14 DAY TRIAL // Since the beginning of the month, ATI has been trying to offer graphical solutions that will persuade buyers to give up on nVidia's midrange products. ATI was launching then the X800XL AGP model with 400 MHz bus frequency and 490 MHz memory.
This 16 rendering pipeline solution had to compete with nVidia's GeForce 6800 GT model. The second proposed product is called X800 Vanilla AGP and has a bus frequency of 392 MHz and a 350 MHz memory. Both video cards are based on the Rialto bridge and will be available from the second trimester of the year.
But this was happening 3 weeks ago. Now, another nVidia model will be challenged by ATI; the battle will be fought between ATI's X700 model and nVidia's vanilla 6600 series.
The X700 model will be based on the TSOP memory, which will be reflected in the smaller selling price and in an increased level of performance compared to nVidia's offer.
The video card developed by ATI will cost around 105 dollars, only a few dollars less than nVidia's offer. Regarding the performance level, X700 TSOP got 5365 points in the Dmark03 benchmark compared to nVidia's 6600 model which obtained only 5041. In the 3dmark05 test, ATI got 2442 points and nVidia got 1905 points. The X700 model faced successfully even the most demanding games.
ATI is making important efforts to gain an important share of the market globally owned by their competitor nVidia. Midrange products seem to have great potential from financial point of view. The only competitor worth taking into account by ATI is the 6600 Vanilla model.