Graphics Cards - Page 81

AMD has released a new version of its Adrenalin graphics driver especially for Alan Wake 2.

Adrenalin Edition 23.20.17.05, which is clearly marked 'For Alan Wake 2,' has been rushed out the door by Team Red.

A dedicated driver just for a single game? Yes, that's unusual for sure, but what seems to have happened here is that AMD couldn't quite fit the work to support Alan Wake 2 into the last driver (v23.10.2, released last week).

Those mulling a purchase of an RTX 4090 graphics card would be advised to wait, at least going by what's happening with the GPU's pricing right now, and also what might be in store for the future (as predicted by leaker Moore's Law is Dead - we'll come back to that later).

Wccftech reports that the pricing of RTX 4090 models in the US is climbing now, after having held pretty steadily at around the MSRP of $1,599 for some time. It's now difficult to find one at MSRP, and if we look at major retailers, their 4090 models are a good chunk above that level now.

The tech site points to Newegg, where the cheapest RTX 4090 is $1766 (at the time of writing, it still is), which is over 10% more than the MSRP, a notable rise.

We've been hearing more and more about NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER 16GB graphics card, hearing a few different rumors suggesting AD103 GPU, then AD102, 20GB of GDDR6X, then 16GB of GDDR6X... well, now we're hearing about pricing, and it's exciting.

NVIDIA's upgraded GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER 16GB graphics card could be released to really stir things up with its competitor AMD, not only dropping it into battle above the Radeon RX 7900 XTX, but having a price of possibly just $999 to really make an impact. Moore's Law is Dead reports that a $999 to $1199 price could arrive with the RTX 4080 SUPER 16GB and will be pushed to perform 9-15% faster than the RTX 4080.

In terms of upgraded memory, MLID is being told directly that the RTX 4080 SUPER would be using faster 24Gbps GDDR6X memory compared to the 21Gbps GDDR6X memory on the current RTX 40 series GPUs. If NVIDIA does price its RTX 4080 SUPER at $999 to $1199, then we'd most likely see the RTX 4080 and RTX 4070 Ti discontinued and the RTX 4070 dropping to below $550.

NVIDIA's flagship Hopper H100 Tensor Core GPU is one of the best pieces of technology that mankind makes, costing over $35,000. Alphacool has just unveiled a new single-slot water block for the NVIDIA H100 PCIe GPU that has been designed and engineered for Grace Hopper H100.

Alphacool's new ES H100 80GB HBM PCIe GPU cooler features a matte carbon finish with no RGB bling -- this is a data center, professional, mega-expensive card, not a gaming GPU -- which will see many of these installed into a motherboard. This will also be driven by the fact that Alphacool's new H100 GPU cooler is a tiny single-slot instead of a 1.5-slot design.

The company positions the GPU cooler as close as possible to the components that need to be cooled, using heat-conducting pads that were reduced to a thickness of just 1mm. Alphacool wanted the maximum possible reduction in the thickness of the copper block, and the optimization of the water flow inside the cooler to allow all important components, including the GPU, VRMs, and VRAM, to be cooled by water much better and more effectively. It's a win-win.

There have been rumors about a possible SUPER refresh for some of the GeForce RTX 40 Series line-up. It's a name we haven't seen since the GeForce RTX 20 Series, and if you're a little confused as to how the GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER and GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER fit into the product stack - don't worry, we're about to break it down.

The GeForce RTX 2080 Ti was the only GPU from the Turing generation to sport the 'Ti' branding - with NVIDIA introducing more powerful SUPER versions of the GeForce RTX 2060, RTX 2070, and RTX 2080 in the back half of the generation's life cycle. The SUPER branding didn't appear during the Ampere-based GeForce RTX 30 Series (instead, we got a bunch of 'Ti' models). Still, several rumors indicate its return with the latest Ada Lovelace generation.

There's a lot of info out there regarding the new SUPER line-up. However, some recent comments and info from known industry insider and leaker @kopite7kimi clearly show what to expect. And that is similar to what we saw with the GeForce RTX 20 Series and its SUPER lineup.

