R600 launch delayed until March?

Author: Tim Smalley
Published: 9th January 2007
Comments (13) Stumble
R600 launch delayed until March?

R600 is apparently delayed until March: world+dog cries.

A report on DailyTech suggests that AMD's upcoming high-end graphics processor, codenamed R600, is not scheduled to enter production until some time next month.

Because of this, DailyTech believes that the card won't be launched until mid-March - either at or around the time of this year's CeBIT trade show in Hannover, Germany.

There have obviously been more delays for AMD and ATI, because R600 was originally scheduled to launch at the end of January in time for the consumer launch of Windows Vista.

Current test samples of the card using GDDR3 are based on "A12" silicon, and there will be one final re-spin before its launch meaning that final R600 silicon will be "A13".

The flagship product at launch will use GDDR4 memory and it's rumoured that R600 will use a full 512-bit memory interface, because leaked pictures of the GPU show that it is rotated by 45 degrees on the chip packaging. This could give AMD a significant advantage in memory bandwidth, especially with the inclusion of high-speed GDDR4 DRAM chips. Clock frequencies for both core and memory haven't been finalised yet, and won't be for a number of weeks.

In addition, R610 and R630 have appeared on the company's latest roadmaps - these are believed to be mid-range and entry-level products, but details are very scarce at the moment. Typically though, ATI's mid-range and entry-level product codenames have been given an RV prefix, so this is merely speculation at the moment.

One concern is that we know NVIDIA is planning to shrink it's G80 graphics processor as soon as possible, and it has already started shipping its first 80-nanometre G73-B1 silicon. It's possible that NVIDIA may launch faster versions of G80 using an 80-nanometre process node at CeBIT too, as the show is almost six months after the launch of the original GeForce 8800-series cards.

AMD's saving grace is the fact that there are no DirectX 10 games out at the moment, and they're probably not going to start shipping until March at the earliest. We'll have to wait a bit longer to see how the latest GPU war pans out.
Quote Djpuk 9th January 2007, 12:48
So is it worth waiting for or do you go for Nvidia now?
Quote poenanie 9th January 2007, 13:00
that's just poor :(

i'm constantly wondering wether i should buy an 8800 or wait for the R600 and possibly a G81 ?!
Quote Veles 9th January 2007, 13:11
Quote:
Originally Posted by Djpuk
So is it worth waiting for or do you go for Nvidia now?

Theres always something better round the corner, you've just got to decide to go ahead and buy it, the 8800 is by no means a bad graphics card, and the performance difference between the current nVidia cards and the R600 ATI cards wont be a huge amount in real world terms I'm guessing. You'll probablt be able to get roughly the same settings with both cards.
Quote Bladestorm 9th January 2007, 13:16
I find I'm not bothered very much at all by the delay : I dont think there will be enough DX10 games out to warrant a new card till the summer anyhow and by then we should have a far better idea of how the market will look and which moves by which manufacturers have been good and bad. :)
Quote Mother-Goose 9th January 2007, 13:38
its one hell of a delay though :'(
Quote rupbert 9th January 2007, 13:46
And even though it's officially launched in March, decent stock probably won't be available until April.

The problem for ATI is that an 8850 will probably be released around the same time, so they will be half a generation behind.
Quote Mother-Goose 9th January 2007, 13:58
Hmmm well it depends when Tim gets his anti static mits on one doesn't it. If he gets it in feb then a march release is probably about right, and thats fiiiine with me :)
Quote Tyinsar 9th January 2007, 15:49
I'm waiting for the 8600 or equivalent anyway but as the article says, it's good for AMD/ATI that there are no DX10 games yet. I'm hoping AMD/ATI comes out with something that will shock Nvidia like Intel's C2D chips hit AMD.
Quote Nature 9th January 2007, 17:01
What's the big deal about the RD600? Isn't just a chipset? If so, isn't it kind of ridiculous that it's been in the news this much? (or geek news :D)
Quote Tim S 9th January 2007, 17:32
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nature
What's the big deal about the RD600? Isn't just a chipset? If so, isn't it kind of ridiculous that it's been in the news this much? (or geek news :D)
R600 is a GPU ;)
Quote DXR_13KE 9th January 2007, 20:36
hmmmm.... if someone releases a DX10 game AMD/ATI are screwed.
Quote Paradigm Shifter 10th January 2007, 10:54
AMD/ATi should be OK provided they can get a card out the door before Crysis is released. Presuming that isn't delayed again.

ATi seem to have gotten quite good at pushing release dates back. I wonder if the product refresh will come only a couple of months after release (like the X1900 series did shortly after the X1800...)?

Still, if nVidia beat them to the punch with the 8850 (or whatever they decide to call it) then it'll simply mean a price war. Which is good for us. :D
Quote rupbert 10th January 2007, 11:00
Quote:
Originally Posted by Paradigm Shifter


Still, if nVidia beat them to the punch with the 8850 (or whatever they decide to call it) then it'll simply mean a price war. Which is good for us. :D

Good point.

And if anything it will push the 8800GT down to around £200.
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