AMD Graphics Streaming Processors'

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AMD to Open Up Graphics Processors' Streaming Floodgates

 

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/AMD-to-...?wlc=1226785603

 

In December, AMD will release a software update that unlocks the ATI Stream acceleration capabilities already built into their ATI Radeon graphics cards. The result, according to the company, will be enhanced performance for applications optimized for the technology. AMD is already working with ISVs to develop versions of software applications that make full use of ATI streaming.

 

ATI Stream makes use of the GPU outside of the traditional scenarios -- taking care of the desktop monitor and lighting up the pixels; rendering 3-D objects in applications, video processing, etc. It uses the GPU for computations that traditionally have been done on a central processing unite (CPU) but can benefit greatly by being processed on a GPU's parallel processing power, according to Makedon.

 

Consumers with ATI Radeon graphics cards from the HD 2400, 2600, 2900, 3850, 3870, 4350, 4550, 4650, 4670, 4850 and 4870 series will be able to take advantage of the download. However, ATI Radeon HD 4000 series graphics cards are expected to provide significantly greater acceleration than previous generations due to ATI Stream optimizations unique to the current generation, noted Makedon.

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http://www.insidehw.com/News/Software/ATI-...n-December.html

 

Once installed, the driver package automatically turns on the ATI Stream acceleration capabilities within ATI Radeon HD series graphics cards. This will have the immediate effect of allowing any ATI Stream-enabled application to run faster, with no special effort required by consumers to enable this technology

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A Radeon HD 4870 with a 512MB frame buffer, in combination with a quad-core Intel Core 2 Duo QX9650 processor running at 3.0GHz and 6GB of system memory, was able to convert one hour of MPEG video (1920x1080 resolution at 24fps) to a format compatible with a portable video player (MPEG4, 320x240 resolution, 24fps) in 12 minutes. The same conversion using iTunes 8.0.1 and the WinQuickTimeMPEG2 pack required three hours and 23 minutes on the same rig.