Graphics Cards - Page 106

Odds are we're getting close to the launch of the GeForce RTX 4070 (the non-Ti model), and thanks to established hardware leaker hongxing2020 (who has previously revealed RTX 30 and RTX 40 launch dates), we're looking at a launch of April 13 - which lands on a Thursday, and which is typically the day we see new GPUs launch.

This backs up previous rumors of an April 2023 launch window for the GeForce RTX 4070. We've also seen the RTX 4070 show up in the GPU-Z validation database earlier this year-specifically, a Colorful RTX 4070 iGame Ultra White OC model.

Hardware-wise, we know what to expect regarding the specs, with the GeForce RTX 4070 sharing the same AD104 chip as the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti - albeit cut down. The RTX 4070 is rumored to feature 5888 CUDA cores, a 30% decrease over the RTX 4070 Ti's 7680 CUDA cores. The RTX 4070 is also rumored to feature 12 GB GDDR6X of VRAM clocked at 21 Gbps and a 200W TGP.

NVIDIA is now shipping RTX 4090 graphics cards which are built using a slightly different GPU than the original 4090s, if a bunch of details posted on Reddit is correct.

The Redditor in question (Cavitysearch123) tells us that they've just picked up a new RTX 4090 Founders Edition card from NVIDIA, and that a close inspection of the board (during the process of mounting a waterblock) revealed that it's a different GPU.

To be precise, it's an AD102-301 GPU as opposed to the original AD102-300. So, what's the difference here, exactly?

NVIDIA could be readying a further spin on its RTX 3060 graphics card, and if so, that would mean Team Green will have pushed out no fewer than four variations of this board.

The leaked variant that might be inbound was highlighted on Twitter by T4C Fantasy, who's in charge of the Tech Powerup database, and unearthed the model somewhere. (We aren't told where, but presumably in GPU-Z validations, as VideoCardz, which first reported on this, points out).

It'll be quite different from existing takes on the RTX 3060, apparently, running with an entirely different chip and faster memory too.

A new in-depth report via CNBC (which you can watch in full via the video below) offers a deep dive into NVIDIA, with CEO and founder Jensen Huang discussing the company's history and recent shift into AI. It's a cool look at the rise of discrete graphics cards and serves as a nice little history lesson on NVIDIA - from the release of the first GPU to advances like CUDA.

It also touches on the company's brief dip into mobile hardware (that said, Tegra hardware still powers the Nintendo Switch) and its recent failed attempt to acquire Arm. Plus, cloud gaming, the current crypto mining boom, and NVIDIA's recent steep gaming revenue decline. The focus of the deep dive into NVIDIA is the company's success in AI - where it has gone all in on the technology. And with that, the rise of AI models like ChatGPT, where tens of thousands of NVIDIA GPUs power AI technology.

On the gaming side, if you go back to the release of the GeForce RTX 2080 in 2018, you'll no doubt find many takes at the time wondering if the addition of dedicated AI hardware versus simply beefing up GPU specs even further was the right move. The shift had been on the cards for far longer than that.

When NVIDIA debuted the first GeForce RTX range of GPUs back in 2018 with the arrival of the GeForce RTX 20 Series, it introduced dedicated hardware for ray tracing and AI. And with that, the company paved the way for real-time ray tracing in games alongside AI-based rendering in the form of DLSS.

With the arrival of the GeForce RTX 40 Series last year and cards like the GeForce RTX 4070 and GeForce RTX 4060 on the horizon, the company's hardware-based RT and AI Tensor cores have advanced quite considerably. DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) is now at a point where if it's available in a game, you enable it for a sizable performance boost without adversely affecting image quality.

NVIDIA has announced that over 390 games and applications now support GeForce RTX technologies - NVIDIA DLSS, Ray Tracing, and the new AI-based Frame Generation of the GeForce RTX 40 Series' exclusive DLSS 3 suite - which also includes NVIDIA Reflex.

AMD Radeon driver Adrenalin Edition 23.3.1 is available now for all Radeon RX users. It supports the recently released Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty (available on PC Game Pass). It also Halo Infinite's ray-tracing update, which is also available on PC Game Pass.

For those wondering about ray-tracing support in Halo Infinite, it's all about RT sun shadows in multiplayer as part of this month's Season 3 "Echoes Within" update.

Weirdly though, it doesn't look like it applies to the campaign, where a hardware-intensive effect like ray tracing makes the most sense. The Adrenalin Edition 23.3.1 release notes confirm that outside of these two game-specific updates, outstanding bugs for Dying Light 2 and Returnal have been addressed. Other known Radeon issues remain under investigation, including the "high idle power" issue relating to the new Radeon RX 7000 series GPUs, which has been on the list of things to fix since the cards debuted late last year.

Recently we reported on a bug related to the latest official NVIDIA GeForce Game Ready Driver (531.18), where after exiting a game or logging on, CPU usage would spike by over 10% - the culprit, an NVIDIA process. NVIDIA confirmed this as an issue, and today the company has released GeForce Game Ready Driver 531.26 Hotfix to resolve the issue.

