Radeon9900 pro to be 450/375, core optimizations, over 7k in 2003, 128-256mb ram!
wow not too bad, I knew the core would be either 420 or 450. I guess ATI's yields have improved enough that they have no shortage of 450MHz parts. I wonder how high those will overclock, if they can do 490+ or around 500MHz on the core, they may be worth upgrading over a 9800 pro that doesnt overclock so well. the ram will be 375MHz, I guess 400MHz was too expensive, like $50 more and I heard faster ram helps very little on those cards. The core most likley will have some optimizations as well. Will MHz for MHz help how much? 2% probably. There may be some hardware bug fixes though. A great way to see if the core is optimized is underclock the 9900 pro to 380/340 and run 3dmark 2001 and 2003 several times, rebooting after one run. If the differences are greater than 100(margin of error at its worst, usually shouldnt vary that much), then the core indeed has been optimized. within a month, give or take a couple days we should see previews and benchmarks of that card. I am not supprised the 9800 pros are starting to dip to $300, gotta make room for the 9900s
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/video/d...822085942.html
ATI R360 Speed and Performance Revealed
by Anton Shilov
08/22/2003 | 09:01 AM
ATI Technologies’ New King of the Hill primarily known as the code-named R360 product is now being qualified by the company’s Add-In-Board partners who expect it to go into mass production this September. Its key specifications have been known for quite some time ago and things that interest computer enthusiasts the most are its core and memory clocks as well as estimated performance figures.
The most powerful VPU of the Fall 2003 will be clocked at 450MHz for the core and 750MHz for 128 or 256MB of 256-bit DDR SDRAM memory. At this point ATI and its AIB partners think that good-old DDR SDRAM memory is still more preferable than new and lucrative for memory makers DDR-II SDRAM. Even though some of RV360-based graphics cards are expected to be equipped with GDDR2 memory developed in collaboration with ATI, the highest-end oriented R360 will be equipped with typical DDR memory, as unofficial sources claim.
ATI’s new graphics monster will utilize a new type of VPU cooler, a more efficient one to cool down the powerful 0.15 micron R360 VPU running at astonishing 450MHz.. Other features of ATI graphics cards will remain untouched: the product will come equipped with D-Sub, DVI-I and TV-Out connectors.
Both versions of the R360 with either 128 or 256MB of DDR SDRAM memory will be clocked similarly and will score 6750 – 7000+ marks in the 3DMark03 benchmark, suggesting that R360 is something more than an overclocked R350 and we should expect architectural improvements as well.
