Video Cards & GPUs - Page 423

Today Sapphire unveiled two new GPUs that fill the gap between its R9 270 and R9 290 models of discrete GPUS. The new R9 280 is based on AMD's GCN architecture and features the company's Dual-X cooler. The Dual-X cooling solution featured twin aerofoil fans and graduated heat pipes to ensure cooling of the GPU is efficient and quiet as possible.

The R9 280 also features 3GB of GDDR5 clocked to 1250MHz and a GCN core that features 1792 stream processors. The core is clocked to 850MHz and can reach a clock speed of 940MHz when boost is enabled. Support for DirectX 2 and AMD's mantle is also on board with the card being able to push 4K video to displays using HDMI 1.4a or DisplayPort v1.2. Sapphire also released a new version of its successful R9 280x that features the company's exclusive Vapor-X cooling Solution. The new R9 280x features an enhanced GCN core, with 2048 stream processors, and a 1GHz core clock.

Today Sapphire Technology announced the launch of its latest entry-level GPU. The all new R7 240 is a low-profile video card based on AMD's successful Graphics Core Next architecture, and features dual HDMI outputs as well as full 4k resolution. Both HDMI ports can be used at the same time, and the cards low-profile design makes it perfect for the home theater PC you have always wanted to build.

The new Sapphire R7 240 low-profile features 2GB of DDR3 memory which has been clocked to 900MHz, and boast 320 stream processors. A core clock of 730MHz can be boosted to 780MHz via dynamic boost. A single slot, fan assisted heat sink keeps the cards overall profile small and allows the device to be fitted in any low-profile or small form factor chassis. AMD Crossfire, Image Enhancement, and HD Media Accelerator technology is all onboard as well as full support for 4K video playback.

Two new implementations is expected to come soon that will be a boon for PC gamers. Following Mantle API, DirectX and OpenGL will start offering low-level access to provide more efficient ways of programming graphic grads. This will help to reduce the CPU overhead in Direct3D and OpenGL.

AMD implemented low-level access for Mantle API for the same reason, and it wasn't that long ago when first Mantle-based games have started rolling in. The announcements are expected to come up during Game Developer's Conference 2014, but the session of GDC has given a good deal of information.

One of the sessions has a title 'DirectX: Evolving Microsoft's graphics platform' which will be talked by Anuj Gosalia, Development manager for Windows graphics.

A tease of SAPPHIRE's upcoming blue-and-black themed Radeon R9 290X VAPOR-X GPU has me foaming at the mouth... why? Well, it will ship with 8GB of GDDR5 RAM, that's why.

We've seen the SAPPHIRE Radeon R9 290X Tri-X, which is a great GPU, but 4GB of RAM really holds it back for monster resolutions like 4K and triple-monitor setups. One of the other changes to the VAPOR-X GPU is the beautiful backplate. This won't do much for most people, but with all of that memory (and dual-sided memory modules) it'll do wonders for temperatures.

There's not many more details on this new GPU, but you can bet your bottom dollar we'll get some of these in for some 4K and triple 2560x1440 monitor testing.

AMD releases catalyst 14.2 BETA 1.3 for 32 and 64 bit version of Windows 7, 8 and 8.1. The BETA drivers provide performance improvements and updates. The updates are available for AMD Radeon with discrete and APU- desktop and notebooks.

The updates contain series of fixes and updates such as crossfire profile updates and performance improvements for GPU configuration with Thief and even fixing frame pacing for dual video card support and non-XDMA configuration for screen resolutions above 2560 x 1600 for Battlefield 3 and Battlefield 4.

There are only couple of known issues found in this BETA driver, such as the inability to render the right eye with Crossfire and Stereo 3D enabled on Thief.

After releasing the GeForce GTX 750, 750 Ti and GTX Titan Black video cards, NVIDIA released the GeForce 334.89 WHQL drivers. The chip maker claims that the new driver has performance optimizations of up to 19%, along with 12 new and improved 3D Vision profiles and 6 new SLI profiles.

According to the release notes, the 334.89 WHQL drivers have introduced fixes for certain games and applications, such as fixing low frame rate, frame drops and shuttering issues in Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Director's Cut, losing ambient occlusion while sprinting in Half-Life 2 and providing 'Enable SLI' option in its control panel for GTX 460 in SLI. Another notable fix was for NVIDIA ShadowPlay, as the older drivers caused certain games to crash or lock up with 3-way/Quad SLI setups.

