Despite the fact ATI is still far from having a clear lead in the discrete graphics market (they don't even hold the first position, anyway), they always managed to arrive first in some areas - first cards using GDDR4, then first cards with DirectX 10.1 hardware support, and now even the first cards with GDDR5 support! The HD 3xxx generation of video cards is still pretty fresh, but it seems we already have the specifications of the upcoming goodies, the HD 4870 and HD 4850!


Regarding the standard dimensions, it's enough to say both cards will have the same length, and that is 23 cm(9 inch). UVD 2 promises to allow hardware decoding for Blu-Ray 1080p content, and even beyond, while the on-chip HDCP feature allows easy playback of HDCP protected content. At last, there's the HDMI support we're already used to, but wait and see the real goodies, because we're just getting started...

The memory to be used with these cards is going to be GDDR3/GDDR5, probably depending on the manufacturer of a certain model. The DirectX support is still at 10.1, probably waiting for NVIDIA to catch up(;)). The 256-bit memory interface isn't something out of this world, but dynamic geometry acceleration and game physics processing sound really great, together with the 24X custom filter anti-aliasing.

No, I have no idea about pricing yet, but rumors say that the R700-based cards, including the HD 4870 and HD 4850, should arrive in August. If this proves to be true or just a rumor, that's what remains to be seen, but you'd better start saving now, because I have the feeling we're going to have a 9800GTX killer from ATI for less than $250!!!