AMD upgrades mobile GPU lineup for laptops
Or: Honey, I shrunk the Radeon HD 4000 series
AMD's RV770 graphics processor went portable at the Consumer Electronics Show with a new range of Mobility HD 4000 GPUs for notebooks.
The ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4000 series GPUs are similar to their desktop cousins in many respects and will come in flavors for high-end gaming laptops, low-cost notebooks, and the mobile machines in between.
At the top of the line are ATI's 4850 and 4870 models, sporting 800 shaders, support for GDDR5 and GDDR3 memory types, a 256-bit memory interface, and CrossFire support.
At the mid-range are 4670 and 4650 GPUs with 320 shaders (that's the same as the previous top-end Mobility HD 3000 series, except consuming less power). The 4600 models support DDR2, DDR3 and GDDR3 memory, a 128-bit memory interface, and CrossFire support.
Filling the low-end segment are 4300 and 4500 GPUs with 80 shaders, support for DDR 2, DDR 3, and GDDR 3 memory, a 64-bit memory interface, and alas no CrossFire support. Obviously, the focus here is battery life.
All the 4000 series mobility GPUs support DirectX 10.1, streaming 7.1-channel audio through HDMI ports, and HD playback up to 1080p.
Or if you prefer a chart for such things:
| SPs | Memory types | Transistors | Memory bandwidth | Compute Power | |
| HD 4800 | 800 | GDDR 3, GDDR 5 | 956 million | 89.6GB/s | 800GFlops |
| HD 4600 | 320 | DDR 2, DDR 3, GDDR 3 | 514 million | 25.6GB/s | 432GFlops |
| HD 4500 & 4300 | 80 | DDR 2, DDR 3, GDDR 3 | 242 million | 12.8GB/s | 108GFlops |
The first notebooks with the 4000-series GPUs are expected to rollout this quarter. ®
COMMENTS
Perhaps you can upgrade
Depends on whether you have a discrete GPU, or whether its handled onboard- perhaps you may be able to upgrade?
i don;t suppose
they're going to standardise the interface while they are at it too. I would love to upgrade the piece of junk in my current laptop to a workable graphics card, i had to buy on a budget, however, not when it means buying a whole new laptop to do it.
