The launch of the AMD Radeon HD 6990M GPU follows on the heels of its desktop cousin, the AMD Radeon™ HD 6990, which is still the undisputed champ of discrete GPUs. As you can imagine, we’re pretty excited to hold the title for both form-factors – that’s no small feat in this industry!

But that’s not the only exciting news for notebook users. There’s more.

With the recently launched AMD A-Series Accelerated Processing Units (APU), AMD has set a new standard in graphics with AMD Radeon™ Dual Graphics, which comes to life when an APU is paired with one of select discrete AMD Radeon™ GPUs.  With AMD CrossFireX™ technology², gamers can immediately notice higher resolutions and greater image quality on some of the most demanding DirectX® 11 titles today, including, “Dragon Age 2,” “DiRT 3” and “Shogun 2.”

What makes our graphics cards the best in the world? Our engineering and design teams strive to lead the world in innovation. And what technologies complement the core GPU? Well, AMD was the first company to ship products using GDDR5 memory back in 2008. GDDR5 offers more speed and higher bandwidth.  We led the industry when we made this shift and to this day our decision to do so enables users to accomplish some of the most demanding tasks ever thought possible on notebooks.

With this core innovation, industry trendsetters are choosing AMD. In fact, Apple now offers AMD Radeon™ HD graphics in its new 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pro – their flagship notebooks designed for graphics professionals. Apple found that with AMD GPUs, users can expect to see up to 3x the performance over the previous generation’s graphics.³

Trailblazer, trendsetter, innovator. No matter how you describe AMD, as the PC gaming technology leader, we’re committed to providing the most innovative technology available today.

Stay tuned for the next epic innovation…

1.  In tests conducted in AMD performance labs at 1920×1080, simulating mobile performance with a down-clocked desktop test system the AMD Radeon™ HD 6990M-based system was measured to be faster than the Nvidia GeForce 580M in the following benchmarks: Dragon Age 2 at 4AA/16AF (23.69%  faster), Total War: Shogun 2 at 2xAA/16xAF (10.36% faster), Aliens vs. Predator at 2xAA/8xAF (13.19% faster), Batman: Arkham Asylum at 4xAA/16xAF (16.85% faster), ET: Quake Wars at 8xAA/16xAF (25.82% faster), Just Cause 2 at 0xAA/2xAF (14.22% faster), Left 4 Dead 2 at 0xAA/0xAF (8.30% faster), Metro2033 at AAA/4xAF (11.40% faster), The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena at 4xAA/8xAF (15.32% faster), Wolfenstein MP at 8xAA/16xAF (16.59% faster).  Tests conducted with the following configuration: Asus M4A89GTD PRO/USB3, AMD Phenom™ II X4 965 (2.4GHz), 4GB (2GBX2GB), DDR3 system memory, Microsoft® Windows® 7 64-bit Ultimate operating system. Drivers: AMD Catalyst 8.861 RC1, NVIDIA Driver 275.33 WHQL.

2. AMD CrossFireX™ technology requires an AMD CrossFireX Ready motherboard, an AMD CrossFireX™ Bridge Interconnect (for each additional graphics card) and may require a specialized power supply.

3 Testing conducted by Apple, Inc. in February 2011 using preproduction 2.2GHz quad-core Intel Core i7–based 17-inch MacBook Pro units and preproduction 2.2GHz quad-core Intel Core i7–based 15-inch MacBook Pro units with AMD Radeon™ HD 6750M. 2.53GHz Intel Core i5–based 17-inch MacBook Pro systems and 2.66GHz Intel Core i7–based 15-inch MacBook Pro systems with NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M were production units. All systems were configured with 4GB of RAM. Tested at native resolutions using Portal v(4295)(400) and Half Life 2 Episode 2 v(4295)(420) with 4x antialiasing and high graphics quality. Half Life 2 Episode 2 timedemo test file: Storm. Portal timedemo test file: Mydemo1. MacBook Pro continuously monitors system thermal and power conditions, and may adjust processor speed as needed to maintain optimal system operation.

