Still, this doesn't really make us happy as we were hoping for a good bump in current 8500 performance numbers. Then again, we weren't thinking that the card was going to be less than US$130 either. So, all in all, I think it's a great tradeoff and ATI can really be commended from bringing a fully capable 3D accelerator to the mainstream user. The game developers have to be loving how ATI just broadened their market base. We, on the other hand, are still a bit disappointed, but are fully appreciative of how ATI is trying to manage their market segment. I think that ATI has seen how NVIDIA's tightly grouping their Titanium product line, then being forced to react to ATI price drops with the invention of the Ti4200, has eroded their enthusiast product line somewhat, as the differentiation between products is blurred. There's certainly no need to go out and buy a Ti4600 now days, especially for the enthusiast who will have the card running at near-Ti4600 speeds with a few tweaks, equating to a couple of hundred bucks being saved.
All in all, the Radeon 9700 is absolutely the best gaming card that money can buy and ATi has committed to start shipping cards in 30 days. They have earned their moment in the spotlight and deserve kudos from the gaming community. Speaking with Dave Orton, the COO of ATi, he seemed more excited about the next product after this so he could push their R300 core into the mainstream. It just keeps getting better and better and there is really no end in sight. The Radeon 9700 is the dawn of a new era in gaming, and a very welcomed one at that.
Rumors of a 0.13-micron R300 before the end of the year are plentiful, but the likelihood of such an event happening is low. ATI will have a refresh of the R300, most definitely a 0.13-micron part but not between now and December. A 0.13-micron R300, potentially shipping with DDR-II would be a perfect match against NV35 due out next Spring. With ATIs current lead in development time, we could even see an R300 refresh before NV35.