AMD today quietly announced a new graphics card that fills in ATI's high-end offerings just below the Radeon HD 2900 XT. ATI claims the new Radeon HD 2900 PRO has the same system requirements as the HD 2900 XT graphics cards, but sports lower core and memory clock frequencies.

The first of the HD 2900 PRO cards features 512MB GDDR3 and a 9-inch fansink. The card will include two DVI-I to VGA adapters, one component HDTV adapter, an ATI DVI to HDMI adapter, and one 9-pin VIVO adapter and a CrossFire bridge interconnect.  AMD claims this card will hit store shelves at $249.

The second card in the HD 2900 PRO series features 1GB GDDR4 and is available with two different sizes of fansinks. One version of the card has a 9-inch fansink and another version has a 12-inch fansink.

Usually, the "long" versions of graphics cards form ATI and NVIDIA are sold as OEM-only components for Dell and HP to use in custom gaming machines. There is no word from ATI on if the 12-inch version of the 1GB HD 2900 PRO will be an OEM part only at this time. The 9-inch revision of the 1GB card will retail at $299.

Both the 12-inch and the 9-inch versions of the 1GB card will come with two DVI-I to VGA adapters, a component HDTV adapter, an ATI DVI to HDMI adapter, a 9-pin VIVO adapter and a CrossFire  bridge interconnect.

PowerColor lists the 512MB version of the HD 2900 PRO on its website with 320 stream processors, a 600 MHz engine clock and a 800 MHz GDDR3 memory clock. Pricing is expected to be $299 for the 1 GB version and $249 for the 512 MB card.

However, it appears as though vendors have some play in the actual clock frequencies.  The official ATI guidance claims the core-clock is locked at 600 MHz, though PowerColor engineers claim some of these cards can be "clocked much higher."  The 1GB variants top out at 742 MHz, according to the same guidance.