Graphics Cards - Page 110

The GeForce RTX 4080, like the RTX 4090, is a powerful GPU capable of delivering triple-digit 4K performance with ray-tracing and in-game detail settings cranked up. Like its beefier sibling, the main issue for many is the cost of entry, with pricing for the GeForce RTX 4080 starting at around USD 1200.

Reports show that the upcoming silicon for the still-to-be-announced GeForce RTX 4070 (the non-Ti version) uses two variants - AD104-250 and AD104-251. The latter is built without a "comparator circuit" and fewer components. And with that, we've now got word that the RTX 4080 is following suit. Cards with the brand-new AD103-301 GPU silicon are starting to ship - with Gainward being the first to do so.

The new chip and the current RTX 4080 chips feature the same specs and performance, with the changes and reduction in components looking to reduce the cost of producing a new GeForce RTX 4080. The TDP, frequency, and Cuda core count of 9728 remain the same.

GALAX is prepping to launch two variants of its Hall of Fame (HOF) GPU range covering the most recent addition to the GeForce RTX 40 Series line-up - the RTX 4070 Ti.

The HOF OC Lab PLUS will include a Performance mode with a boost clock speed of up to 2760 MHz, with the HOF OC Lab (no PLUS) going up to 2715 MHz. What's most interesting about the HOF range and these models is the increase in power draw, which can go up to 366W - a massive increase over the 285W found in stock models. They do so via three PCIe 8-pin power connectors and a single 16-pin power adapter. Most RTX 3070 Ti GPUs on the market only support two PCIe 8-pin connectors.

This means that out-of-the-box, they won't be the fasted clocked OC models for the RTX 3070 Ti. Instead, they represent versions of NVIDIA's GPU with the most overclocking potential. There's a special Hyper Boost button on the I/O bracket that will "'improve overclocking capabilities", which we assume increases the max power limit of the card.

AMD is currently dealing with the RMA issues surrounding faulty vapor chamber cooling in reference model Radeon RX 7900 XTX cards, so a report of older Radeon RX 6000s GPUs mysteriously failing is a little concerning. And bad timing.

Of course, the following is anecdotal and comes from a single outlet, KrisFix Germany, but the sample size is pretty significant. Several AMD Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards (RX 6800 and RX 6900) have been sent to the shop for repair - 61 in total. And out of that batch, 48 have dead GPUs with the same shorted SOC rail and shorted memory rail. All cards were received over three weeks.

KrisFix also posted follow-up pictures to Facebook showcasing some seriously damaged cracked GPUs. He notes that receiving this many fault cards is unusual, especially with all of them showcasing the same DOA problems.

MSI is set to bring its first batch of Radeon RX 7000 series GPUs to market in January, with two models, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX Gaming Trio Classic and Radeon RX 7900 XT Gaming Trio Classic. In terms of cooling, these will not use the AMD reference designs that have recently been making the news due to vapor chamber issues but instead use MSI's recognizable Gaming Trio design.

Both cards use MSI's TRI FROZR 2 thermal system with TORX FAN 4.0 technology, enhanced PCB materials, and an anti-bend backplate. Both will ship with brackets for that extra dose of physical support, 325 x 141 x 56 mm dimensions, and 3 x 8-pin power requirements, and this puts their physical real estate in the 2.5-slot region.

In terms of clock speeds, there doesn't look like there will be any overclocking action out-of-the-box, with the RX 7900 XTX Gaming Trio Classic supporting up to 2500 MHz boost and 2300 MHz game. Though with 3 x 8-pin power connectors, there might be room to overclock manually.

The recent release of the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti happened without a Founders Edition from NVIDIA, on account of the card essentially being the uncancelled GeForce RTX 4080 12GB renamed. So the odds are that NVIDIA didn't have enough time to create new branded coolers and packaging.

According to a new leak showcasing the packaging from the upcoming still-to-be-announced GeForce RTX 4070, it looks like Founders Edition cards are back on the menu, with the RTX 4070s following the design of the RTX 4080 and RTX 4090 FE models.

