The RD600, or CrossFire Xpress 3200 Intel Edition, is built off 90nm process technology and puts out a rather modest amount of heat, according to TweakTown. The chipset is quite a handsome overclocker, too. TweakTown managed to get its sample up to a stable front-side bus speed of 420MHz-an effective 1,680MHz if one takes into account the FSB's quad-pumped properties. At that speed, the 1.86GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 processor used for the test clocked in at a cool 2.52GHz, about half-way between the Core 2 Duo E6600 and E6700.

Not only this, but the big shock is RD600 was designed for the ground up to support not only DDR-2 but also upcoming DDR-3 memory. In fact, ATI has already fully tested DDR-3 memory on RD600 and it is working fine, months ahead of before it is due to be released for public consumption. ATI are ready for DDR-3 memory whenever it enters the market, which is likely after Q2 2007, according to our sources. Since DDR-3 memory uses a different slot to DDR-2, you won't be able to use new DDR-3 memory on current RD600 motherboards you buy this year or early next year. As well as the new memory slot, our friends in the bunker also told us that a new PCB design is required but it only requires a very small change to the internal circuitry - nothing too complex.

The motherboard we looked at last week was an ATI reference board named 'Marlin'. We're unsure of the revision number but we were told it was the latest reference version from ATI. In fact, we have been informed that motherboard makers have already started to receive the first versions of their RD600 retail boards and now they will spend a month or two tweaking the product and BIOS for maximum performance and overclocking support.