AMD Delivers World's First TeraFLOPS Graphics Chip
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AMD Delivers World's First TeraFLOPS Graphics Chip

SUNNYVALE, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—June 24, 2008— AMD (NYSE:AMD) today achieved two world firsts in visual computing: the launch of the first teraFLOPS graphics card, the ATI Radeon HD 4850, and the launch of the first graphics card featuring ultra high bandwidth GDDR5 memory, the ATI Radeon HD 4870. These two innovations combine with trademark AMD energy-efficient design and powerful DirectX® 10.1 compatibility to deliver superior performance at the high-volume mainstream and performance price points. Both the ATI Radeon HD 4850 and ATI Radeon HD 4870 are immediately available.

The ATI Radeon 4800 series represents a 2X performance jump over the ATI Radeon HD 3800 GPU, the biggest generational increase since the game-changing launch of the Radeon 9700 in 2002, said Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager, Graphics Products Group, AMD. AMD made a strategic decision to focus on GPU designs that maximized our efficiency and allowed us to provide enthusiasts, performance and mainstream users with the most compelling value proposition at every price point. The ATI Radeon 4800 series sets a new industry standard in key metrics such as performance-per-watt, performance-per-mm2 of chip die size, and performance-per-dollar.

AMD customers expressed excitement with the introduction of the ATI Radeon HD 4800 series.

The new ATI Radeon HD 4800 series cards have really impressed us in a lot of areas, said Kelt Reeves, president of Falcon Northwest. In performance, the ATI Radeon HD 4850 and ATI Radeon HD 4870 just blew past competing cards at their respective price levels. Each draws less power and produces less fan noise for this level of performance as well. To cap it off, the driver support is solid. The ATI Radeon HD 4800 series represents a huge leap forward for AMD.

It is remarkable that we are now able to build high performance gaming PCs with over one teraFLOPS of compute power inside, said Patrick Cooper, director of Product Planning, Alienware. With that kind of performance and the addition of visual enhancements made possible by DirectX 10.1 and tessellation, gamers can now achieve cinema-quality realism. Its an incredible step forward in gaming and Alienware is looking forward to introducing the ATI Radeon HD 4800 series in the near future.

ATI Radeon HD 4870 introduces GDDR5 performance, pushes 1.2 teraFLOPS

The ATI Radeon HD 4870, available immediately with a suggested retail price of USD$299, represents an unprecedented 1.2 teraFLOPS of visual compute power. It features a stock GPU core clock speed of 750 MHz, 512 MB of GDDR5 memory rated at 3.6 gigabits/second, and comes in a dual-slot PCI Express 2.0 configuration with a maximum board power of 160 watts.

ATI Radeon HD 4850: one teraFLOPS of visual compute power

The ATI Radeon HD 4850, immediately available with a suggested retail price of USD$199, received an enthusiastic welcome from global graphics reviewers. The ATI Radeon HD 4850 is the worlds first teraFLOPS graphics chip, with 800 stream processing cores (identical to the ATI Radeon HD 4870), a stock GPU core clock speed of 625 MHz, 512 MB of GDDR3 memory rated at 2 gigabits/second, and comes in a single-slot PCI Express 2.0 configuration with a maximum board power of 110 watts.

Industry excitement for the ATI Radeon HD 4800 series is evidenced in one dozen AIB (Add-In-Board) companies offering custom designs of the products, a record number for AMD. Building high-performance versions of the ATI Radeon HD 4800 series are VisionTek, ASUS, PowerColor, MSI, GIGABYTE, GECUBE, Force3D, SAPPHIRE Technology, Diamond Multimedia, Club 3D, HIS (Hightech Information Systems) and Palit Multimedia.

Systems integrators launching ATI Radeon HD 4800 series include ABS, Alienware, AMAX, Canada Computers, CyberPower, Extreme PC Corporation, Falcon-Northwest, iBUYPOWER, Maingear, Systemax, Ultra Gaming and Velocity Micro.

Early Reviews for the ATI Radeon HD 4850:

Excerpts from Anandtech:

Excerpts from ExtremeTech:

Excerpts from Tech Report:

High Definition Video

The ATI Radeon HD 4800 series has the power to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary. The ATI Radeon HD 4800 series will allow users to experience HD digital content1 with uncompromising visual fidelity while helping to enhance the definition and clarity of lower resolution visual media.

Energy Efficiency

The ATI Radeon HD 4800 series offers optimal performance and breakthrough efficiency with platform-independent intelligent power management.

AMD Cinema 2.0 Demo

At a press conference held on June 16, 2008, in San Francisco, AMD demonstrated a milestone achievement in ultra-realistic and interactive visual computing through the processing power of its ATI Radeon HD 4850 graphics cards. The demonstration of what AMD terms the Cinema 2.0 experience, highlighted at www.amd.com/cinema2, punches a sizeable hole in the sensory barrier that separates todays visionary content creators and the interactive experiences they desire to create for audiences around the world. The Cinema 2.0 demo shows the fusion of dynamic real-time interactivity with convincing cinematic digital effects that appear to be real places and things.

The Cinema 2.0 demo system in San Francisco featured two ATI Radeon HD 4850 graphics cards rated at one teraFLOPS each, driven by an AMD Phenom X4 9850 quad-core processor and AMD 790 FX Chipset.

The ATI Radeon HD 4800 series press kit may be viewed at www.amd.com/ATIRadeonHD4800/presskit.

About AMD

Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) is a leading global provider of innovative processing solutions in the computing, graphics and consumer electronics markets. AMD is dedicated to driving open innovation, choice and industry growth by delivering superior customer-centric solutions that empower consumers and businesses worldwide. For more information, visit http://www.amd.com.

©2008, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, ATI, the ATI logo, Phenom, Radeon, The Ultimate Visual Experience and combinations thereof, are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Other names are for informational purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners.

1 HD monitor required.

2 Transcoding time may vary depending on your system configuration and video formats. AMD was able to achieve GPU accelerated transcoding speeds up to 19x faster using a pre-release version of Cyberlink PowerDirector than when using the same CPU alone with MainConcept encoder in Adobe Premiere CS3. Using the same system, full 1080p files were converted 1.8x faster than real-time.

3 ATI PowerPlay is a suite of technologies designed to improve energy efficiency. Not all ATI PowerPlay features may be present in all ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series models.

4 AMD 3DMark Vantage testing demonstrates more than 2x performance increase from ATI Radeon HD 3870 to ATI Radeon HD 4870, scoring 1626 and 3559 respectively in Extreme settings. The ATI Radeon HD 4850 has a peak power rating of 110 watts versus the ATI Radeon HD 3850 at 104 watts, a difference of less than 5%. The ATI Radeon HD 4870 has a peak power rating of 160 watts versus 135 watts for the ATI Radeon HD 3870, a difference of 18%.



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