Graphics Cards - Page 254

Pictures of Sapphire's non-reference, single fan Radeon HD 7950 have floated onto the surface of the web and it looks quite interesting indeed. It's reported that the single fan model will most likely stick to AMD's reference clock speeds of 800MHz core, 1250MHz (5GHz GDDR5 effective) speeds.

The PCB is Sapphire's usual sexy blue color, with the cooler quite compact and as previously mentioned, just a single fan design. Display output wise, we have two mini-DisplayPort, one HDMI and one DVI. It has also been reported that the maximum factory overclocking permitted by AMD to AIB (Add-in Board) partners is 900MHz for the core, and stock memory clocks.

Does this card cater to your needs? A single fan, non-reference HD 7950 is quite good for those who want to build HTPC's. Will you get one?

AMD have had quite a good launch with their Graphics Core Next bizzo, the Radeon HD 7970. But Team Green have a juicy new rumor today, that they might release their Kepler-based products early, and not in the earlier-reported March-April timeframe.

It would launch as early as next month with reports coming from ChipHell.com, where they say it will launch in February. The GTX 680 is rumored to sport the same performance as the AMD Radeon HD 7970, with a clock speed of 780MHz, but only 2GB of video memory. NVIDIA seem to be cheap on the video memory these days, which could indicate that the new cards might not do multiple monitors from the single card.

AMD's always thinking a few steps ahead, so throwing 3GB on the cards is great for Eyefinity users, and the 4K monitor support. NVIDIA only using 2GB is a worry, especially for 3-screen setups, or 3D Vision Surround setups that suck up that RAM like a GPU vacuum cleaner. Time will tell, and as usual, enjoy some TweakTown Salt.

My birthday is in March and I'm pretty sure this is why NVIDIA are launching then, but the latest news is that NVIDIA does not want to paper launch the Kepler, so the launch of their first high-end Kepler part will only start once they have enough units for the first wave of customers.

NVIDIA originally had a Q1 2012 launch date in mind, with Quadro Kepler arriving in Q2 and Tesla Kepler arriving in Q3. But the new plans seem to indicate that NVIDIA will be launching the GeForce Kepler when they are able to ensure hard availability and have all of its partners covered.

AMD launched their GCN-based Radeon HD 7970 on December 22, 2011, but did not have any on retail shelves until closer to January 9th, 2012. NVIDIA does not want to repeat this and want to have stock availability in some what good numbers when they launch.

CES 2012 - Earlier on today we visited the Sapphire hotel suite at the MGM Grand here at CES in Las Vegas where we met up with Bill who was kind enough to give us an introduction to some of the new toys they had on display.

First up we got a quick look at Sapphire's X79 motherboard along with their Radeon HD 7970 video card where Bill mentioned they are seeing good performance since both products are able to support PCI-E 3.0.

Next up we got a look at Sapphire's first AMD based Mini-PC called the Edge-HD3 and it is based on the AMD APU E450 processor which is clocked at 1.6GHz and Radeon HD6320 graphics. It comes with 4GB of DDR3 memory, a 320GB HDD, USB 3.0 and more. Bill mentioned they are currently at pre-production level and they should be shipping around the middle of February and go on sale for around $300 USD.

Although the AMD Radeon HD 7970 has been enjoying its time kicking the arse of virtually every other GPU in the world, the second GPU in AMD's 28nm-powered, GCN-busting lineup has been delayed.

AMD's Radeon HD 7950 won't reach us this month and has been delayed until February. A paper launch of the Radeon HD 7970 late last year is not the usual move for AMD, and they want to avoid similar problems with the HD 7950 when it launches, so a delay could actually be a good thing.

The Radeon HD 7950 is based on the same Tahiti core as the higher-end HD 7970 brother, except that 4 of its GCN (Graphics Core Next) compute units have been disabled. Because of this, it takes on the moniker "Tahiti Pro" versus the 7970's "Tahiti XT". The 7950 will sport 1792 streaming processors, 3GB of GDDR5 and a 384-bit interface. It should also feature the same amount of video outputs, allowing 6-screen support.

The first picture of a non-reference design AMD Radeon HD 7970, which comes from Gigabyte. The GV-R797OC-3GD is a factory-overclocked card, which makes use of Gigabyte's Ultra Durable VGA+ PCB and custom-design triple-fan WindForce cooler.

