ATI Crossfire RD580 Boards Delayed
It seems ATI won’t manage a simultaneous launch of its two new product lines after all.
ATI’s original plan was to launch its new Radeon X1900 (R580) graphics cards together with its new Crossfire Xpress 3200 (RD580) motherboard chipset. ATI will launch the X1900 cards tomorrow but the motherboards will be on hold for a few weeks.
We saw RD580-based boards up and running on ATI’s booth at CES 2006 but we’ll have to wait to see them in our shops and homes. We know that some companies are finalizing their own RD580 motherboard designs but they won’t be done before tomorrow that’s for sure.
Source: The Inquirer
What is it about AIT not being able to release product? This is been an issue for awhile now and its costing them market shares.
The last thing ATI needs is a fubar'd product launch because of issues. Not that it doesn't happen anyways :P
Actually, unless I'm swimming in "discretionary" capital, I doubt if I'll see the "need" to buy two cards for my monitor. This launch is mostly a wash for me anyhow. That said, a friend really interested in it posted me the following
a couple of days ago. Depending on how things go ... hmmmmm.
Qeldrama, they are talking about the RD580 motherboard chipset, not the video card RD580, which was hard launched Tuesday.
I'll be curious to see if ATI has finally come up with a decent southbridge to go with the RD580 northbridge or if the mobo makers will continue to have to use a 3rd party (ALI/Nvidia) southbridge
mud, thanks, but I knew that writing my post. If it will help clarify, I personally just don't have the need or the $ for a dual card solution, and I think many may feel the same way. So making a board that supports it is not important and a wash and should be the last thing ATI needs to worry about in this release. I'm much more interested in how the card stands on it's own. I could go on about the dual card video idea- but that is perhaps a discussion for another thread.
Oh, I agree with you 100% about a dual card setup too; I'm still using an AGP board in my main rig. I just thought you were confusing the RD580 video core with the RD580 chipset. Real stupid of ATI to use the same numbering schemes for gpu and chipset in my book.
Like you I don't have the spare bucks for $600 worth of graphic card, much less $1200 worth for 2 of those critters. Plus, I just read at The Register that Nvidia will be announcing their newest and greatest gpu sometimes in March, so ATI better enjoy their success while they can.