Graphics Cards - Page 69

The Steam Hardware Survey & Software Survey results for April 2024 are in, and it's no surprise that NVIDIA continues to dominate the discrete GPU market for desktop and laptop computers. Overall market share remains relatively unchanged, with NVIDIA and GeForce holding strong with 76.7% of total PC GPUs, followed by AMD with 15.8%.

It's not all bad news for Radeon, as the company experienced growth thanks to the rise of Ryzen chips with integrated Radeon hardware.

The most popular GPU is still NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 3060, followed by GeForce GTX 1650, RTX 3060 Ti, and RTX 2060 (you can check out the Top 20 GPUs According to Steam below). However, the story does change when you look at the current generation of GPU hardware from NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel, covering the GeForce RTX 40 Series, Radeon RX 7000 Series, and Intel Arc graphics.

Quad-slot, triple-fan graphics cards are not unheard of, but they're massive units that push the limits of what you can fit inside a standard PC chassis and still have some room left for airflow. XFX, one of AMD's closest partners for creating Radeon graphics cards, has unveiled its latest flagship, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX Phoenix Nirvana - with dimensions (346 x 130 x 66mm) that make it one of the biggest gaming cards on the market.

Currently available for pre-order in China, with a price that translates to around $1100 USD, the Phoenix Nirvana should make its way to global markets as the Radeon RX 7900 XTX is set to be the most powerful ADM gaming GPU for at least another year or so. So, even though the Radeon RX 7900 XTX first launched in December 2022, there's enough room to launch a new flagship variant.

With next-gen RDNA 4 targeting a more mid-range market, the Radeon RX 8800 XT is set to fall behind the Radeon RX 7900 XTX in performance. With its 24GB of VRAM, the 7900 XTX is also a capable AI GPU in addition to being a 4K gaming card.

NVIDIA will release its next-gen Blackwell-based GeForce RTX 50 later this year, with rumors flying that the RTX 5090 will launch first... and now we're hearing the RTX 5080 will launch first.

In a post on X, leaker "kopite7kimi" said that rumors of the GeForce RTX 5090 launching first are "not true" and that the GeForce RTX 5080 "should be released first". There is absolutely nothing official from NVIDIA regarding the GeForce RTX 50 series, with recent confirmations from the supply chain that the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 would be launched this year, while the rest of the RTX 50 series GPUs will launch in 2025.

RTX 5080 launching first: I can't see this happening, with the RTX 4090 still on the market and kicking ass, the RTX 5080 should deliver better overall rasterization performance than the RTX 4090, with new GDDR7 and a new GPU architecture, power improvements, and more. The RTX 5090 will trounce the RTX 4080, but launching the RTX 5080 first feels a bit weird.

Star Wars Day happened this past weekend, #Maythe4thBeWithYou, and all that. To celebrate, NVIDIA is giving away one of the coolest custom GeForce RTX 4080 Founder Edition graphics cards we've seen. And that's because it features art depicting everyone's favorite (if he's not, then you might need to rewatch the original trilogy) Rebellion leader - Admiral Ackbar.

The iconic Mon Calamari general who most famously yelled out, "It's a trap!" during the climactic space battle of Star Wars Episode VI: The Return of the Jedi. The good news is that this competition is open to most countries (check out the full terms and conditions here), with the grand prize featuring some impressive artwork from artist Ryan Brown's Star Wars: The Rebellion comic book cover.

The downside is that you only have until the end of today, May 6th, 2024, to enter. To enter, all you need to do is comment on the post (like this one on X) with your favorite Star Wars memory (gaming or otherwise) and put the old #RTXON stamp on the end.

NVIDIA's rise to fame has been decades in the making, but it's absolutely undeniable that the company has had this much success and influence on the planet and its inhabitants.

In a recent interview with venture capitalist Navin Chaddha, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang said that the "secret sauce" of the company is ordinary people with huge visions, as well as "persistence, resilience, and belief," added Jensen.