The Ultra Durable VGA+ PCB uses a 2oz copper layer for better electrical stability and heat distribution, ferrite-core chokes, low RDS (on) MOSFETs, hand-picked high-performance GDDR5 memory chips, and more. The cooler sports a combination of heatsinks and aluminum fin arrays to feed heat from the GPU, memory, and VRM to its copper heat-pipes and ventilated by three fans.

Gigabyte make use of a non-reference design, using non-reference cooling assembly, but most likely a reference design PCB, except, it's red. No details on clock speeds or pricing yet.

First off, Happy New Year! I hope you're all enjoying your festivities, while here in South Australia it has been a blistering 41C (over 104F) for the past 2 days straight and it is currently 43C right now. Joy! Onto the news! Our GPU editor sent this to me, and at first I thought it was tease, because he loves to do that to me. But, it was not, it was news that had floated onto the great world wide web.

Sapphire's leaked document, which reveals their non-reference AMD Radeon HD 7970's that they are currently baking in Sapphire ovens. Sapphire have an amazing six cards that will be non-reference, all ranging in features, speeds and more. One of them is the "Atomic RX" which goes from the original 1000MHz Core speed to a whopping 1335MHz. It sports the usual 3GB of RAM up from the 5500MHz stock speed, to 5735MHz. Output-wise, we have 2 x MiniDisplayPort, 1 x HDMI 1.4a and 1 x Single Link DVI.

There is also an "Atomic WC" which seems to be identical, but a water-cooled version. The other models include "Toxic 3G" which has a GPU clock of 1125MHz and 5600MHz RAM, "FLEX 6G" which as you guessed, has 6GB of RAM and 6 x MiniDisplayPort outputs with GPU clocks of just 925MHz and 5500MHz RAM, "VaporX 3G" which should have Sapphire's awesome VaporX cooler, with GPU clocks of 1010MHz and 5500MHz RAM. The final two are the Dual-Fan 3G with 925MHz Core and 5500MHz RAM and finally, the stock "Da Original" with 925MHz GPU clocks and 5500MHz RAM.

We've all seen the reviews on the spectacular AMD Radeon HD 7970, but what about its slightly younger brother? Well, we have some leaked specifications on the Radeon HD 7950 now, so let's see.

While the HD 7970 is based on the "Tahiti XT", the HD 7950 is based on the "Tahiti Pro". According to a slide posted by Donanim Haber, the Radeon HD 7950 sports 4 compute units disabled when compared to the HD 7970, which brings the number of stream processors down from 2048 to 1792.

These will be joined by 112 texture units, but the 384-bit memory interface and 3GB of GDDR5 memory remain unchanged. AMD also retain the same display output configuration with one dual-link DVI, one HDMI 1.4a, and two miniDisplayPort 1.2 outputs.

2011 was relatively quite for GPU releases, it featured more next-gen CPU and APU launches than anything else. We had a few different cards come out, but nothing revolutionary, until last week with AMD's launch of their Graphics Core Next (GCN) and the launch of the AMD Radeon HD 7970.

The new 28nm-based "Tahiti" chips have taken the world by storm, and have been a very impressive GPU, considering early drivers and whatnot. AMD are planning to launch a dual-GPU card codenamed "New Zealand" and will carry the AMD Radeon HD 7990 moniker, launching in Q1 2012.

This means we'll see AMD's dual-GPU beast before April Fools next year. Since Tahiti/HD 7970 is so energy-efficient, dual-GPU efficiency should be quite the sight to see. We should see two Tahiti GPUs sporting the same power of the single-GPU HD 7970's, with 6GB of total graphics card memory (3GB per GPU system).

We've had a fair amount of news on AMD's next-generation GPUs over the past six weeks, with the first news that the cards would be launching in January, then we had some rumored pricing, and then a few days ago we posted some leaked info on the AMD Radeon HD 7970 specs. Today, we have news of the feature-set that will be included on the GPU when it launches.

There are three main categories of feature updates: Graphics CoreNext, AMD Eyefinity 2.0 and AMD APP Acceleration. AMD have claimed that CoreNext will be a "revolutionary" new architecture that changes the way the GPU crunches numbers. Also keep in mind that GCN is the first new architecture since the HD 2000-series launches all those years ago.

