Bob Colayco told Joystiq, yesterday at the AMD Cinema 2.0 event in New York, why it took so long for Blizzard Entertainment to develop Starcraft 2. The answer is simple. If Blizzard was to bring Starcraft 2 from Sprites to 3D engines like the competition, it had to be with a bang -- and for that Blizzard awaited until the technology and tools were available. Second, you will expereince hundreds of vehicles clashing on the battlefiend with awesome special effects.
I don't know if you have ever heard of AMD Cinema 2.0 before, or if you even know what it is capable of doing. The most important question here to ponder besides why it took Starcraft 2 so long to develop, is why was Blizzard at this event in the first place. Only because they were invited as partners of AMD? Or is Blizzard looking into this technology for future games -- coughs, such as the unrevealed Next-Gen MMO or the World of Warcraft and Diablo Hollywood films?
AMD Cinema 2.0 is just plainly unbelievable and out of science fiction movies, except this is reality and this technology has been achieved by AMD. Imagine Blizzard developers having access to this ... oh wait ... they are AMD Partners! Everyone at unison ... drool!!!
Read the AMD Cinema 2.0 Press Release below.
− ATI Radeon™ HD 4870 X2 delivers up to 80 percent more performance than award-winning ATI Radeon™ HD 48702 −
Sunnyvale, Calif. -- August 12, 2008 --AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced the world’s fastest graphics card, the ATI Radeon™ HD 4870 X2, advancing visual computing ever closer to eye-definition computing gaming and cinematic experiences and delivering a whopping 2.4 teraFLOPS of processing power. Also announced today is the ATI Radeon™ HD 4850 X2 graphics card, delivering blistering performance at a compelling price point.
These cards comprise the ATI Radeon HD 4800 X2 series, combining two ATI Radeon HD 4800 series GPUs with a more advanced cross-GPU connection based on the PCIe 2.0 standard, plus two gigabytes of memory – the most in any currently available consumer graphics card. These technologies combine to make the ATI Radeon HD 4800 X2 series perfectly suited for the most demanding games, able to deliver astonishing frame rates at extreme resolutions and image quality settings.
The capabilities of the ATI Radeon HD 4800 X2 series were on display yesterday in New York City, where leading experts from the game development community and Hollywood joined AMD to discuss and demonstrate eye-definition computing computing. Eye-definition computing is the art and science of achieving visual computing experiences that seem optically real. The tremendous computational 2.4 teraFLOPS horsepower of the ATI Radeon HD 4800 X2 series makes computing experiences that approach eye-definition computing possible. The first application of eye-definition computing computing, demonstrated by AMD in New York yesterday, is Cinema 2.0, the fusion of digital people, places and things, rendered with real-time interactivity. Cinema 2.0 shows the power to digitally create interactive environments and characters that seem optically real in either a video game or digital cinema context. With the help of leading content creators, AMD demonstrated the first “virtual” actor to be rendered in real-time in perfect, lifelike detail, via the incredible processing power found in the ATI Radeon HD 4800 X2 series.
Based on an advanced 55nm design and leading DirectX® 10.1 support, the ATI Radeon HD 4800 X2 series delivers engineering elegance and the industry’s most compelling feature set. The ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 is immediately available from e-tailers worldwide priced at USD $549 SRP, while the ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 is scheduled to be available in September at an estimated price of USD $399.3
“The ATI Radeon HD 4800 X2 series is proof that our graphics strategy is working. The response from OEMs, system integrators, game developers, press, and most importantly, from gamers regarding the ATI Radeon HD 4800 series products has been incredibly positive. Now, only a few short weeks after the launch of those products, AMD reclaims the ultimate performance crown and continues to deliver winning products to market in the ATI Radeon HD 4800 X2 series,” said Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager, Graphics Products Group, AMD. “The ATI Radeon HD 4800 X2 series continues AMD technology leadership with support for DirectX 10.1, tessellation, and now 2GB of frame buffer. The new products join a line-up of stellar offerings, all of which are designed to give gamers experiences that approach eye-definition computing.”
ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 press and analyst reception
Initial product previews of the ATI Radeon HD 4800 X2 series highlight the superior performance and incredible image quality it delivers:
- “Our gameplay experiences with the ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 were phenomenal, especially once we raised the antialiasing setting to high levels... Who would have thought we’d ever be seeing Oblivion at 2560x1600 with 24X AA? This means you can load up old games and set crazy high AA settings. AMD deserves huge kudos for really kicking AA up a notch,” said Brent Justice, HardOCP.4
- “The Radeon HD 4870 X2 is looking like it beat [the GTX280] as it spanked even the overclocked GeForce GTX 280 in our testing. AMD has pulled off another one with the Radeon HD 4870 X2,” said Nathan Kirsch, Legit Reviews.5
- “The ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 proves AMD’s ability to scale their architecture and offer high performance at normal prices, and still stay within comfortable power demand,” said Jon Peddie, president and founder of Jon Peddie Research.
