News ATI X800 XT PE is not cancelled

Over the past 24 hours, there have been rumours flying around regarding the cancellation of the X800 XT Platinum Edition. It all stemmed back to an email from the CDW store to a customer. The CDW employee who sent the mail claimed that ATI had cancelled the X800 XT Platinum, including the pre-ordered cards. The email states:

"Thank you for your recent order with CDW. Unfortunately, the manufacturer
has discontinued the ATI Radeon X800XT Platinum.

We are still carrying the ATI Radeon X800 Pro for $389.00. This X800 Pro
card is currently out of stock for approximately 30 - 60 days.

Please advise if you would like to switch your order. If I do not hear from
you within 3 business days your order will be canceled.

I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Thank you and have a good day!

Jennifer"

It turns out that many of ATI's add-in partners were under the impression that ATI will cancel X800 XT cards and offer their customers X800 PRO as replacements. This simply won't happen.

The problem is that the majority of ATI's partners cannot get any of R420 16-pipe based cards since the yields for the XT PE are still not great by any means, thus availability is poor. This rule also applies for (r)etailers who're trying to buy in stock - you can't buy something that isn't available.

There is confirmation that at least one of ATI's partners shipped a small quantity this week - small being 100 pcs. ATI hasn't launched the card that will be clocked at 500/1000, and it there is no confirmation that there will be an AGP-based X800 XT (non-PE) board, much like there are no plans to implement a PCI-Express based X800 PRO. It is suggested that the real quantities of these boards will arrive some time in September.

There's an official statement on the lack of X800 XT PE's over here - it's 1 hour long, so I will summarise what was basically said.

Essentially, they state that demand has been very high and supply low. The cards are not being made fast enough for them to get out to retailers. Also, they state that OEM providers ordered a large number of X800s, so they were supplied first. The focus has now moved over to getting cards in to stock with the retailers.

Developments originally kicked off over here

 

Apparently part of the problem is lack of high-speed GDDR3 as well as bad chip yields.

I hadn't heard of this at all but I would have a really hard time trying to understand why ATI would cancel the most wanted card they sell...

Shouldn't this be a lesson to stores to perform IQ tests on their employees first? That way they don't go making some uninformed reply and freak out half the enthusiast world...

 

High-speed GDDR3 isn't quite so much of a problem as the chip yields. NVIDIA have all three of their boards in stock over here, of which two use high speed GDDR3.

 

I think this is mistitled. Of course the X800 XT PE isn't cancelled. They are rare, but ATI is not even close to stupid enough to cancel their flagship product. I think what was meant is the X800 XT (not PE): http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=17808, they're different.

I could be wrong on this, but I find it difficult to believe that anyone might think the X800 XT PE was cancelled.

 

The contents of the mail (in italics in my original post) suggest that the story was originally about the X800 XT Platinum. Whatever happens, neither the X800 XT or X800 XT PE are not cancelled.

After speaking to an ATI representitive earlier today, there is light shed on how the whole "discontinued" rumour got out. The store, CDW, stated that the X800 XT Platinum was discontinued, however, this could quite possibly be the standardised retail fob off, where the product isn't currently in stock and they're offering an alternative (They'd be silly not to offer an alternative at £300+); this obviously esculated into the rumour that has circulated the web over the last 48 hours or so because the disappointed consumer took the "fob off" as gospel.

 

CDW not the only ones. & ATI sales unethical

CDW is not the only ones canceling all preorders/orders for the xt, pe..

Gateway is as well as of 8/20/04


I placed an order for an xt 2 1/2 months ago.. every couple of weeks I received an email from Gateway saying “we are sorry but there is still no orders being fulfilled we expect to have the xt available and shipped to you in one month”.... After seeing that type of notice 2 times.. the third and final time, august 20th, I received the email ..,


Dear Valued Gateway Customer,
This is to notify that we can not fulfill your order placed for the Radeon X800 XT Platinum Edition due to inventory issues with the manufacturer. We apologize for this inconvenience. We would like to offer the Radeon X800 Pro at a reduced price of $349 (see side by side comparison below). In order to take advantage of this great price, please call 1-877-709-2883.
Regards,"
Gateway, Inc.

Upon calling to follow up I was told my order was canceled and no orders would be taken, they will not be selling the xt, pe.. (at least not now)..

True the Xt, PE may not have been canceled .. but to say they are having difficulties with yield is an understatement. Four months from the initial release of the xt and the only cards that can be purchased are secondary "black market" cards on ebay for 800$!

The fact is other then a brief surge of cards in the initial release, the XT has not / DOES not exist on the regular market.. and will not exist in the regular market anytime soon..

Knowing who exactly to besides the point , this is a serious dent in the customer relationship and I would question the business ethics involved.. I know having been on preorder for months only to get slammed and canceled has left a bad taste.. I doubt ATI will have much success in any pre-order prospects for time to come..

The pre-order market does indeed play an important role in the GPU industry.. when Nvidia, ATI are spinning production up to speed, they rely on Pre-orders to lock in prospective sales. Esp. in such a tight market. Id say ATI blew it's edge in this marketing sense.. Customers are owed an explanation at the very least..

 

No the X800XT PE definatly not cancelled

Hi everyone, just thought i would put everyones mind at rest by telling you all i recieved my Radion X800XT PE from www.gladiatorcomputers.com yesterday after going through what seemed like every search engine on the web . I was informed by suppliers and through web info that the memory that is used in the card (samsung 2ns ) is in short supply and a lot of sellers are waiting on the companys to get this memory and fit it onto their cards before the sellers get a sniff of these cards , so what i will say is "you may have to wait but then all good things come to those who wait" ;-))))))))) pip

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Im glad i got my X800 Pro before they went rare to. It OC'ed to XT PE levels so im happy for now.