AMD Introduces the ATI Radeon(TM) HD 4600 Series Graphics Cards for the Masses, Delivering Up To Double the Game Performance of the Competition at the Same Price(1)

AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced the ATI Radeon^TM HD 4600 series, mainstream graphics offerings that deliver exceptional gaming and HD multimedia performance while consuming less power than a standard light bulb.² Comprising the ATI Radeon™ HD 4670 and the ATI Radeon™ HD 4650 graphics cards, the ATI Radeon HD 4600 series leverages the leading technology found in the award-winning ATI Radeon™ HD 4800 series, including support for the latest DirectX® 10.1 games, superior HD multimedia capabilities and industry leading performance-per-watt³, all delivered at affordable prices for the mainstream graphics segment. The combined features and technologies and incredible prices makes the ATI Radeon HD 4600 series a superb all-around performer, ideal for playing the latest games or driving a high quality home theatre entertainment experience.

The ATI Radeon HD 4670 and ATI Radeon HD 4650 graphics cards feature AMD’s TeraScale graphics engine, with 320 stream processing cores, and are based on AMD’s advanced second generation 55nm process. The result is that even in today’s most demanding games like Crysis, the ATI Radeon HD 4600 series delivers up to double the performance of competing products at the same price.¹ Both the ATI Radeon HD 4670 and ATI Radeon HD 4650 deliver substantial gaming horsepower with minimal power draw – the ATI Radeon HD 4670 operating at under 60 watts and the ATI Radeon HD 4650 operating under 50 watts under full load – eliminating the need for additional power connectors and making installation a cinch. The ATI Radeon HD 4670 is immediately available with a frame buffer of 512MB GDDR3 memory with an MSRP from USD $79, while a 1GB DDR3-based variant is scheduled to ship later this month. The ATI Radeon HD 4650 features a frame buffer of 512MB GDDR2 memory and is expected to be available later in the month at an MSRP from USD $69.

"Today, AMD is providing mainstream users – one of the largest segments of the market – with superior graphics products and performance at previously unheard of prices,” said Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager, Graphics Products Group, AMD. "The success of the ATI Radeon™ HD 4000 series validates that AMD’s shift away from the traditional means of producing large, hot, monolithic graphics chip continues to be a successful strategy AMD continues to execute against its timelines and deliver leading graphics performance at every price point.

"Mainstream graphics cards – those priced under $100 – represent more than two-thirds of all desktop graphics sold today⁴,” said Dean McCarron, founder and principal, Mercury Research. "Providing competitive solutions in this segment is a mandatory requirement to have a strong position in the graphics market.”

"The ATI Radeon HD 4670 proved to be an excellent performer, especially considering its low-power operation and affordable price,” said Marco Chiappetta, HotHardware.com. "AMD’s new ATI Radeon HD 4670 handily outperformed the ATI Radeon HD 3650 and GeForce 9500 GT across a broad range of benchmarks and just missed hitting the mark set by more expensive offerings. The ATI Radeon HD 4670 performed very well in our benchmark testing, which included a number of popular 3D applications and SD and HD video playback tests.”

Leading DirectX 10.1 support

Only AMD graphics offer top-to-bottom DirectX 10.1 support and the ATI Radeon HD 4600 series continues that legacy. Leading game developers are working with AMD to create a new generation of game titles utilizing DirectX® 10.1 to deliver improved features and performance for a better game experience. Developers including Electronic Arts’ Phenomic Studio and its forthcoming fantasy online real-time strategy game BattleForge™, and SEGA and its futuristic military real-time strategy game Stormrise™, both exploit DirectX 10.1 for advanced gaming performance and visual realism.

"As one of the largest computer system manufacturers in North America targeting the mainstream gaming space, we are committed to building systems that deliver tremendous value to our customers,” said Eric Cheung, CEO, CyberPower. "The leading edge technology that AMD is delivering to the mainstream marketplace with the ATI Radeon HD 4600 series is unsurpassed and we are proud to support AMD’s efforts to bring a high-end gaming experience to the masses.”

