Today AMD (NYSE: AMD) launched the world's fastest graphics processing unit (GPU), the AMD Radeon™ HD 7970 GHz Edition. The AMD Radeon™ HD 7970 GHz Edition uses AMD's innovative Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture to deliver astonishing performance and breathtaking image quality, providing world-class gameplay at the highest resolutions in the most demanding games such as Battlefield 3, Deus Ex: Human Revolution and DiRT Showdown.

"The AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition rounds out our award-winning GCN family, providing world-class gameplay thanks to the industry's fastest single GPU," said Matt Skynner, corporate vice president and general manager, GPU Division, AMD. "Gamers have been hungry for our AMD Radeon™ HD 7000 Series since our launch last December. We have been able to meet that growing demand as we expanded our AMD Radeon HD 7000 offerings and brought the industry's most advanced graphics across a complete family of leading-edge desktop and notebook graphics cards."

The AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition provides ground-breaking GPU compute functionality through advanced AMD App Acceleration technology, allowing users to enjoy lightning-fast gameplay and realistic physics effects3. AMD App Acceleration technology also optimizes common tasks like encrypted file compression and speeds up demanding digital content creation suites, while providing exceptional online video and Blu-ray video experiences. No other graphics card comes close to the performance and features of the AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition.

The AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition comes fully equipped with 3GBs of ultra-fast GDDR5 frame buffer, AMD Eyefinity 2.0 technology, and support for PCI Express 3.0 and multi-GPU configurations with AMD CrossFire™ technology.

The AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition will be available as early as next week from add-in board (AIB) partners including ASUS, Gigabyte, HIS, MSI, Sapphire, TUL and XFX starting at USD$499 SEP.