First Look at ATI's Rage 128

Waiting For The Rage One Hundred And Twenty Wait

Impressive was the presentation of the Rage 128 back then in Toronto at the end of August. The upcoming Rage128 3D accelerator chip would be an amazing 2D/3D solution, including dual pixel pipelines, an almost complete MPEG2 decoder and even support for digital TV.

Since this time we were waiting for ATI to finally bless us with this new little miracle and we were waiting for a considerably long time. ATI doesn't have any reasons to rush. Of all companies in the PC mainstream graphics area, ATI is the only company that is making really big money.

1998 will be their by far best year in history, companies like NVIDIA, Matrox, Diamond, Creative, STB and also 3Dfx can only dream of the revenues ATI was making this year. The reason for this success doesn't come from nothing. It does not take the fastest and shiniest chip on the market to be successful in this business.

What it takes is a decent product, reliable shipments, good prices and an excellent customer support as well as a smart strategy. More than 60% of ATI's chips are ending on a motherboard, most of them for lower end systems. Many OEMs are using ATI cards in their systems, helping them to offer a decent system at an attractive price point. High end 3D chips are a nice feather on every 3D chip maker's hat, but it doesn't have to be what it takes to be successful.