ATI, graphics business unit of Advanced Micro Devices, said on Monday that it had shipped over 800 thousand of graphics processing units (GPUs) that support DirectX 11 application programming interface. The rather high number of rather expensive graphics chips sold during the global economic downturn emphasizes the interest towards discrete graphics cards for desktops and PC gaming in general.

The company said that so far it has shipped over 500 thousand ATI Radeon HD 5700-series graphics processing units code-named Juniper and over 300 thousand graphics chips known as Cypress that power ATI Radeon HD 5800-/5900-series graphics adapters. Thanks to partly resolved supply issues with 40nm chips, AMD’s graphics business unit seems to have high chances of shipping around a million of DirectX 11-supporting graphics processors this year.

ATI’s DirectX 11 lineup consists of several offerings and covers performance mainstream, high-end and enthusiast market segments. The most affordable DirectX 11 graphics card – ATI Radeon HD 5750 is available for about $140 in the U.S. – whereas the most expensive – ATI Radeon HD 5970 – costs over $600.

Good sales of the latest graphics cards will help Advanced Micro Devices to post greater revenue and profits for this quarter. AMD reports its results for the current quarter in approximately a month time, on January, 22, 2010.

Shipments of ATI’s new product family were slowed down by poor yields of 40nm chips at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. As a result, the actual demand towards the new high-end graphics cards from ATI/AMD is considerably higher than supply.

At present ATI’s arch-rival Nvidia Corp. does not offer DirectX 11-supporting graphics processors, which is a yet another reason why the demand towards the new Radeon HD 5000 family greatly exceeds supply. DirectX 11 provides better performance and higher quality images in next-generation PC video games.

Tags: ATI, AMD, Radeon, Cypress, Juniper, 40nm, DirectX