ATI Radeon 8500 Preview

The ATI Radeon 8500 graphics board, powered by the most advanced graphics processor chip in the world, delivers up to 33 percent higher performance than the nearest competitive product. It features a core clock speed of 250 MHz, memory clock speed of 275 MHz and 64MB of DDR memory. Available in late September, it has an MSRP of (US) $399. Major technological advancements include TRUFORM, an innovative rendering technology that helps to deliver the smoothest, most natural 3D images ever seen on existing and next-generation 3D games; and SMARTSHADER, an advanced technology that takes advantage of Microsoft's new DirectX 8.1 specification, including supporting Pixel Shaders Version 1.4 to enable more complex and realistic texture and lighting effects without sacrificing performance.

Specifications

• 64MB DDR Memory.
• Output 15-pin VGA connector, S-Video or composite connector, DVI-I (flat panel display) connector.
• Supports DirectX 8.1 and OpenGL 1.3.
• Supports 3D resolutions (32-bit color) up to 2048x1536.
• AGP universal bus (for AGP 2X/4X systems)
• Quality product from the world's largest manufacturer of graphics boards means reduced cost of ownership - less downtime, low power consumption, full technical support, and 3-year warranty.

Features

• HYPERZ II- a next-generation memory bandwidth saving technology, that boosts rendering performance by 25 percent.
• CHARISMA ENGINE II- which supports full transform, clipping and lighting (T&L) at 62.5 million triangles/second peak processing capability.
• PIXEL TAPESTRY II- the RADEON 8500's 3D rendering engine, which uses four rendering pipelines to process an incredible 2 gigatexels per second for the highest fill rates in 32-bit color at high resolutions.
• HydraVision- ATI's world-leading, multi-monitor desktop management software optimizes the dual display experience with user controllable shortcut keys and individual application settings. The RADEON 8500 takes advantage of HydraVision with its integrated dual display controllers, enabling true dual monitor support, for the first time in a high-performance gaming product.
• VIDEO IMMERSION II- a second-generation technology that enables integration of industry-leading digital video features, including DVD (digital versatile disc) video playback and advanced de-interlacing algorithms for unprecedented video quality.
• TRUFORM, SMARTSHADER, SMOOTHVISION anti-aliasing, High Performance Memory Support, Dual Display Support, Integrated Transformation, Clipping and Lighting, Twin Cache Architecture, SuperScalar Rendering, Single-Pass Multi-texturing, True Color Rendering, Triangle Setup Engine, Texture Cache, Bilinear/Trilinear Filtering, Line & Edge Anti-aliasing, Full-Screen Anti-aliasing, Texture Compositing, Texture Decompression, Specular Highlights, Perspectively Correct Texture Mapping, Mip-Mapping, Z-buffering and Double-buffering, Emboss, Dot Product 3 and Environment bump mapping, Spherical, Dual-Paraboloid and Cubic environment mapping, Fog effects, texture lighting, video textures, reflections, shadows, spotlights, LOD biasing and texture morphing.

Resolutions

• 2D display modes: 640x480 @200, 800x600 @200, 1024x768 @200, 1152x864 @200, 1280x1024 @160, 1600x1200 @120, 1920x1080 @120, 1920x1200 @100, 1920x1440 @90, 2048x1536 @85.
• Maximum 3D resolutions: 65K colors 2048x1536, 16.7M colors 2048x1536.

Video Playback

• ATI's VIDEO IMMERSION II technology enables integration of industry-leading digital video features, including advanced de-interlacing algorithms for unprecedented video quality and integrated digital TV decode capability.
• Includes programmable gamma for the overlay and Frame Rate Conversion (Temporal Filtering).
• Hardware DVD saves the expense of buying a separate MPEG-2/DVD decoder card and motion compensation allows for DVD decoding with minimum CPU usage.
• HDTV ready.

System Requirements

• Pentium 4/III/II/Celeron, AMD K6/Athlon or compatible with AGP 2X or AGP 2X/4X universal slot.
• 64MB of system memory.
• Installation software requires CD-ROM drive.
• DVD playback requires DVD drive.
• Windows 98/98SE, Windows Me, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP.

Links

Where to Buy

Information

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