ATI Still Loses Money
Published by Bogdan Alex, on April 27th, 2008, in the categories: Video Cards
As I have pointed out in some of my previous posts, ATI is apparently doing fine as far as sales and revenues are concerned. However, that is not exactly the real situation. Fudzilla has gathered some info on the previous and current financial years and according to the stats, ATI still doesn’t make any profit out of their video card business.
Since ATI is now an AMD affiliate, the actual money loss is not that dramatic, but the Canadians are far from the fabulous days of the Radeon 9800 series. Here are some real facts. In Q4 2006, the first quarter when AMD took over, ATI lost $27 million. In Q1 2007 it lost $35 million. The worst period for ATI was recorded in Q2 2007 when it lost $50 million, and in Q3 2007 it almost made some profit as it managed to lose only $3 million. Q4 2007 came with a $12 million loss, while in Q1 2008 ATI lost $11 million, in spite of its best selling mid-range video cards.
ATI claims that a $10 million loss is almost like making money, as there are some royalties that the company gets for the console games and other advertisements, and this can help to break even.
Overall, AMD lost $135 million because of the graphics division of their business. It’s likely that Q2 2008 won’t bring any big change either, but things could get better with the launch of the R700 GPUs in Q3 2008.
Since ATI is now an AMD affiliate, the actual money loss is not that dramatic, but the Canadians are far from the fabulous days of the Radeon 9800 series. Here are some real facts. In Q4 2006, the first quarter when AMD took over, ATI lost $27 million. In Q1 2007 it lost $35 million. The worst period for ATI was recorded in Q2 2007 when it lost $50 million, and in Q3 2007 it almost made some profit as it managed to lose only $3 million. Q4 2007 came with a $12 million loss, while in Q1 2008 ATI lost $11 million, in spite of its best selling mid-range video cards.
ATI claims that a $10 million loss is almost like making money, as there are some royalties that the company gets for the console games and other advertisements, and this can help to break even.
Overall, AMD lost $135 million because of the graphics division of their business. It’s likely that Q2 2008 won’t bring any big change either, but things could get better with the launch of the R700 GPUs in Q3 2008.
Leadtek WinFast PX9600 GT Extreme
Published by Codrut Nistor, on April 17th, 2008, in the categories: Video Cards
Sometimes, computer parts are also about beauty, not only performance, but when you have a good looking piece of hardware that's decently priced and offers outstanding performance for its class, only then you can say you got the best bang for your buck. Why am I saying this? After all, some computer cases don't allow you to see what's inside, and if you're not building your PC by yourself, you may not even get to see what's inside. Well, that's a reason to become a computer enthusiast, the inner beauty of the machine, and today we'll talk about the beauty below, the Leadtek WinFast PX9600 GT Extreme Version video card.
As you probably know already, the 9600 GT is based on NVIDIA's G94 graphics core, basically a slightly improved version of the G92 used on the 8800 GT. This Leadtek incarnation of the 9600 GT board has the same PCB layout as the GeForce 8800 GT, so if you want to change the cooling system of this card, you could easily use coolers designed for the 8800 GT. These being said, let's see why did those guys at Leadtek call this card "Extreme" - I guess you imagine it already, but there are a few things that need to be said, so here we go...
NVIDIA's standard 9600 GT is on par with the 8800 GT in most tests, so hear this - Leadtek decided to give its card a boost, so they pushed up the core from 650MHz to 720MHz, while the memory runs at 1625MHz. The feature list of the card is pretty long, including built-in HDMI, HDCP, solid aluminum capacitors, PureVideo HD, dual-link DVI, and more.
Finally, if the above is not enough, you could also take your time to compare what other reviewers think, and then decide. After all, prices are dropping, and now is the right time to get a new video card, and if you don't want to empty your pockets, the Leadtek WinFast PX9600 GT Extreme could be the perfect choice!
As you probably know already, the 9600 GT is based on NVIDIA's G94 graphics core, basically a slightly improved version of the G92 used on the 8800 GT. This Leadtek incarnation of the 9600 GT board has the same PCB layout as the GeForce 8800 GT, so if you want to change the cooling system of this card, you could easily use coolers designed for the 8800 GT. These being said, let's see why did those guys at Leadtek call this card "Extreme" - I guess you imagine it already, but there are a few things that need to be said, so here we go...
NVIDIA's standard 9600 GT is on par with the 8800 GT in most tests, so hear this - Leadtek decided to give its card a boost, so they pushed up the core from 650MHz to 720MHz, while the memory runs at 1625MHz. The feature list of the card is pretty long, including built-in HDMI, HDCP, solid aluminum capacitors, PureVideo HD, dual-link DVI, and more.
Finally, if the above is not enough, you could also take your time to compare what other reviewers think, and then decide. After all, prices are dropping, and now is the right time to get a new video card, and if you don't want to empty your pockets, the Leadtek WinFast PX9600 GT Extreme could be the perfect choice!
S3 4300E IGP
Published by Bogdan Alex, on April 17th, 2008, in the categories: Video Cards
Remember the times when S3 was king of the hill in the PC graphics arena? The Virge series was sort of a precursor for the 3Dfx’s 3D accelerators. Those were some foggy times in the evolution of 3D graphics, but after the emergence of 3Dfx and NVIDIA, S3 somehow slipped into a dark era of low-end graphics solutions. However, it managed to survive by teaming up with VIA. The last decade has seen some futile attempts at decent mid-range solutions from S3, but nothing really set the market on fire. Now, S3 is planning to take over the IGP market.
