Graphics Cards - Page 271

Theo Valich over at TG Daily managed to get the scoop on AMD's launch plan details for its upcoming HD 4800 series of graphics cards. You can read it in its entirety over here.

In short, AMD plans to release the single slot cooled HD 4850 with 512MB of GDDR3 sometime in June followed by the dual slot cooled GDDR5 bearing HD 4870 and HD 4870 X2 in mid-July.

Palit were one of the first companies to let us know about its custom designed and factory overclocked GeForce 9600 GSO graphics card.

Before you get too excited though, Nvidia's GeForce 9600 GSO is not new and is nothing more than a relabeled GeForce 8800 GS. In default configurations, it carries the EXACT same clock speeds and specifications.

AMD released a Vista 64-bit hotfix for the new 3DMark Vantage benchmark a few days ago and has recently released it to the general public.

AMD told us that certain Radeon graphics card configurations have some issues under the new 3D benchmark using Catalyst 8.4 drives. 3DMark Vantage Hotfix promises to fix the bugs and also improve performance. Some media are claiming an 800 - 1000 point increase in 3DMark score but we haven't been able to confirm that with our own testing yet.

Keep in mind while the drivers supposedly offer big improvements, AMD say that corruption may still be seen in GPU Game Test 1 when running 3DMark Vantage on "High Settings" on certain ATI Radeon HD 3870 CrossFire configurations under Windows Vista 32-bit edition. Everything should be back to normal by the Catalyst 8.5 as the Futuremark lineup of benchmarks aren't just a two-bit collection of 3D tests.

Go grab your 32-bit or 64-bit Vista drivers over here. There is no Windows XP driver of course since Vantage is Vista only.

As well as gaining DDR3 support and many other refinements, Intel's upcoming Centrino 2 (known as Montevina) will also see some very serious GPU solutions released for it as both AMD and NVIDIA continue to fight it out for supremacy.

NVIDIA has had control of the high-end mobile graphics segment for quite a while, but some details and pictures of a (what looks to be) brutal piece of work from the AMD/ATI crew have shown up on the web and it may just get them right back into the swing of things in this sector.

Since the release of NVIDIA's 9800GX2 a couple weeks back, we've not seen anything too exciting in the way of vendors sprucing up the card over the reference design. I guess many felt it wasn't necessary to as the card boasts some pretty mean characteristics as it stands.

EVGA however have just come forth with a super duper offering they call the 9800GX2 SSC; this card's 1024MB of memory is set to run at 2100MHz with the GPU and 256 Stream Processors operating at 675MHz and 1674MHz respectively.

Word is circulating that just four short months after the launch of the 9800 GTX (set for launch tomorrow), Nvidia will welcome its new high-end graphics cards to the world.

ABIT was once a monstrous motherboard maker with an instrumental marketing machine and engineering team behind it who could do no wrong - except for of course, accounting.

Rumor has it that AMD is busily preparing a new graphics card in its Radeon HD 3800 series line-up.

Images have recently surfaced that pretty well conclusively confirm the specifications of Nvidia's upcoming GeForce 9800GTX graphics card.

The card which was exposed is called EN9800GTX and it features all the usual goodies - PCI Express 2.0, DirectX 10.0 (still not DX10.1) and OpenGL 2.0 support, 512MB of GDDR3 memory and triple-SLI. This specific card is based on the reference model from Nvidia which mean it carries default clock speeds. In Typical ASUS fashion, they will probably launch a factory overclocked "TOP" model sometime after the launch (April 1st).

At least on paper, it looks like nothing more than an overclocked G92 8800GT 512MB. The price tag is expected to be around $350 USD which is a reasonable price but if you were expecting a new card with ultra high performance improvements, it doesn't seem like that will be the case at this stage and from what we have seen and heard so far.

As you would expect, we have 9800GTX samples already on the way and testing will begin very soon!

