Final Words
There's no denying the quality of ATI's parts when they are actually available to the public for purchase. We understand that they've had some setbacks in the past year or so with their lack of high-end competition to NVIDIA's excellent 7800 line, but now that prices are starting to come down for their X1800 series, things are looking better for ATI in general.
That being said, we can't repeat enough how frustrating it is that ATI can't seem to get their parts out when they say they will. This is just unacceptable, and reflects poorly on ATI as a company. Although we are definitely more concerned with how their equipment actually performs over when it comes out, we would still very much like to see the parts on shelves the day that they are released. It's more than a matter of corporate and professional courtesy; this has become a blatant abuse of the enthusiast community to promote an image through the paper launch of products. All we have for months beforehand are promises of a product that may or may not live up to initial reviews.
The fact that this part is supposedly being released today only in Asia means that we'll have to wait at least a month to get our hands on one here. But frankly, we're somewhat skeptical about actually seeing any for sale in Asia today or in the US in mid-January. The situation that we have here with this ATI part is somewhat confusing. We're not sure why ATI feels it can paper-launch a mobile version of a desktop card that was announced two months ago, slated to show up last week and is still nowhere to be found. We would be incredibly surprised if we actually do start seeing some MRX1600 based notebooks for sale on the day of release in Asia before the desktop version hits anywhere.
We have to insist that it is not impossible to actually sit down and properly plan out a launch based on NVIDIA's stellar performance for more than a year now. Every time we sit down with ATI, we tell them something along the lines of "our readers need to see availability on the day that a product is announced", but it seems that our words fall on deaf ears. The graphics market is cluttered enough without a bunch of apparitions floating around that, more than likely, won't show up for weeks or even months after we were told they would. And what happened with the X1800XL All-In-Wonder? The situation is absolutely not acceptable.
There's no denying the quality of ATI's parts when they are actually available to the public for purchase. We understand that they've had some setbacks in the past year or so with their lack of high-end competition to NVIDIA's excellent 7800 line, but now that prices are starting to come down for their X1800 series, things are looking better for ATI in general.
That being said, we can't repeat enough how frustrating it is that ATI can't seem to get their parts out when they say they will. This is just unacceptable, and reflects poorly on ATI as a company. Although we are definitely more concerned with how their equipment actually performs over when it comes out, we would still very much like to see the parts on shelves the day that they are released. It's more than a matter of corporate and professional courtesy; this has become a blatant abuse of the enthusiast community to promote an image through the paper launch of products. All we have for months beforehand are promises of a product that may or may not live up to initial reviews.
The fact that this part is supposedly being released today only in Asia means that we'll have to wait at least a month to get our hands on one here. But frankly, we're somewhat skeptical about actually seeing any for sale in Asia today or in the US in mid-January. The situation that we have here with this ATI part is somewhat confusing. We're not sure why ATI feels it can paper-launch a mobile version of a desktop card that was announced two months ago, slated to show up last week and is still nowhere to be found. We would be incredibly surprised if we actually do start seeing some MRX1600 based notebooks for sale on the day of release in Asia before the desktop version hits anywhere.
We have to insist that it is not impossible to actually sit down and properly plan out a launch based on NVIDIA's stellar performance for more than a year now. Every time we sit down with ATI, we tell them something along the lines of "our readers need to see availability on the day that a product is announced", but it seems that our words fall on deaf ears. The graphics market is cluttered enough without a bunch of apparitions floating around that, more than likely, won't show up for weeks or even months after we were told they would. And what happened with the X1800XL All-In-Wonder? The situation is absolutely not acceptable.
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Doormat - Monday, December 5, 2005 - link
I fully expect this chip to show up in Intels powerbooks that'll be annouced next month.acejj26 - Monday, December 5, 2005 - link
There's no way they fit the GPU die and all four of those memory modules on a package that is 46 mm^2. If it's a square, then that's less than 7 mm in each direction. That surely is a typo or mistakeDerekWilson - Tuesday, December 6, 2005 - link
Wow, very sorry ... that was a typo.I added that line to Josh's article. I appologize for not catching the mistake earlier.
42mm x 42mm is still very small.
Sunrise089 - Monday, December 5, 2005 - link
Maybe you could correctly quote the article and not insert a space that isn't there? It isn't Forty Six square mm, its Forty Six mm squared. Like 4 sides, each side 46mm long. This is like middle school stuff here.P.S. - I know this answer isn't nice, but above poster shouldn't call out the author before getting his/her facts strait.
Visual - Monday, December 5, 2005 - link
you're a doofus if you think a space means that much. both ways to write it mean the same to me, and surely it should be corrected.Sunrise089 - Monday, December 5, 2005 - link
Call me what you want, but I was capable of reading it correctly, apparently that is too difficult for others. I understand the reason people are consufed, but Square MM and MM Squared are two different commonly used concepts.tayhimself - Monday, December 5, 2005 - link
No theyre not. They are the same thing. Its a typo, in a horribly written article. No comparisons of battery life etc. Oh, and that is one hideous laptop.cryptonomicon - Tuesday, December 6, 2005 - link
my god it is hideousScrogneugneu - Monday, December 5, 2005 - link
46 Square mm refers to 46mm².46 mm squared refers to the length of one side of the chip, 46 mm, which still has to be squared, giving 21.16cm².
huges84 - Tuesday, December 6, 2005 - link
I disagree.I say that:
46mm^2 = 46 mm^2 = 2mm*23mm
and
(46mm)^2 = 46mm*46mm = 2116mm^2
Anytime you square a unit you are only squaring the unit, not the quantity. Whether or not there is a space does not matter.
Yes one could figure out what the article meant, but that does not make his point invalid.
Also, people have sided against you, because you are the only one defending the way it was written and people have dropped your score from 2 to 1.