THE NEXT move in the graphics card
arms race was made by ATI last
month with the launch of its X1000
family of graphics processors.In a launch of several firsts, an entire range of GPUs have been released at the same time. They are also the first to use 90 nanometer semiconductor fabrication technology, allowing even more power than before.
The family consists of the X1300, X1600 and X1800 GPUs, which are the entry, mid and high-end products respectively. They all feature the same architecture, but have four, 12 and 16 shader processors.
There have apparently been improvements made in the high dynamic range, anti aliasing, texture filtering and 3Dc+.
The 1800XL, 1300 Pro and 1300 were launched in October, with the top-end 1800XT due out in mid November and the 1600XT and Pro expected in early December.
The reason for the delays appears to be a single bug which took a lot longer than usual to identify, but which ATI believes is now resolved.
The GPUs also feature the new Avivo video and display platform, which is appearing in ATI?s consumer electronics offerings. The platform includes hardware and software technologies which refine video capture and playback, and improve display quality.
All digital photo and video files are processed through a series of steps before being displayed on PC monitors. A flaw in any one of these steps will produce a less accurate video or image.
Advertisement
