nVIDIA took the lead in the GeForce2 class with their GeForce2 Ultra. They used a brute force tactic to gain the lead, outfitting their current GeForce2 GTS with 230mhz/460mhz DDR memory and raising the core clock to 250mhz. Outfitted with sheer speed, no GeForce2 class card could touch it. ATI's recently announced codename RV200, now named Radeon 7500, hopes to take the lead back with this method.
Like ATI copied nVIDIA's 6 month product cycle (or at least tried), and now copying nVIDIA's unified driver architecture, ATI is copying GeForce2 Ultra's brute force technique and applying it to their Radeon 7500. The Radeon 7500's core is clocked at 270mhz, giving it an astounding 48% increase in potential speed over the original Radeon. However, graphics card enthusiasts know that core clock isn't the key to speed anymore. It's the memory speed. Accordingly, the Radeon 7500 is outfitted with 230mhz/460mhz DDR memory like the GeForce2 Ultra. This gives Radeon 7500 the same amount of RAW memory bandwidth. But ATI has a trick up their sleeve. HyperZ. HyperZ technology allows the graphics chipset to render only the things that will be seen in the final scene. For example, you can't see the back of your monitor because my commentary is blocking it. Since you're not going to see it anyway, HyperZ tells the graphics chipset not to render it, saving valuable memory bandwidth. HyperZ allows the graphics chipset to use its RAW memory bandwidth more efficiently instead of using it stupidly like the GeForce2 Ultra, yielding more memory bandwidth than it originally had. Now Radeon has both brains and brawn.
Despite its brute force endowment, Radeon 7500 still has to live with poor drivers. ATI has never been known for writing drivers well and the Radeon 7500's drivers prove it. The drivers make it barely able to keep up with a GeForce2 Pro, despite its sheer clock and memory speed. Not even being able to keep up with a GeForce2 Pro, the Radeon 7500 has no chance of competing with the GeForce2 Ultra it's supposed to destroy easily. But still, these are pre-release drivers so ATI has a couple of weeks to tweak the drivers so they can take advantage of the technology and sheer speed. But I doubt they're going to tweak them well enough. Being an ICS major, I know how long it takes to develop good algorithms. Sure we get 2 weeks to develop them, like how ATI is faced with a few weeks to develop some, but we're given simple ones to develop - not complicated 3D algorithms and lower level machine languages to use. Heck, it took nVIDIA 6 months to take advantage of GeForce3's memory crossbar controller.
But even if the drivers suck in it's beginning life, the Radeon 7500 is a good investment for the future. GeForce2 Pro performance is really good and like the original Radeon it has some DirectX 8.0 functionality, allowing it to take advantage of some of the technologies used in newer games. The GeForce2 line won't be able to, once the DirectX 8.0 games hit the shelves. And once the drivers are able to take advantage of the technology, the Radeon 7500 will be almost as good as the Radeon 8500 but cheaper. It's performance now, even with pre-release drivers, is quite acceptable, its cheap, and its future proof. It's hard to go wrong with the Radeon 7500. Let's just hope ATI gets better at writing drivers.
RADEON graphics boards feature the leading-edge technology for unsurpassed graphics performance. Powered by the ATI RADEON graphics processing unit GP...More at eBay
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