The part that everyone wants to hear about is, of course, the Radeon X1800 based on ATI's long awaited R520 GPU. Due for introduction later this quarter, the 90nm R520 will be a 16-pipe, 16-shader processor design with a number of different SKUs based on the GPU. Internal ATI documentation specifically claims that the R520 series will ship at launch, just as NVIDIA's 7800GTX and 7800GT series shipped and launched on the same dates.

Common features to all R520 based boards include the new 90nm lead free manufacturing process, a Xilleon based TV encoder, SM3.0, H.264 decode acceleration and CrossFire support. Also expect to see HDTV options for all 90nm ATI cards in the near future, although they may be limited to the All In Wonder series for R520.

At the top end is the Radeon X1800 XT; this 16-pipe R520 will feature a 600MHz core clock, with a 256-bit memory bus connected to 512MB of GDDR3 memory clocked at 700MHz. The 600MHz core clock will give it a lower fill rate than the GeForce 7800 GTX (24-pipes at 430MHz), while the 700MHz memory clock will give it more memory bandwidth than the stock GTX (600MHz). Much like the GTX, the X1800 XT will be priced at $599. The X1800 XT will feature two DVI outputs with HDCP support. The lower fillrate seems alarming at first, but consider several factors. First of all, ATI's traditional core design can do "more" per clock cycle (at least on the R420 design) than NVIDIA. Secondly, R520 has a lot of little tweaks including hardware asissted H.264 decoding. Just last week, we also received details about ATI's revamped memory controller which operates on an internal 512-bit ring bus. There is a lot to speculate about performance, but even with similar fill rates as NVIDIA, there is a strong possibility that other workings in R520 will differentiate the card on a real world performance level.

Next up is the Radeon X1800 XL, which is positioned between the GeForce 7800 GTX and the 7800 GT. The XL drops the core clock down to 550MHz, and the memory clock down to 625MHz. Other than the lower clock speeds, the XL is identical to the XT, meaning it still has 512MB of GDDR3 memory connected to a 256-bit memory bus. The X1800 XL will be priced at $499. Both the X1800 XT and X1800 XL appear to be dual-slot designs from previous roadmaps and existing box art. The roadmap also details that there will be HDCP support for the X1800 XL and X1800 XT via Texas Instrument's TFP513PAP DVI transmitter.

Priced at $449, we have the X1800 Pro, once more a 16-pipe R520 design but this time the core runs at 500MHz. The Radeon X1800 Pro only has 256MB of memory, also running at 500MHz, but still retains the same 256-bit memory bus. What is interesting about the Radeon X1800 Pro is that its fill rate and memory bandwidth appear to be identical to that of NVIDIA's GeForce 7800GT; coincidentally, so does its price. The reference design for the X1800 Pro features a single VGA and a single DVI connector, with no HDCP support.

The last member of the R520 family is the Radeon X1800 LE, which disables four of the pipelines of the R520 taking it down to a 12-pipe design. The LE runs at 450MHz with 256MB of 450MHz GDDR3 memory. Once again we're dealing with a 256-bit memory bus, and this time a $349 price tag. The outputs are identical to the X1800 Pro. Both the Pro and LE cards are single slot cooling design, thanks to their lower running clock speeds.

According to our roadmaps, it looks like ATI will abandon the "vanilla" nomenclature for future products. For example, instead of a plain X1800, instead we will get an X1800 LE. Likewise, on our previous roadmaps components that were named with the non-XT non-LE non-Pro non-XL name will thus become "LE" parts. Certainly a good move on ATI's behalf, as "vanilla" X800 cards are hard enough to explain to readers.

The roadmap also refers to R580, and that the card is working in-house at the moment. R580 is essentailly a clock ramp and pipe ramp of R520, but both of those details have not been disclosed yet (even to AIBs). Unforunately, the R580 will not ship at the same time as R520.

ATI's RV530 aka Radeon X1600

Targetting the upper midrange is the Radeon X1600 (RV530), built on the same 90nm process as the Radeon X1800 (R520). All of these RV530 series and lower are single slot products, according to the roadmaps.

Radeon X1600 will actually be very similar to X1800LE, but with a smaller internal bus (256-bits) and a smaller memory bus (128-bits). The X1600 cards also have H.264 support like the R520 series.

Like X600, there will be many vendor dependent options for the cards. The configuration roadmap allows for DDR1, DDR2 or GDDR3 in both the XT and Pro cards, with memory sizes ranging anywhere from 128MB to 512MB. In fact, we even have claims from one manufacturer that they will produce 64-bit versions of the card en masse; so potential buyers will need to be wary of buying Radeon X1600 Pro cards with the smaller bus (like with the Radeon 9800SE). Another noteable is the support for HDCP and HDMI on many cards. Also, like with the GeForce 7800 series, vendors are allowed (perhaps even encouraged?) to bin chips for higher clock speeds. We've received reports from AIBs that some RV530 Pro cards will ship with 525MHz clock speeds even though the roadmap indicates 500MHz is the standard configuration.

Perhaps one of the more interesting aspects of RV530 is the low power consumption. Reference 64-bit boards of RV530 using GDDR3 at 500MHz core clock speeds have a power consumption of just 25W. 128-bit boards were estimated at 40W and X1600XT boards with all the goodies were estimated by AIBs to be 55W.

ATI's RV515 aka Radeon X1300

ATI's internal roadmap reveals that the RV515 (X1300) is the follow up to RV370, and will come in three main variations with several HyperMemory options and differing core clocks as well. Our previous roadmaps have revealed that RV515 is exclusively a single quad design, with memory interfaces from 32 to 128bits. Even the low end RV515 cards will utilize some form of H.264 decoding and/or HDCP support, making these cards extremely attractive for DVR machines.

HyperMemory versions of RV515 will utilize a 32-bit memory bus, but since they utilize the system memory they use a different system of determining the "Supported Memory" configurations as follows:

Wrap Up

Among other noteables in the roadmap, some of the more prominent features of R520 included HDMI over Silicon Image's WALDO interface -- all other cards in the roadmap that feature HDCP but not HDMI will use TI's TFP513PAP. On low profile RV530 cards, HDMI connectors are supported directly on the PCB, while analog and DVI connectors are attached via a ribbon cable to a daugther card. For users looking to set up a cheap TV-only DVR, the daughtercard is completely optional - saving money and space.

In the roadmap we also saw some new SKUs from the X550 line and X600 line supporting HyperMemory. With NVIDA's quasi-TurboCache GeForce 6500, an X600 HyperMemory card could put a real advantage of low end video processing back in ATI's court.

X800GTO is also going to be hitting the shelves soon with street prices of $159 for the 128MB version and $179 for the 256MB version. You might want to check our previous roadmap on this particular product, since everyone (including ATI) expects a sub $200 12 pipe R420 to really become the de facto midrange option. A low volume sixteen pipe version will show up for select vendors in select regions.

We go under NDA in the near future for many things ATI, so get ready for AnandTech's upcoming coverage come launch time!