As if the gaming world needs yet another ultra-powerful graphics card, Taiwan-based Info-Tek, manufacturer of the GECUBE brand of ATI video cards, has released the first three in a new line of next-generation video cards. Of the three cards (GECUBE Radeon X1300, X1600, and X1800) being released, the X1800 is being proclaimed the world?s most powerful video card. All three are based on ATI?s newest architecture, R520.
The X1800 features an absurdly fast 625MHz core clock, yielding a 1.5GHz memory clock speed. It contains brand spankin? new on-board memory (512MB GDDR3), allowing high performance at resolutions such as 1920×1440 and 2048×1536. The X1800 features support for ATI?s CrossFire Platform. ATI?s new CrossFire platform allows PC gamers to combine two Radeon graphics cards (with possibly multiple Visual Processing Units on each card) on one motherboard. From there, CrossFire uses a process called ?supertiling,? a high-performance GPU sharing that evenly divides the processing and graphics rendering workload between the dual graphics cards.
According to the press release, the amount of memory (512MB) and the new type of memory (GDDR3) render ?memory-intensive processes such as storing high definition textures, concurrent access to multiple high definition source maps, and techniques for multiple rendering targets?obsolete. Marking a momentum shift in the gaming industry, 512MB memory will now allow developers to concentrate on other gaming facets and worry less about memory usage.? Hopefully this will lead to less graphics-intensive development and more time put into innovative gameplay, but that remains to be seen.
More information on Info-Tek and its GECUBE line of graphics cards can be found at http://www.gecube.com.