ATI's New Video Card?

[kimh]

And I just purchased my 9800 :(

Source: The Enquirer

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=10544

ATI's R360 has taped out

It's like the dynasties of ye olde Englande, or Egypte


By Fuad Abazovic: Thursday 17 July 2003, 18:58

I'll have this crown of mine cut from my shoulders
Ere I will see the crown so foul misplaced.
But canst thou guess that he doth aim at it? - Richard III: Act 3, scene II
ACCORDING TO OUR RELIABLE sources, the R360, meant to be the basis of ATI's nextgen high end card and rip the performance crown from the NV35 has taped out. The baby bounced into life more than a fortnight ago.

This is supposed to be a bit like Henry VII picked up the Richard III crown on Bosworth field. [Stop reading Shakespeare, Ed.]

This chip is meant to work at over 400MHz for both core and memory, and ATI is shifting to its next development phase, meaning the chip will be ready to hip and to hop sometime in September.

R360 is still a nameless chip as it remains to be seen whether it will be called Radeon 9800 something or even the Radeon 9900.

Expect anything on this "whether" front. The NV35, Geforce FX 5900 Ultra is not so much greater a performer than the Radeon 9800 PRO, R350 - and people close to ATI believe that it won't be difficult for the R360 to outperform the FX 5900 Ultra.

This will leave Nvidia with a gap where it could lose its performance leadership again for at least two to three months, until its mystical NV40 arrives. Even then, ATI reckons it has an answer codenamed Loki, and also more prosaically as the R420, targeted for the NV40.

Dave Orton, ATI Chief Operating Officer and its ArtX team sure brought a lot of fun in graphics industry giving its ex SGI colleague Dan Vivoli, Nvidia Director of Marketing little time to breathe before he has to start catching up again. The graphics industry these days has really become a race where peformance crowns change quicker than the dynasties of ancient Egypt, never minde ye olde Englande...

And the real fun hasn't even started, yet.

[The Baron]

So...

Let me think here.

R360 just taped out, so it should be out... September?

R390 is around sometime, so it should be out... December?

And R420 in March?

Oi vey, 3 month product cycles?!

[PreservedSwine]

I'm thinking the R390 and R360 might be same thing??...and Loki will be released early 2004....

[The Baron]

That's what I thought too, where R390 did not exist, R360 was the R350 refresh designed to hold people over until R420, which is Loki. But meh. What do I know.

[5150 Joker]

Only problem with this article is that ATi never lost the performance crown to nVidia. NV35 does not beat the 9800 pro in speed reliably enough to be given the fastest graphics chip award and it certainly doesn't match up in IQ. At best one could say they share the crown but IMO ATi still retains it. This will just assure ATi's lead until 2004 when Loki comes around.

[digitalwanderer]

The R390 became the R420, the two are actually one in the same I THINK.

The R360 I heard some inside skinny on this morning from a reliable source, and all I have to say is "WOW! :eek: "!

The whole cheating issue will soon be moot, nVidia won't be able to compete in speed with it I don't think even if they double their cheats! :D

[bmg]

Originally posted by digitalwanderer
The R390 became the R420, the two are actually one in the same I THINK.

The R360 I heard some inside skinny on this morning from a reliable source, and all I have to say is "WOW! :eek: "!

The whole cheating issue will soon be moot, nVidia won't be able to compete in speed with it I don't think even if they double their cheats! :D Did you hear a timeframe for announcement and availability?

[digitalwanderer]

Originally posted by bmg
Did you hear a timeframe for announcement and availability?
No hard or fast dates, or even approximations...but they implied that it was going to be out a LOT earlier than anyone expects. :)

[Geforce4ti4200]

I would not get too excited, the new radeon might be a radeon9800 ultra, much like the geforce2 ultra and tnt2 ultras which are nothing more but overclocked cards with slightly faster ram nanosecond ratings.


"This chip is meant to work at over 400MHz for both core and memory, and ATI is shifting to its next development phase, meaning the chip will be ready to hip and to hop sometime in September."

This is 2 months from now. ATI better make the new radeon at least 450MHz on the core and at least 400MHz on the ram because people can get the 9800 pro to around 420 on the core and 370 on the ram and if the new radeon is clocked at that, only idiots would spend $500 on that for another 10-15MHz faster overclocks :mad:

[Sazar]

Originally posted by digitalwanderer


The whole cheating issue will soon be moot, nVidia won't be able to compete in speed with it I don't think even if they double their cheats! :D

where there is a will.. there is a way...

