Graphics Cards - Page 253

We've had quite the eventful pre-launch news nuggets for the upcoming 28nm Kepler-named GEFORCE GTX 680 GPUs, but this is a totally new step in a very good direction: Newegg are the latest to jump the gun and offer the new GEFORCE GTX 680 GPU's for sale.

The cards are on sale for anywhere between $499.99 and $534.99, they have ASUS, GALAXY, ZOTAC, EVGA, GIGABYTE, PNY, and MSI cards listed. Availability is of course going to sink like hell on this as this news starts spreading, as everyone will be flocking to Newegg to hit up some of that Kepler lovin'. Get in quick, and remember to send me three of them, ok? The interesting thing I found is, when I've searched for them - they're gone. So it looks like Newegg have pulled them from the site - so I would keep your eyes peeled on this one, folks! They should pop up any second/hour/day now!

To throw in some extra awesome sauce on this news, we also have vice president of NVIDIA, Ujesh Desai presenting the GEFORCE GTX 680, in the video below:

Today has been a video card news pot of gold. First we had the GTX 680 pictures, then the GTX 680 review, then the HD 7990 specifications, and now this. Swedish proverclocker Elmor managed this feat with a MSI R7970 Lightning card, which is a non-reference variant on the AMD HD 7970. So, for all of those people out there that thought MSI was making too big of a deal of its product design, maybe its time to think again. After all, look at what this card was capable of doing!

That picture isn't photoshopped. What you can see there is a MSI 7970 running with an 1800 MHz Core clock and with a 7.70 GHz Memory clock. It required 1.7v and liquid nitrogen to achieve. The massive clocks yielded a memory bandwidth of almost 370GB/s and a 3DMark 11 performance score of P15035. The rest of the test-bed consisted of an Intel Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition six-core chip clocked at 5207 MHz, with 4 GB (4x 1 GB) DDR3 memory clocked at 2314 MHz, and MSI Big Bang XPower II motherboard. Maybe AMD or its board partners can manage clocking it up to compete with the GTX 680.

UPDATE - our own TweakTown full review of the NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 680 is online right here.

Today has been a busy day regarding the upcoming nVidia GTX 680. A review of the card has been published on Tom's Hardware (since removed), even though the card hasn't even been launched. The card officially launches this Thursday, March 22nd. Take a look at its performance! Generally, it beats out the 7970, and comes close to the dual-chip cards of the previous generation, ie the GTX 590 and the 6990.

Additionally, the card had an overall lower draw the 7970, yet it still managed to beat it. It appears that nVidia has a winner here with Kepler. It even manages to beat the dual-chip cards in a few benchmarks! I can't wait to see the flagship version of Kepler, which has yet to be talked about. I think most gamers should be happy with the 680, however, since it is such a great card. But enough of my blab, I'm sure you would like to see the results!

That's right, you read the title right. We have in our digital possession 3 pictures of a yet unreleased retail Gigabyte GTX 680 graphics card. It would appear that Gigabyte has followed nVidia's reference board design for this card, opting to use the stock cooler. The only thing that is a visible change is the futuristic sci-fi art on the cooler shroud.

Earlier today we reported on another store listing the GTX 680 for sale. I commented on how, with all of these store postings, that the release of the GTX 680 must be coming soon. These pictures confirm just that. We have proof of a retail packaged GTX 680 meaning these are probably on the way to retail stores now. The first images of a retail GTX 680 have appeared online thanks to Overclock.net forum member "ironman86." They show that the card does in fact use two 6-pin power connectors. The source has promised us benchmarks, and we will try to get them posted as soon as he does. In the meantime, take a look at the rest of the pictures.

It seems like everyone is jumping the gun trying to sell a card that doesn't even technically exist yet. Yes, I know it will exist at some point, but until it's released, it doesn't exist as far as I am concerned. The latest posting comes in the form of two cards being listed for sale at $578.20 on NCIX.com. One card is by eVGA and one is by MSI.

With all of these slip ups, we have to be getting close to release date. We just have to be! The new postings don't really give us any sort of extra information that we don't already know, other than a possible selling price and what speed MSI's factory overclocked card is going to be running at. In case you're curious, that speed happens to be 1056Mhz. The MSI listing is here, and the eVGA listing is here.

