Video Cards & GPUs News - Page 311

One of the downsides of the GeForce GTX Titan X is that NVIDIA didn't allow add-in board (AIB) partners to modify the card with a non-reference cooler. This should all change with the GM200-powered GeForce GTX 980 Ti, with NVIDIA reportedly greenlighting custom variants of the GTX 980 Ti.

But it gets better: the current rumors have NVIDIA announcing the card sometime in late May or early June, which is right around the time of Computex. It's also the time frame in which AMD will reportedly announce its new Radeon 300 series, led by the flagship Radeon R9 390X. This could be NVIDIA's way of taking some of that thunder away, and if the GeForce GTX 980 Ti is as powerful as it should end up being (thanks to it being powered by the same GPU as the GTX Titan X), we should expect some fierce competition in terms of pricing from both camps.

The alleged specifications of the GTX 980 Ti has it powered by the GM200 core, with the same specifications as the GTX Titan X, but with a reduced framebuffer. The GTX 980 Ti should feature 6GB of VRAM, but with higher clocks than the Titan X. With custom variants, we should expect the GeForce GTX 980 Ti to be one of the fastest video cards on the market when it's released. That is, until we know what makes the Radeon R9 390X tick.

We have previously reported that AMD would be unveiling its next generation GPUs in Q2 2015, which ends on May 31st, but we've just heard some news during AMD's Q1 2015 conference call directly from AMD CEO Lisa Su herself.

During the call, Su said that AMD will talk about their upcoming graphics products launches "later this quarter", with Su reiterating that the company "would like to see some regain of share in both the desktop and the notebook business". As for AMD's plans for 2H 2015, Su had the following to say: "In the second half of the year, I think we would like to see our products take a strong position as well as hopefully the market gets stronger as well".

GALAX is back, and in a big way lately, but it's not stopping with its handful of GeForce GTX 980s. The company has just added two more to its list of five, which is now a list of seven, with the new GALAX GTX 980 HOF TecLab Edition, and GTX 980 HOF DUCK Edition.

Starting with the GALAX GTX 980 HOF DUCK Edition, which is currently second place in the official 3DMark Fire Strike competition (with 10,580 points). We don't know the clock speeds of the card, but we do know it has been cranked all the way up to 2123MHz (but obviously not with its aftermarket cooler). We have a custom-made white PCB and triple-fan cooler that is sure to impress.

Next, we have the GALAX GTX 980 HOF TecLab Edition, which is a 2.5-slot card with a new color scheme. We have a backplate on this card too, as well as an OC button on the rear of the card next to its display outputs. The GALAX GTX 980 HOF TecLab Edition should be the fastest GTX 980 in the GALAX lineup.

We know it's coming, but it's just a matter of when. NVIDIA is preparing the GeForce GTX 980 Ti that should better counter the upcoming Radeon R9 390X from AMD, with a full GM200 core.

The GM200-powered GeForce GTX 980 Ti should be released in September, a couple of months after AMD's launch of the Radeon R9 390X which is expected to happen during Computex in June. There are some suggestions that NVIDIA would spoil AMD's fun during the R9 390X launch, so we could see a big announcement before, during or after Computex from NVIDIA.

NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 980 Ti should be close to identical to the behemoth that is the GeForce GTX Titan X, but knock down its VRAM from 12GB to 6GB. We should also see AIB partners free to slap on aftermarket coolers, which didn't happen with the Titan X, which is going to open up a can of whoop ass on the market.

The first shots of the purported XFX Radeon R9 390 Double Dissipation have arrived, featuring a dual-slot cooler with two 100mm spinners, and a large aluminum fin-stack heat sink.

The card rocks a 6-pin + 8-pin PCIe power configuration, and a bridgeless Crossfire system, just like the Radeon R9 290 series. We should see this card, if it's real, positioned below the R9 390X with its "Fiji XT" core, with the R9 390 featuring the "Fiji" GPU. We don't know what the GPU itself will be, but we should see 4096 stream processors, a 4096-bit HBM memory interface with between 4GB and 8GB of RAM that provides a huge 640GB/sec of memory bandwidth.

