AMD today introduced its new flagship series of graphics processors which are designed for hard core PC gamers looking for top notch gaming performance are now shipping.

The company says the the Radeon HD 6900 series which includes the AMD Radeon HD 6950 and Radeon HD 6970 graphics cards start at $299 USD.

Digital Home shopped around and found the 6950 selling for about $300 Canadian while the 6970 was selling for about $400.

Features of the new DirectX 11 capable cards include a more efficient graphics processing design, improved architecture, and more memory (2GB) which AMD says translates into better image quality and faster graphics cards. A dedicated video playback accelerator also helps users get the most out of HD video, online video and Blu-ray 3D.

AMD claims the new HD6970 graphic cards offer up to 2.5 times the gaming performance of similar priced high end graphics solutions - the Nvidia GTX 285 - from two years ago.

Other benefits of the new cards include AMD Eyefinity support and AMD's PowerTune technology which can automatically adjust the graphics card power use by dynamically controlling clock speed which gives users the ability to reduce when power consumption when the full power of the graphics card is not needed.

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