That ATI time line sucks ass for the Radeon based cards.It goes something like this
High End
1.ATI radeon (was the first card named this,but after 1999 with bad drivers they did this)
2,ATI radeon 8500 the updated radeon Not the start at 7500 bozo (this was late 1999 i remember buying my Voodoo2 and seeing it on the shelf)
Now 2000
High End And low end cards came
1,The infamous 9700
Low end
1,the infamous 9500 in early 2000
In the fall they upped the anti with
High End
1,9700 Pro
Low end
1,9500 pro
Now to the Spring of 2001
High end
1,9800 Pro
then the 9800 Xt with the 9600 xt at the fall release in 2001( Remember this and my 9600xt is copy right 2001) Was the release with the Black Box and Half Life 2 free (September was the month Valve had the server were the game was hacked.....All of us that bought the cards had to wait until 2003 for its release
After that ATI went for the holes with the renamed 9700-9500 cards with the 7500 and the 7500le SE
Then the x800 ,x1800 ,the x1900 ,AMD buys them out in 2004-05 And then they hurried the ill fated x2900 ,And they gained up with the 3870,3870x2,then the 4870 and 4850, not the 4850x2-4870x2 first like the article leads you to believe.