ATI X1000 Graphics Family
Introduction, Specs. & Related Information
This past year has been a tumultuous one for ATI. The Canadian graphics giant has been plagued by well-documented supply problems and have had to deal with multiple delays to their next-gen product, being developed under the code name "R520". The situation is reminiscent of NVIDIA's prior to the launch of the NV30 which later became known as the GeForce FX 5800. Back then, NVIDIA had been commissioned to develop a GPU and chipset for the original Xbox, and planned to have their new GPUs produced on an advanced .13 micron manufacturing process. The combination of the move to .13 micron and the resource drain of developing core components for the Xbox caused NVIDIA to falter, which allowed ATI to step in with the R300. For roughly two years following that scenario, ATI was perceived as the leader in PC graphics, while NVIDIA worked feverishly to regain a leadership role. Today, it seems as though the tables have completely turned, however. ATI is now building the GPU for the upcoming Xbox 360, and they are moving to a .09 micron manufacturing process to produce their latest line of GPUs. In kind, ATI has also fallen behind NVIDIA by nearly a full product cycle. Coincidence? Perhaps. Ironic? Definitely.
Today though, ATI is ready to unveil an entire family of products based on their delayed R500 series architecture. The new X1000 graphics family consists of numerous cards, ranging from the entry level 4-pixel shader pipeline Radeon X1300 all the way on up to the 16-pipe Radeon X1800 XT. We were recently presented with four cards from ATI's new line-up, and plan to give you all of the salient details in today's showcase of the X1000 Graphics Family. Read on to see if ATI is on the road to redemption, or if their latest products are too little, too late.
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Features - ATI Radeon X1800 |
CrossFire • Multi-GPU technology • Four modes of operation: _o Alternate Frame Rendering (maximum performance) _o Supertiling (optimal load-balancing) _o Scissor (compatibility) _o Super AA 8x/10x/12x/14x (maximum image quality) _o Program compliant
Features - ATI Radeon X1600 • 157 million transistors on 90nm fabrication process • Twelve pixel shader processors • Five vertex shader processors • 128-bit 4-channel DDR/DDR2/GDDR3/GDDR4 memory interface • Native PCI Express x16 bus interface _o AGP 8x configurations also supported with external bridge chip • Dynamic Voltage Control Ring Bus Memory Controller • 256-bit internal ring bus for memory reads • Programmable intelligent arbitration logic • Fully associative texture, color, and Z/stencil cache designs • Hierarchical Z-buffer with Early Z test • Lossless Z Compression (up to 48:1) • Fast Z-Buffer Clear • Z/stencil cache optimized for real-time shadow rendering
Features - ATI Radeon X1300 • 105 million transistors on 90nm fabrication process • Dual-link DVI • Four pixel shader processors • Two vertex shader processors • 128-bit 4-channel DDR/DDR2/GDDR3 memory interface _o 32-bit/1-channel, 64-bit/2-channel, and 128-bit/4-channel configurations • Native PCI Express x16 bus interface _o AGP 8x configurations also supported with external bridge chip\ • Dynamic Voltage Control High Performance Memory Controller • Fully associative texture, color, and Z/stencil cache designs • Hierarchical Z-buffer with Early Z test • Lossless Z Compression (up to 48:1) • Fast Z-Buffer Clear • Z/stencil cache optimized for real-time shadow rendering
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The X1000 family of graphics cards we'll be looking at in this article vary greatly in terms of price and performance, but they share essentially the same feature set. Like NVIDIA has been doing for the past few years, ATI is releasing an entire line of graphics cards based on the same core GPU architecture this time around. The X1000 family of graphics cards, as they are now known, have full support for Shader Model 3.0, they are all built on a .09 micron manufacturing process, the entire line supports ATI CrossFire multi-GPU rendering, they have dual-link DVI outputs and are equipped with ATI's recently announced Avivo video engine. Looking at the specifications and features listed above, the X1000 family seemingly surpasses NVIDIA in terms of their overall feature set, with the exception of 4 - 8 fewer pixel pipelines on the higher end products. But their performance and value are yet to be determined, so let's move on and dig a little deeper.
