AMD have announced two new desktop processors, the dual-core 45nm Athlon II X2 250 and the X2 550 Black Edition, their first-ever dual-core AMD Phenom II. The former boasts a TDP of 65W and nifty throttling to cut power consumption by as much as half when its full capabilities are not needed. Meanwhile desktop and mobile users will soon have the option of watching worldwide HDTV no matter the broadcast standard, thanks to the AMD ATI Theater HD 750.
Video demo after the cut
AMD have announced a new version of embedded graphics chipsets, with more than triple the 3D performance of their earlier offerings. The ATI Radeon E4690 bundles a second-generation AMD Unified Video Decoder for hardware acceleration of HD video with 512MB of graphics memory and support for DirectX 10.1 and OpenGL 3.0.
Hot on the heels of ASUS’ new Eee Box nettops comes rival MSI’s new Wind Box DE200. Sporting a new tapered design that reminds me of a Cylon’s helmet, the Wind Box DE200 pairs Intel’s Atom 230 1.6GHz processor with an ATI Radeon HD 4350 GPU and HDMI output.
ASUS’ Eee PC 1000HV has been benchmarked, putting its discrete ATI Radeon HD 3450 graphics to the test. Based on the same Intel Atom N280 1.66GHz processor as the 1000HE, the 1000HV uses its graphical grunt well: it racks up a CrystalMark R3 score of 37,430 versus the 1000HE’s 28,923.
Benchmark breakdown after the cut
The SlashGear team have been surprisingly mobile this week, with part one of our Lincoln MKS road-test, and toting Sprint’s version of the MiFi 2200 portable EVDO hotspot around. We still found enough time to get frantically excited about the Palm Pre, though, which we now know will launch on June 6th for $199.99.
That excitement is tempered with the ongoing rumors that stocks may be severely curtailed on launch day. Not only have Best Buy and RadioShack insiders been talking of minimal handset numbers come June 6th, Sprint’s own CEO is warning that the Pre will likely be in short supply for the first couple of months. The concern is that all of Palm’s momentum since CES back in January could fizzle out, as Apple are expected to announce a third-generation iPhone two days after the Pre’s launch.
An unannounced ASUS netbook has turned up for pre-order online, packing discrete ATI graphics. The ASUS Eee PC 1000HV pairs Intel’s Atom N280 1.66GHz processor with an ATI Radeon HD 3450 video card with 256MB of its own memory; it also has a 10-inch 1024 x 600 display, 1GB of RAM and a 160GB hard-drive.
MSI has officially announced their X-Slim X400 and X600 CULV ultraportables, together with confirming that the 14-inch and 15-inch notebooks will land before the end of June. The MSI X-Slim X400 weighs just 1.5kg while the larger X600 is 2.1kg; each notebook is less than 1-inch thick and have a 16:9 aspect LED-backlit display.
AMD did something a bit surprising today. They’ve announced a new version of their ATI Radeon HD 4890 graphics chipset that will be factory-overclocked to bump up the standard speed from 850MHz to 1GHz.
From the very start, ASUS’ Eee Box nettop caught the eye as a potential media PC, and the company themselves threw their hat into the ring with the launch of the Eee Box B206. Swapping the DVI output for an HDTV-friendly HDMI, and slotting an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3450 GPU with 256MB of its own DDR2 RAM in instead of the integrated graphics, the B206 promises high-definition playback above its humble Atom roots.
The Register have been taking a look at the nettop, and in some ways the B206 does deliver. Standard definition video runs with no problems, and DivX 720p files in Windows Media Player were also smooth; however, the B206 showed itself to be particularly picky about codecs.
The problem is that not all media player apps support DirectX Video Acceleration (DXVA), the technology which lets the Radeon HD 3450 GPU get its teeth into the video. Without that, it’s up to the Atom N270 1.6GHz chip to keep things ticking over, and we already know that Intel’s CPU struggles with high-resolution media.
AMD announced today that their Windows 7 graphics driver has been certified by Microsoft on the very first day of the latter company’s program that tests compatibility with the new operating system. The certification was given for the Windows Hardware Quality Lab or WHQL and is meant to indicate a driver is compatible with both Windows Vista and Windows 7.
This is good timing, considering AMD will be releasing their ATI Catalyst 9.5 by the end of the month. So, people that use ATI Radeon HD 2000, 3000 and 4000 series graphics cards can rest assured the new software will make them work completely with Windows 7.
Apparently, this also allows ATI Stream technology. The WHQL certification comes on the very first day of Microsoft opening their certification program. Nice way to jump in there with your graphics driver first, AMD!
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