Video Cards & GPUs News - Page 288

Some more information on next-gen graphics cards has arrived thanks to a press release from SK Hynix about their new HBM2 tech, with SK Hynix also shipping GDDR6 memory in Q1 2018.

SK Hynix was also at NVIDIA's recent GPU Technology Conference showing off their 8Gb GDDR6 module with 16Gbps of bandwidth, up from the 11Gbps of bandwidth available on the fastest GDDR5X on GTX 1080 Ti. GDDR6 is listed as a Q4 2017 product, meaning it will enter mass production in Q4 2017 for a huge Volta launch in Q1 2018 - at least according to WCCFTech.

I think we'll see a Pascal refresh based on GDDR6 at first, and then a full Volta line up with a blend of GDDR6 and HBM2 technologies - GDDR6 for the GTX 2080/2070, and HBM2 for the Volta-based TITAN Xv, and what I'm hoping for: a dual-GPU Volta graphics card.

AMD is in the headlines all over the place right now, with our tease of the Radeon RX Vega Nova/Eclipse/Core graphics card, and now a new report on Vega with 16GB of HBM2 and a 1600MHz GPU clock.

VideoCardz does note that they don't know if this part of the Radeon RX Vega family, as it could be a new dual-GPU graphics card in the Radeon Pro or Radeon Pro Duo series. AMD has confirmed it will have two stack HBM2 for Radeon RX Vega, but it could be in 8GB form (2 x 4GB) or a 16GB card (2 x 8GB).

Inside of the new CompuBench result, we have the maximum GPU clock of 1600MHz with 64 compute units (CUs), and what should hopefully be 4096 stream processors.

This is the hottest rumor that I've read about AMD's upcoming Radeon RX Vega graphics card, so I'll preface it with a this is a hot rumor and could be totally #fakenews so take it with a salt factory in your possession.

The latest rumor names the three different Radeon RX Vega graphics cards: RX Vega Nova, RX Vega Eclipse, and RX Vega Core. Radeon RX Vega Nova will be the GTX 1080 Ti competitor priced at $599, while the RX Vega Eclipse will handle the GTX 1080 at $499. AMD will reportedly price its Radeon RX Vega Core at $399, and will be capable of GTX 1070/1080 performance.

Remember that this is just a rumor, from a site that is providing its own sources from "very reliable sources within AMD's headquarters", which I'm very doubtful of. Anyway, the naming scheme is what I'm looking at - and if Nova, Eclipse and Core are what AMD use for their Radeon RX Vega family - I'm happy with that.

NVIDIA CEO and founder Jen-Hsun Huang has compared GeForce graphics cards to consoles in a recent post-earnings investor Q&A, when he was probed on a question regarding NVIDIA seeing the numbers of gamers and GeForce products growing, and whether they could continue to push out premium products.

Huang replied with: "The average selling price of the NVIDIA GeForce is about a third of a game console. That's the way to think about it. That's the simple math. People are willing to spend $200, $300, $400, $500 for a new game console, and the NVIDIA GeForce GPU PC gaming card is on average far less".

He continued: "There are people who just absolutely demand the best. And the reason for that is because they're driving a monitor or they're driving multiple monitors at a refresh rate well beyond a TV. So if you have a 4K or you want 120 hertz or some people are even driving it to 200 hertz, those kind of displays demand a lot more horsepower to drive than an average television, whether it's 1080p or 4K at 60 frames a second or 30 frames a second. And so the amount of horsepower they need is great. But that's just because they just really love their rig, and they're surrounded in it, and they just want the best. But the way to think about that is ultimately that's the opportunity for us. I think GeForce is a game console. And the right way to think about that is at an equivalent ASP of some $200 - $300, that's probably potentially an opportunity ahead for GeForce".

Before the company has released a product, or even shown the general public details on what they'll eventually release in what should be the most amazing leap forward in mixed reality HMD technology, Magic Leap is worth up to $8 billion.

The news is coming from an upcoming D round of financing that will see the Florida-based mixed reality company valued at $6-8 billion. Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba will lead the D round of financing, with some of the largest companies in the world leaping into the mixed reality investment of Magic Leap. It was only 15 months ago that the company raised $793.5 million on a $4.5 billion valuation, adding to the $592 million it had raised earlier.

There have only been a few people outside of the company and its investors and closest partners that have tried the mixed reality tech from Magic Leap, and if you look into the nitty gritty of the next level technology the company is working on, you'll understand why Magic Leap is so secretive. They're wanting to be "the Apple of AR" and with what they're working on, and the billions of dollars they're raising and the talent and help they've got behind them, Magic Leap could very well be a household name in a few years time.

Computex 2017 - AMD is already locking in May 31 for its Computex 2017 press conference, with VideoCardz reporting that AMD are sending out emails for their event.

The email reads: "Computex 2017 is fast approaching so we wanted to share a save-the-date for the AMD press conference, scheduled for May 31st from 10 a.m. - 11 a.m". It continues: "Hosted by AMD CEO, Dr. Lisa Su and other key AMD executives, you will have the opportunity to hear more about the latest products and leading-edge technologies coming from AMD in 2017. The past year has seen AMD bringing innovation and competition back to the high-performance desktop market with the release of Ryzen™ processors and we look forward to providing new details on 2017 products and the ecosystems, both OEM and channel, that will support them".

It looks like we're only weeks from something big being unveiled, and I'm sure we'll hear how well Ryzen has been doing for AMD in the last few months - but it's the "latest products and leading-edge technologies coming from AMD in 2017" that I want to hear more about.

NVIDIA's latest version of GeForce Experience now has built-in support for gameplay recording through ShadowPlay for Vulkan and OpenGL-based games.

Until now, ShadowPlay only worked with DirectX-based games, but now GFE is opening its doors to new APIs. The updated version of GFE also features improved user controls for broadcast, gallery, and upload.

NVIDIA's official news post states: "In other words, you can now stream and record your Minecraft and Doom gameplay with the press of one hotkey, and use the built-in overlay to easily share to Facebook, Google, Twitch, and more. It's powered by our acclaimed ShadowPlay technology, so you can capture up to 4K 60 FPS and never miss a beat while you game".

Google is splashing around some cash acquiring VR developer Owlchemy, the team behind one of the best VR games out there - Job Simulator. Owlchemy also worked on the Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality game, which is available for both the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift.

Owlchemy said in a statement that they will "continue building high quality VR content for platforms like the HTC Vive, Oculus Touch, and PlayStation VR". Google said in its own blog post that the two companies will be "be working to create engaging, immersive games and developing new interaction models across many different platforms to continue bringing the best VR experiences to life".

Like it was planned to be teased after NVIDIA's huge unveil of their next-gen Volta GPU on their new Tesla V100 graphics card, news appears through recent Linux drivers of a purported dual-GPU based on Radeon RX Vega. The new info points to specific code:

These codes are new Vega 10 IDs, so we should expect a larger family of Radeon RX Vega graphics cards - with the number 7 floating around in previous reports. The specific code we're looking at here points to a specific PLX chip, which is an ASIC board that splits PCIe lanes to bridge multiple components, like dual GPUs.

There's not much else here, but a dual-GPU Radeon RX Vega is something AMD will need to beat the new Tesla V100 graphics card, that's for sure. A dual-Vega graphics card could also hurt the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti... so we'll have to wait and see.

GTC 2017 - NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang has come out with some fighting words for its main competitor AMD, and their upcoming Radeon RX Vega graphics card, with the Huang saying he's confident in NVIDIA's position in the gaming GPU market.

NVIDIA has no competition in the high-end market against their GeForce GTX 1070, GTX 1080, GTX 1080 @ 11Gbps, GTX 1080 Ti, Titan X(P) and the new TITAN Xp. AMD has their upcoming Radeon RX Vega graphics card family, but we're still weeks away from its release.

After NVIDIA's unveiling of their new Volta-based Tesla V100 graphics card, Blayne Curtis from Barclays Capital Inc. asked Huang: "I was just wondering if you can just talk about the competitive landscape looking back at the last refresh. And then looking forward into the back half of this year, I think your competitors have a new platform. I'm just curious as to your thoughts as to how the share worked out on the previous refresh and then the competitiveness into the second half of this year".