AMD DirectX 11 Graphics Cards in H2 2009

AMD plans to introduce new graphics cards with support for DirectX 11 in the second half of 2009. In fact, speculation points out that the move is planned to happen sooner than latter with the chip maker reportedly looking to have the first DirectX 11-capable graphics cards on the market as soon as July or August. AMD has so far failed to either confirm or deny a scenario in which ATI DirectX 11 graphics cards would precede Windows 7 to the market. When Softpedia spoke with John Swinimer, Public Relations manager at AMD, at the start of this month, the CPU maker indicated that it was not ready to detail to the public unreleased products.

Reports indicate that the new DirectX 11-capable graphics cards will feature the 40-nanometer technology, according to Heise Online. In this regard, Swinimer confirmed to our very own Ionut Arghire and Traian Teglet, that the 40nm graphics processors were planned for availability soon. At the same time, Swinimer touched up DirectX 11 briefly when talking about the ATI Radeon HD 4000 series.

“It has been a great success—the market has responded incredibly well to the AMD “sweet spot” strategy where AMD targeted the performance market first, then scaled up with a multi-GPU solution that hit the enthusiast market and scaled down for the mainstream space. The Mercury Research Report for PC Graphics from 4Q2008 showed that the greatest demand for graphics cards are in the sub $100 price range, followed by the $100 price range and then the sub $300 range. AMD has products that excel in each of these markets and include next-generation technology such as DirectX 11,” Swinimer stated.

AMD introduced support for Windows 7 in mid-March 2009, with the release of ATI Catalyst 9.3 Unified Driver. The ATI Catalyst 9.3 drivers for Windows 7 were released on the heels of Nvidia's GeForce 181.71 graphics drivers, which also deliver support for the Beta Build 7000 of the next iteration of Windows.