Monday, May 26th 2008
4870X2 to be Released in Q2 2008, Will be Cheaper Than GTX280
I'm sure all of you guys know all the goodies that will be coming with the launch of the next series of high-end cards from AMD. In case you need a recap of the awesomeness headed our way, please check out the source link. Anyways, enough propoganda. For those of you who are interested in buying the latest high-end offerings from AMD, the current rumor says that we should see new cards in August 2008 for a price far below the current rumored prices of the high-end NVIDIA cards. NVIDIA cards have traditionally been more expensive, and the GTX280 is supposedly going to cost nerds somewhere in the ballpark of $500USD. There is no confirmed pricepoint for the new cards from AMD. However, we can be fairly confident that it will be quite a bit less than $500USD. Another interesting rumor to note is that there will be a much larger difference between the HD4870 and the HD4850, as opposed to the comparatively small difference between the HD3870 and the HD3850.
Source:
Nordic Hardware
25 Comments on 4870X2 to be Released in Q2 2008, Will be Cheaper Than GTX280
Hope so that 4870X2 will cheap.
Waiting for difference between 4870 and 4850. Will it be far or ... ;)
If ATI doesn't get these cards out, they're screwed again. I would expect an 8800 repeat.
Hopefully, though, AMD's recent late to market track record won't start spilling over to ATI.
I'm planning on picking up a 4870x2 when they're released - I sure hope CrossfireX will be available between the 4ks and 3ks (I get the feeling it will, but we'll have to see).
This is still looking to be an awesome and highly competitive year between the two camps!
Nvidia ripped out the 8800GTX Flagship card before they ripped out their crappier cards, and it wasnt for a long while, The Ultra. ATi was nowhere to be found. Nvidia owned everything that was decent. Due to the time difference that it took ATi to respond, i think its unfair to compare the G80 with something released a year later.
I think what stands out the most is how much money AMD/ATI have poured into their research and development to catch up to Nvidia, whilst Nvidia seems to be refining their technology to be more efficient, effective and productive. Opting for cheaper parts assures higher profit margins.
I wouldnt be surprised if this round of Nvidia cards are shitty versions of whats really to come out.
In the end, AMD/ATi will prevail over Nvidia!
I get what you're saying though. As said previously, it's all speculation at this point.
(8800 came out and ATI could only sit there a sulk for a year)
But, if defense of ATI over that - they've been releasing new series like wild-bulls in an effort to catch back up to nVidia, meanwhile, nVidia has been sandbagging their GPUs. Every time ATI has something new and definitely promising, we quickly hear of another release slated from nVidia . . . and lo and behold, it's a refinement or a re-hash of their current tech. Sandbagging is a little annoying for us consumers, as we're subjected to resuscitated offerings until the competition is back on par - look at Intel vs AMD. Intel has been sandbagging their CPUs for a long time now.
But, again, paper specs don't mean much - not until we can see firsthand how the hardware performs. As much as everyone is skeptical of the R700, I'm defi routing for ATI with this one. R700 was developed alongside R600, and it appears to address all the shortcomings of the R600 series. Now, we saw how close ATI was able to get up on nVidia with R600 and a series of revisions. They might not have been neck and neck, but they were defi catching up with a hurry. If R700 performs better than R600 in all areas, I think it'll defi be a surprise.
keep in mind, also, ATI has always been very conservative as to what their hardware is capable of, even on paper. The last series we saw that trumped nVidias was the 1900 series, and ATI released that one quietly. The last card that ATi have acted proud about was the HD3870x2, and, TBH, I think they defi deserve their trumpets on that one.