Graphics Cards - Page 253

Computex Taipei 2013 - With new video cards being released over the recent weeks from NVIDIA we get a chance to sit down and check out the latest offerings from EVGA to find out just what they're doing with the new high-end single GPU models from NVIDIA.

As you'd expect the focus was on the new GTX 700 series and EVGA showed off four of its main models which starting from the left included the new EVGA GTX 780 Hydro Cooler which of course carries with ti that massively mean looking water block.

Moving across to the right we found ourselves looking at one card that extremely excites us; the upcoming GTX 780 Classified. Designed in house the new Classified model is due to offer some extreme performance and even more extreme overclocking capabilities with improvements in a number of areas. While final clock speeds for the model haven't been set yet, It's safe to say that most users of the upcoming model will probably be firing up EVGA Precision and trying to get even more performance out of the card.

Computex Taipei 2013 - Some of you may know how much of a multi-monitor and high-resolution fanboy I am, well, I had to stop at AMD's booth at Computex to check out their 5-screen Eyefinity rig, which just looked amazing.

The five monitors were in portrait mode, another favorite of mine, and had Tomb Raider ready to play. I didn't play it myself, but I did take some video of another show-goer playing it and it looked incredible. The rig running it was powered by an AMD FX 8350 processor, 8GB of AMD Radeon DDR3 RAM, a Radeon HD 7990 dual-GPU graphics card, and the five monitors, pumping out a resolution of 5400x1920. Now that is my kind of setup!

And all of those monitors require some conversion, from miniDisplayPort that is provided on the back of the HD 7990 to DisplayPort.

Computex Taipei 2013 - You know what? This is the kind of technology that I live for; Sapphire are back in the spotlight once again with an insane new dual-GPU card, the Sapphire Atomic HD7990 6GB.

As you can see from the product name, we have 6GB of RAM which will be announced later (probably some insanely fast gear) and two Tahiti XT2 GPU's. Sapphire's Atomic range always goes crazy, so we have six miniDisplayPort outputs for some crazy multi-monitor goodness, something that gets the blood flowing through my body. Now, none of this is possible without some power, and just how much does the Atomic HD7990 6GB require?

Three 8-pin PCIe power connectors, yes, three! Sapphire have gone as far as offering water cooling with the Atomic HD7990 6GB, and it's quite the setup. We have a full copper water block, front 5.25-inch reservoir with one pump pre-installed with the option of upgrading to a dual pump, a 240mm radiator, and 2 x 120mm fans to keep it all going. Some full specs are below:

This morning, Palit released its version of the GeForce GTX 770 and unlike other GPU manufacturers, Palit chose to toss away the reference design cooler and add their own JetStream cooler into the mix. The result is said to be a 10 percent gain in overclockability as well as some snazzy good looks!

The Palit GeForce GTX 770 JetStream 2GB ships with a 10 percent higher core clock, which Palit says equates to 10 percent higher gaming performance. Like other video cards in Palit's JetStream line, the GTX 770 comes equipped with the company's signature JetStream 80mm,90mm,80mm triple fan bank that cools the GPU by 15 Celsius lower, and is 9dB quieter than the reference design.

Palit attributes these performance gains to several upgraded features on the GTX770 JetStream 2GB. These include:

Things are looking good for NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce GTX 770 this morning as new specifications and pricing information has leaked. The GTX 770 appears to be identical to the GTX 680 in hardware but will feature higher clocks and faster memory frequency. The leak comes from retailers located in Tokyo's Akihabara shopping district in the form of photographs taken of the sales sheet on a monitor.

The chip is said to be clocked at 1046MHz and will feature a massive 7GHz memory clock. If these specifications are true, then the GTX 770 will be the highest clocked GPU ever made, albeit with a power draw of 230 watts. The card will feature the same cooling solution used on the GTX 780 and GTX TITAN. Combining the speed with good looks and topping things off with a pricing point of $400 makes the GTX 770 the best bang for your buck GPU on the market.

