Video Cards & GPUs News - Page 376

Right on the back of our news on the sighting of ASUS and GIGABYTE branded GeForce GTX 980 and GTX 970 cards, WCCFTech is reporting that the GeForce GTX 980 will offer 10% more performance on the GTX 780 Ti, all with a 170W TDP - an incredible feat, if the rumors are true.

The rumor is coming from a post on the Chilhell forums, with some impressive 3DMark scores posted. The post mentions that the GTX 980 has 32 RPS and 128 TMUs, with its 256-bit bus and 4GB of RAM, with an model featuring 8GB of RAM to probably show up, too. The biggest thing here is that at stock clocks, the GTX 980 is 10% faster than the GTX 780 Ti, but with a TDP of just 170W compared to the TDP on the GTX 780 Ti which is still a modest 250W.

If this is true, under the same 28nm process NVIDIA have pulled off something quite incredible here, which might justify the skip over the GTX 800 series. With a TDP of 170W on the GTX 980, we have a 60% performance-per-watt increase on the same 28nm process over the GTX 780 Ti, which is something worth talking about. With a $499 price tag, this could be one heck of a GPU, something we should hear about very soon. With a reported press event this week, we could even hear about it in the coming days.

It looks like NVIDIA is all set to launch its next-gen GPU, which should be skipping the GeForce GTX 800 series and moving onto the GTX 900 series with two GPUs to be launched at first.

According to Synnex, an international distrbutor of PC hardware, ASUS is preparing two GeForce GTX 900 series cards. First, we have the reference GeForce GTX 980 with what should arrive as the reference cooler for the GTX 980, then a second model: the STRIX GTX 970. This model should feature ASUS' custom cooling setup, the DirectCU II. We will see a quieter, cooler card with factory overclocking applied.

Then we have two entries for the GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 900 series, also from Synnex. The first model is the GeForce GTX 980, another reference card, backed up by a custom GTX 970. GIGABYTE's GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming card should also feature a custom-designed cooling solution, and overclocked. Both the GTX 980 and GTX 970 cards are listed with 4GB of RAM across a 256-bit bus, so we're not going to see massive changes in the skipped-a-generation GPUs at the GPU-hungry 4K resolutions, and above.

Most will remember Matrox, a company that dealt in mainly professional video cards that were great for multi-monitor setups before the likes of AMD's Eyefinity and NVIDIA's Surround Vision technology hit the market. Well, Matrox is coming back, and is releasing GPUs that are powered with AMD technology.

Matrox's next-gen video cards will be powered by Radeon GPUs, with the announcement stating that "key features of the selected AMD GPU include 28nm technology with 1.5 billion transistors; DirectX 11.2, OpenGL 4.4 and OpenCL 1.2 compatibility; shader model 5.0; PCI Express 3.0 and 128-bit memory interface." We should expect Matrox to be using a lower performance GraphicsCore Next (GCN) part, something from the Cape Verde GCN family. We could also see Matrox lean toward AMD's FirePro W600 cards, with Matrox sprinkling its custom-developed software applications such as Matrox PowerDesk on top.

This is an interesting move, as it frees up R&D that Matrox would spend on hardware costs, leveraging AMD's technology and putting more of its time into the software side of things. It helps AMD, as AMD can sell countless GPUs at higher "professional" prices, increasing their share of the professional market with AMD-powered Matrox cards.

It looks like NVIDIA is preparing the GeForce GTX 900 series, with the company to reportedly skip the 800 series, according to VideoCards.com. The site is reporting that NVIDIA will launch the new second-generation Maxwell-based GPUs on September 9-10 at a press event, with the NDA lifting on the GeForce GTX 980 and GTX 970 on September 19.

There's not much known on the new GeForce GTX 980 (if that's what it arrives as) other than the fact that it should arrive with a 256-bit memory bus, and 4GB of RAM by default - up from the 3GB on the current GTX 780. With AMD only just announcing its Radeon R9 285 and R9 285X last week, the new GTX 970 could fight it in the mid-range, or NVIDIA could drop the price of its current GTX 770 and GTX 760 to better fight Red Team off.

Then we have the fact of AMD sitting on the unannounced Radeon R9 295X, something that the company should announce or unveil as soon as NVIDIA is done pulling the curtain off of its new Maxwell-based video cards.

We're starting to hear more information on AMD's upcoming next-gen GPU architecture, code named "Faraway Islands". AMD's next-gen architecture is shaping up quite nicely, but this is all just a rumor right now. CHW.com seemed to have gotten the information from SemiAccurate, but right now this is in heavy rumor territory.

While we've heard rumors of NVIDIA skipping the 20nm process and shifting right onto the 16nm process, AMD looks to be baking its Faraway Islands-based GPUs onto the 20nm process, something it'll reportedly do over at TSMC and GlobalFoundaries. This will allow AMD to be first to the market with a new GPU based on a new process node, pushing NVIDIA to the side for a few months enjoying the slew of salivating-at-the-mouths consumers who want a new GPU desperately.

