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AMD Finally Launches Low-Price DX10 Cards

Posted by Zonk on from the now-you-just-have-to-get-vista dept.

Steve Kerrison writes "The Radeon 'R600' HD 2900 XT was late coming, and so by extension are the lower cost parts derived from it. The Radeon HD 2400 and 2600s are now available, just the same, with pricing aimed at knocking mid-range GeForce 8 series cards off people's shopping lists. There's more to a graphics card than price; performance and driver functionality are key too. HEXUS had some fun and games testing the new Radeons: 'The hardware designers may now be sitting back, content that their DX10-supporting midrange SKUs are at least as compelling as the competition's. But, and it's a big, big but, the current drivers aren't realizing the kind of performance we'd expect from a knowledge of the Radeon HD 2600 XT's setup.'" A very useful article ... unfortunately spread across a dozen pages with no 'print view' available.

7 of 99 comments (clear)

  1. So how bout that open source? by YojimboJango · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I know that their drivers are crap, however what ever came of AMD's commitment to open sourcing their drivers?
    I'm pretty sure there's at least a couple hundred enthusiasts that could get these cards up to their maximum potential in a few weeks.

    1. Re:So how bout that open source? by TeknoHog · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Hell, even Intel's crappy integrated graphics work better in xorg than ATI.

      For very strange values of 'crappy'. Intel chips have opensource drivers, unlike those of ATI or NVidia, and most of them are already incorporated into official releases of Linux and Xorg. Intel's graphics chips may not be powerful enough for heavy gaming, but that should not be an issue for Linux users anyway. The Core 2 fiasco is a shame though.

      --
      Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
    2. Re:So how bout that open source? by drinkypoo · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Maybe but it is just possible that ATIs drivers where not written by idiots.

      Obviously you don't have any [real] experience with any ATI drivers written any time during their lifetime because you would know that no, that is not possible. The people writing ATI's drivers are, in fact, idiots.

      There were problems with Windows drivers for the mach32 and mach64! I mean these aren't even 3d chips! and they don't have much 2d acceleration, either.

      The Free drivers for ati tend to be more stable than the commercial drivers, although they don't support as much hardware. but they DO support hardware ATI doesn't, because ATI doesn't support Rage video devices. That's right, if you have a rage chip, ATI has simply abandoned you. Keep in mind that this represents a HUGE number of laptops.

      If ATI would just give us the specs we (we the community, not we as in me and some other guy) wouldn't need them to open-source their drivers. Perhaps they're hoping to make themselves look less bad by releasing their drivers instead of specs and thus slowing down the OSS community :P

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    3. Re:So how bout that open source? by TeknoHog · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Point is we are largely technology enthusiasts... and there is nothing in intel integrated graphics to be enthusiastic about. Their drivers yes... but the chips themselves... hell no.

      I'm sure there is a wide spectrum of technology enthusiasm here. Sheer computational power is not always the most desirable thing. Many people also care about factors like power consumption, small size, low price and low noise, in addition to open specs and source.

      --
      Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
  2. AMD VS. ATI by CastrTroy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I was a little confused when I first read the headline, and the I saw the word Radeon and I remembered that AMD bought ATI. However, aren't they still using the ATI name when selling these cards? Wouldn't it be a little less confusing to say "ATI Finally Launches Low-Price DX10 Cards"? Anyway, if they have dropped the ATI name, I think it's a bad move. ATI had a pretty good reputation. Changing to a different name seems like a bold move.

    --

    Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
  3. Where is ATI? by cerelib · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Is AMD planning on absorbing ATI or keeping it as a separate brand? People keep using "AMD" in place of "ATI". The products are called "ATI Radeon HD 2xxx". The ATI website is now green and AMD branded, but the ATI name is still used on the products. Has there been any word from AMD about the future of the ATI brand? Are they just in transition to absorbing ATI completely?

  4. Karma to Burn by jshriverWVU · · Score: 2, Interesting
    While the hardware does sound like a good bang for your buck. Personally I don't care what card is supported via any version of DirectX. Especially since DX10 is Vista only.

    Let me know when there are good Linux drivers out closed or not, and MesaGL plays happily with it.