Graphics Cards - Page 71

ASRock creates many products, from motherboards to gaming monitors to graphics cards. Regarding graphics cards, ASRock is relatively new to the scene, where its range covers various AMD Radeon and Intel Arc products. Considering ASRock's history of creating various motherboard designs for many years, working with AMD and Intel in the GPU space was a lateral move.

The company already had an established working relationship with them, unlike ASRock working with NVIDIA to create GeForce RTX cards. In a new interview with QuasarZone (via Videocardz), an ASRock representative responded to the question of it potentially creating a few GeForce RTX graphics cards.

They didn't rule out the possibility. However, the ASRock rep confirmed it would be 'challenging' to start producing GeForce RTX cards immediately.

NVIDIA's current-gen GeForce RTX 40 "Ada Lovelace" GPUs at the high-end range of things use faster GDDR6X memory, while the lower-end offerings use regular GDDR6 memory.

We should expect a big shift up to next-gen GDDR7 memory for NVIDIA's next-gen GeForce RTX 50 "Blackwell" GPUs coming later this year and into 2025 and beyond. According to Moore's Law is Dead, NVIDIA is the only one buying next-gen GDDR7 memory from memory makers, including Micron, Samsung, and SK Hynix.

NVIDIA is the only one buying faster GDDR7 memory, while AMD is securing itself faster GDDR6 memory modules, ordering 20Gbps GDDR6 memory for RDNA 4 GPUs and I'm sure, the upcoming PlayStation 5 Pro console from Sony. MLID says that GDDR7 memory makers have not received a single purchase order from AMD but have received "tons of purchases" for 20Gbps GDDR6.

High-end graphics cards for desktop PCs have slowly but surely grown in physical size over the years, matching their growth in performance. It's not uncommon for a flagship GeForce RTX 4080 or RTX 4090 to feature three large fans and a chunky heatsink and be almost four slots thick.

This adds weight and puts additional strain on the now relatively small PCIe connector, leading to most enthusiast GPUs shipping with braces and additional support. However, this hasn't stopped issues cropping up with high-end GPUs like the GeForce RTX 4080 and RTX 4090, where PCBs are cracking near the PCIe lock.

With heavier cards putting additional strain on boards, leading to cracking and eventual returns and repairs affecting NVIDIA's partners - it looks like GIGABYTE has revised its PCB design with "a lot more surface area to distribute the weight."

Intel has a new Arc graphics driver out and it provides some worthwhile improvements for frame rates, as well as support for new games.

Team Blue's new driver version 31.0.101.5194/31.0.101.5252 also does some good work with ironing out a few glitches to boot.

Let's start with the support for new games, with the Arc driver now catering for Helldivers 2, Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden, and Skull & Bones.

Rumors are pointing to AMD launching its next-generation RDNA 4 GPUs later this year, with the new flagship Radeon RX 8000 Series card set to be a mid-range offering that will deliver Radeon RX 7900 XTX performance for a fraction of the cost. A potential game-changer that could leave the high-end enthusiast market to NVIDIA alone with the arrival of the GeForce RTX 5090 and GeForce RTX 5080 coming at some point.

Today comes a new article from the Linux-focused publication Phoronix and Michael Larabel, who spotted some interesting new updates for AMD Graphics on Linux. As Radeon drivers on Linux are open-source, these "updated IP (intellectual property) blocks within the open-source AMDGPU Linux kernel graphics driver" are tailor-made for RDNA 4.

Additionally, the amount of work being carried out for these new "blocks" covering GPU tasks points to AMD's engineers going all in on RDNA 4 (or GFX12) and moving on from iterating and optimizing RDNA 3.

If you've been experiencing random stutters when gaming or scrolling through websites, it could be due to an issue with the latest GeForce Game Ready Driver 551.23. This was one of many driver updates from NVIDIA in January 2024, adding support for the new GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER. The good news is that a new GeForce Hotfix Driver Version 551.46 addresses these stuttering issues.

NVIDIA's Hotfix driver releases are not part of the official branch; they serve as targeted releases, providing fixes and updates to issues ahead of the next official driver release.

NVIDIA considers these sorts of updates as "beta" releases, even though they are released as soon as possible to resolve issues. If you aren't experiencing any of the mentioned issues, it's probably not worth downloading and installing. All the fixes in the GeForce Hotfix Driver Version 551.46 release notes will make their way into the next official GeForce Game Ready Driver release.

The other day, we reported on an AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT price drop to $699 for the SAPPHIRE PULSE model - the first of its kind. Following AMD's official temporary price cut for the high-end GPU to $749 in the wake of the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER launch, the second-most powerful RDNA 2 GPU is currently being sold for a lot less than its original $899 launch price.

NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER replaces the non-SUPER variant with the same $799 MSRP - and with a performance boost, it has ignited some real competition. This also means these older GeForce RTX 4070 Ti cards, like Radeon RX 7900 XT GPUs, are being sold at a discount - but in this case, it's because they're end-of-life.

So, it's been great to see powerful GPUs made more affordable. This is true of the MSI Ventus GeForce RTX 4070 Ti, available for $699 over at Newegg (after taking $50 off with a promo code).

Zephyr is a name you probably have never heard of when it comes to graphics cards, but the company is preparing its first-ever liquid-cooled graphics card, starting with the upcoming GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER with an AIO cooler.

Zephyr has worked with Valkyrie, which provided a new all-in-one liquid cooling solution with a dual-slot GPU featuring a dual 140mm radiator (280mm total). Zephyr's new GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER Valkyrie graphics card features Valkyrie RGB fans connected to the GPU through white-braded tubing.

The company is using a super-stylish silver theme across the card, looking really mean and tough -- with a beautiful RGB mirror effect in the bottom right-hand side -- and no fans on the card, that's all handled by the 280mm radiator and dual fans away from the card itself.

Ahead of the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER's launch in January 2024, AMD announced a "special promotional pricing program" that would see the price of the Radeon RX 7900 XT drop to $749 USD and lower for a limited time.

The Radeon RX 7900 XT originally launched in late 2022 with a $899 price tag, which at the time was viewed as a serious misstep when the Radeon RX 7900 XTX was only $100 more - and significantly more powerful. In time, the price slowly dropped to around $799 - in line with the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti and its more powerful replacement, the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER.

AMD's Radeon RX 7900 XT has always felt like a great GPU in search of the right price, and today it might just have found it - with the reference specced SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon RX 7900 XT 20GB currently on sale for $699.99 via Newegg and Amazon.

NVIDIA mandated before the release of its new GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER that all custom AIB models would exclusively use the 16-pin "12VHPWR" power connector and NOT use regular 8-pin PCIe power connectors.

Well... it looks like RTX 4080 SUPER graphics cards with dual 8-pin PCIe power connectors could hopefully be something we see in the near future. Palit's new GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER GamingPro OC graphics card has space for dual 8-pin PCIe power connectors, reports Japanese reviewer Jisakuhibi.

This isn't the first appearance of a new GeForce RTX 40 SUPER graphics card with dual 8-pin PCIe power connectors, as the MaxSun GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER was spotted -- then deleted -- from their website. NVIDIA would've flipped the ban hammer on that thing so fast, but what about Palit? Hmm.

PowerColor has launched another Radeon graphics card in its line of Spectral White editions, this time an RX 7900 XT.

You may recall that previous Spectral White editions have included the RX 7900 XTX flagship GPU, and the RX 7800 XT to boot.

The new model is the Radeon RX 7900 XT Hellhound Spectral White, and as ever it comes decked out in a smart white color that's becoming quite the trend for some PC enthusiasts (being well-suited to streamlined and sleek looking PC builds).

The Steam Hardware & Software Survey results for January 2024 are in, giving us an updated look at the hardware PC gamers use for playing games on the biggest PC gaming platform. It's an interesting look at the current state of GPUs, with NVIDIA continuing to dominate with an overall 74.25% market share, followed by AMD with 16.46%. NVIDIA's total share has dropped compared to December 2023, while AMD's has grown.

Not dramatically, mind you, but enough to make a difference. However, the biggest Radeon gains come via integrated graphics, not desktop Radeon products. In fact, the only RDNA 3 GPU to make the list (and not relegated to the 'other' category) is still the flagship Radeon RX 7900 XTX. According to the results, more than twice as many GeForce RTX 4080 GPUs are in circulation.

There's still no sign of the Radeon RX 7800 XT, 7700 XT, or mainstream 7600. However, as the 7800 XT and 7700 XT have only been available for four months, it could be a matter of time.

The GeForce RTX 3050 6GB refresh and relaunch is real, with NVIDIA's new entry-level graphics card making some pretty major cuts that extend beyond lowering the VRAM capacity of the GeForce RTX 3050 8GB to 6GB.

One of the biggest changes with this relaunch and refresh for the new GeForce RTX 3050 is lowering the power rating from 130W to 70W. This means the new GeForce RTX 3050 6GB ships without a power connector and is entirely powered by the motherboard and PCI Express slot - which is great for home theater PCs or SFF builds.

And with a lower price point of around $169 compared to the GeForce RTX 3050 8GB's $240 or so, you might think this is an easy win-win. However, lowering the power rating to 70W means significant cuts all around, with a sizeable impact on performance - making it around 20% slower, according to reports.

