Video Cards & GPUs News - Page 7

It looks like Intel is all-in on making its Intel Arc Graphics line-up of GPUs a viable mainstream alternative for 2023, and the latest Game On Driver adds support for impending PC game releases like Atomic Heart, Company of Heroes 3, Like a Dragon: Ishin!, The Settlers: New Allies, and Wild Hearts. Regarding day-one support for games and the pace of new driver releases for 2023, Intel is now ahead of both NVIDIA and AMD.

Intel Graphics Beta Driver 31.0.101.4125 for Intel Arc A-Series Graphics and Intel Iris Xe Graphics.

And as part of the new driver update Intel has released a detailed blog post with info on some of the performance gamers can expect with its primary offering - the Intel Arc A750 GPU. For Sony's first-party release Returnal, which supports Intel's own AI-based upscaling tech XeSS, the Intel Arc A750 is said to deliver 67fps performance at 1440p using the High detail setting, for Ubisoft's The Settlers: New Allies the Intel Arc A750 can hit 174 fps at 1080p with high settings and 130fps at 1440p with high settings.

These results come from a high-end rig featuring an Intel Core i9-13900K processor and DDR5 memory, so results will vary on lower-spec systems. Still, it hasn't stopped Intel from benchmarking the same games using the same system with a GeForce RTX 3060 and presenting the Arc A750 as delivering better performance.

AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 2 (FSR 2) hit version 2.2 late last year and has found its way into games like F1 22 and the latest Need For Speed. Since its creation, AMD has positioned FSR as an open-source alternative to NVIDIA's AI-powered DLSS. It is available in all games and hardware configurations - including consoles like the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.

With most FSR 2 titles out there using older versions of the tech - including Cyberpunk 2077 - today comes the official open-source release of FSR version 2.2.0. As noted by AMD in the release, "FidelityFX FSR2 v2.2.0 is a major update that significantly increases image quality in many more cases," with the latest update "significantly reducing artefacts such as high velocity ghosting and shimmering."

Even though it sounds like an incremental update over FSR version 2.1.2, this latest version changes the FSR2 API, meaning that "updating to FSR 2.2 from 2.1.2 will take some work." However, AMD adds that it's still a straightforward implementation.

With Intel recently entering the discrete GPU market with its Intel Arc range, a fourth challenger to NVIDIA's dominance in the GPU space has arrived in China via a company called Moore Threads. This is a significant development for the consumer GPU space and PC gaming, especially in Asian markets where player bases are both huge and increasing.

Moore Threads MTT S80 GPU

The GPU in question is the MTT S80, a second-generation Moore Threads card based on the MUSA architecture with 14.4 TFLOPs of performance, 16GB of GDDR6, and a 256-bit memory bus. Those numbers should put its performance somewhere between the GeForce RTX 3060 and 3060 Ti. Plus, you'd expect decent performance with a 250W power rating, triple-fan cooling, and it being the first GPU to offer PCIe Gen5 support.

Well, that was the expectation. A new review by South Korean outlet BullsLab shows it lagging even the GeForce GT 1030. A passively cooled 30W GPU with 2GB of VRAM and a 64-bit memory bus. Yeah, not a good sign.

A recent eBay listing for a Voodoo 5 6000 drew a lot of attention as it was the last 'Voodoo' card from 3dfx and a product that never actually made its way to market. Back in the early days of 3D graphics in the 1990s, the Voodoo brand was one of the most well-known in PC gaming, and the Voodoo 6 6000 was looking to try something new with four 166 MHz VSA-100 processors, each with 32 MB of 166 MHz SDRAM.

3dfx Voodoo 5 6000 (Rev 3700A)

This unique design meant that it needed additional power at a time when plugging in multiple 8-pin connections on a high-end graphics card wasn't a thing, and this ultimately led to multiple delays before 3dfx finally pulled the plug. And exiting the discrete GPU market in 2002, paving the way for the rise of NVIDIA and AMD.

As such, the only Voodoo 5 6000 GPUs produced were prototype models, with this listing covering the Voodoo 5 6000 (Rev 3700A) that made use of a Molex adapter to give it some extra juice. "This card has been considered to be the ultimate holy grail piece for most if not all 3DFX enthusiasts/collectors," wrote the seller gtastuntcrew302. "Which is why I'm wanting to pass it on to someone that will truly view it as such and get that warm and special feeling for it. I wish to pass the card to someone that will care for it for years to come and preserve the history and significance this card holds in the world of 3D."

The driver drought for AMD Radeon RX 6000 GPUs built on RDNA 2 architecture has ended with AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 23.2.1 delivering updates and performance boosts to several games. The list includes the recently released Dead Space from EA and Motive and Square Enix's Forspoken - an AMD-sponsored title.

Forspoken, now optimized for Radeon RX 6000 GPUs

The driver also adds some of the improvements that arrived in recent driver updates that were exclusive to the new Radeon RX 7000 series, including optimizations for H.264 and H.265 streaming via AMD Link. The good news is that AMD is back on track with a unified AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition driver for AMD Radeon RX 6000 and Radeon RX 7000 Series graphics cards and even older GPUs like the Radeon RX 5700 and Vega Series.

There is a tonne of performance improvements for games in this new driver for Radeon RX 6000 GPUs, with AMD making a note of several games performing better on the RDNA 2 flagship Radeon RX 6950XT GPU.

