ATI Press Release

[{RA}SKYFURNACE]

Source: <A HREF="http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/030930/305790_1.html">ATI Press Release on Yahoo Biz</A>


ATI introduces RADEON 9800 XT and RADEON 9600 XT, demonstrating industry leadership once again.

Tuesday September 30, 4:00 pm ET

Bundled with Half-Life(R) 2, new RADEON(TM) cards enable extreme gaming experience


MARKHAM, Ontario--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 30, 2003-- ATI Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:ATYT - News; TSX:ATY - News) today introduced the RADEON(TM) 9800 XT and the RADEON(TM) 9600 XT, delivering killer DirectX® 9 performance in leading games like Half-Life® 2, which will be bundled with the graphics cards.
The RADEON 9800 XT, the most powerful visual processor available, takes the award-winning RADEON 9800 architecture, the first and only to feature eight full pixel pipes, and makes it even faster. Shipping immediately, the graphics cards will feature 256MB of graphics memory and a wide, 256-bit memory interface. In addition to the brute-force capabilities of the visual processor, the architecture is efficiently designed to process instructions in parallel, maximizing performance. The RADEON 9800 XT will be available in stores and online in October from ATI and its board partners. ATI's retail product will have a suggested retail price of $499.

The RADEON 9600 XT, the world's first visual processor developed using a low k dielectric process, features four pixel pipes and 128MB of graphics memory and delivers unbeatable performance for under $200. Recent reviews have shown the RADEON 9600 XT to outperform cards twice its price in today's shader-intensive DirectX 9 games. Gamers will enjoy the stunning visual quality that the RADEON 9600 XT delivers, which renders in full precision at all times. The card will also be available in stores and online in October from ATI and its board partners.

"ATI's performance and image quality in DirectX 9-class games is unmatched," said Rick Bergman, Senior Vice President, Marketing, General Manager, Desktop, ATI Technologies Inc. "By bundling Half-Life 2 with these products we are giving our customers the opportunity to experience the full capability of ATI's DirectX 9 hardware."

Customers purchasing ATI's RADEON 9800 XT and RADEON 9600 XT will also get a free copy of Half-Life 2 when the game ships. "We chose to partner with ATI because of their outstanding DirectX 9 performance," said Gabe Newell, Founder and Managing Director, Valve®. "Half-Life 2 relies heavily on advanced shader technologies to give the game a realistic and immersive environment. ATI's DirectX 9-class RADEON(TM) cards are the best choices for playing Half-Life 2."

ATI's RADEON 9800 XT and RADEON 9600 XT will be available in high-end gaming systems from system builders like ABS, Alienware, CyberPower, Elite PC, Falcon Northwest, IbuyPower, MDG, Velocity Micro, Voodoo PC and ZT Group.

Add-in-board partners and third party graphics card manufacturers will also be distributing products for retail, and for the OEM and white box markets. Board partners include ASUSTeK, Celestica, Connect3D, CP Technology, GeCube, Giga-Byte, Hercules, Hightech Information System, Sapphire, VisionTek and Yuan.

For more information on ATI or its new products, please visit www.ati.com.

[Creeper]

:drool:

ok, so there is no :drool: emoticon.. but i need one :D

[Inkswitch]

Pfft.
My 9800Pro is clocked 100mhz faster on the core.

That will make the 9800Pro a good deal when the XT comes out.

[radio667]

So the 9800 pro is faster than the XT ????

[radio667]

just found this : http://firingsquad.gamers.com/hardware/ati_radeon_9800_xt/

[Play]

just found this : http://firingsquad.gamers.com/hardware/ati_radeon_9800_xt/


I'm surprised that the ATI cards did better on UT2k3 than the NVidia cards even though the game was optimized for NVidia.