A post over on Overclock3D.net has a surprise for ya'll. It's a picture of GIGABYTE's GEFORCE GTX 680 GPU, and while I'm excited to see what NVIDIA's latest Kepler 28nm-based GPU can do, the GIGABYTE card seems very reference. In a world where AMD allowed non-reference designs on their top-end GPUs, it's a bit saddening to see this.

The first picture is of the box, where it features the GIGABYTE robotic eye which looks cool, I always associate it with Transformers for some reason. We see that it sports 2048MB of GDDR5 RAM, and includes a 3-year warranty on the card, again, great work by GIGABYTE. We also see that it's based on PCI-Express 3.0 and includes support for DirectX 11, which is something that should be standard, and known by now.

The next picture is of the card itself, where we can see the usual reference build, sporting just one fan. The new cards are on the aforementioned 28nm process, so we should expect these GPUs to run cooler than the 500-series, and significantly cooler than the 400-series from NVIDIA.

Forget buying your GTX680 overseas, it's now available for order in the US priced only at $566.75. While we don't learn anything new from the product page, it almost certainly confirms that it's coming, and it's coming soon. The site is taking orders, so if you're interested in running SLI, now might be the best time to pick up 2 or even 3. That is, if your pocketbook can handle it.

You can view the product page here and check it out or even order some, as the orders are being taken "regardless of availability." If you do decide to purchase one, do you mind grabbing one for me?

As we near the release date of the nVidia GTX 680, more and more charts are surfacing with purported performance, specifications, and the like. Today is no exception. There appears to be 6 new benchmarks run on the card, using an extreme-cooled Intel Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition processor (running at stock frequency), ASUS Rampage IV Extreme motherboard, 8 GB (4x 2 GB) GeIL EVO 2 DDR3-2200 MHz quad-channel memory, Corsair AX1200W PSU, and Windows 7 x64.

Benchmarks included 3DMark 11 (performance preset), Battlefield 3, Batman: Arkham City, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Lost Planet 2, and Unigine Heaven (version not mentioned, could be 1). All tests were run at a constant resolution of 1920x1080, with 8x MSAA on some tests (mentioned in the graphs).

If the following graphs are true, it appears Kepler is a winner. As previously reported, the 640M is pretty awesome, which helps make these graphs a bit more believable. Additionally, these tests were not run by nVidia or a board partner. Instead, they were run by a reviewer from HKEPC. It will be interesting to see the final benchmarks after the NDA is pulled and reviews go live. I'll be watching to see if these are on-point when the actual reviews start rolling out. So without further ado, I present to you the charts:

NVIDIA are mere days away from releasing their Kepler-based GEFORCE GTX 680, but there is still secrets that are leaking through the cracks. It seems that NVIDIA could have baked a new anti-aliasing (AA) algorithm into the Kepler family of GPUs.

There are plenty of different forms of AA, including FXAA, which have enabled higher levels of image quality, all while not being as taxing on the GPU as MSAA. This leaves one area to improve, to offer better image quality (IQ) while lowering the performance penalty when its enabled. According to the above screenshot, which is rumored to be sourced from NVIDIA's GeForce Kepler press-deck, the new algorithm is compared to 8x MSAA, where it gives superior image quality.

We all know that 8x MSAA is not easy for a GPU and definitely takes an arrow to the knee in terms of performance degradation for a GPU. But, this new screenshot shows us an anti-aliasing method that does indeed look taxing, but if NVIDIA has rubbed their genie lamp, we could expect some amazing AA, where it won't be too taxing on the GPU itself. The latest NVIDIA rumor showed that when Battlefield 3 was running its AA, it had some stellar performance.

Ah, NVIDIA charts. The memories are flooding back now, it feels like so long since I've seen them, but they're back, and in force. NVIDIA's latest charts are for their 28nm-built, Kepler-based NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 680, caps intended.

If the above charts are true, which most of the time they are not because it's really just a closed-world internal test by NVIDIA themselves, then we're looking at an amazing 40-percent increase over the AMD Radeon HD 7970 in some tests. 15 tests were used, from 7 games/benchmarks. All benchmarks were run with AA, then again without AA.

The one test that got my GPU juices flowing was the Battlefield 3 test with 4xAA, look at those improvements. If only I had the time to play Battlefield 3, I'd probably get 1 or 3 of these new GEFORCE GTX 680's. In the end, it looks as though that crown AMD have graced on their head, is about to get a can of whoop ass thrown at it. Green Team, unite!

