R600 to hit 1GHz - rumours

Author: Brett Thomas
Published: 23rd January 2007
Comments (14) Stumble
R600 to hit 1GHz - rumours

By all accounts, the red team hasn't been sitting on its laurels. But could the R600 really do 1GHz?

The ATI answer to NVIDIA's DirectX 10 mammoth GeForce 8800 series may be more powerful than we think. There are rumours flying 'round that the A15 version of the R600 will be topping over 1GHz. Of course, we're talking about pure, unadulterated speculation, being as the first production class silicon (known as A12) isn't even released.

There is also bit of info about the actual R600 launch itself. The date is now expected to be either March 8th or 9th, and the product will be launched under the Radeon X2k moniker. This launch date would put the product in public eye shortly before CeBIT, a perfect time to generate some buzz. If so, the launch may steal a little of NVIDIA's thunder at its own rumoured launches (which are expected around the same time frame).

Originally, the R600 is rumoured to launch as the Radeon X2800, and will come with either 512MB of GDDR3 (XT) or 512MB / 1GB of GDDR4 (XTX). The clocks of these parts are claimed to be set at 750/2200MHz for the XTX and 600/1800MHz for the XT. Both variants will feature a 512-bit memory interface.

The A15 version of the R600 is said to be already taped out, so if this is at all factual we should see a refresh of the product line very shortly after release. The R680 is already being tossed around as a Q3 2007 part, so there won't be much time for the R600 to really make its mark.

The news heralds from some Chinese websites claiming to be 'in the know'. Despite dubious authenticity, the 1GHz info in particular is spreading like wildfire across the net, with people already clamouring about the second version of a product whose first version hasn't even seen the light of day. It's not that we don't believe them, it's just that... well, we'll believe it when we see it.

With all the possible revisions and new product launches within 6 months on the ATI calendar, could sales be impacted? Do you think you'll buy one, or wait a couple months to see if ATI bests its own product? Let us know your thoughts in our forums.
Quote Tulatin 23rd January 2007, 08:03
Y'know, there was a time that i thought NVidia was bad for product refreshes, but ATI's bloody horrible for them. The cards will be in a customer's hand under a month (c'mon, there'll be shortages) before the next big gun hits. Plus, with 1GHz Core and 2200MHz memory, are we going to see 3 slot coolers?
Quote r4tch3t 23rd January 2007, 08:20
No no, we will be seeing mandatory (see no air cooled) water cooling.
Or even needing phase.
As for a 1GHz part, a 33% over clock should be achievable.
Quote AndyFielder 23rd January 2007, 08:38
As an ATI fan boy, i was going to go to the green side (well i have already, but only for there cheapest whalts i save up for an 8800gtx) i may well hang on a bit and wait to see what ati have to offer!
Quote otispunkmeyer 23rd January 2007, 09:04
1GB GDDR4? 512bit bus .... these cards are gonna be hella expensive. more so than the 8800's im sure.

plus i really dont think its worth mentioning the clockspeeds really. just like in CPU's now, with major architectural differences clock speed really isnt that useful as a performance indicator and is even more worthless as a comparison tool.

march is gonna be interesting...i cant wait to see what happens! will the massive bandwidth advantage ATi have pay off? its hard to tell, i think pixel shading will be more important and increase in importance, nvidias approach lends its self nicely to heavy pixel shader demand becuase the scalar architecture is easy to utilize. memory bandwidth might only play a significant role in the uber resolutions with some phat textures. but with new compression techniques and that cool way of storing textures as maths equations are ATi solving a problem that isnt really there?

exciting times!!! this is gonna be a great year.... 2 different companies producing a range of stellar products, both this time round are supplying immpecable filtering and IQ and so long as the price is right there is only one winner here....US
Quote Mother-Goose 23rd January 2007, 09:26
It is going to be a right pain if I buy one of the A12's and then the A15 gets released afterwards, its the age old thing, if you wait for something new you'll never buy anything, but at the same time if its only a month or so in between revisions it would be silly not to wait....ARGH bloody ATi!!
Quote Henk 23rd January 2007, 09:59
I wonder which will be the better one of the "semi-pro" models - Geforce 8800GTS 640MB or Radeon X2800 XT 512MB... I guess the GTS will take the lead $-wise since it's been out longer :p

But 1GB graphics memory is also interesting - think of how many texture mods for Oblivion you could put in without introducing any fps drops ;)
Quote Iago 23rd January 2007, 10:39
DAAMIT certainly need to change their branding scheme for GPUS.

X2800? X1900 XTX was borderline ridiculous in my mind, but it's getting worse.

In Graphzilla they too should be thinking what are they going to do when GeForce 9900 Series gets old... GeForce 10 is ok, but 10800 GTX is lame.

Those naming schemes have gone from "edgy" to retarded, lame and confusing in a heartbeat...we need new blood in GPU marketing ;)
Quote Mother-Goose 23rd January 2007, 11:08
The R600 should be called something like the Decimator XTX looking at those specs lol
Quote poenanie 23rd January 2007, 13:38
30CMXMONSTERXTX -_-

That card don't fit my case ( and that's a freaking coolermaster ... )
Quote Jipa 23rd January 2007, 13:43
Rumours, rumours and even more rumours. I guess Ati finally has a proper launch date for their product, they most likely are not willing to let the Cebit go past with them only having paper to show ;)
Quote trig 23rd January 2007, 14:29
any idea when bit-tech will get one to test?
Quote Mother-Goose 23rd January 2007, 15:08
and for me to subsequently steal....
Quote DXR_13KE 23rd January 2007, 16:59
rumors... but....... HELL THEY ARE TAKING TO LONG TO LAUNCH A BLOODY GRAPHICS CARD!!!!!!
Quote EQC 23rd January 2007, 18:01
From this post on the 8800GTX
Quote:
Originally Posted by 8800GTXarticle
The core clock is 575MHz - you're probably familiar with a traditional core clock - this represents the frequency of the pixel output engines (also known as ROPs). The 128 shader processors are clocked at an incredible 1.35GHz by default and finally the memory clock is set at 1.8GHz (effective).

I'm assuming the expected 1GHz for the A15 ATI/AMD part is on the "core clock"...but with nVidia's "shader processors" clocked at 1.35GHz, I don't really know what that means. For example, if nVidia upped the core clock from 575MHz to 1GHz, but didn't speed up the shaders, how much difference would it make? Does ATI use a separate shader clock?
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