Graphics Cards - Page 250

We were there when it was announced, but we didn't know when the GeForce GTX TITAN Z would be released - now we know: April 29. NVIDIA will be selling the GTX TITAN Z for a massive $2999 - without tax.

Considering some countries charge anywhere between 10-30% tax, you could be looking at as much as just under $4000 for this beastly dual-GPU video card. But, remember that the TITAN Z sports two GK110 GPUs, so we should expect some truly delicious performance from this card. Each GPU features 2880 CUDA cores, 240 TMUs, 48 ROPs, and 6GB of GDDR5 RAM at the ready.

One of the best things NVIDIA did with its TITAN Z is air-cool it, versus AMD's watercooling setup on its Radeon R9 295X2. You can just buy the TITAN Z, strap it into a PCIe slot and away you go. There is no fiddling around to mount some massive radiator. I can't wait to get my hands-on two of these for some triple 4K action.

It looks like TSMC is now facing an issue which would affect the supply of 20nm technology for video cards with AMD or NVIDIA chips. The Taiwan-based foundry is having difficulties to meet both the chipmaker's demand for the new process, therefore delaying the productions until December 2014.

NVIDIA wanted to release high-end 20nm based Maxwell GPUs, but because of this the graphics chipmaker is forced to re-engineer its GM204 and GM206 chipsets to work with the existing 28nm process.

Because of this delay, we shouldn't be expected any newer video cards until December 2014.

We've only just seen the announcement of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan Z, and the proper release of the AMD Radeon R9 295X2 dual-GPU card, but now we're hearing about AMD's next-generation single GPU, the Radeon R9 390X.

If the rumors are true, the Radeon R9 390X has a codename of Bermuda, with a family name of Pirate Islands. The Pirate Islands-based GPUs will be baked onto AMD's 20nm process, succeeding the Volcanic Island GPUs we all know and love today. The Radeon R9 390X would be quite the beast, featuring 4224 Stream Processors, 264 Texture Units (TUs), 96 ROPS, a Core Clock of around 1GHz, Memory Clocks hitting 7GHz or so, and a super-wide 512-bit memory bus.

Comparing this against the Radeon R9 290X which is already powerful, the R9 390X will trump it, easily. The R9 290X for comparison sake had 2816 SPs, 176 TUs, 64 ROPS, and similar core and memory clocks depending on the card (third-party cards can overclock very high).

Details on NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 880 have begun to leak, with a report from Tyden.cz claiming that the GeForce GTX 880 will be a Maxwell-based GPU that will dominate the single GPU market. The GeForce GTX 880 will move from the family name of GK110 (the 'K' is for Kepler) to the GM204 part. GM204 is the GK110 equivalent of the Kepler family, but based on the Maxwell architecture.

The leaked specs will see the DirectX 12-capable GPU feature a streaming multiprocessor Maxwell, or SMM, SIMD design that is found in the also Maxwell-based GeForce GTX 750 Ti. The GeForce GTX 880 will just feature more of those SMMs, spread across multiple graphics processing clusters (GPCs) and see some extra performance when compared against the GTX 780 Ti. We should expect something along the lines of these specs:

Comparing the Maxwell-powered GTX 880 against the Kepler-based GTX 780 Ti sees the GTX 880 ahead, but not by much. We have a rumored 3200 CUDA cores versus 2880 on the GTX 780 Ti. Base clocks increased from 875MHz and 928MHz for the Base Clock and Boost Clocks, respectively on the GTX 780 Ti, to 900MHz and 950MHz on the GTX 880.

We know that the Radeon R9 295X2 is coming, very very soon, but VideoCardz.com has an exclusive piece detailing AMD's upcoming dual Hawaii-based GPU. It's quite the beast, so prepare your hearts, wallets and electric bills.

The Radeon R9 295X2 is the first dual-GPU card from AMD based on its impressive Hawaii architecture, where AMD has baked in two fully loaded Hawaii cores, instead of cutting them down for the usual thermal and power consumption issues. We have a total of 8GB of RAM spread across its impressive 512-bit memory bus.

The full specs you can see above, comparing it against the Radeon R9 290X, the just-announced GeForce GTX TITAN Z, and the slightly older but still very relevant GeForce GTX 780 Ti. The new R9 295X2 features two 8-pin PCIe power connectors, with a total TDP of 500W. This is quite high considering the R9 290X has a TDP of 250W, as does the GTX 780 Ti. But, we have two full Hawaii cores here, versus the usual cut down of cores that we see in most dual-GPU cards.

