M98: Fastest Mobile GPU spotted in the Wild

The guys over in the east (PCPop) side of the world seem to have gotten their hands on the new upcoming Mobility Radeon 4800 series GPU (M98). Last month, we reported that AMD scored a significant amount of design wins with this GPU. Back then we had our doubts about its launch being before the back-to-school season starts and leaks like this
definitely hint towards things being closer to introduction.

The Axiom package (pictured), seems to be sporting Qimonda GDDR3 chips rated at 1GHz. The GPU is clearly marked as M98 and it is already in the process of PCI-Express certiciation. Also note that the M96 is probably the Mobility 4600 Series, whose desktop sibling will be launching in September. Looking at the production code, this sample was produced quite early; 18th week of this year and hence also marked as 'ENG' for Engineering sample. Last interesting bit to note is that the GPU is marked M98XT meaning that this could be the high-end mobile part for now, given 4870's higher TDP ATI may need some more time to balance it's performance/power. (And there is always the option of XGP to fall back on)

In terms of performance, the GPU will easily be the fastest Mobile GPU on the scene as Nvidia's current flagship Mobile GPU is the 112 SP (Shader processor) 9800M GTX. Given these GPUs have the similar configuration to their desktop siblings (8800GT v 4850), this duel will end up ATI being ahead by 20-40%. ATI needed to reclaw its way back into the mobile space where Nvidia gobbled up its market share; three years ago ATI was sitting pretty at 27% and Nvidia was fighting for 18% marketshare, the current situation is almost opposite with ATI at 18% and Nvidia at 24%. Looks like is ATI is finally capable to recouping its lost marketshare from Nvidia.

Stumble it!