Ati's quiet "bait and switch "on the X1900GT specifications..........

[John Lewis]

Since Ati has not been able to supply enough spec-speed R580 cores for
the X1900GT to satisfy current demand, they are quietly dropping the
core clock spec from 575MHz to 512MHz and trying to compensate by
increasing the memory speed. The 'derated' product will STILL CARRY
THE SAME PRODUCT NUMBER, so anybody expecting to buy a X1900GT in the
near future needs to be alert to this change, especially if they have
any GPU overclock expectations. Any purchaser of the X1900GT should
check the GPU clock specification on the board manufacturer's website
before purchase and the default GPU clock speed after purchase.

Anyway, with the (hopefully) imminent arrival of the X1950Pro,
purchasing a X1900GT is now not to be recommended AT ALL, especially
if one is looking towards a current or future Crossfire setup.

The X1900GT is being phased out in favor of the X1950Pro, which uses
the RV570 chip with an integrated compositing engine, finally
allowing symmetrical Crossfire using SLI-style bridges with a pair of
these cards. ATi is 'quietly relaxing' the X1900GT spec to push out
as many R580 cores as possible before shutting off the product. Not at
all surprising from ATi's business perspective, since the R580 is a
large and extremely expensive die.

See:-

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2858

for the full details on the X1950Pro and the issues with regard to the
X1900GT.

The article's author Derek Wilson has some very harsh words for ATi's
deceptive marketing practices with regard to the unannounced changes
in the X1900GT specifications. See page 2 of Derek's article.

John Lewis

 

[dangtranvu]

Since Ati has not been able to supply enough spec-speed R580 cores for
the X1900GT to satisfy current demand, they are quietly dropping the
core clock spec from 575MHz to 512MHz and trying to compensate by
increasing the memory speed. The 'derated' product will STILL CARRY
THE SAME PRODUCT NUMBER, so anybody expecting to buy a X1900GT in the
near future needs to be alert to this change, especially if they have
any GPU overclock expectations. Any purchaser of the X1900GT should
check the GPU clock specification on the board manufacturer's website
before purchase and the default GPU clock speed after purchase.

Anyway, with the (hopefully) imminent arrival of the X1950Pro,
purchasing a X1900GT is now not to be recommended AT ALL, especially
if one is looking towards a current or future Crossfire setup.

The X1900GT is being phased out in favor of the X1950Pro, which uses
the RV570 chip with an integrated compositing engine, finally
allowing symmetrical Crossfire using SLI-style bridges with a pair of
these cards. ATi is 'quietly relaxing' the X1900GT spec to push out
as many R580 cores as possible before shutting off the product. Not at
all surprising from ATi's business perspective, since the R580 is a
large and extremely expensive die.

See:-

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2858

for the full details on the X1950Pro and the issues with regard to the
X1900GT.

The article's author Derek Wilson has some very harsh words for ATi's
deceptive marketing practices with regard to the unannounced changes
in the X1900GT specifications. See page 2 of Derek's article.

John Lewis

Oh good grief. This spec change was reported on Beyond3D over a month
ago on September 7. The news article is still on their news page near
the end if you want to go see it. They also did not just only reduce
the core frequency, but they also increased the memory frequency from
600 MHz to 660 MHz to compensate. And if you look here where there are
benchmarks of both old and new models, the difference amounts to about
2-4 fps. So, big freaking whoop.

http://www.hardware.fr/articles/639-12/comparatif-gpu-dx9-200-350.html
http://xtreview.com/review148.htm

 

[John Lewis]

Oh good grief. This spec change was reported on Beyond3D over a month
ago on September 7. The news article is still on their news page near
the end if you want to go see it. They also did not just only reduce
the core frequency, but they also increased the memory frequency from
600 MHz to 660 MHz to compensate. And if you look here where there are
benchmarks of both old and new models, the difference amounts to about
2-4 fps. So, big freaking whoop.

http://www.hardware.fr/articles/639-12/comparatif-gpu-dx9-200-350.html
http://xtreview.com/review148.htm

Thanks for the pointer --- I did not see this article. However, is ATi
and their board partners also relabeling the product clearly as
"revision 2", and showing the new GPU and memory clock frequencies
on the outside of all packages plus a "change" insert with the
included documentation ? For a major spec change as this, the failure
to rebrand the product is a no-no, and 2-4fps change is indeed
important regardless of your assertions to the contrary, especially if
the final fps is 50fps or below.

John Lewis

 

[First of One]

Most newreaders have the capability to filter out posts from specified
authors. Use it.

 

[Ed Forsythe]

So what has that to do with John's informative post? I hang out here and
it's all new news to me and I'm grateful to John. If you don't have
anything constructive to offer why bother posting. I'm reasonably sure that
no one is interested in your "I knew about it first" post.

 

[Ed Forsythe]

Sorry First - My post was meant for dangtranvu

 

[Tashfeen Bhimdi]

Thanks for the heads up, I didn't hear about this.