AMD Demonstrates World’s First Microsoft DirectX 11 Graphics Processor
At a press conference in Taipei, Taiwan today, AMD (NYSE: AMD) publicly
demonstrated the world’s first Microsoft DirectX® 11 graphics processor. The
series of demonstrations shed new light on the significantly improved computing
experience set to debut at the end of 2009.1 The fusion of AMD’s new
ground-breaking graphics processors with the forthcoming DirectX 11 programming
interface is set to forever change both applications and PC gaming for the
better. To illustrate, AMD showed numerous examples of faster application
performance and new game features using the world’s first true DirectX 11
graphics processor.
Get ready for a revolution: Games and other applications are about to get a
lot better as a result of AMD’s new graphics hardware and DirectX 11. DirectX 11
features such as tessellation will bring consumers higher quality, superior
performing games making use of 6th generation AMD technology. Another DirectX 11
feature, the compute shader, will enable AMD’s DirectX 11 graphics cards to help
make Windows 7 run faster in a wide number of applications and in a manner
that’s completely transparent to users, for example, in seamlessly accelerating
the conversion of video for playback on portable media players through a
drag-and-drop interface.
DirectX 11 done right on AMD: The development of DirectX 11 has been broadly
influenced by AMD graphics technology. Each new version of DirectX builds on the
versions that came before it, and many of the capabilities of DirectX 11 were
pioneered on AMD GPUs, including DirectX 10.1, tessellation, compute shaders,
Fetch4, custom filter anti-aliasing and high-definition ambient occlusion
shading.
Bringing consumers DirectX 11 sooner: The preview of the world’s first
DirectX 11 graphics processor at Computex 2009 validates AMD’s commitment to
delivering leading technologies to market before anyone else, and to continuing
to foster innovation in computing.
Fueling developer demand: It’s not just consumers who are excited about the
prospects of DirectX 11, game developers are also incredibly enthusiastic about
taking advantage of new DirectX 11 hardware to bring even better games to
market, in large part due to AMD’s readiness to meet their DirectX 11 needs.
Many developers have indicated their commitment to building DirectX 11 games
initially on AMD’s DirectX 11 hardware, delivering superior performance and
compatibility.
“AMD has a long track record of delivering pioneering features that have gone
on to become mainstays in the DirectX experience, and we’re doing it again with
two mature, AMD-developed technologies in DirectX 11 – tessellation and the
compute shader – both of which enable a better DirectX 11 experience for
consumers,” said Rick Bergman, Senior Vice President, AMD Products Group.
“Today, we’re previewing AMD’s DirectX 11 graphics processor to build enthusiasm
for this key technology so developers will have games available at launch and
shortly thereafter. With the benefits it delivers to gaming, applications and
Windows 7, developers are lining up to get their hands on our hardware, and
we’re confident that consumers will too.”
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