Beyond3D take a look at the performance of the new Radeon X800 XL board
As the specifications show, the configuration of R430 actually appears to be exactly the same as the higher cost R423 and R480 chips, however it saves cost on the process used. Whilst the R423 and R480 are based on the 130nm low-k process R430 uses the lower cost 110nm process, which is an optical shrink of TSMC's 130nm process. Using 110nm reduces cost in two ways as it both lacks a higher cost low-k option and by using a smaller process more die can be produced per wafer, which reduces the cost to produce each chip; the trade-off being that without low-k, as the higher performance parts use, top end clockspeeds will be constrained in comparison.Read more
