ATI have some catching up to do if they want to match the 7800 from Nvidia - and to make matters worse, recent reports suggest their next-gen card will have only 16 pipes, and will be in short-supply.

When NVIDIA released the 7800GTX, the whole gaming world was in awe. Blazing framerates, and to top it off it was actually available to buy. Not like any usual release, as soon as NVIDIA said the card had been released you could go and buy it. No doubt NVIDIA have now set the standard for video card releases, don’t expect to see the fiasco we had with the 6XXX series and ATI’s latest cards.

But, ATI now have some catching up to do. At this point in time, they have nothing available that can take on the 7800GTX, and to make matters worse NVIDIA have SLI, which means you can setup two of the 7800’s to run side by side. So, what do ATI have up their sleeves? They have the R520 chip.



The R520 was rumoured to have 32 pipelines, outdoing the 7800GTX. Unfortunately, this has now been changed to a disappointing 16 pipes. Of course, that’s still a lot, but considering the current top of the line ATI card has the same amount it makes the next generation sound like more of the same. But, another part that worries me is how ATI have compensated for this reduction in pipelines. They have bumped up the core speed in hope of matching NVIDIA’s flagship card.