After ATI released DirectX 11 graphic cards including the fastest graphics card ever i.e 5970, Nvidia seems to be lagging in the competition with its lack of DirectX 11-compatible graphics processing units (GPUs).DirectX 11 provides better performance and higher quality images in next-generation PC video games.Graphics market analyst Dean McCarron says the transition to the new application programming interface (API) will be the fastest in the industry.
Over the last decade, graphics processors supporting each new version of DirectX have achieved high volume shipments earlier in their life cycles than their predecessors. Our forecast is that DirectX 11 capable GPUs will continue this trend with the fastest transition between technologies ever, resulting in shipments surpassing DirectX 10 GPUs in 2010,” said Dean McCarron, the principal of Mercury Research, in a recent report about the state of graphics processors market.
Take the case of ATI, it has shipped over 800 thousand of graphics processing units (GPUs) that support DirectX 11 application programming interface.The company said that so far it has shipped over 500 thousand ATI Radeon HD 5700-series graphics processing units code-named Juniper and over 300 thousand graphics chips known as Cypress that power ATI Radeon HD 5800-/5900-series graphics adapters. Thanks to partly resolved supply issues with 40nm chips, AMD’s graphics business unit seems to have high chances of shipping around a million of DirectX 11-supporting graphics processors this year.
The most affordable DirectX 11 graphics card – ATI Radeon HD 5750 is available for about $140 in the U.S. – whereas the most expensive – ATI Radeon HD 5970 – costs over $600.Good sales of the latest graphics cards will help Advanced Micro Devices to post greater revenue and profits for this quarter.For the regular users, who are not hardcore gamers or gaming at 1680×1050 or below, or 1440×900 or below resolutions 5850 and 5770 are really good options. 5870 is a beast in itself.
Early next year ATI is expected to release mainstream and low-end desktop ATI Radeon HD 5000-series graphics solutions in addition to the new generation of ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5000-series graphics chips for notebooks, which will allow AMD to offer top-to-bottom DirectX 11 lineup.
