AMD delivers world’s first 1GHz graphics processor

BANGALORE, INDIA: Building on the success of the recently launched ATI Radeon HD 4890 graphics card -- driven by the world’s most powerful graphics processor -- AMD today announced availability of a factory overclocked graphics processor that is the first to break the 1 Gigahertz (GHz) barrier using standard air-cooling solutions.

With this product, AMD achieves a notable engineering milestone as the first graphics company to break the 1GHz barrier.

The ATI Radeon HD 4890 utilizes advanced GDDR5 memory and 1GHz clock speed to deliver 1.6 TeraFLOPs of compute power, 50 percent more than that of the competition’s best single-GPU solution. With this level of raw compute power, the 1GHz ATI Radeon HD 4890 is set to deliver new levels of general purpose GPU-accelerated performance in ATI Stream applications such as video transcoding and post processing.

This new version of the ATI Radeon HD 4890 marks the latest addition to the award-winning ATI RadeonTM HD 4000 series delivered by AMD technology partners Sapphire, XFX, Asus and TUL.

The advanced design of the ATI Radeon HD 4890 delivers an amazing gaming experience in the latest games, including ground-breaking DirectX 10.1 titles such as Ubisoft’s Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X., Electronic Art’s BattleForge and SEGA’s Stormrise released last month, as well as GSC Gameworld’s S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Clear Sky.

When compared to DirectX 10 game play, DirectX 10.1 games have proven to deliver higher game performance and an improved visual experience. In addition, these cards feature support for open standards like OpenGL3 with DirectX 10-like hardware extensions, and the recently ratified OpenCL specification.

The ATI Radeon HD 4890 supports advanced game physics. At the 2009 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Havok and AMD demonstrated the first implementation of OpenCL running on AMD graphics processors. In the demonstration, Havok’s physics technology delivered complex and realistic simulations of real-world materials like cloth, demonstrating the potential for increased realism in forthcoming games.

To date, the ATI Radeon HD 4890 card has won numerous awards, including the prestigious Editor’s Choice Gold Award from HardOCP, the HotHardware Recommended Award and the Editor’s Choice Award from Tweaktown, among others. The accolades speak to the excitement around the product and to the continued strength of the discrete graphics market overall, something analyst Dr. Jon Peddie of Jon Peddie Research predicts will continue to play a strong role in the computing industry.

As a result of the worldwide accolades from media, developers, enthusiasts and fans, AMD released an “inside look” at how the card was made and what it means for gamers. The card marks a new aspect to the AMD “Dragon” desktop platform technology, providing an even more powerful single GPU desktop graphics option to OEMs, channel partners, and do-it-yourself (DIY) consumers.

“Throughout the 40-year history of AMD, we have continually focused on technology firsts that deliver superior value to the customer,” said Rick Bergman, senior vice president, Products Group, AMD. “The 1GHz ATI Radeon HD 4890 continues that tradition by increasing the performance and compute power of our flagship single-GPU solution, ensuring a great experience whether our customers are playing the latest DirectX 10.1 game or running GPU accelerated applications built with OpenCL.”

Ecosystem support
The ATI Radeon HD 4890 graphics card is supported by a dozen add-in-board companies offering a variety of custom board and cooling solutions. Technology partners include ASUS, Club 3D, Diamond Multimedia, Force3D, GECUBE, Gigabyte, HIS (Hightech Information Systems), ITC, Jetway, MSI, Palit Multimedia, PowerColor, SAPPHIRE Technology and XFX.