AMD recently announced it has begun shipping its ATI Radeon HD 2400 and ATI Radeon HD 2600 series graphics processors (GPUs) to its add-in board (AIB) customers. The cards are designed for use in entry-level and mainstream systems to deliver feature-rich DirectX 10 gaming and high definition video for Windows Vista.

Both GPUs feature UVD (Unified Video Decoder) technology, the video decoding technology from AMD to support hardware decoding of H.264 and VC-1 video codec standards, allowing users to watch Blu-ray, HD DVD and standard definition movies while freeing CPU usage, which ultimately leads to lower power consumption and quieter cooling solutions.

Graphics cards based on these processors are expected to be available at online retailers within a few weeks from manufacturers such as Asus, Club 3D, Diamond Multimedia, GeCube, Gigabyte, HIS, MSI, Palit, PowerColor, Sapphire and VisionTek.