Gizmodo: ATI Radeon 2400

ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 Previewed: ATI's Fastest Single Graphics Card Ever

matt buchanan — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 16:40:00 EDT

ATI fanboys, your time may have come with the R700-based Radeon HD 4870 X2. It's a $500 multi-GPU card that basically straps together a pair of Radeon HD 4870s with 2GB of onboard memory to create ATI's fastest single card ever. (It's not your imagination, they're really stepping with the Nvidia-killing, which is sweet.) Benchwise, it actually beats Nvidia's monster GeForce GTX 280 running in SLI in a couple of games, like Age of Conan.

One of the most fundamental changes in the R700 cards—which are two RV770s with a PCI Express switch connecting the the two and double the memory—is that the GPUs actually communicate with each other, whereas past CrossFire configs had both cards basically rendering their own sections independently, then combining them. AnandTech says it's not entirely clear how much communication there will be, but there will definitely be more than there was. Also, the drivers still need to come up to spec to let the card truly shine, but the hardware is totally in the right place. [AnandTech]

ATI's Nvidia GeForce GTX 280-Killer Is Water-Cooled, Super-Powered

matt buchanan — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:00:00 EDT

ATI's probably pretty mad Nvidia stole some of the excellent mid-range Radeon HD 4850's thunder by dropping the GeForce 9800 GTX+ for a mere $30 more. So they're hitting back with a special Radeon HD 4800 card designed solely for the crushing of Nvidia's top-of-the-line GTX 280 graphics card in pure performance.

Code-named "Super RV770," it has pre-installed water-cooling and an unlocked BIOS so you can push the core speed to 950MHz (maybe beyond 1GHz) with a memory bandwidth of 150GBps, even more than the GTX 280.

Diamond's Radeon HD 4870 XOC Black Edition (which launched today for Smooth Creations' build-to-order gaming PCs) is actually the first "Super RV770" card, though it's not clocked quite as high as AMD's super spec. TG Daily expects announcements from other ATI partners like Asus and Sapphire to be coming up shortly. Of course, this is all talk 'til we see some benches. [TG Daily]

Mid-Range Graphics Card Showdown: Nvidia 9800 GTX+ Slides Past ATI Radeon HD 4850

matt buchanan — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 16:59:00 EDT

Poised and waiting for ATI's latest graphics card to hit, Nvidia immediately fired off the 9800 GTX+, a nimbler version of its behemoth 9800 GTX, aggressively priced at $229 to put serious pressure on the $199 HD 4850. Benchmarks comparing the two weren't available yesterday, but PC Perspective has 'em up now. In short, while the HD 4850 can mostly keep up with Nvidia's older, regular 9800 GTX, the steroid-injected 9800 GTX+ has enough juice to edge it out in almost every single benchmark. The Radeon HD 4850 has about a month on the shelf to itself before the 9800 GTX+ hits though. Check out PC Perspective for more graphs and numbers than your brain wants to deal with on a Friday. [PC Perspective via Engadget]

ATI Radeon HD 4850 Graphics Card Onsale Now

matt buchanan — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 12:59:00 EDT

With ATI's latest Radeon graphics card already getting benchmarked, I guess cardmakers decided it was silly to wait until June 25 for the official unveil—pretty much everybody is popping the Radeon HD 4850 right now—they're all over Newegg and assorted other merchants. Built on a 55nm process with 512MB of DDR3 memory running at 1986MHz and a clock speed of 625MHz, it's got ~~480 stream processors~~ (480 was old number, it's actually 800) and support CrossFireX up to four graphics cards. While the MSRP is $199, you can pick one up for about $174.99 after rebate. [Newegg]

AMD's Puma Platform Officially Pounces, But Can It Pwn?

Wilson Rothman — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 09:15:43 EDT

Today AMD officialized its Puma notebook platform—AMD Turion X2 Ultra dual-core mobile processors with ATI Radeon HD 3000 graphics—"for superior 3D performance and HD image quality, with industry-leading wireless for greater throughput and range." As we've noted in the past, it's a consumer-grade laptop play, and performance-wise it's aimed a bit lower than the upcoming but delayed Centrino 2 from Intel. But it's here and backed by Acer, Asus, Clevo, Fujitsu, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, HP, MSI, NEC and Toshiba. Odds are it will be an option on your next PC buying mission. Want to know more? Take a gander at the long-winded press release below.

