14 DAY TRIAL // AMD will premiere its upcoming generation of RV770 XT and RV770 PRO graphics cards during the Computex show in Taipei. According to industry rumors, the graphics specialist has been shipping sampling units of its RV770XT chips for some time now, as the new GPUs are extremely stable.
Moreover, the new cards will start shipping sometime in the last week of June, as previously planned. Unlike its Arch-rival Nvidia, AMD did not have to update its GPU micro-architecture. While Nvidia is reportedly placing orders for both 65- and 55-nanometer GT-200 graphics processors, AMD already has working samples of its 55-nanometer RV770XT.
However, Advanced Micro Devices also plans a redesign, but it mostly pitches at replacing the RV770PRO with GDDR3 with the faster and more efficient RV770PRO with GDDR5 combination. Earlier this week, Qimonda announced that it was ready to ramp up production of GDDR5 memory and mass quantities of GDDR5 chips are expected to be available sometime during the third quarter.
It is alleged that AMD will initially deliver its RV770XT paired with GDDR3 memory, then add a new GDDR5 version of the cards as GDDR5 gains more ground. Replacing GDDR3 with GDDR5 will require additional tweaks to the printed circuit board, as the two memory types come in distinct packages (GDDR3 comes in a PG-TFBGA-136 package, while GDDR5 sports the PG-TFBGA-170 technology).
The RV770XT graphics card will also sport a 512-bit memory controller and will be bigger than the previous RV670XT offering. According to the company, it will feature full support for Microsoft's DirectX 10.1 technology. Since it will run pretty hot, the stock graphics card design comes with a bigger cooling solution.
At the moment, there are no pricing details about AMD's upcoming lineup of graphics products, but since Nvidia priced its GT-200 offerings in the $499 space, we'd expect AMD to follow the same pricing trend.