Delay of ATI R520 to boost Nvidia 4Q sales

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The delay of the ATI Technologies R520 graphics processing unit (GPU) will benefit sales of the Nvidia GeForce 7800 GTX (G70), as more PC vendors including Dell and Hewlett-Packard (HP) have decided to adopt the GeForce 7800 series for their high-end PC models slated for release at the end of this year, according to unspecified Taiwan motherboard makers.

ATI is currently revamping the chip design of its R520, said the makers, adding that the company is facing leakage issues, as it attempts to migrates its manufacturing to a 90nm process. The situation is similar to when Nvidia postponed the availability of its 0.13-micron NV30 high-end chip in 2002 due to production issues, the makers pointed out.

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News source: DigiTimes

I touched on the subject with Jed Rose, a featured community leader at Microsoft, who agreed to comment or find someone to comment on this subject. I asked him what he felt about Macintosh becoming mainstream for x86 and his initial response was that theres already quite a bit of discussion going on behind the scenes in Mac section of Microsoft. I hope to have official comment on Microsoft's perception of this soon.

Whatever the outcome, one thing is sure. Apple are working on OS X codenamed Leopard and it's scheduled to release around the same time as Longhorn. We may find ourselves looking at a real choice for our hardware around that time, this is of course assuming that it will be a boxed version that x86 users can buy off the shelf, without needing to meet the strict hardware requirements that Apple have always had in the past.

2006 just became a lot more interesting.

(1 reply) #1 Boogiman on 01 Jul 2005 - 12:25

Yaaa duh.... 1+1=2

Not really news forty.

#1.1 TheSarge on 01 Jul 2005 - 23:34

Or even news thrity.

#2 Aaronz0rz on 01 Jul 2005 - 12:45

i hope this delay is justified with an uber card...otherwise im switchin

#3 sphbecker on 01 Jul 2005 - 13:48

Good news for nVidia, sucks for ATI. The bad thing is that once HP and Dell pick a high-end graphics card, they normaly stick with it until the next generations are out. So I don't expect computer makers to use ATI's card much even after its release.

(3 replies) #4 ev0| on 01 Jul 2005 - 14:02

Nvidia coming back now. Can you feel it ?

#4.1 [bear] on 01 Jul 2005 - 15:06

Yeah actually it does feel like that. Its gonna be an interesting year.

#4.2 jp10558 on 01 Jul 2005 - 15:35

Better for the consumer when they are neck in neck. Sounds like when I do my next upgrade to PCI-E, There'll be some kickass cards out for me to choose from.

#4.3 dhitb on 03 Jul 2005 - 03:20

Big N came back with a vengeance when they cranked out the NV40

Price aside, the competition has been exciting. It's pretty ironic that ATI is in just about the exact same position that NVIDIA was in around winter '02.

#5 Skyfrog on 01 Jul 2005 - 16:14

So the pendulum swings the other way. It wasn't so long ago that NVIDIA was on top and then had all those delays, allowing ATI to swoop in and take over. I just wish there were some more companies fighting it out with these two; prices are getting ridiculous on these cards.

#6 neocitron on 02 Jul 2005 - 02:23

yes it's great when there is neck and neck competition... sometimes i wish Intel would be as good as AMD... in a way (price for dual core chips) they are...

but the struggle between nVidia and ATI is as good as it gets, in any industry.

(1 reply) #7 Ugly Mugly on 02 Jul 2005 - 03:28

I wish 3DFX was still in business. <sigh>

#7.1 dhitb on 02 Jul 2005 - 09:13

I as well, but I wonder how long 3Dfx would've stuck to the "our 22-bit color is good enough" story

I dread to think how many of the great PC games we've played since 3Dfx's demise would've required a Voodoo card, or emulation through a Glide wrapper (can you say 5fps in HL2 at 512x384 on an X850?).

#8 dhitb on 02 Jul 2005 - 09:09

LOL, will ATI resort to a leafblower cooling apparatus, or will they make sure yields can run with a single slot cooler like NVIDIA's counterpart and jack the price up twice as high as G7800 to make up for all those lost yields?

Sticky situation, but competition has only really benefitted those with more money than brains (usually). I hope we soon see some downward action on the buck-bangage cards in terms of pricetags, but if the introduction of 9800XT is any indication, prices will descend a tiny amount, then when demand picks up on them, the prices shoot up like gas and stay there until the refresh of R520 comes out (R550?).

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