AMD launches ATI Radeon HD 4800 X2 series graphics cards 12 August, 2008 By Erin Bell

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The ATI Radeon HD 4800 graphics card series combines two ATI Radeon HD 4800 X2 series graphics processing units (GPUs) with a more advanced cross-GPU connection based on the PCIe 2.0 standard, and offers support for DirectX 10.1.

At a product showcase held this week in New York, AMD demonstrated the power of the ATI Radeon HD 4800 X2 series to deliver "eye-definition" computing, which is the art of creating digital interactive environments and characters that seem real to the human eye.

The first 4800 X2 series-powered eye-definition application, Cinema 2.0, is capable of rendering scenes and characters that seem optically real in a video game or cinematic context.

"The ATI Radeon HD 4800 X2 series is proof that our graphics strategy is working," said Rick Bergman, Senior VP and Genreal Manager, Graphics Products Group, AMD. "The response from OEMs, system integrators, game developers, press, and most importantly, from gamers regarding the ATI Radeon HD 4800 series products has been incredibly positive."

One of the most important niches AMD will be serving with the ATI Radeon HD 4800 X2 series is video game enthusiasts. The graphics card series provides support for ATI CrossFireX, which allows players to use all four GPUs in a dual ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 configuration for games that can run it, allowing three times the performance of a single card.

"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," said Patrick Cooper, Director of Product Planning, Alienware.

AMD is billing the ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 as the world's fastest graphics card. It features 2.4 teraFLOPS of processing power on a single card, and two gigabytes of GDDR5 memory. The card features two GPUs based on a second generation 55 nm (nanometer) design, clocked at 750 MHz, with a combined 1600 stream processors.

"Our gameplay experiences with the ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 were phenomenal, especially once we raised the antialiasing (AA) setting to high levels," said Brent Justice, Managing Editor, Enthusiast Video Cards, HardOCP. "Who would have thought we'd ever be seeing Oblivion at 2560x1600 with 24X AA?"

The 4870 X2's little brother, the Radeon HD 4850 X2, also features 1600 stream processors, as well as two GPUs clocked slightly lower at 625 MHz, and two gigabytes of GDDR3 memory (instead of GDDR5).

Companies building high-performance versions of the ATI Radeon HD 4800 X2 series products include ASUS, Club 3D, Diamond Multimedia, Force3D, GECUBE, GIGABYTE, HIS (Hightech Information Systems), Jetway, MSI, Palit Multimedia, PowerColor, SAPPHIRE Technology and VisionTek.

The ATI Radeon 4870 X2 is priced at $549 and available now, and the 4850 X2 will be available in September for an estimated price of $399.