ATI : Post X1k Interview

ATI launched its new R580 just one month ago. During CeBit, they will certainly start to show their answer to new 90 nm G7x : X1800GTO and X1900XL 256 Mo. Moreover, their new XPress 3200, dual PCIe 16x chipset will be launched in the next few days.

So we decided to ask the Canadian some questions about the bad past months, the available offer and the future of their products. Will they come back and kick some ass ? Rene will help us to know ;)

PCi : Could you introduce yourself and tell what your job is at ATI ?

ATI : My name is Rene Froeleke and my job description is Technical PR Manager.

PCi : Radeon X1k had some difficulties to come out. X1300 cards came in mass on French market in October, X1600 and X1800 came in December only. Why these late releases ?

ATI : While availability may have been different from region to region, we did actually ship according to schedule, meaning X1800XL and X1300 at launch, X1800XT in early November, X1600 in late November.

PCi : Crossfire's got the same kind of difficulties nowadays, because excepted X1600 and X1300 wich doesn't need a master card, it's almost impossible to find a Crossfire master card on the market, why that ?

ATI : We have just recently introduced our X1900 Series of boards, including the X1900 XT CrossFire Edition, and these boards are widely available.

Of course, availability can vary depending on the market, but you should certainly be able to see boards at e-tailers.


PCi : Just after Radeon X1k's release, you announced price reductions on some of these cards, could you explain why ?

ATI : The pricing of a product depends a lot on the yields, meaning how many good chips do we have per wafer. At introduction, early yields may show a product to be more expensive than it will turn out to be after several more wafers come out of production.

Yields may also improve during the lifetime of a product. In addition to that, board prices depend a lot on the components used on these boards, one main factor being the memory. If the prices of these components change, then this will be reflected in the retail price (which I believe is a good thing for the customer).

PCi : Concerning ATI's corporate image, don't you think that you would better have directly applied these new prices during the first of these cards ? Some think that this price policy has an impact on ATI's image, margin and then, on his financial results too. What do you think about that ?

ATI : As mentioned above, sometimes it is not possible to make accurate price predictions before a larger number of wafers has been produced and we get a better picture about the real costs of a chip.

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