AMD Delivers the Ultimate HD Visual Performance on the Go with Next-Generation Notebook Platform

Balanced Notebook Platform Achieves Superior 3D Performance and HD-Image Quality with Increased Energy Efficiency
TAIPEI, Taiwan —(Business Wire)— Jun. 4, 2008 AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced the availability of its next-generation notebook platform, delivering the ultimate HD visual performance and increased energy efficiency on the go. The platform features new AMD Turion(TM) X2 Ultra Dual-Core Mobile Processors with ATI Radeon(TM) HD 3000 Series Graphics for superior 3D performance and HD image quality, with industry-leading wireless for greater throughput and range. AMD customers overwhelmingly embrace the new platform, as evidenced by more than double the number of design wins compared to the last major AMD Turion processor introduction. These new notebook designs come from leading OEMs including Acer, Asus, Clevo, Fujitsu, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, HP, MSI, NEC and Toshiba.

This next-generation AMD notebook platform also serves as the foundation for new AMD Business Class, AMD GAME! and AMD LIVE!(TM) notebook solutions.

"AMD is uniquely positioned to deliver balanced platform solutions that tightly couple computing and graphics capabilities for a visually rich user experience," said Dirk Meyer, president and COO, AMD. "Our next-generation AMD notebook platform contains a host of interrelated innovations that together deliver enhanced business productivity and the ultimate in HD visual performance on the go."

Capitalizing on a Historic Market Shift

Consumers are now using their notebooks for more than just productivity, but also entertainment, such as enjoying and manipulating photos, watching videos and listening to music. Likewise, businesses are adopting Microsoft(R) Windows Vista(R) as well as applications that are more graphically intensive. Therefore, a notebook with robust graphics and video capabilities is essential to unlock the best possible experience.

"With the advent of Microsoft Windows Vista, its new graphics and multimedia features, as well as the applications that will be tailored to this operating system, discrete graphics have become a much more important part of the purchase decision," said Bob O'Donnell, Program Vice President, IDC. "With the transition from desktops to laptops, consumers and business professionals are not only seeking the portability and connectivity provided by notebook PCs, they are also unwilling to compromise on the features and performance needed to drive the latest generation operating systems and applications. This next generation of notebooks must deliver the graphics and video capabilities to address this requirement."

Superior technologies working together

As a part of the new platform, AMD today also announced a new notebook processor and chipset, which together deliver the ultimate in HD visual performance on the go. The AMD Turion X2 Ultra Dual-Core Mobile processor includes top enhancements including AMD Independent Dynamic Core Technology, a new mobile-optimized memory controller, and power-optimized HyperTransport(TM) 3.0. The new mobile AMD 7-series chipset, AMD M780G and AMD SB700, features integrated ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics and delivers support for Microsoft DirectX(R) 10. The integrated graphics deliver up to three times the 3D graphics performance of comparable competitor graphics and offer ATI Avivo(TM) HD Technology for smooth video playback in hi-def format.

Complementing the video capabilities to deliver a rich visual experience, the platform also offers the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3000 series discrete graphics, including the previously announced ATI Mobility Radeon 3400 and 3600 Series, and the new ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) 3800 Series, also introduced today. The 3800 Series delivers the highest levels of graphics performance in the ATI Mobility Radeon HD family, with support for PCI Express(R) 2.0, the only graphics processor with DirectX 10.1, integrated digital output support for HDMI, DVI and Display Port, and multi-monitor functionality with native support for up to 4 monitors for mainstream notebooks. When using notebooks with both integrated and discrete graphics, users can also benefit from ATI CrossFireX(TM) Technology, a feature of ATI Hybrid Graphics Technology designed to boost graphics performance up to 70 percent by running the integrated and discrete graphics together.

"Windows Vista enhances the overall performance and productivity of the personal computer, offers rich visual experiences and makes the digital lifestyle easier, safer, more entertaining and better connected than ever before," said Steven Guggenheimer, corporate vice president of the OEM division at Microsoft. "The next-generation AMD notebook platform provides optimized technologies that will provide an even richer visual experience for customers running Windows Vista and other graphically demanding applications."

Cutting-edge wireless connectivity, enhanced power efficiency

The next-generation AMD notebook platform also incorporates the latest in wireless connectivity technologies like 802.11 draft n and 3G from leading Better by Design technology partners including Atheros, Broadcom, and Ralink. These technologies provide superior range, faster data transfer and allow users to stay connected on the go.

