Graphics Cards - Page 260

To celebrate the launch of Battlefield 3 (for some initial impressions, check it out here), SAPPHIRE Technology have introduced the SAPPHIRE HD 6970 BF3 Special Edition, which sports two SAPPHIRE exclusive technologies, SAPPHIRE FleX and Vapor-X cooling as well as performance enhancing options for the enthusiast and finally, a FREE copy of Battlefield 3.

The SAPPHIRE HD 6970 BF3 Special Edition includes a Dual BIOS switch which goes between two performance settings delivering the best performance in its class. While sitting in the 'normal' setting, clock speed sit at 880MHz for core, 1375MHz for memory and a quite fan profile. Choosing the "boost" setting throws the card up to 930MHz as well as increasing core voltage, fan speed and overclock limits to deliver higher performance.

SAPPHIRE's FleX technology is also great as it allows Eyefinity from three DVI monitors, without the need for DisplayPort or any adapters. Vapor-X cooling is also awesome, which enables the performance to be maxed out, but keeping those noise levels down low.

The VGA market almost seems like it's in hibernation at the moment for the most part, as we all anticipate the launch of new families from both sides of the fence sporting 28nm GPUs, of which we know won't be until a bit of a ways into 2012.

However, it appears NVIDIA has been working on a little bit of a side project in the meantime; some more love towards its popular GeForce GTX 560 Ti. Apparently the company is preparing a new suped up release of the model that switches the GF114 GPU on the original version for the GF110 that's used on the GTX 570 and 580 models.

This in turn would give the card 448 CUDA Cores, as denoted by the supposed model name NVIDIA is going for, "GeForce GTX 560 Ti (448 Core). This compares to the 480 cores on the GTX 570 and 512 on the GTX 580. The card will have 56 TMU's a 320-bit memory interface, 3-way SLI support, DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort outputs, and will most likely carry 1280MB of GDDR5.

AMD know when you are sleeping, they know when you're awake, they also know if you've been bad or good, so for 28nm GPUs, be good for goodness sake. If you want a 28nm Radeon GPU before the end of the year, in time for Christmas and just after the launch of the pillars of the FPS genre, Battlefield 3 and COD: Modern Warfare 3, then this is a great time to be a PC fan. We've reported before that AMD would launch their next-gen, 28nm-based Radeon GPUs sometime this year, but whether it would be low or mid-range GPUs is the question.

Another fact is that they could be notebook parts, with high-end parts hitting early next year. German website heise.de who claims multiple industry sources have pointed toward a December launch with one source specifically pointing to December 6. The new launch could be a desktop or notebook part, but I very much doubt it will be a high-end GPU. Another industry source is convinced that this is more of a symbolic launch, to beat out green-team rivals, NVIDIA.

That is my opinion too, I really think we're just going to see a launch, in general. Nothing special, no high-end parts.. it'll just be something launched on their 28nm process to stick it in NVIDIA's green-with-envy face. Whatever it is, we're within 3 - 4 months of seeing next-gen parts from AMD, with NVIDIA trailing behind. Whatever happens, I'm just excited to receive new GPUs again!

NVIDIA stumbled quite a bit with the Fermi, GF100 architecture and it looks as though they don't want to repeat the same mistakes by going top-to-bottom with GPU releases. NVIDIA are currently playing with engineering samples of their first chip built on the next-gen Kepler architecture, the GK107. This is not the flagship GK100 everyone expected, with NVIDIA changing gears and going for a bottom-to-top release by working on the GK107 first which will be a notebook-based chip.

GK107 is set to be powering four mobile GeForce SKUs - N13P-LP, N13P-GS, N13P-GT and the N13E-GE. These codenames may sound familiar to you, that's because they appeared in the leaked 28nm mobile GPU line-up. The GK107 sports a 128-bit memory interface and has support for both DDR3 and GDDR5 memory. The first three GK107-based SKUs with the "P" suffix will most likely succeed the GeForce GT 500M series, and will probably be branded as the GeForce GT 600M series.

The top GK107 part, N13E-GE, may replace the GTX 560M and be part of the GTX 600M series, as denoted by the "E" suffix (Enthusiast). GK107 will also find its way into the mobile Quadro SKUs - N14P-Q1 and N14P-Q3.

