AMD unleashes enthusiast gaming performance for the masses with ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series

As the world's first series of graphics processors to deliver Microsoft's DirectX 10.1 support, 55nm process technology and tri and quad multi-GPU support with ATI CrossFireX, the ATI Radeon HD 3800 series ushers in a new era of enthusiast gaming performance at mainstream price points.

The ATI Radeon HD 3800 series will be introduced in two variants at launch, the ATI Radeon HD 3850 with 256MB of GDDR3 memory and the ATI Radeon HD 3870 with 512MB GDDR4 memory.

The launch of the ATI Radeon HD 3800 series redefines the enthusiast segment and puts high performance gaming in reach of more users than ever before. This innovative new series of graphics products also represent the first step in the launch of AMD's upcoming enthusiast platform codenamed "Spider."

"With the introduction of the ATI Radeon HD 3800 series we are redefining the market for enthusiast graphics with a new class of price, performance and features that have never been seen before in this industry," said Dubai-based Gautam Srivastava, Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Managing Director, Middle East, Africa, and Pakistan, AMD.

"Through a flawless transition to 55nm and Microsoft DirectX 10.1, we can deliver an unprecedented level of scalable performance, image quality enhancements and power efficiency at price segment that rivals today's most expensive graphics processors and opens up enthusiast gaming to more end users than ever before."

High-definition gaming leadership

With the introduction of the ATI Radeon HD 3800 series AMD delivers the first graphics processor with support for Microsoft's upcoming DirectX 10.1 specification. Designed to deliver more immersive gaming environments, increase the amount of tools for developers and enhance overall image quality, DirectX 10.1 support ensures ATI Radeon HD 3800 series users can enjoy a more complete next-generation gaming experience.

The ATI Radeon HD 3800 series also introduces the world to ATI CrossFireX, AMD's innovative next-generation multi-GPU technology designed to deliver unprecedented performance scaling with support for two, three and four graphics processors in CrossFire configurations.

Performance per-watt leadership

The ATI Radeon HD 3800 series GPUs are the first graphics processors to use TSMC's 55nm process technology. The smooth transition to 55nm has allowed for a 2X increase in performance-per-watt over the previous generation with a significant reduction in die size.

High-definition video
With the launch of the ATI Radeon HD 3850 and ATI Radeon HD 3870, AMD has answered the call of HD video enthusiasts with top-to-bottom support for the Unified Video Decoder (UVD). The addition of UVD ensures exceptional platform efficiency and image quality in HD-DVD and Blu-rayTM decoding for both H.264 and VC-1 specifications. Enhanced HDMI functionality also continues on this series of products with integrated HDCP and audio for HDMI video.