ATI RADEON 9600SE and RADEON 9200SE to Come

by Anton Shilov
07/19/2003 | 09:34 AM

ATI Technologies’ add-in-board partners continue to issue various graphics cards solutions to address different customers with different requirements and at different price points. Earlier this year we told you a number of times about RADEON 9600 PRO with boosted memory speeds and also about RADEON 9600 with enhanced performance, today Akiba PC Hotline from Japan reports about RADEON 9600SE cards appearance for sale.

Until now AIB partners of ATI Technologies offered only RADEON 9600 and RADEON 9600 PRO graphics cards clocked at 325/400 and 400/600MHz for VPU/memory respectively. Additionally, an AIB company offered the so-called RADEON 9600 PRO “Lite Edition” clocked at 400/400MHz.

The newly-unveiled RADEON 9600 SE is priced at $115-$125 and is positioned as a solution to fill the gap between the RADEON 9600 and the RADEON 9600 PRO. The newcomer has simplified PCB design and utilizes TSOP memory chips. 128MB of DDR SDRAM are clocked at 500MHz to 550MHz , according to the source.

Later this month RADEON 9200 SE is set to emerge. It will reportedly become the third solution in 9200-series family in addition to the RADEON 9200 and 9200 PRO, though, its technical specifications are to be confirmed.

As a result of all those quiet introductions the lineup of graphics cards powered by VPUs from ATI Technologies will look as follows:

High-End, Performance Mainstream:

• RADEON 9800 PRO 256MB: 380/700MHz for graphics processor/DDR II SDRAM memory;
• RADEON 9800 PRO 128MB: 380/680MHz for graphics processor/DDR SDRAM memory;
• RADEON 9800 SE: 128MB of memory with either 128 or 256-bit bus;

Performance Mainstream, Mainstream:

• RADEON 9600 PRO: 400+/600+MHz frequency for VPU/memory;
• RADEON 9600 SE: 500+MHz frequency for memory, VPU clock unknown;
• RADEON 9600 PRO Lite Edition: 400/400MHz frequency for VPU/memory;
• RADEON 9600: 325/400MHz frequency for VPU/memory;

Mainstream, Value:

• RADEON 9200 PRO: 275/550MHz for core/memory;
• RADEON 9200 SE with specs to be unveiled later;
• RADEON 9200: 250/400MHz for core/memory.

In general, ATI’s product line looks very competitive today, just like NVIDIA’s. The only concern about the former is the lack of DirectX 9.0-compliant product in sub-$100 range, meanwhile the GeForce FX 5200-based products appear to be nice sellers. However, currently RADEON 9600 costs from $125 in the USA, whereas a more advanced RADEON 9600 SE is priced at $115-$125 in Japan, a country where the prices are typically higher compared to those in the rest of the world. In general, I expect ATI Technologies’ AIBs to drop the prices of the RADEON 9600 further towards the $100 level to address the market of the GeForce FX 5200 and 5200 Ultra.

With escalating competition between Markham, Ontario-based ATI Technologies and Sunnyvale, California-based NVIDIA Corporation in the mainstream and value segments of the discrete graphics cards market, successful establishment of strong positions in the market by third-party graphics processors developers is unlikely; whereas there are no companies in the industry that can afford development of top-to-bottom family of graphics processors for different price points, including the high-end and performance mainstream market segments.