amd-radeon posts

As promised earlier this week AMD has now officially launched its second generation DirectX 11 graphics cards, the Radeon 6800 series. It's also the first graphics card from AMD that won't be using the ATI branding. The first graphics cards are being targets for the "mainstream" user. The Radeon HD 6850 has 1GB of memory and a 775MHz graphics processor for $180. The more expensive ($240) Radeon HD 6870 has a higher clock speed of 900MHz.\

Hardware sites like HardOCP, AnandTech and other are generally positive, saying the performance of the new Radeon cards beat those of Nvidia's in the same price bracket. New Radeon cards made for the extreme hardcore game (i.e. more expensive) are due to be released later this year.

Last year, AMD was the first company to offer DirectX 11-based graphics cards to PC gamers, beating its main rival Nividia by several months. One year later, AMD is about to release the next generation of its Radeon DirectX 11 graphics cards. It will also be the first Radeon cards to not use the ATI branding which AMD has decided to abandon.

Our sister site Engadget reports that the first two cards from AMD will be the Radeon HD 6870 and Radeon HD 6850. You can see the 6870 card in the above image but beyond that AMD is keeping the technical details on both cards, including pricing, under an embargo. More info will be revealed on the new cards on Friday.

In 2006, PC processor maker AMD made huge headlines with its acquisition of the ATI PC graphics chip and card business for $5.4 billion. Now, four years later, AMD has decided the ATI brand name has served its purpose and will phase out the use of the ATI brand name later this year.

While the ATI brand is going away, AMD will still retain the Radeon brand for its consumer graphics chips and boards. All of AMD's current graphics products will still have the ATI brand, presumably until they are phased out. According to AnandTech, AMD is also simplifying its brands across the board in 2011 with the Vision name as the only one that will be used for all of its CPU products.