Graphics card and chip maker ATI Technologies Inc. on Tuesday introduced its Mobility Radeon 9800, a new graphics solution aimed at laptops based on the same core technology that powers ATI’s Radeon X800 line.
Designed to be the successor to the Mobility Radeon 9700, the Mobility Radeon 9800 features eight pixel pipelines and a 256-bit wide memory interface. It also supports ATI’s Smartshader HD and 3Dc, the most recent iterations of ATI’s texture mapping technology, along with the latest generation of ATI’s power management technology, called Powerplay.
The performance features of the chip peg it of most interest to portable gamers looking for the ultimate system to play games. ATI’s announcement included testimonials from the lead programmer for Ubisoft’s Splinter Cell 3 and famed game designer Peter Molyneux. And ATI has already announced its first development partner with a laptop based on the new chip — Dell’s Inspiron XPS (in North America) and Inspiron 9100 (in Europe) will both feature the Mobility Radeon 9800.
Apple has not announced if it will use the Mobility Radeon 9800 in future PowerBook designs — the company rarely speaks about unreleased products. Apple uses graphics chips made both by ATI and rival Nvidia Corp. throughout its product lines, however. Apple currently uses the Mobility Radeon 9700 chip on its 15-inch and 17-inch PowerBook G4 systems, and uses ATI’s Mobility Radeon 9200 chip throughout its iBook line.
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