14 DAY TRIAL // AMD have announced that they would rather not launch a new family of graphics processors the next year, as previously planned. The company made the decision of delaying the ATI R700 graphics chips in order to cut capital expenditures and return to profitability in the shortest time. The graphics division is already under threat, as Nvidia continues to deliver new series of graphics processors on the market.
Rick Bergman, the senior vice president and general manager of AMD graphics products group, refused to give further details about the company's roadmap. Instead, the AMD official focused on the newest achievement of the ATI division, the ATI CrossFire X technology. Bergman also gave some hints about the company's 'next-to-come' products, ATI R680, ATI RV620 and ATI RV635.
Mario Rivas, who is executive vice president of computing solutions group firmly stated that the announced ATI R700 family of graphics chips is not to be officially launched until 2009. Although the company officials refused to elaborate on the reason, it is alleged that AMD has to cut down on the research and development (R&D) expenses.
It seems that the next AMD platform, code-named Leo, is announced for 2008 and will feature the ATI R6xx graphics chips. The "Leo Refresh", an updated version, is scheduled for 2009 and will finally feature the ATI R7xx graphics cards. 2009 will bring two new platforms, Kodiak and Cartwheel, that will also feature ATI R700-series graphics.
AMD does not need to update their graphics chips until Microsoft releases a new operating system to include DirectX 11, but at the same time, the company is forced to increase the GPU power in order to maintain their presence in the high-end market. Nvidia is already setting a monopoly over the professional graphics sector with cards that go beyond $400.