"AMD and Broadcom are technology partners in the Better by Design program and share a common goal of helping our mutual customers create innovative, high-performance notebooks that deliver exceptional user experiences," said Thomas Lagatta, senior vice president, Global Sales, Broadcom Corporation. "The combination of our industry-leading Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and network interface controller solutions and the next-generation AMD Turion X2 Ultra Mobile Processor platform provides notebook users with a variety of ways to stay connected to the people and information that matter to them."

The next-generation AMD notebook platform also incorporates innovative power management technologies, including AMD Enhanced PowerNow!(TM) Technology and ATI PowerXpress(TM) Technology to maximize the efficient use of power for extended battery life. AMD Enhanced PowerNow! Technology provides independent and dynamic control of core performance, and the ability to shut off areas of core logic when not in use to preserve power. ATI PowerXpress Technology, in turn, provides the high performance of discrete graphics when plugged into a power source and dynamically switches to integrated graphics when unplugged, saving up to 90 minutes of battery life.

"We offer a wide range of price and performance options on our HP Pavilion notebook computers, while at the same time featuring multiple system configurations for users to choose from in order to meet their needs," said Kevin Frost, vice president and general manager, consumer notebooks, PSG. "HP welcomes the introduction of the AMD Turion X2 Ultra processor-based platform as it will add even greater visual performance, multimedia and power-efficient choices for customers."

Security and manageability features for SMBs

Business users increasingly are recognizing the need to support today's graphics-rich applications and operating systems in a more mobile business world. Small- and medium-sized businesses also recognize the ability of notebook PCs to increase productivity, and require improved security to prevent data loss. With designs that enable industry-standard security and manageability such as Trusted Platform Module and Enhanced Virus Protection(TM)(a), small- and medium-sized businesses will find the next-generation AMD notebook platform helps meet their needs.

AMD Next-Generation Notebook Platform Availability

Systems based on the next-generation AMD notebook platform and the AMD Turion X2 Ultra Dual-Core Mobile Processor and ATI Radeon HD graphics, are now available from OEM customers.

The AMD next-generation notebook platform press kit offers additional information and collateral material pertaining to this launch.

AMD at Computex

Click here to see more about AMD activities at Computex, including a live broadcast of the press conference, short videos from the show floor, a daily blog, photos and more.

About AMD

Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) is a leading global provider of innovative processing solutions in the computing, graphics and consumer electronics markets. AMD is dedicated to driving open innovation, choice and industry growth by delivering superior customer-centric solutions that empower consumers and businesses worldwide. For more information, visit http://www.amd.com.

(a) As part of a comprehensive security program, AMD strongly recommends enabling Enhanced Virus Protection (EVP) and using up to date third party anti-virus software.

(C)2008. AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, AMD Turion, and combinations thereof, AMD Enhanced PowerNow!, AMD Live!, Enhanced Virus Protection, ATI Radeon, ATI CrossFireX, ATI PowerExpress, ATI Avivo, ATI Mobility Radeon, ATI Hybrid Graphics Technology are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Microsoft, Windows, DirectX and Vista are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and other jurisdictions. HyperTransport is a licensed mark of the HyperTransport Technology Consortium. PCI Express is a trademark of the PCI-Sig. Other names are for informational purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners.

AMD is pleased to have support from leading OEM customers and wireless partners for the next-generation AMD notebook platform.

"Dedicated to delivering cutting-edge notebook designs, Acer strives to offer solutions that afford exceptional experiences for all customers," said Campbell Kan, executive vice president of Notebooks WW Acer Corporation. "Consumers today want the latest in multimedia and HD entertainment, while our business users need stable, powerful systems that help them to get the job done at work or on the road. With the next-generation AMD notebook platform with AMD Turion X2 Ultra processors, Acer can offer customers the latest notebook innovations, and we plan to roll out a number of new systems across Acer Aspire and TravelMate product lines."

"ASUS is always committed to bringing customers the most advanced technologies, and we are excited to be among the first to offer systems based on the next-generation AMD notebook platform," said Henry Yeh, General Manager Notebook BU-R&D Div.2, ASUS. "The platform's improved notebook performance, dynamic power coordination and new levels of graphics processing will enable us to deliver products that provide increased business efficiency, as well as enhanced video and multimedia experiences."

