Back in October '05 ATI introduced the initial, much belated, X1000 series product line, comprising X1800 (R520), X1600 (RV530) and X1300 (RV515). Although these were all introduced at the same time their releases were staggered a little, and even when they did finally start rolling off the production lines their further releases hardly appeared to go too smoothly. Both X1300 and X1600, although around in various locations roughly when they were supposed to be, hardly appeared plentiful, which may partially have been to do with their pricing. ATI set fairly high MSRPs on both the X1300 and X1600 product lines, likely set for some high margins and to be competitive to where they were when they were introduced. However, when shipping is set to occur nearly two months after announcement, as was the case for X1600, a lot can happen in that time span, as indeed it did with NVIDIA's release of the 6800 GS. Now, though, following a reduction in MSRPs by ATI both products are becoming plentiful, vendors are coming out with numerous SKUs of both product lines, and street prices are more inline with where we would expect for their die sizes.

Beyond3D