AMD announces ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4000 series graphics chips

NVIDIA has already given its laptop graphics offerings a bit of a boost at CES, and now AMD has followed suit, with it taking the wraps off its new ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4000 series chips. As you may have guessed, these are based on the same core architecture as AMD's 4000 series of desktop graphics cards, and they promise to be as much as twice as fast as their 3000 series predecessors. Helping out significantly on that front is the use of GDDR5 memory, a first for laptop graphics, as well as an increase in the number of stream processing units (800 on the top end HD 4870 and 4850), and a new, cooler 55nm manufacturing process. In addition to those top end graphics options, AMD will also introduce a couple of new 4600 series cards, which use the same GDDR3 memory and 320 stream processing units as before, but are able to fit in tighter enclosures and use less power. Look for the first laptops equipped with the graphics to start rolling out by the end of March.

[Doug @ Jan 9th 2009 1:54PM]

sweet, amd your the best!

[Alexei @ Jan 9th 2009 1:58PM]

That's weird, I thought a laptop already came out featuring the 4870X2...

Oh well.

As long as I don't have to be stuck with the GeForce 9 series for another year.

[Chris @ Jan 9th 2009 2:15PM]

Asus announced an 18.4" laptop featuring the 4870x2

[YpoCaramel @ Jan 9th 2009 2:01PM]

Sad that Dell just announced the Studio XPS with a 3000-series card. Leonovo's already announced laptops with next-gen N10-series graphics too, so I think that'll be offical too now that ATI has gone legit with its 4000-series.

[neologan @ Jan 9th 2009 2:11PM]

no doubt the new XPS machines will get a refresh with these sometime in the future, anybody's guess on when, though.

[aznofazns @ Jan 9th 2009 2:14PM]

i'm willing to bet the sager 17" model will be the first to contain the 4870

[Laughing Man @ Jan 9th 2009 2:30PM]

Twice as powerful as the 3000 series GPU's. I have seen what a HD 3300 intergrate chip can do. If the HD 4300 (if that will be its name) can do.....25% than that would be nuts.

[boe @ Jan 9th 2009 2:31PM]

I forgot to got to AMD's booth at CES - anything to top the 4870x2 yet?

[jonathan @ Jan 9th 2009 2:31PM]

Does anyone know anything about the card that is going to be in the Dell Studio 16? Its listed as a ATI RADEON M86XT, what the heck is that card?

Anyway glad to see ATI releasing a 4000 series cards for laptops..cant stand NVidia cards!

[TJ @ Jan 9th 2009 2:34PM]

It's the 3670 card.

[GenBanks @ Jan 9th 2009 2:52PM]

I'm glad to see this, I wonder how the mobile 4870 will compare in performance to the nvidia mobile 9800 cards. I'm glad I've held off buying a gaming laptop for the past few months.

[Ben @ Jan 9th 2009 4:03PM]

I hope the 'new, cooler 55nm manufacturing process' is a LOT cooler, or some people are gonna have some toasty pants. My 4870 heats my whole apartment.

I am not exaggerating. O.o

[loosely_coupled @ Jan 9th 2009 5:36PM]

Yea, unfortunately, as good as the 48xx series are, they run really hot and use more power than nVidias GTX2xx.

While I love the fact that we have good competition now, I think Nvidia's 55nm G92b cards are going to outperform the 48xx series in performance/watt..

[superhobo @ Jan 9th 2009 4:31PM]

FINALLY

Next time, release them both together.

[Noah @ Jan 9th 2009 8:05PM]

Would like that. My laptop has the 8600M GS. It ain't bad, but a bit more power would be nice.

One thing I don't get...Giz says its got 800 stream processors. I know the desktop 4870/50 has that, but wouldn't that be too large for a laptop?

[UTMorpheus @ Jan 12th 2009 12:45PM]

I don't expect the Mobility Radeon 48xx series to be in a 15.4" thin and light notebook, but the gargantuan 17"+ notebooks that are like lugging around the Eniac will more then likely be getting these cards. You can already crossfire/sli two high-end cards in them already, so I don't expect the 48xx's to be much more of a stretch, just don't expect much in the way of battery life. What I'm interested to see is if these will come as a MXM card or be integrated.

[mi1400 @ Jan 11th 2009 11:32PM]

no mentioning of Mobility FireGL.