Shots surface of ATI's R600 -- and boy is she a big one

We already know that this little monster hums along at quite a clip, but how does it look? Monstrous, of course. Those of you hoping to get off easy with the case size and power supply requirements are going to have to think again, ATI's R600 tops out at a record-busting 12.4-inches in length. ATI will have two SKUs of the R600 at launch, the XTX which features 1GB of DDR4 RAM and the R600XT with a mere 512MB of GDDR3 -- weak sauce, we know. The XTX version comes in retail and OEM versions and it's the OEM one (pictured) that really gets outlandish, with the 12.4-inch length and 270W of power consumption. The retail XTX cuts it down to 9.5-inches and 240W, while the weaker XT matches those specs. A little bit down the road, ATI will follow these up with the R600XL which will be cheaper and hopefully less demanding. Just for a frame of reference: NVIDIA's 8800 GTX was deemed outlandish with its longest-ever 10.4-inch length and beefy 165W power requirement. How much bigger are these things going to get? Oh, that's right, once they get outside our PCs there just won't be any stopping 'em.

[Via fx57; thanks Noah D]

[thx217 @ Feb 11th 2007 1:24AM]

GOD. Tell me this is NOT the final version......and how many cases out there can fit this...thing.

[Matt @ Feb 11th 2007 1:10AM]

Wow, I don't know if that will even fit in my Thermaltake Armor case, which I consider to be a *very* large case. Let alone 270 watts of power consumption, that's just way too much. Imagine having to hire an electrician to pull in a dedicated 15A circuit just for your PC when you decide to put two of these things in crossfire...

[futurepastnow @ Feb 11th 2007 1:11AM]

Holy frak, that's a full-length card. Get ready to buy a new EATX server case, fanboys.

[AG @ Feb 11th 2007 1:21AM]

Heres to hoping it fits in my Mac Pro

[futurepastnow @ Feb 11th 2007 1:39AM]

"Heres to hoping it fits in my Mac Pro"

Ironically, it will. The Mac Pro is designed to take full-length cards.

The card obviously won't work in OS X, but it will work in Windows in Boot Camp. Just move the Mac's 7300 card to another slot for graphics in both OS's.

[Josh @ Feb 11th 2007 1:36AM]

It's a beast... My power bill is already going up just dreaming of 1gb of gddr4 blessing my computer.

Seriously though, last time i checked 4 cores don't even need that much power, someone needs to figure out that gpu's are using excessive power and change it, after all AMD is green, right?

~Josh

[Matt @ Feb 11th 2007 4:29AM]

That's not ironic, it's serendipitous. :) And who knows what drivers will or won't be available.

[Terry @ Feb 11th 2007 1:42AM]

Good thing my case supports two power supplies. This card will need a dedicated power supply since my current power supply is close to capacity.

[otaking241 @ Feb 11th 2007 1:54AM]

Lian Li V1200 FTW!

[Tenken @ Feb 11th 2007 11:16AM]

Is it just me, or is state of PC gaming looking very grim when things like this become standard? A full length card?! 240 watts power usage?! I know it's only just the "special" version of the card, but this just seems like it's setting a bad precedent...

[KOF @ Feb 11th 2007 2:43AM]

Not an option for us who owns small form factors. My X800 just fits comfortably in one of these. Sob.

[Revrant2394 @ Feb 11th 2007 2:39AM]

Sheesh, I mean, I'm glad ATI might be kicking it's way to the top of the performance ladder with this, but what a BEAST, this is the kind of thing that would benefit greatly from BTX.

Hint Hint Mainstream PC Giants.

[ian @ Feb 11th 2007 2:41AM]

this is out of hand, ROHS is useless to help the environment if 2 cards in crossfire use the same amount of power as 24 compact fluorescents (20w CFL = 1500 lumens = 90w Incandescent)

this aka an entire house's worth of lightbulbs... ridiculous


I want low power video cards and i want them by 4th quarter 2007 !!!, being realistic of course :)

[Kevlar @ Feb 11th 2007 2:45AM]

This is like the fat bastard of video cards. It's unhappy because of it's power consumption, so it consumes power because it's unhappy. Guaranteed to make virtual earthquakes measuring 5 or 6 on the Richter scale with every drawn frame.
SELECT ^ FROM video-cards WHERE size > TOO BIG ... R600 returned.
Oh, and this thing apparently also has it's own area code, system of government, and gravitational field.
Yo radeon's so fat, it's thermal paste is cream cheese.

... OOOKAY. I think I'm done. Seriously, though, I want one.

[Kevlar @ Feb 11th 2007 2:51AM]

Oh, I forgot to mention, in the next Final Fantasy for the PS3, this thing will be one of those unlockable summons that is visible from space. It will deal upwards of 99,999,999 damage, and take several years of gameplay's worth of mana to cast.