The GeForce RTX 4070 is expected to be the next card in the GeForce RTX 40 Series to hit shelves, with a rumored Q2 2023 release window. As per another report, the GeForce RTX 4070 and the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti could end up using the same AD104 chip found in the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti - albeit cut down. Compared to the RTX 4070 Ti's 7680 CUDA Cores, the baseline RTX 4070 will potentially feature 5888 CUDA Cores

For many MSI Afterburner is the tool of choice when it comes to overclocking and tweaking their desktop GPU, and has been a mainstay for several years. Although it falls under the MSI banner it works on pretty much any GPU as it "gives you complete control" and "lets you monitor your hardware in real-time". And it's reliable to boot, offering easy-to-use overclocking tools to anyone; which makes the news that its future is uncertain, a concern.

MSI Afterburner developer Alexey Nicolaychuk aka "Unwinder", is based in Russia, and in a recent post over at the Guru3D forums he outlines that funding has been a major issue due to the recent conflict in the region, the ongoing war, and the current tech ban imposed on the country. This has made it just about impossible for MSI to pay Alexey for his work, to the point where he notes that the "MSI afterburner project is probably dead". The silver lining, and that's a pretty grim way to summarize the situation, is that MSI has provided a statement to Wccftech advising that it's still working hard to try and find a solution.

Alexey Nicolaychuk's comments point to funding as the issue, and that work carried out over the past year has been done out of pocket due to the political turmoil in the region. "War and politics are the reasons," Alexey writes. "I didn't mention it in [the] MSI Afterburner development news thread, but the project is semi-abandoned." Adding, "I have a feeling that I'm just beating a dead horse and wast[ing] energy on something that is no longer needed. Anyway, I'll try to continue supporting it myself while I have some free time but will probably need to drop it and switch to something else, allowing me to pay my bills."

First DLSS, now drivers: NVIDIA reportedly has plans to use its advanced AI tech to tweak graphics drivers to squeeze out more performance from its GeForce RTX video cards.

NVIDIA could use its ever-evolving artificial intelligence systems to tighten up drivers for its latest GeForce video cards, allowing users to glean more tangible performance across in-game and GPU workload applications. This is just a rumor and NVIDIA hasn't confirmed anything, and the report comes from frame rate expert CapFrameX on Twitter:

"NVIDIA is working on AI optimized drivers. Release maybe this year (Q1)," CapFrameX says. "Take this with a grain of salt. If true NVIDIA drivers will be real fine wine."

AMD has publicly acknowledged thermal issues that are pushing Radeon RX 7900 XTX video cards to abnormally high temps, but the company won't be able to offer new cards any time soon.

AMD has a big issue with its top-tier Navi 31 video cards. Faulty AMD reference RX 7900 XTX cards are being throttled to immensely high temperatures of up to 100-degrees Celsius during gaming sessions, especially at 4K 120FPS. AMD has officially recognized and commented on the problem, saying that temps are caused by a vapor chamber issue, but it could be while before affected consumers can RMA for a new replacement card.

Why? The short answer is that AMD has run out of stock and the company doesn't know when they'll get more RX 7900 XTX cards in.

It was only a matter of time before NVIDIA announced that it was bringing Ada Lovelace graphics to gaming laptops, and in doing so it has lifted the lid on what to expect hardware-wise in addition to pricing. And it's the entire range too; RTX 4090, RTX 4080, RTX 4070, RTX 4060, and even RTX 4050. There's a lot on the way.

Built on the same Ada tech found in the desktop variants, these new lower-power laptop versions of the GeForce RTX 40 series will benefit from the impressive power efficiency of the Ada architecture. And on that note, NVIDIA is touting that the new laptop RTX 4090 and RTX 4080 graphics will run with up to 3X the efficiency of the previous gen flagship laptops - with a release date of February 8. It's worth noting that the laptop RTX 4090 is very different from the desktop RTX 4090 - with specs more in-line with the desktop RTX 4080.

Here are the specs for the entire range, where much like the Ampere-powered GeForce 30 Series laptops there'll be different versions of each chip based on overall power draw - with different CUDA core counts and memory configuration than desktop models.

With the recent release of the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti, the desktop line-up of new GeForce RTX 40 Series cards built on NVIDIA's new Ada Lovelace architecture expanded with its third entry. And as is the case with GPU line-ups, each variant uses a different chip.

In terms of the Ada dies used so far, the GeForce RTX 4090 utilizes the cut-down AD102-300, the RTX 4080 AD103-300, with the RTX 4070 Ti using AD104-400. The latter is the fully unlocked and enabled AD104 chip, with Wccftech reporting that NVIDIA is preparing to mass-produce two more AD104-based GPUs. Which, yeah, would potentially be the GeForce RTX 4070 and the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti respectively.

