[Cowboy X]

As rumoured the 9100 series is almost ready to launch and has appeared on Sapphire's site !

http://www.sapphiretech.com/vga/9100.asp

Unfortunately they are hiding the specs and their spec list looks the same as the 9000 . Probably due to a NDA .

[funnyperson1]

if you ask me i would say thats just an 8500 and they are trying to indicate through numbering that the 8500 is better

[Cowboy X]

But they actually say it is based on an ATI 9100 chip . It's confusing ....... they show the 9100 box but the pdf which doesn't completely load shows an 8500 .

I think this is the fabled 8x 9000 card . I noticed an interesting omission of the AGP spec of the card in the tech specs . That is one of the NDA things they may be hiding .

[Racoon]

The specs look suspiciously like a 8500 & have you noticed the title of the page - "Triton 8500".

[Wraith]

hmmmm, mabe this would be a cheaper card instead of a preformance card, id love to see a 9000(or 9100) at the 75 dollar proce range.....

[Wraith]

hmmmm, mabe this would be a cheaper card instead of a preformance card, id love to see a 9000(or 9100) at the 75 dollar proce range.....

[funnyperson1]

pwned!

here it is off the Rage3d site:
RADEON 9100 - 1:37 pm EST - MrB
This product annoucement was taken from HardOCP.


The RADEON 9100 is a high performance mainstream graphics processor for desktop PCs. Products based on the RADEON 9100 GPU will provide the outstanding 3D gaming performance, image quality and support for the latest game-enhancing features like DirectX 8.1 shaders. Its powerful architecture, including four parallel rendering pipelines and two geometry engines, is designed for optimal performance in the mainstream segment.
If this sounds reminiscent of the RADEON 8500 products, you are correct! Our partners continue to see strong demand for products based on our R200 architecture, so we are re-introducing it as a part of our 9000-family of products.

With ATI having quite a bit of 8500 inventory left they are reintroducing it into the 9000 family. I don't think ATI will be selling these themselves but leave them up to AIBs instead. The 8500 usually performed better than the 9000 and got denoted 9100.

[Wraith]

so this is just an 8500 with agp 8x then??? i dont get it? why not just get a 9000. or an 8500, whats to say this is better?

[snvpa]

I hat to bring this into the mix because I disagreed with alot of people earlie. but this is probably a marketing ploy. although nbo games will use 8x agp now or for at least 6 months they will eventually. although I doubt the core or ram on this card would handle that type of bandwidth. Id say spend the extra 75 bucks and get a 9500 pro. at least then you get dx 9 support.

[funnyperson1]

from what i understand Ati has a lot of 8500s left, and even though the 9000 is slower many people are mislead into getting it over the 8500 when the 8500 is the faster card....the 9100 is for people who only think 9100>9000>8500 so this is the card to get ....kinda the people who buy dells with p4s....but if the price is the same there is no reason to not get a 9100

[OC Noob]

I think its a good idea to re-label it, like Funnyp said. Lots of people are mislead.

Anyway, why not have the 9100 stick around for a while to compete against the MX line of cards. It beats the crap out of the Gf4 MX cards and with a lower retail price should rule the low end market.