The market recently discovered a potential security vulnerability that could impact AMD's Catalyst software package. After immediate investigation, AMD determined that a small section of code from one of the files in our installer package is potentially vulnerable.
The AMD plan is to provide a new ATI Catalyst package no later than Monday, Aug. 13, 2007, that resolves this vulnerability. We strongly recommend that desktop ATI Radeon graphics users update to Catalyst version 7.8 once it is available here.

AMD and Microsoft are also investigating additional distribution channels for this update. This vulnerability was not exclusive to AMD.

An unpatched flaw in drivers from ATI creates a means to smuggle malware past improved security defences in the latest version of Windows and into the Vista kernel.

Microsoft is working with ATI on an update which security watchers warn might be far from straightforward to roll-out.

According to a roadmap released by Hardspell AMD is not only planning to switch graphics card development to DirectX 11 but also to release the third generation Opteron platform in 2009.
AMD also indicates that in 2009 the notebook platform will provide supports for DirectX 11 while the RD8XX symbol may indicate that AMD's new DX11 GPU will be called the R800.

A bug which has recently been known to exist in AMD's diagnostic and validation software is responsible for allowing defective ATI Radeon HD 2400 and 2600 graphics cards to slip into the market.
The problem was an error in the BIOS application process and although it can be easily solved by reapplying the BIOS the defective cards need to be returned to the makers to be restored.
AMD responded that Radeon HD 2400 and 2600 chips are throughly inspected before being shipped to graphics card makers. This was an isolated incident and measures were taken to solve the issue as soon as it was detected, the company said. However more than 30.000 units have already been recalled from the market although it is believed that many more are still out there.

According to the guys over at Chilehardware, ATI is preparing the HD 2900 Pro graphics card, which should hit the market in Q4 2007. The new card uses the same R600 core as HD 2900 XT and must fulfil the gap between NVIDIA's 8600GTS and 8800GTS 320MB. The price should be close to USD $200. The main reason to believe that this card is reality is found in a recent beta driver.

"ATI Radeon HD 2900 PRO" = ati2mtag_R600, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_9403

AMD/ATI has released new Catalyst 7.8 BETA video drivers. Unfortunately there're no release notes for this release. Use at your own risk.

ATI Catalyst 7.8 BETA all OS

Advanced Micro Devices said on Thursday that even though its ATI Radeon HD 2000-series graphics chips family has experienced massive delays, the company is still positioned to deliver competitive graphics solutions to the market place. ATI, graphics product group of AMD, will concentrate on releasing DirectX 10+ graphics chips next year as well as on improving the multi-GPU technology. Unfortunately, not a lot of information is known about AMD's code-named R700 graphics product family. What was released was that the new graphics cores will support DirectX 10+ capabilities, PCI Express 2.0 interconnection, ATI Avivo HD video engine, universal video decoding (UVD), DisplayPort connector as well as ATI CrossFire multi-GPU technology. The new family of products will be produced using 55nm process technology, which is available already at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). If AMD does not delay the new graphics cards for some reason, like it always do, the new R700 family of chips may emerge in the first half of 2008.

Only a couple of days ago Shamino succeeded in managing to reach 25.733 using a pair of GeForce 8800 Ultras but it seems that it didn't take long for his record to be broken. Kinc took first place at the ORB and now holds both the 3Dmark 05 and 06 records. The new record is 25.867 points by using two ASUS Radeon HD2900XT's running in a CrossFire configuration alongside of an Intel QX6700 overclocked to 5029MHz. The HD2900XT's and the CPU were cooled with liquid nitrogen thus making it possible to overclock the GPU's to the awesome 1140MHz core while memories ran at 960MHz. AMD/ATI's Radeon 2900 XT now holds both the first and second place in 3DMark 05, and first and third in 3DMark 06. The thing is how long will it take for someone to use Liquid Nitrogen to cool a couple of 8800 Ultras thus beating Kinc's record ?

AMD/ATI is preparing to launch ATI Radeon HD 2000-series graphics cards for accelerated graphics port (AGP). As a matter of fact two of the main ATI partners, Sapphire Technologies and GeCube have already started to sell them. GeCube GC-RX24PGA2-D3 graphics card based on ATI Radeon HD 2400 Pro graphics processing unit (GPU) and with 256MB of GDDR2 memory onboard is currently available in some Tokyo, Japan stores, according to Akiba PC Hotline website. The novelty costs ¥11480 (about $95) and provides a very cost-efficient upgrade path for personal computers built three or more years ago. The Radeon HD 2400 Pro is fully compatible with DirectX 10 application programming interface, can drive large high-resolution displays and also features an advanced video engine. Apart from GeCube and Sapphire, Tul Corp. is also preparing ATI Radeon HD 2400- and 2600-series graphics cards for AGP systems under the PowerColor brand.

