PowerColor releases Radeon card

[rbV5]

I thought the Le was not an ATI card, but PowerColor through VGA#1 is the first third party to introduce a retail Radeon product:

The first company other than ATI to introduce ATI RADEON based graphics cards with SDR memory appeared VGA No1, daughter branch of PowerColor. As is known, PowerColor is now dealing only with NVIDIA based graphics cards, while the products based on chips from other manufacturers, such as Kyro and Kyro II, and now also RADEON, are within the responsibility of VGA No1.

Linked

 

[EdipisReks]

maybe powercolor will make some good win2k drivers. it would be really cool, in my opinion, if a large company like hercules or leadtek picked up either radeon on radeon II. with individual companies pushing ATI for more performance, nVidia could really have a problem on their hands. it's ironic that 3dfx went from a position of strength (sub-contracting boards) to a position of weakness (making their own boards) in order to beat nVidia (which failed, obviously) while ATI is doing the opposite and might have a chance to win.

--jacob

 

[rbV5]

The win2k Radeon drivers are fine IMHO, but having third party manufacterers building boards can only be good. Hopefully, there are more irons in the fire from some others. The GF3 is out and prices are dropping, The Kyro boards are more than holding their own, ATI chips in third party boards, R200 just around the corner.....things are looking up in video land IMHO.

 

[EdipisReks]

i personally think the upcoming months will be for vid cards what the past months have been for CPU's (at least AMD ones): fast, cheap, and plentiful.

--jacob

 

[HappyGamer2]

SDR models only it appears...........

 

[EdipisReks]

for now at least, but hopefully we will see the "regular" DDR based radeons at some point soon.

--jacob

 

[rbV5]

True, SDR models, and on the heals of the release of the next gen ATI board, makes me wonder if ATI is going to relegate their value lines to 3rd party manufacturers and keep the higher-end in house? Either way, it can't hurt PowerColor to add some value/choice to their lineup as they'll now be able to offer boards with chips from all three players(well, come on Matrox), and it certainly can't hurt ATI to spread R&D out.