Colorful have unleashed a Radeon card under their ColorFire brand dubbed, ColorFire Xstorm HD 6850 X2 4GB. If you didn't already guess what it was from that ever so elusive name, it's a dual-GPU graphics card sporting two Radeon HD 6850 GPUs with a total of 4GB of memory. But that's not all, the designers of this card are trying out what they call "Silver-Plated Technology". All of the PCB's contacts, apart from the PCIe and CFBE interfaces are plated with silver. Silver being one of the best conductors, you can see why this card looks exciting.

ColorFire argue that the use of silver contacts reduces resistance and also helps with cooling. Next up we have DIP-switched based voltage control, which is an effective, yet old-school way of tuning voltages. Voltage measurement points are consolidated to a convenient location (next to the power connectors) and are angled for easy access. A pair of jumpers near the display output connectors allows the user of this card to switch between two sets of EEPROMs, each with different clock and voltage profiles.

The card chews through two 8-pin connectors, uses a 12-phase VRM which handles voltage regulation and also sports a custom design dual-fan cooler which uses a large heatsink and included five heat-pipes.

AMD have shown off their first working 28nm notebook GPU to the public at a media event held in San Francisco, California. The chip is part of the upcoming AMD Radeon HD 7000 series and was shown off displaying Dirt 3 but resolution, graphic settings and FPS were unknown. The upcoming HD 7000 series dons the codename "Southern Islands" and is being built by TMSC. The new cards are looking to be unleashed onto the market by the end of the year - but there are also rumors TMSC are having issues with the 28nm production.

The new cards are expected to support switchable graphics and continue pushing current technology features such as Eyefinity and H3D stereo 3D gaming. There are reports that AMD are planning to launch four different GPUs based on the 28nm version of the VLIW4 architecture and will use them in three different series: the Radeon HD 7800, HD 7600 and HD 7500. These GPUs will sport between 768 and 1536 stream processors as well as using GDDR5 memory.

Later on, AMD will launch the Radeon HD 7900 series featuring the new Graphics Core Next (GVN) architecture that is has been talking about since June. The idea behind GCN is to create a GPU that can perform well at both graphical and computing tasks.

Following leaked details on AMD's Radeon HD 7000 series graphics cards earlier in the week, some new slides (said to be straight from AMD) have since popped up which add some more meat to the equation.

We are assured that the HD 7000 family will use the first VLIW4 circuits at 28nm. In usual fashion the series will be rolled out in steps, with each sub-series based off different base architectures. Looking at the latest leaked roadmap, we can ascertain that AMD is initially planning the launch of four different GPUs making up three series, said to be scheduled for a Q4 2011 launch.

There will be the Radeon HD 7870 and HD 7850, HD 7670 and HD 7570. They will be equipped with GDDR5 memory across the board and sport 768 to 1536 Radeon cores (stream processors).

A little birdy has leaked out some specs on AMD's next generation Radeon HD 7000 series of graphics cards, though the information is most certainly still questionable at this stage with the lack of confirmation on any of it.

Codenamed Southern Islands, these next-gen chips will be 28nm (TSMC) based and as the chart above denotes, sitting at the top of the hill is the dual GPU wielding HD 7990. As per tid bits of info on the two Tahiti XT/Pro Cores the card will use, the max stream processor count is estimated to be around 4000 ALU, with the card featuring a TDP of >300W.

Head on over to the source link for a better idea of how the complete lineup is likely to shape up, with details on 8 known SKUs in the 7000 series shared. But remember, it's all potentially very loose information just at this point, so do remember to take it with a pinch of salt.

Here's an innovative, yet simply executed piece of tech MSI has come up with for future graphics cards. Word has come out that MSI has been testing a new feature it's looking to help make its already kickass lineup of non-reference graphics cards stand out even more.

MSI calls it "Dust Removal Technology", which is obviously to help rid your card of a negative scenario that affects every card sooner or later - dust buildup, translating to heat buildup. MSI say that enough dust buildup can eventuate to a rise in temperatures by as much as 15c, and from personal experience I can say that's not an exaggeration. Their new founded technology is quite simple in principle really.

