ATI seem to be enjoying their stay at the top of graphics performance and have just released three new products which will attempt to cover the whole of the desktop market.
It's already been three months since ATI stunned the graphics world with the release of the 9700 Pro. The card managed to combine high-end performance with, good driver support. The latter had been ATI's achilles heel in the past.
ATI will attempt to maintain the same level of success with the three new products which are targeted at the Enthusiast, Performance Mainstream and Mainstream markets. The new boards are the 9800/Pro, based on the codenamed R350, the 9600/Pro, based on the codenamed RV350 VPU and the 9200/Pro, based on the codenamed RV280 VPU.
Last year we took the performance crown in the high-end. This year we deliver performance to the whole market, said Rick Bergman, Senior Vice President, Marketing and General Manager, Desktop, ATI Technologies Inc. By rapidly driving our high-end technologies into the mainstream, we bring a compelling game experience to users across the board. Delivering three extremely sophisticated visual processors at once underlines the strength of our engineering teams and our ability to execute.
Gateway, Fujitsu Siemens and NEC are all announcing systems powered by the new RADEON boards. Gateway has chosen the RADEON 9800 PRO as the graphics powerhouse in their new 700XL system, which will be available soon. Fujitsu Siemens has selected the RADEON 9200, RADEON 9600 and RADEON 9800 products for its Scaleo PCs and NEC has chosen RADEON 9200 products for its Packard Bell range and the RADEON 9800 PRO for the NEC iSelect.
All the major gaming-focused system integrators have also chosen the new RADEON products. ABS Computers, Alienware Corp., CyberPower, Falcon Northwest, iBuyPower, MDG, and Voodoo PC will include RADEON 9800, RADEON 9600 and RADEON 9200 products in their current and upcoming systems.
ATI and its board partners, which include Connect3D, FIC, Gigabyte, Hercules, Hightech, PowerColor, Sapphire, Tyan, Visiontek, Wistron and YUAN, will announce and ship products based on RADEON 9800, RADEON 9600 and RADEON 9200 technologies starting this month.
RADEON 9800
Targeting the ultra-high-end/enthusiast segment, the RADEON 9800 products deliver unequaled performance, features, image quality and stability, which are the key criteria for hardcore gamers everywhere. A 256-bit memory interface and eight powerful pixel pipelines provide the brute force and finesse to deliver real-time, Hollywood-caliber graphics - even for the most demanding next-generation games - and sets it apart from anything on the market. Programmable shader engines, full speed, full floating-point precision and support for the latest Microsoft DirectX 9.0 and OpenGL feature sets ensure games look great even at breakneck speeds. RADEON 9800 products illustrate an important point - you don't have to sacrifice performance for image quality.
RADEON 9600
Delivering the best product in the enthusiast segment is also crucial to winning mind share in the performance and mainstream segments, which represent large portions of the graphics hardware market. The RADEON 9600 series brings cinematic realism and unprecedented power to the performance segment, where customers are looking for the most advanced features and performance, at a more affordable price. Driven by its full floating point architecture featuring quad pixel pipes and dual vertex engines, the RADEON 9600 series of visual processors deliver amazing performance, full support for the latest Microsoft DirectX 9.0 and OpenGL feature sets and advanced anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering technologies. The first of ATI's products to be developed using an advanced 130 nanometer production process, the RADEON 9600 products offer an excellent entertainment value.
RADEON 9200
Powered by an advanced quad-pipe rendering architecture, the RADEON 9200 series delivers a dazzling visual experience with the highest performance in its class. With a full suite of performance and image quality-enhancing technologies including full support for the AGP 8X and Microsoft DirectX 8.1 standards, and streaming video de-blocking capabilities, features unique in this segment, RADEON 9200-based products deliver sharp, clear graphics and video imagery. RADEON 9200 products offer an unbeatable value, with prices right for the most price-conscious consumer.
CATALYST
All of ATI's products, including these newest additions, are supported by CATALYST, ATI's unified suite of software. CATALYST includes the only DirectX 9 driver that is Microsoft Windows Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL) certified, a key criterion for OEMs and corporate customers.
