ATI Outsourcing Chip Design to Asustek

[jc14all]

<i>March 20, 2002</i>

When times get hard companies are forced to take drastic measures. In ATI's case I'm wondering if this decision is based on economics or leaning more toward competitive edge against rival Nvidia. Nevertheless, outsourcing is a strategic measure of cutting overhead without cutting quality. So, ATI supporters don't lose heart, Asustek is only taking over the graphic chip design division. If you have faith in Asus motherboards your confidence should not wane. Besides, Nvidia has already been doing likewise. <A HREF="http://www.digitimes.com/NewsShow/Article.asp?datePublish=2002/03/20&pages=06&seq=34" target="_new">(see article)</A>



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[bront]

Interesting. Should be fun to see what comes out of this. Asus has done wonders with Video cards as well as MBs, and this would probably lead to Asus Radeons.

ATI certiantly can't complain about their position in the market, with a great product out and more coming soon. Nvidia needs to worry.

I do not like it Tom you see,
I do not like green PCB.

 

[jc14all]

I'm with you on the great standing of both ATI & Asus. I think we will see some improvement, but what concerns me is the drivers for the cards. Isn't some other company currently writting the ATI drivers?

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[bront]

Fire GL is writing drivers for the Fire GL series (Now a subsidiary of ATI anyway). ATI has their own driver developement team.

I do not like it Tom you see,
I do not like green PCB.

 

[rcf84]

Hercules is making drivers. Heck in Serious Sam 2 there Radeon 8500 LE (250/500) was matching the GF4 Ti4600 thats some tweaked up drivers.

I invented ctrl-alt-del but Bill [Gates] made it famous - Dave Bradly IBM PC designer

 

[jc14all]

Thanks for clearing that misconception. I just remembered the the first release of the 8500 driver's had some performace issues with <A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=1558" target="_new">SMOOTHVISION</A> of which ATI has since corrected. Yes, I am looking forward to the future ATI/Asustek product. Should be awesome!

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[jc14all]

Hercules is making drivers.

Are you saying that Hercules (Kryo) writes Readon 8500 LE drivers? Or were you referring to the standup between <A HREF="http://www.tech-report.com/reviews/2001q4/vidcards/index.x?pg=1" target="_new">ATI-vs-Nvidia</A>? I'll be honest with you I haven't even read this article throughly, but from the scanning of it, it appears more biased toward Nvidia. Personally I prefer ATI for their Performance track record and the cost comparison ratio. Furthermore, with the partnership of ATI/Asustek, I believe ATI will even get better.

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