ATI Issues Statement: No 9700 Pro Compatibility Issues Exist With The Current Or Soon To Be Released AGP 8X Motherboards

[Technonut]

From HardOCP and Rage3D:

ATI is aware of a small number of reports of incompatibility between the RADEON 9700 PRO graphics accelerator and certain AGP 8X motherboards. It is important to emphasize that the number of incidents is very low. Extensive testing has been done, in conjunction with motherboard chipset manufacturers, motherboard manufacturers and with retail available motherboards, to determine if compatibility issues exists. From these tests, it has been concluded that no compatibility issues exist with the current or soon to be released AGP 8X motherboards.

Some end users have reported issues to our Customer Service department that we are investigating. From the data that has been gathered, it appears that issues that have been reported are caused by individual board issues and are not indicative of a general compatibility issue. RADEON 9700 PRO product owners are encouraged to contact our Customer Service Department should they have an operational problem with their product.

In addition, it is important to ensure that appropriate system preparation is done prior to installing the RADEON 9700 PRO. We recommend installing the latest motherboard BIOS in the system as well as the latest available AGP drivers. Many of the 8X issues have been resolved with an updated BIOS from the motherboard manufacturer.

 

[DevilsAdvocate]

Now maybe some of the giddy nVidiot fanboy idiocy will stop

 

[cmdrdredd]

Plus...SIS and Via released the AGp 8x boards BEFORE the AGp 3.0 spec was even finalized by intel

 

[Orbius]

Great news, amazing how the rumours snowballed, theres a lot of people angry at ATi coming out with the best 3d card in the 9700.

 

[DevilsAdvocate]

It really is sad. There was a bad batch of chips- which was blown histerically out of proportion by a few idiots posting threads to blow the "conspiracy" wide open...

The 9700 is unquestionably the most powerful, impressive video card on the market today. It will rule the market, notwithstanding the nVidiot fanboy rhetoric.

 

[Technonut]

From what I gather, there was not even a bad batch of chips. From a post at Rage3D:

I don't know what they are talking about in that article, but every single R300 shipped out is an A13 stepping -- There is only one chip shipped to customers, reviewers, etc... Please, don't damage your boards by removing the heatsink. That is not covered by warranty. Certainly feel free to run any chip ID program you want, if you don't believe me.
AE2 is not known to me, but it might of been an engineering sample stepping 2 -- Those did occur, back a few months, but very few were produced (a few hundred) and they only made it into demo or engineering sample boards.