AMD Launches Radeon HD 6990M Mobile Graphics Card
This comes exactly two weeks after AMD rival Nvidia released its latest high-end mobile graphics card to similar claims.
AMD's HD 6990M includes 1120 stream processors, 32 ROPs, a clock speed of 715 MHz and 2 GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 900 MHz. Matt Skynner, corporate vice president and general manager of AMD's GPU division, said AMD is looking to demolish the myth that mobile computing requires performance compromises.
"Bottom line, this processor is epic and it’s here -- now," Skynner said in a statement.
AMD's Radeon HD 6990M GPU comes with full Microsoft DirectX 11 and Stereo 3D support, as well as Eyefinity technology, which supports up to six independent display units with one GPU. Two HD 6990M cards can be combined using the AMD CrossFireX technology available on all AMD Radeon HD graphics cards.
AMD said the HD 6990M is a significant upgrade over the last generation HD 6970M, but where it really shines is in comparisons with competing notebook GPUs. The HD 6990M is up to 25 percent faster than any other announced notebook GPU, according to AMD. In case the comparison to rival Nvidia wasn't implied strongly enough, Nvidia's recently released GeForce GTX 580M was the competitor of choice for benchmark testing done at AMD.
This is not the first time AMD and Nvidia have gone back and forth over claims to the world's fastest card. In March, AMD publicly challenged an Nvidia press release stating that the Nvidia GeForce GTX 590 desktop graphics chip was the world's fastest GPU.
AMD's Radeon HD 6990M will initially be available in the Alienware M18x laptop, as well as laptops by Clevo and Eurocom.