More details are arriving for NVIDIA's soon-to-arrive GEFORCE GTX 680, and these new specs are quite interesting. Fudzilla's source are saying that the new GTX 680 will sport two 6-pin PCI-Express power connectors to provide a total TDP of around 190W.

Higher performance per watt is expected from not only users of the card, but NVIDIA, too. Considering the card features 1536 shader units, 2 (or 4GB) of GDDR5 memory clocked at 6GHz, a reported 'very high' GPU clock, we should expect very good things from the GTX 680. Performance is said to be in the area of AMD's Radeon HD 7970, where it wins in some benchmarks, and loses in others. These results are from NVIDIA, so we'll have to wait for some real-world testing.

The GPU itself is said to be around 300mm² in size, too. Price-wise, we should expect a US$549 price, but that is to be expected. NVIDIA is launching a card with more performance than the GTX 580, with much better performance per watt numbers. We should expect some competition in pricing, but that comes down to GPU flavor from other companies such as ASUS, GIGABYTE, MSI, etc as well as heated up competition from the already-released HD 7970.

Yesterday we gave you our first video unboxing of the MSI Z77A-GD65 from the Taipei Test Lab and today we bring you another involving two AMD Radeon 7800 series video cards from Sapphire. Lately we have been very impressed with the cooling solutions Sapphire has used on its video cards and from what we have seen today, this trend looks to continue here. In the video above we cover both the Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 OC Edition as well as the Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 OC Edition video cards.

The 7850 OC Edition features an impressive looking dual fan cooler with a single heatpipe which exhausts hot air out the back of your case. The bundle is rather impressive too including a card to join the Sapphire Select Club, quick installation guide, DVI to VGA connector, molex to PCI Express power connector, mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort adapter, HDMI to DVI connector, CrossFire bridge and a HDMI cable.

Next up in the video above is the 7870 OC Edition which in many ways is quite similar to the 7850 OC Edition, just bigger in all ways - the cooler is pretty much the same except it is bigger just like the retail box. The bundle is exactly the same as the 7850 video card expect it comes with an additional Molex to PCI Express power connector since the video card calls for it with its higher power draw requirements since it is of course a faster video card.

I bet you read that title, and thought "haha, yeah right", well, strap yourself in ladies and gentlemen. NVIDIA's 28nm-based Kepler GK104 GPU is being shown around the Game Developers Conference, as we speak, with Heise.de citing people it spoke to at CeBIT.

Let's do this: some models of the GeForce 600-series from NVIDIA will introduce a load-based clock speed-boost feature, similar to Intel's Turbo Boost, where the GPU will ramp up clock speeds to the GPU when it senses heavy loads. If there's a stressful scene to render, the GPU overclocks itself, gets through the scene, and goes back down to stock speeds. Wow.

This ensures that the GPU has higher minimum and average frame rates, which is a great thing to see. Another thing to point out, is the GK104 does actually sport 1,536 CUDA cores, which should give it a definite kick up the bum for number-crunching scenarios, such as shading, post-processing, and GPGPU-based work. But, the CUDA cores don't automatically give you super amounts of performance, unfortunately.

EXPreview is teasing that NVIDIA could release their Kepler-based GK104 GPU as soon as March 23. You know, as in, less than three weeks from now. Maximum-Tech "confirmed" GK104 to debut in April, but AIC (add-in card) vendors in China have said that GK104 "won't be postponed to April".

Operation Director of ZOTAC in the Asia-Pacific area said at Weibo:

VR-Zone have an interesting piece on the power circuitry within NVIDIA's upcoming Kepler GPU, and it reveals some juicy info. First up, NVIDIA is tapping the supply chain maker Foxconn to manufacture the high-end Kepler-based GPUs, and according to sources, NVIDIA has used the strategy of switching between Flextronics and Foxconn in the past, but are now happy with Foxconn.

The board talked about was manufactured in Q3 of last year, which would lead us to believe that NVIDIA have had Kepler GPUs for a while now. Kepler was meant to see the light of day in 2011, with Maxwell hitting in 2013, but that won't be happening now. It's obvious that yields were low once again for NVIDIA, which is why they would've stopped from pushing Kepler cards into production. In NVIDIA's recent financial analyst call, the can-of-whoop-ass himself Jen-Hsun stated that the 28nm supply will be "constrained through the year (2012)".