The notes address the "Higher CPU usage from NVIDIA Container might be observed after exiting a game" issue and a random bug related to laptops with older GeForce GTX GPUs. The CPU issue was reported by several users and seemed to be widespread (I noticed it, too, running a GeForce RTX 4070 Ti), so this Hotfix is well worth grabbing directly from NVIDIA here.

That said, as a Hotfix, it's not an official driver update and is considered a Beta release, so you must download and install it manually.

AMD is running a session at GDC 2023 (Game Developers Conference) which pertains to its FidelityFX SDK, and there's a chance we might see an initial info drop on FSR 3.0.

FSR 3.0 is the third take on FidelityFX Super Resolution, AMD's frame rate booster that rivals NVIDIA DLSS.

The session takes place on March 23rd, and AMD notes that it will "include an exciting sneak peek of new FidelityFX technologies that will be available soon."

It was reported that sales for discrete Intel Arc GPUs had caught up to AMD Radeon GPU shipments, with both companies sitting at 9% market share compared to NVIDIA's staggering 82%.

The figures arrived via Jon Peddie Research - which we reported here - but it turns out the figures were incorrect in that they counted data center GPUs - over 60,000.

The initial report was notable because it painted a picture where shipments for both Intel and AMD discrete graphics cards for desktop gamers were neck and neck. The revised figures for dGPU shipments for NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel bump up NVIDIA's market share to 85%, followed by AMD at 9% and Intel at 6%. The Intel Arc graphics card range is still relatively new on the scene, and the revised figures still paint a reasonably optimistic picture for Intel.

The Last of Us is one of the most popular TV shows currently airing, with the HBO series receiving near-unanimous critical acclaim. Based on the PlayStation game that first debuted towards the tail-end of the PlayStation 3's lifecycle, it has since received a highly anticipated sequel and cemented itself - alongside Uncharted and God of War - as one of the premiere PlayStation franchises.

The good news is that it's finally coming to PC, in high-def remake form, with The Last of Us Part I launching on March 28. As a remake that first debuted on PlayStation 5, it takes full advantage of modern gaming hardware to deliver a definitive version of the classic game. And with the HBO series propelling The Last of Us into the pop culture zeitgeist, the timing of the PC release is just about perfect. And there's no doubt that it will become one of the best-selling PC games for 2023.

And there's good news if you're in the market for a new GPU, specifically something from Team Red. There's a promotion kicking off where you buy an AMD Radeon RX 6000 or Radeon RX 7000 GPU; you get a copy of the game. Regarding "pack-in" titles for GPUs, this is one of the biggest we've seen in a while - as you're looking at one of the most cinematic and immersive gaming experiences currently available.

NVIDIA has confirmed a bug in its latest graphics driver which spikes processor usage by an unfortunate amount, potentially slowing down your PC a fair bit.

Tom Warren (of The Verge) flagged this on Twitter (see the above tweet), noting that GeForce driver version 531.18 pushes up CPU usage by 10% or more after closing some games.

NVIDIA tells us that one of the known issues with v531.18 is: "Higher CPU usage from NVIDIA Container might be observed after exiting a game."

A bug in the latest WQHL-certified Radeon drivers, Adrenalin 23.2.2, can break Windows to the point where the OS becomes corrupted and must be either restored or reinstalled entirely. This is a severe bug, though AMD notes that it's rare and can occur when the 'Factory Reset' option (that clears existing driver settings) is ticked, and you're installing the latest Radeon graphics driver while Windows is performing an update in the background.

A perfect storm of random events, but with Windows updates happening quite frequently, reports relating to Radeon users encountering corrupted Windows installs due to this issue have been cropping up.

Brad Chacos, the Executive Editor at PCWorld, experienced the problem on the test bench he uses to benchmark GPUs. Brad said he couldn't even boot into Windows repair mode, though after extensive troubleshooting with AMD, he could fix his PC. He outlined his experience with the bug in detail, and it's well worth reading as a reminder that troubleshooting rare PC issues are always a pain.

Intel Graphics Driver 31.0.101.4146 is available now, offering Intel Arc Graphics support for Destiny 2: Lightfall and Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty. Two big PC game releases that have recently dropped, and in the case of Wo Long, Intel is noting that the Intel Arc A750 graphics card can outperform NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 3060 12GB at both 1080p and 1440p - via its benchmarks.

And we learn that Intel XeSS support (the company's DLSS AI upscaling equivalent) is coming soon to the game.

It's been impressive to see the release cadence for new Intel graphics drivers in recent weeks, especially with the company focused on fixing issues and compatibility for the Intel Arc range. Intel is living up to its promise of supporting new games - there's also Company of Heroes 3 and Like a Dragon: Ishin! support that was added recently. Intel writes, "you can always rely on Intel Arc graphics with Day-0 support."

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT, which has only been out for a few months (it launched in December 2022 alongside the 7900 XTX), is now being sold for USD 799 - a full USD 100 cheaper than the USD 899 launch price. This is pretty crazy, as we've all become used to high-end GPUs being sold for a premium, usually much higher than the MSRP.

