ATI's Latest Graphics Processors

We've been wondering for a while now just how ATI planned to compete with NVIDIA's GeForce 3 and today, it looks like we have our answer. Just in case you haven't gotten around to reading Dr. Tom's in-depth overview of ATI's new Radeon 8500 board, here's an overview from a news perspective. ATI just announced a whole family of new graphics chips and boards that we should see sometime in September. The first, the RADEON 8500 features 64MB of DDR, digital flat panel (DVI) support, dual monitor and video output, and DVD video playback. It provides complete hardware support for DirectX 8.1, and will come out in late September for (US) $399. Next, we have the RADEON 7500, which comes with dual-monitor support, VGA, and DVI displays, integrated TV-out, and 64MB DDR. We should also see this card in late September, for (US) $199. Finally, we have the FIRE GL 8800 "mid-range workstation solution." Featuring 64MB DDR memory and VGA and DVI support, the FIRE GL 8800 is optimized for OpenGL and Linux drivers. It too supports DirectX 8.1 and will be shipping in October at an unspecified price. Should be an interesting Q3 in the graphics sector. It's about time we saw a little action.