The diagram above shows that the board in question (GeForce GTX 670 Ti) requires a single six-pin and eight-pin power cables, which gives us 75W + 150W + 75W = 300W total, even though it should still work with just two six-pin rails. Three phases are dedicated to feed the GPU, and dual phase is for the rest of the board. VR-Zone say they'll continue to post articles covering this in the future, while I wait with anticipation.

Team Green is hard at work on their Kepler GPUs, which are based on a 28nm process, and it seems as though the GK104 part is going to be called the GeForce GTX 670 Ti.

NVIDIA is obviously keen to get this part onto shelves now, to combat the GCN-based AMD Radeon HD 79x0 parts, and this could be way the otherwise mid-range SKU has been changed from what should've been the GTX 660 to the GTX 670 Ti. This move could be so that it indicates this part will perform competitively against the high-end parts already on the market, such as the HD 7000-series.

Sources have told SweClockers that they expect the GK104-based GeForce GTX 670 Ti to outperform the GeForce GTX 580 and Radeon HD 7950. techPowerUp are reporting they're hearing rumblings of a March launch, and if NVIDIA want to beat the HD 7800-series launch, they'll have to wave that Team Green flag, now.

AMD have had their launch of their Radeon 7900-series, and now its time for the next Graphics CoreNext cards to be unveiled, the "Pitcairn" cards. The Pitcairn cards will slot into the Radeon HD 7800-series, where we'll see three SKUs from this series.

First up we'll have the Radeon HD 7870, then a 2GB 7850 and a 1GB 7850. Spec-wise, we have:

Radeon HD 7870

I'm a sucker for GPU-related anything, really. I've reported a few times on rumors or news of NVIDIA's upcoming 28nm spin dubbed "Kepler", with the GK104 part being the mid-range power-house that should have the socks of most people being knocked off, if they can get it right. NVIDIA have been rumored to launch some cards in the March/April time frame and it seems this could be correct.

First off, as always, here's some salt. Let's get into it: SemiAccurate are reporting that GK104 Kepler GPUs are in the wild, and are being testing by AIB's (add-in board partners). Reports have come in to SA, where they're hearing that people 'high up in the priority list' are receiving Kepler cards in disguise last week.

No numbers. No details. Nothing. But, this news is simple, it means that if AIB's are receiving actual hardware, it means NVIDIA are close to release. Usually, it's a 4-6 week window from AIB sampling cards to them hitting shelves. This should mean we'll see GK104 Kepler GPUs on the shelves in late-March, or April.

PowerColor have teased everyone on their Facebook page with a glimpse of their new AMD Radeon HD 7970 GPU. Nothing more than it's "our new HD 7970 design posing for the camera" has been said from PowerColor.

What we can see though, are multiple video outputs, looks like the new HD 7970 from PowerColor sports dual DVI, HDMI, and dual DisplayPort. The card is still a dual-slot card, with two big fans on the front of it and a decently thick heatpipe design behind it.

More information on this bad boy as it comes. I do like the black/blue design of it. Reminds me of getting a bruise. This could could be powerful enough to punch the lights out of other HD 7970s, and give them... bruises? We'll find out soon enough. Hopefully our VGA editor is out of hospital by then, but I'm sure he's enjoying his Razer Blade gaming laptop too much, eh? ;)

Nearly twelve months ago, I wrote a news piece about the launch of AMD's Radeon HD 6990 where I said it "punches all other GPU's in the nuts", and it seemed to be a catchy title, that just spilled out of my mind, into my hands, and onto the screen. A lot of what I type happens this way, I guess it's just my hektik writing skillz, maybe.

Anyway, a leaked roadmap for AMD's Radeon HD 7000 series has found its way onto the tubes, and it unveils the Q2 2012 launch of AMD's dual-GPU HD 7990, which will most likely kick every other GPU in the nuts this time. Exact launch timing, is "TBD", but there are some other tid bits included in the roadmap.

We should expect the HD 7870 "Pitcairn XT" to sport 2GB of RAM, and the HD 7850 "Pitcairn Pro" to also sport 2GB of RAM. Launch timing on these two GPUs are an expected March launch, which isn't too far away. Next up we have the HD 7770 "Cape Verde XT" and HD 7750 "Cape Verde Pro", both sporting 1GB of memory and have launch times of just two weeks from now on the 15th of February.