"You don’t have to be a professional gamer to appreciate the incredible performance delivered by the ATI Radeon HD 4600 series for under $100,” said Orlando Garcia, president and CEO, Frag Dominant.

Stunning HD viewing experience

The ATI Radeon HD 4600 series brings high-definition, home theatre quality video features to the mainstream segment. AMD has incorporated its second generation Unified Video Decoder (UVD 2.0) for advanced hardware HD video processing ensuring a smooth HD viewing experience on HD-capable monitors. In addition, it features support for HDMI 7.1 surround sound audio for an immersive big-screen entertainment feel.

Home theater enthusiasts will be captivated by ATI Avivo™ HD technology that delivers sharp images and vibrant color fidelity for Blu-ray™ and HD content. In addition, ATI Avivo™ HD technology delivers dynamic contrast adjustment for a crisp, vibrant picture with incredible quality, the ability for users to upscale DVD content to nearly twice the display resolution of HD content⁵, as well as take full advantage of Blu-ray functionality with picture-in-picture capabilities for bonus features such as director commentary.

Unsurpassed performance-per-watt

Built with efficiency, scalability and performance in mind, the ATI Radeon HD 4600 series sets a new performance-per-watt standard for mainstream graphics products, thanks to the enhanced bandwidth of DDR3, new power management capabilities that provide greater performance and efficiency, and 55nm technology. The series features AMD’s second generation ATI PowerPlay™ technology which allows for automatic power adjustments based on the activity of the graphics processing unit (GPU), resulting in significant power savings when the GPU is idle. Moreover, ATI PowerPlay enables advanced clock gating, as well as increased voltage and memory scaling, delivering performance on demand with exceptional efficiency.

Ecosystem support

The ATI Radeon HD 4600 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 4600 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 4600 series press kit may be viewed at www.amd.com/newsroom.

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, Avivo, PowerPlay, Radeon, and combinations thereof are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Other names are for informational purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners.

ATI Avivo™ HD is a technology platform that includes a broad set of capabilities offered by certain ATI Radeon™ HD GPUs. Not all products have all features and full enablement of some ATI Avivo™ HD capabilities may require complementary products.

1. The MSRP of the ATI Radeon HD 4670 is USD $79 and is the same price as the Nvidia GeForce 9500 GT based on www.newegg.com data available as of September 4, 2008. The ATI Radeon HD 4670 delivers up to double the performance of the Nvidia GeForce 9500 GT in games including Race Driver Grid (High Quality settings at both 1680x1050 and 1440x900), Half Life 2 (High Quality settings at 1680x1050 4xAA/16xAF), and Crysis (Medium Quality settings at 1680x1050 and 1440x900) as reported at http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33931118.

2. The ATI Radeon HD 4670 operates at less than 60 watts and the ATI Radeon HD 4650 operates under 50 watts. A common incandescent light bulb found in the home generally consumes 65 watts.

3. The ATI Radeon HD 4670 and Nvidia GeForce 9500 GT both operate around 75W. The ATI Radeon HD 4670 delivers better game performance than the Nvidia GeForce 9500 GT in 3DMark Vantage (P) 1280x1024, 3DMark Vantage (H) 1680x1050 2xAA 8xAF, Call of Duty 4 1600x1200 4xAA 8xAF, Crysis DirectX 10 at medium settings 1600x1200, Lost Planet DirectX 10 1600x1200 at 4xAA and 8xAF, and World in Conflict DirectX 10 1600x1200 4xAA 16xAF. Comparisons based on AMD internal testing using AMD Phenom™ processor 9950 (B3 2.6Ghz), MSI K9A2 (790FX) motherboard or ASUS M3N-HT DLX (780a) motherboard, 2GB DDR2-800 (timings: 5-5-5-18), Windows Vista® Ultimate 64bit, and ATI display driver 8.522_BR067277_0807282105, or nVidia display driver 177.79 WHQL Candidate.

4. Source: Mercury Research PC Graphics 2008 Market Strategy and Forecast Report, Updated Edition 3Q 2008.

5. The ATI Radeon HD 4600 Series GPUs can upscale video display to 2560x1600 on dual-link monitors which is almost twice the display resolution of 1080p displays.