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 ATI has officially release its first 512 MB graphic card. It is important to remind you that even if there is not much interest to this graphic card release, it is always helpful to have more memory especially for long term and even if it is now a tradition for some of the testers to systematically say it is a marketing coup.
As soon as we get out of the optimal model of sub system memory, performances drop significantly. With a GPU it is true that internal micro-caches are no longer efficient (for example for very big textures) but also when video memory is significantly overtaken. In this case, even the PCI Express bandwidth has isn’t enough to avoid performances drop. For video game developers, it is a very important aspect as they have to decide of the texture size, number of buffers etc. in order not to end up with this type of results. Of course some of the elements are still configurable, but a developer isn’t generally going to spend a lot of time on very high quality textures only for people spending over $500 for their graphic cards. So this is the reason why graphic card manufacturers need to increase the video memory size soon enough to increase the number of graphic cards on the market and allow the development of games using this amount of memory.
Of course there is also another aspect to the memory size increase: it is the only element noticed by neophyte when buying a computer or just an update. It is an important marketing element for general users. So it is important to be careful, but not to systematically denigrate all video memory size increase. More memory will be useful with a GPU designed to work in high resolution and high bandwidth. There is not much interest with a GPU designed to work with low resolution and bandwidth. The delta between the video memory bandwidth and PCI Express is smaller and the global bandwidth is too low anyway for the GPU to access wide data which benefit or will benefit from a high amount of memory. It is also important to keep in mind the GPU power, because generally, the more memory games needs, the more power calculation they also need.
If the first prototypes introduced by ATI were based on a Radeon X850XT PE, this graphic card features in fact a Radeon X800XL. This choice is quite strange as the interest of such a memory quantity considerably increases with the GPU power and that the X800XL is 25 % less efficient than the X850XT PE. Why has ATI released a 512 MB memory and not chosen the most efficient GPU? The next ATI GPU, the R520, should be out this month so why has ATI chosen not to leave to this GPU the privilege to be the first GPU with 512 MB memory.
All these elements lead us to believe that ATI changed its plans and that the R520 could be a little bit late. But why ATI hasn’t released a X850XT PE 512 MB? Could it be to avoid criticisms for the release of a too expensive graphic card? Maybe…the X800XL 512 MB MSRP is of $449, so the X850XT PE 512 MB could have been around $750. It is also maybe for the release of ATI’s “SLI” version (512 MB would be very useful for two of these GPUs combined), so does it mean that this SLI equivalent is about to be released? Of course it would only be very high end products, but the global price wouldn’t be over 1000€ motherboard included. Anyway, the last choices of ATI as regard to high end products (after the release of the X850 only 2-3% more efficient than the X800) are puzzling and don’t help to understand the Canadian company strategy.
Here are a couple of links to several website who have tested the ATI X800XL:
- Anandtech
- Hexus.net
- Beyond 3D
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