Anyone know anything about the Radeon 2?

[seti]

So far I've got "twice as fast as Radeon", "full DirectX 8 support", ""programmable TCL engine", and "December availability"

[RobRich]

I can't confirm this roadmap, but here's some leaked information on ATI's upcoming products:


RADEON MAXX - 2 Radeon chips, 128MB.

RV100 - A low-cost Radeon version. To be announced this month, shipped in November.

Mobile RADEON - A Radeon with a lower power consumption for mobile computers. To be announced in nearest months.

RADEON II - Two times as fast as Radeon, full DirectX 8 compatibility, programmable T&L. To be announced in the next 6 weeks and to appear on the shelves by the beginning of December.

RADEON II MAXX - 2 RADEON II chips. Will be released 3 months after RADEON II, in spring 2001.

Integrated RADEON - A RADEON integrated into the North Bridge. To be announced in the end of this year.

SOC - system-on-a-chip. An all-purpose chip: CPU, graphics, sound, etc. in one. (So, that's where SP-3 DSP develompent resutls are used...) Will be announced in spring 2001.

RADEON PRO - 4 times more powerful than RADEON - 400 Mhz core (0.15um process), advanced rendering architecture. Release planned for the summer 2001.


Not much stated about the actual hardware or technology of the Radeon-II. My current information points to a slightly revised Radeon256 core, with dramatic increases for both the core and memory clock rates. Seems ATI is committed to challenging nVidia in all aspects of the upcoming graphics marketplace.

Also, since we are talking about upcoming video chipsets, here is some leaked info on the Matrox G800:


Core clock: 200 Mhz
Memory clock: 200 Mhz / 400 Mhz DDR
Render pipelines count: 3
Texturing units count: 3
Fillrate: 600 Mpixels/sec, 1800 Mtexels/sec
Processing speed: 20-30 million triangles/sec
Memory bandwidth: 6.4 Gbytes/sec
Scalable architecture (Dual)
DirectX 8.0


Later,
Robert Richmond

[seti]

I'm pretty sure they would add atleast one more pipline. A 4 pipeling radeon, even at current core/mem speeds would be quite a card.

[RobRich]

I'm not showing any core pipeline improvements will be made, but I don't consider my "leaked" information from ATI to be very reliable. I guess we get to wait until the official PR release.

I will be waiting for 3dfx to release the Spector project (codename Rampage) chipset before I purchase another high-end card. I believe my GTS should carry me through atleast Q1 2001.


Spector Core Rendering Chipset

Core clock: 200 Mhz
Memory clock: 200 Mhz / 400 Mhz DDR
Render pipelines count: 4
Texturing units count: 4
Fillrate: 800 Mpixels/sec, 3200 Mtexels/sec
Processing speed of Sage, the external T&L unit: 75 million triangles/sec
Memory bandwidth: > 6.4 Gbytes/sec
Scalable architecture. (1 Rampage + 1 Sage)


That is the single Rampage chipset card with just one Sage T&L processor. Remember 3dfx doesn't use an unified memory model, so more chips will lead to more bandwidth http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif (but at the cost of adding more memory http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/frown.gif ).

Near the end of Q2 2001, 3dfx will also be releasing a GigaPixel GP-3 based solution with hardware T&L. With a tile-rendering fillrate approaching 25 GigiTexels per second (depth complexity of 4), this should prove to be a very powerful solution.

Another very powerful chipset will also make a debut around Q2 2001. The tile-rendering PowerVR Series4 will be available, better known as the KYRO-2. It will feature extremely high fill rates with an external T&L unit. While I do not have any definite core information (YET!), I do know the T&L engine is expected to exceed 80 million triangles per second.

Bitboy's is also still claiming to release a 2 GigaPixels per second solution in early 2001. While my current leaked information looks impressive, I still consider the Glaze3D project to be nothing more than vaporware. Great concept though, write down some amazing specs, receive large amounts of investor funding, and never actually produce a chipset. Sounds like an excellent marketing plan to me!

Later,
Robert Richmond

[This message has been edited by RobRich (edited 10-11-2000).]

[camaro]

RADEON MAXX and RADEON II sound like they are going to have almost the same performance. One has 2 RADEON chips and other is twice as fast as 1 RADEON.

[RobRich]

The Radeon Maxx may feature two Radoen256 chipsets, but do not expect a 2x performance increase. The largest drawback to the technology is the Maxx drivers utilize serious CPU overhead as compared to single chipset implementation. Expect performance gains of 60-75% with Maxx technology.

Later,
Robert Richmond