AMD intros Radeon HD 6900 series GPUs
Chipmaker officially launches its newest line of GPUs for game enthusiasts, the Radeon HD 6900 series.
Advanced Micro Devices unveiled last night its new Radeon HD 6900 series GPUs--the 6950 and 6970--for game enthusiasts.
The Radeon HD 6900 series of GPUs, or graphics processing units, features support for Microsoft's DirectX 11 and includes AMD PowerTune, which allows the cards to automatically adjust power consumption based on how they're being used. In addition, AMD said the new series includes "up to 2GB of graphics frame buffer" to appeal to gamers.
Those who are looking to have multiple displays from different vendors should be happy to hear that the AMD Radeon HD 6950 and 6970 include support for DisplayPort 1.2 and HDMI 1.4a. In addition, the cards feature AMD's HD3D technology for 3D content.
AMD's announcement of its new cards comes just a couple months after the company waged a public battle with its top competitor, Nvidia, over GPU performance.
Back in October, the companies debated which product--Nvidia's or AMD's--delivered the best benchmark performance on video game H.A.W.X. 2.
Nvidia first claimed to have stronger benchmarks than AMD's option, which caused AMD to say that Nvidia's benchmark announcement was an "attempt by our competitor to negatively influence [press] reviews" of the AMD Radeon HD 6800 series. Nvidia then followed that up with a price drop and comparisons with AMD products, which led AMD to claim that the price cuts were "temporary." After that, Nvidia confirmed that the price drops were, in fact, permanent.
The battle between the companies is understandable. Over the past few years, both companies have had some trouble generating a profit. During its last fiscal year, which ended January 31, Nvidia posted a $68 million loss on over $3.3 billion in revenue. In its last fiscal year, which ended December 26 last year, AMD was able to generate $376 million profit on $5.4 billion in revenue. However, a year earlier, the company lost over $3.1 billion on $5.8 billion in revenue.
Radeon HD 6900 series cards are available now. Prices starts at $299.