"Exceptional wireless performance is a must for consumers and professionals who want anywhere, anytime access to the Web and advanced applications, and a great user experience," said Ben Naskar, vice president and General Manager of Wireless Networking Business Unit, Atheros. "Our single-chip XSPAN Wi-Fi solutions and the next-generation AMD notebook platform with AMD Turion X2 Ultra processors are optimized for 802.11n performance and power-efficiency. As a result, users will benefit from a most satisfying mobile computing experience with significantly extended battery life."

"As a leading notebook manufacturer for 25 years, Clevo strives to flexibly and efficiently meet our notebook customers' individual needs, while offering the latest technologies and superior value," said Donovan Yeh, vice president of Strategic Marketing Center, Clevo. "With the unparalleled flexibility of the next-generation AMD notebook platform featuring AMD Turion X2 Ultra Mobile Processors, Clevo can deliver the 'on the go' application performance, power-efficiency and rich visual experience our customers demand."

"Fujitsu looks forward to working with AMD and plans to incorporate the next-generation AMD notebook platform into the next-generation Fujitsu products," said Akira Nagahara, general manager, Personal Computing Division, Personal Systems Business Unit, Fujitsu Limited. "The products will provide the improved graphics capabilities, fast wireless connectivity and long battery life of the next-generation AMD notebook platform, and this collaboration will allow Fujitsu to continue to offer PCs that exceed the demands of today's consumers."

"At Fujitsu Siemens Corporation, we are increasing our focus on technological innovation giving our customers real useful benefits with the introduction of our AMILO 3000 series of products. One of the areas that needed a better solution was the increased demand for multimedia and gaming capability in notebooks without sacrificing battery life," said Bjorn Fehrm, head of Strategy and Innovation Consumer EMEA, Fujitsu Siemens Corporation. "Our technological cooperation with AMD has produced really new and exciting solutions to this problem."

"To meet the rigorous multimedia demands and expectations of today's on the go consumers, MSI continually strives to offer a wide variety of notebooks that best meet our customers' specific needs, whether they are casual gamers, video fanatics or music lovers," said Larry Wu, Global Sales VP, MSI. "MSI plans to expand the Gaming (GT730, GX730), Entertainment (EX310) and Professional (PX210, PR211) Series of notebooks with the AMD Turion X2 Ultra Platform, affording exceptional flexibility to design and deliver systems that keep pace with our customers' needs and desires."

"We believe the next-generation AMD notebook platform is the most suitable platform for the multimedia environment of the next-generation PCs, particularly with its high performance on HD content playback capability," Sakae Takatsuka, senior vice president, NEC Personal Products, Ltd. "By fully utilizing this technology, we are planning to create user-friendly products by offering many more PC usage options. With the close collaboration with AMD, NEC is dedicated to the continuous technological innovation and the growth and enrichment of the PC market which will expand the boundaries of the benefits and excitement for our customers."

"AMD and Ralink continue to deliver superior technologies to OEMs, enabling a better notebook PC experience for users around the world," said Kenny Chiu, Vice President of World Wide Business Development, Ralink. "Ralink, a member of the Better by Design program, delivers wireless LAN solutions that enable large data transfers and the consistent reliability required by today's HD entertainment applications. Next-generation AMD notebooks featuring our RT2800 and RT2700 chipsets on the next-generation AMD notebook platform deliver faster wireless data transfers and HD image quality to improve visual performance from on the go."

"As one of the world's largest laptop manufacturers, Toshiba is always looking to stay ahead of consumer mobile computing needs and desires while delivering stable, affordable and high-performance systems for business users," said Mr. Hidejiro Shimomitsu, president and CEO of Toshiba's Personal Computer & Network Company. "With the addition of AMD's next-generation platform to our Satellite line-up, we continue to deliver innovative, powerful and power-efficient mobility to end users."

ATI Breaks Teraflop Barrier with Radeon HD 3870 X2 GPU

Wilson Rothman — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 10:07:26 EST

Remember that honkin' ATI graphics card we showed you at CES? The one that was 1,000 times as fast as a Cray-1? Well, it's official, making its debut today as the $450 ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2. It's the first GPU to break the teraflop barrier, and is nearly double the performance of the HD 3870 you spent all your money on back in November. Press release with technical details after jump. [Product Page]

