Why buy an RV250? (Especially for AMD owners)

[lifeguard1999]

RV 250 performance on Athlons, Pentium 4s

This is the second leak of performance results for the RV250 (or Radeon 9000) that I am seen.

From Rage3d.com

Both of them show that the RV250/Radeon 9000 underperforms a Radeon 8500. Why buy a Radeon 9000 when an 8500 only costs $100 or so? And on Athlons it looks like it performs even worse. Hmmmm. Perhaps it is because Quake 3 LOVES the memory bandwidth. Isn't RTCW based on the Q3 engine as well?

 

[Rand]

Given that the RV250 is supposed to compete against the GF4 MX line initially I'm thinking it'll come in at price levels below the $100 MSRP currently being passed around.
Thje present R8500 can already be had below $100, despite the MSRP being much higher then that.

That said, if it does launch at present performance levels at $100 US then it's clearly over-priced. One can get 275/250 R8500's for under $100 now, and GF3 Ti200 is also below $100.
I'm thinking it will most likely initially have an MSRP of $99... and we will probably se it in stores at $80 or so soon after release.

One thing that's puzzling is it's supposed to be little more then a higher clocked R200 with a few more integrated components, giev that the performance is unusually low.

Some have bandied around the hypothesis that the RV250 has neutered the HyperZ capabilities in current drivers.
ATi has done similar things in the past by disabling the T&L capabilities of the Radeon VE/7000 upon release, and then re-enabling them in later drivers. The classic Radeon LE has HyperZ disabled originally, and it's also been enabled through updated drivers.

 

[lifeguard1999]

Wouldn't that be a cool way to avoid leaks. Initially send out drivers where some performance feature was disabled. Then a couple of days before the release, send out the complete drivers. Better yet, send out different croppled drivers to different web sites, then find the one that leaks by the benchmarks.

Back on point....

I realize that the RV250/R9000 is suppossed to replace the RV200/R7500, not the R200/R8500. Some pictures even show the RV250/R9000 passively cooled. I am just expecting more of a performance increase than this shows. I am expecting something closer to the R8500, which is now dirt cheap at $100.

 

[DevilsAdvocate]

I'm not sure I understand ATi's numbering system...

I thought the 9000 was an improvement on the 8500...

Time to do some research I guess....

 

[Geotpf]

And Nvidia's makes sense, where 4MX < 3?

 

[lifeguard1999]

Well, now things make a bit more sense. The R9000 will come in at least 3 forms, with different clock speeds, according to Rage3d.com :

1) 220/220 core/mem and 64 MB memory (R9000LE)
2) 220/220 core/mem and 128 MB memory (R9000LE)
3) 275/275 core/mem and 128 MB memory + VIVO (R9000 Pro)

Options #1 and #2 would have to come in at $100 or less, while option #3 could be about $150. I wonder if the benchmarks came from the LE version or the Pro version. My guess is that the benchmarks came from the LE version. A 10% boost for the Pro gets it closer to the 8500LE, but not quite there.

 

[eaadams]

Do we see NVIDIA audjusting prices at all upon ATI release?

 

[Rand]

Originally posted by: lifeguard1999
Well, now things make a bit more sense. The R9000 will come in at least 3 forms, with different clock speeds, according to Rage3d.com :

1) 220/220 core/mem and 64 MB memory (R9000LE)
2) 220/220 core/mem and 128 MB memory (R9000LE)
3) 275/275 core/mem and 128 MB memory + VIVO (R9000 Pro)

Options #1 and #2 would have to come in at $100 or less, while option #3 could be about $150. I wonder if the benchmarks came from the LE version or the Pro version. My guess is that the benchmarks came from the LE version. A 10% boost for the Pro gets it closer to the 8500LE, but not quite there.

Rage3D has been recieving different information then I have then, the pre-release third party vendors I've heard from quote a 250/200 for the R9000LE in both 64MB and 128MB configurations.
275/275 128MB + VIVO for the R9000Pro does fit though.

 

[lifeguard1999]

Rand is right.
Rage3d.com is wrong.

1) 250/200 core/mem and 64 MB memory (R9000LE)
2) 250/200 core/mem and 128 MB memory (R9000LE)
3) 275/275 core/mem and 128 MB memory + VIVO (R9000 Pro)

I should have gone to the link to the swedish site to read the press release myself.