Conclusion

As much as I'm excited about a potential price war, new technologies and such, I'm pretty skeptical about an 80nm-based R600. It seems too large and too hot. However, I do see very good potential in a 65nm-based chip or an optimized version in the future, like what we saw with the X1950 PRO.

Although the R600 will bring with it a very different philosophy on what the future of graphics should be and what a graphics card can and should do, no one will know for certain what the R600 and its offspings will ultimately mean to the industry and gaming community. It's certainly different from NVIDIA's G80 and will provide an interesting contrast, not only in performance terms but also in matters of design philosophies.

My current prediction is that R600 parts built using the 80nm process will receive a lukewarm reception, and that the real potential lies in the future when ATI and TSMC perfects their 65nm process for a Q4 2007 or Q1 2008 rematch with leaner and meaner GPUs that will have sufficient performance superiority to take the market back for AMD and ATI.

Yeah, it isn't much of a prediction, but this is all I can personally surmise at this point. The first few weeks after the launch on May 14, 2007 will be the litmus test on whether ATI has the potential to take the market by storm with the R600, as they did with the R300. Only time will tell.

Questions & Comments

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