We already knew that AMD-ATI had succeeded to frighten nVidia with its new graphics cards, Radeon HD4850 and HD4870 (the latter are able to do as well as the nVidia GTX260, for less money). But the nVidia GTX280 graphics cards were left without real competition… up to the arrival of Radeon HD4870×2.

Two RV770 GPUs (identical to the one on the AMD Radeon HD4870 card and able to bring the raw power of a GTX280 card), this is the solution found by AMD-ATI. They did it before, they intend to win again.

The announcement arrives with two information bits important for potential purchasers and for nVidia: The price will be identical to the nVidia competition ($499) and the card will be sold starting 2nd August 2008.

nVidia reply? Maybe a “super GTX280″ that is still undescribed.

So, the newest graphics line from AMD ATI will be known collectively as Radeon HD 4800 and will contain more precisely two major cards: Radeon HD 4850 and Radeon HD 4870. It is even clear that the first one will be sold around 200$ (so notably under 200€) and the second around 300$.

AMD announced, in the recent presentation at Computex, that there will be quite a number of improvements in these cards to support nearly cinematographic quality in games, named Cinema 2.0. This was a surprise and it means that AMD is going to hit as hard as possible on nVidia.

The other muddy issue is the exact date of the launch. It was initially expected in May 2008. But it has been delayed (obviously) apparently for technical problems had to be solved in the last minute. AMD will not be able to hit the streets before nVidia can launch the GTX200 line (on June 17th), but it should arrive only a few days later. Some people say June 23rd (just enough time for the news people to move from one place to another), and it is now possible that both cards will arrive at the same time (initially the high-end Radeon HD 4870 was expected only for September).

Every rumour points at a change of pace in the war between GPU designers (designers of processors for graphics cards), nVidia and AMD are preparing a big battle for this Summer.

While we have been observing a rush for always bigger GPU (G80 and R600 from nVidia and AMD-ATI are even bigger than central CPUs from Intel and AMD), we should see the arrival of the first modular processors for grpahics cards: one chip only for cheap products, but 4 or 8 for the high-end graphics card. It will be easier to design the silicium, and you will only have to choose how many GPUs you need on the video card. The question is still to know if this will be refelcted in the announcements of this Summer or in 2009.

Some photos of the ATI Radeon HD4800 line are now available on the Tom’s Hardware – Taiwan web site.

The long-expected HD4800 series from AMD will arrive on June 18th (with two cards: HD4850 and HD4870). The only limitation would be waiting for availability of GDDR-5-type memory (yet another memory technology for a new graphics technology). A turbo version HD 4870X2 (two high-end chips GPU on the same board) would be ready in Fall.

The HD4850 should be a performance boost over the current HD3850, but the HD4870 is expected to be a plain twice more powerful than the already nice HD3870X2. Let’s kick ass…

nVidia just revealed its low-cost GTX260 and a hig-performance GTX280. These would be the last launches before modular series. Under the public name of GT 9800 GTX with no less than 240 shader processors, 32 raster units, 1 GB of GDDR3, and a moderate 512-bit memory interface. The fastest version should be named GT 9900 GTX.

So, let’s look at the laucnhes in the sun and let’s watch the technological announcements for Fall (AMD R700 and nVidia G9x). The marketroids from both companies are cleaning their weapons under the eyes of video game players.

I waited a little while before reacting and writing, but these recent last weeks we have witnessed an interesting move in the little world of graphics cards. While ATI (now AMD) has recently been relegated to the troublingly systematic position of follower or challenger in the competition for the pockets of PC graphics cards buyers, they finally reacted through two noticeable actions:

• On the one hand, in the lower-end of the range, AMD/ATI launched a new nice price solution under $100: The new HD 3400 and HD 3600 are there to grab the awards for the lowest prices and simultaneous 3D graphics (DirectX 10.1, but don’t expect them to be enough for a crusher like Crysis) and HD video capacity (1920×1080p Full-HD resolution). The HD3400-based boards could even go under $65!
• On the other hand, at the star-end of the range which was recently left to nVidia, here is a solution obviously attractive even if not elegant: HD 3870 x2. When you’re short on performance, you can always double it by grouping 2 GPU on 1 card and crash prices down to kick the hell out of your competitors. It’s not 100% perfect (some games will not be optimized for two graphics cores) but this is a (realtively) easy technical solution to setup. ATI did it and robbed the limie light from nVidia (at least for now).

Ok! This is not enough to forget the raw performance of the nVidia boards. But it is interesting to see how AMD/ATI fights with all available tricks to be able to come back a little later with some still-undisclosed new graphics cards.