AMD unveils 'Hawaii' Radeon R7, R9 generation of GPUs
AMD unveiled its Hawaii GPU in a Webcast from Oahu, with configurable audio as the key selling point for this generation of graphics cards.
By Mark Hachman
September 26, 2013 06:14 AM ET
PC World - AMD announced theA Radeon R7 and R9 series of "Hawaii" graphics cards and cores on Wednesday, an attempt to storm the pinnacle of performance PC graphics.
AMD broadcast what it called its "GPU 14 Tech Day Event" from Hawaii, where the company had offered to host reporters at its expense. PCWorld covered the event via webcast.
AMD's Hawaii chips are based on what the company calls its Graphics Core Next architecture, the second generation of which is contained within the Hawaii cores.A AMD launched the R9 and R7 series as a top-to-bottom approach: the R9 is for performance gamers, and the R7 series is aimed at the lower-budget customer.
Matt Skynner, general manager for the graphics business unit, told the audience that AMD's plan was "to create unified Radeon gaming experience across all platforms," from mobile to the cloud with the Radeon Sky gaming strategy.A Skynner highlighted the developers behind the Crysis and Tomb Raider series, and noted that AMD powers all three major game consoles.A The PC graphics hardware market is growing to $21 billion in 2017, according to Jon Peddie Research--proof that gamers have the budget for high-end cards.
AMD is able to let developers port games from one platform to another, with tools as well as an architecture that makes it easy to do so, Skynner said. "And what's important is not that we're trying to drive the industry from a performance view, we're trying to put reality on the screen" with innovations like TressFx, AMD's hair-modeling system, and depth of field and shadowing, plus its EyeFinity multi-monitor technology.