The problem is in order for the 600 to beat out the 8800 at anything it has to be at LEAST 675 mghz. And its 4 way smid has to be 100% as effective as 4 single units..

And exactly how much will all that behemoth cost? The ram alone will cost more then the 8800 did.

A pair of these in an system with a 1K PS, and you'd be rockin. And getting a 2nd job to pay for the electricity bill.

While R600 might have more calculation units than the G80, remember that the G80 shader units run at 1350 MHz. The R600 should still have slightly better shading performance, but it will not be twice as the article implies.

16 ROPs for a 512bit wide memory interface seem rather unbalanced.

why is it that Intel/AMD talk constantly about having "got the message" about excessive heat and power(and having delivered with the Core 2s and the Athlon EEs), but nVidia/ATi are happily sending their cards into stratosphere with the power and cooling requirements, adding back all that saved heat and power with these monsters?

Or is it just going to be the top-line cards? (hoping to get a G83 or RV680 mid-range part when they come out)

:oD I wouldn't mind seeing the '9500Pro' version of that R600; 500-600mhz core with 32-48 shader processors, normal sized quiet cooling and ideally a 384-512bit memory bus although I'm sure 'only' 256bit would do just fine. ATi are behind nVidia with their DX10 release but hopefully they can be ahead of them with the all important mid-range DX10 release (which as said has been a severe ATi weakness, since 9600Pro debuted).

Heh heh. Well if this stuff is for real I guess it means 8800's pricing isn't gonna be around for long.

This information is on the Inquirer, remember.

Every time I see their stuff quoted, I treat it like I treat The National Enquirer at my supermarket. I laugh at the headlines if they happen to catch my eye, otherwise I walk on by.

They should be comparing these to a Voodoo 5 in terms of length :(

The Inquirer mentions a heat sink that rises well above the PCB. I wonder if the R600 will have height (measured from the motherboard) issues as a parallel to the G80's bugnuts length. It sounds like ATI was mindful of size when creating this, but Nvidia seems to have been happy skirting the edge of insanity.

btw: If anyone ever thought that the "ATi" brand would be around for long, they should just have a look at the newly released AMD Catalyst 6.11 release notes:

http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/xp/radeonx-xp.html

Isn't this the same card that won't be released until the R600.x version is created (i.e. the smaller, cheaper, less hungry version)?

I wonder what this will do to prices. Should be good for us that they are keeping competition alive (at least for now).

MOTHER OF GOD...

holy mother of ATI. That thing is a beast.

HOLY SH!T, quite a gerbil inside your PC from DAMMIT.