Casey Gotcher is the Director of Graphics Marketing at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites, and references to third party trademarks, are provided for convenience and illustrative purposes only.  Unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such links, and no third party endorsement of AMD or any of its products is implied.

Recently I got my mitts on a DV2 and I thought I’d have some fun gaming with it.  Now you may not consider the HP Pavilion dv2 a “gaming” notebook, but hold that thought for a few moments…

My HP Pavilion dv2 config as given to me was:

AMD Athlon™ Neo Processor @ 1.6Ghz

ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 3410 Premium Graphics

DDR2 – 2G

12.1” Screen

3.8lbs

External BluRay

HDMI output

And a whole lotta coolness

As stated above and as clearly obvious from the specs, there is no dual or quad core cpu, no high-end GPU (let alone ATI CrossfireX™ technology), no 20” screen. So all in all, not a normal spec’d gaming notebook, BUT, that has never stopped me before and it won’t this time!  Let’s load this little badboy up with some tier1 PC games and see how it handles.

Let’s level set though, this notebook is beautiful, its sleek and stylish, has good mainstream battery life and (as of the writing of this blog) is the only comparable laptop in its class under $750 (after a limited time $50 Mail-in rebate), BUT, I believe some mainstream consumers might want to game on it from time to time so this blog is solely a service to them (and to us enthusiasts who love to see silicon sweat under load).

On tap today is Left4Dead, Tom Clancys H.A.W.X and CoD WaW! A tough bunch of games, no Pong or Tetris here folks!

Left4Dead was played @800x480 2x AA, 4X AF, Shader Detail – High, Effect Detail – Low, Texture Detail – High!

L4D

The gaming experience was fantastic; especially when I reminded myself that this was an inexpensive Ultrathin Notebook weighing under 4lbs and that I was playing on a super portable platform.  The game play dropped below 30FPS a couple times but if this actually reduced or impacted game play I could have simply reduced the quality settings to adjust, but even at lower FPS, it was a good experience.

Tom Clancys H.A.W.X is a newly released game from Ubisoft which is one of 2009’s best Flight Sims.  I loaded up the Demo and put the little HP Dv2 to the ultimate flying test!  Seeing as how Ubisoft “recommends” a dual core AMD processor, I was a little apprehensive, but in the end, the Dv2 shined again. The ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3410 inside the Dv2 delivered a great gaming experience at native resolution and the other settings were: 1280x800 – Environment – Low, Texture – High – HDR – Off.

Here is a video capture of the gaming experience on the HP dv2:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-VOz5mByZo

A zombie shooter and a flight sim pwned, what was next? My failsafe, CoD WaW! I know, I know, you are now “wincing,” expecting the game to beat the PC; the verdict is in, the Dv2 “got GAME!” I was almost knocked off my feet at the ability to play CoD WaW. Seriously, this is one mean little piece of innovation all wrapped up in an ultra thin chassis.

Xavier over at Notebooks.com captured some sweet video of his experience playing CoD WaW that is worth checking out!

A little nugget of info to pass along, my version of the Dv2 came with 40 preinstalled games, titles like Agatha Christie – Death on the Nile all the way to and including ZUMA Deluze and Wheel of Fortune.  While not first intended to be a gaming notebook, the HP Dv2 does not disappoint!

Buy here.

Check out what others are saying:

Pat Moorhead here and here

Pat Moorhead on Batterylife

Nigel Dessau

Notebooks.com

TGDaily

SLASHGEAR

PCMAG.com

Cheers,
Ian “Cabrtosr” McNaughton

Ian McNaughton is senior manager of advanced marketing at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.

“Plug ‘n’ Pulverize” gaming graphics upgrade for notebook PCs

For millions of notebook PC users, it’s been nothing more than a frustrated wish. A portable performance possibility never realized. A mobile multi-monitor dream unfulfilled. An unreachable itch that laptop-toting PC gamers could never scratch -until now.

