14 DAY TRIAL // After more than 2 months of delays, Ati has begun sampling its first RV505CE GPU based on the 80nm manufacturing process. I have to say that Ati's transition to 80nm took some time, with x1950 XT out in mid-October instead of July. It comes as no surprise then, the fact that the first low-cost GPU is almost ready at the end of November. With a little luck, we might even see the first cards out on the market before the end of the year.
RV505CE produced by TSMC manufacturer is derived from RV515/516 series having the same specifications and supporting Shader Model 3.0, 64 or 128-bit memory interface, Avivo and Hyper-Memory technology with up to 512MB system memory. The final product will replace RV515/516 based cards by the 2nd quarter of 2007.
RV505CE will have integrated Radeon X1300 CE and with a clock core of 350MHz, it could even produce a passive cooled card. And the fact that the final price may well be below $50 will make this cheap but Vista capable card an unbeatable product. Especially with the Vista launch coming, it may as well be one of the best products in its price tag.