AMD Ships Radeon 4850 Graphics Card

[Puddle Jumper]

Exclusive - Taipei (Taiwan) - AMD's graphics team has put the finishing touches at its new GPU generation and actually has begun shipping the new 4850 card to OEM partners and retailers: The new Radeon series will sell for prices between $199 and $499.

According to information we came across in Taiwan, AMD/ATI is gunning for a sizeable launch of the new product generation, with Radeon 4850 512 MB boards leading the charge. However, the exact price has not been set yet, even if it is certain that the GDDR3 512 MB version (codenamed Makedon) will debut in a range between $179 and $219. If you ask us, we believe that the board be priced exactly at $199 (US, CAN) as well as 199 Euro.

We were told that AMD/ATI will decide on final pricing during the Computex tradeshow (which is scheduled to open on Monday) in order to have all the puzzle pieces for a June 18 in place. It certainly does not look like a paper launch at this time and the June 18 is an as-of-now date, since the company could revise is launch schedule to avoid a launch right on the heels of Nvidia's new high-end parts.

The good news here is certainly that ATI is aiming for $199, sub-$299 and $499 price targets. However, the release dates of the faster SKUs may be problematic: Nvidia is working on new mainstream chips as well, which will debut in Q3 of this year, our sources indicate.

The Radeon 4870 512 MB is expected to ship in volume sometime this summer. This will be the first graphics card in the market to integrate GDDR5 memory. However, the 4870 X2, will face stiff competition from the GeForce GTX 260: Radeon 4870 X2 cards will sell for $499, while the GeForce GTX 260 is likely to debut at $449.

It is unclear whether ATI's 480 and 960 shader units will be enough to capture market share in the targeted price ranges. All we know is that the game is on and the winner is yet to be decided. According to ATI partners, Nvidia still has a big advantage in its logistics division, both in sales and Page Ranking.

Source
AMD Ships Radeon 4850 Graphics Card - Tom's Hardware

Hopefully they meant the GTX 280 will be competition for the 4870x2 because if the GTX 260 is stiff competition ATI is in trouble.

 

[veedubfreak]

No thats correct. The 260 is supposed to be around 450 and the 280 is probably going to be another 600+ part. Whats funny is i bet that only have 512mb of memory is going to really bite them in the butt when it comes to AA performance compared to the 1gb on the 280 and 8** on the 260 just like when the 2900s couldnt do AA worth crap compared to the 8800GTX.

 

[gurusan]

The fact that the 2900s couldn't do AA had absolutely nothing to do with memory size. It was because of how AA was processed on the 2900 architecture.

The 512mb won't limit AA + AF until you get start rendering things at 1920x1200 and above

Since I'm at 1680x1050 I'll probably end up saving some money and getting a 512mb card as well.

 

[veedubfreak]

Well i still have 7 weeks left on my stepup, so i got time to wait and see how everything shakes out.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

It looks like nvidia may have the best performance but ATI could be a better value.

 

[Drizzt]

Boo, i knew the prices were exaggerated. They were originally saying the 4870 would be released at $245. Now it's gonna be closer to $299 according to this.

I might just squeeze the life out of my 8800 gt 512 until all this stuff comes within a cheap upgrade price for me. (below $200 muhaha)

 

[Ste]

It looks like nvidia may have the best performance but ATI could be a better value.

More performance per dollar spent, unless the 280 is at least 30% better than the X2..

 

[Wildside]

Ok so how much later do i have to wait for the HD 4870 x2 to come out then? I'm anxious to buy it n replace my old HD 3870 x2.

 

[veedubfreak]

the 4870 i s going to be closer to 450 or 499.

 

[Drizzt]

the 4870 single card is not going to be that much.

When they say those prices they are talking about the 4870x2.