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I was just reading that the new 650 does not have the SiRF chip. Was going to wait for it to come out next month but am wondering if this will seriously compromise the ability of that new unit. Anyone have any ideas about that?

Where did you read this? I've been away from the net for about a week and haven't seen anything about it at all.

I noticed several recent introductions in the 200 and 600 series specify "Receiver: high-sensitivity WAAS-enabled GPS receiver" without indicating whether the chipset is provided by SiRF. It may just be a marketing change, as the top of the line Nüvi 680 has the same specification.

it might. it seems that garmin is dropping SIRF III's in favour of MediaTek MT3's all across their line. i'm happy i bought my 60csx when i did.
The MT3 has a lower sensitivity than the SIRF III but has an active antenna with higher bandwidth which can lock 32 sats instead of 20. power consumption is higher due to the active antenna which really sucks power but is lower for the chipset itself. Refresh rate is 5Hz instead of 1Hz which means faster updates and we can start using road garmins in airplanes. CEP is lower to 3m (from 7m) without waas 50% of the time. reaquisition time is ten times slower. basic stuff is unchanged like <18km, <515m/sec, <4G..same as the star iii.
so the bottom line is : it could be better or it could really suck. i'd wait till it hits the stores and you can try out the MT3 for yourself.

Zurk,

Can you provide links to info on this chipset and Garmin's adoption of it? I would be interested to find out more about it.