Graphics Cards - Page 103

The new Ryzen 9 7940HS mobile processor pairs Zen 4 architecture with RDNA 3 graphics in the form of an integrated Radeon 780M GPU. The processor is featured in the new ASUS TUF A15 Gaming laptop. Even though there is GeForce RTX 4060 laptop graphics inside, tech reviewer ETA PRIME has tested the new integrated Radeon 780M GPU, and the 1080p benchmark results are impressive.

The AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS Zen 4 processor features 8 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 4.0 GHz and a max boost clock of 5.2 GHz. The RDNA 3-based Radeon 780M iGPU features 12CUs clocked at an impressive 2.8 GHz, with the ASUS TUF A15 Gaming laptop tested also featuring 32GB of fast DDR5 5600 memory (4GB of which is shared with the GPU).

Looking at synthetic 3DMark benchmarks, the Radeon 780M GPU delivers a 12% improvement over the 680M in the FireStrike test, increasing to 15% in TimeSpy. These are impressive results considering that there are no official launch drivers for the CPU, but that also meant some instability and crashing when testing certain games. ETA PRIME notes that he could not test Sony titles like God of War and Marvel's Spider-Man due to crashes.

All eyes are currently on the freshly launched NVIDIA RTX 4070 GPU, and that could be the reason why some price cuts have been spotted with higher-end RTX 4090 and 4080 graphics cards.

As Wccftech pointed out, there's evidence that pricing on these GPUs is dropping, at least on some versions at certain retailers in the US. The catch with the RTX 4090, though, is that the deal which was glimpsed is now out of stock - but there's still an opportunity to get an RTX 4080 on offer you'll doubtless be glad to hear.

The MSRP (manufacturer's suggested price) of the RTX 4080 is $1,199, but you can now pick up a GIGABYTE Eagle RTX 4080 for $1,149 at Best Buy, a healthy reduction of $50.

NVIDIA was prepping a fifth and final option for the GeForce RTX 3060 with an RTX 3060 SUPER that would have shipped with a fully unlocked GA106 GPU. This would put its CUDA Core count at 3840 versus the existing 8GB and 12GB variants' 3584 CUDA Cores - a modest increase of 7.1%.

Of course, an increase in cores doesn't quite equate to the same increase in performance when it comes to playing games, but the GeForce RTX 3060 SUPER (alongside its 12GB of GDDR6 memory) would have made it the most powerful version of the RTX 3060. The BIOS on the leaked specs from @inatural_log on Twitter confirms that it's from 2020, so it's not a new card.

And when it comes to the RTX 3060, NVIDIA did release a few different variants - with the most notable difference being models with 8GB of VRAM and models with 12GB of VRAM. The GeForce RTX 3060 SUPER's 12GB would have featured the same 192-bit bus and 360GB/s bandwidth as the non-SUPER 12GB model, so the only difference looks to be the fully unlocked CUDA cores for the GA106 GPU and an increased boost clock speed of 1875 MHz compared to the 1777 MHz we ended up with.

NVIDIA's RTX 4070 graphics card has only just come out, but we've already seen evidence of tentative discounts for some models - and now we're hearing that the GPU could get an official price cut ushered in direct from Team Green.

This is just a rumor, so bear that firmly in mind, but sources have told Igor's Lab that NVIDIA is considering offering a rebate payment of up to $50 to card makers, at least in the case of MSRP-level RTX 4070 models.

Those are the models built to an entry-level spec and sold at the recommended price of $599, and the theory Igor advances is that such a payment would give some breathing space to card manufacturers who find their base RTX 4070s remaining stubbornly on shelves (and perhaps starting to accumulate the first few specks of dust).

The GeForce RTX 4070 launched last week, and with a price-point of USD 599, it marked the arrival of the most affordable GeForce RTX 40 Series GPU from NVIDIA to date. And with rumors pointing to a potential May 2023 launch (only a few weeks away) for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti, we could be looking at another mid-range entry and the fifth SKU for the line-up.