Corsair were first up today to issue a press release announcing their newest DDR3 memory kit designed exclusively to work with Nvidia's recently released nForce 790i SLI Ultra based motherboards.

Corsair's DOMINATOR DDR3 TW3X2G2000 modules come in a 2GB kit and will work at 2000MHz DDR on 790i based motherboards and they also included EPP2 pre-loaded for optimal performance.

Shane sent me a link earlier showing that an EVGA GeForce 9800 GX2 has already popped up on eBay.

The seller has ended the auction now but had three units available for $629.99 USD plus $39.99 USD shipping charges.

"The seller ended this listing early because the item is no longer available for sale."

The lads at PCOnline have chosen to jump the gun a little on NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce 9800 GX2 graphics card, set to be launched in less than a week from now. They've posted up a whole bunch of benchmark runs with the dual-G92 monster in conjunction with an Intel QX6850 CPU at 3.0 GHz on ASUS' Striker II Formula motherboard and an early supported (ForceWare 173.67) beta driver.

It seems as if no graphic card is safe at the moment - there is no hiding - especially during the CeBIT trade show in Germany.

Curtsey of some folks from China, we get a up-close view of the upcoming Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX graphics card which should release before the end of this month if we are not mistaken.

Nvidia's upcoming single GPU monster is based on a 65nm G92 chip and will replace the current GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB as the fastest single GPU card on the market. There are no details on pricing yet but it is stripped naked for public viewing right here.

Enjoy, you perv!

AMD has released details about its forthcoming ATI Catalyst 8.3 display driver which is due out anytime now for users of Windows Vista. Keep an eye on the AMD Game website for more.

Yesterday photos of Albatron's upcoming GeForce 9800 GX2 surfaced in their booth at CeBIT and today we were emailed official product marketing snaps of the upcoming dual-GPU single PCB graphics card which is due to go on sale March 18 or thereabouts.

Apparently Nvidia board partners are allowed to display GX2 products but are not allowed to discuss performance numbers and specifications.

So, without further ado...

Our friends over at PCGH in Germany are reporting that MSI are about to launch a GeForce 9600GT graphics cards with wait for it... not 512MB or 1GB of onboard RAM but a huge 2GB! Zotac and MSI already have 1GB versions of the 9600GT out but MSI one upped them. Not only that, it is also dished up with a side of Display Port.

It is unclear if this is one of those products that are designed as a technology showcase or if the Taiwanese company will actually begin selling it. With CeBIT just about to open its doors, we have no idea.

Nvidia's remainder GeForce 9 series graphics cards have had their fair share of rumors around the forums lately.

DigiTimes goes a step further and confirms most of it. We believe what they are saying as it matches most of what we have heard from our company contacts.

As you know, the mainstream performance 9600 GT was just released and will be followed by the 9800 GX2 (two G92 GTS 512MB cores) on March 11. The GX2 will be followed by the GeForce 9800 GTX and 9800 GT between the end of March and beginning of April.

As for Nvidia's mid-range products, the 9600 GS is said to arrive in May while the lower-end 9500 GT (based on the G96 graphics core with a reduced 128-bit memory interface) will arrived around Computex time in July and will be followed by the 9500 GS in July.

Busy times ahead!

It is amazing that Nvidia has not got on top of this yet.

Online retailer Take 2 in South Africa have the Chaintech GeForce 9600GT listed on its website for $2,107 Rand which is equal to about $275 USD. We managed to take a screenshot of the website before it is taken down.

Nvidia's upcoming GeForce 9600GT graphics card is not due to be released for at least a few weeks but that has not stopped the folks over at CHIPHELL in China having fun with pre-release samples that they managed to get their hands on.

Back over at CHIPHELL in China, one of their forum users has managed to get their hands on a 55nm and DX 10.1 based mid-range Sapphire Radeon HD 3690 graphics card.

AMD has just announced the HD 3650, 3450 and 3470 yesterday which should begin selling very soon if not already but it is so far unclear when the faster HD 3670 and 3690 models will go on sale.