ATI X1800 series

[Mr. Switch]

Yes, you read that right, X1800 not X900.

ATI plans to introduce three varieties of its R520 core, when it's released next month. We now also have the official names for these cards and ATI has surprised by not going for the anticipated 900 number. Apparently during a brainstorming session the marketing think-tank responsible for naming cards, decided that 1800 is twice the figure that 900 is and therefore better suited to describe the new ATI product.

The top variety (X1800XT), as reported earlier, will have a core running at 600 MHz and memory at 1400MHz and will feature 16 pipelines but its availability will be restricted early on.

The PRO version (X1800PRO) of the core will feature a 550MHz core and 1250MHz memory, also with 16 pipelines, while the budget version will be the (X1800XL) which will have a 500MHz core and memory running at 1000MHz but will also have 16 pipelines making it a rather attractive budget option.

Considering that the PRO and XL versions are expected to be widely available, it seems that ATI has shown a preference for the cards that are expected to sell well and we have to admit that both the PRO and XL (provided their prices are reasonable) sound like good boards.

From the images, its a surprisingly long card, and won't easily fit into small, MiniATX cases. I would imagine that its going to have a 2 slot cooling solution because ATI has had to really crank up the clock speeds since they didn't give it any more pipelines. Because its a 16 pipe solution, my money is still on Nvidia's 7800 series which still has plenty of room to change clock speeds if needed.

Images at:

http://www.megagames.com/news/html/hardware/atir520detailsandimages-update.shtml

 

[arandalle]

Strange that they only used 16 pipelines, especially when nVIDIA is using 24. Still, knowing ATI, the x1800 should give the 7800 a run for its money.

 

[beedubaya]

So can you just OC the X1800 Pro to XT?

P.S. I hear they are not releasing these cards in AGP either. I think its totally unfair that Nvidia and ATI are forcing everybody who built their system last year to buy a whole new system just to upgrade their cards. This makes me FURIOUS!

 

[Nubius]

well you're also on socket 754 which was known in the beginning to be dropped sooner or later, and by now IS completely dropped.....however, since trotter just posted that 'SLI' board for socket 754 it's not like you're totally screwed, new mobo and bam you can get those cards whereas if they didn't have that you'd need a new mobo, processor, AND graphics cards.

They gotta phase out AGP sometime.....hell I had to bite the bullet too, just sold my 6800GT AGP for $200 to a friend today =/

Hmmm that card does look kind of long, but I wonder if it's just cause of the angle the pictures at....guess we'll find out soon enough.

I wonder whatever happened to that AGP to PCI-E bridge thing....think ASUS was making it? Only problem with that is it'd raise your card up a good inch or two

This whole "lets DOUBLE the number at make it X1800!" is freakin stupid though if you ask me

 

[Mr. Switch]

They gotta phase out AGP sometime.....hell I had to bite the bullet too, just sold my 6800GT AGP for $200 to a friend today =/

Yeah, they did the same with PCI, and thank god too. What bugs me though is that there is no performance differnce between 4x and 8x AGP. just ask DJchris

Hmmm that card does look kind of long, but I wonder if it's just cause of the angle the pictures at....guess we'll find out soon enough.

I wonder how its going to fit into those miniATX cases. but yeah, it does look unusually long.

This whole "lets DOUBLE the number at make it X1800!" is freakin stupid though if you ask me

Its not very smooth to say. X800 is alot easier to say than X1800.

 

[Nubius]

Its not very smooth to say. X800 is alot easier to say than X1800.

lol didn't even think of that aspect.

What bugs me though is that there is no performance differnce between 4x and 8x AGP. just ask DJchris

That question came up a lot...and I'd always tell people that it didn't really matter if they ran their 8x cards in 4x because of that very reason, not noticeable at all.

I can't imagine what kind of power house cards there'll be when they use the full bandwidth of PCI-E....whew

 

[Mr. Switch]

I can't imagine what kind of power house cards there'll be when they use the full bandwidth of PCI-E....whew

Well, if its anything like AGP was, than we'll never see it. a 6800 Ultra or X800XT obviously don't even make AGP 4x break a sweat.

 

[Nubius]

Well, if its anything like AGP was, than we'll never see it. a 6800 Ultra or X800XT obviously don't even make AGP 4x break a sweat.

True....but they better make more use of it for making us switch to PCI-E damnit!

 

[gaara]

The reason why they're pushing for PCI-E so much right now is because of this SLI and crossfire technology crap

If more people use PCI-E, they'll be more tempted to use one of these multicard configurations, which in the end means more money coming to nvidia and ati

I also suspect neither company wants to be bothered with making multiple new generation chipsets, now they only have to make one chipset to support PCI-E, not like this current generation with the nf3 and nf4 for AGP and PCI-E

Of course there is other benefits to PCI-E, mainly better power conservation, and of course the full blow 20GB/sec bandwidth from PCI-E 16x in both directions

 

[beedubaya]

I understand the whole deal with moving forward in technology, but they should have waited till next generation (GeForce 8 series) to completely drop AGP. Especially since current cards don't even take full advatage of AGP 8x and the only reason they are doing it is to force people to build new systems if their systems are older than say 9 months. The biggest reason I built instead of buying from a manufacturer is so I could upgrade various parts of my system as they went outdated instead of having to get a whole new system just to upgrade something as simple as the graphics card. It looks like I am going to have to build completely new anyways because ATI and Nvidia have basically said "F*CK YOU!" to me and the many others who built high end systems during the first 3 quarters of 2004.