AMD Delays Radeon 4800 Launch To June 23

Taipei (Taiwan) - In the latest round of rumors from Computex 2008, we learned that AMD managed to upset the majority of its partners by delaying the Radeon 4850 512MB GDDR3, code-named Makedon.

AMD has decided not to launch its new graphics cards on June 18 as originally planned. Instead, ATI will be briefing members of the press around this date and launch the product in the following week. Since Nvidia is going to launch non-competing parts on June 17, it sounds like a reasonable decision not t o launch its new GPUs just one day later.

However, add-in-board companies have the cards available right now or can receive them within 24 hours of time. Given the current market climate, some companies believe AMD should have launched the cards at Computex.

We were told that there are "tens of thousands of boards just sitting there" and AMD’s partners are not too thrilled.

However, it looks like that AMD is using the delay to change its launch strategy. The GDDR5 equipped 4870 will now launch at the same time as the 4850 512MB GDDR3, but it is unclear whether there are enough GDDR5 chips to enable AMD to ship the 4870 in volume right off the bat.

Two updated dates for your calendar are: June 17: Nvidia launches GeForce GTX 200 series. June 23: AMD launches Radeon 4800 series.

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yadge 10 years ago

Man, that sucks kind of. I probably wasn't going to be buying one until July sometime anyway though.

At least the 4870 will launch with it. I just want to see some real numbers on them.
virtualban 10 years ago

My system upgrade and my true interest in graphics (for purchase reasons) is postponed until GTA4 comes to PCs, but still I'm eager to participate as a spectator to the "wars" and the sooner they start, the better. At least there seems to be some competition in the graphics arena currently, unlike in cpu-s...
xx12amanxx 10 years ago

Yeah im getting tired of these delay's too. If they have thousand's of these board's ready to go what is the thing we are missing? To me it almost sound's like something is wrong...
kylewaller 10 years ago

At least the 4870 and 4850 will be launching at the same time. Well hopefully anyway.

Also, xX12amanXx, words ending in "s" do NOT need apostrophes... *facepalm*
virtualban 10 years ago

I just hope they will keep releasing XP drivers for a long time :P
hannibal 10 years ago

Well they are not in hurry, and they get more time for drivers optimization. I think that this time there should be enough cards, so no paper release this time... i hope...
kansur0 10 years ago

The only reason I can see for the delay is that AMD suspects they will be the new GPU crown holders after the 18th. Right now all eyes are on the next nVidia launch because they have currently been in the lead for some time now. Even if they launch now every enthusiast not wearing a green shirt will be waiting for the nVidia flagship card to be sure they are buying the fastest product. It is only a few weeks. I think this is a smart move.

Time to refine drivers to better compete with nVidia flagship.
Compete head to head with nVidia. If they are indeed the fastest they may take back some market share from nVidia and convert some people.
They will also have more cards to sell so they will guarantee that supply is ample if people do want to buy it.
They can also see pricing and possibly undercut nVidia with a faster product and guarantee they can compete with price/performance ratio.

All in all...a good move. Let's hope they take back the crown to keep tech up and prices down!!!
Anonymous 10 years ago

^ lol @ kylewaller and xX12amanXx... apostrophes after ever s lol

thats great I wonder what school he went to

anyway's what's up guy's? how's life for you all at tom'shardware.com
thi's site is awsome
gm0n3y 10 years ago

@thogrom,

Ironically, the apostrophe in tom'shardware is correct (should be Tom's Hardware).

As for this news, I just want to see some reviews of the 4000 series cards.
arrpeegeer 10 years ago

Great article.

For the 3 people who still buy ATI.

NVidia4Lyfe!!!!!111one
Anonymous 10 years ago

At least ATI uses more advanced technology than Nvidia does. Nvidia is so lazy they can't even add the latest official standards.
royalcrown 10 years ago

LOL@kansur0

please..ATI doesn't want it's ass beat the same week is all...they wanna lose to nvidia the NEXT week.
frozenlead 10 years ago

I'm not betting without numbers.
mr roboto 10 years ago

Uh oh here we go again.
mr roboto 10 years ago

Wait a second. So is Tom's implying that ATI's 4800 series and Nvidia's GT200 are not going to be competing? So Tom' crowns Nvidia before the cards launch? I thought the two were in direct competition. From what I've read all the ATI fans were waiting for this card to launch as it was supposed to rock.
hannibal 10 years ago

Hmmm 4870 should not have any change against 280, because 4870 is middle range card and 280 is pupposed to be ultra highend GPU.
Guite another thing is that 4870X2 can be close to 280 and if predictions are right, it should be less expensive.

So Tom is right, the 280 should be the king, but the prize tag is high allso. If this is not the case, the Nvidia is in big trouble because it's so expensive to produce GT200 series GPU's compared to 4800 series.

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