ASUS has just teased its first entry from its TUF Gaming family of graphics cards that's white, within the newer NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 series GPU family. We've seen ASUS unleash Radeon RX 7800 and Radeon RX 7700 XT models in white, but this is a first for the RTX 40 series from the company. Check it out:

The company already has a regular black-themed TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 4070 Ti graphics card, so there are no physical changes to the appearance of the White OC Edition. The shroud, fans, and backplate have all been changed to white, obviously, with no modifications done to the I/O bracket or even the PCB -- the PCB is still black -- so it's the same card, pretty much dipped in white paint.

NVIDIA's in-house GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Founders Edition is different to the ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 4070 Ti OC Edition in a few ways: there's a regular 8-pin PCIe power connector here, but the biggest change is something I loved during my reviews of the ASUS GeForce RTX 40 series GPUs... ASUS includes an additional HDMI 2.1 connector on their cards, which is quite useful in some scenarios.

Recently, the U.S. government updated its list of graphics hardware that is effectively banned from being exported or sold to China without a government license, including many of NVIDIA's most popular AI GPUs like the A100, A800, H100, and H800.

A new filing from NVIDIA outlines that the new ban is "effective immediately," meaning that sales and exports for these GPUs have been shown a bright red light.

Bad news for AI in the region, but good news for PC gamers? As previously reported, the ban was about restricting hardware sales for GPUs and hardware exceeding a certain performance threshold - which, in a testament to its raw power, included the GeForce RTX 4090. The most powerful gaming GPU on the planet was on the cusp of being banned in one of the biggest PC gaming markets in the world.

Intel Game On Drivers for the Intel Arc range of graphics cards (including the new Intel Arc A580 we recently reviewed) have been released at a steady clip - offering support for new games in addition to delivering massive performance improvements to older titles that didn't play nice with the architecture when it debuted last year.

The latest driver release, 'Intel Graphics Driver 31.0.101.4900 for Intel Arc,' focuses squarely on new titles: Ghostrunner 2, Alan Wake 2, Cities: Skylines 2, and WRC. However, two of these games have been making headlines of late due to just how demanding they are on PC hardware, which raises the question of how they'd run on the entry-level and mainstream Intel Arc lineup of GPUs.

Cities: Skylines II is launching in a state on PC that the developer has called out as unfinished, so much so that some players are struggling to maintain higher than 10 FPS with high-end hardware. So when Intel writes, "Up to 34% average FPS uplift at 1080p with High settings," in the release notes - without context or specific figures, it could be misleading.

ASL has just revealed a graphics card the world simply doesn't need: a new GeForce RTX 4060 with a built-in spirit level.

The new ASL GeForce RTX 4060 graphics card isn't the first with a built-in spirit level, as the 51RISC GeForce RTX 4090 had one, as well as Sycom's custom GeForce RTX 4090 and RTX 4080 cards with AIO cooling and a built-in spirit level. This is a much thinner card and a much more basic design.

ASL's new custom GeForce RTX 4060 has a dual-fan cooler, a single 8-pin PCIe power connector, and a silver-themed design. But the spirit level... it's on the end of the card, on the front next to the two fans. Once the ASL GeForce RTX 4060 is installed into a system, it will not even be visible. So the spirit level on the card itself serves zero purpose, zero use... and then once it's installed, you can't even look at it. If you had a vertical mount for the GPU, then sure... but why.

NVIDIA's mainstream GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB has appeared in a new form: a single-slot, blower-style fan for your new SFF gaming PC.

The new GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB single-slot graphics card was teased by MEGASizeGPU, which will be a release from COLORFUL, but we don't know if it's an iGame GPU yet or not. The new single-slot GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB arrives in a super-tight, single-slot design that measures 267mm long and just 20mm thick.

A blower-style fan is used for cooling, with not many air cutouts at all above the I/O ports -- which are standard here on the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB single-slot GPU: 1 x HDMI 2.1 and 3 x DisplayPort 1.4 connectors. A single 8-pin PCIe power connector is at the rear, making the card look very neat and tidy all around.

NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER refresh GPU is currently in the development oven at Team Green, with some new ponderings about its specifications -- and how it can get around the new US sanctions against China -- which have seen the AD102-based GeForce RTX 4090 banned, and the price of the GPU skyrocketing in China.

