Earlier this year, AMD released its first DirectX10-class GPU in the 2xxx-series which didn’t quite live up to the expectations of the industry at large or its customer base. It quite simply didn’t perform as well as the competition in DX10 and gobbled up too much power. There were a few reasons for this, however, it was mainly due to the fact the 2900 has a large GPU running at very high speeds. This equaled a GPU whose performance-per-watt was a bit on the overkill side.

Fast forward to today and we’re now at a point where AMD has revamped its technology into using a more efficient 55-nanometer design that offers the better DX10 compatibility, uses less power than its predecessor and give its relative price-point, provides excellent 3D performance in both DX9 and DX10 applications.

---