The two new chips will be AD104-251 and AD104-250, with the report noting that both cards will feature a 200W TGP. Compared to the RTX 4070 Ti's 7680 CUDA Cores, the baseline RTX 4070 will potentially feature 5888 CUDA Cores and the RTX 4060 Ti 4352. From there the GeForce RTX 4060 will switch chips to the AD106-300 die.

It's been a strange few months of major GPU launches, from high launch pricing through to issues with new power connectors potentially melting and temperatures reaching their throttling point. The latter is an issue related to the recent launch of the flagship AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX, where owners began reporting that GPU hot spot temperatures would hit 110 degrees Celsius.

A detailed and in-depth report by the YouTube channel Der8auer investigated the issue and concluded that it was a fault with the cooling itself, with throttling impacting performance in the significant region of double digits. Summarising that the issue was directly related to the vapor chamber cooling; which has now been confirmed by AMD. Speaking with PCWorld's Gordon Mah Ung at CES 2023, Scott Herkelman, Senior Vice President and General Manager at AMD Radeon responded to confirm that the issue is indeed serious. But only affects a "small percentage" of cards.

Specifically, the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX models made by AMD. This means cards sold by AMD and partner cards with AMD reference cooling only. The lower-specced AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT models and cards with custom cooling aren't affected - so the issue isn't related to RDNA 3 architecture.

Intel has announced that its former boss of the AXG graphics division will be shelved, moving back to his previous role as Intel Chief Architect... a sign that the GPU division of Intel is in serious trouble.

Raja Koduri left AMD and its Radeon Technologies Group (RTG) back in 2017, joining Intel as Chief Architect and then moving into the role of the head of a newly-created Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics Group (AXG). But now, Intel has split AXG into two divisions -- data center and gaming GPUs -- downgrading Koduri to Chief Architect once more.

Intel has said that its AXG division changes will "accelerate and scale their impact and drive go-to-market strategies with a unified voice to customers". The staff at Intel's AXG division that were in charge of creating consumer GPUs will now be moving onto the client computing group, which creates GPU designs for laptops and other products.

NVIDIA already has the most powerful graphics card known to man with its AD102-based GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card, easily beating the best of AMD's new Navi 31-powered Radeon RX 7900 XTX... but we've been hearing about the purported TITAN RTX for a while now, and now... now we have some gorgeous renders.

The new renders of NVIDIA's purported TITAN RTX "Ada Lovelace" GPU have been unleashed as a huge Christmas present by leaker Moore's Law is Dead, who says that he has real photos of an engineering sample from NVIDIA that were used to craft some gorgeous renders of the TITAN RTX "Ada" graphics card.

The renders tease a monster quad-slot design with not one, but two 16-pin "12VHPWR" power connectors, with each of the 12VHPWR power connectors offering up to 600W of power each -- meaning we're talking upwards of 1200W of power consumption on the NVIDIA TITAN RTX -- if it ever sees the light of day, which it totally, totally should.

PowerColor has already unleashed a bunch of Radeon RX 7900 series Hellhound graphics cards, but it looks like there's a very special edition version of the card hitting the market.

PowerColor's new Radeon RX 7900 XTX Hellhound Special Edition graphics card is something a little different, with a beautiful "amethyst purple" lighting design that the company mentions in their press release. But inside of the retail packaging, owners of the new PowerColor Radeon RX 7900 XTX Hellhound Special Edition graphics card are in for a treat.

Inside the retail packaging, you'll get an awesome bundle of gear that will include a sweet PowerColor Hellhound coin, which Zhongzheng Evaluation has compared against the AMD 50th Anniversary coin that packs an AMD Zen 2 CPU die.

YESTON has just unveiled its new Radeon RX 7900 series SAKURA graphics cards, with a truly interesting -- and rather, very, very unique -- design. Check it out:

The new YESTON Radeon RX 7900 series SAKURA graphics cards feature an interestingly-styled "SUGAR" cooling system, with Chinese media reporting that YESTON is using the latest manufacturing techniques for the new graphics cards, which makes the durability of the design higher than other designs on the market.