AMD Delivers Enthusiast Performance Leadership(1) with the Introduction of the ATI Radeon(TM) HD 3870 X2
— Industry's First Teraflop Consumer Graphics Card Redefines High-Definition Performance for 1080P Gaming and beyond —
SUNNYVALE, Calif. —(Business Wire)— Jan. 28, 2008 AMD (NYSE:AMD) today announced the immediate availability of the ATI Radeon(TM) HD 3870 X2 graphics processor, expanding the visual boundaries of PC entertainment well beyond the 1080P High Definition (HD) threshold. The industry's first graphics processor to break the Teraflop (one trillion floating point operations per second) barrier, the ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 nearly doubles the performance of the award-winning ATI Radeon(TM) HD 3870 introduced in November 2007.(2)

Through an elegant yet aggressive design, the 55 nanometer process-based ATI Radeon 3870 X2 combines two ATI Radeon HD 3870s on a single graphics board, connected through integrated CrossFire(TM) technology. ATI Radeon 3870 X2 is also the first performance-leadership graphics product in the world to support Microsoft's upcoming DirectX(R) 10.1 technology. The ATI Radeon 3870 X2 delivers a new class of price and performance leadership with unbelievable enthusiast value at a suggested retail price of US $449.

This launch follows on the success of the recently released ATI Radeon(TM) HD 3400 and ATI Radeon(TM) HD 3600 series graphics products, completing a comprehensive portfolio of next-generation 55nm GPUs that deliver unparalleled price, performance and energy efficiency from entry-level to performance-leadership class products.

"PC gaming enthusiasts demand the ultimate in performance and scalability for their HD gaming experience and the ATI Radeon 3870 X2 sets the standard by which all should be compared in this segment," said Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager, Graphics Product Group, AMD. "With this launch we reaffirm our commitment to enthusiast performance leadership and send a clear message that the ATI Radeon 3870 X2 is the new gold standard of the PC gaming world."

Ultimate Performance

With the upcoming introduction of Microsoft's DirectX 10.1 specification, gamers can expect more realistic gaming environments while developers have access to an increased amount of tools and resources to enhance overall image quality. Through delivering top-to-bottom DirectX 10.1 support, ATI Radeon HD 3000 series users can enjoy a more complete gaming experience now and in the future.

"We're pleased to see our newest DirectX 10 technology brought to market so soon with the introduction of AMD's latest enthusiast hardware," said Kevin Unangst, senior global director of Games for Windows, Microsoft. "One of the greatest advantages of PC gaming is the rapid pace at which the experiences evolve and improve. ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 delivers on the promise of DirectX 10 gaming with significantly improved visuals and enhanced performance."

ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 will also provide support for ATI CrossFireX(TM), the innovative next-generation AMD multi-GPU technology designed to support up to four GPUs. Software support to enable ATI CrossFireX is planned for late Q1 2008.

Ultimate HD Experiences

With the launch of ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2, AMD continues to support the industry-leading Unified Video Decoder (UVD) and ATI Avivo(TM) HD for exceptional platform efficiency and image quality for H.264 and VC-1 high definition content. Enhanced HDMI functionality is also offered via integrated HDCP and audio for HDMI video.

"Alienware prides itself on staying at the forefront of HD gaming innovation so that our brand stands for the best possible experience for our customers," said Patrick Cooper, director of product group, Alienware. "With the launch of the ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 in our Area-51 ALX CrossFire platform, we can push the boundaries of visual realism one step further and provide enthusiast gamers with the perfect blend of next-generation features, performance and platform efficiency."

Ultimate Efficiency

The ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 is the first enthusiast graphics processors to use TSMC's 55nm process technology. The smooth transition to 55nm has allowed for a 2X increase in performance-per-watt over the previous generation. Through an elegant board design, the ATI Radeon 3870 X2 delivers exceptional acoustics that are roughly equivalent to a single ATI Radeon HD 3870. When combined with ATI PowerPlay(TM) technology, the ATI Radeon 3870 X2 delivers exceptional idle power efficiency with the ability to dynamically raise or lower GPU power depending on the usage scenario.

The ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 launches with broad availability and ecosystem support from AMD's Add-in-Board (AIB) and Systems Integrators (SI) partners. AIB partners building boards based on the ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 include Asus, ASK, Club3D, Diamond Multimedia, HIS, ITC, Jetway, MSI, Sapphire, Triplex, Tul and Visiontek. Systems integrators launching ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 series include ABS, Alienware, Canada Computers, CyberPower, Falcon-Northwest, iBUYPOWER, Maingear, Systemax and Velocity Micro.

About AMD

Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE:AMD) is a leading global provider of innovative processing solutions in the computing, graphics and consumer electronics markets. AMD is dedicated to driving open innovation, choice and industry growth by delivering superior customer-centric solutions that empower consumers and businesses worldwide. For more information, visit http://www.amd.com.