Details of the next-gen GeForce GPU from NVIDIA are here, as well as a release date: May 23. Fudzilla were privvy to some leaked slides, which points to the GTX 780 featuring 2304 CUDA cores and an 863MHz base GPU clock. The GeForce GTX 780 will feature NVIDIA's GPU Boost 2.0 that will ramp the GPU clock speed up to 900MHz.

We should expect the GTX 780 to come with 3GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 6000MHz coupled with a 384-bit memory bus. Power wise, the GTX 780 is going to require both 6- and 8-pin PCI-Express power connections and has TDP of 250W. Connectivity options include two dual-link DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort outputs.

The GeForce GTX 780 reference card will use the same cooler that is featured on the GTX Titan, and should keep noise levels down to around 40-45 dBA. This means the reference GTX 780 will be much quieter than the GTX 680. We should expect the GeForce GTX 780 to be around 25% to 50% faster than the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition, except for Tomb Raider, where the AMD will excel against most GeForce GPU's.

NVIDIA is set to release their next-generation GPUs in the form of the 700-series next month, with some sources stating that you can flash your GeForce GTX 680 to a GeForce GTX 770 with a BIOS flash.

If this is true, this means that the GTX 770 is going to be a simple rebrand of the current GTX 680, but we should be used to this by now. There's a post on Reddit with someone saying that they've uploaded a BIOS (.bin) file and the required driver information (.inf) file which will have a GTX 680 owner get a GTX 770 card, all for nothing. The post states: "The upcoming GTX 770 is a GTX 680 in disguise. NVIDIA has gently revised the GK104 architecture, mostly with process improvements, but the 770 is basically the same beast! Which is good for us enthusiasts".

But, don't get your hopes up just yet, as a post on TechPowerUp has said that the BIOS supplied to the Reddit user isn't a GTX 770 BIOS, but a "modified GTX 680 BIOS" that has increased clock speeds and the .inf file has been edited to change the card's descriptor string to 'GTX 770'.

We've been hearing a lot about the upcoming NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 and GTX 770. Just within the past day, we posted about a CPU-Z validation that listed the GTX 780 as the card being used. So we have a feeling the card exists. And what do you know, pictures have leaked out!

Take a look at what is purported to be the GTX 780 and GTX 770. These cards share similar styling to the recently released GTX Titan and the GTX 780 is said to be positioned just below the Titan. It relies on the same GK110 silicon as the Titan and will likely feature a similar PCB. The GTX 770, however, is based upon the GK104.

We still don't have full confidence that these are the cards, but there are some signs that point to a legitimate leak. For instance, differences near the PCIe interface suggest that the picture is not a fake. As with all rumors and leaks, take it with a grain of salt until official information is released.

CPU-Z validations is great for a few things, first and foremost for validating your extreme overclock, but sometimes there are some leaks through the cracks and we find out some juicy goss on the upcoming next-gen GPU.

As you can see above, there's a tease of NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce GTX 780 GPU, and while that should be enough to satisfy those GPU urges you feel, there's something else that is intriguing. Under the 'GPU Type' is 'DirectX Version', which states '12.0', or DirectX 12. Currently even Windows 8 is still in DirectX 11, and we have no news of a next-gen DirectX right now.

This is where we tumble down the rabbit hole, let's fantasize that this is real - DirectX 12 is coming. Why are AMD saying DirectX 12 isn't coming, considering they're working with all three big consoles makers - Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony - with Radeon GPU's in their consoles. AMD are working on the next-gen Xbox, which could feature DirectX 12, and Microsoft and AMD don't want to talk about it.

AMD are back yet again with the monster of Radeon GPUs, the dual-GCN rocking Radeon HD 7990. The Radeon HD 7990 features a number-busting 8.6 billion (that's with a B) transistors, 4096 stream processors and a total of 8.2 TLOPS of compute power.

6GB of GDDR5 is baked onto the HD 7990, four miniDisplayPort connectors and a dual-link DVI connector back it up to provide five monitor support through AMD's EyeFinity technology. There's three fans on the front of the HD 7990 to keep those two GraphicsCore Next GPUs cool, which it does so without making too much noise at all - 37.8dBA compared to NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 690 (NVIDIA's dual GPU) which cranks along at 47.5dBA (tests used with sound pressure at 50cm running Furmark).

AMD's ZeroCore power technology is at play, where it switches off the second GPU when not in use to save power (and heat). You can check out our own review on the Radeon HD 7990 right here.

Yesterday I reported on a leak that showed off two new additions to NVIDIA's Titan line of video cards; the Titan LE and Titan II. This morning we are learning a little more about the Titan LE, as well as two other new video cards for 2013.

According to Bright Side of News, it appears that the Titan LE name will be tossed out in favor of the GTX 780 5GB, which follows the traditional NVIDIA naming scheme. The 780 is the consumer version of the Tesla K20C and sports 2496 CUDA cores and 5GB of GDDR5 memory.

We have also came across info on two other NVIDIA boards, the GTX 770 and GTX 760 Ti. The 770 is based off a GK104-425 die, which makes it nothing more than a higher clocked GTX 680. It is expected to perform 20-25% better than the GTX 670 and be on par with a GTX 680.

This morning rumors of two new NVIDIA GeForce Titan GPU's have made their way to our ears. Website 3DCeter.org is reporting that NVIDIA is planning to launch two revisions of its flagship Titan GPU, the Titan LE and Titan II.

The new models will bring the Titan lineup to three different units that all share the same GK110 processor with the Titan LE being a slightly underclocked model, that uses marginal chips that didn't make the grade for full-fledged Titan performance. The LE will feature 2,495 CUDA cores across 208 texture mapping units, 5GB of GDDR5, and a peak power consumption rate of 190W, according to the leak.

The GTX Titan II is an upgraded model to the now famous GTX Titan and unlocks more of the GK110's power than the stock Titan. The Titan II name is said to change to Titan Ultra on launch and will feature 2,880 CUDA cores across 256 texture mapping units. Clock speed is boosted to 950MHz with RAM staying the same as the stock Titan at 6GB.

AMD's Radeon HD 8000 series is just around the corner, something I expect to be unveiled closer to Computex which happens in June, but for now, we have a tease of one of the GPUs in the HD 8000 series, the HD 8570.

The Radeon HD 8570 or "Oland Pro" is set to feature 384 stream processors (or GCN cores), 24 texture units and it should come with a clock speed of 720MHz. The memory side of things sees the HD 8570 with a 128-bit memory bus, where two versions will be available - the first, a 4.6GHz GDDR5 edition, and a 1.8GHz GDDR3 edition.

With these specs, we should expect the HD 8570 to be around 75% of the performance of the HD 7750. AMD are really aiming the HD 8570 at 720p gamers, which isn't a bad thing as that is what current-generation consoles run at. There were also some benchmarks run, with the performance of these tests below:

Today, NVIDIA is hosting its investor day at which CEO Jen-Hsun Huang showed off graphics produced with its next-generation mobile GPU. The new GPU is currently known as Kepler Mobile and Huang said that NVIDIA made a huge investment to take its high-end Kepler products and shrink them down for use in mobile devices.

The interesting benefits of this is that smartphones and tablets could soon be able to play games that utilize DirectX 11. "We want to get multiple years ahead of the competition. It was worth the sacrifice," Huang said.

To show what Kepler Mobile is capable of, Huang demoed Kepler Mobile playing Battlefield 3. The future of tablet gaming looks bright indeed.

We've seen leaps and bounds in graphics over the years, helped by each iteration of DirectX. But, after games started being made for, and optimized for consoles, the push of graphics started to sink.

It has gotten to the point where AMD's vice president of global channel sales, Roy Taylor, stated during an interview with German publication Heise.de, that AMD don't believe we'll see a DirectX 12 API. We won't be seeing DirectX 12 with Windows 8, or Windows Blue either.

Taylor was responding to a question about next-generation GPUs and technologies that they can be built around, where Taylor replied they'd normally build them around new DirectX versions to help the next-generation GPU architectures, but there won't be a DirectX 12, which means AMD's next-gen GPUs will integrate other technologies.

NVIDIA have already entered the dual-GPU arena with their GeForce GTX 690, and have taken the crown once again with their Titan GPU, so AMD have been sitting out of the GPU spotlight for a while now.

This might all end with the unveiling of their Radeon HD 7990, their dual-GPU behemoth. GM of AMD's Graphics Business Unit, Matt Skynner, held up the card for the world to see, saying: "This is the first public showing. We're not saying much about it other than it's two series-7900 GPUs on a single card, and it's whisper quiet."

AMD's Radeon HD 7990 will be a full-sized, dual-slot card, which was expected. The heatsink and fan design runs down the entire card, with no less than three fans keeping the two GPUs cool. We should hear more on this card in the coming weeks, and I'm sure a proper unveiling before, or at Computex in Taipei in June.

NVIDIA's GPU Technology Conference in San Jose earlier today unveiled some interesting developments with the company, with NVIDIA CEO Jen Hsun-Huang revealing the next step in their GPU roadmap - Volta.

Volta will arrive after Maxwell, and will provide GPUs with an insane amount of memory bandwidth. Volta-based GPUs will provide up to 1TB per second of bandwidth, made capable by stacking the DRAM on top of the GPU itself, with a silica substrate between them. Then, cutting a hole through the silicon and connecting each layer provides the ability for this insane level of bandwidth. Something Huang has said has the ability to shift "all of the data from a full Blu-Ray disc through the chip in 1/50th of a second."

I don't know what this will do in the consumer space, as even the unreleased next-gen consoles will be holding back a beast like Volta. The future is looking great for NVIDIA, and I'm excited to see what we'll see from these next-gen GPUs.

There have been rumblings about this for a few weeks now, but Sapphire have just announced the release of their new HD 7950 Mac Edition graphics card. From the model alone, you can tell this is destined for an Apple machine, more specifically, their Mac Pro series of desktop PCs.

Sapphire's HD 7950 Mac Edition comes with 3GB of GDDR5 memory, and works on the PC too thanks to its dual firmware support through a simple dual BIOS switch. The HD 7950 Mac Edition GPU is compatible with Apple Mac Pro late-2010 and up models, as long as there is an available PCI-Express x16 slot. Two six-pin PCIe power connections are required, which come in the box.

AMD brings along their powerful Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture, which gives the Mac a number of technologies to play with. These include de-blocking, de-noising, automatic de-interlacing, Mosquito noise reduction and edge enhancement as well as advanced image quality enhancement technology, such as adaptive anti-aliasing and 16x angle independent anisotropic texture filtering.

It looks like NVIDIA may be working on a second GK110-based consumer GPU to fill the gap between the marginally expensive GTX 680 and the ridiculously expensive GTX Titan released last month. With a $500 gap between the GTX 680 and GTX Titan, NVIDIA has a lot of wiggle room to squeeze another GPU in the lineup.

The video card is said to feature 13 of the 15 streaming multiprocessors that are built into the GK110 silicon. This means we would have 2,496 CUDA cores to do our gaming bidding. Combine that with 208 texture memory units, 40ROPs, a 320-bit memory interface, and 5GB of GDDR5 RAM and you end up with a fairly powerful card.

The rumored release date is somewhere between July and August of this year.

There's a gap in AMD's GPUs that needs to be filled, which is the very lucrative $110-$170 price point. NVIDIA currently nails this with their GeForce GTX 650 Ti, but AMD are looking to correct their mistake with the HD 7790, or "Bonaire".

The Radeon HD 7790 looks to skip the "Pitcairn" and "Cape Verde" silicons, moving directly to an entirely new ASIC codenamed "Bonaire". The first SKU to be built on this silicon will be the Radeon HD 7790, which should feature 896 stream processors, and will perform at around 10% slowly than the HD 7850. This should definitely take some of the lime light away from the GTX 650 Ti, and if AMD work on the price, they could move a lot of that lime light away.

We should see the HD 7790 launched sometime next month.