MSI is cooking up something that looks a little different than the traditional graphics card you'd see with its new special edition RTX 4090 SUPRIM X "Ruan Mei" Edition graphics card. Check it out:

MSI's new custom RTX 4090 SUPRIM X "Ruan Mei" Edition graphics card is based on the character Ruan Mei from the game Honkai: Star Rail. The full name is found on the poster that's bundled in the box, but the resolution of the photo makes it impossible to see.

The photos of the new card were posted by "hongxing2020" on X, which is based on MSI's delicious RTX 4090 SUPRIM X design (which I love). This is the newest SUPRIM design, and not the CLASSIC one, just to be clear. The beautiful green and gold shroud design looks unique here, while the backplate made me fall in love with the work MSI put into its new RTX 4090 SUPRIM X "Ruan Mei" Edition graphics card.

It looks like NVIDIA may have a feature in the pipeline which is like Windows 11's Auto HDR, in that it turns SDR games into HDR - but is a better take on the idea (hopefully).

This would be for RTX graphics cards, and it'll theoretically build on top of the recently introduced capability to upgrade SDR videos to HDR, called RTX Video HDR. Just like that feature, it would use the RTX graphics card's Tensor cores to realize the HDR conversion (or rather, approximation).

As noticed by 'Emoose' (hat tip to VideoCardz), NVIDIA's version 551.23 graphics driver, which added RTX Video HDR, has some 'TrueHDR' profile settings that can be implemented for non-HDR games.

NVIDIA's RTX 4090 remains a highly sought after graphics card in China, even though Team Green has deployed an alternative 4090 D model.

The RTX 4090 D is only marginally slower than the full-fat RTX 4090 which is now banned in China - NVIDIA has previously said the difference in performance is only 5% or thereabouts - yet still the original Lovelace flagship remains popular on the black market.

Wccftech reports that various Asian countries are seeing a huge spike in sales for the RTX 4090, and that includes Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, and Vietnam, because the buyers are selling them on to the Chinese market.

NVIDIA's latest GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER graphics card is out and in the wild, but now we're looking at what changes the company has made to its in-house RTX 4080 SUPER Founders Edition graphics card.

Inside the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER Founders Edition, it looks like the company has reduced power phases from 13 on the RTX 4080 Founders Edition (the non-SUPER version) to just 11 on the new RTX 4080 SUPER FE. In contrast, memory phases have been reduced from 3 to 2, respectively. There's also one phase missing near the power connector.

Geekerwan thinks that the PCB design change means that NVIDIA could lower the power consumption of its new GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER Founders Edition during gaming. The RTX 4080 SUPER FE features a TDP of 320W, but the card uses around 246W in gaming loads, which is something NVIDIA points out on its own website, as you can see in the photo above.

NVIDIA's RTX 4080 Super GPU seems to be selling relatively decently, going by launch day figures relayed by a YouTube leaker - which admittedly should be taken with a great deal of caution (we'll discuss that more later).

The details on initial sales for the RTX 4080 Super were provided by Moore's Law is Dead (MLID) who has previously furnished us with leaks regarding the strength of both of the other RTX Super refreshes which preceded this one.

One source at a major US retailer says that the RTX 4080 Super sold out quickly, but that was partly because they didn't have all that much launch stock. A second retailer (again a big one, this time outside of the US) indicates a big rush of initial sales, but then things slacked off (so at least this outlet had more stock).

NVIDIA has released its new GeForce Game Ready 551.31 WHQL drivers, supporting the new GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER graphics card. You can download the new drivers right here (633MB download).

The new GeForce Game Ready 551.31 drivers support the new RTX 4080 SUPER, as well as the latest games released with NVIDIA DLSS 3 technology, including Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, with further support added for new DLSS-supported games with Enshrouded, TEKKEN 8, and Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League, which supports DLSS Super Resolution.

The new drivers also add support for the just-released RTX Video HDR feature, as well as support for the "Auto" setting for RTX Video Super Resolution, and finally support for NVIDIA Ultra Low Latency Mode with DirectX 12-based games. You can download the new NVIDIA GeForce Game Ready 551.31 WHQL drivers right here (633MB download).

The GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER Founders Edition arrives as the third entry in NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 40 sUPER Series GPU refresh and the second to receive a Founders Edition model after the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER. Like that variant, this new SUPER model features a matte black finish that is stunning in person, shifting away from the bronze and chrome look of non-SUPER Founders cards.

Usually, we kick off our review coverage with a deep dive into the Founders Edition, using it as the baseline for comparison to other GPU models. Unfortunately, due to a delay in arriving at TweakTown HQ (aka my office, which is currently overflowing with GPUs), we haven't been able to fully test it out - because we only have it for a couple of days.

In the meantime, be sure to check out our reviews for the INNO3D GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER X3 16GB (which is an MSRP model) and the new beautiful MSI GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER 16G EXPERT (a premium model that draws a lot of inspiration from the Founders Edition design). And ahead of our full Founders Edition review, check out these snaps of the card.