Thursday, July 10th 2008

R700 Could be Rushed in

Jul 10th, 2008 01:53 Discuss (29 Comments)

Although it's known that the HD 4870 X2 (R700) is slated for a July thru August launch, reports from GPU Café suggest that AMD could subject the R700 to an early launch, and that's as early as four days from now, July 14. That's more than two weeks ahead of its launch schedule. It's not clear as to what's the nature of the launch, presumably a 'paper-launch', since there already is concrete information from industry observers in Taiwan as to the time-line of the R700 launch we covered here. Some high-profile overclockers are already to have their sample of the R700. Unreliable sources already point at the possibility of a HD 4850 X2 which comes with 2 GB of GDDR3 memory.

Update by W1zzard: Sorry guys but my sources tell me "middle of August" launch.

Source: GPU Café

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29 Comments on R700 Could be Rushed in

ShadowFold

Sweet.. They are priced very nice. Cant wait to see how awesome reviews are :rockout: This could be the next 8800GTX.

Kei

While I'm sure there are a lot of people who are anxious for this, I wonder why they would (if it's true) release it so awefully early? I know it might sound weird but I don't like it when things come out significantly earlier than they were supposed to...what's the big rush?

Hopefully all the people in line to buy don't stone me for saying that haha...it just seems like there is no reason to rush it.

K

btarunr

Editor & Senior Moderator

The big rush (according to TweakTown) is to overshadow the 9800 GTX+ launch. According to me (my personal opinion), it's to create a path for the HD4850 X2, which at ~$399 point could hold the second fastest from ATI title (convincingly outperform GTX 260).

Kei

Thanks, I almost forgot about the 4850x2 which as you stated would make this a very good move in ATi's chess match. Considering the x2's are probably a bit better than just 'normal' crossfire of the same cards that 4850x2 should be a really nasty little card.

If I was to buy an x2 then that's the one I'd have my eye on I believe...then again I already have a single 4850 and plans to get another, I wonder what power setup the x2 will come with (4850x2)? I may just wait it out a bit to see how it plays out.

K

btarunr

Editor & Senior Moderator

HD4870 X2 is an important milestone for ATI, agreed. But more revenue can be generated by the $300~$399 price band. So while the 4870x2 holds the top spot and feeds brand value to ATI, the 4850x2 generates revenue using its older brother's market image. So it becomes important for ATI to at least give the 4870x2 a paper launch so it could bring in the 4850x2 quicker.

Kei

Well said, and well played if ATi goes through with it. They have been making fantastic moves lately and I feel extremely proud to still be an ATi supporter (AMD/ATi have always been my personal choice).

I wish both companies well though of course because a one horse race is rather boring...

K

Cold Storm

Battosai

Wow, I just hope that this "rush" won't hit people with dead cards, and faulty product.

Kei

Cold StormWow, I just hope that this "rush" won't hit people with dead cards, and faulty product.

That's always my worry, but I'm sure they took that into consideration and I hope all goes well if this happens.

K

cray86

As much as I love new toys (i plan on getting a 4870 x2) ATI/AMD really need to focus on profit instead of market share. They need to make money before the monsters bounce back!!

#10

Kei

Market share is how they'll make their profit ;)

#11

Cold Storm

Battosai

KeiThat's always my worry, but I'm sure they took that into consideration and I hope all goes well if this happens.

K

That is true. I tend to try and hold of on getting Video cards till they have been out for awhile. That way I can find out the bad stuff, and see if there has been a revision or what not.. It's never a fun thing to have to RMA the new things. Makes your mouth just water every time you look at your tracking record on it all.

#12

Kei

Haha, I know what you mean that's why I'm still surprised I bought a 4850 but the shock was just too great for me so I took it...and d@mn am I glad I did! Simply phenominal (ha...i said phenom...errr sorry i'm crazy) since day one!

K

#13

sam0t

Yep I feel abit like a guinean pig with my 4850, clearly the idle speeds 500/700 are not the "final" speeds that the later 4850 cards are going to run at idle. Luckily there is the TPU VGA collection, anxiously waiting for newer BIOS files for these cards. Had bad luck with RBE modded bios files with my old 3870 so decided to wait for official bios files from manufacturers.

