Advanced Micro Devices announced Tuesday what it called “the world’s fastest graphics chip.” Its ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 delivers 2.4 teraFLOPS of graphics processing on a single card. Available Sept. 1., the HD 4870 is reported to consume less power at greater performance than competing single- or even some dual-card solutions, such as NVIDIA’s 9800 series.
“We have an advantage in terms of fabrication,” said Chris Hook, spokesperson for AMD’s ATI division. “The competitor’s best chip is a 65nm die cast, while ours is only 55. That’s like comparing a quarter to a dime. Because we’re smaller, we’re more energy-efficient and keep the fabrication costs lower.”
As a result, Hook said, AMD can continue to deliver lower-priced GPUs with less power consumption.
Benchmark tests by independent technical publications have confirmed the HD 4870 is the current GPU speed demon. With its CrossFireX multiprocessor support, the HD 4870 gives gamers the fastest rendering on the market, with markedly improved rates of anti-aliasing (eliminating artifacts which cause jagged edges), ATI says. Older games can be run at the new maximum of 24 times anti-aliasing, while new game developers now have the option of programming to such performance.
“Not only is the HD 4870 X2 faster, it is the only card on the market to support Direct X 10.1,” Hook said. “This gives character movement a much more lifelike, fluid representation.”
Microsoft revealed on Aug. 8 that Direct X 10.1 would require new hardware while retaining backward compatibility with Direct X 10.0 cards and software. Other new features of the DirectX 10.1 spec include mandatory coding requirements that may make software more dependable on 10.1 cards. There was no word on what features will be included in the next gaming driver spec for Vista, DirectX 11, and ATI would not comment on its support…