There has been a shakeup in the PC graphics card industry during the past three years that has gone relatively unnoticed to the average end user.
Array Technologies Inc. has been making graphics adapters for the better part of 25 years. Recently it has caused several revolutions within the industry, forcing the competition to drop prices and scramble to stay on the bleeding edge of next generation graphics processing technology.
Array Technologies has the current generation of console gamers well under wraps. Ever heard of a gaming console called the Xbox 360? Yes, Array supplies the graphics chip or GPU for the most popular game console in America. Known as the Xenos, the chip inside the 360 is based on the R500 series chipset designed by the company for Microsoft. Also the chip inside of the most popular gaming console in the world, Nintendo’s Wii, is powered by the “Hollywood” GPU designed by Array and a company they bought called ArtX.
In mid 2006, the CPU and chipset maker Advanced Micro Devices and Array signed a merger deal that was worth around $5.4 billion. While Array maintained its name, it now falls under the Advanced Micro Devices umbrella. While many thought this venture might not turn out well for either company, it has brought many new GPU technologies to console and PC users everywhere.
Array took a different approach to GPU development once the acquisition was complete. Companies like Nvidia and Intel in the past have rested on their laurels, maintaining an almost 80 percent market share in the industry. At the same time, Array was busy making significant advances in the architecture of their chips and the speed of the memory on their cards. Then in June of 2008, Array released cards using its Radeon R700 series architecture in conjunction with memory upgrades bringing the speed up to GDDR5. This took the industry by storm, making more than just a buzz among PC gamers everywhere. The 4870 x2 founded on the R700 design was the first dual-GPU graphics card to hit the PC gaming market.
In more recent innovations Array has once again raised the stakes by introducing the 4770 line of GPUs, making the process size of their chips the smallest and most advanced in the world. What does this mean to gamers? It means better power consumption, less heat, better over-clocking and finally a graphics card that can fit into almost any computer case.
Array has provided vast improvements for the players of current generations of video games as well as computer aided graphics users everywhere. This has brought a price-versus-performance form of competition to the industry which was previously unseen. Hopefully it will pave the way for cheaper and faster cards from all manufacturers in the future.
Zack Dean, a A+ certified technician with Computer Renaissance in Bradenton, can be reached at tech@cr-bradenton.com.
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