There's no doubt that NVIDIA hasn't slowed down since launching the flagship GeForce RTX 4090 and GeForce RTX 4080 late last year, with new models and entries in the 40 Series arriving like clockwork. Which begs the question, where are AMD's more affordable RDNA 3 graphics cards?

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT and the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX launched in December 2022, built on AMD's latest architecture featuring a groundbreaking multi-chip or chiplet design. Both GPUs are based on the "Navi 31" GPU. AMD has positioned the flagship Radeon RX 7900 XTX as an alternative to the GeForce RTX 4080, offering similar stellar 4K performance but with less of a hit to the digital wallet.

ASUS has announced a pair of new ProArt GeForce RTX 4080 and 4070 Ti graphics cards for creators with a sleek, compact 2.5-slot design and 300mm length. With the launch of both the RTX 4080 and RTX 4070 Ti seeing several partner models, including those from ASUS, with 3-slot and larger thicknesses - these new ProArt models offer compatibility with more cases.

ASUS notes that these GPUs have been created with creators and professionals in mind, so the 2.5-slot thickness means you'll still have access to a secondary PCIe x16 slot on a motherboard - something creators are more likely to look for when it comes to a GPU. ASUS notes that the 300mm length also makes them two of the shortest RTX 40 Series graphics cards on the market.

If you're wondering if the smaller physical real estate will affect cooling, ProArt GeForce RTX 4080 and 4070 Ti graphics cards have been "tuned for quiet operation." They feature three Axial-tech fans with dual ball bearings and can be further tweaked via ASUS's intuitive GPU Tweak III app. Like other GeForce RTX 40 Series cards, these new ProArt models feature 0dB tech where the fans will spin down completely for silent operation during light workloads.

NVIDIA isn't planning to ramp up production levels of its Lovelace GPUs any time soon, or at least that's what a new report claims.

So right up front, we should note that this comes from DigiTimes, a source that picks up a lot of chatter from the hardware supply chain, but one with a patchy track record for accuracy - which is to say, apply a whole load of seasoning here.

The claim is that following the release of the RTX 4070, NVIDIA's supply chain partners do not see any indication that Team Green intends to scale up production for RTX 4000 graphics cards (the newest model, or any of the other existing Lovelace products).

With the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 launch last week (check out our review of the Founders Edition model here), we're already getting confirmation that the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti launch is happening sooner than later.

As per insider T4C Fantasy (via Twitter), we've got word that a partner model - the Colorful iGame GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Ultra W OC - is sporting a 2580 MHz overclock compared to the default 2535 MHz boost clock, which is higher than the GeForce RTX 4070's 2475 MHz.

Though, as of writing, the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti will feature 8GB of VRAM (the baseline RTX 4060 also reportedly features 8GB of VRAM), which will be a significant point of discussion when the cards debut. With recent PC releases like Hogwarts Legacy, Resident Evil 4, and The Last of Us Part I being heavy on the VRAM, many wonder if 8GB for a mid-range card is acceptable in 2023.

Computex is back in a big way, with COMPUTEX 2023 set to take place at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center from May 30 to June 2, featuring over 1,000 exhibitors from 17 countries.

According to the event planners, this year's theme covers "high-performance computing, artificial intelligence application, next-gen connectivity, hyperreality, innovations and startups, and sustainability."

And with high-performance computing and AI in the mix and the return of in-person industry events back on the menu, the "COMPUTEX 2023 Keynote to Reveal Global Key Technological Innovations" is set to kick off the event and will feature NVIDIA CEO and founder Jensen Huang as its headliner.

NVIDIA's RTX 4070 is off the starting blocks, and there's still a good amount of stock of the GPU floating around after launch, with prices sitting at MSRP - and some graphics cards even being discounted already.

It certainly doesn't seem like RTX 4070 stock is flying off the shelves, or at any rate, supply is easily coping with demand.

And indeed there are suggestions that demand may be on the weak side, such as the tweet above from leaker TechEpiphany, who claims that big German retailer MindFactory (MF) only sold around 300 units on launch day, which is indicative that interest is "pretty low" in the GPU.