Jensen had a lot to say:

Intel hasn't had the best time with its Arc GPUs, and now with fresh rumors that its next-gen Battlemage Xe2 and Celestial Xe3 GPUs could be delayed or outright cancelled... ugh.

In a new post by leaker Golden Pig Upgrade, he said: "There is no trace of Battlemage at all, there will be no DG3 next year". Intel was expected to debut its new Arc Battlemage Xe2 GPU inside of its next-generation Core Ultra 200V "Lunar Lake" CPUs, but maybe not.

Intel's future-gen Xe3 Celestial (DG3) was meant to make an appearance with the future-gen Panther Lake CPUs as an integrated Xe3-LPG GPU, but Golden Pig Upgrade says there will be no DG3 next year. Panther Lake is coming in 2025, and will need an integrated GPU... so if Battlemage and Celestial are off the table, what does Intel have left? Alchemist?

ASUS is not done with RDNA 3 yet - even though the remaining road for the GPU range is surely running out, as RDNA 4 isn't that far off, going by the rumor mill - and the vendor just launched a pair of new AMD RX 7000 models.

What's surprising about these new entrants to the GPU fray is that both of them run with just two fans - and one of these models is actually a fresh take on the most powerful RDNA 3 graphics card.

Yes, that'd be the RX 7900 XTX, and the ASUS Dual version does, as the name indicates, come with a pair of fans, not a trio. This is a first, as VideoCardz, which spotted this, points out (and it is as far as we're aware, too).

NVIDIA's next-generation ultra-enthusiast GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card is rumored to be the ONLY new Blackwell-based gaming GPU released this year according to the latest leaks.

In a new video from Moore's Law is Dead, one of his sources reportedly from NVIDIA, said that they had the impression that NVIDIA is only going to be launching the GeForce RTX 5090 this year, adding that they were "NOT 100% sure". MLID's source said that either way, the "good news is that it is sounding more and more likely that it (the RTX 5090) will be unveiled at Computex, and be for sale in early Q4 of this year".

We've previously heard rumors that the new GeForce RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 graphics cards would be launched at Computex in early June, but just the RTX 5090? Makes sense. The RTX 5090 is going to be an absolute beast when up against the current-gen RTX 4090... and the RTX 5080 will have to be better than the RTX 4090, but not by too much.

Intel Battlemage is the codename for the second-generation Intel Arc graphics, which is on track for release later this year. Since first launching Arc, Intel has spent the majority of its time updating drivers, improving legacy game performance, optimizing software, and even improving its AI-based XeSS upscaling. Thus, the company is in a great position to release a real mid-range competitor.

It has also added the first generation of Arc graphics to its mobile Meteor Lake processors, boosting the company's integrated graphics capabilities. In this realm of new tile-based chips, we're getting one of our first tastes of what Battlemage could bring to the table. And it's good news for handheld makers.

Intel's upcoming Lunar Lake CPU architecture for mobile will include Battlemage graphics or Xe2-LPG. And so far, the second generation of Arc sees the 17W Battlemage GPU outperforming the 35W integrated Radeon 780M found in the Ryzen Z1 Extreme chip in handhelds like the ROG Ally from ASUS.

There has been a lot of rumor and information surrounding AMD's upcoming RDNA 4 generation of Radeon RX 8000 Series graphics cards. On track for launch later this year (at the earliest), we know that AMD is skipping a flagship high-end model in favor of more affordable and mainstream options that will sit in the GeForce RTX 4070 and Radeon RX 7800 XT price range.

With the top chip being less powerful than the current Radeon RX 7900 XTX flagship, you might not think that RDNA 4 would be all that exciting. Well, following on from confirming that all RDNA 4 GPUs will use the same GDDR 6 memory that Radeon cards have been using for years, insider and known leaker @Kepler_L2 on X/Twitter has teased something pretty exciting for the future of RDNA.

It's all about ray tracing, with Kepler stating that the ray-tracing hardware for next-gen RDNA 4 is "brand new" and not simply a revision or upgrade of the current Ray Accelerators found within each Compute Unit.

