Sources close to ABIT Computer confirmed a shift in the company"s strategy and intention to produce graphics cards based on processors from ATI Technologies and eXtreme Graphics Innovation early next year. Bjorn3D.com and NVision.pl web-sites recently reported that ABIT is very likely to jump on ATI Technologies" bandwagon in Q1 2004 with RADEON 9600 XT and RADEON 9800 XT graphics cards featuring ABIT"s powerful and noisy OTES cooling solution. Sources of X-bit labs confirmed the information about ABIT"s plans to manufacture Powered by ATI RADEON cards as well as products based on XGI graphics chips.
ABIT Computer has always been a close partner of Santa Clara, California-based NVIDIA Corporation, who supplied GPUs as well as nForce and nForce2 chipset products – two Socket A chipsets adored by hardware enthusiasts – to the mainboard company. Even though ATI"s high-end visual processing units have been more powerful and successful than NVIDIA"s expensive GPUs launched in 2003, ABIT did not changed its graphics partner, as the company did not produce graphics cards in very high quantities and there was no point to establish partnerships with two or more companies developing visual technologies. Therefore, ABIT is probably going to perform some changes in its strategy, as three suppliers of chips for graphics cards may be a result of plans to significantly increase graphics cards production.
Normally, companies who utilize both chipsets as well as graphics processors from NVIDIA have some benefits in working with the company. However, the sources reckon that ABIT was not among the first Taiwanese hardware makers to receive GPUs from the Santa Clara, California-based chip designer. As a consequence, ABIT was relatively late to market with its GeForce products