R520 is 600mhz, 32 pipes

[imported_X]

Nothing really new, but it does confirm what we have been hearing about the R520. The card will definitely be faster than G70, but the question is how successful the retaping was, and how soon ATI can launch.

ATI IS STILL not ready to ship its R520 "Fudo" chip and cards based on it. The first samples left ATI in May, but the company is not satisfied with the yields it is getting from the pioneering 90 nanometre wafers it's using. There are quite a few cards out there, but it's very hard to get hold of one. I tracked down at least four cards in different spheres of life, but the travelling involved means I can't run any tests on them.

You should know by now that ATI R520 is a 90 nanometre experiment and it risked a lot with this high end shrink. Before, ATI always made the move or should we say die shrink at the low end or mainstream end of the market, and then went to high end but this time it did it the other way round.

We know that ATI re-taped out the chip recently as it wants better yields from it, but as I said before that chip has 32 pipelines inside, it's not an easy baby to make work. It's all a matter of how many pipelines ATI wants to enable as this chip can work just fine with 24 pipes. We are hearing that there are no more pipelines and that all is programmable, but we are still not buying this story. Last time we heard this, Nvidia started talking how wide is its pipe and we are just not swallowing this one. A pipe is a pipe is a hype.

The strong point of R520 will surely be yields. There is absolutely no question it will end up faster than Nvidia G70, Geforce 7800GTX offerings. That?s why Nvidia has Ultra on hold and some other card tricks up its corporate sleeves. As you can imagine, the G70 will get its 90 nanometre brother down the road, toward the end of the year if necessary, or early next year if it needs to or has the opportunity to buy some extra time.

The 600+ MHz clocked 90 nanometre chip with 24 pipelines would end up quite fast while 32 pipes would surely rock the world. It all depends how much performance ATI needs, to compete with Nvidia's latest real and shipping chips.

An additional problem for ATI is that Nvidia is about to do its second hard launch as it will launch and ship Geforce 7800 GT on the same day. ATI might have some trouble if it doesn?t launch the card when it is ready to ship it but let's leave that as just a possibility for now.

Nvidia won the battle with 7800 GTX but the war is far from being over. All eyes are now on ATI as everyone is waiting to see who will end up the fastest. That's all that matters right?

 

[bjc112]

I won't upgrade my card until I get 32 pipes..

If ATI comes with AGP, they got my business.

 

[peleejosh]

call me stupid, but nvidia is launching the 7800gt when? and its different from the gtx how?

 

[biostud]

Originally posted by: peleejosh
call me stupid, but nvidia is launching the 7800gt when? and its different from the gtx how?

24/335/1100 has been rumored, no date though.

 

[imported_X]

The 7800GT is rumored to be released this week, actually. I wouldn't hold my breath though...

 

[Drayvn]

They dont paper launch the 7800GTX but they do with the 7800GT

ARGH!

 

[imported_X]

Well, they haven't officially announced the 7800GT yet. When they do, rumor has it that they will have the cards in stock just like with the 7800GTX.

 

[Cheesetogo]

I hope they keep the July 26 date and don't end up releasing it in september. I want a graphics card soon!

 

[whistleclient]

Originally posted by: Drayvn
They dont paper launch the 7800GTX but they do with the 7800GT

ARGH!

what's the difference between the GT and the GTX?

 

[Lonyo]

Originally posted by: tangent1138

Originally posted by: Drayvn
They dont paper launch the 7800GTX but they do with the 7800GT

ARGH!

what's the difference between the GT and the GTX?

Clock speeds.

 

[imported_X]

Originally posted by: Cheesetogo
I hope they keep the July 26 date and don't end up releasing it in september. I want a graphics card soon!

But given the choice between a 24-pipe R520 on July 26, and a 32-pipe R520 in a couple months, which would you prefer?

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: X

Originally posted by: Cheesetogo
I hope they keep the July 26 date and don't end up releasing it in september. I want a graphics card soon!

But given the choice between a 24-pipe R520 on July 26, and a 32-pipe R520 in a couple months, which would you prefer?

Why not do both? Release the 24 pipe card now while continuing to refine the process and then release the 32 pipe card later in the year.

 

[BroadbandGamer]

My guess is it will be harder to get then the X800XTPE was.

