Product Info | User Reviews | Article Images | Image Gallery | Comments | Forum Thread
OEM success/SLI/PCI-E
FiringSquad: ATI has secured multiple design wins from tier one OEMs such as Dell. Has this come at the expense of the retail market?
Paul Ayscough: The reality is the graphics market has grown substantially over the past few years and so has the demand for our products – particularly at the high end. With top-tier OEMs like Dell now offering high end gaming machines it creates new business opportunities for ATI. ATI enjoyed tremendous OEM success with the transition to PCI Express. This OEM success has placed increased constraints on our capacities. With new products like the X800XL and X850 series shipping in volume we expect quick and wide retail availability going forward.
FiringSquad: ATI’s last two product introductions, the RADEON X700 family and RADEON X850 series, are currently only available for the PCI Express interface only. Why did ATI choose to provide parts for the PCI Express market first when the AGP interface has an established base of millions of users?
Paul Ayscough: PCI-E represented a huge inflection point for the PC market. Through significant investments and a close development relationship with Intel, ATI capitalized on this transition. That being said we have not forgotten about the massive installed base of AGP users. Stay tuned over the coming weeks, as we will have some exciting new product announcements in AGP area. We understand that the AGP installed base of enthusiasts will be around for some time – and we want to ensure the very best experience for this group of gamers too!
FiringSquad: Valve’s Half-Life 2 is clearly ATI’s most prominent Get in the Game title – what other games and software developers is ATI working with that we’ll see in the next 6-12 months?
Paul Ayscough: ATI is working with a number of the industry’s leading game and application developers and will have some exciting announcements here soon. Two very cool ones to watch out for in the near future are the Matrix Online and Act of War.
FiringSquad: NVIDIA’s SLI technology has drawn a lot of buzz from both end users and the media alike. Has ATI run any projections on how large this potential market may be?
Paul Ayscough: This is a very interesting area, one where 3DFX tried to capture.
I personally believe that there is a market for ultra high end PC gaming technology and these users are important to address as they influence buy decisions. We feel we currently have the right the right products with the RADEON X850 XT Platinum Edition. Watch this space for future announcements!
FiringSquad: So you do have a strategy.
Paul Ayscough: Yes, we do have a strategy, one we will share at the appropriate time!
FiringSquad: Is this type of technology important for mindshare amongst the high-end gamers?
Paul Ayscough: That’s a difficult question to answer. The reality is this market moves at a breakneck pace – significantly increasing performance (in many cases doubling) every six months.
There is always going to be a segment of gamers that demand the highest performance possible with money being no object. The majority of gamers don’t behave in this manner. They upgrade when the technology offers compelling performance and feature improvements over the previous generation. So there’s actually multiple ways of grabbing mindshare at the high end and this will continue to be a priority moving forward for ATI.
Left 4 Dead 2 PC Review
Valve says Left 4 Dead 2 contains so much new content, it's worthy of a sequel rather than DLC. Is this true or false? Judge for yourself in today's review!
ATI Radeon 5970 Performance Preview
After a 10-month hiatus, ATI's once again got the world's fastest graphics card. The Radeon 5970 fuses two RV870 chips onto one board for max performance, and is built for OC'ing. See how this board fares in the latest games including Modern Warfare 2, Left 4 Dead 2, and DX11 titles like STALKER: Call of Pripyat in this article!
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 PC Review
With no dedicated servers, no lean, and 18-player cap for multi, does Modern Warfare 2 for PC live up to its predecessors? Most of the reviews online have praised Infinity Ward's latest shooter but those reviews were focused for console players -- how does the PC port fare? Find out in today's review!
Sapphire Radeon 5870 Vapor-X 1GB Review
With its custom vapor chamber cooling+heatpipes and factory OC'ing, Sapphire's 5870 Vapor-X is targeted towards gamers looking for a 5870 card with a little more oomph than the stock 5870 card can provide. Best part of all is that the card sells for just $10 more than the stock Radeon 5870. See how much cooler and quieter the Vapor-X card runs inside!
Phenom II Gets A New Revision: 125W AMD Phenom II X4 965 Performance Preview
Promising lower power consumption, lower temps, and most importantly for enthusiasts, more OC'ing, AMD is back with a new CPU revision for the Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition, which now boasts a 125W TDP. Is AMD able to deliver on their promises though? Find out in today's article!
Shattered Horizon Review
FutureMark, well known for their popular 3DMark benchmarks, is venturing into new territory with Shattered Horizon. This multiplayer shooter is perhaps best known for its system requirements -- the game supports DX10 only -- but there's more underneath the surface of this game than fancy visuals. Is it worth its $20 price tag though? Read Vandy's take inside!
Borderlands PC Review
Is it an RPG or is it an FPS? Borderlands blends the best elements of both in one entertaining package. Vandy has spent the past week playing the PC version of the game and came away rather impressed. Read his full thoughts on the game in today's review!
AMD Athlon II X3 435/Athlon II X2 240e Performance Preview
Today AMD is introducing 8 new Athlon II CPUs intended to service different segments of the budget CPU market. For HTPC users, new 45W dual, triple, and quad core offerings should deliver good performance along with low power, while performance junkies on a budget will want to look at AMD's new Athlon II X3 CPUs. See how the new chips stack up in terms of performance and OC'ing in this article!
EVGA P55 FTW Review
Looking for a good P55 motherboard to OC your CPU beyond 4GHz? If so, you may want to check out EVGA's P55 FTW. With its extra ATX12V connector, this motherboard can send up to 600W of juice to the CPU, and it's got more voltage settings in BIOS than 95% of the general public needs. But that's just barely scratching the surface of what this board can do. Check out today's review for the full details!