Graphics Cards - Page 81

AMD's FSR 3 and Frame Generation technology works similarly to its upscaling FSR 2 tech - it supports GeForce RTX and Radeon RX GPUs. It took a while from announcement to becoming a thing, especially as DLSS 3 and Frame Generation became a hot topic.

Last week's update and full open-source source code release of FSR 3, alongside its improved implementation in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, felt like the 1.0 launch we've been waiting for. And now, as we close out 2023, there's a new mod style that replaces DLSS 3 with FSR 3 in any game that features NVIDIA's tech.

Why would you replace DLSS 3 Frame Generation with AMD's FSR 3? That comes down to NVIDIA's tech being exclusive to the latest GeForce RTX 40 Series of graphics cards - using new specialized AI hardware. AI doesn't power FSR 3, so modding FSR 3 into Cyberpunk 2077 allows the millions of GeForce RTX 20 Series and GeForce RTX 30 Series gamers out there to enable Frame Generation and get a sizable boost to in-game performance.

NVIDIA's purported new spin on the RTX 4090 graphics card is set to go on sale come December 28, according to a fresh rumor.

This is the RTX 4090 D which is for the Chinese market only, a cut-down version expressly produced for the purpose of side-stepping the ban on powerful AI GPUs which has also prevented NVIDIA's standard RTX 4090 from being shipped to China.

The rumor comes from Chinese site Expreview - so heap on the skepticism here, as it's not one of the more reliable channels on the grapevine - and it's surprisingly early.

At SIGGRAPH Asia 2023 in Sydney, Intel showcased an interesting new technology called ExtraSS as part of its XeSS framework for boosting rendering performance. XeSS, Intel's AI-powered upscaling answer to NVIDIA DLSS, looks to be getting its own (and very different) version of Frame Generation.

With the debut of the GeForce RTX 40 Series, NVIDIA introduced a new performance-boosting bit of technology called Frame Generation as part of its updated DLSS 3 suite.

Leveraging the advanced AI hardware and capabilities of the company's new Ada Lovelace architecture, the performance increase arrives via creating and generating new frames. Mix in latency reduction tech like NVIDIA Reflex, and it's no secret that DLSS 3 has been one of the most talked about PC gaming features in the past year- a massive increase in perceived in-game performance with excellent image quality.

European retailer Proshop has listed 24 different NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 SUPER graphics cards on its website, with each of the cards pictured using the RTX 4090, and most likely a mistake in the end.

RTX 4090 SUPER listings (source: ProShop)

Proshop has NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 SUPER graphics cards listed from the likes of ASUS, MSI, Inno3D, and other AIB partners from across the planet. Proshop itself operates business in multiple European countries, so we should expect these RTX 4090 SUPER listings to be a mistake... but I'm sure most gamers wish the RTX 4090 SUPER were real.

It's a blast from the past as MSI is bringing back one of its most visually interesting GPU designs from over a decade ago - the Cyclone. In our review of the MSI GeForce GTX 550 Ti 1GB Cyclone II from 2011, a mid-range under-$200 GPU, the single large fan and surrounding 'cyclone' delivered excellent results that matched the card's unique design.

As spotted by @harukaze5719 over on X/Twitter, the new MSI GeForce RTX 4060 CYCLONE 8G OC brings this classic design back with a modern spin. "The whirlwind is back," proclaims the GPU product listing - albeit this time in ultra-efficient Ada Lovelace form.

You can probably chalk up the main reason for the Cyclone's return to Ada's excellent efficiency - where the 115W TDP of the GeForce RTX 4060 means companies can look toward releasing smaller form-factor cards. Or, dip into the past to bring back a cool design that focuses on efficient cooling.

A single customer sent 19 flagship NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 graphics cards to repair professional and YouTuber "NorthridgeFix" because most of them had cracked PCBs close to the retention finger on the end of the PCIe card. Check it out:

We don't know what the source of this damage is exactly, but we do know that the RTX 4090 -- in any form, from any AIB -- is pretty heavy, with hefty cooling solutions for NVIDIA's flagship gaming GPU. NorthridgeFix says that he's seen this issue before, but getting so many in a single round is strange.