Intel's latest graphics driver is once again pushing ahead with performance for Arc GPUs, improving frame rates substantially in some cases for a number of popular games.

Note that the freshly released driver (version 31.0.101.4311) is still in beta, and it's for Arc Alchemist graphics cards plus Iris Xe GPUs.

The driver brings in support for a few new games - Boundary, Dead Island 2, Minecraft Legends, Total War: Warhammer III - Mirror of Madness - and takes some big strides forward with frame rates, including some double-digit gains.

With the launch of the GeForce RTX 4070 this week (check out our reviews for multiple models here), we've got a clearer picture of the performance and efficiency gains with NVIDIA's new Ada Lovelace architecture.

Built on a custom TSMC 4N process, it presents a significant leap forward over the GeForce RTX 30 Series Ampere generation and its use of Samsung 8N regarding overall efficiency. Of course, there are advances in the underlying hardware, with next-generation RT Cores and SER (Shader Execution Reordering) and new AI hardware developed for the new DLSS 3 Frame Generation technology.

Back to the efficiency of Ada, the focus of this article - even though the GeForce RTX 4090 is a 450W-rated GPU, it rarely hits this height and scales remarkably well when it comes to gaming at lower resolutions. Based on averages across 15 Games (for a detailed breakdown of the games tested and settings, check out our review of the GeForce RTX 4070 Founders Edition), the GeForce RTX 4090 not only delivers a 70.7% uplift in performance over the 350W-rated GeForce RTX 3090, but it manages that by only using 5.9% more power.

After leaking the other day, today comes the official word from AMD, unveiling its most powerful AMD Radeon PRO Graphics Cards for workstations and professionals built on the new RDNA 3 architecture.

The AMD Radeon PRO W7000 Series, covering the AMD Radeon PRO W7900 and AMD Radeon PRO W7800 graphics cards, are the first professional GPUs built using AMD's new chiplet design. And like the flagship consumer-focused AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX, they also support the latest DisplayPort 2.1 standard - which has yet to be adopted by NVIDIA.

AMD promises significantly higher performance as the new workstation Radeon PRO graphics cards than the previous generation. On that front, the flagship AMD Radeon PRO W7900 features 96 Compute Units with 61 TFLOPS (FP32) performance that can deliver a 1.5X higher geoman performance on the SPECviewperf 2020 benchmark. It also sports 48GB of GDDR6 memory on a 384-bit interface with up to 864 GB/s of memory bandwidth.

Hefty graphics cards can start to perish under their own weight, with board sag breaking components, a new report underlines.

The sag - where the card is pulled down at the back with gravity, perhaps with quite some force when it comes to larger triple-slot boards equipped with giant coolers - can actually affect the VRAM modules, according to YouTuber KrisFix (who runs a German hardware repair shop).

As you can see in the above video, the repair expert shows a damaged NVIDIA RTX 2080 Ti where the memory modules, which are very close to the PCIe slot, suffer from the slight bending of the board.

A new blog post over at AMD titled "Building an Enthusiast PC" puts the majority of its focus on VRAM, especially when gaming in 1440p and 4K. With recent PC gaming community discussion around VRAM capacity and whether or not 12GB is enough for modern titles, and the launch of the GeForce RTX 4070 happening very soon - the timing of the piece is calculated.

But also timely as AMD highlights that when it comes to peak 4K memory usage in modern titles like Resident Evil 4, The Last of Us Part I, and Hogwarts Legacy with Ultra settings enabled - anything less than 16GB looks like a potential bottleneck. Of course, legitimate optimization concerns have been raised about a few of these titles, where more VRAM becomes a band-aid approach for PC games that still need development work.

Naturally, this post also shows that AMD's Radeon graphics cards have you covered when it comes to VRAM capacity. The 8GB VRAM of the Radeon RX 6600 Series is the 1080p enthusiast option, the 12GB Radeon RX 6700 Series is for 1440p, and the 16GB Radeon RX 6800 Series is for 4K.

