AMD Introduces the ATI Radeon HD 2000 Series for Desktop and Mobile Platforms

[malware]

AMD today introduced the ATI Radeon HD 2000 series, a top-to-bottom line of ten discrete graphics processors (GPUs) for both desktop and mobile platforms. This family of GPUs delivers The Ultimate Visual Experience through best-in-class immersive high-definition gaming and high-definition multimedia playback.


"We set out to create a family of products that would revolutionize the graphics market by introducing leading-edge technology at game-changing price points," said Rick Bergman, senior vice president, AMD Graphics Products Group. "We've delivered on this challenge, broadening the enthusiast gaming market so that more people than ever before have access to the phenomenal gaming and multimedia experiences that the ATI Radeon HD 2000 series introduces."

Superior Performance at Every Price
The ATI Radeon HD 2000 series of products introduces immersive DirectX 10 gaming enabling the next generation of visual effects at every price point. The line-up boasts many firsts for the graphics industry, including a powerful second-generation Unified Shader Architecture (USA), a 512Mbit memory bus designed for full performance high dynamic range (HDR) rendering, and new Unified Video Decoder (UVD) technology for high-fidelity HD multimedia playback. The mid-range and entry-level GPUs are the first graphics products in the industry to use an energy-efficient 65nm process technology to achieve silent, passive cooling, high performance and lower power consumption. The ATI Radeon HD 2000 series also builds on AMD's Windows Vista leadership. Having been the first graphics company to introduce a WHQL driver for Windows Vista, ATI Catalyst drivers continue to deliver industry-leading game compatibility and an extremely stable user experience in Windows Vista.

"This new family of GPUs from AMD delivers an immersive gaming experience for the next generation of games and applications for Windows Vista and DirectX 10," said Kevin Unangst, Global Director Games for Windows, Microsoft Corp. "Cutting-edge DirectX 10 games combined with the ATI Radeon HD 2000 series of products are ushering in a new era of gaming on Windows."

Immersive HD Gaming
The ATI Radeon HD 2000 series was designed to deliver compelling gameplay experiences never seen before in DirectX 10 games. The ATI Radeon HD 2000 series brings gamers astounding frame rates at all resolutions, advanced visual effects, and breathtaking realism for what AMD calls immersive HD gaming. The new cards were optimized for dynamic geometry acceleration, complex pixel processing and expanded non-graphical compute capabilities for more advanced characters and animation, more detailed environments, and more realistic real-world physics simulations. For gamers wanting even more horsepower, The ATI Radeon HD 2000 series also features native ATI CrossFire technology, opening the door for a wide variety of multi-GPU configurations and eliminating the need for any master cards.

"ATI Radeon HD 2000 graphics cards provide us with more than incremental speed increases," said Gabe Newell, co-founder and president of Valve. "Through the ATI Radeon HD 2000's performance and unified shader model we are able to create characters in real time that reach beyond anything seen in any game, and rival the characters seen in animated feature films. Gamers will be able to experience these advances later this year when Half Life 2: Episode Two, Team Fortress 2 and Portal will be made available through Steam to those who purchase a new ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT."

The Ultimate Visual Experience for HD Multimedia
In addition to gaming, the ATI Radeon HD 2000 series from AMD delivers the ultimate high-definition multimedia experience on the PC with improved visual fidelity afforded by ATI Avivo HD technology. Innovative UVD technology handles HD multimedia with ease, allowing consumers to watch the latest HD DVD and Blu-ray discs with incredibly fine image quality and smooth playback, all while consuming less power. With the energy efficiency of UVD technology combined with a 65nm process, the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2000 series allows notebook users to view an entire HD DVD or Blu-ray disc on a single battery.

Unique in the industry, the ATI Radeon HD 2000 series are the only discrete graphics products that offer a new simplified video and sound solution through HDMI, making it easy to switch between watching content on a high definition television and working at a monitor as only a single cable is needed for both video and audio.

"The ATI Radeon HD family of mobile processors satisfies the market's demand for both desktop-class processing performance and smooth multimedia performance on the go," said Manuel Linnig, Customer Marketing Division, Toshiba Europe GmbH. "With great stability and performance in Windows Vista, tremendous power management technology and leading gaming capabilities, these graphics processors will be exciting additions to Toshiba's next-generation PCs."

ATI Radeon HD 2000 Series Desktop Line-Up
Available immediately, the ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT is expected to be priced at an incredible USD $399 (SEP) including Team Fortress 2, Portal, and Half-Life 2: Episode Two from Valve. This price enables more consumers than ever to enjoy the best in discrete graphics.

Rounding out the family are the ATI Radeon HD 2600 and ATI Radeon HD 2400 series, bringing feature-rich DirectX 10 gaming and smooth multimedia playback to customers looking for entry-level and mid-range graphics options. The ATI Radeon HD 2600 and ATI Radeon HD 2400 cards is scheduled to ship in late June with pricing to be announced.

