ATI, graphics business unit of Advanced Micro Devices, has shipped six million DirectX 11-capable graphics processing units (GPUs) so far, chief executive officer of Advanced Micro Devices said during the quarterly conference call with financial analysts. This gives ATI a clear lead over arch-rival Nvidia Corp. in terms of DirectX 11 installed base.

“In graphics, we shipped a total of over six million DirectX 11 enabled units to date, and expanded the family into the mainstream and value segments,” said Dirk Meyer, the chief exec of AMD.

AMD’s graphics business group launched the world’s first DirectX 11 graphics chip on the 23^rd September of 2009, about six months before Nvidia. Since then, ATI has released a lineup of DirectX 11-enabled GPUs for mainstream, entry and mobile segments. ATI Radeon HD 5000 family of graphics chips are also OpenGL 4.0 and OpenCL 1.0-capable.

With virtually 100% of DirectX 11 GPU market ATI can ensure that game developers will optimize the forthcoming titles for the Radeon HD 5000-series graphics processors.

In Q1 2010 ATI’s graphics segment revenue decreased 3% sequentially to $409 million and increased 88% year-over-year. The sequential decrease was driven primarily by a seasonal decline in royalties received in connection with the sale of game console systems, largely offset by an increase in GPU revenue. The year-over-year increase was driven primarily by an increase in GPU shipments. Operating income of AMD’s graphics products group was $47 million, compared with $50 million in Q4 2009 and breakeven in Q1 2009.

GPU shipments increased sequentially, primarily driven by record mobile discrete graphics unit shipments. Unfortunately, GPU average selling prices increased sequentially and decreased year-over-year.

Tags: ATI, AMD, Radeon, Evergreen, Cypress, Juniper, Redwood, Manhattan, DirectX, 40nm