The upcoming refreshed GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER has been rumored with 20GB of GDDR6X, but a new video from Moore's Law is Dead suggests that we'll see some changes to the refreshed SUPER card that will skirt around the US sanctions in China... and it totally makes sense for NVIDIA to do this.

The Biden administration pushed in new sanctions on China that have outright banned the GeForce RTX 4090 from being sold in the country, with prices jumping within hours. Moore's Law is Dead is reporting from his sources that NVIDIA will not be moving any GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card stock out of Asia and into any other country in any big numbers because shipping containers are so expensive as we head into the holiday season.

NVIDIA's next moves in the GPU space have been under scrutiny lately, with a whole bunch of recent rumors about possible refreshes of the RTX 4070 and 4080 - and now we're hearing speculation on where Team Green could go with pricing.

This comes from Moore's Law is Dead (MLID), who reasons his way through a theory - and it is just that, theorizing, albeit based on commentary from multiple trusted sources - as to what NVIDIA's pricing strategy might be going forward this year into next.

We've already been hearing about the effects of the US ban on the RTX 4090 GPU in China - well, technically the AD102 chip, we should clarify - and MLID reckons this is going to have, shall we say, interesting ramifications for the graphics card world.

Recently, we reported on the ban on the GeForce RTX 4090 GPU in China, which shocked several people because it's the first time the US-imposed export ban on technology to the country included a piece of hardware designed for PC gaming. This has led to RTX 4090 models being sold for double the price in China, ahead of the restrictions kicking in next month.

According to sources, it's all about restricting and slowing China regarding AI. With the new restrictions looking to limit the sale of NVIDIA's A800 and H800 workstation cards in the region, the ban, which doesn't restrict specific models but hardware with certain transistor numbers, now includes the GeForce RTX 4090.

No GeForce RTX 4090s for China might not sound like a big deal, but with the AI boom and new reports from outlets like TechSpot, it seems that when it comes to high-end NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPUs, we're on the cusp of another situation where prices are about to go through the roof.

The rumor mill is spinning up for NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 40 SUPER series of graphics cards, with some new information suggesting the RTX 4080 SUPER will have 20GB of VRAM on a wider memory bus, which should position the card smack bang in the middle of the performance of the RTX 4090 and the RTX 4080.

Benchlife is now reporting new information from their AIB sources, which points to NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER graphics card featuring 20GB of GDDR6X memory. The AIB partner didn't say it would definitely be the "RTX 4080 SUPER," but it could be another RTX 4080 with 20GB of VRAM. I think that would be graphics card naming suicide, especially after the "unlaunched" GeForce RTX 4080 12GB.

NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER would make sense, especially with 20GB of GDDR6X memory on a wider 320-bit memory bus, up against the RTX 4080 and its 16GB GDDR6X on a 256-bit memory bus. The flagship GeForce RTX 4090 has 24GB of GDDR6X on an even larger 384-bit memory bus.

MaxSun has officially confirmed the price of its upcoming flagship GeForce RTX 4090 MegaGamer graphics card, the top-of-the-mountain version of the new MGG series the company launched earlier this year.

It is unfortunate that MaxSun doesn't have its graphics cards in more countries across the planet, as its GeForce RTX 4090 MegaGamer looks like an interesting RTX 4090 to enter the ring. It'll mostly be available to China and select Asian countries, while the rest of the world has to skip this one.

MaxSun has announced an official MSRP of $1999 on its new GeForce RTX 4090 MegaGamer, a $400 premium over teh reference price of the RTX 4090, which is $1599. MaxSun's new GeForce RTX 4090 MegaGamer is unique in the fact that it doesn't just have a couple of fans; there are FIVE cooling fans on this card. There's a pretty nice-looking two-piece aluminum body shell and a customizable RGB light bar. It does look cool, I'll give it that.

Samsung formally announced its next-gen GDDR7 memory back in October 2022, so we're about a year away from the announcement now, with the South Korean giant hosting its annual Memory Tech Day in San Jose on October 20.

At the event, Samsung announced its next-gen Shinebolt HBM3E memory, which is destined for AI GPUs and HPC. But the company also provided some small but important updates on its new GDDR7 memory. Samsung said that it's not just improving the active power consumption of GDDR7 over GDDR6, but its new GDDR7 memory will use 50% less standby power than GDDR6 does, which is thanks to additional clock controls.

