ATI Radeon 256 Preview

The biggest downfall to the Radeon 256 will be its release time frame, which is scheduled for “this summer,” but more realistically, we can expect it in the late August timeframe.  Considering that the 3dfx Voodoo5 and NVIDIA GeForce 2 GTS are both due out in the next few weeks, waiting until August may be painful for those users that are itching to upgrade now. 

At the same time, we can’t help but remember ATI’s history with major product releases like this.  The Rage 128 would have been an instant hit had it come out in the Christmas timeframe it was set to debut in, but because most of the shipments went to OEMs, the retail consumers didn’t see boards until late February the following year.  Radeon 256 shipments to OEMs should occur during the summer, and if all goes according to plan, we’ll see retail availability of Radeon 256 based products in August…let’s hope that everything goes according to plan.

When the Radeon 256 does in fact debut (assuming that its debut occurs in August), it should be one of the fastest things available, but you also have to remember that less than a month later NVIDIA will be releasing their NV20, which may put the Radeon 256 to shame since it will be much more than a faster GeForce 2 GTS, it will be NVIDIA’s “new” architecture. 

Then we have the problem of driver support.  The Radeon 256 should be able to use the Rage 128 drivers as a base, but ATI’s driver support for the Rage 128 series has been sub-par at the most.  If the Radeon is to succeed, ATI must get their act together and produce better drivers.

Regardless of what happens, ATI could have a major success on their hands, but it has to come out on time (even then, it may be too late) and it has to have solid driver support, two things that ATI has had trouble doing in the past.  But with the amount of effort that ATI is putting into the development of this product, we may just see a strong competitor come August.