DisplayPort Cards Coming, AMD's RV635 Unveiled

DisplayPort Cards Coming, AMD's RV635 Unveiled

Thursday, December 06, 2007 - by Dave Altavilla

We've got a bit of show-and-tell for you here this morning.  You might recall recent announcements of a new digital display interface, dubbed DisplayPort by VESA, the Video Electronics Standards Association.  This new interface will supplant DVI and VGA connections eventually and its micropacket architecture offers significantly more bandwidth with multi-monitor support over a single cable.  Like HDMI, a DisplayPort connection can carry 8-channel 24-bit audio, but also offers a dedicated auxiliary link for control communications of things like panel I/O and microphone connections.  There are hundreds of big brand name companies behind the standard that is set to compete with HDMI for desktop and notebook dominance, including the likes of AMD, Intel, NVIDIA, Samsung and Dell.  However, DisplayPort is more likely to co-exist with HDMI, since HDMI is specifically targeted for consumer electronics like set-top boxes, DVD players etc, while DisplayPort was designed from the ground up for computing. 

Though we've heard through the grapevine that NVIDIA is readying DisplayPort capable graphics cards for sometime early next year, AMD has stepped up with the first DisplayPort-enabled graphics card to hit our test labs. 

  
AMD's RV635 XT With Dual DisplayPort And DVI-D


Left To Right - DisplayPort, HDMI, DVI-D (from LCD display)

 
DisplayPort Cables

We've got an RV635 XT board here and have been testing it out on an unreleased LCD panel that we'll be showing you in the coming weeks.  On the board you'll note that the surrounding circuitry for each DisplayPort connection is minimal and devoid of those all-too familiar Silicon Image TMDS chips that add cost to any dual link DVI-D connection.  Since each DisplayPort cable can run multiple monitors in a daisy-chain configuration, imagine a four panel setup from a single graphics card and even possibly a single cable connection.  We'll have more to come on the LCD side of the equation, soon.

Via: HotHardware.com | News Archive | Tags: AMD, display, LED, DisplayPort, Car, ISP, DS, Play, card
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Comments

By kid007 on Dec 6, 2007

another option, is always great!, to bad you won't be posting any info about the new monitor yet :(

By Drago on Dec 6, 2007

I want to know if there will be a displayport to VGA and DVI converters you know so we can still use our old monitors and not be forced to upgrade.

By Dave_HH on Dec 6, 2007

No question about it, these adapters will be available and DP can drive any interface with them.

By mazuki on Dec 6, 2007

this is what i have been waiting for to upgrade....now it's finally worth it, can't wait for some good monitors, then i'll have my full amd system running :)

By living_coffin on Dec 7, 2007

native displayport interface??I was not see displayport control chip,I think it's great

By MWPollard on Dec 10, 2007

So, what kind of resolution does this support? Is it maxed at 1080p (1920x1080), or 2560x1600 (like Apple/Dell's 30" LCD monitors, or could it potentially handle 10240x6400 (4x 2560x1600), provided the display could do that, or maybe with 4 currently-available displays daisy-chained?

Does it pass audio, like HDMI? If so, how well?

Does it handle high refresh rates? After all, 120hz rates should be coming soon (to handle both 30fps and 24fps media without conversions), and we will soon want that at 2560x1600 or better.

And that's only until higher resolutions and sizes become affordable - a 75" display at the same dpi as the 30" would be 6400x4000... Can PaperPort handle 6400x4000x32bit @120fps, or will we have to wait for v2?

By Dave_HH on Dec 11, 2007

First, thanks for stopping by here. :)

The max resolution right now for DP is 2560X1600 but word is there are plans for higher resolutions.

It does pass audio, yes, DP has a built in audio channel.

By vishnub_26 on Dec 10, 2007

Does RV635 support Audio with Display Port. What Audio resolutions does it support?

Or we should run a seperate cable for playing audio?

By Dave_HH on Dec 11, 2007

Maximum 8-channel uncompressed 192 kHz, 24-bit audio is supported.

Thanks for stopping by the site!

By amunaor on Jan 21, 2009

Here it is, the middle of January 2009. Where's the BEEF!? Ages ago, Zotac announced the release of:

Zotac GeForce 9400GT DP ZF-94TEH2D-FSL

&

Zotac GeForce 9500GT DP ZF-95TES2D-FSL

Nowhere are these displayport cards yet available for purchase.

The only one that's available, Newegg:

Zotac GeForce 9600 GT DP ZT-96TES3D-FSP

It has all of the unnecessory, redundant, legacy connectors which in turn require the supporting curcuitry on the card.

Seems as though all of the new nVidia, as well as ATi/AMD video cards have failed to include the new Displayport standard, choosing instead to continue pumping out their high wattage guzzlers.

Same goes for the monitor manufacturers. Displayport connectors with LED backlit pannels would not only save engergy consumption at the consumer end but also at the production end by eliminating unnecessary materials required to support a redundant amount of circuitry.

These manufacturers could offer trimmed down models, without concern for backwards compatibility and standards that will be soon dumped anyway, but include only that necessary for future connectivity. Folks, like me, that are doing top to bottom hardware/system rebuilds and upgrades are not really worried about backwards compatibility.

Someone needs to take a cattle prod to the tech industry, not unlike the automobile industry.

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