Date: 09/01/2009

Energy-efficient graphic processors for new gaming experience in notebooks

AMD has released next generation graphics processor family for notebooks. The ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4000 series graphics processors feature support for the latest Microsoft DirectX 10.1 games, a home theatre-quality HD multimedia experience, and energy-efficient features for long battery life.

The ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4800 series support ATI CrossFireX technology to deliver up to one teraFLOP of performance power. Optimal for thin and light notebooks, the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4300 and ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4500 series provide excellent battery life.

"The MSI EX625 notebook, with ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4600 series graphics, and the GT725 notebook, with ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4800 series graphics, represent the pinnacle of gaming and multimedia graphics for the mobile platform," said Eric Kuo, MSI Sales Director. "AMD has exceptional graphics success that will bring unprecedented power and performance for the mobile platform."

All ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4000 series graphics processors feature 3D engines derived from the popular ATI Radeon HD 4800 series architecture and are capable of up to twice the gaming performance of the predecessor ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3000 Series at their respective power levels.1 The ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4800 series graphics processors are the industry's first to support GDDR5 memory technology, providing nearly twice the memory bandwidth of GDDR3 and GDDR4. Extreme gamers can push the boundaries of gaming performance with the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4870 graphics processor delivering up to 1.8 times the performance compared to previous AMD discrete mobile graphics processors3 and with ATI CrossFireX technology, combine the performance of two ATI Mobility Radeon graphics processors to produce uncompromising image quality in any of today's demanding 3D games.

"We're proud to highlight ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4870 as the first notebook GPU to support specially designed, ultra-high bandwidth GDDR5 graphics memory to unleash the full-throttle gaming experience normally reserved for the high-end desktop gaming rigs," said Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager of AMD, Graphics Products Group. "Now, notebooks equipped with one or a pair of these speedy graphics processors can take on just about any PC game and run them smoothly at their maximum option settings.

"And for gaming-friendly multimedia notebooks, the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4600 is the most potent power-efficient notebook GPU we've ever produced, making high-performance gaming practical in lightweight, elegantly styled notebooks like never before."

Home theatre enthusiasts can enjoy full 1080p HD viewing anywhere they want on HD-capable panels, monitors or televisions. Using AMD's second generation Unified Video Decoder (UVD), the CPU is freed from other tasks so even when managing processor-intensive content such as Blu-ray movies, users can still instant message friends or conduct virus scans in the background without interruption. This also helps lower power consumption and reduces the need for high fan settings, enabling a quieter experience. DVD upscaling allows for enhanced picture quality when watching standard definition content on 1080p HDTV, while dynamic contrast adjusts the contrast and brightness during scenes to bring a crisp, vibrant picture to viewers.4 Specifically designed for HD video enthusiasts, ATI Avivo HD, an advanced image and video processing display technology, is found throughout the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4000 series and provides brilliant colors, sharp images, and smooth playback of Blu-ray and HD video content on HD-capable panels, monitors or televisions.5 In addition, selected ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4000 series graphics processors models are also the first ever mobile graphics solution that has advanced hi-definition audio capabilities using HDMI with 7.1 digital surround sound and DisplayPort Audio to create an immersive, home theatre-class experience.6

The new mobile graphics family features energy efficient, second generation 55nm process technology that, in the case of the ATI Mobility Radeon 4870 GPU, delivers an increase in performance-per-watt of more than sixty percent over the previous generation.7 Additional power-saving features include ATI PowerPlay, ATI PowerXpress, and ATI Switchable Graphics technologies.

ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4000 series graphics also provide performance benefits for defense applications.