(1) Performance comparisons using ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 versus NVIDIA 8800 Ultra using 3D Mark 2006, Supreme Commander, Call of Juarez, BioShock and Unreal Tournament 3 at 2560X1600 on AMD Phenom 2.6GHz CPU, AMD 790FX chipset, 2GB DDR2-800, Windows VISTA 64bit and ATI Catalyst display driver v. 8.45

(2) Performance comparisons of ATI Radeon HD 3870 versus ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 using 3D Mark 2006, Supreme Commander and Unreal Tournament 3 at 2560X1600 on AMD Phenom 2.6GHz CPU, AMD 790FX chipset, 2GB DDR2-800, Windows VISTA 64bit and ATI Catalyst display driver v. 8.45

ATI Graphics May Be at the Root of iMac Freezing Issues

Sean Fallon — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 23:00:04 EDT

Apple's new iMac has been plagued by random—but reproducible for some—freezing issues, and it appears that the ATI Radeon HD graphics card and its drivers could be to blame. According to users participating in official Apple support discussions (here and here), the iMac continues to run during the freeze, but users are unable to control the programs with mouse clicks or keyboard commands without rebooting. Apple is apparently aware of the issue, but at this point, no official fix has been released. Some users have even reported that the latest round of video driver updates have made the problem worse, although there is no evidence to suggest that the problem is widespread. [Appleinsider and Tech.co.uk]

It's rumored that Apple is underclocking ...

Adrian Covert — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 19:08:02 EDT

It's rumored that Apple is underclocking the graphics cards in the new batch of iMacs. [TUAW]

ATI's Mid-tier Cards Bring HDMI and 1080p Support

Louis Ramirez — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 18:00:34 EDT

ATI's new Radeon HD 2400 and HD 2600 cards are hitting the streets today, bringing DirectX 10 and 1080p support to your desktop. The cards, which are clocked from 525MHz to 800MHz, range in price from $99 to $199. They also pack ATI's Unified Video Decoder, which helps decode high-def 1080p video. The cards are out now and will soon be available on pre-configured systems. Price-wise, they're not a bad way to give your system's graphics a kick. – Louis Ramirez

AMD Ships Radeon HD 2400, 2600 Cards [Electronista]

Sapphire's HD 2900 Toxic Kit Cools Your Entire System

Louis Ramirez — Mon, 21 May 2007 10:10:50 EDT

Now that ATI has unleashed its new video cards, Sapphire is stepping up to the plate with its forthcoming HD 2900 XT Toxic. The kit pairs two HD 2900 XT cards with a drive-bay-mounted water cooling system designed with its own reservoir, pump and radiator system. What's cool about the system is that it'll provide enough cooling to keep your video cards and your CPU from overheating (even if you decide to overclock the cards). Pricing hasn't been set yet, though the kit should be out in the next few weeks. – Louis Ramirez

Press Release [via IGN]

ATI Radeon HD 2000 Series Launched, from $99 to $399

Addy Dugdale — Mon, 14 May 2007 09:02:02 EDT

As expected, the ATI Radeon 2000 series have been launched, starting at less than $99 for the 2400 series, $99 to $199 for the 2600 series and $399 for the ATI Radeon 2900 XT. The new cards come with 65-nm GPU, 512-bit memory bus, second generation Unified Shader Architecture, new Unified Video Decoder for HD multimedia playback and obligatory DirectX 10 support.

Also as expected, none of the models come with the belly dancers that were at the AMD press event in Tunis. Too bad, because maybe that would have distracted us from the fact that the latest Radeon cards seem to get spanked by their NVIDIA counterparts, which apparently offer higher performance and lower consumption while compared to sample cards provided by ATI. In any case, you will find the belly dancer after the jump, along with complete official specs for the 2900 XT.

