Reader Interview: ATI's President & COO Dave Orton

Future Products

What’s the next big thing in PC 3D?

A. I think there will be a significant shift away from concentrating on frame rate, as we have been for the past several years, and instead focusing on visual quality and realism.  This is not to say that frame rate won't be important, but consider this:  If you think about what makes for good special effects in a movie today, does frame rate even cross your mind?  The reason it doesn't is that it's taken for granted that the image will move smoothly, and instead you focus on how cool the images look.  With the performance and fill rate of todays graphics chips soaring to astronomical levels, it will be the ability to display the most detailed and realistic images that becomes the key differentiator.  Of course, this will make it a whole lot more difficult to write meaningful benchmarks...

What will the next MAXX product be?

A. We are currently evaluating what we will be doing with our MAXX™ technology, and whether it makes sense to use it in future products.  The RAGE FURY MAXX™ was a great product for its time, and we've made significant improvements to the technology since then.  However, the RADEON™ is a far more powerful processor than the RAGE™ 128 PRO, and our next generation processors will even be more powerful.  All that power comes at a cost, and when you consider the expense of a board with dual high performance graphics processors and 128MB or more of memory, how game developers are already struggling to make use of all the power available in existing high-end graphics chips, and how quickly we are now able to design new generations of products with our concurrent design teams, the decision is not an easy one.  Who would have thought we would ever have more graphics power at our fingertips than we could figure out what to do with?

When can we expect to see the RADEON VE? What about the one with dual monitor support?

A. RADEON™ VE, with advanced dual monitor support, is shipping now.  It became available in late January.

Do they plan on releasing anything resembling the Geforce2 Pro/Ultra, i.e., a higher clocked version of the current RADEONs?

A.  We are always working to develop the best performing product for the best price for the gaming community.

Do you see the market headed more towards full integration, or will it remain a low-end solution for the foreseeable future?

A. While integrated graphics products are rapidly gaining market share in the PC world, their wide adoption is primarily driven by their low cost.  In order to keep the cost as low as possible, some feature and/or performance compromises always have to be made.  Standalone graphics processors aren't necessarily bound by this restriction, meaning you can develop high end products where performance and feature set are higher priorities than cost.  So, even though next year's integrated graphics products will improve by leaps and bounds over what is available now (even matching what is considered "high end" today), they will still be considered "low end" compared to leading edge standalone graphics products for the foreseeable future.

Do they plan on making a 64MB version of the ALL-IN-WONDER RADEON?

A. I can’t comment on unannounced products.

When do they plan on releasing the R-200?

A. We’ll be shipping the R200 in Q4 2001.

Will the R-200 be available in dual or quad chip configurations?

A. It’s too early to comment on board configurations.  Needless to say ATI’s next generation of products will be a significant leap in features and performance. 

What is the proposed feature set of the R-200?

A. Our future products will have the most advanced list of features available at the time they are released.