http://www.tomshardware.com/hardnews/20050830_205000.html
ATI's R520 silicon "fantastic" - sources
By Wolfgang Gruener, Senior Editor
August 30, 2005 - 20:50 EST
Chicago (IL) - After weeks of delay, final silicon of ATI's next graphic
chip generation, code-named R520, apparently made it through the
production
line. According to sources, quality and performance of the chip exceed
initial expectations, allowing the company to announce serious competition
for Nvidia's 7800 GTX possibly in a matter of weeks.
Nvidia may be sweeping the high-performance graphics market with its
seventh
generation GeForce, but ATI made significant strides in preparing its next
graphics chip and is likely to set new records in graphic performance.
Credible industry sources told Tom's Hardware Guide that the R520 may
debut
with clock speeds in the range of 700 MHz and a completely redesigned
graphics architecture.
Compared to 7800 GTX, our sources claim that the R520 can best Nvidia's
performance and image quality levels in any scenario. Nvidia recently came
under fire with accusations that the company uses "driver cheats" for its
7800 series to increase frame rate performance on one side but sacrifizes
image quality on the other. While we have to wait for the final product to
verify itsactual capability, ATI may have in fact a chip in its hands that
could force Nvidia to release a new flag****p for its 7800 series.
Ahead of the R520, ATI is expected to to release its Crossfire dual
graphics
sup****t. Several vendors told Tom's Hardware Guide that motherboard
designs
are finalized and that the industry at this time waits for ATI to
officially
introduce the technology. Crossfire boards are expected to be priced about
5
to 10 percent below SLI boards.
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