For AMD's Radeon RX 7000 series, the Radeon RX 7900 XT was always seen as a lesser of two - with its price only being USD 100 cheaper than the USD 999 Radeon RX 7900 XTX in the first place. As seen in benchmark results, the performance gap between the two GPUs was much higher than the pricing difference, so enthusiasm for the card was low.

This discount on the ASRock Phantom Gaming Radeon RX 7900 XT 20GB to USD 799.99 on Newegg doubles as a statement that sales for the card are not performing as expected.

With the full GeForce RTX 40 Series in the Steam Hardware Survey results, the GeForce RTX 4080 (0.20%) and the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti (0.18%) are in February 2023's numbers; there's still no sign of AMD's Radeon RX 7000 series-or Intel's Arc range, for that matter.

Last month we reported on the latest GPU movements in the Steam Hardware Survey, where we saw NVIDIA's flagship GeForce RTX 4090 show up with a 0.23% market share - which has now grown to 0.31%. That might not seem like a lot, but Steam covers tens of millions of PC gamers, and it often takes several months for a new GPU - let alone a flagship model - to show up.

The most popular GPU remains the four-year-old NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 (6.12%), which is followed by the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (5.28%) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 laptop GPU (4.78%).

Intel is putting the pedal to the metal in the graphics card market, with its Arc Alchemist products having drawn level with AMD's Radeon GPUs, according to some newly released figures.

This comes from analyst firm Jon Peddie Research (JPR), which produces quarterly reports on graphics card market share, measuring shipment quantities from AMD, Intel, and NVIDIA.

The latest report pertains to Q4 of 2022, and it shows that NVIDIA is still by far the most dominant desktop GPU maker, which is no surprise to anyone, on 82%. However, Intel is now on 9%, equalling AMD's market share, meaning these two rivals to Team Green have split the remaining share down the middle.

GALAX has launched beefy Hall of Fame (or HOF) versions of both the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti and the GeForce RTX 4090, and now it's the GeForce RTX 4080's turn for some extreme HOF overclocking action. And GALAX is introducing three models based on the AD103 chip, and with boost speeds of up to 2640 MHz, they represent some of the fastest GeForce RTX 4080 models in the market.

GALAX GeForce RTX 4080 HOF OC LAB Plus-X: with 2640 MHz boost, HOF Panel III

GALAX GeForce RTX 4080 HOF OC LAB Plus: with 2640 MHz boost

The latest GeForce Game Ready Driver driver is here, and it officially adds DLSS 3-enhanced support to the recently released Atomic Heart. With DLSS 3 4K performance on the GeForce RTX 4090 is boosted by an incredible 90% - taking the in-game fps from 97 up to an impressive 184 fps using NVIDIA's new Frame Generation technology. It even allows the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti to push its performance from around 63 fps up to 113 fps, impressive stuff.

But the support for the upcoming Closed Beta for The Finals from Stockholm-based Embark Studios excites us. This is a new game created by a team of ex-Battlefield developers, and it takes environmental destruction to crazy new heights - which you can see in the latest GeForce RTX-powered trailer for the game.

The game is set to support NVIDIA DLSS, NVIDIA Reflex, and even hardware ray-tracing with RTXGI for lighting. The Closed Beta for The Finals is set to kick off on March 7 and run for two weeks, and you can sign up for it now via the game's Steam page. NVIDIA has provided some hardware requirements for the game's RTX features, where a GeForce RTX 3070 is recommended for RTX, and a GeForce RTX 4070 Ti is recommended for "UItra RTX."

NVIDIA has finally launched its video upscaling tech that adds a bit of DLSS magic to watching YouTube videos within Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge called RTX Video Super Resolution (VSR). It uses the AI-based Tensor Core hardware found inside GeForce RTX 30 and 40 Series GPUs to make video content that streams at 1080p or lower look much better than the basic upscaling techniques used by modern browsers.

Like with DLSS, the goal is essentially to make 1080p video look like a native 4K stream without having to use a lot more bandwidth. NVIDIA notes that the AI removes blocky compression artifacts while improving sharpness and clarity. RTX VSR is available now as part of the latest GeForce Game Ready Driver that dropped today.

"Just like putting on a pair of prescription glasses can instantly snap the world into focus," writes NVIDIA. "RTX Video Super Resolution gives viewers on GeForce RTX 40 and 30 Series PCs a clear picture into the world of streaming video."

AMD's Radeon RX 7900 XT GPU is getting cheaper across the globe, as first we heard the news of substantial price falls in China (over the past weekend), and now the same is happening in the US, too.

Leading the charge in the States is the ASRock Phantom Gaming RX 7900 XT graphics card over at Newegg, which has now been reduced to US$830, a pretty significant drop from the MSRP of US$900.

Indeed, that's 9% off the recommended price, although the cost reductions in China comfortably exceed that kind of discount, amounting to nearly 20% being lopped off the price tag.