Charlie Foxtrot

Posts Tagged ‘ATI’

There has been an unusual amount of activity in the forums from Radeon users complaining about stability issues with HD 5000 series graphics cards.  Most of the complaints appear to be focused on the HD 5870, HD 5850 and HD 5770.  Problems include grey screens, crashes, colored stripes on screens and system hang-ups.  Here are some of the reports from around the web.

“A significant amount of ATI users have taken to the AMD user to user forums to complain about grey screens, crashes and colored-striped hangups. (There’s actually countless forums out there with threads like this…between them, have collected nearly 40 pages of possible causes…”

This comes soon after reports of a stop ship of the upcoming HD 5830 graphics card:

“A last minute issue discovered during the validation of ATI Radon HD 5830-based reference boards has prompted AMD to postpone the cards from their scheduled launch on January 25…AMD has already decided to retrieve related boards for further investigation.”

Blame this one on Tweaktown:

“Let’s not kid ourselves. Just days before the end of the month comes to a close, ATI squeezes out a Catalyst driver, I think it’s safe to say that this driver is more so to keep the flawless monthly release record than to bring massive improvements or new features. The driver seems so rushed out that someone forgot to update the Catalyst Control Center to actually say 10.1.”

We work to avoid issues like this with a robust developer relations program we call “The Way It’s Meant To Be Played.  AMD hates it and tries to mis-position it in “Fuddy” interviews by calling it a marketing program where we pay to have a logo in a game. But the proof is in the pudding.

“NVIDIA has forged a close relationship with many game developers through its “The Way It’s Meant To Be Played” program and other initiatives. Often, lately, newly released titles have worked better on NVIDIA GPUs”

We work closely with developers, often in their own buildings, to help them program games.  We provide them numerous testing tools, sample code and large scale compatibility testing.  That is what makes “The Way It’s Meant To Be Played” such a threat to AMD.

Power for High Definition gaming and ultra portability in a single laptop is no longer a fantasy. In fact, fantasy games are going to look great! The Alienware M11x redefines the gaming capabilities of a truly portable laptop by cramming in graphics capabilities that enable 720p gaming at 30 FPS (Frames per Second). Add on long battery life and light weight, and then ask what more could the ‘on the move’ gamer want…

AMD has announced its ATI Radeon HD 5450 graphics card, the company’s latest update to its entry-level graphics cards, designed to bring current multimedia technology within the reach of even the most budget-constrained. The ATI Radeon HD 5450 offers support for DirectX 11, ATI’s Eyefinity multi-display technology, and HDMI 1.3a with Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio.

The ATI Radeon HD 5450 offers consumers another next-generation graphics product from AMD, and further reinforces our price-performance value at a wide range of price points,” said AMD Graphics VP and general manager Matt Skynner, in a statement. “With the addition of the ATI Radeon HD 5450, home theater enthusiasts and casual gamers have access to cutting-edge features and solid performance at an incredible value.”

Although from a pure specs standpoint, the Radeon HD 5450 isn’t going to be the first pick of any serious PC gamer, it does pack 80 stream processing, units, 8 texture units, ATI stream acceleration technology, and OpenGL 3.2 support. The card also features dual-link DVI output with HDCP, an integrated DisplayPort output, HDMI 1.3a output, and a VGA output—and the card runs lightly enough that it can use passive cooling technology—in other words, no loud fans kicking in to cool that GPU—making it a decent choice for media center and home theater PCs.

The ATI Radeon HD 5450 is available now through a number of AMD partners and retailers; with 512 MB of video memory, the card should run less than $60.