Mit der FireGL X2-256t bringt ATi eine neue Grafikkarte für professionelle Anwender auf den Markt, die gegenüber dem Vorgänger eine nochmals um 25 Prozent verbesserte Shaderleistung besitzen soll. Laut ATi sollen sich somit professionelle Arbeiten noch schneller und effizienter erledigen.
Rein technisch basiert die X2-256t - das "t" im Namen steht für "turbo" - auf dem R360-Chip, der auch in der Radeon 9800 XT verbaut wird. Um dem gehobenen Anspruch der etwaigen Klientel gerecht zu werden, modifizierte man jedoch leicht das PCB und stattet die Grafikkarte nun mit zwei DVI-Anschlüssen aus. Neben den bereits von der 9800 XT bekannten acht Renderingpipelines und vier Vertex-Shader-Prozessoren sind natürlich auch die Taktraten für Chip und Speicher absolut identisch mit denen der Desktop-Variante. Die X2-256t soll in Kürze für $899 auf den Markt kommen. Das alte, auf der Radeon 9800 Pro basierende Modell X2-256 kostete bei seiner Markteinführung noch 999 US-Dollar.
ZitatThe new turbo-charged FireGL™ X2-256t is our highest performance workstation graphics accelerator, delivering the fastest 3D performance and superior quality graphics for professional applications. Based on the FGL™ 9800XT Visual Processing Unit (VPU), featuring four geometry engines and eight parallel rendering pipelines, the FireGL X2-256t takes the leading computer-aided design (CAD) and digital content creation (DCC) applications to a new level of interactivity.
With 256MB of graphics memory and hardware accelerated rendering using OpenGL Shading Language and DirectX 9 HLSL, the FireGL X2-256t empowers 3D professionals to realize a dramatic increase in productivity and a reduction in design cycle times, without sacrificing quality. All FireGL boards are certified for the leading OpenGL and DirectX applications, with full support under Windows and Linux environments.
All advanced graphics features are available across the entire FireGL product line from mobile workstations through high-end systems, and are enabled with a single graphics driver, simplifying system administration within the production environment. Features
Revolutionary graphics architecture
- 8-pixel pipeline architecture providing high performance, parallel rendering capabilities
- 24-bit for each color component (RGBA) enables true-life images to be displayed beyond 16.7M colors
- Full scene anti-aliasing
- High-speed 256MB DDR memory to meet the needs of the most demanding CAD/CAM and DCC applications
- 256-bit memory interface removes hardware performance bottlenecks and provides end users with faster 3D performance
- Dual DVI-I connectors support any combination of digital flat panel and VGA displays
- AGP 4X/8X support
Optimized Software Support
- Optimized drivers certified for the leading CAD and DCC software applications
- Full support for the latest OpenGL® API and Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0
- Hardware accelerated rendering using OpenGL Shading Language and DirectX 9 HLSL
- Robust support for Windows® and Linux® environments
Specifications
Graphics technology
- Powered by the FGL™ 9800 Visual Processing Unit (VPU)
- 256-bit high bandwidth memory architecture
- 4 parallel geometry engines
- 8 parallel pixel pipelines
- 128-bit full floating point precision
- 24-bits per RGBA component displays beyond 16.7M colors
Display support
- Dual DVI-I supports any combination of digital and analog displays
- Maximum resolution of 2048x1536 per display
- Independent resolution and refresh rate selection for any two connected displays
- Dual integrated 10-bit per channel 400 MHz DACs
- Integrated 165 MHz TMDS transmitter (DVI & HDCP compliant)
API and Operating systems support
- OpenGL®
- OpenGL Shading Language
- Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0
- DirectX® 9.0 HLSL
- Windows® XP/Windows® 2000
- Linux®
Graphic Features
- dware acceleration of the following:
SMARTSHADER™ 2.1
- Anti-aliased points and lines or full scene anti-aliasing (2X, 4X, 6X)
- 3D lines and triangles
- Stipple points
- Two-sided lighting
- Up to 8 light sources
- Directional and local lighting
- OpenGL overlay planes
- Occlusion culling
- 6 user defined clip planes
- OpenGL polymode functions
- 32-bit (24+8-bit stencil) Z Buffer
- Fast Z and color clears
- Full DX9 vertex shader support with 4 vertex units
SMOOTHVISION™ 2.1
- Programmable pixel and vertex shaders
- 16 textures per pass
- Pixel shaders up to 160 instructions with 32-bit floating point precision for each RGBA component
- Multiple render target support
- Shadow volume rendering acceleration
- High precision 10-bit per channel frame buffer support
HYPER Z™ III+
- 2X/4X/6X full scene anti-aliasing modes
- High performance adaptive algorithm with programmable sample patterns
- 2X/4X/8X/16X anisotropic filtering modes
- Adaptive algorithm with bi-linear (performance) and tri-linear (quality) options
- 3-level Hierarchical Z-Buffer with early Z test
- Lossless Z-Buffer compression (up to 24:1)
- Fast Z-Buffer Clear
System requirements
- Intel® Pentium® 4/Xeon™, AMD Athlon®/Opteron™ or compatible CPU
- AGP 8X/4X bus
- 128MB of system memory (256MB or more recommended)
- Installation software requires CD-ROM drive * 300 watt or greater power supply (recommended)
Warranty and Support
- 3-year limited product repair/replacement warranty
- Workstation level technical support via email and phone
- Advanced parts replacement option