The way it works is by simply running the fans in an opposite rotation at 100% speed for the first 30 seconds of system startup. This would result in air being drawn from the heatsink itself and pushed back out through the intakes of the cooler. While it certainly wouldn't remove every single bit of dust from the heatsink, MSI say it does work to significantly reduce dust accumulation in those tough to clean areas.

External graphics solutions for the mobile platform has been a talked about subject for several years now, and while we've seen a few forms of these on display at various trade shows and in prototype form around the web, the big players are yet to really make a firm jump into this area.

However, it's still definitely on the cards according to NVIDIA. Fuad of Fudzilla was recently at NV headquarters where he got to have a chat with general manager of NVIDIA's notebook division, Rene Haas and while the finer details of what's planned were retained, he did say that external graphics is something they are working on and the word 'Thunderbolt' was also mentioned, possibly meaning it'll be the connection of choice to ensure enough bandwidth is provided.

Fuad goes on to say that the conversation gave him the impression that external graphics may well surface sometime in 2012, using 28nm NVIDIA mobile parts (initially at least).

No matter how much you try to convince people that "the more memory, the better" when it comes to graphics cards is a somewhat fuzzy statement, the idea of having your card crammed with as much memory as possible is just too hard to pass up for some folks, hence add-in partners sometimes going a little overboard in this respect.

On that note, it seems NVIDIA card partner Point of View is looking to break some kind of record with a new GeForce GTX 550 Ti offering, packing it with not 1.5GB, not 2GB, but a whopping 4GB (!) of memory - equating to 4 times the amount on the reference model.

Such a large increase in memory would be questionably logical on a high end model, but on a mid range card with only a 128-bit memory interface, it does very much seem overboard indeed. It also needs to be mentioned that the memory used isn't the usual GDDR5, PoV took a shortcut here and went for DDR3, clocked in at 1066MHz. Meanwhile, the core runs at 900MHz, with its 192 CUDA cores operating at 1900MHz.

Some slightly fuzzy details on NVIDIA's upcoming 28mm mobile GPU parts have been leaked today; these being Fermi based shrinks, not based on next-gen Kepler.

It should first be noted, the chart provided by semiaccurate that you see above gives a list of the majority, but not all of the upcoming mobile GPU parts on the way, as there will likely be a few more 40nm parts entering the market in amongst this lot.

The other important attribute of what we can learn from this chart is the mass production periods noted. Sources are indicating that the much anticipated Kepler lineup of GPUs won't start being released until (at least) three months after these begin rolling out. So if we're not seeing 28nm parts hit the market until January or so, chances are Kepler will miss the boat for a Q1'12 release.

A particularly interesting looking HD 6850 graphics card has been found in Japanese stores by a company unheard of to most, AFOX. It's not just the brand name and box design that stands out, though. More interestingly, this card is quite a big step away from the reference design in that it is of low-profile stature and without the need for external power.

The low profile heatsink/fan design is also a standout feature with its dual-fan aluminum setup. AFOX appears to have left the stock clock rates on the card alone, however, which are 775MHz on the core and 4000MHz on the GDDR5 memory.

Due to being a low-profile card, it only has 1 x DVI and 1 x DisplayPort output. AFOX does ship the card with a separate full-profile bracket.

Following the launch of its DisplayPort to dual HDMI adapters yesterday, ZOTAC makes headlines again today with a couple more products.

In collaboration with water cooling specialists CoolIT, ZOTAC has introduced the liquid-cooled GeForce GTX 580 Infinity Edition which has CoolIT's OMNI self-contained water cooling system mounted.

ZOTAC ships the card with increased clock rates of 815/1630MHz on the core and shader, and 4100MHz on the 1536MB of GDDR5 memory. The card itself is otherwise much a standard fare with its 512 CUDA cores, 384-bit memory interface and dual-DVI and single mini HDMI outputs.

There have been rumors flying about NVIDIA's upcoming next-gen Kepler-codenamed GPU for a while now, that it would be delayed until 2012 because of issues with the adaption of the 28nm-based process. But, Chris Malachowsky spoke at their GTC Workshop Japan event, saying that Kepler is still on track for launch this year. Chris was careful with wording, saying only that the parts would begin "shipping" by the end of the year which could mean a paper launch and not an actual card-in-your-hands-giving-you-sexy-times launch.

