R600XTX GDDR4 scheduled for end of March

THE PRODUCTION of R600XTX cards, Radeon X2800XTX or X2900XTX, whatever ATI decides to call them, is set to begin in the first week of March. One of the codenames for this card is Dragonshead 2 and it is a 9.5-inch card with the new vapour chamber cooler.

The board went throughout many revisions and the last one - so far - was the power and mechanical advisory in early February. The A13 board samples are scheduled for the last week of February while the Rev90 release of the board is scheduled for the fourth week of February.

R600XTX card production is set to start in first week of March. Add in Board partners (AIBs) will get the cards between second and third week of March.

The volume customer shipments are expected by the middle of third week in March. And at last target on shelf date is the 28th of March 2007 - that's when the NDSa expire.

It seems the original 12-inch cards are OEM only and have slightly different schedule of delivery.

So it looks like Hector was right all along. He said R600 will be shipped in Q1 - even if the last day of Q1 2007 counts, at least in a court of law. µ