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09 Oct 2008
Chip maker AMD might be losing market share to Intel, but it has claimed it is winning its graphics card battle with Nvidia.
Last week it launched the ATI Radeon HD 4550 and ATI Radeon HD 4350 graphics cards, the latest additions to the HD 4000 series.
Described as feature-rich cards, they are designed to appeal to gamers and high-definition multimedia users on a budget.
Further reading
The cards use the same technology from the HD 4800 series, but support the latest DirectX 10.1 games and multimedia features.
Updating the cards to keep up with new gaming and multimedia applications was important, but the leap upwards in processing power, at a lower price point is more significant for system builders, claimed Andrew Buxton, AMD’s channel director.
They are the final additions that round out the series family, he said. “AMD set out to lead performance at every price point and now we are doing the business in each market segment,” he said. “With the 4000 series we have regained the performance crown at the top end of the graphics card market.”
This is extremely good news for system builders, according to Buxton.
“Demand for high-resolution gaming is what drives this market. It then has a halo effect, moving down to the more mainstream users,” he said.
AMD said that by using less than 20 watts under full load, the card can be passively cooled and uses less power. A new version, the HD 4550 with a frame buffer of 512MB DDR3 memory, is mooted for launch later this month.
Partners endorsed this view. “After the success of the high-end cards in the HD 4000 series, these new parts mean you can build systems that do video decoding and high definition with full surround sound, at really keen prices,” said Bill Donnelly, a director at card maker Sapphire Technology, which uses the ATI chip set.
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