Oh well, at least it's comforting to know that my investment in the older 9700 pro can still hold its ground against some of the latest and greatest cards. :cool:

[Inkswitch]

No. The 9800Pro is NOT faster than the XT.
The 9800Pro has a core speed of 380mhz. The XT is clocked in at 412mhx. So, the only change is a measily 32mhz increase on the core and 10-20mhz on the memory. I would DEFINATELY get a 9800Pro over an XT because of the price/performance ration. You can clock the 9800Pros like crazy.

I have my 9800Pro watercooled running at 520mhz. :D

[radio667]

I thought the 9800 pro and XT were priced about the same - maybe i missed something :(

[Inkswitch]

9800XT MSRP is $499

9800Pros are goin for $350 at some places. I got mine for $370 with a $50 rebate.

[Hort]

"Other than the new clock speeds, the RADEON 9800 XT is identical to the RADEON 9800. No new features have been introduced from a micro-architecture perspective."

Yeah-- guess it's a 9800 Pro for me. Not work another $150 for the small increment in performance. Even if $499 includes HL2- the money still doesn't add up.

[radio667]

Geezzzzz and i was shopping around for a new card (again ) and at best buy the 128 bit 9800 pro was going for $499 :( ..........btw - heres some more newz .......http://firingsquad.gamers.com/hardware/asus_radeon_9800_xt/

[Creeper]

/me eagerly awaits actual HL2 Benchmark scores on the 9600XT .. as it's not just a re-clocked 9600 Pro.

[radio667]

>> ALERT: FiringSquad News Briefs!

* ATI's Half-Life 2 bundle
As you probably know by now, ATI and Valve have inked a distribution deal for Half-Life 2. Purchase a RADEON 9800 XT or 9600 XT and you’ll receive a free copy of Valve’s upcoming shooter. A lot of you had questions on which version ATI provides, the single-player only version, multiplayer only, or full version with both gameplay modes.

We’ve just confirmed with ATI that they will be offering the full version with both single player and multiplayer, so ATI owners will indeed get the full experience of the game. Keep in mind though that Half-Life 2 is not finished, so a coupon will be provided with a code to either download the game or have it shipped to you (shipping and handling charges will apply). Apparently third-party board manufacturers plan to match this offer as well, both ASUS and VisionTek have announced similar plans for their RADEON XT products.

The RADEON 9800 XT is priced at $499 and sports a 256-bit memory interface with 256MB of DDR memory operating at 730MHz. The core has a clock speed of 412MHz. Meanwhile, the RADEON 9600 XT features a 500MHz core clock frequency (with the four-pixel pipeline architecture borrowed from the RADEON 9600 PRO) with 128MB of memory operating at 600MHz. The MSRP of the RADEON 9600 XT is $199.

Both products are slated to ship in October, but we expect RADEON 9800 XT to hit store shelves first, followed by the 9600 XT a few weeks later. We’ll provide a RADEON 9600 XT article as soon as we get our hands on one.

[Play]

Yeah, but for those that don't have a water-cooled system, the XT comes with an Overdrive feature, which isn't available on the Pro. You're right though, even with HL2, which makes the card technically $450, it's not worth the extra $$ for Overdrive and 32 measly mhz.

For those that don't ooze money like Ink and Hort, try the 9700 pro. I've seen them for around $200 or less. As you can see from the benchmarks, it didn't really do that bad compared to the latest NVidia Ultra 5900 and the new 9800XT.

[Inkswitch]

For those that don't ooze money like Ink and Hort, try the 9700 pro. I've seen them for around $200 or less. As you can see from the benchmarks, it didn't really do that bad compared to the latest NVidia Ultra 5900 and the new 9800XT.

Definately no oozing money here!!

I ate mac&cheese for a month to afford my Raddy. :ink:


Worth every penny. :D

[Hort]

Oooze money? That explains why I never have any when I really want it. It's leaking out somewhere...

