Archive notice: This article was originally published on January 10, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
The ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3400 and ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3600 series models offer PCI Express 2.0 support and are the first notebook graphics cards to support DirectX 10.1. They are intended to give mobile users high-definition and 3D graphics at the best quality.
This puts AMD ahead of the competition, as with desktop graphics cards (pressetext reported: http://www.pte.at/pte.mc?pte=071115023). “Our product portfolio does not yet include graphics cards with DirectX 10.1 support, since DirectX 10.1 has not really been used by either Microsoft or game manufacturers so far,” Nvidia spokesperson Jens Neuschäfer said, remaining relaxed. In fact, the games industry had voiced criticism of DirectX 10.1 as late as the end of 2007.
AMD nevertheless expects the new graphics cards to improve realism and quality in 3D games on notebooks through, among other things, new lighting effects and rendering techniques. On notebooks with suitable displays, HD videos are also intended to be shown at the best quality even at a resolution of 1,920 by 1,080 pixels. Like the desktop graphics cards released in November, the notebook models are also designed to be especially energy efficient. The graphics-card models are tailored to AMD’s “Puma” notebook platform, which is being introduced at CES. “Puma” is due in the second quarter of 2008, and the new graphics cards are intended to perform optimally in conjunction with the platform.
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3400 and HD 3600 series graphics cards are already being supplied in some ASUS notebooks, with further manufacturers expected to follow in the first half of 2008. Graphics cards with DirectX 10.1 support for both desktop and notebook use will take a little longer to arrive. According to Neuschäfer, this will be a feature of the next card generation, likely to appear in the autumn.
