AMD/ATI is working furiously on getting its new graphics circuit R600 ready for launch and as we reported earlier this week it seems that the launch will be a bit delayed. It now seems to be going for an official launch during CeBIT in March and according to VR-Zone it has been set that the media and manufacturers will get test samples of the R600 on February 28. Interestingly there will be two versions of the card, one for system builders and one for the retail market. There is still no information about what/if anything separates the two, but the OEM card will apparently be a whopping 7.5cm longer than the retail version, 30cm vs. 22.5cm.
If the picture published in VR-Zone’s forum is correct it’s not hard to understand where the extra centimeters comes from. The OEM version of R600 seems to have a really beefy cooler which stretch far outside the rear of the card. Something which matches the previous rumors, the question is just what the retail cooler will look like.
