Legit Reviews

Legit News

G70 is to G71 as R580 is to...

Not to be outdone by nVidia's release of the G71, ATi has released info to its partners about the new R580+ chip. If you've taken the SATs and read the title carefully, you may already know the difference between R580 and R580+. The R580 is simply a process shrink of the existing R580 core to 80nm. With the release of the R580+, the cards will hopefully be able to ship with quieter stock fans as the thermal dissipation demand decreases. A single slot design would definitely be a plus on a high end CrossFire card, but that's just speculation. The transition to 80nm will also help yields and allow ATi to more directly compete with nVidia on the budget and mainstream price sectors.

Samples are scheduled for May, while production should start in Q3 between June and August. Such timing clearly indicates that ATI is not in a rush to release the R600 and we know that R600 is actually doing just fine. The R600 needs Vista to glow. We heard about the R580+ before, but it was called R581. Obviously ATI changed its mind about the name. The card naturally supports all that R580 can bear, including Avivo, Crossfire and it is a native PCIe component.

The Inquirer

Posted by | Wed, Mar 29, 2006 - 11:06 PM