AMD raises the bar for notebook graphics with ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4000 series

by Parm Mann on 9 January 2009, 13:52

Tags: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4800 Series, AMD (NYSE:AMD)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qaqnl

Add to My Vault: x

NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 295 may have dislodged AMD's Radeon HD 4870 X2 as the world's fastest single-card desktop graphics solution, but the red team has other fish to fry - namely notebooks.

At CES '09, the California-based semiconductor giant today announced the arrival of its impressive RV770 architecture in notebook form. Its new generation of notebook-orientated graphics processors - dubbed the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4000 series - bring some of the current high-end desktop features to mobile users and are already being adopted by the likes of ASUS and MSI.

Breaking down into the Radeon HD 4800, 4600, 4500 and 4300-series, AMD's new Mobility range boasts the following specifications:

Graphics Processor
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4800 series
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4600 series
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4500 and 4300 series
Stream processors
800
320
80
Memory support
GDDR3, GDDR5
DDR2, DDR3, GDDR3
DDR2, DDR3, GDDR3
Memory interface
256-bit
128-bit
64-bit
Manufacturing process
55nm
55nm
55nm
Transistor count
956M
514M
242M
DirectX / Shader Model
DX10.1, 4.1
DX10.1, 4.1
DX10.1, 4.1
Peak GFLOPS
880
432
108
Hardware-assisted video-decoding engine
AMD UVD 2 - full H.264 and VC-1 decode, plus dual-stream decode
CrossFireX support
Yes
Yes
No

880 GFLOPS of computer power and the option to double up with CrossFireX in a notebook? We figure the likes of Alienware will be lapping that up for their monster-gaming notebooks.

There's no detailed mention yet of power draw, but AMD states it "remains committed to designing energy efficient technology with optimal performance". For the battery-conscious, the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4000 series will feature ATI PowerPlay - a power management feature that'll automatically adjust between low and high energy states depending on usage.

Similarly, ATI's Switchable Graphics technology will allow desktops with both integrated and discrete graphics processors to switch between the two in real-time without having to reboot.

Official press release: AMD Launches ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 4000 Series Graphics for Notebooks, Delivering Up to Twice the Gaming Performance of Previous Generation


Click here for all CES 2009 content.


HEXUS Forums :: 2 Comments

Login with Forum Account

Don't have an account? Register today!
so we will finaly be able to play crysis at decent settings on the go?
Just make sure you're maximum 10 minutes away from a power socket!