Numerous add-in-board partners including Asus, Club3D, Diamond Multimedia, GeCube, Gigabyte, HIS, MSI, Palit, PowerColor, Sapphire and VisionTek will offer ATI Radeon HD 2000 series graphics cards. System integrators worldwide, including Falcon Northwest, Maingear, Vadim, and Velocity Micro, will also be supporting the ATI Radeon HD 2000 series bringing gaming platforms to market.

ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2000 Series Mobile Line-Up
For unparalleled graphics performance on the go, the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2600 series combines the ultimate DirectX 10 gaming experiences with the graphics performance gamers demand in a high-end mobile system. Thin and light notebooks featuring ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2400 series can multitask with ease using the new Windows Aero interface, run the hottest upcoming DirectX 10 games or play exciting new HD DVD and Blu-Ray discs. Those in the market for a value notebook will enjoy great performance in Windows Vista and astonishing multimedia using the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2300. ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2000 products feature ATI Avivo HD technology and UVD to deliver outstanding HD DVD and Blu-ray disc playback, and ATI PowerPlay 7.0 power management for long battery life and optimized performance-per-watt operation.6

Notebooks from OEM partners including Acer, ASUS, Fujitsu, Fujitsu-Siemens Computers, Gateway, HP, LG, Packard Bell, Samsung, and Toshiba, and ODM whitebook partners including Arima, ASUS, ECS, First International Computer Inc., and MSI, will be available beginning in May.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[PVTCaboose1337]

Finally... YES!

 

[TooFast]

bs its slow and late

 

[erocker]

Lol, the guy who owns the nvidia card says "Finally, YES!!!" and the guy who owns the ati card is hatin? WTF is going on?!?!

 

[wiak]

at the price point its faster than nvidia geforce 8800 GTS
am just wating for XTX

 

[TooFast]

at the price point its faster than nvidia geforce 8800 GTS
am just wating for XTX

wake up! this is the xtx.

If you are wondering why ATI did not launch with the top end “XTX” GPU to compete with NVIDIA, well the reason is you already have XTX if you buy the XT. ATI simply could not get the power usage down into a reasonable envelope for retail sale.

So what they did is put cheap ass ddr3 and slap a nice price tag on it calling it the xt.
there will never be a xtx plain and simple. the r600 hit a wall.

 

[a111087]

wake up! this is the xtx.

If you are wondering why ATI did not launch with the top end “XTX” GPU to compete with NVIDIA, well the reason is you already have XTX if you buy the XT. ATI simply could not get the power usage down into a reasonable envelope for retail sale.

So what they did is put cheap ass ddr3 and slap a nice price tag on it calling it the xt.
there will never be a xtx plain and simple. the r600 hit a wall.

lies! lies! lol, I really hope this is not a truth although it is puzzling why they laid off xtx for later

 

[erocker]

I have a feeling this will be the x1800 of DX10. Plenty of potential, but the there are some bugs with drivers. Since AMD claims that they are working on the R650 and the R700 cores already, we could possibly see this card be replaced by the 2950 series by fall with hopefully a new xtx card and the rest down the line. I haven't heard anything about the G90 yet, but it will be very interesting what Nvidia does in the next couple of months. I would just love to see a price drop in the 8800 series.

 

[TooFast]

I wish it were lies. I love ATI.

 

[Easy Rhino]

I have a feeling this will be the x1800 of DX10. Plenty of potential, but the there are some bugs with drivers. Since AMD claims that they are working on the R650 and the R700 cores already, we could possibly see this card be replaced by the 2950 series by fall with hopefully a new xtx card and the rest down the line. I haven't heard anything about the G90 yet, but it will be very interesting what Nvidia does in the next couple of months. I would just love to see a price drop in the 8800 series.

this is exactly what im thinking. i own an x1800xt 512 which i love but this time ill wait a tad bit longer.

 

[Wile E]

Well, I said screw it, and am taking the risk. I just ordered the Powercolor HD2900XT. I'm banking that ATI will take the DX10 crown. (Hoping it will at least. Wish me luck. lol)

 

[Sh00t1st]

wake up! this is the xtx.

If you are wondering why ATI did not launch with the top end “XTX” GPU to compete with NVIDIA, well the reason is you already have XTX if you buy the XT. ATI simply could not get the power usage down into a reasonable envelope for retail sale.

So what they did is put cheap ass ddr3 and slap a nice price tag on it calling it the xt.
there will never be a xtx plain and simple. the r600 hit a wall.

You do know that the xtx is supposed to be a dual gpu video card dont you, so your completely wrong lol.

And whats with the haters lol, keep your hate to yourself and stop being fanboys

 

[d44ve]

You do know that the xtx is supposed to be a dual gpu video card dont you, so your completely wrong lol.

And whats with the haters lol, keep your hate to yourself and stop being fanboys

sorry, no xtx.... its very well known

 

[anticlutch]

If one core uses close to 300w of power, imagine two...