GTC 2014 - At the GPU Technology Conference, NVIDIA unveiled a few new technologies that could see us in a world of 8-way GPUs in consumer PCs within the next couple of years.

Right now, the limitations in place in the form of chipsets, PCIe bandwidth and power consumption simply don't allow this to happen. Starting with NVLink, which promises some impressive tech - such as 5-12x the bandwidth of PCIe, it could happen.

Then we have 3D Memory, another technology which could enable 8-way GPUs. We have incredibly fast memory bandwidth, much faster than what is available today, and it will only get better, and especially as it has 400% better energy efficiency.

GTC 2014 - Jen Hsun Huang, the co-founder and CEO of NVIDIA, has just unveiled the new GeForce GTX TITAN Z GPU. What does the Z variant of an already incredible GPU do?

Well, how does 12GB of VRAM sound? GeForce GTX TITAN Z features two GK110 cores, 12GB of VRAM, 5,760 CUDA cores (2,880 cores per GPU), 8 TeraFLOPS of performance and a price tag of $2999. The TITAN Z's two GPUs run at the same clock speed, thanks to NVIDIA deploying dynamic power balancing.

This means that both GPUs will never see a performance bottleneck. We should see a card that is both cool and quiet, instead of hot and loud. NVIDIA is using low-profile components with a ducted baseplate that channels turbulence and improves acoustic quality.

GTC 2014 - NVIDIA has just unveiled its next generation GPU at its GPU Technology Conference in San Jose, California - Pascal. Don't let the name fool you, there's some incredible technology that has made Pascal possible.

Pascal has three key technologies that have made it possible, NVLink, 3D Memory and a new Module size - one-third the size of a PCIe card. NVLink provides some incredible bandwidth - where it will provide up to 5-12x the bandwidth of PCIe 3.0, which NVIDIA expects to see 1TB/sec memory bandwidth by 2016 thanks to the next technology, 3D Memory.

3D Memory is something that has been coming for quite sometime, but it will provide 2-4x memory bandwidth, and its extremely small. This helps NVIDIA's next-gen Pascal GPU to be just one-third the size of standard GPU - such as the just-released GeForce GTX TITAN Black GPU.

Today GIGABYTE announced the launch of two new AMD Graphics Core Next (GCN) based video cards. The new GIGABYTE GV-R928WF3OC-3GD and GV-R7265WF2OC-2GD are based on AMD's Radeon R9 280 and R7 265 video cards and feature several upgrades that take them above and beyond AMD's reference designs.

The GV-R928WF3OC-3GD features 1792 GCN stream processor and 3GB of high-speed GDDR5 memory that runs on a 384-bit memory interface. Cooling is handled by a WINDFORCE 3X cooling system that ensures gamers get every ounce of performance out of this factory overclocked GPU. The GV-R7265WF2OC-2GD boast 1024 GCN stream processor, 2GB of GDDR5 memory and 256-bit memory interface. Cooling is again handled by GIGABYTE's WINDFORCE cooler, but features only 2 fans instead of the three seen on the R9 280 OC.

"The GV-R928WF3OC-3GD masters the balance of overclocking ability and video card stability to provide gamers with a reliable gaming environment. It is equipped with exclusive WINDFORCE 3X plus patented "Triangle Cool" technology," said GIGABYTE. "The powerful airflow and heat dissipation capability keeps the video card cool and quiet, and of course leads to the best performance. Even more, both GV-R928WF3OC-3GD and GV-R7265WF2OC-2GD are well overclocked. These two models are packed with groundbreaking features like DirectX 11.2, AMD PowerTune and CrossFire technology. Gamers should never settle for anything less."

NVIDIA GeForce's new WHQL drivers tweaked to provide the best possible gaming experience for upcoming FPS game by Respawn Entertainment: Titanfall. The company emphasized in its press released that the newer WHQL drivers are 'an essential upgrade for pilots entering the fray.'

The newer GeForce drivers also provides enhanced GPU offset options for GeForce GTX 750 Ti and GTX 750 'Maxwell' video cards. Previously these card's GPU offset was limited to +130MHz, but the newer drivers allow more ability to overclock these cards.

