AMD shows off world's first DirectX 11 GPU

By Darren Murph

posted June 3rd 2009 12:00AM

On a roll of late, aren't we AMD? Just when you thought the fun was slowing over in Taiwan, in flies this: the world's first official DirectX 11-friendly GPU demonstration. We also learned that DX 11 (and presumably, AMD cards to push it) will debut prior to the dawn of 2010, but outside of that, most everything else is being kept under wraps. Indeed, the demo was mostly to show that things were still on track and for the chip maker to assure us all that it will "deliver DirectX 11 first." Alright, AMD -- now you've something to prove. Full release is after the break.

AMD Demonstrates World's First Microsoft DirectX® 11 Graphics Processor

− AMD previews significant improvements to the digital media and gaming experience, commits to bring DirectX 11 to market first −

COMPUTEX 2009, Taipei - June 3, 2009 - At a press conference in Taipei, Taiwan today, AMD (NYSE: AMD) publicly demonstrated the world's first Microsoft DirectX® 11 graphics processor. The series of demonstrations shed new light on the significantly improved computing experience set to debut at the end of 2009.1 The fusion of AMD's new ground-breaking graphics processors with the forthcoming DirectX 11 programming interface is set to forever change both applications and PC gaming for the better. To illustrate, AMD showed numerous examples of faster application performance and new game features using the world's first true DirectX 11 graphics processor.

· Get ready for a revolution: Games and other applications are about to get a lot better as a result of AMD's new graphics hardware and DirectX 11. DirectX 11 features such as tessellation will bring consumers higher quality, superior performing games making use of 6th generation AMD technology. Another DirectX 11 feature, the compute shader, will enable AMD's DirectX 11 graphics cards to help make Windows 7 run faster in a wide number of applications and in a manner that's completely transparent to users, for example, in seamlessly accelerating the conversion of video for playback on portable media players through a drag-and-drop interface.2

· DirectX 11 done right on AMD: The development of DirectX 11 has been broadly influenced by AMD graphics technology. Each new version of DirectX builds on the versions that came before it, and many of the capabilities of DirectX 11 were pioneered on AMD GPUs, including DirectX 10.1, tessellation, compute shaders, Fetch4, custom filter anti-aliasing and high-definition ambient occlusion shading.

· Bringing consumers DirectX 11 sooner: The preview of the world's first DirectX 11 graphics processor at Computex 2009 validates AMD's commitment to delivering leading technologies to market before anyone else, and to continuing to foster innovation in computing.

· Fueling developer demand: It's not just consumers who are excited about the prospects of DirectX 11, game developers are also incredibly enthusiastic about taking advantage of new DirectX 11 hardware to bring even better games to market, in large part due to AMD's readiness to meet their DirectX 11 needs. Many developers have indicated their commitment to building DirectX 11 games initially on AMD's DirectX 11 hardware, delivering superior performance and compatibility.

"AMD has a long track record of delivering pioneering features that have gone on to become mainstays in the DirectX experience, and we're doing it again with two mature, AMD-developed technologies in DirectX 11 – tessellation and the compute shader – both of which enable a better DirectX 11 experience for consumers," said Rick Bergman, Senior Vice President, AMD Products Group. "Today, we're previewing AMD's DirectX 11 graphics processor to build enthusiasm for this key technology so developers will have games available at launch and shortly thereafter. With the benefits it delivers to gaming, applications and Windows 7, developers are lining up to get their hands on our hardware, and we're confident that consumers will too."