Some food for thought.

[ctjoyce]

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=10033

ATi is coming back with a bang, but I'm going to hold my official judgment until the benchmarks come out. But could this be the turnaround to AMDs low last couple years? Lets hope.

Cheers
Cameron

[GunnerMan]

Wow good to see. I am anxious to see a full "Spider" system with a few of those cards on Crossfire. Hope it does well for DAMMiT.

Since I found out today that the Phenom has been tested down to -80C, once the Black Edition(Unlocked multi) Phenom is released (rumored next week) I am buying. So for all(if any) of you guys want to see how the Phenom performs under SSDD phase I will post in a matter of weeks assuming the Proc isint 400 bucks or something.

Tell me what fun is buying a Core2 that I know will hit 4 Ghz when I can be a "pioneer" on the AMD front and venture into uncharted territory. That is more fun

[ctjoyce]

Don't kid yourself, the processor will be $400. Remember how expensive the core2s were when they came out?

Cheers
Cameron

[GunnerMan]

Nah AMD is in no possition to price any of those CPUs at the 400 range. They can hardly make a sale with the current prices. AMDs only hope to make any sales at least for the next quarter or 2... is to have low priced, unlocked CPUs. If the reseller tries to price them up there they will soon realise that no one is buying and the price will fall like a tone of bricks.

I wish I could buy 2 systems I really do, i would love to have a Core 2 for FSX etc but AMD should be a fun go and if they do get it together there wont be socket changes etc.

[ctjoyce]

You also have to remember that AMD has bills to pay, and as long as they are preforming even 0.5% better than the Intel cores, they will be able to mark their cores in the $400 range. The hardcore hardware people with deep pockets are willing to pay for whatever the best is, AMD and Intel know this,which is why FX-62s are still going for $800 even though they are out matched by the Core2 and Core2Q

So bottom line, if the performance jump is that good, you better believe that they will charge as much as they can for them right out of the gate. Then the price will start to decrease after about 6 months when the 2nd revision comes out. Intel did it, and none of us had any problem with it.

Cheers
Cameron

[GunnerMan]

It is the same exact chip as the 9600 only difference is it has an unlocked multi. Im guessing the chip will be 350 tops. AMD stated themselves "There won't be any high end cpus such as the FX series for a while." These cpus are considered mid range.
AMD does have bills to pay but they are already having a very hard time paying them. Remember the enthusiast with deep pockets makes up less than 1% of the market. If AMD hopes to pay their bills they are going to need to make cheap, fast, low power, low heat CPUs and lots of them. The only reason these phenoms are priced at the point they are is because AMD is having a hellova time with the yeilds. If they can errase the errata, get thier yeilds up, and present some clocks and scaleability they will be in a good spot.

Your right AMD could price those chips at $400 but they sure as hell wouldnt last more than a month at that price. No one would buy them.

[NickN]

Yes, expect to see so good things coming out of the ATi camp. I had a 55nm dev card back in May and was surprised to learn they were going to can the 55nm release till Q1 08 it was originally slated for July.

The 55nm product is far superior to the original R600

[ctjoyce]

Well I'll let you know in a few days how the new 55nm cores really preform (under the c, I just bought a X3850 to drop into my dads rig so that he can finally Sim on his tower and stop stealing my lappy.

I've always been a fan of ATi so if these are preforming as well as they claim its going to make me revisit my parts recommendations.

Cheers
Cameron