ATI introduces new Radeon X700

ATI replies to Nvidia' s GeForce 6600 with its own mainstream solution.

Graphics manufacturer ATI has today introduced its new Radeon X700 line of video cards. Based on the Radeon X800 architecture, the Radeon X700 cards offer all the graphics and video-acceleration features introduced with the Radeon X800, including 3Dc normal map compression, long pixel shaders, temporal antialiasing, and a dedicated video engine.

The Radeon X700 features an eight-pipeline pixel engine and six vertex units. The new series fills in a noticeable gap in ATI' s PCI Express product line, sliding neatly between the high-end 16- and 12-pipe Radeon X800 cards and the more modest four-pipe Radeon X600 variations.

Rival graphics manufacturer Nvidia announced its own eight-pipeline GeForce 6600 PCI Express series at QuakeCon last month, but Nvidia' s mainstream card has only three vertex units, compared with the ATI card' s six. The Radeon X700' s vertex advantage should help in games such as EA' s upcoming The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth, in which high onscreen model numbers can place a significant geometry load on the graphics engine.

ATI has announced three variations for its newest product. The Radeon X700 XT and Pro versions both have MSRPs of $199. The Radeon X700 XT has a 475MHz core and 128MB of GDDR3 memory clocked at 1050MHz. The slower but more versatile Radeon X700 Pro version has a 420MHz core and 864MHz memory, as well as a sizeable 256MB GDDR3 frame buffer for demanding multimedia applications. The more affordable $149 Radeon X700 will have a 400MHz core and 128MB of GDDR3 memory clocked at 700MHz. As with the GeForce 6600 series, the entire Radeon X700 line will feature a 128-bit memory interface to reduce production costs.

Initial Radeon X700 cards will be available only for PCI Express systems, but ATI will release AGP versions later this year.

By James Yu -- GameSpot