The following are other upgrades and added profiles:

All the way back in November last year, we reported on AMD building a dual Hawaii XT GPU - the same core used on its flagship Radeon R9 290X... but this new video card would feature two of those Hawaii XT cores.

The dual Radeon R9 290X became a little more real this week, with a tease of the ARES III GPU by ASUS. ASUS' ARES line of GPUs is its dual-GPU video cards, some of the most respected and most-wanted GPUs on the market. Talking specs, the dual Radeon R9 290X card would feature three 8-pin PCI-E power connectors, with a massive 500W TDP.

We should see 8GB of RAM total, 4GB per GPU. Personally, I think the 4GB limitation is going to be the letdown on a dual Radeon R9 290X card, as SAPPHIRE has teased a beautiful Radeon R9 290X VAPOR-X which features 8GB of RAM, on a single GPU.

Club 3D has just announced the launch of two new flagship video cards to its PokerSeries GPUs. The cards are based on AMD's "Hawaii" architecture reference design Radeon R9 290 and R9 290X GPUs. The all new royalAce Radeon R9 290 features 2560 stream processors and 4GB of GDDR5 RAM making it one of the fastest GPUs on the market today.

The royalAce Radeon R9 290X is the king of the castle with 2816 stream processors, 4GB of GDDR5 RAM, and a tripple fan cooler that ensures gamers achieve the highest-level of performance possible. The royalAce R9 290 features a core clock speed of 1040MHz while the royalAce R9 290X is 10MHz faster at 1050MHz. Both cards are said to be much faster than the reference design and can easily compete with the best custom Hawaii designs on the market today.

While rumors of DirectX 12 have been circling for over a year now, no one knew exactly when it would debut into the public's eye, but today the new Graphics API has been all but confirmed buy a new Twitter account and webpage that has popped up onto the internet. While no official word from Microsoft has been released, the Twitter account did say that "Rumors of our demise have been greatly exaggerated... #DirectX12 is coming to #GDC." Which means that AMD's Mantle will have a very giant competitor to deal with at GDC 2014.

The website appears to be legit as well since it is hosted on Microsoft's MSDN blog site and includes heavy hitting graphics companies like AMD, Intel, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm. The latter suggest that DirectX 12 has been developed for mobile devices too and there is a big chance that we could see it arrive on the next Windows Phone 8.1 update that is slated for April. If the website is correct then DirectX 12 will make its debut at 10AM on March 20th at the 2014 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.

Today Sapphire unveiled two new GPUs that fill the gap between its R9 270 and R9 290 models of discrete GPUS. The new R9 280 is based on AMD's GCN architecture and features the company's Dual-X cooler. The Dual-X cooling solution featured twin aerofoil fans and graduated heat pipes to ensure cooling of the GPU is efficient and quiet as possible.

The R9 280 also features 3GB of GDDR5 clocked to 1250MHz and a GCN core that features 1792 stream processors. The core is clocked to 850MHz and can reach a clock speed of 940MHz when boost is enabled. Support for DirectX 2 and AMD's mantle is also on board with the card being able to push 4K video to displays using HDMI 1.4a or DisplayPort v1.2. Sapphire also released a new version of its successful R9 280x that features the company's exclusive Vapor-X cooling Solution. The new R9 280x features an enhanced GCN core, with 2048 stream processors, and a 1GHz core clock.

Today Sapphire Technology announced the launch of its latest entry-level GPU. The all new R7 240 is a low-profile video card based on AMD's successful Graphics Core Next architecture, and features dual HDMI outputs as well as full 4k resolution. Both HDMI ports can be used at the same time, and the cards low-profile design makes it perfect for the home theater PC you have always wanted to build.

The new Sapphire R7 240 low-profile features 2GB of DDR3 memory which has been clocked to 900MHz, and boast 320 stream processors. A core clock of 730MHz can be boosted to 780MHz via dynamic boost. A single slot, fan assisted heat sink keeps the cards overall profile small and allows the device to be fitted in any low-profile or small form factor chassis. AMD Crossfire, Image Enhancement, and HD Media Accelerator technology is all onboard as well as full support for 4K video playback.

Two new implementations is expected to come soon that will be a boon for PC gamers. Following Mantle API, DirectX and OpenGL will start offering low-level access to provide more efficient ways of programming graphic grads. This will help to reduce the CPU overhead in Direct3D and OpenGL.

