GeCube has announced its ATI Radeon HD2000 family of graphics cards, including its high-end HD2900XT and HD2600 and HD2400 cards for the mainstream market, while TUL has also announced the launch of its related high-end graphics card.
The announcement of products from both companies comes on the heels of AMD's launch of its ATI Radeon HD 2000 series of graphics processing units (GPUs), which was launched as a challenge to Nvidia's GeForce 8 series. The 2900, 2600 and 2400 GPUs were previously referred to by their codenames R600, R610, and R630, respectively.
The HD2900XT is GeCube's premium product based on ATI's new generation Radeon HD2000 series. The HD2900XT is based on the R600XT, supports 512MB of GDDR3 memory and has a 512-bit memory bandwidth. The HD2900XT also offers native CrossFire technology and comes with built-in support for HDMI and 5.1-surround sound. The dual-link DVI is also compatible with HDCP (high-bandwidth digital content protection), HD-DVD and Blu-ray for resolutions up to 1080p.
The core and memory timings are 740MHz and 1.65GHz, respectively, allowing the card to provide the latest 24X anti-aliasing and high speed 128-bit HDR (High Dynamic Range). The architecture is designed with 320 unified stream processors and physics processing support.
The HD2600 series uses the ATI Radeon RV630XT chipset equipped with 512MB GDDR4 high-speed memory and X-Turbo2 silent fan technology, while the HD2400 uses the ATI Radeon RV610 chip equipped with 256MB DDR2 memory and has built-in HDMI.
Both the GeCube HD2600 and HD2400 cards support the latest UVD (Universal Video Decoder) video processing technology, which means 1080p/1080i (HD2600), Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are all supported. All GeCube HD2000 series products also currently support the latest DirectX10 technology.
TUL also announced its next-generation high-end graphics card, the PowerColor HD 2900 XT, based on the R600XT. The PowerColor HD 2900 XT features support for 700 million-transistor clocks at 740MHz and 512MB GDDR3 memory running at 1650MHz. The card also supports DirectX 10 games, and comes with built-in HDMI for single HD display and audio connection.
TUL's PowerColor HD 2900 XT is currently available in the market, with a worldwide launch price of US$399 (NT$16,500), while GeCube stated that the 2900 XT is also already available in the market at a price of NT$14900. GeCube's launch dates and pricing for the 2600 and 2400 cards have not been confirmed yet, the company indicated.
| PowerColor HD 2900 XT hardware specification | |
| Item | Detail |
| Chip | R600XT |
| Core clock | 740 MHz |
| Memory clock | 1650 MHz |
| Memory type | GDDR3, 512MB |
| Memory bus | 512-bit |
Source: Company, compiled by Digitimes, May 2007
| Hardware specification: GeCube HD2900XT, HD2600, HD2400 | |||
| Product Name | GC-HD2900XT-VIE3 | GC-RX26XTG4-E3 | GC-HD24PLG2-D3 |
| Chip | R600XT (80nm) | RV630XT (65nm) | RV610LE (65 nm) |
| Core/Memory speeds | 740MHz /1.65GHz | 800Mhz/TBD | TBD |
| Memory bus | 512 bit | 128 bit | 64 bit |
| Memory type | GDDR3 512MB | GDDR4 512MB | DDR2 256MB |
| Interface | PCI Express x16 | PCI Express x16 | PCI Express x16 |
| DVI | Dual DVI (2 dual link, HDCP) | Dual DVI (2 dual link, HDCP) | Yes (dual link) |
| Multi-VPU Support | Native CrossFire thru interconnected cable | Native CrossFire thru interconnected cable | Yes (software mode) |
Source: Company, compiled by Digitimes, May 2007