More Competition for nVidia? Radeon 9800 PRO MAXX (UPDATED)

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boyRacer

Lifer
Oct 1, 2001
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If its real... it says its just a prototype. :( I have the original MAXX... it would be cool if this one made it into production. Doubt it though. :(
 
mechBgon

mechBgon

Super Moderator<br>Elite Member
Oct 31, 1999
30,699
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Ok, I click on the "Immagine ingrandita" and it brings up this thread in a new window. Hey wha..? :confused:
 
GTaudiophile

GTaudiophile

Lifer
Oct 24, 2000
29,767
33
81
Originally posted by: mechBgon
Ok, I click on the "Imagine Grandita" and it brings up this thread in a new window. Hey wha..? :confused:
Click to expand...

Dunno. I am now hosting the picture linked in this thread, though.
 
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Pariah

Elite Member
Apr 16, 2000
7,357
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What's the purpose of having an internal only firewire connector and 2 CDROM audio connectors on a video card? Odd looking product. Unlikely we'll ever see that thing in production.
 
GTaudiophile

GTaudiophile

Lifer
Oct 24, 2000
29,767
33
81
Originally posted by: Pariah
What's the purpose of having an internal only firewire connector and 2 CDROM audio connectors on a video card? Odd looking product. Unlikely we'll ever see that thing in production.
Click to expand...

It's a prototype/the engineers at Sapphire decided to have some fun. I doubt it will ever see the production line. Some benches would be nice, though.

Just wait a few months, and I bet you'll see it on eBay next to the remaining Voodoo5 6000s.
 
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thraxes

Golden Member
Nov 4, 2000
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It says that there aresome massive heat problems and that is the given reason why the card won't run... Somehow I don't find that hard to believe... this card must be freaking HOT in all senses of the word.
 
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Pariah

Elite Member
Apr 16, 2000
7,357
20
81
That doesn't answer the question of why there is an internal firewire connector and 2 CDROM audio connectors on it. What purpose would those serve from an engineering standpoint on a video card? With 2 DVI and an S-video connector on the back plate, the card can't be an AIW type card.
 
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N14

Junior Member
Sep 9, 2003
14
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Originally posted by: thraxes
It says that there aresome massive heat problems and that is the given reason why the card won't run... Somehow I don't find that hard to believe... this card must be freaking HOT in all senses of the word.
Click to expand...

Actually it says they solved several heat problems but that the product is not even close for commercialization.

The wording is a little ambigous in that it doesn't specify if the card if far from being ready for commercialization because of heat problems or it just isn't per-se. (you'd think they use better cooling on that prototype if that was the case).

It's also worth noticing the article doesn't directly mention the status of the project, i wonder if we are actually going to see something like that someday...
 
sandorski

sandorski

No Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
70,434
5,979
126
Originally posted by: Pariah
That doesn't answer the question of why there is an internal firewire connector and 2 CDROM audio connectors on it. What purpose would those serve from an engineering standpoint on a video card? With 2 DVI and an S-video connector on the back plate, the card can't be an AIW type card.
Click to expand...

I'm no engineer, but I'd guess those connectors are being used for some kind of monitoring, diagnosing, or maybe even for some kind of direct data input. IOW, they'd be hooking up non-cdrom/firewire devices, but just using a custom configuration that allows them to tweak, test, and other things.
 
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Luagsch

Golden Member
Apr 25, 2003
1,614
0
0
LMAO... googles translation is quite good, damn...

here's mine: (my italian and my english are not that good...)
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2 Radeon 9800PRO on one card

during a meeting with sapphire, dynamic manufacturer who in the last 10 month has achieved to have an important role in the gfx-card market with products based on ati chips, i've found a very interesting product which sadly is only available as a prototype.

a sapphire gfx-card with two fans? what could it be?

easy, a prototype of a radeon 9800pro MAXX card. which means two r350 chips on one pcb working parallel. a so called "dream card", meaning that it would deliver dream-like performance, but a dream it is not being functional.

the technicians at sapphire tried to get this card working, overcomming some thermal problems (2 0.15 micron r350 gpu's deliver quite some heat) but the product is a long way from being ready for the market.

either way it's very interesting to see that sapphire thinks it's up to achieve this kind of technology. this prototype gives hope that in the near future sapphire may be able to experiment with multichip solutions on one card. maybe already with the next-gen high-end chip from ati produced in 0.13 micron (obviously we're talking about the r423).

interesting is the upper right part of the card where we find an led diagnostic system, a firewire-port, a video-out connector and a traditional 4-pin molex powerplug. on the back-plate there are two dvi connectors for monitors, with a s-video out connector in between.

till later with some other news from taipei about athlon 64 mobos and barebone mini-pc's.
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EDIT the inq has some more info

We learned that at 10 layer PCB it is simply impossible to make this card work and that this card will never come to market. We believe that even ATI was surprised with this since Sapphire used to follow what ATI does and in this case ATI never played with Radeon 9800 MAXX design.
Click to expand...
 
GTaudiophile

GTaudiophile

Lifer
Oct 24, 2000
29,767
33
81
Here are some more pictures of this card:

#1, #2, #3 (Copy & Paste the links.)

We ventured into Sapphire?s media suite expecting a brief on its latest products and maybe a bit about the status of the RADEON 9100 IGP. Instead, we were presented with a graphics card eerily familiar to the Rage Fury MAXX of yesteryear. The unnamed board featured a pair of R350 graphics processors, presumably 256MB of memory, dual-DVI outputs, IEEE 1394, diagnostic LEDs, and a pair of RAGE Theater chips.

Unfortunately, Sapphire will never manufacture such a product, which would debut at $800 or so. Even the sample in Sapphire?s suite is a non-functional piece of work (is there any need for two Rage Theater chips, and where is the AGP bridge that ATI claims it would need to replicate its MAXX technology on a modern video card?).

There is, however, a market that regularly pays in excess of $2,000 for high-end cards and is able to utilize dual-DVI outputs. We?ll let you ruminate on the possibility of multi-chip solution in that space. After all, ATI?s FireGL lineup isn?t exactly competing with NVIDIA?s Quadro FX 3000 or 3DLabs? Wildcat4 families and it could use a performance boost to vie for the high-end professional market.

What Sapphire would confirm for us is that it is developing a front panel extension to fit comfortably in a 3.5? drive bay. When it is released (Sapphire is giving us a December timeframe), the panel will offer DVI output, TV output through S-video and composite ports, a temperature readout, cooling fan speed, and a knob for adjusting the fan. The hardware will tie into Sapphire?s Redline utility, derived from Rage3D.com?s own tweaking application. Unfortunately, Sapphire?s current product lineup doesn?t support the expansion panel, which requires an onboard header for connectivity. Instead, you can expect the full range of RADEON cards to include the header around the same time as the panel is finalized.
 
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boyRacer

Lifer
Oct 1, 2001
18,569
0
0
Originally posted by: Gomce
GTaudiophile get a life
Click to expand...

rolleye.gif
 
A

Alkali

Senior member
Aug 14, 2002
483
0
0
I'll tell you something. I was hoping ever since the 9700Pro, that they would release a MAXX version.

I would so go and buy that like right away........ :D
 
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