R350

[Wij]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/3/29563.html

 

[Xavier]

 

[Testin da Cable]

hehe oopsie

 

[Jonty]

Apparently there's a minor typo in the specs; namely that the Pro version will be based around a 400/360Mhz clock speed, not 400/460Mhz. Only minor, of course. Sounds like these cards such rock

Kind Regards

Jonty

P.S. There was speculation that these cards will not require a link to the PSU, unlike others. Any ideas if this is true? Thanks

 

[smurkin]

Both cards contain 512KB of serial Flash ROM

wtf is that....they have something like a bios....is that normal ?

 

[Jonty]

All the 9x00 series cards contain FlashROM, and possibly many other cards too. Unlike your motherboard BIOS, this FlashROM isn't designed to be tinkered with or even be accessible to the average user. Among the more important things it controls are the software limitations of the architecture (i.e. ATi may choose to disable four rendering pipelines even though the card physically has eight, as this has been done in the past to create some of the divisions between ATi's product lineups).

The only reason it's probably mentioned in that quote is that people, in the past, have been able to forcibly wipe their ATi card's FlashROM and then replace it with one without the software inhibitors, thus maximising the card's hardware features. That said, the number of people who have irrepairably damaged their cards doing this, only serves to highlight the risky nature of what they do (plus it voids the warranty, unlike normal driver tweaking programs).

Kind Regards

 

[Jonty]

The first 9800Pro reviews are hitting the streets Evolution, rather than revolution, it seems. Nevertheless, the R400 / NV35 battle was probably always the one to watch.

• Hexus
• Hot Hardware
• Tech Report

Kind Regards

 

[smurkin]

Anandtech