ATI PLANS to introduce a new motherboard and new graphic card together. They both have very similar names but R580 is a graphics chip while RD580 is the motherboard.
We have already reported that the R580 will have 16 pipelines and 48 pixel Shaders. You can expect this product together with a new "two by sixteen" PCIe lane motherboard by the end of January.
The motherboard is a step forward from the one just reviewed here, RD480 based board. It now has enough lanes to power two PCIe graphics cards at its native 16X working mode and it will make Crossfire even easier. I still think that ATI will have to stick with a master card concept, but as you know the mainstream Radeon X1600 and entry level X1300 can work in Crossfire without master card.
The launch date is still not set but you can expect this motherboards based on RD580 chipset paired with R580 cards in late January if it doesn’t slip to early February. ATI is working on world wide availability at launch time. ATI is an OEM business based company so it's not that easy to cope with this etailer, retailer, and partner stuff. But since they are shipping the chips R580 chips now it can be done.
I expect that Nvidia will do the same. It should have its G71 chips up and running and its preparing for early February launch and availability.
We have already reported that the R580 will have 16 pipelines and 48 pixel Shaders. You can expect this product together with a new "two by sixteen" PCIe lane motherboard by the end of January.
The motherboard is a step forward from the one just reviewed here, RD480 based board. It now has enough lanes to power two PCIe graphics cards at its native 16X working mode and it will make Crossfire even easier. I still think that ATI will have to stick with a master card concept, but as you know the mainstream Radeon X1600 and entry level X1300 can work in Crossfire without master card.
The launch date is still not set but you can expect this motherboards based on RD580 chipset paired with R580 cards in late January if it doesn’t slip to early February. ATI is working on world wide availability at launch time. ATI is an OEM business based company so it's not that easy to cope with this etailer, retailer, and partner stuff. But since they are shipping the chips R580 chips now it can be done.
I expect that Nvidia will do the same. It should have its G71 chips up and running and its preparing for early February launch and availability.