GeForce vs. Radeon heavyweight clash
heads 12round product card fight
update3/3/03
Competition
in the graphics chip market is expected to be pushed to a
new high of intensity in the second quarter as Nvidia and
ATI Technologies plan to roll out a total of 12 products.After
debuting its long-awaited GeForce FX (NV30) chip at the 2002
Comdex Fall show, Nvidia has scheduled to introduce a series
of NV30-based chip products at the Game Developers Conference
(GDC) in San Jose from March 4-8.In addition to the top-end
GeForce FX 5800 Ultra and GeForce FX 5800, Nvidia will showcase
two other lower-end lines, the GeForce FX 5600 and 5200 (each
with Ultra and non-Ultra versions), in its “Cinematic
Gaming Era” launch conference. Together, the six chip
products will replace Nvidia’s current GeForce4 Ti and
GeForce4 MX series of chips.Though having no plans to hold
a formal launch conference, ATI is nonetheless ready for the
battle to come with six corresponding products. Similar to
Nvidia, ATI has tried to target the high, medium and low-range
segments with the Radeon 9800, Radeon 9600 and Radeon 9200
lines, which are based on ATI’s R350, RV350 and RV280
cores, respectively.Like Nvidia, ATI will also supply the
top-end Radeon 9800 PRO-based cards to clients itself to ensure
quality and then release the Radeon 9600 and Radeon 9200 chips
to its card-manufacturing customers for production.
| Nvidia
and ATI: New graphics chips in 1H 2003 |
| |
Nvidia |
ATI |
| Product
name |
Core |
Note |
Product
name |
Core |
Note |
| March-2Q |
GeForce
FX 5800 Ultra |
NV30 |
0.13-micron
process |
Radeon
9800 PRO |
R350 |
0.15-micron
process |
| GeForce
FX 5800 |
NV30 |
Radeon
9800 |
R350 |
0.15-process |
| GeForce
FX 5600 Ultra |
NV30 |
Radeon
9600 PRO |
RV350 |
0.13-micron
process |
| GeForce
FX 5600 |
NV30 |
Radeon
9600 |
RV350 |
0.13-micron
process |
| GeForce
FX 5200 Ultra |
NV30 |
Radeon
9200 PRO |
RV280 |
AGP
8x |
| GeForce
FX 5200 |
NV30 |
Radeon
9200 |
RV280 |
AGP
8x |
| Nvidia
and ATI: New graphics chips in 2H 2002 |
| |
Nvidia |
ATI |
| Product
name |
Core |
Note |
Product
name |
Core |
Note |
| July |
No
product launch |
Radeon
9000 |
RV250 |
Launched
on
July 17
AGP 4x |
| Radeon
9000 PRO |
RV250 |
Launched
on
July 17
AGP 4x |
| Radeon
9700 PRO |
R300 |
Launched
on
July 17
AGP 8x |
| August |
No
product launch |
No
product launch |
| September |
GeForce4
MX440 8x |
NV18 |
Launched
on September 25
AGP 8x |
No
product launch |
| GeForce4
Ti 4200 8x |
NV28 |
Launched
on September 25
AGP 8x |
| October |
No
product launched |
Radeon
9500 |
R300 |
Launched
on
October 24
AGP 8x
Four-pipeline |
| Radeon
9500 PRO |
R300 |
AGP
8x
Eight-pipeline |
| Radeon
9700 |
R300 |
Launched
on
October 24
AGP 8x |
| November |
GeForce
FX |
NV30 |
Debuted
on November 18 |
No
product launched |
| December |
GeForce4
Ti 4800 SE |
NV28 |
Sample
released |
Radeon
9100 |
R200 |
AGP
4x |
| GeForce4
Ti 4800 |
NV28 |
Sample
released |
Graphics
battle: Nvidia GeForce FX vs. ATI R350 in the next few weeks
Despite various market rumors, Nvidia said it has not changed
its plans to ship its GeForce FX products in early February.
Faced with this upcoming competition, ATI Technologies recently
revealed that it would release its long-planned R350 chips
in the next few weeks to keep its leading position in product
specifications. According
to sources, the top-end, desktop-version chip in the GeForce
FX series will be named GeForce FX 5800 Ultra. Designed with
a clock frequency of 500MHz and the DDRII memory standard,
the new GeForce FX 5800 Ultra reportedly delivers better performance
than Nvidia’s current high-end GeForce4 Ti 4600 as well
as ATI’s Radeon 9700 PRO.Responding to the rising threat
from Nvidia, ATI is planning to introduce its R350 chips as
well as the more simplified RV350 shortly to brace itself.
To ensure a better yield rate and cheaper sales price, ATI
said that the R350 chips will be manufactured on the more
mature 0.15-micron process and use lower-cost, 10-layer PCBs
for the supporting graphics cards.According to some benchmarks,
the GeForce FX 5800 Ultra performs 10% better than the Radeon
9700 PRO, ATI said, but it is also true that Nvidia’s
new chip requires greater power consumption. Its new R350,
however, will feature low power consumption, with which ATI
hopes to target both the desktop and notebook markets at the
same time.ATI gave no more details about the R350 and RV350,
but stressed that the products will be designed with leading-edge
specifications. Meanwhile, in addition to the high-end chips,
ATI said that its new-generation, mainstream-level RV280 would
make its debut at the CeBIT Hannover trade show in March and
hit the market shortly afterwards. An updated version of its
Radeon 9000 (RV250) chip with AGP 8x graphics support, ATI’s
RV280 will be manufactured by United Microelectronics Corporation
(UMC) using 0.15-micron processing.
|
