Video Cards & GPUs News - Page 286

Computex 2017 - TweakTown has descended on Taipei, Taiwan for yet another year of technology fun with Computex 2017 - and one of the biggest rumors is that NVIDIA will unveil a new graphics card... tomorrow.

NVIDIA is hosting its Computex 2017 keynote with NVIDIA CEO and founder Jen-Hsun Huang to take the state to talk about everything from artificial worlds, to artificial intelligence. But, we've been hearing different things: NVIDIA will unveil a new graphics card - we just don't know what.

I've had a couple of my industry sources tell me it's definitely a graphics card of some sort, but that doesn't mean it isn't a new laptop graphics card, or a new desktop GeForce graphics card. If it is a new desktop card, could we expect NVIDIA to trump AMD with an early reveal of a Volta-based GeForce card? It would make sense, since AMD is so late to the game with Vega.

Computex 2017 - EVGA is now officially showing off their super-custom GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Kingpin graphics cards, something that's not for mere mortals, but those who want the absolute best GTX 1080 Ti that money can buy - oh, and serious overclockers who use extreme cooling like LN2 to break world records.

EVGA's upcoming GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Kingpin features a fully custom multi-layer PCB with the 'KINGPIN' logo on the front of the PCB. But it's the rear of the GTX 1080 Ti Kingpin where all of the action is, with 8+8 pin PCIe power connectors on the end of the card (thank you, EVGA) and much more power that will be delivered across the overclocked GPU, GDDR5X VRAM, and electrical components.

There's even an EVBOT connector and points that can be used for PCB voltage reading, showing that EVGA has put everything including the kitchen sink into the GTX 1080 Ti Kingpin.

ZOTAC is preparing for Computex 2017 by announcing its new GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Mini graphics card, which comes in at just 8.2 inches (21cm) long.

The company is releasing the new GTX 1080 Ti Mini in two flavors: air-cooled, and watercooled.

The watercooled version features ZOTAC's ArcticStorm full cover water block, while the air-cooled version features a dual-fan cooling solution. Both versions are dual-slot, which is great to see in something so compact.

MSI is stepping into some interesting territory with the tease of its upcoming GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Gaming X 11G with a USB Type-C port, making it the world's first graphics card with a USB Type-C port. The reasoning? I really don't know.

MSI explains: "MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti GAMING X 11G features Pascal-powered graphics and MSI's exclusive TWIN FROZR VI Thermal Design to deliver cool and quiet gaming graphics with unprecedented performance and power efficiency. With a revolutionary USB Type-C, the interface support is even more flexible".

I really don't know what MSI is going for here, but the only reason I can think of is that it's just one of those 'because we can' moves. I don't see the point of a USB Type-C connector on my graphics card, but there would be some prosumers that might use the USB Type-C connector on it, especially if their motherboard didn't have one on-board - so maybe I could charge my Galaxy S8 on it? Yay?

It was only two months ago that I asked MSI where their GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Lightning graphics card was, and it seems my wish has been granted. Enter the upcoming GeForce GTX 1080 Ti LIGHTNING Z graphics card, which will be debuted next week in Taipei at Computex 2017.

MSI will be deploying a new triple-fan TriFrozr cooler on the GTX 1080 Ti LIGHTNING Z graphics card, which will also feature MSI's awesome Mystic Light support. Thanks to the RGB LEDs and the black theme, gamers will be able to enjoy whatever color they want on the GTX 1080 Ti LIGHTNING Z graphics card.

MSI explains: "Evolving from the Lightning Series and built to be perfect, the MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Lightning Z graphics card combines groundbreaking new technology with proven features such as TriFrozr, TORX 2.0 Fan, Military Class 4 components and Mystic Light".

AMD recently took the wraps off of its Radeon Vega Frontier Edition, a new professional graphics card based on the Vega GPU architecture, sporting 16GB of HBM2 technology. The consumer Radeon RX Vega (RX = consumer) is coming "very soon thereafter" the late-June launch of Radeon Vega Frontier Edition, according to Lisa Su, CEO of AMD.

During the 45th annual J.P. Morgan Global Technology, Media and Telecom Conference, Su said: "We're very excited about Vega. Vega is a brand new architecture and actually has really the world's most advanced memory architecture for GPUs. What we did announce at our analyst day was that the first shipping Vega will be the Frontier Edition which will ship with 16GB of memory and will ship towards the latter half of June. You will see the enthusiast gaming platform, the machine learning platform, the professional graphics platform very soon thereafter. And so we will be launching Vega across all of the market segments over the next couple of months".

Now, let's dissect this statement. Su has said that Radeon Vega Frontier Edition will launch in the "latter half of June" while the "enthusiast gaming platform" will launch "very soon thereafter". Finishing up, Su said that AMD will be "launching Vega across all of the market segments over the next couple of months".

NVIDIA unveiled its next-gen Volta-based Tesla V100 at GTC 2017 a couple of weeks ago, but now we could be looking at their new Volta-based TITAN Xv graphics card.

There was an image posted to Facebook from a NVIDIA intern, but there's nothing else known about the card. We don't know if it's real or not, with the image posted over at Overclock3D.net forums. If it's a real card, take note of the lack of SLI connector and instead, the purported TITAN Xv has NVLink connectors.

I don't think this is the TITAN Xv, but at the end of the day it could be... and NVIDIA could be preparing TITAN Xv to combat AMD's upcoming Radeon RX Vega. What do you think?

AMD has released their new Radeon Software Crimson ReLive Edition 17.5.2 drivers, something that includes some performance optimizations for Prey - with up to 4.5% additional performance on the Radeon RX 580 versus the previous 17.5.1 drivers.

The new drivers also fix the random hanging or application crash with NieR: Automata, and the long map and loading times for Forza Horizon 3. AMD also poliished up the sleep/hibernation modes on the Radeon RX 550 series too.

You can grab the Radeon Software Crimson ReLive 17.5.2 drivers right here.

AMD hosted a Reddit AMA earlier today, with Senior Vice President and Chief Architect of RTG Raja Koduri talking to the Radeon fanbase about all things Radeon Vega Frontier Edition, as well as some new details on the consumer Radeon RX Vega graphics cards. We also now know that AMD will detail Radeon RX Vega at its Computex 2017 press conference on May 31, and we will be sitting front and center for it.

First off, the most important part is that Raja will not be shaving his beard until Radeon RX Vega launches, which is music to my ears - Raja's looks like a boss with his beard.

For his introduction, Raja said:

We are so close, so very close - 12 more days until we get the skinny on Radeon RX Vega. AMD confirmed the news through Raja Koduri's Reddit AMA on Radeon Vega Frontier Edition, that AMD will be showcasing Radeon RX Vega at Computex on May 31.

During the AMA, Koduri said: "We'll be showing Radeon RX Vega off at Computex, but it won't be on store shelves that week. We know how eager you are to get your hands-on Radeon RX Vega, and we're working extremely hard to bring you a graphics card that you'll be incredibly proud to own. Developing products with billions of transistors and forward-thinking architecture is extremely difficult - but extremely rewarding - work. [...] We're working as hard as we can to bring you Radeon RX Vega".

Koduri added: "On HBM2, we're effectively putting a technology that's been limited to super expensive, out-of-reach GPUs into a consumer product. Right now only insanely priced graphics cards from our competitors that aren't within reach of any gamer or consumer make use of it. We want to bring all of that goodness to you. And that's not easy! It's not like you can run down to the corner store to get HBM2. The good news is that unlike HBM1, HBM2 is offered from multiple memory vendors - including Samsung and Hynix - and production is ramping to meet the level of demand that we believe Radeon Vega products will see in the market".