I apologize for my statements in retrospect. May god have mercy on my soul.

[AndrewNeo @ Feb 11th 2007 3:06AM]

Well, it'll fit in my case... now all I have to do is save for it!

[KGM @ Feb 11th 2007 3:08AM]

Come on, where are the photoshops of this thing like the NVIDIA debacle of a few years ago?? I want to see photoshops of this humonguous thing acting as a vacuum cleaner, road debris cleaner etc among other things. :-D

[Loren Sonnenberg @ Feb 11th 2007 4:26PM]

This thing does suck up a heck of a lot of power, but it's not that long - the retail version is going to be .75 inches longer than an 8800GTS, but a full inch shorter than Nvidia's 8800GTX - right smack dab in the middle of the competition. I wonder how long the 8600Ultra will be...

[bl0nde @ Feb 11th 2007 5:43AM]

But can it run Crysis?

[Karl @ Feb 11th 2007 10:34AM]

This thing could eat Crysis. Literally.

Didn't they redesign the R600 to make it smaller? Is the picture before or after that was done?

[earth @ Feb 15th 2007 8:09PM]

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[bamboo @ Feb 11th 2007 7:27AM]

You guys didn't read very well. The crazy long one is the OEM model. You don't have to worry about if it will fit in your case, only OEM's like DELL will. You will be buying the 9" retail model which is shorter than the Nvidia 8800 (that card has a big problem fitting into a lot of cases with modding the case.)

[Zadillo @ Feb 11th 2007 12:15PM]

But don't a lot of the retail video card companies essentially just take the OEM model and slap their own logo on it and sell it anyway? Seems like it could still be a concern.

[Bizzle @ Feb 11th 2007 4:40PM]

This is NOT the RETAIL.
Shame about PSU requirements though.

[daniel.ray @ Feb 11th 2007 10:52AM]

Video cards are out of control! How is it that everything else keeps getting smaller and more efficient, while these things keep groing like a Trapper Keeper from South Park. Next time you go to upgrade your video card, be prepared to hear that creepy voice, "What are you doing, Kyle?"

[paul34 @ Feb 11th 2007 1:41PM]

ok, seriously, this has to stop. These video card companies (or at least their engineers) are not advancing technology.

They need to concentrate on making existing technology more efficient, not just going brute force and increasing size and power requirements to disgusting levels.

this is a big reason I gaveup PC gaming a long time ago. Too expensive, too ridiculous to keep up with. It's sad, really.

now I just play OpenArena...

[BlessedBullet @ Feb 11th 2007 5:04PM]

I'm starting to feel like a tool trying to keep my PC up to date for gaming.

[WedgeTalon @ Feb 11th 2007 5:08PM]

I think someone's been chatting with the guys responsible for this:

http://www.3dsystem.ru/images/chipsets/3dfx/voodoo5f/voodoo56000.jpg
http://www.3dsystem.ru/images/chipsets/3dfx/voodoo5f/voodoo56000b.jpg

[Picky @ Feb 12th 2007 1:35AM]

This is awful. This is why I am glad that my last PC would be my final gaming PC until graphic's card manufacturers realize what they are doing.

It's not worth buying a $500 card that can likely hardly push graphics similar to a Xbox 360 or PS3 (not because of its hardware, but because PC gaming has to develop for some lowest common denominator) and when it finally does for most games, then it will be time to upgrade again.

On top of that, it literally increases your power bill and generates lots of heat (aka, wasted power).

[Ratteler @ Feb 12th 2007 2:28AM]

Let me know when they have good Linux Drivers. Otherwise.... Yawn.

[FunnyBoy @ Feb 12th 2007 10:57AM]

A big black 12.4 inch video card penis attacking virgin computer cases!?!?!?!?!?!? :D

[nowhereman31388 @ Apr 18th 2007 7:37PM]

the 12.4 inch is the OEM version that will ship with prebuilt pcs. the retail version will be 9.5 inches. a much needed relief for "virgin" computers.

[Steve @ Feb 13th 2007 1:06AM]

This should have had a stop put to it a looooong time ago. Anybody who'll fork over $500-$800 for a gaming card needs to be taken out to the shed and beaten to death with a shovel.

[nightshade15 @ Feb 15th 2007 9:47PM]

Good thing I bought mine for $450 3-4 years ago. :-)
AGP x850 PE 256mb GDDR3

[joe @ Mar 10th 2007 11:08PM]

Of course itll fit, you just cant have a hard drive and youll have to replace your cpu with a hampster wheel, Im not really worried about it fitting.

Im worried about the cost, do you have any idea how much ddr 3 and 4 costs???? 1 gig of ddr4 is gonna put this card right at 1,000.00 dollars. Especially since they have paid so many people to work on this for so long, theyre gonna have to jack up the cost to pay off development costs. Im going to be a computer and electronics engineer, and they make good money