AMD's new Faraway Islands GPU architecture will be baked into all of AMD's future GPUs and APU products, so we should expect some low-power ARM-based SoCs and some decently powerful APUs from this new architecture. When to expect it though? 2015. Pirate Islands is still to come, also based on the 20nm process, but AMD could skip that all together and push right on over to Faraway Islands, either way, new GPUs are on their way!

AMD has announced its latest GPU during its 30 Years of Graphics and Gaming Innovation event, the Tonga PRO-based Radeon R9 285. AMD's new Radeon R9 285 GPU features 1792 Stream Processors, either 2GB or 4GB of VRAM set at 5.5GHz, a Core Clock of 918MHz and a 256-bit memory interface.

The new Radeon R9 285 requires two 6-pin PCIe connectors, has 176GB/sec of memory bandwidth, a 190W TDP, and will be available on September 2 starting at around $249. The new Radeon R9 285 will be joined by another GPU in a few weeks time, the Tonga XT-based Radeon R9 285X. This new GPU will have more Stream Processors, kicking up the numbers from 1792 to 2048, increasing the TMU count from 112 on the R9 285 to 128 on the R9 285X.

AMD's latest GPU is positioned between the Radeon R9 270/270X and the R9 280X, and will compete against NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 760. In AMD's testing on Battlefield 4 at 2560x1440, the Red Team reports that the new R9 285 is "up to 15% faster" than the GTX 760. At $249, is the new AMD Radeon R9 285 something that will have you upgrading your PC?

It looks like NVIDIA will unveil its GeForce GTX 880 sometime next month at a press event, but what to expect from NVIDIA for its next-gen GPU? We shouldn't expect too much in the performance department, but a decent price is something we can smile about.

VideoCardz.com is reporting that the GeForce GTX 880 will be announced mid next month, with retail availability of the GPU starting in late September. When it comes to the nuts and bolts of the GeForce GTX 880, we should expect NVIDIA to offer up 4GB and 8GB GDDR5 versions, both on a 256-bit bus. The best part about the GTX 880 will be its price, which is expected to fall somewhere around $400-$500 price range.

When it comes to performance, we should expect it to obviously beat the GK104-based GTX 780, and hopefully beat the GTX 780 Ti. By how much, we don't know. I think we can expect it to fall 10% either side of the GTX 780 Ti, and at $400-$450, this is going to push the prices of the GTX 780, and GTX 780 Ti down, too.

According to the latest rumors, NVIDIA could unveil its next-gen GeForce GTX 800 series sometime in the next couple of months. SweClockers is the site behind the tease, stating that NVIDIA will unveil its new GTX 870 and GTX 880 GPUs in October or November.

We already know that the upcoming GTX 800 series will be a powerhouse series of video cards, with the two GPUs being positioned for the high-end market. The GTX 870 and GTX 880 will replace the current GTX 780 and GTX 780 Ti video cards, with the new GM204-based hardware. The last time we heard about the GTX 880, we heard that it sported 8GB of RAM and a 375W TDP.

The GeForce GTX 800 series should arrive on the 28nm process, and not the 20nm process like some thought it would. The biggest tease is that NVIDIA is rumored to launch its GeForce GTX 990 early next year, something that would truly break some speed records as it will be based on the 16nm process, skipping the 20nm process entirely.

We know it's coming, but we don't know what exactly to expect. AMD is preparing its mammoth new GPU, which will be a huge 500sq.mm+ GPU, something that will arrive into our hands as the Radeon R9 390X.

AMD's new Radeon R9 390X is being designed by Synapse Design, a company that recently announced new GPU tapeouts - including two 28HPM silicons. The first is the massive 500sq.mm+, which will be as powerful as 20nm SoC technology, which should end up being the new R9 390X. The R9 390X should have a core clock of over 1GHz, but will unfortunately not feature High Bandwidth Memory, or HBM.

We should begin to hear more on the new GPUs as time goes by - but if these rumors are correct, the Radeon R9 390X is shaping up to be a beast.

It looks like NVIDIA isn't going to sit on its hands when it comes to the GTX TITAN, with the GPU maker reportedly working on a GM200-based GTX TITAN II. This new GPU will arrive as soon as early 2015.

According to German tech site 3DCenter.org, specifications of some new GPUs are also here with us, above. We can see the GM200 and GM204 GPUs will reportedly be built on the 28nm process. We heard a couple of days ago that NVIDIA would skip the 20nm process, moving onto the 16nm process, but nothing is in concrete right now.

The GM200 however, will feature over 4,000 CUDA cores, and should come with a much wider, and much anticipated 512-bit memory bus. If we expect it to be baked onto the 28nm process, this is going to be one gigantic, titan of a GPU. NVIDIA is going to have to leverage the energy efficiency of its Maxwell architecture in order to keep the thermals under control. We should expect the GM200-based GTX TITAN II to launch early next year.