It has been confirmed that ATI is trying to take steps toward actually returning to competition with NVIDIA. Let's face it, in the past year, ATI has failed in regards to keeping up with their arch rivals. With their recent troubles, it was recognized that something needs to change in their development cycles in order to not only keep up, but hopefully overcome their opponent.

In the past, these two behemoths would attempt to release a new high-end card once a YEAR. ATI is upping the ante by stating that their strategy from here on out is to provide consumers with a new high-end card every 6 MONTHS. While this is great for pushing the market forward, I would like to raise the question: Whatever happened to quality over quantity? In my opinion, ATI should have taken a step back, examined their current offerings, and figured out a way to improve upon them. I am not video card design expert, but I would think spending a year on a secret project that would blow the minds of the entire market would be more beneficial than making small improvements and new chips every 6 months. Not to mention, they have been having some severe driver issues as of late.

ATI has already announced their dual chip card, the RV670 codename R670 and with was previously scheduled for late Q2 2008. Now they have stated it will be available as soon as early Q1 2008 AND they will be launching the R700 architecture no more than 6 months later. What's more? A revision of the R700, codenamed the R7x0, will be released by the end of Q4 2008.

I can only hope that this strategy works for them, as I am not sure whether I agree it was the best direction. Personally, I am a fan of whatever is best and fastest on the market and have no affiliation or affinity to either company. For the market's sake, I hope ATI gets back in the game with a real powerhouse soon.