Consider the following scenario:

• You have a Windows Vista-based computer that uses a high-performance video card.
• This video card uses multiple graphics processing units (GPUs).

In this scenario, the computer's graphics performance seems to indicate that only a single GPU is being used. This problem occurs because the operating system does not forward driver-render requests to the secondary GPU. Microsoft issued today this hotfix (KB936710) which is strongly recomended for systems that are experiencing this specific problem. The patch applies to all Windows Vista 32/64-bit versions.


Hotfix KB936710 Microsoft SLI and CrossFire Windows Vista 32/64-bit

If you look at the current offerings from AMD/ATI, you can see that there is quite a large gap between midrange and high-end video cards. In contrast to the previous offerings, where the gap between X1950GT and X1950XTX was somewhat small, the Radeon 2900XT is easily two to three times as powerful as the Radeon 2600XT. Fortunately, AMD/ATI is planning to remedy this by developing the RV670. The current rumors say that it will be a 65nm chip, clocked similarly to the HD 2900, but with an unknown amount of ROP's, or TMU's. We should hear more about this chip in Q3, and if all goes well, it will be released by this Christmas.

AMD today announced the arrival of the ATI Radeon HD 2600 and ATI Radeon HD 2400 series, the mid-range and entry-level graphics processors in the ATI Radeon HD 2000 series. These next-generation graphics processing units (GPU) bring premium support for Windows Vista with feature-rich DirectX 10 graphics, and built-in multimedia functions for an immersive HD video experience on the PC.

ATI has updated the Catalyst display driver for all 9500 series and newer cards, taking the version number to 7.6. Numerous issues have been resolved, and there are also significant performance improvements for Half Life 2: Episode 1 and Dark Messiah Might and Magic when using a dual 2900 XT setup. Full release notes are available on the ATI website, with the download links as follows:

• XP 32-bit - download
• XP 64-bit - download
• Vista 32-bit - download
• Vista 64-bit download

Now that the HD 2900 is available we're all waiting for the mid- and low end parts. It seems Guru3D has found some pricing on dollarshops.eu. It seems prices are quite low.

Radeon HD 2600 series:

• Jetway Radeon HD 2600XT 512 MB DDR4 PCI-e DVI TVout €179,00
• Jetway Radeon HD 2600XT 512 MB DDR3 PCI-e DVI TV out €149,00
• Jetway Radeon HD 2600XT 256 MB DDR3 PCI-e DVI TVout €99,00
• Jetway Radeon HD 2600PRO 512 MB DDR2 PCI-e DVI TVout €89,00
• Jetway Radeon HD 2600PRO 256 MB DDR2 PCI-e DVI TVout €69,00

Radeon HD 2400 series:

• Jetway Radeon HD 2400XT 256MB DDR3 PCI-e DVI TVout €59,95
• Jetway Radeon HD 2400PRO 512MB DDR2 PCI-e DVI TVout €54,95
• Jetway Radeon HD 2400PRO 256MB DDR2 PCI-e DVI TVout €44,95

They should be available July 1st.

AMD has now started shipping the HD 2400 and 2600 GPUs to its add-in board customers, which should mean the final cards will be available from online retailers within a few weeks. The companies which AMD has started shipping to include AsusTek, Club 3D, Diamond Multimedia, GECUBE, Gigabyte, HIS, MSI, Palit, PowerColor, Sapphire and VisionTek. No final pricing has been given, but the HD 2400 series of cards will be aimed at entry-level consumers, whilst the HD 2600 cards will be ATI's mid range offerings. Below is a comparison of the HD 2000 series cards (including the mobility HD 2300).

Although this was posted in the forums a couple of days ago, there is now some more official news of the first ATI HD 2900 XT using GDDR4 memory that will be available for retail, as well as a few more places to purchase it. The card will initially be exclusively available from Diamond Multimedia, featuring 1GB of GDDR4 memory along with all the other 2900 perks such as built in HDMI and 5.1 surround sound. The card will officially be launched on 14th June, and the current list of retailers is as follows: Biohazard Computer Systems, Extreme PC, Falcon North West, Maingear, Memory Express, NCIX, Smooth Creations, Velocity Micro, Vigor Gaming, XI, ABS, Cyberpowerpc, Polywell, ibuypower and Canada Computers. Pricing is generally around $650, and most of those sites should accept pre-orders. Presumably this is essentially the HD 2900 XTX, as that was originally going to be the 2900 with GDDR4 memory, however the name is still XT - perhaps ATI has more to come in the HD 2900 series? At present this should be the most powerful ATI card.

ATI has released a new version 7.5 of their Catalyst software suit. This release of Catalyst introduces the following new features:

• DirectX 10 driver support for the Radeon HD 2900 XT (single card and CrossFire configurations) for Windows Vista
• Second Generation ATI Theater 650

Not a word about Radeon HD 2900 XT performance improvements in this release. Download the latest ATI Catalyst drivers from here.

