AMD Finally Launches Low-Price DX10 Cards

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.

Comments

AMD VS. ATI

[CastrTroy]

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.

Where is ATI?

[cerelib]

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?

Re:So how bout that open source?

[TeknoHog]

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.