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- Date:
- Wednesday, October 05, 2005
- Author:
- Brent Justice
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
ATI Radeon X1000 Family Preview
It is finally here folks, ATI’s next generation video card technology. We will explore this new technology and run gameplay evaluations for you using two new ATI video cards competing directly with the competition.
The X1000 Family:
Let’s start with what ATI is calling this series. The “R520” is the codename for ATI’s new high-end video card products. These consist of the Radeon X1800 XT and X1800 XL. The “RV530” is the codename for the midrange cards, which consist of the Radeon X1600 XT and X1600 Pro. The “RV515” is the codename for the value cards and these consist of the Radeon X1300 Pro, X1300, and X1300 HyperMemory.
What this means is that ATI is announcing their entire product lineup at once. This is unprecedented. Usually, we see ATI or NVIDIA launching their high-end GPUs first, followed by the midrange, and then the value segments on separate dates. However, ATI is going ahead and announcing their entire product lineup from top to bottom based on this new technology. Announcing an entire lineup is a interesting strategy, but product availability is another story. So much of what we see about the X1000 family of Radeon video cards today will once again be very much a "paper launch."
On October 5, 2005, the Radeon X1800 XL, X1300 Pro, and X1300 will be available. (Editor's Note: We will be searching throughout the day/week/month to see whether or not there is actual retail availability or if this is just another empty promise.)
On November 15, 2005, ATI claims that their top end Radeon X1800 XT will be available.
On November 30, 2005, the midrange cards -- the Radeon X1600 XT and X1600 Pro -- will be available.
While everything is being announced today, you cannot buy everything today. There is no mention of CrossFire Master Cards either; it’s possible that these master cards won’t see the light of day for at least another month if not longer.
The X1000 Family of Products:
Let’s get right into what is being announced today. Below are slides showing the features and pricing of each model of video card being announced today. We will go into more detail on the following pages regarding the technology behind the video cards. We thought we’d go ahead and show you the cards up front in case you wish to skip straight to the gameplay evaluation. Some people find the architecture explanations boring, but we will try to keep it simple and focused on what you, as a dedicated gamer, need to know.
The entire X1000 family uses 90nm manufacturing technology and now supports Shader Model 3.0 and Floating Point 16 blending in the framebuffer for the best High Dynamic Range (HDR) quality. In addition, there is a new memory controller and some new Anti-Aliasing (AA) and Anisotropic filtering (AF) options that all X1000 products share.
X1800 XT and X1800 XL:
The Radeon X1800 XT comes with either 256MB or 512MB of memory. Both come with a core that is clocked at 625MHz and memory that is clocked at 1.5GHz. The 256MB version has an MSRP of $499 and the 512MB version will go for $549. This video card is meant to compete with the GeForce 7800 GTX. It comes standard in a dual slot configuration with a rear exhausting heat sink fan unit and dual dual-link DVI. The heat sink itself is made of copper. ATI has now joined the ranks of those that produce long video cards. Measuring nine inches, the Radeon X1800 XT and XL are exactly the same length as the GeForce 7800 GTX.
The Radeon X1800 XL comes clocked at a 500MHz GPU frequency and a 1GHz memory frequency with 256MB of RAM. The MSRP is $449, which aligns it with the NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT. The X1800 XL also comes with dual dual-link DVI, but it is in a single-slot solution. The heat sink is made of copper so the video card is heavy. The fan, however, is very small. In operation, there are two fan speeds, a slower speed, which is not very loud, and a higher speed, which is very loud. In fact, the fan speeds up and speeds down between these two speeds frequently, even when the card is in idle 2D mode. What this means is that, even at idle, the GPU is getting hot enough to cause the fan to spin up to higher speeds to cool it down. It shouldn’t come as a surprise then that this video card gets very hot during a full load situation such as gaming.
X1600 XT and X1600 Pro:
The X1600 XT is a very performance oriented mainstream video card that has a price tag of $199 for the 128MB version and $249 for the 256MB version. At $199 with the 128MB version, this would align ATI’s card with the GeForce 6600 GT, while the 256MB $249 version aligns itself with the GeForce 6800 in terms of price. The GPU frequency is set at 590MHz with the memory at 1.38GHz. There is no external power required for this video card; all power is derived from the PCI-Express slot. The heat sink is made of copper and dual DVI comes standard on the X1600 XT. During operation, the fan noise is minimal; it is much quieter than the X1800 XL.
The X1600 Pro runs at 500 and 780MHz GPU and memory frequency, respectively. The 128MB version has an MSRP of $149 and the 256MB version will go for $199.
X1300 Pro and X1300 and X1300 HyperMemory:
At the value end of the range, there are three distinct X1300-based video cards. The top model, the X1300 Pro, with a price tag of $149, has a GPU that runs at 600MHz and memory that runs at 800MHz. The regular X1300 has low price tag of $99 for the 128MB part and $129 for the 256MB part. There is also a lower cost $79 X1300 that utilizes the HyperMemory technology. The actual physical amount of RAM on this video card is 32MB; the rest is shared with the system RAM to equal 128MB of available RAM. The X1300 Pro we have pictured above looks exactly like the X1600 XT. You would not be able to tell them apart without knowing that the memory configuration looks different on the rear of each card and that the X1300 Pro has a single VGA port.
CrossFire Master Cards:
There is nothing official on when we will see CrossFire master cards. It could be at least a month before we hear about them. All the video cards discussed here today from the X1300 to the X1800 XT support CrossFire. As expected, there will no longer be the resolution and refresh rate limit that plagued ATI’s first attempt at tandem video cards. All of these cards employ internal dual-link TMDS transmitters and a new composite chip. In fact, with the lower end X1300 video cards, an external dongle may not be required; instead, the PCI-Express bus will handle all of the data sharing for these low end cards in CrossFire.