The company website has the Radeon HD 2600XT listed in detail, while the Radeon HD2400 Series link is present but empty. Gecube opted for a special "X-Turbo2 Silent Fan" so the card may be clocked higher than default. No mention of actual clock speeds are made, but the card features 256MB GDDR4, Built-in HDMI (HD Video with 5.1 surround audio) and Dual DVI (2 Dual link, HDCP).

The following driver version 8.37.4.3 is provided as an update to the driver software that currently ships with the Radeon HD 2900 series products. The download file contains the display drivers and Catalyst Control Center. This driver applies to the following operating systems: Windows XP Home/Professional/Media Center Edition/Professional x64 Edition and Windows Vista 32/64-bit. For more information please refer to the release notes.

HIS - Hightech Information System Limited jumped the gun when preparing their website for the upcoming AMD R600 graphics cards. The following link leads to their online product presentation website for the HIS Radeon HD 2900XT 512MB GDDR3 VIVO PCIe and pretty much confirms nearly all the rumors we heard about this particular chip during the last few weeks and months.

IMAGES AND INFORMATION REMOVED AT REQUEST OF HIS

The title speaks for itself. DailyTech has managed to run through some benchmarks with the ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT 512MB graphics card. The tests were conducted on an Intel D975XBX2 BadAxe2, Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 and 2x1GB DDR2-800 MHz. The operating system on the test system was Windows XP, with a fresh install before benchmarking each card. Testing of the AMD ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT was performed using the 8.361 Catalyst RC4 drivers, while the GeForce 8800 GTS used ForceWare 158.19 drivers. All game tests were run with the maximum detail settings at resolutions of 1280x1024.The ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT is expected to be widely available in mid-May, with a suggested retail price of $499.

The Chinese PCINLIFE got hold of some pictures and information regarding AMD's mid range card HD2600XT. The pictured card is said to have 256MB of memory, a maximum power consumption of around 80W and full HD capabilities.

Fudzilla claims that the Radeon HD 2900 manages an impressive 102.4GB/s memory throughput. The card uses a 512 bit memory interface and 1600 MHz GDDR3 memory. The core was clocked at 800 MHz. For comparison, NVIDIA's G80 with its odd 384 bit memory controller scores 86.4 GB/s.

The new HD 2900 XTX with GDDR 4 memory clocked at 2200 MHz, as originally planned, can theoretically have 140.8 GB/s. Both cards have twice or close to twice more memory bandwidth from ATI's Radeon X1950XTX card. This card was limited to a now modest 64GB/s.

Editors note: The NDA on the R600 makes it impossible for anyone to release accurate benchmarks of the R600. In fact, the NDA is so strict, we'll be lucky if the leaked R600 pictures have any accuracy. The theoretical memory bandwidth was attained by simple math: 512bit * 1600MHz / 8bit = 102.4GB/s.

AMD/ATI has released new official drivers for ATI based video cards. This release of Catalyst has improved OpenGL performance under the Microsoft Vista operating system for all Radeon X1000 series of products, in both single card and hardware CrossFire configurations. Typical improvements of 15% or more can be seen in games such as Doom 3, Quake 4 and Prey, with enthusiast class of products seeing improvements of 30% or more. This release of Catalyst also adds the Avivo Video Converter for Windows Vista (32-bit). Head over the AMD/ATI download section and select the proper Catalyst driver for your operating system and video card.

More Radeon HD2900XT benchmarks - Crysis demo and 3DMark06 again - Update

Another day another benchmark score and this time again from a Turkish website. BilgiUstam got some results for 3DMark06 and for the first time from another application: a Crysis demo. They compared the Radeon HD2900XT to a GeForce 8800GTX on the same test platform.

Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6800
Asus P5W DH
2×1GB PC2-6400 (5-5-5-12)
Western Digital Raptor 150To sum it up: While the G80 card was faster in the theoretical benchmark 3DMark06, the R600XT outperformed the G80 card everytime by a slight margin in the Crysis tests.

Update: Here we have some more screenshots from PCINLIFE showing how the R600 card performs in 3DMark06 using 1280x1024 and 1600x1200 as resolution. This time the test platform was powered using an Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 (2x 2.40GHz) and 2GB of RAM. OS was Vista Ultimate together with the ATI Driver 8.351. The whole system managed to get 9685 3DMarks at the 1280x1024 res and 8756 3DMarks at 1600x1200. Not that bad considering the rather slow CPU.
The last shot is from the same setup now with 8x Antialiasing and 16x Anisotropic Filtering enabled. Sadly you can only guess the whole score because the first digit was painted over.

I hope that everyone who is reading this and the other news posts regarding the R600 performance numbers is judging on it with a good portion of common sense. The final cards aren't on the market and the Non Disclosure Agreement wasn't lifted yet.