Some HD 5830s said to be coming with HD 5850 cores - BIOS hacks anyone?

Steve Dougherty | Video Cards & GPUs | Mar 2, 2010 1:20 AM CST

Our VGA guru Shane Baxtor has posted some hot news over at his Blog page pertaining to the new HD 5830 which is already a hot little number in AMD's HD 5000 series lineup with solid performance at a good price.

He learns that we might be seeing a bit of de ja vu, reminiscing of the X800 days where it was possible to unlock more stream processors by simply flashing the card with a different BIOS.

Whilst not confirmed nor said to be happening with every HD 5830 to hit the market, Shane hears that companies are looking to place the HD 5850 core on select HD 5830 cards which would then make it as simple as using a BIOS hack to unlock the extra stream processors the HD 5850 has on tap. Followed by a core and memory overclock from there and you're looking at sensational performance that makes the already attractive value factor of the stock HD 5830 glow even more.

Continue reading: Some HD 5830s said to be coming with HD 5850 cores - BIOS hacks anyone? (full post)

Intel announces big brother to N450, N470 @ 1.83GHz

Steve Dougherty | CPU, APU & Chipsets | Feb 28, 2010 10:49 PM CST

Intel had planned for a big brother to Atom N450 to be launched come March 1st (today) in the form of the Atom N470, but decided to jump the gun on itself and make a brief announcement over the weekend introducing the faster Atom series processor for netbooks and nettops.

The Atom N470 heads north of the N450s clockspeed (1.66GHz) to 1.83GHz, whilst all other specifications remain the same; 45nm, single core with Hyperthreading, 512KB L2 cache, on-die single channel memory controller with support for DDR2-667MHz memory and Intel GMA 3150 integrated graphics.

Lenovo was quick to mention its IdeaPad S10-3t convertible tablet would use N470 in a previous announcement, whilst many more netbooks are expected to hit the market in the coming months with the new slightly quicker chip.

Continue reading: Intel announces big brother to N450, N470 @ 1.83GHz (full post)

Enable SLI support on your vanilla ASUS P7P55D

Steve Dougherty | Video Cards & GPUs | Feb 28, 2010 10:20 PM CST

A David Smith of SolarisUtilityDVD has been made aware of a method to enable SLI on ASUS' Crossfire only P7P55D motherboard which might be of interest to those of you with the board who wish they could double up on their existing GeForce card.

As the P7P55D Deluxe board comes with SLI support (albeit at a fair bit higher price tag), it was as simple as getting into a hex editor, comparing the deluxe board's BIOS to the vanilla variant and copying the required string across to the current BIOS.

For the end user, the hack is as simple as updating your BIOS with one which has been modified to include the SLIC string that enables the support on the board.

Continue reading: Enable SLI support on your vanilla ASUS P7P55D (full post)

ASUS ROG Ares specs and image show up - HD 5970 on steroids

Steve Dougherty | Video Cards & GPUs | Feb 25, 2010 11:33 PM CST

The folks at Plaza.fi have obtained both a CAD drawing along with performance expectations of ASUS' suped up Republic of Gamers Ares graphics card which is basically a custom-designed HD 5970 which as many bells and whistles ASUS could jam into it.

This upcoming limited edition model uses two Radeon HD 5870 GPUs with 1600 stream processors each, whilst the core and memory clock remains the same as the HD 5870 at 850MHz / 1200MHz (up from the stock 725/1000MHz on a stock HD 5970). On the subject of memory, ASUS also doubled the memory with 4GB of it residing here.

As the CAD drawing above indicates, the card sticks with a single PCB whilst the cooling system is what mostly catches the eye; not too dissimilar to what NVIDIA uses for its current top-end dual GPU based GTX 295 with a centrally positioned fan which pushes air onto copper GPU blocks on both sides. This overall fan design looks pretty mean and chunky and is said to be quieter than AMD's reference HD 5970 cooler as well while no doubt being more effective.

Continue reading: ASUS ROG Ares specs and image show up - HD 5970 on steroids (full post)

Specs of GTX 400 series hints performance characteristics

Steve Dougherty | Video Cards & GPUs | Feb 25, 2010 11:13 PM CST

In now knowing when NVIDIA plans to unveil its GTX 400 Series (based on Fermi/GF100), which happens to be at PAX 2010 next month (March 26 to be exact), information is beginning to trickle out as to the underlying specs on the GTX 470 and 480 cards, in turn helping give a better perspective on the performance expectations of the models.

NVIDIAs next-gen GF100 silicon physically has 512 CUDA cores, 16 geometry units, 64 TMUs, 48 ROPs and a 384-bit GDDR5 memory interface. GTX 480 will of course be without limits and make use of every bit of this power in all regards. GTX 470 is of course a cut-down lower priced variant, but we're not yet sure in which areas and by how much NVIDIA will restrict it.

DonanimHaber gets a hint by sources that the GTX 470 may be limited to 448 or possibly 480 CUDA cores and have a narrower memory interface, down to maybe 320-bit. Clock speeds on the core/memory will likely take a bit of a drop as well. This card is said to have a power draw of around 300W and perform somewhere in between the HD 5850 and 5870.