About the rushing, Nvidia has a good track record on doing these kinda releases. Seems like ATI is on a roll now, they clearly took a bit of a gamble with RV770 cores, making such dramatic changes in short perioid of time. It paid off, hopefully this 4870x2 release adds to it.

#14

Kei

True on the idle speeds but you can go lower that 500/700 on your idle speed by a little bit w/o flashing your bios to do so. I think it's too risky to flash the bios on these carrds as they're still extremely new and there is much to learn.

Anyway I haven't done any bios flashing just profile editing (like I did with my 3870's to avoid any hard mods) here is what mine looks like right now...

K

#15

alexp999

Staff

NOOOOOOOO! Not yet I'm not ready, I dont get paid till the end of month. :( .Knowing my luck there will be none left anywhere when I come to wanting to get one.

#16

btarunr

Editor & Senior Moderator

alexp999NOOOOOOOO! Not yet I'm not ready, I dont get paid till the end of month. :( .Knowing my luck there will be none left anywhere when I come to wanting to get one.

Be optimistic. By the time you are ready, what if prices are lowered?

#17

alexp999

Staff

btarunrBe optimistic. By the time you are ready, what if prices are lowered?

What if they are increased due to stock limitations!!! :eek:

#18

btarunr

Editor & Senior Moderator

alexp999What if they are increased due to stock limitations!!! :eek:

Buy GeForce GTX 280 ;)

(my plan)

#19

alexp999

Staff

btarunrBuy GeForce GTX 280 ;)

(my plan)

Don't want nvidia, not after experience with ATi and bad experienace with nvidia on my dad's rig. Just read the GPU cafe and it still says availability due for end of July, seems that 14th is official launch in terms of review sites and putting it up for pre-order with deliveries to the consumer for the end of July. At least thats what it seems to me, damn companies wanting money up front for pre-orders.

#20

DarkMatter

IMO they are "rushing" the thing because they don't want the same as with HD4850 to happen. With HD4850 the cards were already on retailers hands long before the official launch, to ensure availability. As you all may remember retailers just sold the thing, screwing the launch day.

On a side note, on Fudzilla are saying the card will sell for $550. If true, what happened to the "We won't sell a card above $500" claim?

#21

alexp999

Staff

DarkMatterIMO they are "rushing" the thing because they don't want the same as with HD4850 to happen. With HD4850 the cards were already on retailers hands long before the official launch, to ensure availability. As you all may remember retailers just sold the thing, screwing the launch day.

On a side note, on Fudzilla are saying the card will sell for $550. If true, what happened to the "We won't sell a card above $500" claim?

Maybe they wont sell a card to the retailers of more than $500.

Either that or retailers know there is going to be more demand than availability so are hiking the price.

#22

bill_d

it says the reviews are moved up, but cards come out 2 weeks latter

#23

DarkMatter

alexp999Maybe they wont sell a card to the retailers of more than $500.

Either that or retailers know there is going to be more demand than availability so are hiking the price.

It's supposed to be Ati's suggested retail price. Of course there'd be cards below and above that price. Is not anything confirmed anyway, justwhat fuad said...

#24

btarunr

Editor & Senior Moderator

DarkMatterIMO they are "rushing" the thing because they don't want the same as with HD4850 to happen. With HD4850 the cards were already on retailers hands long before the official launch, to ensure availability. As you all may remember retailers just sold the thing, screwing the launch day.

On a side note, on Fudzilla are saying the card will sell for $550. If true, what happened to the "We won't sell a card above $500" claim?

Yes, that's the best way of looking at it. The HD4850 launch was an NDA nightmare.

#25

Tatty_Two

Gone Fishing

KeiMarket share is how they'll make their profit ;)

Actually.....not necessarily, strange as it may sound, one of ATi's problems over the last 2 years is not that they have not produced good solid value for money cards but that they sold them at little profit to make up for the fact that in some cases they were not performance competative with the opposition, you know, the "10% slower but 20% cheaper" thing.

Basic math suggests that selling 1 million units at a $10 per unit profit does not bring in as much revenue as selling just 500,000 units at a $25 profit per unit, the one has the bigger market share, the other has the bigger profit.

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R700 Could be Rushed in

29 Comments on R700 Could be Rushed in

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