AMD unveils Radeon graphics chip that can display images at resolutions beyond HD

Advanced Micro Devices is unveiling its new mid-range graphics chip family that can display games with 1,600p resolution, beyond the usual 1,080p graphics in high-definition games — bringing better-than-HD resolutions at a lower price for PC gamers.

AMD has two new chips, the R9 280X and the R9 280. Both are built in a 28-nanometer process, but the R9 280X has 2,048 stream processors, compared with 1,792 for the R9 280. The R9 280X runs at 1 gigahertz and can handle 4.1 teraflops (one trillion floating-point operations per second) of performance, compared to 933 megahertz and 3.34 teraflops for the R9 280. Both chips can run the 3DMark Fire Strike Extreme benchmark for graphics faster than the rival Nvidia GTX 760, according to AMD.

The R9 280 chips come with full support for AMD’s Mantle driver and support traditional features like PowerTune (more efficient power), CrossFire (multiple cards per PC), and Eyefinity (running six displays at once). The Mantle support means it can run some cool demos like Oxide Games’ StarSwarm, which can put 3,000 to 5,000 spaceships into a 3D space battle at the same time.

The R9 280 family will be available for $279 starting this week, with wider ability next week. AMD said the R9 280 can run Battlefield 4 at a resolution of 2560 x 1600 at 46 frames per second, compared to 41 for the Nvidia GTX 760. It can run Call of Duty: Ghosts at 2560 x 1600 at 32 frames per second, compared to 30 for the Nvidia chip.