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ATI Radeon X1000 Series Preview

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Kurtis Kronk
Brian
ATI
Oct. 5, 2005

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Re-Introducing R520

You may recall that the R520 (X1800) was supposed to have launched last June. However, ATI ran into some problems and were left in the dust as NVIDIA launched the 7800 GTX, followed by the 7800 GT. In a time when paper launches have been heavily criticized by the media and consumers alike, this was not a good time for such a misstep on ATI's part.

Of course, we had to ask ATI what the problem was while we had their attention at the event. Did the 90nm process just not work out? Was the architecture scrapped upon seeing the competition's performance? No and no. We were told that the problem was actually a circuit bug, and all that was required to fix the problem was adding two contacts and suddenly there was a 150MHz boost. But finding where the circuit bug was hiding is supposedly what delayed the launch by over three months.

Availability

ATI was insistent that things are going to be different with this launch and that they are going to follow through with product availability. They have promised that today (October 5th) you will be able to purchase an X1800 XL, X1300 Pro and X1300. One month later, on November 5th, the X1800 XT will become available. Finally, on November 30th, the X1600XT and X1600 Pro will be in stores. This information comes directly from ATI - and while I'm hopeful, I have my doubts.

In just the last couple of weeks we have seen ATI break their promise regarding Crossfire product availability. They had pretty much every media outlet saying that ATI has changed and the days of paper launches are gone. Two weeks have passed, and it looks as though another four weeks will come and go before Crossfire products are actually out there for you to purchase.

I had a chat with a representative from Newegg to find out if they have the X1800 XL, X1300 Pro and X1300 in stock ready to ship at launch, and the answer I received surprised me, sort of. At best, ATI's products will be available a day late, on October 6th - but I'm guessing it won't be until early next week that we actually start to see these products for sale. The surprising thing is that the Newegg representative wasn't even sure that they would be getting anything besides the X1800 XT soon. At this point, I'm amazed that ATI would break their promise twice in a row - but I'm not giving up on them yet. If they're a couple of days late, I can understand that, but I'm going to be severely disappointed if they keep us waiting for more than that. In time we shall see.

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Page 2 of 11

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Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: Re-Introducing R520 / Availability
Page 3: Architecture & New Features
Page 4: Question & Answer Session
Page 5: The Cards
Page 6: Test Setup
Page 7: Benchmarks - Half-Life 2
Page 8: Benchmarks - Day of Defeat: Source
Page 9: Benchmarks - Doom 3
Page 10: Benchmarks - Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
Page 11: Image Quality / Closing Thoughts

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8 User Comments

1 - Posted by Frosty on October 5, 2005 - 5:37 pm

i am gonan keep my 7800gtx thank you very much, i really dont feel the need to upgrade now......

2 - Posted by sean478 on October 5, 2005 - 7:37 pm

Hi :) thanks for the review dude :)

I was wandering if you could email me the bioses for these cards?

i was planing on makeing flash mod guides for them :)

for example x1300np to x1300 pro mod and x1800xl to x1800xt mod ect. :)

my email is rswisfamly@cox.net :)

getting the bioses:

try using a bootable dos disk with flashrom.exe on it
http://www.techpowerup.com/bios/bios/flashrom240.z...
also try ati flash
http://www.techpowerup.com/bios/bios/atiflash309.z...

command to enter: atiflash -s 0 .bin

you could also try dumping the bios from ati tool (try the latest beta)

http://www.techpowerup.com

ati tool/settings/misc./dump bios

btw do you have access to the demos for the x1800s? do you think i could get ahold of them? :)

Edit: you could also try winflash for ati :)
http://www.techpowerup.com/bios/bios/winflash105.z...

3 - Posted by Dyrewolph on October 5, 2005 - 9:27 pm

Haha... hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha hahahahah... oooo that's a good one Kurtis! almost made me wet myself!

4 - Posted by Kurtis on October 5, 2005 - 10:29 pm

hehehe... glad someone catches my little funnies. :-D

of course, it's true... but it sounds funny! ;-)

5 - Posted by Frosty on October 13, 2005 - 7:27 am

it amazes me that with just 16 pipelines they are able to beat the 7800gtx...

6 - Posted by handrail on October 13, 2005 - 10:52 pm

the x1800xt does have a higher mem and clock speed though. maybe they can just muscle their way through to higher performance?

7 - Posted by Brian on October 13, 2005 - 10:54 pm

This is a good read:

http://www.thetechlounge.com/news.php?id=7669

Looks like ATI put a lot of work into the new chip and have plenty of room to grow.

8 - Posted by JGFgKnnI on March 18, 2008 - 11:28 pm

Nice site!

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