The first five generations since the HD 2000-series launched all included VLIW (very-long instruction word) core arrangement. CoreNext replaces the now ageing VLIW4 that was introduced by the Radeon HD 6900-series cards, which was an evolution, not a revolution of the VLIW set. CoreNext replaces VLIW stream processors with super-scalar Graphics Compute cores.

Juniper is out, Cape Verde is in. The Radeon HD 5770, after two years on the force, is retiring. In it's place is the rookie AMD Radeon HD 7770. If you remember, AMD rebranded the HD 5770 as the HD 6770, so we saw nothing new. This is the first time in two years that AMD are giving its mainstream performance class products a performance upgrade.

As you can see from the above shot, the HD 7770 definitely looks like it's older, and much stronger brother, the Radeon HD 7970. It includes a large diameter fan pushing air down vertically and is a similar design introduced by the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460. The length is also nearly the same, measuring in at 8.25-inches.

The HD 7770 includes the usual 3 display outputs - DVI, HDMI and miniDisplayPort. The card only requires a single 6-pin PCI-e power connector, and power consumption is said to be in the early-100W range. It can only be CrossFired with another card, so a maximum of 2 GPUs is limited here.

This was mostly unexpected, but then again, AMD have been waving their big red flag all over the Internet in the last few days due to the leaked AMD Radeon HD 7970 performance and specs. Today, we have PCINLIFE leaking an NVIDIA slide, that shows the difference in performance between their current single-GPU hero, the GeForce GTX 580 versus the GeForce GTX 780.

Say what? GeForce GTX 780?? Not GTX 680? Yes!

The above slide shows the performance between the current GTX 580 and the next-gen Kepler-based GTX 780. The test bed is a Core i7-3960X, Windows 7 64-bit, 297-Series driver, 2560x1600 resolution with both AA and AF enabled. The GTX 780 is virtually twice as fast as the GTX 580 if the chart is correct.

As the launch of AMD's next-generation Radeon cards gets closer, we have some exciting leaked specs to share with you. From some leaked slides, the specs of AMD's first Graphics Core Next (GCN) chip, the Tahiti XT, which goes under the suave name of the AMD Radeon HD 7970, will sport 3GB of GDDR5 (and not the rumored XDR2 memory), 3.5 TFLOPS of power, 2048 stream processors, 384bit memory width at 5.5Gbps, total load consumption of up to 300W and an less than 3W for idle.

Display outputs include 1 x DVI, 2 x miniDisplayPort and HDMI, in terms of power connectors, it should have one 8-pin and one 6-pin. If these specs are true, we should expect the single-GPU Radeon HD 7970 to keep up with, and most likely beat in some games, the dual-GPU Radeon HD 6990 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590. It seems to be about 30-percent faster than the single-GPU Radeon HD 6970.

Once some great drivers are released for it, we should see more performance sucked out of the new cards. Two of these should see a game like Battlefield 3 run at Ultra quality, 1920x1080 at 120Hz absolutely maxed out with AA/AF at 120fps minimum, or 2560x1xx0 at 60Hz, minimum 60fps.

AMD's next-generation high-end graphics card has been spotted, with images making their way onto the Internet. The new boards are marked as "Tahiti" and are believed to be the top-of-the-line single-GPU cards from AMD. This should be what the Radeon HD 7900-Series will eventually be.

The card, as you can see in the picture above, is quite long, roughly the same length as AMD's current Radeon HD 6970. It sports twelve GDDR5 memory chips, which means they use a 384-bit memory bus. It also includes two 8-pin PCI Express power connectors, which should give it up to 375W of power to suck down. The card, however, is powered by the SIG-approved 6-pin plus 8-pin config, which uses up to 300W of power.

It shouldn't be long until we have more concrete info, but generally, when there are leaks like this, the real things aren't far behind.

This is a bit unexpected, but a good move for Zalman. They have just announced their entry into the GPU market with the shipping of Zalman-branded GPUs to start shipping on December 13.

Zalman's first entry will be AMD Radeon HD 6000 Series GPUs, in three different models: Zalman HD6870-H , H-Zalman HD6850 and HD6770 Zalman-H. As you can tell from the model numbers, they are HD 6870, HD 6850 and HD 6770 GPUs. Nothing high-end yet, but I'm sure Zalman are just putting their toes into the water, for now.