Continue reading: Specs of GTX 400 series hints performance characteristics (full post)

Thermalright unveils VRM-R5 heatsink for HD 5800 cards

PC cooling specialists Thermalright have come out with a new mean looking VRM cooler for AMD's top-end ATI Radeon HD 5800 series of graphics cards. The company has already released aftermarket VRM coolers for the HD 5800 series in the VRM-R3 and VRM-R4, but this new VRM-R5 improves on them both with superior cooling properties.

The VRM-R5 can cool passively or actively in conjunction with an 80mm fan of choice. It is designed for the purposes of cooling the graphics card's VRM chips as well as the components surrounding the GPU and memory chips. Thermalright has made it compatible for use together with some of its existing VGA coolers on the market including the Spitfire.

Measurements for this cooler come in at 118 x 117 x 122 mm with a weight of 140 grams. Two 6mm heatpipes assist in heat transfer to a large block of aluminum fins that are punched to improve heat dissipation. It is on this block that the 80mm fan can be attached to dissipate the heat at a faster rate, thus improving overall performance and giving better headroom for overclocking.

Continue reading: Thermalright unveils VRM-R5 heatsink for HD 5800 cards (full post)

NVIDIA extends GT 300 family with GT 320, GT 330 and GT 340 for OEM market

Steve Dougherty | Video Cards & GPUs | Feb 24, 2010 7:07 AM CST

As we just heard the other day, NVIDIA finally let everyone know of its plans to unveil its next-gen GTX400 (Fermi) series graphics cards on March 26 (during PAX 2010). That's the big day most of us are holding out for so we can get a better perspective on just how well it'll deliver performance wise.

However, the company is certainly not in pause until such time. It is continuing to refresh its somewhat mundane GeForce 300 series of products and has just released some OEM-only cards in the form of the GeForce GT 320, 330 and 340. The folks at Hexus nabbed a picture of the GT 340, as seen below :-

Running over the GT 340s specs, its GPU is clocked at 550MHz with options of 512 and 1GB GDDR5 memory clocked at 3400MHz effectively, whilst the 96 stream processors are clocked at 1340MHz. Hexus ascertain from this information that the card is basically a re-branded GT 240 which was a 40nm DX 10.1 based card that launched in 2009.

Continue reading: NVIDIA extends GT 300 family with GT 320, GT 330 and GT 340 for OEM market (full post)

Belkin debuts new USB 3.0 line

USB 3.0 hardware was spotted in droves at CES in January and more of the gear will be coming to market this year. To take advantage of USB 3.0 you will need either a new computer or an add-in card for your existing machine.

Belkin has announced its new line of USB 3.0 gear for computer users that will all ship in the US in April. The line includes a new USB 3.0 PCIe add-in card selling for $79.99. A SuperSpeed USB 3.0 ExpressCard for notebooks will sell for the same $79.99 price point. Both will support up to 127 USB devices with enough hubs attached.

Belkin will also be offering a full line of USB 3.0 cables. The cables will come in 4 or 8-foot lengths with A-B or Micro to B connectors for $39.99 and $49.99. It's hard to stomach paying $50 for a cable when we all have gobs of USB cables lying around.

Continue reading: Belkin debuts new USB 3.0 line (full post)

Lenovo offers massive dual screen W701ds notebook

Shane McGlaun | Laptops | Feb 23, 2010 11:30 AM CST

Lenovo has debuted several new notebooks today and easily the coolest, most interesting, and expensive of the bunch is the new W701ds. The ds notebook has two screens and is also available in a single 17-inch screen version.

The W701ds version has the 17-inch screen plus a slide out 10.6-inch WXGA screen on the right side of the main screen. CPU options include the Core i7-920 Extreme or i7-820QM quad core. Windows 7, Vista Ultimate, or XP Pro are the OS choices. Graphics options include the Quadro FX 3800M or FX 2800M.

Both notebooks have X-Rite color calibration and Wacom digitizers. Storage is up to 500GB with 80GB or 128GB SSD options as well. Connectivity includes a single USB 3.0 port, four USB 2.0 ports, VGA, DVI, and DisplayPort. The single screen machine weighs almost nine pounds. The W701 starts at $2,199 and the W701ds starts at $3,799.

Continue reading: Lenovo offers massive dual screen W701ds notebook (full post)

Cracked glass stair from 5th Ave Apple store lands on eBay

Shane McGlaun | Business, Financial & Legal | Feb 22, 2010 12:09 PM CST

Maybe it's just me, but If you swipe something from an Apple Store without the employees knowing it you might not want to post the item on eBay for sale stating that you liberated it from the store. An eBay auction has turned up for a stair from the Apple Store on 5th Ave in NYC.

The guy offering the stair says that it was cracked when someone dropped a bottle on it and was replaced by store workers. The guys states he took the stair before the workers could throw it away. What he should say is I took it before I thought they were going to trash it.

The dude claims that the stairs cost $10,000 new and he wants $2,500 for the stolen, cracked stair. I have to wonder how Apple will feel about this. The guy could be looking at serious jail time if Apple wants to press this and the $10K price is accurate. You are an idiot if you buy this, I'm just sayin'.

Continue reading: Cracked glass stair from 5th Ave Apple store lands on eBay (full post)