YESTON is using a combination of injection molding, hot stamping, and laser etching... with some rather wicked results. The company is moving forward with a triple-fan thermal design, with each of the fans rocking a separate color -- purple, blue/green, and pink by looks of things -- with YESTON donning this the "SUGAR" heat dissipation technology.

GALAX has just unleashed GeForce RTX 4090 HOF (Hall of Fame) graphics card, offering a couple of different cards: the OC Lab and OC Lab Plus.

The new GALAX GeForce RTX 4090 HOF graphics cards sport not one, but two 16-pin "12VHPWR" power connectors with a huge 666W power limit: 66W higher than the second-fastest RTX 4090 in the ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4090 OC Edition with its 600W power limit (and single 16-pin power connector I might add).

However, out of the box the GALAX GeForce RTX 4090 HOF graphics cards aren't as fast as the ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4090 OC Edition and MSI GeForce RTX 4090 Suprim Liquid X graphics cards. ASUS clocks its ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4090 OC Edition at 2625MHz out of the box, while MSI sits at 2640MHz with the liquid-cooled, and utterly gorgeous MSI GeForce RTX 4090 Suprim Liquid X graphics card.

PowerColor has teased that it's working on custom backplates for its upcoming Navi 31-based Radeon RX 7900 XTX and Radeon RX 7900 XT Red Devil graphics cards, and man, they look devilish... check them out:

The new PowerColor custom backplates will be made for the new flagship Radeon RX 7900 XTX and Radeon RX 7900 XT Red Devil graphics cards -- so... no, they won't work on your existing PowerColor Radeon RX 5000 or RX 6000 series GPU -- and will be sold separately to those who didn't opt-in for the higher-end Limited Edition graphics card (which has a glorious backplate by default).

The new custom backplate design from PowerColor will be dropping in 2023, with more backplates to follow, according to sources of VideoCardz. The new custom backplates will not work with existing PowerColor Radeon RX series Hellhound graphics cards, nor will they fit onto AMD's just-released Radeon RX 7900 XTX and Radeon RX 7900 XT reference graphics cards.

If you're been portalling around inside of the gorgeous Portal with RTX, you'll be surprised to know someone has found Easter Eggs inside of the game that spawns NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 cubes with dual 16-pin power connectors.

NVIDIA seems to have hidden secret QR codes throughout the game, where they act as a regular Portal cheat code, where they change the physical design of the cubes into GeForce RTX 40 series GPU-influenced cubes. One of the cheat codes in question changes them into GeForce RTX 40 series GPU cubes, with a large axial fan, the GPU mounted on the wrong side, and get this: dual 16-pin power connectors.

YouTuber "2kliksphilip," says that it represents a real-life GeForce RTX 4090, and it does look like one, but the dual 16-pin power connectors are something that never materialized outside of GALAX's insanely high-end GeForce RTX 4090 HOF (Hall of Fame) graphics card that rocks dual 16-pin power connectors.

EVGA completely exited the graphics card business a few months ago now, right before the launch of NVIDIA's next-gen Ada Lovelace GPU architecture and the launch of the new GeForce RTX 4090 and GeForce RTX 4080 graphics cards were released... but, they still had some tricks up their sleeve.

The company chucked around some prototype EVGA GeForce RTX 4090 FTW3 (For The Win) graphics cards to influencers and YouTubers, but that was all... they were never released to the market, and consumers simply couldn't -- and never will -- get their hands-on them. Until now, that is.

EVGA is now auctioning off a prototype "next-gen GPU" which is what would've been the EVGA GeForce RTX 4090 FTW3 graphics card, with all proceeds from the auction going to charity -- in particular, St. Judes Children's Hospital -- supporting their research to find cures for life-threatening diseases, and more.

The release of AMD's next-gen RDNA 3 GPU architecture is right around the corner, with AIB partners preparing their new custom Radeon RX 7900 XTX and Radeon RX 7900 XT graphics card designs.

XFX is the latest to have its upcoming Navi 31-based Radeon RX 7900 XTX MERC 310, and Radeon RX 7900 XT MERC 310 graphics cards leaked out ahead of their official December 13 reveal. XFX will be using a thicker triple-fan design, and an interesting black and silver design aesthetic.

XFX originally launched its "Speedster" series graphics cards a few years ago now, but the company is making a rather large -- and I don't know if I like it -- change to the backplate on their upcoming Navi 31-based Radeon RX 7900 XTX and Radeon RX 7900 XT MERC 310 graphics cards.