HardwareOC has gotten its hands on an interesting roadmap from ATi. From this, we can interpret that ATi will release no fewer than four new graphics cards (or eight, considering both Pro and non-pro versions).
- R420 – The renowned flagship based on a new architecture
- R423 – Same as above, but with PCI Express support
- R380 – The successor to Radeon 9600 XT (PCI Express)
- R370 – The successor to Radeon 9200 SE/9600 SE (PCI Express)
I spot that the R380 is a reduced version of R42X, whilst R370 is very similar to Radeon 9600 XT.
The most thrilling card is naturally R423 and R420. As early as when Radeon 9700 Pro was released, the ATi CEO emphasized that R400 (as it was called back then) would be the actual step forward. Considering the fact that the world thought of Radeon 9700 Pro as a gargantuan step ahead, it’ll be terribly interesting to see what R42X has to offer. As the name implies, this is a product even more smashing than the one ATi referred to by the launch of Radeon 9700 Pro.
Beyond that, it has been rumored that PCI Express will be a much greater step ahead from AGP 8x than what AGP 8x was from AGP 4x.
Briefly, the early spring next year will be interesting. The story goes that previews of the cards will be available as early as February.
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