 03:12:30 AM]
Count me in also!
[Posted by: gman | Date: 11/14/05 10:52:28 PM]
8.
The Die Size is roughly 358mm^2
btw, R580 is not taped- out ASIC yet.
[Posted by: Figo | Date: 11/18/05 09:09:11 AM]
9.
I can assure you two things you can back up .
R580
1.400M
2.358mm^2
[Posted by: Figo | Date: 11/18/05 09:12:03 AM]
10.
R520 with 24/32pipes what sort of power will that have???
Will 32 be twice as good as 16
[Posted by: fatarsemonkey | Date: 11/26/05 01:56:47 AM]
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