Today AMD has officially announced the released of their new Radeon HD 3800 series cards. The cards, which we've heard quite a bit about including rumors of large pre-orders, are the first units AMD will deploy with DirectX 10.1 support. The cards use a 55nm process and include two models at launch.

The new units released are the HD 3850 and the HD3870, which will each retail for around $179 and $219, respectively. At price points like these, should the performance by anywhere near comparable to existing sub-$200 units it could be a sign of a Radeon turn-around. Once the benchmarks start rolling in we'll be able to see if all the stalling AMD/ATI has done will have been worth it.

You can read the full press release at AMD's site.