RADEON 9800 PRO With 256MB of DDR SDRAM From VisionTek to Come

by Anton Shilov
04/28/2003 | 01:34 PM

So far I have not seen any RADEON 9800 PRO-based graphics cards with 256MB of memory on the market, but it looks like soon ATI Technologies and its AIB partners will start to supply such products. More importantly, its premier AIB partner VisionTek now raffles the XTASY 9800 PRO 256MB graphics cards in its XTASY ULTIMATE GAMERS’ CONTEST.

VisionTek is searching for the industry’s ultimate gamers and is offering Ultimate Gamer T-Shirts, XTASY 9800 PRO 256MB graphic cards, and for the #1 ULTIMATE GAMER, an XTASY 9800 PRO 256MB installed in an Alienware Area51 gaming system. Interesting, isn’t it?

To enter, gamers simply visit the VisionTek web site and submit an entry that tells why they think that they are the Ultimate Gamer. The contest begins on April 27th and ends on May14th. Winners will receive their prizes as soon as they are available for shipment. That is a big pity, but we still do not know when the company will ship its RADEON 9800 PRO-based graphics cards with 256MB of memory. The only thing we can point out from all of this is that VisionTek wants to make such advanced products. Something makes me thing that we may see them even later this month, or early next month, or, a bit later, when NVIDIA’s NV35-based graphics cards are on the market.

Earlier this year there were rumours that RADEON 9800 PRO graphics cards with 256MB of memory will boast with higher clock-speeds and DDR-II memory, however, there were no confirmations or denials about this information. In case this is truth, such devices will cost quite a lot of money and will be products to dream about.

At the moment VisionTek as well as other ATI AIB partners sell RADEON 9800 PRO graphics cards equipped with 128MB of DDR SDRAM; the devices run at 380MHz for the VPU and 680MHz for DDR SDRAM and are priced at $399.