He had 19 different RTX 4090 cards sent to him in both ASUS and GIGABYTE custom cards, where the cracks were only found on the ASUS RTX 4090 cards. This doesn't just happen out of nowhere, but it could be because system builders were shipping pre-built gaming systems with the RTX 4090 pre-installed, and it went through some not-so-great transport.

AMD has updated its FidelityFX Super Resolution 3 (FSR 3) technology on GPUOpen to include the full source code for DirectX 12 and Unreal Engine 5 implementation for developers. FSR 3, which includes Frame Generation support for a wide range of AMD Radeon RX and even NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPUs, is the company's answer to the wildly successful and popular DLSS 3 that debuted with the GeForce RTX 40 Series.

FSR 3's rollout has been slow, with only a handful of titles supporting AMD's version of Frame Generation that, like its Super Resolution technology, doesn't require specialized AI hardware. But, FSR 3's most recent appearance - ion Ubisoft's Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora - showcased the best version of the technology to date.

Not only with improvements to overall image quality but also support for Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) displays - an omission that baffled reviewers and gamers when the tech launched in Square Enix's Forspoken and EA's Immortals of Aveum.

Intel Arc 'Game On' driver updates and releases over the past year have been a string of good news stories for the company's first foray into discrete graphics cards for PC gaming. From a massive boost in DirectX 11 performance that has seen double-digit improvements to smoothness and overall frame-rate performance, there has also been a gigantic 2.7X increase in AI performance.

With the launch of the new Meteor Lake-powered Core Ultra series of processors for laptops overnight - which are available with integrated Intel Arc graphics, many have wondered if Intel's steady stream of driver releases for day-one game support and performance increases for older titles will be available for those that pick up a new Core Ultra laptop.

The answer is yes, and this can be seen with the latest Intel Graphics Driver release for Intel Arc GPUs (31.0.101.5081 WHQL and 31.0.101.5122 WHQL), which includes support for the Intel Core Ultra processor family.

GeForce GTX is a brand that has been around for decades, signaling high-end performance for PC gaming that pushed technology and the visual fidelity of games to new heights. Although the company used 'GTX' a few times throughout its history, the first official GeForce GTX GPU to launch was the GeForce GTX 260 in 2008. Since then, the branding has powered mainline NVIDIA gaming hardware until the arrival of AI and hardware-accelerated ray-tracing in 2018.

NVIDIA's desktop and mobile graphics for PC gaming now carry the GeForce RTX branding, and even though it's taken a few years - it's now the go-to GeForce naming for PC gamers. Once again, it pushes technology and the visual fidelity of games to new ray-traced heights.

But, even though GeForce RTX is the new hotness for PC gaming, NVIDIA has still been producing affordable GeForce GTX products, including the GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER, GTX 1650, and low-end GeForce GTX 1630. According to a new report, NVIDIA will stop producing GeForce GTX GPUs sometime in Q1 2024 - marking the end of an era.

NVIDIA is set to have quite the SUPER month in January 2024, with the impending release of its new GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER, RTX 4070 Ti SUPER, and RTX 4070 SUPER cards... but now we've got some release dates for those new refreshed GPUs.

The folks over at ITHome have combined rumors from multiple sources to get some dates penciled in for next month, as NVIDIA will be revealing its new GeForce RTX 40 SUPER series graphics cards at CES 2024 during its "Special Address" event on January 8. The staggered release dates will ensure NVIDIA gets the most eyeballs on its cards instead of dumping them all out on the same day.

The reports suggest that we'll see NVIDIA release the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER first on January 17, the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti second on January 24, and finally, the GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER on January 31. We don't know anything about GPU clock speeds or exact configurations of the cards, but we do expect the RTX 4070 SUPER to feature 12GB of VRAM and the AD104 GPU with 7168 CUDA cores.

