AMD to Debut DirectX 11 Graphics Cards on September 10th
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 Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) will soon launch a graphics card that supports Microsoft's DirectX 11, which aims to make graphics in Windows 7 seem smoother and more realistic.
The new GPU known as Evergreen will be based on a 40-nanometer production technology at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.
"We'll be the first to deliver DirectX 11 GPUs later in 2009," said Rick Bergman, senior vice president of AMD's products group. "It's the biggest inflection point in graphics in 10 years".
AMD said it expects to beat competing graphics chip makers to market with the feature.
One of the advantages is a graphics technique called tessellation that allows game designers to create 3D models with much higher definition than before, so a lot of the jagged or blocky edges and surfaces often found in computer games can be smoothed out. The result is a much more natural look to the graphics.
Tessellation is already used in the Xbox 360 and some graphics processors support, it but the arrival of DirectX 11 will mean a standard around which the entire gaming industry can take advantage of the technique.
The release of AMD's first DirectX 11 graphics card would coincide with the launch of Microsoft's upcoming Windows 7, AMD spokesman John Taylor said on Thursday. The DirectX 11 graphics card will belong to the ATI Radeon line.
Microsoft's upcoming Windows 7 has built-in support for new DirectX 11 tools, but there is no hardware available yet that supports those tools.
The DirectX 11 tools include a set of APIs (application programming interfaces) for realistic images and better sound when playing games or watching movies.
DirectX 11 tools are also designed to help Windows 7 recognize multicore systems to improve performance of graphics and other applications. A feature called "Compute Shader" harnesses the parallel processing capabilities of GPUs (graphics processing units) to improve gaming on PCs. These improvements could make games more realistic through faster frame rates.
The tools also help break up multiple tasks effectively over existing CPU and GPU cores. For example, DirectX 11 will enable video conversion on the fly simply by dragging and dropping video from PCs to portable devices. It will also accelerate tasks such as image manipulation or DVD playback by off-loading them over CPUs and GPU cores.
The graphics card maker has been demonstrating an ATI Radeon graphics card with DirectX 11 support since June, but has not made a specific product announcement yet.
Links: AMD Evergreen articles:
AMD Set to Release DirectX 11 Graphics Card
AMD Plans DirectX 11 GPUs This Year |
