A Torrid Affair with Graphics: April 2001 3D Market Update

ATI: Stuck between a rock and a hard place

In spite of the title of this section, ATI is doing quite well.  The problem they are having is that, from a marketing standpoint, they cannot claim that they have a fully functional DX8 part on the market like NVIDIA can.  While we all know that this means very little since there are no titles that take advantage of the technology, it is still a feather missing from ATI’s cap.  And as you have undoubtedly heard, the R200 or successor to the Radeon, will not be released until the fourth quarter of this year.  We actually commend ATI on this decision since the theory behind it is that by that time there will hopefully be titles available that can actually use the hardware.  However in order to show the world that they are still in the game they will be doing a technology announcement, much like they did with the original Radeon, in the next month or so. 

Another project that ATI has been working on is a response to the GeForce2 Ultra, a 64MB Radeon DDR running at a 250MHz core clock with a 250MHz DDR memory clock.  We actually first found out about this card months ago when ATI accidentally used this 250/250MHz card in some benchmarks they sent us.  We have seen pictures of this card, sometimes referred to as the Radeon SE, appear on the web already.  It is still unclear if ATI will go ahead with this card, however if they do, it will definitely be very aggressively priced.

Matrox: No G800

In closing we’ll leave you with a bit of news that may be sad to hear for Matrox fans.  The G800 everyone has been waiting for is officially not going to be released.  This was actually what we hinted at the last time we talked about Matrox, unfortunately back then we weren’t able to come out and say it for sure.

Matrox is continuing their stance that they will re-enter the gaming market at one point, but don’t expect that to be with their next card.  I know that there are rumors flying around about chip names found in Matrox drivers, but don’t set yourself up for a disappointment.  Matrox won’t be focusing on the gaming market anytime in the near future.

Final Words

I hope you enjoyed this little article, thanks for the support you’ve given me and the rest of the AnandTech family over the past four years. We have quite a few surprises for you this year, and I will make sure personally that we do whatever it takes to continue to make AnandTech the best it has ever been.

-- Anand Lal Shimpi