FIC announced Radeon 9800/9800 Pro boards: Pro card is 400/460 with 256MB!!! UPDATE Possibly GDDR-II

NFS4 · Mar 3, 2003

GeForce FX just got OWNED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.fic.com.tw/aboutfic/press/press.aspx?pr_id=91

bluemax · Mar 3, 2003

Props for getting this to us so fast.

NSF4 earns his spiffy AT T-shirt!

Eug · Mar 3, 2003

Repost

NFS4 · Mar 3, 2003

Originally posted by: Eug
Repost

Not quite. No where in that title does it say anything about the 9800 Pros. I did a search for Radeon, 9800, and FIC and found nothing

Considering that the thread has relatively few posts, not many people even new about it.

GTaudiophile · Mar 3, 2003

Originally posted by: NFS4

Originally posted by: Eug
Repost

Click to expand...

Not quite. No where in that title does it say anything about the 9800 Pros. I did a search for Radeon, 9800, and FIC and found nothing

Considering that the thread has relatively few posts, not many people even new about it.

You are correct, sir. This deserved its own thread.

GTaudiophile · Mar 3, 2003

512Kb of serial flash ROM

Anyone know what good this does?

andreasl · Mar 3, 2003

Originally posted by: GTaudiophile
512Kb of serial flash ROM

Anyone know what good this does?

It's just where the card's firmware resides.

GTaudiophile · Mar 3, 2003

It's worth posting this paragraph here:

FIC is now producing a huge range of advanced video cards based on ATI technology. New additions to the range include the A98 and A98P based on the ATI Radeon 9800 and 9800 Pro graphics engines respectively.

The A98 and A98P both feature 400MHz RAMDAC, 8 pipeline architecture, 256 bit data width, 512Kb of serial flash ROM, AGP 8X/4X/2X compatibility, TV-out, support for simultaneous dual displays and DirectX 9.0/OpenGL support.

In addition, the A98 will support 128MB of DDR memory and a core/memory clock speed of 325/310MHz. The A98P will support up to 256MB of DDR memory and has a core/memory clock speed of 400/460MHz.

NFS4 · Mar 3, 2003

Originally posted by: GTaudiophile
It's worth posting this paragraph here:

FIC is now producing a huge range of advanced video cards based on ATI technology. New additions to the range include the A98 and A98P based on the ATI Radeon 9800 and 9800 Pro graphics engines respectively.

The A98 and A98P both feature 400MHz RAMDAC, 8 pipeline architecture, 256 bit data width, 512Kb of serial flash ROM, AGP 8X/4X/2X compatibility, TV-out, support for simultaneous dual displays and DirectX 9.0/OpenGL support.

In addition, the A98 will support 128MB of DDR memory and a core/memory clock speed of 325/310MHz. The A98P will support up to 256MB of DDR memory and has a core/memory clock speed of 400/460MHz.

Considering that they SPECIFICALLY mention that both the A98 and the A97P both are clocked at 325/310 wiith 128MB of RAM, I wonder what the new additions are in the R350 core of the A98?

JSSheridan · Mar 3, 2003

Honestly, I'm disappointed that they didn't include any news about an RV350 product. However, I'm sure that the Radeon 9800 will be impressive. If, as the press release stated, the 9700Pro card is 325/310 and the 9800 non-pro is 325/310, then what differences are there between the two cards and how much is the performance difference? Peace.

GTaudiophile · Mar 3, 2003

Originally posted by: JSSheridan
Honestly, I'm disappointed that they didn't include any news about an RV350 product. However, I'm sure that the Radeon 9800 will be impressive. If, as the press release stated, the 9700Pro card is 325/310 and the 9800 non-pro is 325/310, then what differences are there between the two cards and how much is the performance difference? Peace.

FIC may not be producing a Radeon 9600 card. We may just see "Built by ATi" versions of that at first since it's so new. In fact, I wonder if ATi will release M10 before or after the Radeon 9600/PRO boards come out.

Eug · Mar 3, 2003

BTW, the 460 mem speeds seem a little odd. That's wickedly high - probably something like 2.0 ns memory. Could it be 400? Could it be "just" 360 even?