ASAKA has just revealed its new G-Nexus P24 adapter for NVIDIA's current-gen GeForce RTX 40 series GPUs that use 3 x 8-pin PCIe power connectors that support up to 600W of power flowing through them.

The new ASAKA G-Nexus P24 adapter and its 3 x 8-pin PCIe power connectors see each of the 8-pin cables delivering up to 150W of power for a total of 450W of power delivery. This means that you can use any GeForce RTX 40 series GPU right up to the RTX 4080 and RTX 4090 graphics cards, but overclocking them and driving past 450W might require a different cable or a different cable adapter.

ASAKA recommends keeping your power cables away from heat sources, as it might cause damage to the cables, your graphics card, or more. However, I think that will be hard, considering the G-Nexus P24 adapter runs directly in front of your graphics card... you know, a major source of heat.

NVIDIA has had a bunch of giveaways throughout this year, starting from entry-level through to mid-range and up to its flagship GeForce RTX 4090... but now we're seeing some price drops on the MSRP of the RTX 4090 of close to $600.

The news is coming from NVIDIA's new DOOM 30th Anniversary sweepstakes competition, where you can win a custom NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card celebrating DOOM's incredible 30th anniversary. But now we're seeing that the last two competitions that NVIDIA held have the MSRP of the RTX 4090 and its custom backplate sitting at $1389.

Why is this significant? Well, earlier this year, NVIDIA held a competition in February 2023 where the MSRP of the giveaway of the GeForce RTX 4090 with a custom Atomic Heart backplate had an MSRP of $1979. Later in the year, the MSRP of the GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Edition was $1599, and then in November and now December, the MSRP has fallen to $1389.

NVIDIA's flagship GeForce RTX 4090 has been custom-modded by a Redditor, taking the original cooler off and replacing it with a triple-fan Noctua cooling solution, and it looks awesome. Check it out:

Redditor "zaME19" posted on the Small Form Factor PC subreddit, modding his Inno3D GeForce RTX 4090, which features a non-reference PCB and triple-fan cooler, where he 3D printed a completely new shroud for his RTX 4090. The shroud features a matte black design with the exact mounting points for 3 x Noctua NF-A9 fans.

Each of the Noctua AF-A9 fans is 92mm with a PWM design and SS02 bearing mechanisms, with each of the fans capable of pushing out 78.9 m3/h airflow with a quiet operation of up to 22.8 dBa. They've got a max speed of 2000 RPM, operating as low as 400 RPM for that quiet, flagship GPU gaming goodness. The fans even come with anti-vibration pads which help dampen the noise even more.

AMD's next-gen RDNA 4 GPU architecture has popped up with recent patches for Linux again, with the company adding patches for their AMDGPU LLVM shader compiler.

Previously, AMD didn't push into Linux as hard as their competitors like Intel and NVIDIA, with the new patches not offering anything overly exciting, but instead, it's just traditional instructions support, updating existing hardware registers, and a bunch of pull requests for "GFX12".

We don't know anything more about RDNA 4 than we did yesterday, but what's interesting here is that AMD is forming its graphics driver for Linux with early support for its next-gen GPU architecture. Wccftech ponders that AMD is going to have increased competition to open-source alternatives including MESA's Vulkan driver. AMD could have improved support for next-gen architectures from here on out, even though RDNA 4 is most likely at least a year away.

GALAX has just launched its new GeForce RTX 4070 20th Anniversary Edition graphics card, with a sleek look due to its hidden power connector. Check it out:

The company is celebrating its 20th anniversary, with GALAX China launching its GeForce RTX 4090 20th Anniversary Edition -- but having to pull it from the Chinese market after US sanctions saw the RTX 4090 banned in multiple countries, including China -- and now it's here with the GeForce RTX 4070 20th Anniversary Edition card.

GALAX uses a beautiful cooler design, with two fans on the front -- and to the left -- and another fan on the back, with an all-white design that makes me feel tingly. It's only a dual-slot design which I love as well, with the RTX 4070 20th Anniversary Edition measuring just 45mm thick, and with its hidden 8-pin PCIe power connector under a magnetic cover, GALAX really makes this an appealing RTX 4070 for gamers.