Driving the ultra-enthusiast experience
The ATI Radeon HD 4800 X2 series provides support for ATI CrossFireX™, enabling incredibly fast gaming PCs with unmatched performance at ultra-high settings. Enthusiast gamers can now run the most demanding games smoothly in at the highest settings, enabling modes that were not playable before.6 With the efficient use of all four GPUs in a dual ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 CrossFireX configuration, gamers will enjoy more than 3 times the performance of a single ATI Radeon HD 4870 card in many games.7
“AMD has regained the graphics performance crown with this launch,” said Patrick Cooper, Director of Product Planning, Alienware. “The ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 is what gamers have been waiting for—blistering performance in DirectX 10.1 games backed by stable drivers for great scaling in ATI CrossFireX mode.”
“Gamers that buy Falcon Northwest PCs demand nothing but the best possible performance, and today the one that delivers the best gaming experience, is a quad ATI CrossFireX rig using two ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 cards, like those found in our Mach V,” said Kelt Reeves, president of Falcon Northwest. “We’re committed to bringing the world the ultimate gaming PCs featuring the leading technology. With support for the latest DirectX 10.1 games, only ATI Radeon graphics let us do that.”
“As a premier provider of high-performance PCs, the stellar performance and leading technologies of the ATI Radeon HD 4800 X2 series makes it a perfect match for Velocity Micro,” said Randy Copeland, President and CEO, Velocity Micro. “AMD once again has the fastest card around, and with support for the latest DirectX 10.1 games, it makes it a natural choice for gamers wanting the latest and greatest technology in their Velocity Micro system.”
ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2: The world’s fastest graphics card
The ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 delivers unsurpassed graphics horsepower, setting a new performance bar for visual computing with 2.4 teraFLOPS of processing power on a single card. It is also the world’s first graphics card to include 2GB of ultra-high bandwidth GDDR5 memory. The ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 features two GPUs based on a second generation 55nm technology and clocked at 750 MHz, with a combined 1600 stream processors.
Engineered to be the world’s fastest graphics card, the ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 was built with efficiency, scalability and performance in mind, delivering four times the performance efficiency AMD high-end GPU offerings released just one year ago.6
ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2: New levels of performance under $4003
Setting a new performance standard in graphics cards priced under $4003, the ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 provides the power to play today’s most demanding titles at ultra-high settings. Like its big brother, the ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 features 1600 stream processors, and two GPUs clocked at 625 MHz. The ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 features 2GB of GDDR3 memory.
Ecosystem Support
The ATI Radeon HD 4800 series is supported by a dozen add-in-board companies offering custom designs of the products. Building high-performance versions of the ATI Radeon HD 4800 X2 series products are, ASUS, Club 3D, Diamond Multimedia, Force3D, GECUBE, GIGABYTE, HIS (Hightech Information Systems), Jetway, MSI, Palit Multimedia, PowerColor, SAPPHIRE Technology and VisionTek.
The ATI Radeon HD 4800 series press kit may be viewed at:
www.amd.com/ATIRadeonHD4800/presskit.
About AMD
Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) is a leading global provider of innovative processing solutions in the computing and graphics markets. AMD is dedicated to driving open innovation, choice and industry growth by delivering superior customer-centric solutions that empower consumers and businesses worldwide. For more information, visit www.amd.com.
© 2008 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, ATI, the ATI logo, Radeon, and CrossFireX are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Other names are for informational purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners.
1. As of July 24th, 2008, the ATI Radeon™ HD 4870 X2 scores 17743 in 3DMark06, which is the highest recorded single-card score.
2. Based on comparing the performance of a single ATI Radeon HD 4870 vs. the ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2, performance in games including Call of Juarez and Devil May Cry 4 at 2560x1600, 4xAA and 8xAF demonstrates gains of 80 percent.
3. Estimated street price at launch.
4. For more information please see http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTUzMSwxMCwsaGVudGh1c2lhc3Q=
5. For more information please see http://www.legitreviews.com/article/745/8/
6. AMD defines playable frame rates as those where the frame rate per second count is above 30. Dual ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 in CrossFireX allows games such as Crysis DX10 to be played at 2560x1600 at 4xAA and 8xAF and Lost Planet DX10 to be played at 2560x1600 at 8xAA and 16xAF above 30 frames per second.
7. Three times the performance noted in 3DMark Vantage v1.01 running at Extreme Preset, 1920x1200, 4xAA and 16xAF; Call of Juarez DX10 running at 1920x1200, 4xAA and 8xAF; FEAR running at 1920x1200, 4xAA and 8xAF; Half Life 2 running at 2560x1600, 8xAA and 16xAF; and Unreal Tournament 3 running at 2560x1600, 8xAA and 16xAF.
8. Data based on maximum power loads calculated by AMD comparing GFLOPS/watt of the ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 to the ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2. |
