CES 09: AMD Launches ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4000 Series Graphics for Notebooks

AMD has announced the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4000 series graphics, its next generation series of notebook graphics processors.

These feature-rich graphics processors include support for the latest Microsoft DirectX 10.1 games, a home theatre-quality HD multimedia experience, and energy-efficient features for long battery life to help users get the most out of their notebook.

The ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4800 series supports ATI CrossFireX technology to deliver up to one teraFLOP of performance power. The 4600 series offers a balance of performance and energy efficiency. Optimal for thin and light notebooks, the 4300 and 4500 series provide exceptional battery life.

All ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4000 series graphics processors feature powerful 3D engines derived from the popular 4800 series architecture and are capable of up to twice the gaming performance of the predecessor 3000 Series at their respective power levels.

The 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 processors 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.

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Home theatre enthusiasts can enjoy full 1080p HD viewing 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. 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.

In addition, selected 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.

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. Additional power-saving features include ATI PowerPlay, ATI PowerXpress and ATI Switchable Graphics technologies.

The ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4000 series features a wide range of power-efficient and performance optimized configurations that vary in terms of size, operating speed and performance to satisfy the graphics requirements of products ranging from ultra-mobile sub-notebooks to high-end gaming portables, small form-factor desktop PCs and everything in between.

The ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4000 series graphics processors have been designed into quality notebooks from notebook manufacturers such as ASUS, MSI and others, with models planned for availability beginning in Q1 2009.