ATI Catalyst 7.2 R600 posponed to 2nd quarter

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ATI Catalyst 7.2   Posted on 21/02/2007 at 20:32 by Marc

	ATI released the Catalyst 7.2 drivers for Windows XP, Vista and Linux. In terms of performances, ATI insisted on the following combination: Vista / OpenGL / X1x00. According to ATI, performance improvements with Doom3, Quake 4 and Prey will reach respectively up to 25%, 48% and 21%. The improvements brought to the Control Center integrated to the 7.1 version for Vista are now available for XP. Load and response time are reduced and it requires less resources. The manufacturer has also improved the preview of several 3D options and, of course, corrected several issues for both OS. To download the drivers, go to this page!

R600 posponed to 2nd quarter   Posted on 21/02/2007 at 13:08 by Marc - source: x-bit labs

	ATI’s chip, the R600, first DirectX 10 chip of AMD is finally postponed to the second quarter. Up until recently, it was supposed to be released in March. Officially, AMD indicated that the delay is due to the necessity to line up the strategy of the company with the market opportunities. The manufacturer also said that it will deliver a more attractive solution in terms of performances / functionalities /price which will reach a much wider market. Of course, this official announcement probably covers the possibility that something really nasty happened to the R600. First hypothesis, a serious bug found at the last minute which requires a new revision of the chip and 6 to 8 additional weeks. The second hypothesis, and the worst one, is that the R600 architecture isn’t efficient enough to compete with the GeForce 8800 and that ATI has to make some modifications to have a less high end product or bring some modifications to the chip. We will have more information about the situation later on, but the lack of competition on the DirectX 10 market is never good news.