14 DAY TRIAL // "A computer is as good as its graphic card" said a gamer friend of mine, and there are quite a lot of computer users who share this opinion, and spend a lot of money on these components. However, there are also quite a lot of people who don't want to spend too much on their graphics card, and - especially for them - AMD has announced a reasonably priced GPU, namely the ATI Radeon X1650XT.
The $149 device features the RV560 chip with 24 pixel processors, 8 vertex shader processors, 8 texture units and 128-bit memory interface. Moreover, the ATI Radeon X1650XT runs at 575MHz and will be fitted with 256MB of 1350MHz GDDR3 memory, and it offers built-in Compositing Engine functionality, thus enabling a more effective use ATI's CrossFire dual-GPU configuration. Another important piece of information is that the GPU offers 10-bit video playback and HDCP high-definition copy protection, thus entering in a direct competition with Nvidia's future GeForce 7600 GT series, which will also offer significantly improved graphics.
As mentioned before, the GPU will be available for around $149, mainly because the RV560 graphics chip is produced using 80nm process technology, and thus the production costs won't be too high. The only thing we can do is wait and see just how well the future cards from this family will behave in real-life conditions (Dark Mesiah of Might and Magic, anyone?).
Photo Credit: www.techreport.com