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GeCube and TUL introduce Radeon HD2000 series graphics cards

Press release, May 15; Joseph Tsai, DIGITIMES Asia

GeCube has announced its ATI Radeon HD2000 family of graphics cards, including its high-end HD2900XT and HD2600 and HD2400 cards for the mainstream market, while TUL has also announced the launch of its related high-end graphics card.

The announcement of products from both companies comes on the heels of AMD's launch of its ATI Radeon HD 2000 series of graphics processing units (GPUs), which was launched as a challenge to Nvidia's GeForce 8 series. The 2900, 2600 and 2400 GPUs were previously referred to by their codenames R600, R610, and R630, respectively.

The HD2900XT is GeCube's premium product based on ATI's new generation Radeon HD2000 series. The HD2900XT is based on the R600XT, supports 512MB of GDDR3 memory and has a 512-bit memory bandwidth. The HD2900XT also offers native CrossFire technology and comes with built-in support for HDMI and 5.1-surround sound. The dual-link DVI is also compatible with HDCP (high-bandwidth digital content protection), HD-DVD and Blu-ray for resolutions up to 1080p.

The core and memory timings are 740MHz and 1.65GHz, respectively, allowing the card to provide the latest 24X anti-aliasing and high speed 128-bit HDR (High Dynamic Range). The architecture is designed with 320 unified stream processors and physics processing support.

The HD2600 series uses the ATI Radeon RV630XT chipset equipped with 512MB GDDR4 high-speed memory and X-Turbo2 silent fan technology, while the HD2400 uses the ATI Radeon RV610 chip equipped with 256MB DDR2 memory and has built-in HDMI.

Both the GeCube HD2600 and HD2400 cards support the latest UVD (Universal Video Decoder) video processing technology, which means 1080p/1080i (HD2600), Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are all supported. All GeCube HD2000 series products also currently support the latest DirectX10 technology.

TUL also announced its next-generation high-end graphics card, the PowerColor HD 2900 XT, based on the R600XT. The PowerColor HD 2900 XT features support for 700 million-transistor clocks at 740MHz and 512MB GDDR3 memory running at 1650MHz. The card also supports DirectX 10 games, and comes with built-in HDMI for single HD display and audio connection.

TUL's PowerColor HD 2900 XT is currently available in the market, with a worldwide launch price of US$399 (NT$16,500), while GeCube stated that the 2900 XT is also already available in the market at a price of NT$14900. GeCube's launch dates and pricing for the 2600 and 2400 cards have not been confirmed yet, the company indicated.

PowerColor HD 2900 XT hardware specification

Item

Detail

Chip

R600XT

Core clock

740 MHz

Memory clock

1650 MHz

Memory type

GDDR3, 512MB

Memory bus

512-bit

Source: Company, compiled by Digitimes, May 2007

Hardware specification: GeCube HD2900XT, HD2600, HD2400

Product Name

GC-HD2900XT-VIE3

GC-RX26XTG4-E3

GC-HD24PLG2-D3

Chip

R600XT (80nm)

RV630XT (65nm)

RV610LE (65 nm)

Core/Memory speeds

740MHz /1.65GHz

800Mhz/TBD

TBD

Memory bus

512 bit

128 bit

64 bit

Memory type

GDDR3 512MB

GDDR4 512MB

DDR2 256MB

Interface

PCI Express x16

PCI Express x16

PCI Express x16

DVI

Dual DVI (2 dual link, HDCP)

Dual DVI (2 dual link, HDCP)

Yes (dual link)

Multi-VPU Support

Native CrossFire thru interconnected cable

Native CrossFire thru interconnected cable

Yes (software mode)

Source: Company, compiled by Digitimes, May 2007