ATI Interview with Nils Horstbrink

Veridian3: How did you come to work for ATI?

Nils Horstbrink: After working for quite a number of years in the comparably slow moving mobile Telecommunications Industry, I looked for something more lively and I was lucky enough to find a position at ATI.
[As you can see, I have gone from one extreme to another…There is probably no other area in the High-Tech industry that moves faster than the 3D graphics market… :-)

Veridian3: What is the most enjoyable aspect of working for ATI?

Nils Horstbrink: The fact that things move and everyone at ATI is exceptionally capable and committed.
You can feel the energy of this company when you walk through the hallways.
It makes you move too…

Veridian3: How has the company changed since you joined and how do you think it compares to other companies in the same sector?

Nils Horstbrink: What can I say… I joined ATI about a year ago. Obviously it has been a very good and successful year for us. ATI has clearly demonstrated its leadership in this market. But I guess we’ve also learned a lot from some lessons from the past - nobody likes being second.

Veridian3: With regards to the 9800XT ? Why 412Mhz? It seems like a strange number for a core clock.

Nils Horstbrink: To determine the clock settings of a new chip, you have to find the sweet spot between stability and heat dissipation. A little like in the typical “overclocker” scenario, we run a very stringent series of tests in order to find the right clock setting that guarantees a level of stability that meets our quality requirements. In the case of the RADEON 9800XT, 412MHz was that sweet-spot. But we also found that there is a lot of potential in that chip. As a result, we developed an OVERDRIVE™™ feature that delivers an intelligent and controlled means for getting the most out of our chips without risking damage to the ASIC.

Veridian3: What is the main advantage, in your opinion, for users who are considering buying a ‘XT’ part over the previous generations ‘Pro’ part?

Nils Horstbrink: The RADEON™ 9800XT is an awesome product and is certainly faster than the RADEON™ 9800PRO version. But the RADEON™ 9800PRO is also an amazing, future-proof product and no current or upcoming title is a real challenge for it. So it will be tough for consumers to decide…but at least ATI has eliminated any chance of a bad decision ;)

It is more important for those who are currently thinking about buying a new board to look at what the future will bring. ATI’s RADEON™ boards continue to demonstrate how easily they handle new shader intensive games.

Veridian3: The cooler attached to the RADEON™ 9800 XT performs excellently. When designing it, were there any ideas that you liked which were not implementable? If so what were they and why?

Nils Horstbrink: Yes, we were thinking of implementing cool blue LEDs on the Fan… No, just kidding!!! Everything we wanted to get implemented got implemented. I am quite happy with the design!

Veridian3: When designing the cooler for the RADEON™ 9800 XT was a 2-slot design ever considered?

Nils Horstbrink: Yes, we did in fact consider a 2-slot design. When we originally looked at the possible different cooling solutions, we assessed the number designs that would have required the space of a second slot. But in the end, none of these designs had any major benefit over our final choice.

Veridian3: Can you confirm for our readers the warranty on the RADEON™ 9800 XT and how it differs from previous ATI cards, specifically if OVERDRIVE™ is used. (If in fact there is any difference in warranty terms at all).

Nils Horstbrink: No, there is no difference. As long as the OVERDRIVE™ control regulates the VPU speed, nothing in terms of warranty changes.

Veridian3: What do you consider to be the most important development in the desktop graphics card market in the last three years? And what do you think will be the most important in the next three years?

Nils Horstbrink: The introduction of the Shader technology was in my view the most important milestone in 3D graphics over the last few years. I really believe that there is still a lot of undiscovered potential in this technology. The upcoming Shader intensive DirectX™ 9 titles will give us a much better view of what is possible.

As far as the near future is concerned, I believe PCI Express will help us significantly in getting closer to a balance between the memory bandwidth requirements of graphics boards and what the “rest” of the PC can provide.

Veridian3: Do you feel that hardware innovation is beginning to outpace software implementation? For example Doom 3 is just beginning to use the full capabilities of the more recent cards.

Nils Horstbrink: Well, yes, I think Game Programmers are just beginning to get a feeling for the potential behind Shader technology. They’ve started scratching the surface…

Veridian3: We all know you can’t answer any questions on forthcoming products, but you know I have to ask this, is there anything you can tell us about products or ideas in the pipeline?

Nils Horstbrink: We will certainly continue to expand our product line to the next level. But thinking about your earlier question about hardware outpacing software, I guess that the Industry needs to give ISVs some time to breathe and a stable platform to work from.Until the next major DirectX release, I would not expect dramatic changes in terms of 3D functionality or features outside of the current DX9 specifications. But as far as performance is concerned, I’d predict some quite interesting changes.

Veridian3: Thanks Nils for taking the time out to answer questions for our readers, anything else you would like to say?

Nils Horstbrink: Just that it is always a real pleasure to discuss things with Zardon, you and the DriverHeaven Community. Many thanks for making interviews like this happen!