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PowerColor PCS HD4850 graphics card packs 2GB of memory
Remember how we all swooned over Diamond's ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT in June of last year? At the time, that was pretty much your only shot at seeing 1GB of memory on a single graphics card. Fast forward to now, and we've got what's widely believe to be this planet's very first 2GB card. The PowerColor PCS HD4850, which is based on the RV770 core, comes with 800 stream processors and two whole gigabytes of GDDR3 memory. And just think, next summer you'll be sticking your nose up to find GPUs emerging with "only" this much memory. So fickle, we are.[Via PCLaunches]
AMD Radeon HD 4870 X2 images leaked, rumored for August release
Is this the Radeon card destined to leapfrog NVIDIA's performance leading GTX 200 series? We'll know in August (or soon thereafter), that's the rumored release date for AMD's Radeon HD 4870 X2 graphics card. As the X2 name implies, the card packs a pair of RV770-based GPUs and should be ready to sample with 2GB (!) of that "world's fastest" GDDR5 memory by the end of this month. It's worth noting that the leaked images show a total of 1GB of GDDR5 (16 Qimonda GDDR5 chips) on that black PCB. AMD will then make the 4870 X2 (RV770XT) cards available to its partners in mid-August, hitting retail soon after for an estimated $499 according to sources over at DigiTimes. Read -- Leaked images Read -- August launch
ATI Radeon HD 4850 gets official: available immediately
Considering that we've already seen AMD's ATI Radeon HD 4850 benchmarked, it's not like we really needed some official verbiage to cement our belief that the unit was real. Nevertheless, said verbiage certainly doesn't hurt, and that's precisely what's been delivered this morning. The HD 4850 is a single-slot PCIe 2.0 card featuring 512MB of DDR3 RAM, a 625MHz clock speed, 993MHz memory speed, 480 stream processors and support for CrossFireX / DirectX 10.1. We're also told that at least Diamond Multimedia's HD 4850 is available as we speak from a number of fine retailers, thus we presume everyone else's version of the card shouldn't be too far behind.
RV770-based AMD Radeon HD 4850 gets benchmarked
Judging by the fact that AMD tipped the whole world off to its upcoming RV770-based GPUs earlier this week, we don't suppose it'll be too upset that a 512MB MSI Radeon HD 4850 happened to land a little early in the PC Perspective labs. Design wise, there's nothing too out of the ordinary -- a single-slot cooler design, twin dual-link DVI ports, single 6-pin PCIe power connector and one goofy looking monster that you'll never see again once this thing gets installed. Care to see how it fared when facing the pressures of modern day gaming? You know where to look.
AMD's Cinema 2.0 demo: "you won't just play movies, you'll play in them"
That's a bold promise AMD. Nevertheless, a cinema-realistic gaming experience is exactly what they demonstrated yesterday in San Francisco. Cinema 2.0, according to AMD, is "a milestone achievement in ultra-realistic and interactive visual computing." Perhaps, but then the marketing-speak launches into unnecessary hyperbole with AMD calling its new teraFLOPS chip at the heart of the demo -- the RV770 GPU -- "more powerful than every generation of game console every brought to market combined." Really AMD? Last we counted there were about 13 million Cell processors scattered across the PS3 terra firma. But we'll assume that you're referring to a mythical mashup of a singular PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PS2, etc. with a little Magnavox Odyssey sprinkled on top. Still, you might find the hype warranted when you realize that the demonstration was powered by a single PC loaded with a pair of (future) consumer-grade AMD RV770 graphics cards, Phenom X4 9850 processor, and 790FX chipset. Take a look for yourself in the video after the break.
AMD's FireStream 9250: first processor to top 1 Teraflop
AMD's second generation FireStream 9250 just broke the single-precision teraflop barrier at the International Supercomputing Conference in Germany. The proc takes advantage of AMD's GPU expertise to augment the processing power of your rig's CPU with an additional 8-gigaflops per watt of processing from this 150 watt processor. A 55x performance bump, say developers, when compared to crunching financial analysis code, for example, on a CPU alone. The 9250 Stream fits into a single PCI slot and includes double-precision floating point hardware performing at more than 200 gigaflops. The processor and supporting SDK are due for release in Q3 for $999.Update: According to TGDaily, the 9250 features ATI's upcoming RV770 GPU at its core -- the foundation of future 4800-series graphics cards. So 4x cards setup in Crossfire X should be capable of offering your next gaming rig an additional 5 Teraflops or power. You know, in theory.Read -- press releaseRead -- TGDaily