AMD implemented low-level access for Mantle API for the same reason, and it wasn't that long ago when first Mantle-based games have started rolling in. The announcements are expected to come up during Game Developer's Conference 2014, but the session of GDC has given a good deal of information.

One of the sessions has a title 'DirectX: Evolving Microsoft's graphics platform' which will be talked by Anuj Gosalia, Development manager for Windows graphics.

A tease of SAPPHIRE's upcoming blue-and-black themed Radeon R9 290X VAPOR-X GPU has me foaming at the mouth... why? Well, it will ship with 8GB of GDDR5 RAM, that's why.

We've seen the SAPPHIRE Radeon R9 290X Tri-X, which is a great GPU, but 4GB of RAM really holds it back for monster resolutions like 4K and triple-monitor setups. One of the other changes to the VAPOR-X GPU is the beautiful backplate. This won't do much for most people, but with all of that memory (and dual-sided memory modules) it'll do wonders for temperatures.

There's not many more details on this new GPU, but you can bet your bottom dollar we'll get some of these in for some 4K and triple 2560x1440 monitor testing.

AMD releases catalyst 14.2 BETA 1.3 for 32 and 64 bit version of Windows 7, 8 and 8.1. The BETA drivers provide performance improvements and updates. The updates are available for AMD Radeon with discrete and APU- desktop and notebooks.

The updates contain series of fixes and updates such as crossfire profile updates and performance improvements for GPU configuration with Thief and even fixing frame pacing for dual video card support and non-XDMA configuration for screen resolutions above 2560 x 1600 for Battlefield 3 and Battlefield 4.

There are only couple of known issues found in this BETA driver, such as the inability to render the right eye with Crossfire and Stereo 3D enabled on Thief.

After releasing the GeForce GTX 750, 750 Ti and GTX Titan Black video cards, NVIDIA released the GeForce 334.89 WHQL drivers. The chip maker claims that the new driver has performance optimizations of up to 19%, along with 12 new and improved 3D Vision profiles and 6 new SLI profiles.

According to the release notes, the 334.89 WHQL drivers have introduced fixes for certain games and applications, such as fixing low frame rate, frame drops and shuttering issues in Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Director's Cut, losing ambient occlusion while sprinting in Half-Life 2 and providing 'Enable SLI' option in its control panel for GTX 460 in SLI. Another notable fix was for NVIDIA ShadowPlay, as the older drivers caused certain games to crash or lock up with 3-way/Quad SLI setups.

NVIDIA also pointed out certain issues with the newer WHQL drives, such as Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag and Warframe unable to use GPU PhysX acceleration on Maxwell GPUs with 32-bit operating systems, though NVIDIA also points out that Ubisoft will release a game patch in March for Assassin's Creed IV, whereas Digital Extreme would release a new patch very soon.

When NVIDIA first unveiled the GeForce GTX Titan to the world, it instantly became the must-have video card for every hard-core gamer and custom PC enthusiast on the planet. Fast forward to more than a year later, and the original GTX Titan is still considered a force to be reckoned with. This morning NVIDIA unveiled the new Titan Black, the successor to the original Titan, and the fastest GPU on planet earth.

NVIDIA's new Titan Black is based on its Kepler architecture and boast an impressive 2,880 CUDA cores which equates to about 200 more cores than the original Titan. Stock clock speeds have also been increased to 889MHz, and 980MHz when boosted, which is slightly higher than the original Titan. 6GB of GDDR5 is addressed over a 384-bit memory bus, and just like its older brother, the Titan black is a massive power hungry beast. With a TDP of 250-watts, the GPU requires both a 6-pin and 8-pin power connector just to get the card up and running.

Two dual-link DVI ports, one HDMI, and one Display Port 1.2 connector allow for multiple monitor connections, while several Titans can be chained together via NVIDIA's SLI connector. NVIDIA says that the Titan Black is about 10-percent faster than the original Titan and is capable of powering the most extreme games at 4K resolution and higher across multiple 4K compatible monitors. Just like its predecessor, the GeForce GTX Titan Black is expected to be priced in the $1000 USD range, and is available from OEMs such as Palit, and is also being featured at several boutique builders such as Origin, Digital Storm and Cyberpower PC.