ATI "updates" X800 specs

[cowdog]

edit: appologies in advance if this is a repeat post. I didn't see anything, but I didn't exactly make an exhaustive look-see either...

link

ATI Boosts RADEON X800 Specifications

"Only weeks before the release, ATI Technologies decided to boost performance of its next-generation code-named R420 processor by increasing the number of pixel pipelines inside the chip. Industry source told X-bit labs that the story is not about redesign, but about enabling ?big guns? that were ?hidden? inside the chip from the very beginning. "

...


My only real take on this is cool; competition is good. I can't wait to see these new cards from both nVidia and ATI. I'm gonna be getting me a new vidy card one of these days....

 

[Sylvanas]

hmmmmm 16pipes would be mighty fine, these are the cards which will keep halflife 2, doom3 and of course far cry satisfied.

 

[Pete]

Yep, you were a little slow on the post: ATi back to 16 pipes with new cards? Don't worry, we won't sic the dogs on you ... this time.

But, yeah, 16 pipes on both high-end cards sounds incredible. I'm glad to hear both ATi and nVidia appear to have similarly-spec'ed cards this time out, as hopefully that'll translate into a bit of a price war early on. Perhaps I'm being overly optimistic, though.

 

[Acanthus]

I guess the question would be, if they had it working on die... why wasnt it planned to be enabled anyway? lol.

 

[jasonja]

How do you know they weren't planning from the get go... just holding their cards close? Or they wanted to get sweet yields by just enabling 12 pipes.... getting 12 out of 16 to work is a hell of a lot easier than getter 16 out of 16 working.

 

[vshah]

if nvidia's new cards are true 16 pipes, then would it be safe to assume that the midrange cards would have half that, or 8 full pipes, which is better than the high end FXs today...
mmm midrange goodness

-Vivan