Imagine turning a movie into a game instantly, with the audience driving storytelling by defining the character. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) wants to make that possible in the future, with the company releasing new graphics chips that allow moviemakers and game developers to render three-dimensional images in real time.
AMD on Monday said it was releasing Radeon 4000 series graphics cards, which deliver 1 teraflop of graphics performance to increase the level of realism brought to images. The products will be available starting next week, and companies including Falcon Northwest will develop systems based on the new graphics chips.
The new processors include the ATI Radeon HD 4850, which will be priced in the US$200 range, and the Radeon HD 4870, which will be priced around $300, said Neil Robison, director of developer relations at AMD. AMD next month will formally announce the release date of the graphics card code-named R700, which will have two graphics processing units on a single card. Many industry observers expect the R700 to be released in August.