 

[Avalon]

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003

Originally posted by: X

Originally posted by: Cheesetogo
I hope they keep the July 26 date and don't end up releasing it in september. I want a graphics card soon!

But given the choice between a 24-pipe R520 on July 26, and a 32-pipe R520 in a couple months, which would you prefer?

Why not do both? Release the 24 pipe card now while continuing to refine the process and then release the 32 pipe card later in the year.

That's what I'd rather have them do. Then they will at least have a modern feature set, high performance part on the market. Who knows, it may even be competitive to Nvidia's 7800GTX.

 

[Cheesetogo]

Originally posted by: Avalon

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003

Originally posted by: X

Originally posted by: Cheesetogo
I hope they keep the July 26 date and don't end up releasing it in september. I want a graphics card soon!

But given the choice between a 24-pipe R520 on July 26, and a 32-pipe R520 in a couple months, which would you prefer?

Why not do both? Release the 24 pipe card now while continuing to refine the process and then release the 32 pipe card later in the year.

That's what I'd rather have them do. Then they will at least have a modern feature set, high performance part on the market. Who knows, it may even be competitive to Nvidia's 7800GTX.

Even if they just paper lauched it in july and gave them to us in semptember it would be better, because we'd at least know what we're waiting for because of the reviews.

 

[biostud]

It would be really cool if the availability was world wide, not just US

 

[Mrvile]

Originally posted by: bjc112
I won't upgrade my card until I get 32 pipes..

If ATI comes with AGP, they got my business.

Why, might I ask, that you must stick with AGP?

By the time ATI can get that card into the market, it'll be time for you to upgrade at least the mobo. Why get a 700 dollar AGP card when you'll be upgrading the mobo soon to PCI-e?

 

[bjc112]

Originally posted by: Mrvile

Originally posted by: bjc112
I won't upgrade my card until I get 32 pipes..

If ATI comes with AGP, they got my business.

Why, might I ask, that you must stick with AGP?

By the time ATI can get that card into the market, it'll be time for you to upgrade at least the mobo. Why get a 700 dollar AGP card when you'll be upgrading the mobo soon to PCI-e?

Why will it be time to upgrade my mobo? Unless you know of some technolgy that I don't know of, my 939 board is very solid some time to come..

@ 2.8ghz I can drive any card at full potential ( or very near )

I'm not swapping my board out to get PCI-E when it doesn't offer ANY advantage in performance..

There is absolutely NO reason to upgrade my current mobo/cpu combo.

 

[RichUK]

32 pipes that is just immense ... i only have 16

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: bjc112

Originally posted by: Mrvile

Originally posted by: bjc112
I won't upgrade my card until I get 32 pipes..

If ATI comes with AGP, they got my business.

Why, might I ask, that you must stick with AGP?

By the time ATI can get that card into the market, it'll be time for you to upgrade at least the mobo. Why get a 700 dollar AGP card when you'll be upgrading the mobo soon to PCI-e?

Why will it be time to upgrade my mobo? Unless you know of some technolgy that I don't know of, my 939 board is very solid some time to come..

@ 2.8ghz I can drive any card at full potential ( or very near )

I'm not swapping my board out to get PCI-E when it doesn't offer ANY advantage in performance..

There is absolutely NO reason to upgrade my current mobo/cpu combo.

By years end, when the R520 lineup is actually available, you might be singing a different toon.

Let AGP go quietly, no sense prolonging the life of an inferior technology. As bjc pointed out, do you really want to spend 600-700 dollars on an AGP graphics card that WILL NOT find its way into your next system? You buy an AGP card now, you will be kicking yourself in 6 to 8 months, because you'll never use it again in your main machine.

Before you start with me, I have a P4 3.4E with an AGP 6800GT. I'm about as fast as I can go on this system. The next board I buy will be undoubtably be PCIe. I usually upgrade my CPU/Motherboard seperately from the graphics card. Too expensive to do both at the same time.

 

[Mrvile]

Originally posted by: bjc112

Originally posted by: Mrvile

Originally posted by: bjc112
I won't upgrade my card until I get 32 pipes..

If ATI comes with AGP, they got my business.

Why, might I ask, that you must stick with AGP?

By the time ATI can get that card into the market, it'll be time for you to upgrade at least the mobo. Why get a 700 dollar AGP card when you'll be upgrading the mobo soon to PCI-e?

