Introduction
We've stated many times before how much we respect NVIDIA for getting their parts into consumers' hands on the day of their release. We've also mentioned how frustrating it is that ATI can never seem to get their gear out on the day of "release". This appears to again be the case right now for ATI's new laptop version of the X1600, the Mobility Radeon X1600. ATI's launch partner, ASUS, will be selling the part in their upcoming A7V notebook which is launching in Asia today, but the rest of the world will not be able to buy this solution just yet.
The X1600 is a mid-range graphics solution that is meant to perform at about the same level of the X800 GTO and the 6600 GT. The mobile version will probably be a good solution for laptops, as it offers good quality graphics without generating excessive heat and quickly sapping up all of your battery life.
When ATI announced the X1000 lineup two months ago, they had planned on having the desktop X1600 out on the 30th of November. Unfortunately for ATI, this day has come and gone, and there are still no X1600s to be found for sale at the time of this writing. The Mobility Radeon X1600 (MRX1600) is officially scheduled to be released today (December 5th) in Asia with a US release scheduled for mid-January, but we aren't sure when they will really be available to buy in either region. ATI assures us that ASUS has notebooks ready to sell, but availability unconfirmed as of yet.
The Mobility Radeon X1600 is essentially the same as its desktop counterpart with the exception that it is clocked slightly lower. Here are the specifications:
12 Pixel Pipes
5 Vertex Pipes
4 Texture Units
4 Render Back-Ends
128 Max. Threads
Core clock: 470
Memory clock: 470
Compare this to the desktop version(s) of the proposed X1600 and we see much lower clocks. The X1600 XT was announced at launch to have 590MHz core and 1.38GHz memory clock speeds and 256MB of RAM. The MRX1600 is closer in implementation to the potential X1600 Pro, which might have 500MHz core and 780MHz memory clocks. The other major downgrade the mobile that mid-range part gets is in memory size to 128MB. The coolness factor comes in when you realize that ATI can pack the GPU and all of its RAM on a 46mm X 46mm square package.
We've stated many times before how much we respect NVIDIA for getting their parts into consumers' hands on the day of their release. We've also mentioned how frustrating it is that ATI can never seem to get their gear out on the day of "release". This appears to again be the case right now for ATI's new laptop version of the X1600, the Mobility Radeon X1600. ATI's launch partner, ASUS, will be selling the part in their upcoming A7V notebook which is launching in Asia today, but the rest of the world will not be able to buy this solution just yet.
The X1600 is a mid-range graphics solution that is meant to perform at about the same level of the X800 GTO and the 6600 GT. The mobile version will probably be a good solution for laptops, as it offers good quality graphics without generating excessive heat and quickly sapping up all of your battery life.
When ATI announced the X1000 lineup two months ago, they had planned on having the desktop X1600 out on the 30th of November. Unfortunately for ATI, this day has come and gone, and there are still no X1600s to be found for sale at the time of this writing. The Mobility Radeon X1600 (MRX1600) is officially scheduled to be released today (December 5th) in Asia with a US release scheduled for mid-January, but we aren't sure when they will really be available to buy in either region. ATI assures us that ASUS has notebooks ready to sell, but availability unconfirmed as of yet.
The Mobility Radeon X1600 is essentially the same as its desktop counterpart with the exception that it is clocked slightly lower. Here are the specifications:
12 Pixel Pipes
5 Vertex Pipes
4 Texture Units
4 Render Back-Ends
128 Max. Threads
Core clock: 470
Memory clock: 470
Compare this to the desktop version(s) of the proposed X1600 and we see much lower clocks. The X1600 XT was announced at launch to have 590MHz core and 1.38GHz memory clock speeds and 256MB of RAM. The MRX1600 is closer in implementation to the potential X1600 Pro, which might have 500MHz core and 780MHz memory clocks. The other major downgrade the mobile that mid-range part gets is in memory size to 128MB. The coolness factor comes in when you realize that ATI can pack the GPU and all of its RAM on a 46mm X 46mm square package.
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Sunrise089 - Tuesday, December 6, 2005 - link
Well actually I wasn't the only person backing the way it was written, but I can see most people feel I'm wrong, so I will apologize. While the concepts of for example 2 square mm and 2mm squared no doubt exist, I admit the article should have been written in such a way to make the size of the GPU much more clear. Just because I understood the author's intent, doesn't meen that intent was properly communicated. Sorry for stirring up so much trouble.psychobriggsy - Monday, December 5, 2005 - link
lol, I bet they meant it in square cm and failed to account for altering cm to mm correctly, and indeed 2.14cm * 2.14cm is 4.6cm^2 ...mbhame - Monday, December 5, 2005 - link
Who wrote this article?Is Anandtech abandoning crediting its authors???
mbhame - Monday, December 5, 2005 - link
NM, I'm a moron.Hi - Monday, December 5, 2005 - link
we knew thatksherman - Monday, December 5, 2005 - link
What happened to progress, to improving performance? To me, a next-gen mid range card should not perform at the same level of the previous gen mid range cards... I remember the days (not that long ago, only like a year or two ago) when the next-gen mid range cards were very comprable to the previous-gen high end parts... why sis ATI limit the X1600 to perform like a 6600GT?! Is it because their x800 line is better than their X1800 line?
phaxmohdem - Monday, December 5, 2005 - link
I agree with you that Nex Gen mid range cards should ideally perform at or about the level of previous gen higher end cards. Otherwise whats the point, unless they have some new badass featuer (perhaps H.264 counts once it is supported).allnighter - Monday, December 5, 2005 - link
I'd like to get my hands on one too but it seems we don't even have an eta on these do we? And Asus recently jumped the gun on nV 7300Go. I don't think you can get any of those either. HKEPC recently had an article with benchmarks, and I couldn't tell whethere it was a retail unit or not. Although that one may be a little closer to be available than this x1600 mobile part. I hope it's not after CeBit when any of us can actually buy one of these. I'd love to be able to upgrade to a model sporting one of these and one of those sweet dual core yonah's. It's a mobile wet dream he, he.Wesleyrpg - Monday, December 5, 2005 - link
hmm, nice laptop, i don't think we'll see the chip anytime soon though.whats up with the commment about the all in wonder x1800xl?
Shortass - Monday, December 5, 2005 - link
Looks pretty decent for a mobile gfx card, too bad it'll probably actually hit the market in late '09 :roll: