LOSTCIRCUITS

ATI are adapting their business model to include licensing agreements with other manufacturers. One of the major partners for OEM manufacturing of the RADEON 8500 is First International Computer (FIC) known mainly for their mainboards and, lately, internet appliances. With the adaptation of the RADEON line of graphics adapters, FIC fills a major gap in their repertoire. The licensed version of the RADEON 8500 features a lower speed bin of both core engine and memory, both specked at 250 MHz instead of 275 MHz in the original ATI retail version. We have taken the FIC RADEON 8500, pitted it against the ASUS V8200 T5 as representative of the Ti500 nVidia GeForce3 and the MSI MS822 Starforce as example of a standard GeForce3. A $6.50 investment in custom memory heatsinks increased the overclockability of the FIC RADEON 8500 from some 260 MHz to 285 MHz, earning this card a (temporary) placement on the first page of 3DMark 2001 ORB Hall of fame.

This is in the past, though. ATI has been able to revise their drivers, enable SmoothVision and overall increase the performance to a level that reflects the capabilities of the hardware. With a core / memory speed of 275 MHz, the ATI Radeon 8500, at least on paper, is the fastest graphics adapter currently out there. Add ATI's almost proverbial image quality, DX8.1 compliance and there is a serious card on the shelf. Of course, the competition has not been sleeping either. Just when things started to look better for ATI, nVidia released the revised GeForce3 GPU, dubbed the Titanium 500 to top their previous flagship a.k.a. GeForce3 in both performance and features and what would have been a clear win for ATI now comes down to a head-to-head duel again. Meanwhile, the next nVidia GPU (NV25, GeForce4 Ti4600), supposedly doubling the performance of the Ti500, is already being evaluated....

Unfortunately, it is necessary to bring up the issue of drivers and the unsuccessful launch once again since exactly what happened there reinforces a rather unfortunate legacy of ATI. Regardless of how good their graphics adapters have been in the past, driver problems have been the number one reason for negative statements about ATI cards or, conversely, for promotion of nVidia's products. Getting rid of this legacy in the public opinion is where ATI needs to put their primary emphasis in the near future.

From a business perspective, the key to nVidia's success has been to stay out of the actual sales business. Leaving the manufacturing of the graphics cards to third parties and concentrating only on R&D and manufacturing of the GPU not only frees up many resources but also keeps nVidia out of the current game of dwindling revenues (to be absorbed by the partners). ATI and Matrox have been mostly "standalone" operations which adds revenues but is also counterproductive for the overall distribution of the cards as the successful nVidia model shows. Finding partners among the established manufacturers of graphics cards is not an easy task, though, since hardly any manufacturer carrying a line of nVidia cards would be willing to stick out their heads and sidestep to the probably fiercest competitor.

And then there was First International Computer a.k.a. FIC who announced their partnership with ATI at Computex. Instead of trying to compete with the retail ATI Radeon 8500, FIC are currently limiting themselves to an OEM version, using slower speed bins of the GPU and memory and, more importantly, lower prices. Interestingly, the Radeon 8500 is not even listed on the FIC website, nonetheless, it is certainly something to look for.

Before going into the actual review of what the card can do and what it can't, here is a short technical rundown of the R200 GPU technology, which is an abridged version of some of the ATI white papers combined with the demos and edited for content. I've tried to keep it according to KISS and those who aren't interested, skip this part and go right to the specs. Those who still need more information should read this review on Tech-Report.

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