2000 • A New Era: Radeon 8000
2000 • A New Era: Radeon 8000
Graphics cards were sold under the new brand name Radeon for the first time in 2000; the name Rage was probably too damaged. New name, new luck? Let us recall…
2000 • Radeon 7500
2000 • Radeon 7500
So its performance did not exactly blow peoples’ minds. But the first Radeon was a solid entry.
2001 • Radeon 8500
2001 • Radeon 8500
Reasonable value for money earned the Radeon a new following. The LE models were entry-level, whereas the XT models were high-end.
2002 • Multimedia On-Board: Radeon 8500 All-In-Wonder
2002 • Radeon 8500 All-In-Wonder
ATI combined a 3D graphics card with an analog TV and radio tuner and made them available on its All-In-Wonder. This was a successful step into an OEM market where Nvidia was never able to succeed.
2002 • Radeon 9000: The Entry-Level GPU
2002 • Radeon 9000: The Entry-Level GPU
The Radeon 9000-series launched in 2002 with a entry-level model: the 9000.
2003 • Radeon 9600 Pro: The Popular One
2003 • Radeon 9600 Pro: The Popular One
After a few weak 9000-series models, the Radeon 9600 Pro arose to become the most popular mid-range model at the time. It was a good card with solid frame rates, except for a lack of Shader Model 3.0 support.
2003 • Radeon 9800 XT: ATI’s Hot Iron
2003 • Radeon 9800 XT: ATI’s Hot Iron
Nicknamed “Comet,” it was extremely fast, not especially quiet, but above all: at risk for heat exhaustion. We buried two burnt-up 9800 XTs ourselves, trying to cope with the (financial) loss. Going out in flames is just not cheap.
2004 • Radeon X700: The Xs Appear
2004 • Radeon X700: The Xs Appear
ATI created a whole new volume upper-mid segment model with the X700. Though affordably priced, the Shader Model 2.0b design restriction negatively impacted its competition with Nvidia's GeForce 6-series. The Nvidia cards offered more 3D effects with the help of Shader Model 3.0, and, to make things even more interesting, resourceful users could quite effortlessly unlock the GeForce 6600 card to a GeFore 6800 (at least initially).
2005 • Radeon X850 XT: The Limited-Functionality Burner
2005 • Radeon X850 XT: The Limited-Functionality Burner
ATI’s answer to the Nvidia FX 5800 Ultra "Hair Dryer:" the Radeon X850 XT.
The card was extremely fast, and superior to the GeForce 6800 GT in many ways, so long as Shader Model 2.0b was enough. The situation was much closer once you took Shader Model 3.0 into account, and many games would not start at all on the AMD hardware. Did you want to run Bioshock with an X850 XT? You had to wait (a long time) for the community to produce a hack.
2005 • X1300 Pro: A Slow Start
2005 • X1300 Pro: A Slow Start
E.T. looked just as sad on this Sapphire card as most customers who tried playing games on it. Sure, it had DirectX 9 and Shader Model 3.0 support for nice graphics, but the performance just wasn’t there.
