ATI Technologies Monday unveiled its new high-performance professional graphics card with bumped speed compared to predecessors. The new FIRE GL X2-256t product is based on professional version of ATI’s R360 VPUs found on RADEON 9800 XT graphics cards.

In August 2003 ATI introduced its FIRE GL X2-256 graphics card for CAD, solid modeling, DCC and visual simulation applications featuring the R350 graphics chip clocked at 300MHz. The new X2-256t SKU has the same capabilities, such as 8 pixel pipelines, 4 vertex shader processors, F-Buffer and others, but significantly increased performance thanks to the R360 technology allowing to clock the graphics processor at stunning 412MHz, according to the company.

The new FGL X2-256t professional graphics card has 256MB of unified DDR SDRAM graphics memory with 256-bit bus onboard and carries two DVI-I connectors.

Surprisingly, but the FIRE GL X2-256t does not only succeed the original FIRE GL X2-256, but is said to be available at $100 lower price-point compared to the former high-end professional part from ATI.

“With performance that rivals competitive products costing twice as much, the FIRE GL X2-256t features advanced pixel shader support and the ability to render complex models, scenes and effects in real-time,” said Dinesh Sharma, Director, Workstation Products, ATI Technologies.

According to ATI, FGL X2-256t has ISV certification for professional applications such as 3dsmax, SolidWorks, MicroStation, Maya, and Softimage XSI, in addition to its improved performance.

The FIRE GL X2-256t has an MSRP of US $899 and will be available later this month through workstation OEMs, system integrators and value added resellers. The FIRE GL X2-256t joins the existing products in the FIRE GL family including the entry-level FIRE GL T2-128, the mid-range FIRE GL Z1-128, the FIRE GL X1-128 and the MOBILITY FIRE GL T2 processor for mobile workstations.