Avivo
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Diamond stuffs 1GB onto ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT
With leading-edge graphics cards getting more and more dedicated RAM shoved onto their PCBs, it's only surprising that it has taken this long for a 1GB single GPU card to hit the market. Diamond Multimedia has just announced the launch of its Radeon HD 2900 XT 1GB, which packs a full gigabyte of GDDR4 memory, second-generation unified shader architecture, 512-bit memory interface, integrated CrossFire scalability, and built-in HDMI support. Moreover, it also includes ATI's Avivo display technology, dual-link DVI output, HDCP compliance, and DirectX 10 support. No word just yet on what kind of premium you'll be expected to pay for this momentary claim of superiority, but we'd wait for the benchmarks to see if it's even worth the extra coin.
AMD's laptop-ready M690 chipset unveiled
While AMD's 690 chipset has already been put through its respective paces, it looks like the marketing team took the easy route when labeling its apparent mobile counterpart, but the M690 is here regardless. The firm's latest laptop chipset touts the same snazzy integrated graphics technology as its desktop-based sibling, as an ATI Radeon X1200 series graphics processor is built right in for your convenience. Additionally, it'll support the dual-core AMD Turion 64 X2 processors, and you'll also find an "innovative memory technology known as Display Cache," which reportedly allows the CPU to function in low-power mode without accessing system memory. Of course, the built-in ATI Avivo compatibility ensures both HDMI and DVI support for the media-centric set, and while it will supposedly end up in Asus and Fujitsu offerings in the future, you can test it out right away in HP Compaq's 6515b and 6715b.[Via Laptoping]
AMD integrates ATI Radeon X1250 into Vista-certified 690 chipset
Although ATI's R600 graphics chip may have hit a recent snag, it seems that the company's Radeon X1250 GPU is coming along just fine, as it claims the proud title of "world's first" integrated graphics unit to receive Vista certification. The chip, of course, is a critical piece of AMD's latest 690-series chipset, which integrates Aero-capable graphics, 1GHz HyperTransport interface speeds, and support for Sempron, Athlon 64/64 FX/64 FX X2 processors, PCI Express, Microsoft's DirectDraw, hardware acceleration for MPEG-2/4 and WMV9, TV output, HDCP-compatible DVI / HDMI outputs, and the general smorgasbord of connectors we're all used to seeing these days. Putting the resources of the ATI / AMD merger to full use, the 690 family claims to be the first chipset from the pair that supports ATI's Avivo technology, which purportedly makes your multimedia experiences within Vista a smooth ordeal. AMD's latest should be available right now for an undisclosed price, but we'd wait for a few hands-on opinions before rushing out and skipping over a dedicated GPU in your next rig.[Via 64-Bit-Computers]
NVIDIA vs. ATI for HD movie playback
Whether playing HD DVD and Blu-ray discs from a drive, or files obtained or stored via other means, you'll need plenty of horsepower to keep the HD flowing smoothly. Hardware Zone took a look at NVIDIA and ATI's competing platforms for hardware acceleration of h.264 and VC-1 decoding on PCs. They tested a few 1080i h.264-encoded movies from Japan and found neither solution was able reduce CPU load by more than 20-30% on their Core 2 Duo equipped test machine, with similar reductions on less CPU-intensive VC-1 discs. Overall they like the NVIDIA's PureVideo GeForce 7600 GT over the comparably priced ATI Radeon X1650 XT with Avivo, but check out the head to head for all the numbers before deciding which videocard goes in your next Media PC.[Via MPEG4.net]
ATI launches TV Wonder 650 OTA HDTV tuner
ATI is trying to make catching OTA HDTV broadcasts on your PC a bit more mainstream with the TV Wonder 650. This add-in card not only picks up high definition broadcasts, but includes Avivo technology for image enhancement on analog broadcasts, motion-adaptive 3D comb filter, noise-reduction and hardware-assisted MPEG-2 encoding. The included high-def PVR software will record content in DivX, H.264, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 and WMV9 formats. This card seems Vista-ready, as they also mention combining it with ATI videocards to enable 3D menus, in addition to the MulTView picture-in-picture technology (requires two tuner cards) and the ability to have a translucent video window over other applications. While it isn't the OCUR CableCard device you may be waiting for, if broadcast HDTV is all you need this could be a great pickup for $129, shipping today.
Acer's new HD DVD Laptops; NVIDIA or ATI?
Engadget already let us know about rumors indicating Acer would be one of the first third parties to release notebooks with either HD DVD or Blu-ray drives. Now, both NVIDIA and ATI have announced that their graphics cards will be available in Acer's HD DVD laptops. The Aspire 9110, 9510 and 9800 will all feature graphics technology from NVIDIA, including their PureVideo HD acceleration. The Aspire 5670 will utilize ATI's Mobility Radeon X1600 GPU and Avivo high-def acceleration. According to Acer's announcement, all will feature HDMI and HDCP support for outputting high-def content to TVs. The LCD screens on the laptops themselves range in size from 15.4 to 20.1 inches, plus Core Duo CPUs, Acer's stereo speaker and subwoofer technology as well as S/PDIF output for Dolby and DTS output. They should all be available later on this month, no price mentioned.Read - NVIDIA powers Acer HD DVD LaptopsRead - ATI drives high definition in Acer HD DVD LaptopsRead - Acer unveils high definition notebooks
ATI's "Avivo" specification pulls PC's, HDTV's closer
ATI has already shown their flexibility by partnering with JVC to put their chips in TV's, are now spreading the benefits of that technology across their product line with their newly-announced "Avivo" technology. Simply put, Avivo is a set of image enhancement, display, and connection specifications that you'll be able to find in many of ATI's future products. MPEG-2, H.264, HDCP or otherwise, if it is high def and you want to play it or output it to a TV, you will be able to with full hardware support on Avivo compatible products. Video cards equipped with the technology will support progressive scan output and hardware-assisted video encoding so you can convert for other devices without wasting precious CPU cycles. I'm glad to see this, as my home PC currently has an ATI Radeon 9200SE that is great, however setting everything up to work properly and output to my monitor and/or TV when and how I want has been more difficult than necessary. Now that they are designing such connectivity in from the ground up, it will be good for everyone. Expect Avivo labeled products to be available in the next month or so.Will it do your laundry, dishes and homework? No, but it will let you play that high-definition movie you just downloaded on your big screen TV with no loss of quality and leave you with CPU power to work with at the same time.
