ATI R520 frequency goes to 700+ MHz
 

WE DISCOVERED that ATI wants the R520 to clock at 700 MHz clock or even higher but it's still undecided as it's too early to decide on the final number. The chip is taped out and in acceptably good shape.
It still has some time so it won't release those chips in August - it aims to introduce and ship the cards toward the very end of Q3.

We reported a while back that R520 chips are aimed to work at 600+ MHz but it seems that this number might finish closer to 700+ MHz if the numbers are good, and after the third re-spin, the numbers are good. Some chips will work at even higher frequencies, much more than 700 MHz.

Two of our knowledgeable and unlinked contacts suggested that R520 might actually have only sixteen fragment pipelines but will be able to fight Nvidia with its ultra higher clock but this is something that we cannot confirm at this stage. We previously suggested that R520 will end up with 24 or even more pipelines but we are advised that companies are counting pipelines differently and that now it's all programmable.

Nvidia still has a huge advantage as it's happy with numbers and is shipping quantities of its Geforce 7800GTX even people are rather spending money on vacations now than on graphic cards. It will pick it up at the last week of August at the back to school time and Nvidia will be there to cash it while ATI will be a few weeks late for that. The fight continues. µ


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