AMD Teams Up With XFX And iZ3D

Looking to boost it's position in the graphics market AMD/ATI announced it will be teaming with two new technology partners, popular graphics card manufacturer XFX and iZ3D manufactures of state of the art 3-d gaming monitors.

In Monday's press release AMD said, "XFX plans to provide new products based on the award-winning ATI Radeon™ HD 4000 series GPUs to consumers, beginning in early 2009."

“In the world of PC gaming, XFX is synonymous with the extreme performance that enthusiasts crave,” said Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager, Graphics Products Group, AMD. “Their decision to partner with AMD and launch AMD GPU-based XFX graphics cards, including the ATI Radeon™ HD 4870 X2, widely regarded as the world’s fastest graphics card1 by technology enthusiasts around the world, speaks to the level of excellence achieved by the ATI Radeon HD 4000 series.”

In a second separate press release (PDF) iZ3D Inc.,announced it has teamed with AMD on its recently released 3D monitor driver Version 1.09 to include support for AMD/ATI with an ATI 3D DLP output. This special feature, integrated exclusively for AMD customers – provides a customized 3D DLP output and is free for ATI Radeon graphics card users.

The iZ3D Version 1.09 S-3D driver is compatible with DirectX PC games running on 32-bit or 64-bit Windows XP and Windows Vista operating systems. Most PC games released in the last five years, including many of the most popular multiplayer online, first person shooter, and role-playing games, have already been designed for 3D displays. iZ3D’s optimized driver unlocks the third (depth) dimension of these 3D-ready games to allow gamers to finally play them as they were written – in 3D. (list of supported games)

To encourage 3D game play using ATI Radeon graphics cards, iZ3D is offering all ATI Radeon graphics card users a $50.00 rebate on the purchase of an iZ3D monitor. The iZ3D 22-inch monitor has a manufacturers suggested resale price of $399.00 is currently available at online stores including Newegg.com. (note: I couldn't find the rebate listed on iZ3D)

• iZ3D H220Z1 Black 22" 5ms Widescreen 3D Gaming LCD Monitor Price $349.99
• Open Box: iZ3D H220Z1 Price $299.99

“We appreciate the visual experience and excitement that is driving the trend towards 3D graphics,” said Godfrey Cheng, director of technical marketing, graphics products group, AMD. “3D gamers, designers and home theater enthusiasts will appreciate the sophistication that the ATI Radeon series of graphics cards will bring to the world of 3D. Our cards enable a feature-rich, 3D gaming and home theatre experience, especially when used in conjunction with an iZ3D 22-inch widescreen 3D display solution.”