14 DAY TRIAL // The latest RV570 GPU from ATI will be integrated in Radeon X1950 Pro solutions which will feature 12 rendering pipelines and 36 pixel shader components. ATI stated in a product advisory update that its board partners are currently receiving the RV570XT ASICs which have the A12 final stepping. Beginning September 19th 2006, ATI will be offering reference boards which are clocked at 580 Mhz (core) and 1.40 Ghz (memory).
From now on, Crossfire support will be implemented for every new ATI GPU. This requires an internal Crossfire bridge interconnect which will be provided by Molex. According to ATI, HDCP support is not a requirement for the new X1950 Pro, but reference boards are HDCP compliant. Board partners are advised to purchase the necessary EEPROMS with preprogrammed PID keys directly from ATI if the HDCP compliance is needed.
Video output options include dual-link DVI + S-Video, dual-link DVI + single link-DVI + S-video or dual-link DVI + VGA + S-video. As usual, ATI doesn't recommend any particular configuration and it is up to the add-in board partner to choose the appropriate one.
The new product will be a mid-high-end solution and will eventually replace X1900GT model. X1950 Pro will be available as soon as October 5th 2006, according to ATI, but a mid-October launch is more realistic.