Gadgets and Gizmos

ATI R680 Graphics Card is faster than a Cray-1 Supercomputer

ATI has launched its R680 Graphics Card which is 1000X Faster than a Cray-1 Supercomputer. The ATI Radeon HD 3800 series back in November, the 3870 X2 is a dual-GPU powered card that leverages ATI’s CrossFire technology. Here’s an up close and personal look at the card.

ATI R680 is indeed a high-end product for $799, but which is projected to be available already in Q4 2007. Technical details about the new graphics card are unclear, however, it is rumoured that the new high-end GPU from ATI/AMD will support DirectX 10.1, PCI Express 2.0, Avivo HD video engine with universal video decoder (UVD) as well as all the features currently available on ATI Radeon HD 2000-series GPUs.

The Radeon HD 3870 X2 has two Radeon HD 3870’s on board it’s not too tough to figure out. The cards are the longest cards. ATI make and since the cards have just one CrossFire bridge connector it seems that running four of these in CrossFireX isn’t going to happen, well at least for now. It should also be noted that the cards were actually running on a demo system that AMD made available.