/begin sarcasm

look to see benchmarks involving solitaire and minesweeper being touted as dx9 flood the market when the next ati card hits the deck...

/end sarcasm

:)

[StealthHawk]

I thought R360 was being launched this month...July ain't over yet though.

R390 is the same thing as R420.

[digitalwanderer]

Originally posted by StealthHawk
I thought R360 was being launched this month...July ain't over yet though.

R390 is the same thing as R420.
That's much more in line with my thinking on the timescale too, I'm thinking they're talking about this card being available in a few weeks instead of a few months.

Would that count as a "surprise"? ;)

Originally posted by Sazar
where there is a will.. there is a way...

/begin sarcasm

look to see benchmarks involving solitaire and minesweeper being touted as dx9 flood the market when the next ati card hits the deck...

/end sarcasm

:)
LOL~~~ :lol:

[sbp]

Wonder how much this thing will co$t.

I'm still hanging in here with a GF4Ti4600. Now the decision is to get this card or wait for NV40/Loki to show up.

Wonder if there will be a possible NV35 respin with higher speeds like Uttar talked about at his site. http://sbp777.homestead.com/files/hmm.gif

[Hanners]

It'll probably be the usual case of previews hitting the web, then cards on shelves and available to buy 30 days later.

I'm still hearing September for the release date - I would imagine late August is the earliest we might see it.


On a final note yes, R390 and R420 are one and the same, they are both what is now known as 'Loki'.

[Paul]

Erm, sounds like you've got the wrong end of the stick somewhere Digi. Unless the plan changed radically somewhere along the line, the R360 is just a speed bumped R350. The (rough) performance can be seen just by o/c`ing a current Radeon 9800.

It's not going to be remarkable...

...but i hope it will. That would rock :)

[digitalwanderer]

Originally posted by Paul
Erm, sounds like you've got the wrong end of the stick somewhere Digi
With the last few days I've been having, I'm just glad I can find the bloody stick! :lol:

Like I say, I may be off and I wasn't given dates....just an impression of "soon is gonna be sooner than people think" from a conversation. :)

[Paul]

Oh, you may well be right about the dates - depending on what ATi think people are thinking ;)

I'm just raising an eyebrow to the performance that was hinted at.

[sxotty]

Personally I think this is completely ridiculous. The 9700-9900 are all basically the same. There is no reason to get excited, or upgrade. It is dissapointing that resources are being wasted in such a fashion, but of course it takes little money and returns more, especially when they just let their old cards dissapear so none of them get cheap.

It is not really a bad thing, but it does not do much to enthrall me either.

[Paul]

That was what most people's beef with the 9800 was. The 9700 was (and still is) a very fast card, so they needed to do more with the 9800 (particuarly with regard to clocks) to make it standout. Effectively, the R360 is what most people think the R350 should've (and could've) been.

[digitalwanderer]

Originally posted by Paul
I'm just raising an eyebrow to the performance that was hinted at.
Oh, on that you're going to be raising BOTH eyebrows when it comes out....the performance was what they were most giggly about. ;)

[The Baron]

Originally posted by digitalwanderer
Oh, on that you're going to be raising BOTH eyebrows when it comes out....the performance was what they were most giggly about. ;)
And NVIDIA guys were giggly about NV30's performance.

Don't get your hopes up too much. There's absolutely no way it can be a quantum leap.

[digitalwanderer]

Originally posted by The Baron
There's absolutely no way it can be a quantum leap.
No, that's the R420's job....but it can be a substantial leap. ;)

[The Baron]

Originally posted by digitalwanderer
No, that's the R420's job....but it can be a substantial leap. ;)
Refresh my memory--when did the R350 come out? March? And the R300 came out in September before that?

So, if the R350 basically added a few optimizations after six months, what the hell is R360 going to add after another six months except slightly higher clocks?

THE ANSWER?

Probably not much unless they have some incredibly odd features that have yet to be seen yet (it would definitely surprise me, but definitely in a good way).

And since we know it's still .15u, it can't have that huge of a core clock increase.

Of course, if ATI would like to prove me wrong, I'll be happy to provide them with my address ;)

[digitalwanderer]

The truth will come out in the fullness of time. :cool:

[silence]

Originally posted by digitalwanderer
The truth will come out in the fullness of time. :cool:


hmmmm......u hyping us here?damn,i am curious and this kind of things make me tickle.....:)