ATI RV630 may follow in G84's footsteps

Author: Tim Smalley
Published: 19th April 2007
Comments (9) Stumble
ATI RV630 may follow in G84's footsteps

RV630 may follow in G84's footsteps -- pricing is going to play a major factor in convincing consumers to buy...

While I've been out in Taiwan, I've been talking with a number of manufacturers about what is coming over the next few months.

One of the hottest topics being discussed at the moment is AMD's upcoming R600 family of graphics processing units. Up until Tuesday though, most of the talk was about how R600 was looking; nobody was really willing to talk about AMD's mid-range and low-end chips with any kind of authority.

There was obviously a reason for that though, because Nvidia hadn't unveiled its mid-range. That obviously happened on Tuesday, and now AMD's partners can talk with a little bit more confidence about RV630's prospects in the mid-range.

At the moment, feelings are somewhat mixed in Taiwan. At least, amongst the various sources that were willing to talk to us about the upcoming parts. So, while our various sources in Taiwan weren't willing to disclose specific performance numbers, they did indicate that we can expect it to be a similar story to GeForce 8600 GTS.

Neither G84 or RV630 are (going to be) massively under-performing products -- they're just not very compelling if the IHVs and their partners don't get the pricing dead on. Pricing is incredibly important in the mid-range, as £10-20 can make a massive difference to a product's value for money prospects when it's retailing for somewhere between £100 and £150. G84 is just a little over-priced at the moment, especially when you have to remember there is no DirectX 10 content out there -- one of the chip's big selling points over current mid-range offerings.

Right now, many of the GeForce 8600 GTS cards are sitting at the top end of that price bracket, whilst the Radeon X1950 Pro, Radeon X1950 XT, GeForce 7900 GS and GeForce 7950 GT are sitting closer to the bottom end of the price bracket. The previous generation cards generally perform pretty well across the board at the resolutions you're likely to use them at, so it's tough for new hardware to come in and not only match that, but surpass it (given the higher pricing). GeForce 8600 GTS doesn't manage to do that, for one reason or another, so that's why it's having an incredibly tough time at the moment.

Hopefully, by the time RV630 launches, mid-range DX10 products from both companies will make more sense to buy because the biggest question (DirectX 10 performance) will hopefully be well on the way to being answered.

Got a thought on either ATI or Nvidia's new mid range cards? Share it with us in the forums.
Quote GrahamC 19th April 2007, 09:07
No over sure on my facts here but... :D The value in the new cards is in their DX10 creds against the 'old' DX9 hardware. DX10 games need to become more abundent to boost the DX10 hardware need. Windows XP is the gamers installed OS of choice which acording to MS will not get DX10. Talk about running a race with your laces tied.... :(

As far as I can see there is no point to these cards at this time and we should wait for the next round.
Quote Mathmarauder 19th April 2007, 12:17
Well according to Microsoft performance under a DX 10 game is much better than a 9 title. I don't think its going to be that efficient though, I really hope these series of cards don't become the new FX or MX series.

I would love to be proven wrong but until we get the CoH DX 10 or the Supcom DX 10 patches there is little to benchmark this against.

I have been scouring the net trying to find someone to test how the 8600 performs the Cascades demo, but no luck so far. Friend tried the cascades on a 8800gts 320 and it ran great.
Quote Dr. Strangelove 19th April 2007, 14:17
I may have missed it, but does anyone know when these fabled R600 parts are going to be available?
Quote Tim S 19th April 2007, 14:51
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr. Strangelove
I may have missed it, but does anyone know when these fabled R600 parts are going to be available?
I can't give exact dates, but it'll be in May.
Quote Dr. Strangelove 19th April 2007, 15:12
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tim S
I can't give exact dates, but it'll be in May.
is this because of an NDA? does this mean you already have the cards in hand and are testing it? :|
Quote Tim S 19th April 2007, 17:11
I tickled R600's belly today actually :p
Quote devdevil85 19th April 2007, 20:46
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tim S
I tickled R600's belly today actually :p

Omg that was hilarious and a little wrong.....but in a good way i think... :D

to be honest I want Tim 'up and close' with this nice piece of hardware cause we all know if it's true it'll be sitting in my desktop as soon as I can get my hands on it....
Quote tuteja1986 20th April 2007, 05:03
X1950XT 256MB $210 at newegg beats the living crap out of 8600GTS. X1950pro going as low as 130 to $160 in newegg leaves no reason to even buy a 8600GTS unless you really think DX10 will make the 8600GTS alot faster.
Quote Dr. Strangelove 20th April 2007, 11:20
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tim S
I tickled R600's belly today actually :p
thought so...

So tell us, did it give you a slap on the hand or tickle you back?? ;)
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