We recently got a look at the performance of the GeForce RTX 4060 laptop GPU in a build utilizing the AD107 GPU chip. It features 3072 CUDA cores; clock speeds up to 2370 MHz, 8GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus interface, and a power range between 35-115W. According to a new post by a well-known leaker of all things GeForce, Kopite7kimi, on Twitter, we've got word that the desktop GeForce RTX 4060 will be the same AD107 GPU.

As per the info, the RTX 4060 will use the AD107-400-A1 chip, feature 3072 CUDA cores, 8GB GDDR6 18Gbps memory, and a power rating of 115W. And 24 MB of cache (L2). The power rating is particularly interesting because it's considerably less than the GeForce RTX 3060 (170W) and the GeForce RTX 2060 (160W). This would be the first time a desktop-class x060 GPU has used the 107 chip.

If the laptop benchmarks are anything to go by, then the RTX 4060 will be around 25% faster than the RTX 3060 12GB model but will feature less VRAM. And then there's the memory bus downgrade of 128-bit versus 192-bit. As we've seen with other GeForce RTX 40 Series cards in the desktop space, NVIDIA's Ada Lovelace architecture scales exceptionally well even when drawing much less power than the max TGP.

The rising popularity of AI-based language and text tool ChatGPT has been one of the most talked about and covered tech stories of 2023. It's indicative of the boom in AI business and investment. AI tools like ChatGPT currently rely on AI processing - a key part of NVIDIA's portfolio, even in the consumer and enthusiast GPU space.

NVIDIA Ada Lovelace architecture

This is where GeForce RTX graphics cards, like the new GeForce RTX 4090 and RTX 4080, currently sit. NVIDIA's stock has recently seen massive gains in the region of 40% due to the increased demand for AI powerhouses like the Hopper H100 and Ampere A100 graphics cards.

The explosion of interest in ChatGPT, in particular, is an interesting case as it was trained on NVIDIA GPUs, with reports indicating that it took 10,000 cards to train the model we see today. And to keep up with the demand for the tool, it will need to scale rapidly. On this subject, Fierce Electronics questioned ChatGPT directly, asking if hardware from other vendors would factor into its growth, and it got the following response.

ACER's new custom Intel Arc-based BiFrost Arc A770 OC Graphic Card features a rather unique and cool-looking two-slot design. The combination of a traditional open-air fan and an old-school blower called the AeroBlade 3D Fan. Throw in some vibrant RGB lighting, and it has a stylish look to match its affordable USD 399 price point for a GPU with 16GB of VRAM.

ACER Predator BiFrost Arc A770 OC Graphic Card

For those wondering how Intel's new Arc range has been progressing since its debut last year, a recent driver update brought massive improvements to gaming. It's the latest in a string of Intel Arc driver updates that have brought an across-the-board improvement to how the cards perform across a wide range of titles. And with that, Intel Arc has become an enticing option for new builds on a budget. And with Arc price cuts, Intel is eyeing the budget and mid-range market in 2023.

And this new card from ACER falls into this camp, with its discounted USD 349 price at Amazon, resulting in it being unavailable/sold out at the retailer thanks to a 13% price reduction.

NVIDIA's AI-powered DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) has revolutionized the PC gaming space, upscaling to improve performance while maintaining visual fidelity. It has sparked similar technologies from both AMD and Intel, though the arrival of DLSS version 2.0 really made it one of those in-game features where if it's there, you tick that box.

NVIDIA DLSS in Call of Duty Warzone

Of course, the technology is limited to NVIDIA GeForce RTX hardware, and the new Frame Generation technology that uses AI to create brand-new frames goes one step further by being limited to the new hardware found inside the GeForce RTX 40 Series. And like all software and AI-based things, NVIDIA DLSS continues to improve to the point where more recent versions of the tech can be manually applied to older titles using older versions of DLSS to enhance visual fidelity or minimize potential artifacts.

And with that, NVIDIA has updated the developer-focused NVIDIA DLSS Super Resolution SDK to version 3.1, adding a very cool feature in the form of the 'ability to stay up-to-date with the latest DLSS improvements.' This means future implementations of DLSS in games will be able to update the DLL automatically without the need to source and overwrite files manually. This a very cool move from NVIDIA, especially now as DLSS now includes DLSS Super Resolution (what we know of as DLSS 2) in addition to the new DLSS 3-based combo that adds Frame Generation and NVIDIA Reflex.

Chrome 110 dropped this week, adding NVIDIA RTX Video Super Resolution support to the popular browser. RTX Video might sound a little confusing, but it's basically DLSS for watching videos on YouTube - it leverages NVIDIA's AI hardware in the GeForce RTX 30 Series and GeForce RTX 40 Series GPUs to upscale 1080p videos to 4K. But, even though the feature is live in Chrome, we'll have to wait until NVIDIA adds driver support for the feature work.

On that front, NVIDIA has teased that support is coming as part of this month's R530 driver branch.

You also might be wondering what the fuss is about, and video upscaling isn't a new thing - going from 1080p to 4K has been around for years. The difference here comes squarely from how NVIDIA RTX Video Super Resolution has been presented by NVIDIA, with the following example showcasing some remarkable results.