ATI RADEON X700 Preview - PAGE 1

Introduction

ATI has the ultimate poker face and has restraint of titanic proportions. How else do they manage to say absolutely nothing when the online community is raving about Nvidia's 6800 series or their 6600 series? I think it is fair to say that ATi shocked the hardware community back in April when they unveiled the R420 series in the X800 XT and the X800 Pro. I guess the lesson should have been learned that underestimating what ATI has in their hand is an act of folly. Today I think ATI will again surprise everyone with the launch of the X700 series because it can go head to head with the 6600GT which has set a high bar already.

The codename for the X700 is the RV410, appropriately derived from the high end R420. The X700 is not just a single card but a series of cards with 3 different card configurations making an initial appearance. The current trend of keeping features in line with the high end with the difference coming solely in rendering power remains true here - the X700 features 8 pipes and a 128-bit memory interface down from 12-16 pipes and a 256-bit memory interface. Features like 3Dc that define the X800s will be making an appearance on the X700.

Specifications

ATI has chosen to go with a more advanced process once again with the X700 series making the transition from 130nm parts to 110nm. Remember this is the same strategy they took with the wildly popular 9600 Pro and 9600 XT. Surprisingly though, the clockspeeds have not been ratcheted up a notch compared to the X800 series as is usually the case when there is a die shrink. The explanation from ATI was that the on the XT part, they had the core running faster but it made more sense to bump up the memory speed slightly while dropping the core speed slightly - this makes for a better balance as the X700 is restricted on the memory bandwidth side, not the processing power side. The increased memory core will help keep the X700 pipelines fed.

Theoretical fillrate has the 9800XT planted between the X700 and X700 PRO. On the memory bandwidth side, the higher end parts still hold a significant advantage. Memory are very aggressive on the PRO and XT sides. I imagine that the memory on the XT is fairly costly seeing as only the X800 XT and the 6800 Ultra are the only parts that use faster memory. Both the PRO and the XT feature GDDR3 while the X700 regular uses plain jane DDR.