ATI Technologies Inc. on Wednesday introduced its Radeon 9800 Pro Mac Edition, a new high-end graphics card for the Macintosh aimed squarely at hardcore gamers and users of 3D animation.
The graphics chip on the 9800 card features eight parallel rendering pipelines, and the card supports a 256-bit memory interface, equipped with 128MB of Double Data Rate (DDR) RAM. It’s capable of processing up to 8.4 billion instructions per second and has 21GB/sec of memory bandwidth, according to ATI, making it the fastest video card the company has yet offered to Mac consumers.
ATI’s Radeon 9800 Pro is also available as a build-to-order option in the forthcoming Power Mac G5, while the Radeon 9600 Pro comes included in the high-end version of that powerful new Pro Mac desktop.
The Radeon 9800 Pro Mac Edition — a retail solution for users unwilling or unable to buy a brand new G5 — includes VGA, DVI and S-Video connectivity. The card also supports “Versavision,” a new display rotation technology touted by ATI that makes it possible for Mac users to display graphics on a screen in either the traditional landscape format or, pivoted at a 90 degree angle, in portrait format.
MacCentral will bring readers more details about the card’s details and its availability as the show progresses.
Macworld CreativePro Conference & Expo attendees can find the Radeon 9800 Pro Mac Edition in action at ATI’s booth, #548. Macworld CreativePro runs through Friday, July 18, 2003.