AMD's latest Firestream reaches 1 Teraflop

AMD introduces the new Firestream 9250 graphics card, based on the RV770 graphics chip. AMD's Firestream line-up is developed to handle all sorts of calculations, which are normally done by the processor. As a result, these Firestream cards can be used to calculate certain things with the GPU's stream processors. According to AMD, when compared to a single CPU core, the performance can increase up to 55x in certain applications.

Like the HD4850, the Firestream 9250 will have a single-slot cooler, making it possible to place several of the cards in a system. To handle large data sets, the RV770's Firestream version offers 1GB of GDDR3 memory, while the desktop models will be equipped with 512MB. With its ability to caculate at speeds of over 1 Teraflop out of 800 shaders, the new Firestream card is a lot faster than it's predecessor, the Firestream 9170. This card reaches speeds of about 500 Gigaflops out of 320 stream processors.

The new Firestream 9250 will be available in the third quarter at a recommended price of $999.

The old Firestream 9170 with 320 stream processors, image source: AMD

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