Kepler is meant to deliver a threefold increase in double precision performance per watt over the previous Fermi, as well as being easier for developers to utilize GPGPU applications. Whatever, NVIDIA, just give me the damn cards now please.

As many of us know, the next big move we're waiting for from NVIDIA since Fermi came about is the release of its next-generation 600 series cards, dubbed Kepler. As the days roll on following a somewhat uneventful past 8 months or so in the VGA market, it's looking pretty certain that Kepler should come about around the start of 2012.

Kepler will be one of the first products to use TSMC's new 28nm process (with them getting a warmup session on some mobile 28nm GPU parts initially). Of course, it's safe to assume there will be a number of additional features on tap from NVIDIA with these next-gen cards, one of which looks to be in the way of better multi-monitor support.

As reported via the source link below, NVIDIA is apparently taking serious notice of the clear success that is Eyefinity with so many folks jumping aboard and making use of 3-screen gaming bliss since its inception.

ASUS has just dished up a standout graphics card under its DirectCU family with an all-passive cooled HD 6770 powered model.

The first thing that catches your eye with the HD 6770 DirectCU Silent is indeed that chunky passive cooler, which ASUS claims to be 16% more efficient than the reference cooler, while of course being completely silent.

To help with the coolers efficiency, it uses four direct touch copper heatpipes pulling heat away from the GPU. Meanwhile, the card itself boasts a Super Alloy Power design which basically means higher-grade componentry in terms of the capacitors, chokes and MOSFETs, while the rest of the specs shape up with 800 Stream processors, a 128-bit memory interface, 1GB of GDDR5 memory and D-Sub, DVI and HDMI outputs. The out of the box frequencies on the model are not yet known.

In a repeat of what we saw two years ago when AMD launched the HD5000 series and slipped down to the slender 40nm process, it seems as though AMD will beat NVIDIA to the punch again and have 28nm GPUs by the end of the year. AMD let slip that they'll have 28nm GPUs in the following quote:

AMD also said they'll be working with both TMSC and GlobalFoundaries on the chip production using a 28nm bulk silicon process. This is set to give it some extra flexibility, especially if 28-nm yields fail to meet expectations at one or both foundary firms. I did post that we could expect AMD 28nm-based GPUs as early as September, with NVIDIA trailing behind [again] with a release of 28nm GPUs sometime in early 2012.

AMD's official time frame of "later this year" could be sometime between September and December, so we'll just have to be patient until then.

The folks behind the PowerColor lineup of graphics cards, Tul Corp, have just released a couple interesting new cards under their VTX3D (Vertex 3D) branding. The two cards are based on the HD 6670 and HD 6570 mid-range models from AMD, but sport a rather unique inclusion that helps them stand out amongst the pack and its not just the aftermarket onboard.

These cards have built-in DVB-T tuners to allow users to watch digital TV on their PC, doing away with the need to use up another slot on the motherboard for a standalone DVB-T card.

Both cards have three outputs - D-Sub, DVI and HDMI and as you can see in the photos, they use custom cooling solutions. As for internal specs, they both run on a 128-bit memory interface, using the Juniper GPU (with 480 Stream Processors) and 1GB of memory (with an additional 1GB of system RAM that can be used via the Hyper Memory tech).

Our first tid bit of news on AMD's next generation of GPUs, the HD 7000 series has come out today with word that these will be the first PCI-Express 3.0 compliant graphics cards to hit the scene.

Using the PCI-E 3.0 x16 bus interface, they will of course be backwards compatible with the PCI-E 1.0 and 2.0/1 bus standard. It it not known at this time as to when AMD plans to launch this next generation of discrete graphics cards, so it's hard to speculate as to whether or not there will be any native PCI-E 3.0 support from AMD or Intel at the time, but as we just learned recently, there are some 3rd party vendors already gearing up with PCI-E 3.0 using their own methods.

Still, as we've known from many times in the past, there is a big difference between 'compliancy' and actually harnessing the additional power on tap. With that said, it is most probable the HD 7000 series (with perhaps the exception of some super duper dual GPU monster at the top of its line-up) won't even use beyond the limits of our current Gen 2 standard, but at least it helps pave the way for the inevitable future where masses of bandwidth will be required.