Press Release
- 2003
ATI introduces Radeon® 9800 XT and
Radeon® 9600 XT, demonstrating industry leadership once again
Bundled with Half-Life® 2, new Radeon® cards
enable extreme gaming experience
Tuesday September 30, 2003
MARKHAM, Ontario – ATI
Technologies Inc. (TSX: ATY, NASDAQ: ATYT) today introduced the
Radeon® 9800 XT and the Radeon® 9600 XT, delivering
killer DirectX® 9 performance in leading games like Half-Life® 2,
which will be bundled with the graphics cards.
The Radeon 9800 XT, the most powerful visual processor available,
takes the award-winning Radeon 9800 architecture, the first and
only to feature eight full pixel pipes, and makes it even faster.
Shipping immediately, the graphics cards will feature 256MB of
graphics memory and a wide, 256-bit memory interface. In addition
to the brute-force capabilities of the visual processor, the
architecture is efficiently designed to process instructions
in parallel, maximizing performance. The Radeon 9800 XT will
be available in stores and online in October from ATI and its
board partners. ATI’s retail product will have a suggested
retail price of $499.
The Radeon 9600 XT, the world’s first visual processor
developed using a low k dielectric process, features four pixel
pipes and 128MB of graphics memory and delivers unbeatable performance
for under $200. Recent reviews have shown the Radeon 9600 XT
to outperform cards twice its price in today’s shader-intensive
DirectX 9 games. Gamers will enjoy the stunning visual quality
that the Radeon 9600 XT delivers, which renders in full precision
at all times. The card will also be available in stores and online
in October from ATI and its board partners.
“ATI’s performance and image quality in DirectX
9-class games is unmatched,” said Rick Bergman, Senior
Vice President, Marketing, General Manager, Desktop, ATI Technologies
Inc. “By bundling Half-Life 2 with these products we are
giving our customers the opportunity to experience the full capability
of ATI’s DirectX 9 hardware.”
Customers purchasing ATI’s Radeon 9800 XT and Radeon 9600
XT will also get a free copy of Half-Life 2 when the game ships. “We
chose to partner with ATI because of their outstanding DirectX
9 performance,” said Gabe Newell, Founder and Managing
Director, Valve®. “Half-Life 2 relies heavily on advanced
shader technologies to give the game a realistic and immersive
environment. ATI’s DirectX 9-class Radeon® cards
are the best choices for playing Half-Life 2.”
ATI’s Radeon 9800 XT and Radeon 9600 XT will be available
in high-end gaming systems from system builders like ABS, Alienware,
CyberPower, Elite PC, Falcon Northwest, IbuyPower, MDG, Systemax,
Velocity Micro, Voodoo PC and ZT Group.
Add-in-board partners and third party graphics card manufacturers
will also be distributing products for retail, and for the OEM
and white box markets. Board partners include ASUSTeK, Celestica,
Connect3D, CP Technology, GeCube, Giga-Byte, Hercules, Hightech
Information System, Sapphire, VisionTek and Yuan.
For more information on ATI or its new products, please visit
www.ati.com.
Copyright
2003 ATI Technologies Inc. All rights reserved. ATI and ATI
product and product feature names are trademarks and/or registered
trademarks of ATI Technologies Inc. All other company and product
names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their
respective owners. Features, pricing, availability and specifications
are subject to change without notice.
About ATI Technologies Inc.
ATI Technologies Inc. is a world leader in the design and manufacture
of innovative 3-D graphics and digital media silicon solutions.
An industry pioneer since 1985, ATI is the world’s foremost
visual processor unit (GPU) provider and is dedicated to delivering
leading-edge performance solutions for the full range of PC
and Mac desktop and notebook platforms, workstation, set-top
and
digital television, game console, and handheld markets. With
2002 revenues
in excess of U.S. $1 billion, ATI has more than 2,000 employees
in the Americas, Europe and Asia. ATI common shares trade on
NASDAQ (ATYT) and the Toronto Stock Exchange (ATY).
Contact Information
For media or industry analyst support, visit our Web
site at http://www.ati.com
For Information:
Patricia Mikula, Public Relations Manager, Desktop and Workstation Products,
ATI Technologies Inc., at (905) 882-2600, Ext. 8809 or pmikula@ati.com
Other ATI Contacts:
Tenille Cuthbertson, Consultant, Porter Novelli Canada, at (416)
422-7163 or tenille.cuthbertson@porternovelli.com
For investor relations support, please contact:
Janet Craig, Director, Investor Relations, ATI Technologies Inc.,
at (905) 882-2600, Ext. 2631 or janet@ati.com