[Hort]

Hmmm... reading the anandtech.com reviews/previews of the 9800xt and NV38...

quote:

"ATI is also announcing the Radeon (http://itxt.vibrantmedia.com/al.asp?ipid=14&cc=us&di=83114&ts=3754237&redir=http://www5.overture.com/d/sr/?xargs=02u3hs9yoaUFVuQTCDfBB8TTZEBgusHyGqyliHLS3eD YMaseJspJh9%2BW4JdVWHtdXZNGjLM7F%2F2DmM3nVBCZ0zG8u JuNE%2BbG%2FPD4P8k880D4cHeqCH8bSXbujTXudpRU9f3rJfg y%2FcvJ4rNn0cm%2FQCw9RjTkXPUBLzO6Mch5r1GOdUnc6IfgT dtz3qRk4lW6a%2FXIuvbmbVy1D%2BJS4FowWQlEAKUBRoHkxK9 LaupIqLxlDUSucrld2zJz9baw2S2i00HsANSCpNh%2BnkkOw%2 FOGRG3kJUdLTfT8UBDOPzvIn6x24nEys4ljLisT8baGWX) 9600 XT; a much more exciting derivative of the Radeon 9600 Pro (http://itxt.vibrantmedia.com/al.asp?ipid=14&cc=us&di=45945&ts=3754237&redir=http://www5.overture.com/d/sr/?xargs=02u3hs9yoaUVVvUSCD%2FhB9K4%2BpFAY%2BoaWQTVo tmtNpz3UKDUxtHFU3Qv3%2F3PCUsnCQ3ffcd%2B%2BX89yVZ4C bt1B9TRq%2FGR9VdbRGKGPhxshFrkYd48mmrwY6I5x%2BfN6Ou qiSyjSminCFWjDauh3Ojz7xy%2Bbuh3dMUUwSTOjvorqgb%2Bi vTXqgKHidY1BRTz2Cw%2FZCpqptLwAkISfulRhnFKUIIaeO8AN hck3VCZu5iAbulWfBGQiWoKMcsjUHDMcPBUce7UEUYYUcvbH8M lTRMN4p24jZd8te1zjcqV%2FCrva15d%2FYrIjFLdLiyhSMunm M2HLBUsIjL37CLVjdevJ%2F41kbyjKyG6CTthmXm2MRhBBE26N ZfELR%2FVj8NTwOnTcI4slOssrZoC0muwNiH2leBTn%2B4zHIS QqGmPyM%2FwCMsNs%3D) based on a low-k dielectric 0.13-micron process. The benefits of a low-k dielectric are mainly related to shielding from crosstalk in high transistor density chips; the benefit of a low-k process is mainly the ability to scale up clock speeds, which is why you will see that ATI is able to clock the 9600 XT at 500MHz. According to ATI, the Radeon 9600 XT should be the first mainstream part to outperform the Radeon 9700 Pro in all situations – not bad for a $199 card. "

[Hort]

And from their summary:

As far as people looking to upgrade once for the long run, with new architectures due out in 6 months, a $500 investment today would be significantly more out of date than if you purchase a card right before a refresh. We rarely recommend that you buy the fastest performing card on the market; in fact the last time we did that was with the Radeon 9700 Pro – the impact of which is clearly not equaled by the Radeon 9800 XT (nor were we expecting it to). Whether spending $500 is worth it today is your call, but you can definitely get very similar performance out of a used Radeon 9700 Pro or even a non-Pro Radeon 9800 at much better price points. If money is no object, then we’re sure that ATI wouldn’t mind shipping a few more XTs in your direction.

[Creeper]

/me is unswayed, and still drooling over the 9600XT ;)

[Play]

I agree with their summary. If the new .13-micron technology is around the corner in 6 months, it doesn't make sense to invest $500 in a video card that will quickly become out-of-date. If the 9600XT can outperform the 9700 pro and is only $200, I recommend going for that card instead.

[radio667]

what about getting the 125 ram 9800 non pro instead ?

[Creeper]

6 months? the 9600XT is .13, and supposed to be released this month.

However.. what should be readily available in 6 months is both the next-gen cards, and desktop pci-express.