NVIDIA's Blackwell graphics cards, expected to be GeForce RTX 5000 models, could be over twice as quick as current-gen Lovelace models - and we've heard a pile of other rumors about Team Green's next-gen GPUs to boot.

This comes courtesy of Wccftech, with the tech site keeping its ear to the ground and flagging up a bunch of info - approach all this very cautiously, naturally - from Twitter and two prominent YouTube leakers, Moore's Law is Dead (MLID) and RedGamingTech (RGT).

Bearing firmly in mind that it's still early stages for Blackwell, we hear from MLID that NVIDIA is likely to go with a monolithic GPU (single chip) for the next-gen flagship (RTX 5090). That idea has been floated in the past via the rumor mill, notably from renowned Twitter leaker Kopite7kimi, but there's a twist here - MLID doesn't completely rule out chiplets.

NVIDIA's RTX 4070 is rumored to launch later this week, and we've caught a glimpse of some pre-release pricing - and it doesn't make for pleasant reading.

We should make it clear upfront that prices from retailers that appear before a product is launched can often be wrong, and maybe just placeholders (educated guesses), but equally, they can sometimes serve as a fair indication of ballpark price tags.

Sadly, what we've witnessed from a Vietnamese retailer (Bpstore.vn) - as highlighted by I_Leak_VN on Twitter - is on the high side compared to previous leaks.

The AMD Radeon Pro W7900 Graphics Card has been spotted in Puget Bench, a benchmark tool for showcasing accurate After Effects performance. It points to an imminent or "coming soon" release for the first RDNA 3-powered workstation GPU from AMD that will compete with something like the NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada graphics card from NVIDIA.

The graphics score of 135.3 for the AMD Radeon Pro W7900 puts it roughly 10% slower than the NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada workstation GPU, but like the launch of the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX (which it's safe to assume this new GPU is based on), the assumption is that it will launch with a lower price.

The AMD Radeon Pro W7900 will be the successor to the AMD Radeon Pro W6000, targeting high-end workstation rigs. Although the Puget Bench listing confirms the existence of a next-generation workstation GPU from AMD, specifications and other details remain unknown.

Over at Videocardz.com, leaked images and info outlining performance and benchmarks for the GeForce RTX 4070 (presumably the Founders Edition) have appeared, confirming that overall performance without DLSS 3 and Frame Generation is on par with the GeForce RTX 3080.

The same slide also confirms that "Without Frame Gen" performance is 1.2X faster than the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti and 1.3X faster than the GeForce RTX 3070. According to the source, these official numbers from NVIDIA include DLSS 2.

The overall byline from NVIDIA for the new GeForce RTX 4070 is that the card will deliver 100+ fps performance at 1440p with ray-tracing and DLSS 3 enabled. It makes sense that official benchmarks and info from NVIDIA would focus on the brand-new GeForce RTX 40 Series exclusive DLSS 3 technology - it did the same when it came to the RTX 4090, RTX 4080, and RTX 4070 Ti.

AMD's flagship RDNA 3 GPU, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX, launched in December last year with an MSRP of USD 999. This price was for the reference model using the cooling and specs laid out by AMD, with custom partner cards arriving later with more room for overclocking and a higher price tag.

One of these cards is the ASRock Phantom Gaming Radeon RX 7900 XTX with 24GB GDDR6 memory and a higher Boost Clock of 2615 MHz using triple 8-pin power connectors. A step up from the two 8-pin power connectors of the reference models. This custom Radeon RX 7900 XTX from ASRock initially launched with a price of USD 1,119.99; its current price on online retailer Newegg is USD 959.99.

The Radeon RX 7900 XTX is a capable 4K GPU, delivering exceptional performance. Our review of the custom ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 7900 XTX OC Edition produced consistently better results than the reference Radeon RX 7900 XTX. So it's safe to assume the story will be the same for the ASRock Phantom Gaming Radeon RX 7900 XTX.