AMD has officially unveiled its new GPU for the ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series, which is a mid-range offering. As well as eventually offering 'quad connectivity', AMD claims it is the first graphics processing unit to provide DirectX 10.1 support.

As well as featuring Universal Video Decoder (UVD) technology (for both Blu-ray and HD DVD) and PCI Express 2, the graphics processing unit also signals a new numbering taxonomy from AMD. With the HD3870, for example, the '3' represents the generation of the device, '8' represents a particular family or series, and the '70' signifies a particular variant.

For reduced power consumption, the power state is auto adjusted depending on the GPU load. For example, with images of lower resolution, unused blocks in the chip can be powered down.

Support for ATI CrossFireX means 2 or 4 of the GPUs can be combined on one card. Note, however, that quad GPU combinations will only be supported by an updated driver, due to be available in January 2008.

The use of HyperTransport 3 means an increase in bandwidth for every component in an AMD-based system, an AMD spokesperson told EW.com, with an increase in graphics bandwidth offering possibilities for more powerful computing.

In particular, according to AMD, the benefit of DirectX 10.1 support will be seen in the GPUs handling of light and ray tracing (DX 10.1 will be implemented in Windows Vista SP1, due in Q1 2008).

The GPU, featuring 55nm process technology, is produced by Taiwan's TSMC and represents the first step in the launch of AMD's forthcoming "enthusiast" platform, codenamed "Spider".

Intended to occupy the $150-$200 price range, exact UK pricing will vary across the third-party graphics cards carrying the processor.