Speed envy? AMD debuts the ATI Radeon HD 4800 series, the world\'s fastest graphics solution. Image: AMD.
These days, a press release just isn’t a press release unless it’s got monumental claims plastered all over it, which is a prerequisite perfectly encapsulated by the latest release from AMD. Moreover, according to the world’s second-largest chipmaker, its new ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 is the “world’s fastest” graphics card.
Described as pushing visual computing performance ever closer to realising “eye-definition” gaming and cinematic experiences, the heavily muscled ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 arrives offering deep-pocketed enthusiasts access to a massive 2.4 teraFLOPS of processing oomph.
And, not alone in providing prospective consumers with “blistering performance,” the flagship HD 4870 X2 is also joined by the not-quite-as-stunning but more pocket friendly ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2.
Based on an advanced 55nm design and providing support for DirectX 10.1 and ATI CrossFireX, AMD is positioning its new GPU entrants for providing users with engineering elegance alongside the industry’s most compelling feature set.
Making up AMD’s 4800 X2 series of graphics solutions, both the 4870 X2 and 4850 X2 cards combine two ATI Radeon HD 4800 GPUs with a more advanced cross-GPU connection built on the PCIe 2.0 standard.
Clocked at 750MHz, the 4870 X2 offers up 2GBs of GDDR5 memory, while the 625MHz 4850 X2 musters 2GBs of GDDR3, which combine to emerge as the largest memory capacities currently available on consumer graphics cards.
“The ATI Radeon HD 4800 X2 series is proof that our graphics strategy is working,” enthused Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager of AMD’s Graphics Products Group, who was also keen to stress the “incredibly positive” response the 4800 X2 has received from OEMs, game developers, system integrators and games consumers.
“Now, only a few short weeks after the launch of those products, AMD reclaims the ultimate performance crown and continues to deliver winning products to market in the ATI Radeon HD 4800 X2 series,” he added.
AMD explains “eye-definition” computing as “the art and science of achieving visual computing experiences that seem optically real,” which it contends is the goal of its 4800 X2 series. That ambition and drive was put to the test yesterday in New York, where AMD demoed its new GPUs for members of the computer software and hardware development community.
“AMD has regained the graphics performance crown with this launch,” said Patrick Cooper, director of Product Planning at enthusiast specialist Alienware. “The ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 is what gamers have been waiting for -- blistering performance in DirectX 10.1 games backed by stable drivers for great scaling in ATI CrossFireX mode.”
One of AMD’s showcased “optically real” features arrived in the form of Cinema 2.0, the fusion of digital people, places and things, all rendered with real-time interactivity. During the demo, a virtual actor was rendered in real-time “in perfect, lifelike detail, via the incredible processing power” of the 4800 X2 series.
Clearly impressing AMD’s customer base, the likes of ASUS, Force3D, MSI and VisionTek are already in the process of building high-performance versions of the new ATI Radeon HD 4800 X2 line.
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