Why will it be time to upgrade my mobo? Unless you know of some technolgy that I don't know of, my 939 board is very solid some time to come..

@ 2.8ghz I can drive any card at full potential ( or very near )

I'm not swapping my board out to get PCI-E when it doesn't offer ANY advantage in performance..

There is absolutely NO reason to upgrade my current mobo/cpu combo.

You think that way now.

But seriously, you have to admit that AGP is slowly going. Even I use AGP, and I'm happy with it, but I know that I will have to upgrade to PCI-e eventually. When I get my next video card, and it's a 700 dollar AGP card, imagine trying to sell that thing off once it gets old. I'm just saying, gotta start thinking about the future earlier.

 

[Genx87]

32 pipes and available about next March. Until ATI shows up with quantity not holding my breath.

 

[bjc112]

Originally posted by: Mrvile

You think that way now.

But seriously, you have to admit that AGP is slowly going. Even I use AGP, and I'm happy with it, but I know that I will have to upgrade to PCI-e eventually. When I get my next video card, and it's a 700 dollar AGP card, imagine trying to sell that thing off once it gets old. I'm just saying, gotta start thinking about the future earlier.

By years end, when the R520 lineup is actually available, you might be singing a different toon.

Let AGP go quietly, no sense prolonging the life of an inferior technology. As bjc pointed out, do you really want to spend 600-700 dollars on an AGP graphics card that WILL NOT find its way into your next system? You buy an AGP card now, you will be kicking yourself in 6 to 8 months, because you'll never use it again in your main machine.

Before you start with me, I have a P4 3.4E with an AGP 6800GT. I'm about as fast as I can go on this system. The next board I buy will be undoubtably be PCIe. I usually upgrade my CPU/Motherboard seperately from the graphics card. Too expensive to do both at the same time.

By years end what will be out that would even entice me to leave 939? NOTHING.

I understand AGP is on it's way out, but there is no reason that my current 939 board can't last two years..

Oh 2.8ghz isn't enough, maybe I'll add a second core ..

I hear what you guys are saying about future proofing, but there isn't anything spectacular coming out anytime soon that WON'T fit into my current nForce 3...

I will have no problem snagging a next gen AGP variant, and no problem selling it either...


I won't have a problem buying a new mobo either, but im not buying a new mobo just to buy one, let alone for for PCI-E.

 

[RichUK]

Originally posted by: bjc112

Originally posted by: Mrvile

You think that way now.

But seriously, you have to admit that AGP is slowly going. Even I use AGP, and I'm happy with it, but I know that I will have to upgrade to PCI-e eventually. When I get my next video card, and it's a 700 dollar AGP card, imagine trying to sell that thing off once it gets old. I'm just saying, gotta start thinking about the future earlier.

By years end, when the R520 lineup is actually available, you might be singing a different toon.

Let AGP go quietly, no sense prolonging the life of an inferior technology. As bjc pointed out, do you really want to spend 600-700 dollars on an AGP graphics card that WILL NOT find its way into your next system? You buy an AGP card now, you will be kicking yourself in 6 to 8 months, because you'll never use it again in your main machine.

Before you start with me, I have a P4 3.4E with an AGP 6800GT. I'm about as fast as I can go on this system. The next board I buy will be undoubtably be PCIe. I usually upgrade my CPU/Motherboard seperately from the graphics card. Too expensive to do both at the same time.

By years end what will be out that would even entice me to leave 939? NOTHING.

I understand AGP is on it's way out, but there is no reason that my current 939 board can't last two years..

Oh 2.8ghz isn't enough, maybe I'll add a second core ..

I hear what you guys are saying about future proofing, but there isn't anything spectacular coming out anytime soon that WON'T fit into my current nForce 3...

I will have no problem snagging a next gen AGP variant, and no problem selling it either...


I won't have a problem buying a new mobo either, but im not buying a new mobo just to buy one, let alone for for PCI-E.

i think the same way (as i am using same mobo).. although i dont think i would want a next gen card over mine .. .. my next upgrade is going to be X2 and that is it ... there is not point getting another PCI-e mobo now anyway ... not since socket M2 will be out in the Q1 next year and this is really the next upgrade path ..

 

[ronnn]

I will believe a 32 pipe card when it is actually previewed. I still kind of expect 16 of some form of exteme pipe - but who knows.