HD 3450 family
Latest Media Solutions get more Affordable SAPPHIRE announces HD 3400 series 
SAPPHIRE Technology, the manufacturer offering the widest range of graphics and media solutions for the PC has just launched an exciting new series of graphics products that offer the best value yet for systems integrators and upgraders looking to incorporate the latest graphics architectures and high speed interface technologies.
The new SAPPHIRE HD 3400 series combines the latest unified shader architecture with support for Shader Model 4.1 and the forthcoming DirectX 10.1 connected via the latest PCI-Express Gen 2.0 interface. The architecture features 40 stream processors and an internal ring bus memory controller together with multiple rendering units and a programmable tessellation unit to deliver the best graphics performance in its class, together with unrivalled media performance.
The SAPPHIRE HD 3400 series incorporates the latest ATI AvivoT HD Technology for enhanced Video display and features a built in UVD (Unified Video decoder) for the hardware accelerated decoding of Blu-rayT and HD DVD content for both VC-1 and H.264 codecs, considerably reducing CPU loading and delivering the best video quality and performance.
Several products in this series will be available at launch. The SAPPHIRE HD 3470 is a full height ATX card featuring 256MB of GDDR3 memory, with memory clocks of 700MHz and core clock speed of 800MHz. The SAPPHIRE HD 3450 has core clocks of 600MHz and will be available in several versions, including a choice of 512MB or 256MB of GDDR2 memory clocked at 500MHz and some low profile models. All the launch models feature silent Passive heatsink cooling. Display options include DVI, VGA, TV out and true HDMI - including audio and video output on a single cable for connection to an HDMI ready display.
The HD 3400 GPU incorporates AMD CrossFire technology, and some product variants will be equipped with the high speed CrossFire connectors allowing cards to be connected together for enhanced performance when installed in a CrossFireX mainboard. This new series will also support the forthcoming AMD Hybrid CrossFire, allowing performance of the integrated graphics on a mainboard with an appropriate AMD chipset to be enhanced with a plug-in card from this series.
Manufactured in a new 55nm process technology, the GPU in the HD 3400 series features low power consumption and a feature known as ATI PowerPlay actively reduces power consumption depending on loading.
The SAPPHIRE HD 3400 series is available from 23rd January 2008. SAPPHIRE will be adding additional models in the coming weeks.
SAPPHIRE HD 3000 series graphics cards are Microsoft Windows VistaT Premium certified and supported by the ATI Catalyst® suite of software, ensuring customers have ongoing access to software updates for performance, stability and added features. Support for DirectX10.1 provides developers with access to enhanced programming techniques and new lighting effects.
Link:
www.sapphiretech.com