Thanks to AMD, notebook buyers will finally get what they have wanted for so long: “Plug ‘n’ Pulverize” graphics performance that transforms a thin-and-light laptop into a gaming powerhouse. AMD’s new ATI XGP™ technology is a PCIe 2.0-compatible external graphics platform that adds desktop-class graphics performance and multi-monitor muscle to compatible notebook PCs. The idea is to deliver both long battery life and a great gaming experience -two features long considered mutually exclusive – making XGP a potential breakthrough innovation that gives notebook gamers the best of both worlds.

Supercharge gaming for CRYSIS-worthy frame rates with multi-GPU ATI CrossFireX™ technology, mating the ATI XGP’s ATI Radeon™ HD 3870 GPU with the notebook PC’s internal ATI Radeon HD 3000-series graphics card. Enjoy ultra high quality HD graphics for demanding multimedia and video editing tasks, HD video and Blu-ray decoding and playback, integrated HD audio output over HDMI, and more.¹

Rabah and Ron (the AMD brains behind the scenes)

ATI XGP™ technology features an ATI Radeon HD 3870 GPU with 512 MB DDR3 video memory inside a small portable enclosure with standalone power and cooling. It connects to a compatible AMD-based notebook PC with a special eight-lane PCI Express 2.0 external cable, enabling the ATI XGP to simultaneously drive up to three external high-resolution displays with HDMI and DVI connections. A couple of powered USB 2.0 ports also enable easy external mouse and keyboard docking.

This kind of solution has been the long-sought holy grail of every notebook user who suffered buyer’s remorse after discovering the limitations of their latest lightweight wonder. Our lead ATI XGP technology OEM partner is Fujitsu Siemens Computers and together we have been able to bring to market their FSC Amilo Graphics Booster, one of the “coolest” external consumer devices ever offered in the gaming/consumer electronics space. My exalted “insider” status enabled me to actually kick the tires and take it for a spin!

The FSC Graphics Booster: a half-kilogram of full desktop-class performance

We hooked-up a FSC Graphics Booster to a ATI XGP-ready notebook and big-screen HDTV at our UK AMD Live! lab. Addled gamers that we are, we loaded fresh installs of CRYSIS and FRAPS to put the FSC Graphics Booster to the ultimate FPS test.

The plant is fake – but the FPS are real

Our first impression? The FSC Graphics Booster is a great solution to play today’s most demanding PC games at mainstream resolutions on a thin-and-light laptop, yet avoiding the bulk, weight, heat, and battery power consumption of built-in single or dual discrete notebook graphics.

From left: playing GRID, watching HD video, tweaking Twitter, digging DIGG

Next: a multi-monitor experiment to try something other notebook users can only wish they could. Even with dual-core CPUs and multitasking operating systems, today’s notebook PCs are typically productivity-hobbled by the lack of true support for multiple high-resolution displays. The FSC Graphics Booster with AMD’s XGP technology changes all of that, simultaneously driving three external monitors along with the notebook’s screen.

Quad-displays = sweaty-palmed excitement

The FSC Graphics Booster with ATI XGP™ technology offers an unbeatable combination of desktop-class graphics power, ATI CrossFireX technology-enabled, and multi-display support. Thin-and-light notebook users can now have it all – mobile computing when you need it, multi-monitor productivity when you want it, and ATI CrossFireX graphics performance when your in-game survival depends on it. Check out some early reviews on We Got Served and here Notebookcheck.com

Watch this space for more notebook PC gaming, because I’m planning to take the awesome Alienware M17 for the ultimate test drive!

Cheers!

Ian “Cabrtosr” McNaughton

1. HD monitor required. Additionally, a Blu-ray drive is required for Blu-ray playback.

Ian McNaughton is senior manager of product and platform marketing EMEA at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.