S3’s latest GPU, Chrome 430GT, proved to have a balanced performance/cost ratio, but S3 isn’t happy with the results. Just recently, it has announced the 4300E Embedded multi-media graphics processor that is supposed to outperform the competition by as much as 30%.
The upcoming 4300E is made in the 65nm manufacturing process and it can be clocked at frequencies ranging from 300MHz to 600MHz. Being an embedded solution, it only supports up to 256MB of either GDDR2 or GDDR3 memory and comes with features such as DirectX 10.1 support, OpenGL 2.1, PCI-Express 2.0 and an advanced high quality programmable video core that should lower the usage of the CPU when users start running HD video content.
The 4300E still pays tribute to the old CRT technology as it integrates two analog RAMDACs : one for CRT connectivity and a dual-link DVI/HDMI with HDPC as well as dual channel LVDS transmitters. Compatibility shouldn’t be a problem because S3 already took care of a new set of drivers that works with Windows XP and Vista.
The new S3 IGP is scheduled to appear in a motherboard near you sometime June 2008.
S3’s latest GPU, Chrome 430GT, proved to have a balanced performance/cost ratio, but S3 isn’t happy with the results. Just recently, it has announced the 4300E Embedded multi-media graphics processor that is supposed to outperform the competition by as much as 30%.
The upcoming 4300E is made in the 65nm manufacturing process and it can be clocked at frequencies ranging from 300MHz to 600MHz. Being an embedded solution, it only supports up to 256MB of either GDDR2 or GDDR3 memory and comes with features such as DirectX 10.1 support, OpenGL 2.1, PCI-Express 2.0 and an advanced high quality programmable video core that should lower the usage of the CPU when users start running HD video content.
The 4300E still pays tribute to the old CRT technology as it integrates two analog RAMDACs : one for CRT connectivity and a dual-link DVI/HDMI with HDPC as well as dual channel LVDS transmitters. Compatibility shouldn’t be a problem because S3 already took care of a new set of drivers that works with Windows XP and Vista.
The new S3 IGP is scheduled to appear in a motherboard near you sometime June 2008.
NVIDIA Tegra
Published by Codrut Nistor, on April 15th, 2008, in the categories: News, Video Cards
When I found out about NVIDIA's upcoming 1 billion tranzistors GPU, I considered it only a hint related to what's going to come, especially since there were no serious details available about it. Anyway, that was happening only a few days ago, and now we have more than just a cryptic codename, but technical details are still secret. So...what do we have, after all? It's a more decent codename, "Tegra," which may also end up as being the name of the future 1 billion tranzistors-powered videocard.
The story goes like this - NVIDIA applied for the "Tegra" trademark with the US patent and trademark office, and everyone is expecting a major product to arrive. The problem is that NVIDIA's description of the upcoming device is only slightly better than nothing - what do you understand by "G & S: Integrated circuits?" If you know more than me, feel free to share it with all of us here, because I have no clue!
For now, NVIDIA didn't comment on the story, so there plenty of room left for rumors and speculations. Are we going to get the first GPU with integrated physics processing unit? Is it possible for the 9800 GX2 to be only the beginning of what's coming up next? I know there are plenty of possibilities, so don't be shy and drop your version below - what should we expect from NVIDIA's Tegra?
The story goes like this - NVIDIA applied for the "Tegra" trademark with the US patent and trademark office, and everyone is expecting a major product to arrive. The problem is that NVIDIA's description of the upcoming device is only slightly better than nothing - what do you understand by "G & S: Integrated circuits?" If you know more than me, feel free to share it with all of us here, because I have no clue!
For now, NVIDIA didn't comment on the story, so there plenty of room left for rumors and speculations. Are we going to get the first GPU with integrated physics processing unit? Is it possible for the 9800 GX2 to be only the beginning of what's coming up next? I know there are plenty of possibilities, so don't be shy and drop your version below - what should we expect from NVIDIA's Tegra?
GeForce 9600 GSO – In May
Published by Codrut Nistor, on April 14th, 2008, in the categories: Video Cards
Currently, NVIDIA's 9600 lineup only includes the 9600 GT card, but things are going to change in May. While the 9600 GT cards offer a considerable performance increase over the 8600 GT(according to NVIDIA, it's 90 percent), the 8600 GTS doesn't really have a 9600 GTS equivalent. Anyway, the upcoming 9600 GSO card is going to fill a void, but not quite that one above the 9600 GT...
Looking back, I first have to remind you some obvious things - being more powerful when compared to the 8600 GT, the 8600 GTS cards were also more expensive, but when talking about the 9600 GT and the 9600 GSO, it's the other way around. How's that?
Well, it seems the 9600 GSO will be a reloaded 8800 GS - both cards use the G92 core with 96 stream processors, but with the 9600 GSO, hardware producers are free to design their own PCB, and set their own clocks, so seeing such cards pushed to the limit, trying to grab some market share back from ATI, would be a real delight, and since May is not that far...I hardly wait to see!
Looking back, I first have to remind you some obvious things - being more powerful when compared to the 8600 GT, the 8600 GTS cards were also more expensive, but when talking about the 9600 GT and the 9600 GSO, it's the other way around. How's that?
Well, it seems the 9600 GSO will be a reloaded 8800 GS - both cards use the G92 core with 96 stream processors, but with the 9600 GSO, hardware producers are free to design their own PCB, and set their own clocks, so seeing such cards pushed to the limit, trying to grab some market share back from ATI, would be a real delight, and since May is not that far...I hardly wait to see!
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