 

[Protius]

i'll probly risk it myself

 

[2003CRF450GUY]

sorry, no xtx.... its very well known

Even if that is true this 2900 xt is the best price vs performance of any of the direct x 10 cards, the GTX will be out of my price range after I update my mother board CPU and memory however the 2900 xt IS in my price range. It may not be as fast as a 8800 GTX but it looks like it will have better image quality and a price that can’t be beat.

 

[TylerZambori]

Even if that is true this 2900 xt is the best price vs performance of any of the direct x 10 cards, the GTX will be out of my price range after I update my mother board CPU and memory however the 2900 xt IS in my price range. It may not be as fast as a 8800 GTX but it looks like it will have better image quality and a price that can’t be beat.

HOw is it better price/performance than this:

http://tinyurl.com/2alheo


PNY GeForce XLR8 8800 GTS / 640MB GDDR3 / SLI Ready / PCI Express / Dual DVI / HDTV / Video Card
for $360?

 

[Chewy]

yeah 8800gts is dropping in price, but I dont think it can come close to what a 2900xt can with overclocking.. all in all though it dont seem like theres much difference in the line ups of cards.. personal preference really... all the cards will go in the right price ranges - the gtx and ultra.. 2900xt is the pwnage in crossfire beating sli'd gtx's in most benchmarks... 2x 2900xt's > 2x 8800gtx in price and performance.

I'm still undecided I'll have to see where prices settle in Canada.. right now the gts 640 is 460$ and the 2900xt is 490$ canadian..

really though what matters is dx10 performance... and we wont be seeing any of that prob for a good while.. one game has been tested but its tweaked to work better with nividia (which is GAY how nividia pays off companys like that.. maybe I wont get a gts after all lol).

soon enough I will have a dx10 card. I thin I'll wait for some real dx10 benchies though.

PNY GeForce XLR8 8800 GTS / 640MB GDDR3 / SLI Ready / PCI Express / Dual DVI / HDTV / Video Card
for $360?

I hope thats a Canadian price, cause if its usd theres no way I would buy it over a 2900xt for just $40 more.. with better drivers/support.

 

[TylerZambori]

yeah 8800gts is dropping in price, but I dont think it can come close to what a 2900xt can with overclocking.. all in all though it dont seem like theres much difference in the line ups of cards.. personal preference really... all the cards will go in the right price ranges - the gtx and ultra.. 2900xt is the pwnage in crossfire beating sli'd gtx's in most benchmarks... 2x 2900xt's > 2x 8800gtx in price and performance.

I'm still undecided I'll have to see where prices settle in Canada.. right now the gts 640 is 460$ and the 2900xt is 490$ canadian..

really though what matters is dx10 performance... and we wont be seeing any of that prob for a good while.. one game has been tested but its tweaked to work better with nividia (which is GAY how nividia pays off companys like that.. maybe I wont get a gts after all lol).

soon enough I will have a dx10 card. I thin I'll wait for some real dx10 benchies though.




I hope thats a Canadian price, cause if its usd theres no way I would buy it over a 2900xt for just $40 more.. with better drivers/support.

Well this GTS 640 is $360 not $460.

I don't play games and I don't overclock, but I want intense graphics.

 

[waspman3372]

Im going nowhere now!!

I just got this HIS X1650XT TURBO which replaced my 9600se series and it's gonna be awhile til I switch again.Anyway that'll allow the price to come down some along with any bugs it may have in there.Lets hope it has more success than the VISTA on that end...GARBAGE!! WASP

 

[GLD]

One thing that gets my goat, with all the wait for the new ATi cards, is that there was supposed to be the whole range (2400/2600/2900) available at launch. Since the launch I have read it isn't untill late June that the 2400's & 2600's will be on the shelves. WHAT?
The other thing that gets my goat is the memory bus on the cards. It goes 64bit/low, 128bit/mid, and 512/high. WHAT? The midrange card ($200 range) has only a 128bit memory bus and then skips all the way up to 512bit for the high end cards. Where is the 256bit bus mid range cards?

I hope these suckers earn their keep with DX10.

 

[yogurt_21]

One thing that gets my goat, with all the wait for the new ATi cards, is that there was supposed to be the whole range (2400/2600/2900) available at launch. Since the launch I have read it isn't untill late June that the 2400's & 2600's will be on the shelves. WHAT?
The other thing that gets my goat is the memory bus on the cards. It goes 64bit/low, 128bit/mid, and 512/high. WHAT? The midrange card ($200 range) has only a 128bit memory bus and then skips all the way up to 512bit for the high end cards. Where is the 256bit bus mid range cards?

I hope these suckers earn their keep with DX10.

damn you're right, at least nvidia goes from 384 to 320 to 128, ati skips straight from 512 to 128 bit mem. lols

thats a major overlook there, a 256 bit card with half the shaders is hardly goign to threaten their highend cards. and 256-bit mem should be pretty cheap and easy to do. lols

 

[Ketxxx]

Blah blah blah.. just gimme a pricing table.

 

[WarEagleAU]

Benchies Please~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Wile E]

Benchies Please~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Check Alcpone's 3dMark thread for mine.