Press Release
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/ Munich, Germany – 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 (plus local VAT).
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 (plus local VAT)..
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 leading system builders in Europe.
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, Yuan
and Club 3D.
For more information on ATI or its new products, please visit www.ati.com.
Copyright 2003 ATI Technologies Inc. All rights reserved. ATI, the ATI logo, and ATI product and product feature names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of ATI Technologies Inc. Half-Life and Valve are registered trademarks of Valve Corporation. 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
3D 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 deliver 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 US $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:
Rubeena Hussein, PR Manager Europe, ATI Technologies (Europe) GmbH, phone:
+49 89 66 515 570, rhussein@ati.com
Friederike Weiß, Press Relations Specialist, ATI Technologies (Europe)
GmbH, phone: +49 89 66 515 325, fweiss@ati.com