Belly dancers presenting the ATI Radeon 2000 Series in Tunis, for some reason. – Jesus Diaz

ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT
Features & Specifications

700 million transistors on 80nm HS fabrication process
512-bit 8-channel GDDR3/4 memory interface
Ring Bus Memory Controller
Fully distributed design with 1024-bit internal ring bus for memory reads and writes
Optimized for high performance HDR (High Dynamic Range) rendering at high display resolutions
Unified Superscalar Shader Architecture
320 stream processing units
Dynamic load balancing and resource allocation for vertex, geometry, and pixel shaders
Common instruction set and texture unit access supported for all types of shaders
Dedicated branch execution units and texture address processors

128-bit floating point precision for all operations
Command processor for reduced CPU overhead
Shader instruction and constant caches
Up to 80 texture fetches per clock cycle
Up to 128 textures per pixel
Fully associative multi-level texture cache design
DXTC and 3Dc+ texture compression
High resolution texture support (up to 8192 x 8192)
Fully associative texture Z/stencil cache designs
Double-sided hierarchical Z/stencil buffer
Early Z test, Re-Z, Z Range optimization, and Fast Z Clear
Lossless Z & stencil compression (up to 128:1)
Lossless color compression (up to 8:1)
8 render targets (MRTs) with anti-aliasing support
Physics processing support
Full support for Microsoft DirectX 10.0
Shader Model 4.0
Geometry Shaders
Stream Output
Integer and Bitwise Operations
Alpha to Coverage
Constant Buffers
State Objects
Texture Arrays
Dynamic Geometry Acceleration
High performance vertex cache
Programmable tessellation unit
Accelerated geometry shader path for geometry amplification
Memory read/write cache for improved stream output performance
Anti-aliasing features
Multi-sample anti-aliasing (up to 8 samples per pixel)
Up to 24x Custom Filter Anti-Aliasing (CFAA) for improved quality
Adaptive super-sampling and multi-sampling
Temporal anti-aliasing
Gamma correct
Super AA (CrossFire configurations only)
All anti-aliasing features compatible with HDR rendering
CrossFire Multi-GPU Technology
Scale up rendering performance and image quality with 2 or more GPUs
Integrated compositing engine
High performance dual channel interconnect
Texture filtering features
2x/4x/8x/16x high quality adaptive anisotropic filtering modes (up to 128 taps per pixel)
128-bit floating point HDR texture filtering
Bicubic filtering
sRGB filtering (gamma/degamma)
Percentage Closer Filtering (PCF)
Depth & stencil texture (DST) format support
Shared exponent HDR (RGBE 9:9:9:5) texture format support
ATI Avivo HD Video and Display Platform
Two independent display controllers
Drive two displays simultaneously with independent resolutions, refresh rates, color controls and video overlays for each display
Full 30-bit display processing
Programmable piecewise linear gamma correction, color correction, and color space conversion
Spatial/temporal dithering provides 30-bit color quality on 24-bit and 18-bit displays
High quality pre- and post-scaling engines, with underscan support for all display outputs
Content-adaptive de-flicker filtering for interlaced displays
Fast, glitch-free mode switching
Hardware cursor

Two integrated dual-link DVI display outputs
Each supports 18-, 24-, and 30-bit digital displays at all resolutions up to 1920x1200 (single-link DVI) or 2560x1600 (dual-link DVI)
Each includes a dual-link HDCP encoder with on-chip key storage for high resolution playback of protected content

Two integrated 400 MHz 30-bit RAMDACs
Each supports analog displays connected by VGA at all resolutions up to 2048x1536

HDMI output support
Supports all display resolutions up to 1920x1080
Integrated HD audio controller with multi-channel (5.1) AC3 support, enabling a plug-and-play cable-less audio solution

Integrated Xilleon HDTV encoder
Provides high quality analog TV output (component / S-video / composite)
Supports SDTV and HDTV resolutions
Underscan and overscan compensation

HD decode for H.264/AVC, VC-1, DivX and MPEG-2 video formats
Flawless DVD, HD DVD, and Blu-Ray playback
Motion compensation and IDCT (Inverse Discrete Cosine Transformation)

HD video processing
Advanced vector adaptive per-pixel de-interlacing
De-blocking and noise reduction filtering
Edge enhancement
Inverse telecine (2:2 and 3:2 pull-down correction)
Bad edit correction
High fidelity gamma correction, color correction, color space conversion, and scaling
MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, WMV9, VC-1, and H.264/AVC encoding and transcoding
Seamless integration of pixel shaders with video in real time
VGA mode support on all display outputs
PCI Express x16 bus interface
OpenGL 2.0 support

Product page [AMD]
AMD unveils ATI Radeon HD 2000 [The Register]

ATI 2900 XTX Falls at the Hands of GeForce 8800 GTX

Louis Ramirez — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 16:20:16 EDT

Yesterday we saw ATI's Radeon 2900 XT duke it out against the GeForce 8800 GTS (verdict: ATI stomped Nvidia). Today, however, the tables have turned as the GeForce 8800 GTX spanks the Radeon HD 2900 XTX (ATI's mac-daddy of video cards) back into submission. The gang at DailyTech put the two powerhouse cards up against each other, and surprisingly ATI lost by a decent margin on each test.