ASUS has only just unveiled the super-fast, but also deliciously beautiful GeForce GTX 980 20th Anniversary Edition video card, but now we're being introduced to the GeForce GTX 970 Turbo.

The new ASUS GeForce GTX 970 Turbo features a slick white-and-red color scheme that features a blower-style cooler which blows the hot air through the back of your case. The new GeForce GTX 970 Turbo has a short PCB similar to what is used in the GTX 970 DirectCU II Mini from ASUS, but features a "longer lateral-flow cooling solution", reports TechPowerUp.

ASUS is providing a factory overclock on the card, with a Core Clock of 1088MHz and Boost Clock of 1228MHz. We should expect a single 8-pin PCIe power connector, or two 6-pin PCIe power connectors. We can also expect two dual-link DVI ports, one HDMI 2.0 and one DisplayPort 1.2 connector.

This is a super-juicy rumor, but let's get on with it: NVIDIA could be preparing a watercooled GeForce GTX Titan X that could be released as the Titan X Ultra.

This purported Titan X would see a hybrid AIO cooler that would allow for some serious overclocking of the GM200-powered Titan X, and see those performance numbers jump up even more. We could see NVIDIA or AIBs increase the Core Clock by 250-300MHz (or more) but that would see the Titan X getting even hotter, which would require the increased efforts on the cooling front.

This is where we would see the company using an AIO liquid cooling unit that would keep the card nice and cool, even under all of that increased pressure. This would be the perfect counter to the impending release of the Radeon R9 390X from AMD, which should be here any week now.

We heard the rumors, but ASUS has just made its new GTX 980 20th Anniversary Gold Edition official: the world's fastest GeForce GTX 980 video card. The company has used its impressive DirectCU cooler with 0dB-fan technology that allows for games like League of Legends and StarCraft to be played in total silence.

The all-important fact here is that it has a Boost Clock of 1431MHz, which is 215MHz above the reference Boost, providing an additional 15% performance. 4GB of GDDR5 is splashed on top, with three DisplayPort outputs, one HDMI and one dual-link DVI. One of the more unique parts of the VGA card is that it has a beautiful gold and black cooler, which is going to look incredible in gamers' PCs.

ASUS has told us that the GTX 980 20th Anniversary Gold Edition is a "short run, exclusive limited edition card", with its clock speeds beating even the best GTX 980s on the market from EVGA and its Kingpin GTX 980 and GALAX HOF 980 cards. We have reached out to our contact at ASUS to try and secure a sample, so check back for a review here at TweakTown soon.

It looks like AMD's Radeon 300 series is beginning to take better form, where we're learning that the new cards will be filled with a bunch of rebrands, something that has been discovered hiding in the Catalyst 15.3 Beta drivers. Here's the run down of what is found in the Catalyst 15.3 Beta drivers:

One of the stand out GPUs from this is the "Pitcairn" GPU, which, if these rumors are correct, will see its fourth use in AMD's line up. Pitcairn was introduced in 2012 as the Radeon HD 7870 and has been rebranded ever since. The mobile side of AMD's Radeon line up will also reportedly be rebranded, which you can see below:

An early April Fools joke is appearing online, so we're going to make it clear: this will probably not happen. But, OverclockersUK and BFG are teasing a new GeForce GTX Titan XXX, which has a huge 24GB of VRAM, double the framebuffer of the GeForce GTX Titan X, which has 12GB.

Most of the specs are identical to the reference GTX Titan X, except it has 24GB of VRAM and higher clock speeds. We have two 8-pin PCIe power connectors which use up to 300W of power in "300W OC mode" or 250W at its stock settings. The RAM has been overclocked to 8600MHz, up from 7000MHz on the reference card.

We have a Base Clock of 1268MHz and Boost Clock of 1493MHz, versus the 1002MHz and 1072MHz of the reference GTX Titan X. These overclocks are mammoth, but it would be very interesting to see this become a real card. The price? A huge $2400+, compared to the $999 pricing of the GeForce GTX Titan X.