Last week, we reported on the rumor that NVIDIA was planning to stop producing the entry-level GeForce RTX 3050 8GB graphics cards in favor of a cutdown GeForce RTX 3050 6GB refresh. This refresh is launching soon, too, sometime in January 2024, potentially around the same time as the new GeForce RTX 40 Series SUPER GPUs.

In addition to less VRAM capacity, the GeForce RTX 3050 6GB refresh will supposedly sport fewer CUDA Cores (a 20% reduction), a boost clock of 1700 MHz, and a power rating of 75W - which would mean that it would get all of its power via the PCIe slot.

It's an interesting move, and according to the latest slice of info from Taiwanese outlet Benchlife, The GeForce RTX 3050 6GB could launch with a price point of only $179 - a 28% reduction from the GeForce RTX 3050's launch MSRP of $249.

For those that need a little refresher, AMD's Fluid Motion Frames (or AFMF) is the company's driver-based version of Frame Generation - as seen in NVIDIA's DLSS 3 and AMD's FSR 3. This version of the technology is a potential game-changer because it allows for Radeon RX 7000 and Radeon RX 6000 GPU owners to enable frame generation in all DirectX 11 and 12 titles. That's right, per-game support isn't required.

Still in its pre-release 'AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition Preview Driver for AMD Fluid Motion Frames' form, AMD quietly dropped a new update late last week. Promising improvements to "stutter and pacing" and "general improvements to the stability" of AFMF technology bring the tech one step closer to full release.

Though as to when that will be is anyone's guess. The good news is that the update aligns the Preview Driver with the latest AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 23.12.1 release - so if you're keen to check it out, now's the time.

Acer is the second system builder that we know of to have its own GeForce RTX 4090, after LENOVO and its RTX 4090 LEGION, with the new Acer RTX 4090 Predator being independently tested by our friends at KitGuru.

The company is now shipping its new GeForce RTX 4090 Predator graphics card with an interesting hybrid-style cooler inside of its high-end Predator Orion X Gaming PCs. The first review unit has reached KitGuru, who has pulled apart the RTX 4090 Predator graphics card inside of it. The card doesn't actually have a name, but given that it's inside of a Predator gaming PC, it should be the RTX 4090 Predator, right?

Acer's custom GeForce RTX 4090 Predator graphics card is a triple-slot beast, that is almost -- but not quite as -- big as NVIDIA's in-house GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Edition. It weighs slightly less as well, at 1.8kg for the RTX 4090 Predator compared to 2.19kg for the RTX 4090 FE. Acer uses a matte black plastic shroud with embedded RGB accent LEDs that can be controlled through Acer's in-house Predator software.

Intel's Arc GPUs just got a new graphics driver which again brings in some impressive performance uplifts.

Driver version 31.0.101.5074 offers a rather tasty boost of up to 34% for Train Sim World 3 (at Full HD resolution, Ultra settings) and Arc graphics card owners are getting 23% more FPS in Battlefield V at those same 1080p settings.

Here's a full roundup of the frame rate uplifts provided by the new Arc graphics driver:

NVIDIA is working on a new workstation GPU that could be made specifically for China, with a tease of its new RTX 5880 Ada workstation GPU that has been spotted in some new NVIDIA RTX Enterprise drivers.

The new NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada workstation GPU was spotted inside of the most recent production branch of the NVIDIA RTX Enterprise driver, which is a new workstation card that has been tweaked to comply with the US export restrictions, something that allows NVIDIA to get AD102 GPUs into China. It will join the coming AD102-250 GPU-based GeForce RTX 4090 D, which has also been tweaked to get into China.

US export restrictions first saw the NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada workstation GPU and high-end gaming-focused RTX 4090 banned in China back in November 2023, with NVIDIA working on multiple variants of its workstation and gaming GPUs to comply with the ever-changing landscape of GPUs being banned in China (and other countries around the world).