We already know that Samsung will have 16Gbit (2GB) modules of GDDR6 at up to 32Gbps of projected speed, which represents a 33% improvement in bandwidth per pin over GDDR6. This means on a 256-bit memory interface, we should see a hefty 1TB/sec of memory bandwidth... while on a much wider 512-bit memory interface, that bandwidth skyrockets to 2TB/sec of memory bandwidth.

We heard it was coming in a leak not too long ago now, but now it's official: AMD has announced its new Radeon RX 7900M mobile GPU, its most powerful GPU inside of a laptop ever released.

The new AMD Radeon RX 7900M uses the Navi 31 GPU with 4608 Stream Processors, with a Game Clock of 1825MHz and a Boost Clock of up to 2090MHz; we have some powerhouse Radeon RX mobile GPU goodness in a new wave of Radeon RX 7900M-powered gaming laptops. There's also 16GB of GDDR6 memory clocked at 18Gbps on a 256-bit memory bus, while the Total Graphics Power (TGP) sits at up to 180W.

AMD is really pushing the limits with 180W TGP and up to 200W using SmartShift Max technology, while NVIDIA's flagship GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU with 16GB GDDR6 memory also has a TGP of 150W but can hit up to 175W with Dynamic Boost technology.

Well, this isn't a surprise: NVIDIA's flagship GeForce RTX 4090 24GB graphics card has doubled in price in China because of US sanctions banning high-end GPUs from being exported to China.

The new rules set by the Biden administration will go into effect on November 16, 2023, after which NVIDIA won't be allowed to ship most of its high-end AI GPUs, and for gamers: NVIDIA can't ship its GeForce RTX 4090 24GB graphics card to China. Well, given that the GeForce RTX 4090 is effectively banned in China in a few weeks' time, the price of the RTX 4090 graphics cards has skyrocketed, doubling in price within hours.

NVIDIA's flagship GeForce RTX 4090 24GB graphics card launched in China back in October 2022, priced at 12,999 RMB. But now, the current price as of October 19, 2023 -- is around 26,000 RMB. You can see in the above screenshot that some of these Chinese outlets are selling a GeForce RTX 4090 for up to 29,999 RMB. A quick currency exchange turns that 29,999 RMB to around $4000 USD.

NVIDIA's blazing-fast Grace Hopper GH200 Superchip will never see the shores of China, with the US government applying sanctions on the country, stopping them from acquiring, buying, or touching any high-end supercomputer or semiconductor technology. This means GPUs, and this means NVIDIA losing parts of its market.

The US government has just imposed new restrictions, which are different to the first restrictions, which looked at the on-device connection speed. Still, with the new rules, it'll see NVIDIA's gaming-focused GeForce RTX 4090 24GB graphics card being banned from entering China. High-end enthusiast PC gamers will miss out on the best gaming GPU money can buy.

The Biden administration has pushed new rules that see limits on high-performance computing chips, with the new sanctions looking to destroy any ability of China being able to advance its high-performance computing chip technology. This new set of requirements will go into effect in 29 days, meaning NVIDIA has a very short amount of time -- while head-first into the holiday season -- to adapt to the Biden administration's new sanctions and regulatory changes.

Samsung's upcoming 5th generation HBM3e memory product has been codenamed "Shinebolt," with the marketing and development of Samsung's new HBM3e memory catching up to the great work SK hynix has been doing with its own next-gen memory.

According to sources at Business Korea, Samsung Electronics is currently shipping out HBM3e prototypes to some of its clients for quality approval (QA) testing. Samsung is reportedly shipping out 24 gigabit (Gb) chips in 8 layers (8-Hi), but will soon have a 36GB HBM3e product with 12 layers (12-Hi).

Samsung's new HBM3e "Shinebolt" memory will have a 50% performance boost over HBM3, with a huge 1.228TB/sec (12280MB/sec) memory bandwidth. The future is AI; we all know it, with NVIDIA's crazy-fast AI GPUs needing more and much faster VRAM. This is where Samsung's new HBM3e "Shinebolt" memory shines -- pun not intended, but it just works so well here -- capacity and bandwidth.