Video Cards & GPUs - Page 337

Update: I've reached out to GIGABYTE/AORUS which have confirmed with TweakTown that they are indeed making custom Radeon RX Vega graphics cards, there's just "no news on the horizon" yet.

If you've been waiting on GIGABYTE or MSI's custom Radeon RX Vega graphics cards, you won't have to wait any longer - or wait at all, because the companies aren't working on them according to fresh rumors.

AMD has been reportedly having troubles getting Vega GPU production in large numbers, which is something I exclusively reported earlier this year when I said AMD would have less than 16,000 available post-launch. Here we are, post-launch, with no official sales numbers to go by.

NVIDIA have released their new GeForce 385.69 WHQL drivers, just in time for the recently released of Project Cars 2 and the upcoming betas for Call of Duty: WWII and Star Wars Battlefront 2. In the upcoming weeks, we also see the releases of FIFA 18, Forza 7, Total War: Warhammer 2 and EVE: Valkyrie - Warzone, all which have day one support.

NVIDIA have also added 3D Vision profiles for numerous games and SLI support for following games:

Included in this release is a number of bug fixes listed below.

Call of Duty: WWII's upcoming beta will be unleashed on September 29 for PC gamers, with the return to the World War II setting to start pre-loading on Steam... right now.

Sledgehammer Games and Raven Software, the developers behind COD: WWII are recommending NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 1060 as the GPU of choice for gamers running COD: WWII @ 1080p.

Call of Duty: WWII PC Open Beta Recommended Spec

Now that the release of the Radeon RX Vega is over, the next part of the journey for AMD is to unleash custom RX Vega graphics cards with AIB partners. This is meant to be happening in late-October, and should lead through the holidays and into 2018. But what about Vega 20?

Vega 20 will be a refresh of Vega 10, which we should see AMD use the 12nm LP node, but what about performance? We don't know anything performance-wise just yet, but according to leaked slides from Informatica Cero, Vega 20 is coming in Q3 2018, and on the next-gen PCIe 4.0 standard.

PCIe 4.0 has a huge 16GT/s of bandwidth, up from the 8GT/s available on the current-gen PCIe 3.0 standard - something that was released in 2010.

NVIDIA hasn't been able to keep up with the non-stop demand of their GeForce GTX 10 series graphics cards, thanks to cryptocurrency miners across the world gobbling them up for mining.

We reported earlier this month that GTX 10 series pricing was on its way up, with an average of 25% higher pricing according to Mizuho's chief semiconductor analyst. Mizuho reports: "Our checks with the leading GPU and motherboard OEMs indicate SepQ GPU card trends are very strong, with card shipments coming in ~30-50% ahead of flat q/q expectations on strength from cryptocurrency mining. Cryptocurrency demand is driving strength in NVDA's GTX 1060/1070 cards. The GPU/motherboard OEMs also noted GPU pricing was up ~25% in the last six months".

It's not just miners either, but DRAM shortages are going to push us to see a purported decline of GTX 10 series for miners, with China banning cryptocurrencies being a massive driving factor. Mizuho continued: "The OEMs also noted zero inventory of GPUs in the channel and constrained short DRAM supply and pricing also affecting GPU shipments. Coming off a very strong SepQ, there are also expectations in the supply chain that DecQ GPU sales could be muted in pricing and demand on recent cryptocurrency bans and DRAM shortages".

AMD just unleashed their new Radeon Software Crimson ReLive Edition 17.9.2 drivers which add 2-way multi-GPU support to Radeon RX Vega graphics cards, but now the latest rumor has the company preparing 13 new graphics card on their Vega 11 GPU.

The Vega 11-based graphics cards should replace AMD's current-gen Radeon RX 400 and Radeon RX 500 series cards, which are based on the Polaris 10 and Polaris 20 GPUs. The naming system that AMD is reportedly going to use makes sense, as it continues the way that they launched RX Vega: using the compute unit count (in this case 32 and 28 CUs) to name the card.

This is where Radeon RX Vega 32 and Radeon RX Vega 28 nomenclatures come from, with the Vega 11 XT expected to rock 2048 stream processors, with 4GB of HBM2 and a 1024-bit memory bus. Vega 11 Pro should feature 1792 stream processors, with the same 4GB HBM2 on a 1024-bit memory bus.

AMD has released their latest Radeon Software Crimson ReLive Edition 17.9.2 drivers, with a surprise feature: 2-way multi-GPU support for Radeon RX Vega graphics card.

CrossFire support isn't center focus for AMD, something that the company has been very forward with for a while now. They will be pushing out multi-GPU support for their Radeon graphics cards in the future, but they're definitely pulling out of sheer beasty multi-GPU gaming PC rigs.

However, the new 17.9.2 drivers only support 2-way CF setups, with 3- and 4-way RX Vega setups simply not possible right now. I'm just installing the new drivers on my Ryzen Threadripper 1950X machine, with my 2 x RX Vega graphics cards and 8K display... we'll have results of RX Vega 64 CF over the weekend.

EVGA just announced their new GeForce GTX 1080 Ti FTW3 ELITE graphics card with its 11GB of GDDR5X clocked at 12Gbps, but now MSI has outed its upcoming GeForce GTX 1080 Ti GAMING X TRIO graphics card.

What's the difference between the MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti GAMING X and the new TRIO variant? It rocks a triple-fan cooler over the dual-fan cooler on the normal GTX 1080 Ti GAMING X, coming in as a 2.5-slot graphic card with an RGB LED bar on the backplate.

MSI has the clocks on the GTX 1080 Ti GAMING X TRIO at 1569MHz base, 1683MHz boost, and the 11GB of GDDR5X clocked at 11124MHz. MSI requires 2 x 8-pin PCIe power connectors, but we don't have any solid photos of the PCB just yet.

It looks like AMD might have scored a seriously large contract through electric car maker Tesla Motors, with the companies collaborating on a new AI accelerator for self-driving cars.

Jim Keller, the legendary engineer in AMD's ranks is reportedly involved in the deal, along with 50 engineers at Tesla. Keller has been involved with Apple's A4 and A5 processors, the original Athlon 64 processors, and AMD's latest Zen architecture.

AMD has reportedly already sent Tesla early samples of the new semi-custom chip, with testing already underway. For Tesla, this is the firs ttime they've opted for a purpose built AI processor, which will be using both AMD and Tesla IP.

AMD can't get enough Radeon RX Vega cards into gamers' hands, or any Vega 10 GPUs into AIB partner hands at all, but we're already looking to the future with Vega 20 and the upcoming shift to the 12nm FinFET process.

AMD has confirmed it will be moving to the 12nm FinFET process for both Ryzen and Vega parts, withi the upcoming Zen+ parts to launch in the second half of 2018. We should expect naming systems like Ryzen 7 1850X (up from 1800X), and changes to Threadripper.

But for the new Vega 20 GPU, we should see it pushed onto 12nm FinFET with "more than 10% improvement in performance over industry 16nm FinFET solutions", with "up to 15% improvement in circuit density".