AMD announces Radeon R9 and R7 series graphics cards

AMD has unveiled the Radeon R9 and R7 series of graphics cards, one of which it claims will be “much faster than [NVIDIA’s] Titan”.
The new cards include the Radeon R9 290X (pictured), R9 290, R9 280X, R9 270X, R7 260X and R7 250.
Alongside the cards a new API, ‘Mantle’, and ‘TrueAudio’ technology were also revealed.
AMD described the new API in its press release, saying: “with Mantle, games like DICE's Battlefield 4 will be empowered with the ability to speak the native language of the Graphics Core Next architecture, presenting a deeper level of hardware optimization no other graphics card manufacturer can match.”
The company also explained that Mantle should make it easier for developers to port games from PC to consoles, and vice-versa: “Mantle also assists game developers in bringing games to life on multiple platforms by leveraging the commonalities between GCN-powered PCs and consoles for a simple game development process.”
The ‘TrueAudio’ technology is said by AMD to “empower game developers with a programmable audio pipeline on the GPU,” meaning that games will more closely simulate realistic sounds, as well as directional audio and a wider range of sounds.
Discussing the series’ flagship card, the R9 290X, AMD’s product manager Devon Nekechuck told Maximum PC that compared to NVIDIA’s fellow flagship card, the Titan, the 290X would run “much faster” in Battlefield 4, when using the Mantle API.
“The card will be able to ‘ridicule’ the Titan in terms of performance,” he added.
Prices and release dates for the cards are yet to announced, but rumours are circulating that the 290X will cost roughly the same as NVIDIA’s GTX 780, which currently costs around $650 (£400). The NVIDIA Titan is $1000 (£620).

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