AMD's revenues for Q1 2024 rose to $5.5 billion, a year-over-year increase driven by the incredible demand for all things AI. AMD's 'Data Center' revenue saw an increase of 80% year-over-year to deliver $2.3 billion, with 'Client' revenue seeing a year-over-year increase of 85% in revenue to hit $1.4 billion.

Products in AMD's AI Instinct AI GPU lineup, server-grade EPYC CPUs, and the Ryzen 8000 Series of processors for desktops and mobile devices are driving sales and growth. But it's not all sunshine and AI rainbows, as AMD's 'Gaming' revenue saw a massive decline, down 48% year-over-year - which offset AMD's revenue for the quarter.

Gaming covers AMD's PlayStation and Xbox console hardware, Radeon GPUs for PC gaming, and SoC devices that combine Ryzen processing with Radeon graphics. The dramatic decrease in gaming hardware revenue matches Microsoft's recent report stating that Xbox hardware sales decreased by 31% year-over-year.

NVIDIA has a new spin on the RTX 4070 graphics card using the AD103 chip rather than the lesser AD104, but it's no different to the latter vanilla model - this is just Team Green repurposing silicon that'd otherwise go to waste.

If you've been following the thread about NVIDIA possibly using different chips for certain models of Lovelace graphics card, it was previously rumored the RTX 4070 would get AD103.

And now that's been confirmed by TechPowerUp, who were contacted by a reader who'd bought an MSI Ventus 3X RTX 4070 graphics card, and found that the GPU-Z utility couldn't detect the GPU correctly.

AMD's Radeon RX 7700 XT continues to drop in price and is becoming a more attractive GPU at the kind of pricing it's now at, compared to when the board first launched.

If you recall, the RX 7700 XT arrived on the shelves with an MSRP of $450, but the graphics card witnessed a drop to $419 in February 2024, and has continued to sink since then, moving to as low as $395 recently.

But now one model of the RX 7700 XT has dropped well below the $400 mark in the US, and you can grab the ASRock Challenger version of the RX 7700 XT for $379 at Newegg.

According to new reports from Board Channels (via Videocardz), the GeForce RTX 40 Series of GPUs is currently experiencing shortages, with the 60-class (the GeForce RTX 4060 and RTX 4060 Ti) being impacted the most. The GeForce RTX 4060 Ti is one of the most popular current-gen NVIDIA GPUs, and according to a post on Board Channels, it is facing a 'major supply problem.'

The report also indicates that GPU makers' needs for the RTX 4060 Ti, in particular, aren't being met, with companies having to deal with reduced shipments. This issue isn't limited to local suppliers (Board Channels is based in China) but also Taiwanese manufacturers like ASUS and MSI.

Videocardz, which first reported on the story, has confirmed with its own NVIDIA partner sources that the reduced supply of GeForce RTX 4060 Ti graphics cards is real. However, it might have little impact on global availability.

AMD is reportedly not going to have any high-end RDNA 4-based Radeon RX 8000 series GPUs when they launch later this year, with news that the high-end Navi 4X GPU coming out recently... and it would've been great to see: with 50% more shader engines than the Navi 31 GPU inside of the Radeon RX 7900 XTX.

In some new patches for AMD's GFX12, leaker "Kepler_L2" spotted some of the upgrades we are missing out on with the flagship RDNA 4-based Navi 4X GPU, which would've been the successor to the Navi 31 GPU that powers the fastest Radeon GPU for gamers: the Radeon RX 7900 XTX.

In the patches, Kepler_L2 noticed that the GFX12 family is the codename for the RDNA 4 GPU family. The flagship Navi 4X or Navi 4C SKUs reportedly would've featured 9 Shader Engines, which would've been a 50% increase over the Navi 31 GPU, which features 6 Shader Engines.