The 2900 XTX has the same core as the 2900 XT. The difference is in the memory: The XTX comes with GDDR4 memory. To be fair, the test results aren't a true indication of the XTX's final performance (considering it was a sample card), so hopefully the boys in red won't disappoint when the real deal comes through. – Louis Ramirez

ATI Radeon HD 2900 XTX, Doomed from the Start [DailyTech]

New ATI X2900 XTX Shames Nvidia 8800 to Second Place

Louis Ramirez — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 19:13:22 EDT

I like it when rumors jibe with each other, and the latest ATI rumblings seem to go hand in hand with the initial X2900 XTX leak we posted on last month. The difference is this time around the card has been benchmarked. So just as a recap, this is the card that could power those 8-core Macs we've been promised. It has an 800MHz core and a gigabyte of DDR4 memory. The folks at VR-Zone pitted it up against Nvidia's GeForce 8800 GTX and...

the Radeon zoomed by Nvidia's flagship, beating it 9700 to 9500 in 3DMark06. To geek out on how the card was tested, hit the link below. Otherwise all you gotta know is that it's expected to come out mid-April, around the same time as those new Macs. I like it when rumors jibe with each other. – Louis Ramirez

Retail R600XTX Pictured and Benchmarked [VR-Zone via Electronista]

ATI's Radeon X2800XT Brings Heavy Horsepower to Apple's Next Gen Mac Pros

Louis Ramirez — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 10:20:03 EST

So if the guys at AppleInsider are on the money, ATI's abnormally long X2800XT could be the graphics card to power Apple's rumored next gen Mac Pros. The red giant will feature 1GB of GDDR4 memory clocked at 2GHz while the card's core will come in at 800MHz. Basically that means it has the potential to eat Nvidia's overclocked 8800GTX for lunch. The card will also bring CrossFire technology to the Mac, so you'll be able to string two of these suckers together for maximum voltage. It's about time we get some heavy duty card options for the Mac. Better start saving now, though, as I'm sure this config won't come cheap. – Louis Ramirez

ATI Radeon X2800XT with CrossFire [via AppleInsider via CrunchGear]

ATI X1650 Challenges Nvidia 7600 to After-School Fight

Louis Ramirez — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 12:45:13 EST

The boys in red are at it again sicking their new Radeon X1650 XT card on Nvidia's GeForce 7600 GT. Both cards are mid range graphics cards capable of getting you through all of today's games (though not always at the highest settings) and the X1650 XT is ATI's somewhat tardy reply to the dominating 7600 GT. The X1650 XT comes with 256MB of DDR3 memory, HDCP support, and is CrossFire-ready, ditching ATI's dongle approach for a less obtrusive bridge connection. AnandTech was at the playground as both cards duked it out and had this to report. . .

The X1650 XT is a capable card, standing tall against the 7600 GT, but unable to give the 7600 GT the death blow, instead it kept falling a few frames shy of knocking the 7600 GT out in their gaming benchmarks. As a result, they ultimately gave the nod to the 7600 GT, which unlike the X1650 XT is already out in stores. But if you're not in a rush, the X1650 XT looks like it's worth the wait, if you can hold off till November and find it with a $150 price tag. – Louis Ramirez

ATI X1650 XT [via AnandTech]

ATI Radeon X1950 Pro: CrossFire for the Mid-Range

Jason Chen — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 16:13:42 EDT

Aimed at people who want great graphics performance without having to spend their entire month's rent on a card—and then spend next month's rent on his twin brother. Starting at $199, the X1950 has ATI's CrossFire technology so you can enable CrossFire without using an actual CrossFire Edition card.

The card uses the R540 chip, and goes directly into competition with nVidia's GeForce 7900 GS in the medium-range market. Similar to nVidia's setup, the cards have two internal connectors to link the pair, and is flexible enough to allow for different spacing among different motherboards. There's also HDCP compliance so you can watch the locked-down "entertainment" studios are feeding you these days.

Best of all, the X1950 works with Stanford's Folding@Home beta client which produces around 20 to 40 times as many work units as a CPU. Get your game on and do medical research at home. Nice. – Jason Chen