All cards will feature two DVI outputs, one HDMI output and one DisplayPort output. All cards are dual-slot with the fan located in the center of the card. The PCB is a wicked blue color.

Juicy one today, folks! It is rumored that AMD's flagship single-GPU graphics card will hit a US$549 price, with the slower model having a price tag of $449.

Remember, that this is just a rumor and nothing is guaranteed, but it gives us a peak into what we could expect when the cards launch. Right now, the names being thrown around are the AMD Radeon HD 7970 and Radeon HD 7950, just like the previous variants of cards in the 6000 Series. The pricing is reportedly coming from AMD and not card partners.

We're expecting an early January shipping estimate, and should hopefully hear some more news on the subject soon. Is it too early to wish for two of these puppies? I'll take CrossFireX 7970's, thanks.

To tell you the truth, I've been holding back my excitement on AMD's new GPUs for a while now. I was a huge fan of the HD 5000-Series, it just completely outperformed Fermi in virtually every way. Sure, it wasn't the fastest in every test, but it had great temps, great overclockability, great noise levels, and to me, was a better card to launch onto the market than the GTX 400-Series.

But, now we have AMD's first true new graphics architecture since the HD 2000-Series. Dubbed Graphics Core Next, or GCN, the new Radeon HD 7000-Series will be the first to feature the new technology, which is set to have a much bigger focus on GPGPU functionality than any ATI or AMD GPU previously, which should at least keep up with NVIDIA's CUDA, or beat it.

The new HD 7000-Series is rumored to launch in notebooks first, with GPUs seen shortly after. High-end gear is not expected until early next year, but AMD could always surprise us. The unveiling event is to be held in London, and AMD haven't sent me my plane ticket, hotel booking, 4 x high-end GPUs or even a post card. I guess I'll sit here and cry red tears of sadness and await the news in a few more days.

PCIe 3.0 is barely here and rumblings of PCIe 4.0 is coming through the cracks of the Internet tubes. PCI-SIG, who are responsible for developing the PCI Express spec, have listed some preliminary details about PCIe 4.0.

PCI-SIG says that they've decided on a transfer rate of 16GT/sec for the next-generation PCIe technology, with a study showing that 16GT/sec can be achieved over copper wires, at roughly the same power levels of PCIe 3.0, using chips fabbed with "mainstream silicon process technology".

PCIe 4.0 will be backward compatible with older PCIe devices, and vica versa. PCI-SIG haven't mentioned which encoding scheme the new standard will use, so assuming it uses the same 128b/130b system as PCIe 3.0, a 16GT/sec peak transfer rate would translate into per-late, per-direction bandwitch of just under 2GB/sec, a two-fold increase over the PCIe 3.0 standard, and nearly four times as fast as PCIe 2.0. We'd be looking at 31.5GB/sec per direction for a PCIe 4.0 x16 slot.

We have a juicy rumor today from Japanese website 4Gamer and VR-Zone in the form of a roadmap for NVIDIA's upcoming 28nm Kepler GPU line-up for desktops. Kepler's rollout will be bottom-to-top, starting with the mainstream GK107 chip in Q2 2012.

High-end parts such as the GK110/GK112 will not see the light of day until later in the year. All Kepler GPUs will be manufactured on TSMC's 28nm process, use GDDR5 memory and include support for DirectX 11.1 that will be included in Windows 8.

We should see the GK107 mainstream part in Q2 2012, which features 128-bit memory, and should land in notebooks first, with a desktop release shortly after. GK107 also only supports PCI-Express 2.0. GK106 is set to be the mainstream performance part, replacing the current NVIDIA gem, the GeForce GTX 560. This should sport a 256-bit memory bus, with a release sometime in late Q2 2012.

We've seen a few different AMD Catalyst drivers lately, with today bringing the Catalyst 11.11a driver. What does it do? Well, as usual, it supports Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP and brings some fixes, support and improvements for Batman: Arkham City, RAGE, Skyrim and Battlefield 3.

You can grab the drivers here, and for a rundown of what the Catalyst 11.11a driver does, take a look below:

Batman Arkham City: