Video Cards & GPUs - Page 308

GIGABYTE has released another external graphics card, this time with the new RX 580 Gaming Box that packs AMD's Radeon RX 580 into an external GPU enclosure.

The new RX 580 Gaming Box features a Radeon RX 580 8GB graphics card with its GPU clocks at 1257/1340MHz on base/boost, respectively. GIGABYTE includes a software-based "OC Mode" that will shoot the GPU clock speed up slightly, from 1340MHz to 1355MHz, while the 8GB of GDDR5 sits at its 8Gbps of bandwidth.

You can see that GIGABYTE has used a custom PCB and cooler, with a single large fan that keeps the RX 580 cool inside of the external GPU enclosure.

AMD had a great marketing campaign that was right in the middle of the US elections and politically driven around VR, where AMD said that "VR isn't just for the 1%" as they were launching the Radeon RX 480.

Fast forward to now, and we have the latest Hardware Report released by Oculus for their Rift VR headset, something that helps developers optimize, prioritize, and give a guideline for business and development decisions. The data was created from hardware running Oculus software in the last 28 days, where it shows utter Intel and NVIDIA dominance.

NVIDIA utterly dominates VR gaming with 92.2% of Oculus Rift users gaming in VR with a GeForce GTX graphics card of some sort, with the GTX 1070 leading with 19.4%, the GTX 1080 behind it with 17.3% and the older GTX 970 with 10.5%. AMD is left in NVIDIA's dust with only 7.8% of Oculus Rift users powered by Radeon, with 2% of Rift users using the RX 480, while 1.4% use the RX 580.

It wasn't too long ago that I exclusively reported that NVIDIA would release a new GeForce graphics card at GTC 2018, which is next week by the way, and now we might have a hint at confirmation according to NVIDIA.

The company has just announced its new RTX platform, a new "highly scalable" solution for raytracing technology that will "usher in a new era" of real-time raytracing. The problem is, RTX supports older graphics cards, with NVIDIA stating that RTX will be locked to "Volta and future generation GPU architectures".

Now that we've seen NVIDIA unveil their new RTX solution, Pascal GPU owners aren't going to be happy. This means to run any of the RTX-powered games released in the future you'll need a new graphics card, as there are no consumer graphics cards on the market that are capable of RTX.

GDC 2018 - Microsoft announced their new adventures into DXR at GDC 2018, with DirectX Raytracing being the DX12-based standard for Raytracing with AMD and NVIDIA both throwing their support behind DXR.

NVIDIA will have its own side of things with RTX, a collective of software and hardware algorithms to push raytracing on their Volta GPU architecture, which isn't in consumer form right now. Volta is a professional grade GPU architecture and from my various sources information, it won't be coming to the consumer GeForce side of things ever, so we should see some Volta-esque technology inside of their next-gen Turing GPU architecture.

For those of you that don't know what raytracing will deliver, or what it's even capable of, check out the embedded video above for a tease of what's to come. This demo comes from a collaboration between Quantum Break/Max Payne developer Remedy, along with Microsoft and NVIDIA.

NVIDIA hasn't briefed press on their upcoming RTX technology just yet, but VideoCardz is reporting that the GeForce giant will announce RTX on Monday.

NVIDIA's new RTX technology is a huge deal as it will usher in real-time cinematic rendering for game developers, with NVIDIA also preparing Ray Tracing for GameWorks, something that will allow real-time Area Shadows, Glossy Reflections, and Ambient Occlusion for game development.

The company has teamed up with Microsoft for a new API for RTX, something that will allow major game engines to support it, including Unreal Engine, Unity, and DICE's Frostbite engine. VideoCardz reports that there are already three developers that are working on RTX: EA Games, Remedy, and 4A Games.

ASRock was rumored to be working on new graphics cards, as the Taiwanese manufacturer would enter as a new AIB partner for AMD Radeon according to reports, and now the company is fully teasing their upcoming Phantom Gaming graphics cards. Check out the trailer:

ASRock teases: "Mystery videos published... Look forward to the announcement! #ASRock #PhantomGaming #PG #Phantom #Gaming #FAST #MYSTERIOUS #UNPREDICTABLE".

We can see the card looks like a dual-slot affair with a single 8-pin PCIe connector, so we should expect it to arrive as a custom Radeon RX 580 and not a custom Radeon RX Vega 56/64 as they require 2 x 8-pin PCIe power connectors. We could be surprised, but I doubt it.

NVIDIA will be launching their next generation GPU architecture in Q3 2018, with a new report from DigiTimes and their sources saying that Turing will "not enter the mass production until the third quarter". NVIDIA is currently expected to unveil the new Turing GPU architecture at GTC 2018, but there could be a few months between its detailing and public roll out.

DigiTimes reports that NVIDIA will be "forbidding" AIB partners to "publicly promote cryptocurrency mining activities or actively sell its consumer graphics cards to miners". NVIDIA wants to move the focus away from cryptomining and back to gaming, which has been in a very sore place for the last 6-8 months.

Prices are all over the place, and this needs to stop, hence the realignment of marketing focus to AIB partners by NVIDIA. DigiTimes' sources added that since the profitibility has dropped for both NVIDIA and AMD, they have been "decelerating the developments of their new GPU architectures and prolonging their existing GPU platforms' lifecycle".

It looks like NVIDIA will be controlling the stock levels of its graphics cards in the coming months, with DigiTimes reporting that the company will "practice strict control over inventory levels".

DigiTimes reports: "GPU demand for cryptocurrency mining has shown signs of a slowdown prompting NVIDIA to practice strict control over inventory levels", according to its sources. The story is so fresh that its only available in the 'Before Going to Press' section of the site, which costs $410 yearly to access. As the story develops, I'll update this story.

If this is true, we could be looking at NVIDIA being able to control GPU prices as it keeps "strict control over inventory levels", so that they don't sell out to miners. Gamers are losing out as GPU prices have skyrocketed, with the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti costing well over $1000 while the GTX 1070 Ti ranges from $600-$950.

It looks like NVIDIA isn't finished with the P102 GPU, with CryptoMining-Blog.com reporting on a tip that the NVIDIA P102-100 GPU are going to be "interesting for miners" as they are similar to the P104-100 with a custom configuration on memory and increased performance for those all important hashes.

Inno3D will be manufacturing the new P102-100 mining accelerators, which will feature no video output connectors as this is a mining-specific card. The new Inno3D P102-100 will be a mighty powerful mining card, capable of 47MH/s mining Ethereum (a GTX 1080 Ti will reach around 38-40MH/s while the TITAN Xp will push 42MH/s when overclocked).

Inno3D P102-100 specifications:

EK Water Blocks has just announced their new full-cover water block for AMD's Radeon RX Vega 56/64 graphics cards, with the new EK-FC Radeon Vega water block featuring a central inlet split-flow cooling engine that promises some of the best cooling for Vega yet.

The company has CNC machined the base of the block from nickel-plated electrolytic copper, while the top of the cooler is machined out of high-quality acrylic material. EK has sealed it with high-end rubber O-rings, with screw-in brass standoffs pre-installed which leads to an easier installation onto your Radeon RX Vega graphics card.

EK recommends that people purchase the retention backplate that ramps the looks of the card to another level, but it doubles as passive cooling to the VRM circuit board. The new EK-FC Radeon Vega water block will work with both the Nickel and Black versions of the current EK-FC Radeon Vega backplates.