By James Yu
Design by Collin Oguro

Click the download link above for a better look at ATI's Ruby demo.

Ever since Nvidia announced its GeForce 6800 last month, the primary question surrounding ATI has been whether or not its next-generation chip could compete with the Nvidia powerhouse. Today, ATI Technologies has announced its next-generation graphics processor, the new Radeon X800. The ATI Radeon X800 matches the Nvidia GeForce 6 series with 16-pixel pipelines of its own, proving that the X800 will provide an increase in performance that's similar to that of Nvidia's newest technology.

Like Nvidia, ATI will offer different Radeon X800 variations that target various market segments. The high-end Radeon X800 XT Platinum Edition will ship on May 21 and will offer 256MB of 560MHz (1.12GHz effective) memory. Additionally, it will feature a full 16-pipe engine with a 520MHz clock speed, providing a peak fill rate of 8.32 Gpixels/s. The Radeon X800 Pro will have a slightly slower memory and a less-powerful graphics core. The Pro version will have 256MB of 450MHz (900MHz effective) memory and a 475MHz 12-pipe pixel engine for a peak fill rate of 5.7 Gpixels/s. The Pro version is supposed to ship today, but, according to industry insiders, cards won't reach end users for a couple of weeks.

Like the next-generation Nvidia cards, the Radeon X800 Pro and XT cards also use high-speed GDDR3 memory to fuel an equally significant jump in memory bandwidth. Both Radeon X800 versions will have six vertex pipes, which is the same number offered by the Nvidia GeForce 6800 series of cards. The Radeon X800 XT carries an MSRP of $499, and the Pro will set you back $399.

The ATI Radeon X800.

ATI separated the X800's 16-pixel pipeline design into four "quads," each consisting of four-pixel pipelines. ATI can disable quads as needed--in case of manufacturing defects--allowing it to "save" chips that would otherwise be discarded. A chip with three functional quads can still work perfectly in a 12-pipe Radeon X800 Pro card. The close-to-three-week gap between the launch dates of the Pro and XT represents the time ATI needed to filter out an adequate number of fully functional 16-pipeline chips for XT production.

The ATI Radeon X800 graphics processor features 160 million transistors, which is almost 50 percent more than the previous-generation Radeon 9800 XT. Surprisingly, the new X800 has a higher clock speed but actually consumes less power than the 9800 XT thanks to a 0.13 micron, low-k manufacturing process that employs copper interconnect technology. The addition of low-k helps to improve processor performance by reducing cross-talk interference between adjacent interconnects. ATI and its foundry, TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company), first used the 0.13 micron, low-k process in the Radeon 9600 XT.

The reduced power consumption means all Radeon X800 cards will be single-slot solutions without any extravagant power supply requirements. Any system capable of running a Radeon 9800 XT will be able to support an X800-based card without a problem. In comparison, Nvidia recommends a 480W power supply for use with its next-generation, 222 million-transistor GeForce 6800 Ultra. As testament to the X800's low power demands, ATI actually uses small form factor (SFF) Shuttle boxes for its X800 demonstration systems. Granted, ATI's power efficiency will likely only be a major advantage in the high-end competition, since Nvidia's midrange and entry-level GeForce 6800 cards will be single-slot solutions with more-reasonable power supply demands. We must still, however, give ATI credit for offering gamers the only high-end next-generation card that doesn't require an expensive power supply upgrade.

Ruby is ATI's new tech-demo superstar.