With a steady stream of driver updates, bug fixes, and day-one game support, Intel's Arc graphics cards continue to improve. In our review of the SPARKLE Intel Arc A770 TITAN OC Edition from earlier this year, we said it was a decent mainstream option for 1080p and even 1440p gaming thanks to the top Intel Arc A770 GPU featuring 16GB of VRAM.

Regarding Intel Arc GPUs, SPARKLE is right up there regarding build quality, style, and thermal performance. Until now, each model has had a distinct look thanks to bright 'Intel blue' for the shrouds and blue-colored PCBs.

SPARKLE's latest addition to its Intel Arc lineup is the SPARKLE Intel Arc A770 ROC OC Edition 16GB, available in Black and LUNA White. Sporting a more compact twin-fan design with a 2.5-slot thickness, the new ROC OC Edition features the same out-of-the-box overclock as the triple-fan TITAN OC Edition.

MSI seems to have fully pulled back from making AMD Radeon GPUs, with the company confirming with HardwareLuxx that it is solely concentrating on making custom NVIDIA GeForce RTX series GPUs.

Hardware Unboxed posted on X saying: "Did I miss this story? MSI has been completely removed from AMD's Radeon 7000 series, all existing products have been discontinued and they never released a 7700 XT / 7800 XT. This all seems to have happened very quietly". HBU isn't wrong, this has happened very quietly indeed.

MSI told HardwareLuxx: "When it comes to graphics cards, our focus at the moment is actually more on RTX cards. Nevertheless, the collaboration with AMD is essential and extremely relevant for us. We see a very positive development, particularly in the area of motherboards".

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang will deliver a live keynote a few days before Computex 2024 kicks off, with the keynote taking place on June 2 at 7 PM Taiwan time at the NTU Sports Center (National Taiwan University Sports Center).

Huang will discuss how the era of AI is driving a new industrial revolution across the planet. NVIDIA will remind people that the keynote is free to attend and will also be live-streamed. NVIDIA's just-announced keynote is NOT part of the official Computex 2024 keynotes, and it will be mentioned only on NVIDIA's website.

NVIDIA hosted the opening keynote for Computex 2023 last year, but it seems that GPU competitor AMD is hosting the opening keynote of Computex 2024 with AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su taking the stage. Not only that, but Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger will also be presenting a keynote for his company. AMD's keynote will take place on June 3 (9:30 to 11 AM) while Intel will host their keynote with Gelsinger on June 4.

A flagship GPU rarely gets a significant price cut; when you get to the absolute high-end, the high-end performance drives interest, with price coming in second. Just look at NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 4090. It's an absolute monster of a GPU, but it is selling for around $100 - $200 more than its eye-watering $1,599 USD MSRP. And it's a popular option for PC gamers, according to the latest Steam Hardware Survey.

AMD's RDNA 3 flagship, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX, doesn't compete with the GeForce RTX 4090. Its closest NVIDIA counterpart is the GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER, released earlier this year. As the flagship RDNA 3 card with 24GB of GDDR6 memory and decent second-generation ray-tracing performance, it's still very much a 4K powerhouse for PC gaming.

This is why being able to pick one up for $849.99 is a great deal for PC gaming enthusiasts. Granted, this is limited to a single model, the PowerColor Hellhound Radeon RX 7900 XTX, and a single retailer - Newegg. Members can get $100 off the regular $949.99 for a limited time by entering a code at checkout.

According to insider @Kepler_L2, known for revealing hardware info for upcoming unannounced GeForce and Radeon hardware, AMD's next-generation RDNA 4 graphics cards will skip GDDR7 and stick with GDDR6 for the memory configuration.

AMD won't be upgrading or changing the memory spec and will stick with 18 Gbps GDDR6 for all cards in the lineup. As previously reported, NVIDIA is moving its Blackwell and GeForce RTX 50 Series to the new GDDR7 standard, starting with 28 Gbps speeds.

Sticking to older tech for its supposed next-gen RDNA 4 lineup might sound strange, but the reasoning makes sense when you factor in that the Radeon RX 8000 series won't target the high-end.