NVIDIA also pointed out certain issues with the newer WHQL drives, such as Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag and Warframe unable to use GPU PhysX acceleration on Maxwell GPUs with 32-bit operating systems, though NVIDIA also points out that Ubisoft will release a game patch in March for Assassin's Creed IV, whereas Digital Extreme would release a new patch very soon.

When NVIDIA first unveiled the GeForce GTX Titan to the world, it instantly became the must-have video card for every hard-core gamer and custom PC enthusiast on the planet. Fast forward to more than a year later, and the original GTX Titan is still considered a force to be reckoned with. This morning NVIDIA unveiled the new Titan Black, the successor to the original Titan, and the fastest GPU on planet earth.

NVIDIA's new Titan Black is based on its Kepler architecture and boast an impressive 2,880 CUDA cores which equates to about 200 more cores than the original Titan. Stock clock speeds have also been increased to 889MHz, and 980MHz when boosted, which is slightly higher than the original Titan. 6GB of GDDR5 is addressed over a 384-bit memory bus, and just like its older brother, the Titan black is a massive power hungry beast. With a TDP of 250-watts, the GPU requires both a 6-pin and 8-pin power connector just to get the card up and running.

Two dual-link DVI ports, one HDMI, and one Display Port 1.2 connector allow for multiple monitor connections, while several Titans can be chained together via NVIDIA's SLI connector. NVIDIA says that the Titan Black is about 10-percent faster than the original Titan and is capable of powering the most extreme games at 4K resolution and higher across multiple 4K compatible monitors. Just like its predecessor, the GeForce GTX Titan Black is expected to be priced in the $1000 USD range, and is available from OEMs such as Palit, and is also being featured at several boutique builders such as Origin, Digital Storm and Cyberpower PC.

We have been expecting to see NVIDIA's successor to its Kepler GPU for some time now, and this morning images were leaked on VideoCards.com that are said to be the first Maxwell architecture GPUs off the line. Although a but blurry, the GPU's are clearly visible, but something unexpected lies below the surface.

The GM107-400 and GM107-300 pictured above both feature the same CUDA cores found in the GK106 chip but utilize the memory bus of the GK107 which shrinks the die by about 30-percent. This also allows the cards to consume significantly less power, so much so that the GeForce GTX 750 cards featuring the GM107-300 will not require any power connector on the board.

The GM107-300 is built on a 28nm process with a die size of 156mm square. It features 768 CUDA cores with a 128-bit memory bus. The GM107-400 is also built on a 28nm process and has a die size of 156mm square, but differs with 960 CUDA cores. Both chips feature a TDP of about 75 watts with the GM107-300 variant being a little cooler. The GM107-300 is slated to be featured in the GeForce GTX 750 while the GM107-400 will find its way into the Ti variant of the same card.

Sapphire Technology has announced the R7 250 Ultimate video card, a passively cooled video card based on the AMD Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture. No mechanical moving parts and a passive heat pipe and heat sink cooler that is quiet and fanless creates a great possibility of new video card designs, as demonstrated by Sapphire.

The video card has a core speed of 800MHz with 1GB of DDR5 memory, with Sapphire claiming it's the fastest passively cooled 1280bit GPU currently available. AMD included support for up to three monitors, 4K ultra-high-definition, an HDMI 1.4a port, dual-link DVI port, and DisplayPort 1.2 port.

DirectX 11.1 support is provided and the card is Microsoft Windows 8-compatible, as AMD and Sapphire wanted to ensure latest software is supported.

The New Year is here, but where are my New GPUs from NVIDIA? Well, it looks like they - yes, they, plural - could be very close. VideoCardz.com is reporting that we should expect two new high-end GPUs from NVIDIA: the GeForce GTX TITAN Black Edition, and the dual-GPU GeForce GTX 790.

Starting with the GeForce GTX TITAN Black Edition, which should be the same GPU found on the GTX 780 Ti, but it would feature higher double precision computing, in other words: more CUDA cores. We should see this GPU arrive with 6GB of VRAM on board, twice as much as the GTX 780 Ti features, something that is quite important to NVIDIA these days with 4K here.

We should expect the GTX TITAN Black Edition to feature 2880 CUDA cores, 240 TMUs, and 48 ROPS. The price on the GPU will be around $999, and we should hear more information on it shortly.