OTOH, this is not a Built-by-ATI card. Who knows if the ATI version would be slightly faster (although probably not).

PraetorianGuards · Mar 3, 2003

Wooohooo! Hmm...prices though...

UlricT · Mar 3, 2003

wow.... all I can say is WOW! Looks like Nvidia is slipping badly! I wonder if someone has overclocked their 9700PRO to these speeds.... that would get us some preliminary performance numbers! (minus the core improvements of course)

Nemesis77 · Mar 3, 2003

I bet that the 460Mhz RAM-speed is a typo, and the correct figure is 360MHz.

UlricT · Mar 3, 2003

hopefully not...

Eug · Mar 3, 2003

I still say the 460 is probably wrong.

EDIT: The Rage3D guys seem to agree.

Lonyo · Mar 3, 2003

2ns RAM should allow 500MHz, 2.5ns should give 400MHz, 3ns would be 333MHz, so they'd have to be useing 2ns if they want 460MHz, in which case there would be around 40MHz headroom, unless there are speeds inbetween 2.5 and 2, like 2.2 or 2.1 which would give closer to 460MHz.

NFS4 · Mar 3, 2003

Originally posted by: Eug
I still say the 460 is probably wrong.

EDIT: The Rage3D guys seem to agree.

Well, I received this same Press Release in my inbox this morning from FIC. I'll get with my contacts there and confirm that it is indeed 460MHz mem.

Don Vito Corleone · Mar 3, 2003

Yow! I would think the 9800 Pro will have to cost $500 or so, but should hold the title of Greatest Video Card Ever Built (until they come out with the 9800 Pro All-In-Wonder).

Eug · Mar 3, 2003

Originally posted by: Lonyo
2ns RAM should allow 500MHz, 2.5ns should give 400MHz, 3ns would be 333MHz, so they'd have to be useing 2ns if they want 460MHz, in which case there would be around 40MHz headroom, unless there are speeds inbetween 2.5 and 2, like 2.2 or 2.1 which would give closer to 460MHz.

2.2 ns (455 MHz) would not be enough, and I suspect 2.1 (476 MHz) wouldn't be enough either since ATI usually often has a much higher spec memory than the memory speeds would suggest. (eg. I have 3.5 ns RAM for my 230 MHz 9100, and it is only overclockable to about 235ish. Using the usual equation, it should overclock to 285 MHz.)

I wonder if ATI uses very aggressive memory timings.

GTaudiophile · Mar 3, 2003

Originally posted by: Don_Vito
Yow! I would think the 9800 Pro will have to cost $500 or so, but should hold the title of Greatest Video Card Ever Built (until they come out with the 9800 Pro All-In-Wonder).

I'm pretty sure we won't see a AIW 9800 PRO. My guess is we'll see a AIW 9600 PRO and they may even continue the AIW 9700 PRO.

Lonyo · Mar 3, 2003

I think the MHz speed can be done by 1000/ns speed, so 2ns RAM would be 1000/2 or 500MHz.
I know 2.2ns wouldn't quite be enough, but it's around the quoted figure.
Also, noting that nVidia have made the move to DDR-II, I saw a link to Hynix' website, a story about 500MHz DDR RAM, which got me thinking, why develop 500MHz (2ns) VRAM if you ain't gonna have much used. Even if ATi only use it on the high end cards, it would make sense to have developed it despite the oncoming DDR-II future.
That means its reasonable to think they could use 460MHz RAM, since it is possibly to buy 500MHz DDR-I, although the cost would be quite high.

Hynix press release

Pocatello · Mar 3, 2003

Now I can play Quake 3!

bgeh · Mar 3, 2003

so, does anyone know the final specs of the Radeon 9600/9600 PRO

FIC announced Radeon 9800/9800 Pro boards: Pro card is 400/460 with 256MB!!! **UPDATE** Possibly GDDR-II

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FIC announced Radeon 9800/9800 Pro boards: Pro card is 400/460 with 256MB!!! UPDATE Possibly GDDR-II