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Introduction Without question, the video card segment for the past three months has been ruled almost exclusively by Nvidia. The release of the 7800 GTX at the end of June signaled a marked shift in philosophy from past releases not only in the physical design of high end graphics chips, but in the way they are released as well. Nvidia uncharacteristically had boards available for purchase the same day as they were launched (and at relatively reasonable price levels as well). ATI in the meantime have had no end of difficulty with their new high end XT chip. The storied graphics part has gone through many, many revisions, and has been delayed more than 6 months beyond its intended release date. Though known infamously now (and technically) as the R520, that chip is only one of three completely redesigned architectures we will be previewing today.
Specifications
What is very important to note about this new product launch, is that ATI are not simply releasing one card at the very high end for the masses to stare at and the few to buy, they are releasing an entire family of cards, with new technology that extends from the top down. We will be discussing some of the new features this family offers later in the article, but this is a breakdown of what makes it into the series from the X1300 on up - and it's definitely impressive. The most notable of these is Crossfire. Though the technology has had a lack luster showing so far, with this generation, ATI have worked out the issues (such as the poor refresh rate at 1600 x 1200 - the maximum resolution is now 2048x1536 @ 70+ Hz ) and still offer the same advanced features that made the original Crossfire attractive. Design Philosophy Perhaps the single most interesting thing about the X1000 series of graphics cards is ATI's abrupt change in thinking as far as the bandwidth issue goes. Previously to this generation, ATI has been known for using lower clock speeds than Nvidia to perform similar amounts of work at similar (in many cases more, until the last generation) levels of performance. With this series, ATI seem to have reversed their strategy at every level of the boards design. This starts with the new 512 bit Ring Bus memory controller (which we cover in more detail later on) and is further evidenced in the unbelievably high clockspeeds of their flagship card, the X1800 XT. In basic terms, Nvidia has turned to more pipes to increase bandwidth, while ATI with this new series uses high clock speeds and a lower number of pipes, (but equals Nvidia's number of vertex shader units at 8) while cutting down on inefficiencies within the rendering process itself to maximise performance. ATI's claim with the X1000 series is that though they are late with Shader Model 3.0, they have come up with a solution to truly make use of some of its more important features like Dynamic Branching, without the natural inefficiencies that come with it. The specifics of what ATI has done with its rendering engines are covered on page 4 with full diagrams and descriptions. Availability As mentioned earlier, the X1000 series by November will have completely replaced ATI's current lineup of cards. This begins (hopefully) today with the X1800XL, X1300 Pro, and the X1300 vanilla cards. Though ATI are holding off on their flagship card's availability until early November (due to production limitations no doubt), their second fastest card, the X1800 XL should be available in quantity immediately. The 1600 series will be available by the end of November, just in time to counter whatever Nvidia has planned for the mainstream. For now, ATI hopes to clear out its remaining R4xx cores with its Radeon X800 GT and GTO cards, both of which are strong performers for not very much money.
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