Graphics Cards - Page 84

AMD has released a special AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition Preview Driver for AMD Fluid Motion Frames, bringing the frame generation and FPS boost technology to all DirectX 11 and 12 games via a single button click at the driver level. In addition, AMD has highlighted 20 titles as being optimized for the one-click HYPR-RX Fluid Motion Frames boost.

This exciting feature allows Radeon RX 7000 Series GPU owners to take advantage of AMD technologies without needing game-specific integration - including the new Anti-Lag+ feature to reduce system latency. AMD notes that for the best results, base performance is recommended to be a "minimum fps of 55 FPS for 1080p displays, and 70 FPS for 1440p or above displays."

Driver-level Fluid Motion Frames differs from FSR 3, as that's a more customized and optimized version with Super Resolution and AMD's new Fluid Motion Frames getting official integration in two games (so far): Forspoken and Immortals of Aveum. In these titles, Fluid Motion Frames can be enabled on Radeon RX 6000, RX 7000, GeForce RTX 20, 30, and 40 Series GPUs.

Today, we've got some new info on NVIDIA's new 'Blackwell' GB202 GPU that will power the upcoming GeForce RTX 50 Series - and serve as the basis for the GeForce RTX 5090 much like the AD102 GPU served as the basis of the GeForce RTX 4090.

The specs come via reliable leaker and insider Kopite7kimi, who confirms that GB202 will sport a make-up of 12 GPCs and 8 TPCs that results in 192 SMs or Streaming Multiprocessors. For most PC gamers, this is technical jargon that won't make a lot of sense. Still, if we assume that the SM structure is similar to what we've seen with the Ada Lovelace generation, then GB202 - the fully unlocked GeForce RTX 50 Series GPU - will feature a whopping 24,576 CUDA Cores.

This represents a 33% increase over the AD102 Ada Lovelace GPU, and switching to TSMC's 3nm process should also lead to a more efficient GPU.

AMD's FSR 3, which includes the company's brand-new 'Fluid Motion Frames' technology, is Team Red's long-awaited answer to NVIDIA's DLSS 3 and Frame Generation. Like the company's FSR 2 Super Resolution technology, it won't require or use specialized AI hardware to work and instead will be open to all GPUs.

That said, as FSR 3 relies on (at least from our understanding) the new and impressive Anti-Lag+ technology exclusive to the Radeon RX 7000 series of RDNA 3 graphics cards, it might work best on the latest Radeon GPUs. However, we won't have long to find out, as AMD's Frank Azor took to Twitter/X to confirm that the first two FSR 3-enabled games will go live tomorrow.

Square Enix's Forspoken and the EA Original Immortals of Aveum from Ascendant Studios. As part of the technology's reveal at Gamescom, AMD showed Forspoken running on the new Radeon RX 7800 XT, where the 36 fps 4K Ultra-High RT jumped up to 122 fps with FSR 3 Performance mode.

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang and Denny's CEO Kelli Valade got together at the chain's Silicon Valley restaurant to unveil a new plaque that went up over the booth where Huang and NVIDIA co-founders Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem came up with the idea to revolutionize 3D graphics in the PC space. And usher in the first GeForce products.

The plaque dedicates the booth to NVIDIA, calling it "the booth that launched a $1 trillion company." And with that, Denny's has announced a Trillion-Dollar Incubator Contest to celebrate the occasion, offering $25,000 in seed money "for the next $1 trillion idea." You can find more details over at: dennys.com/trilliondollarincubator.

No doubt, this would put a lot of pressure on you to do something productive if you sit down at this particular booth and order some bacon, eggs, and pancakes before noticing the plaque.

MSI's Ventus range of GeForce RTX graphics cards is one of the company's most popular among consumers as they adhere closely to the MSRP pricing set by NVIDIA. Being more affordable is only one part of the picture; the Ventus range also offers excellent cooling and thermal performance - often comparable to higher-end models and variants.

Today, we've got word that MSI has quietly updated some of its GeForce RTX 40 Series Ventus graphics cards with new 'E' models - apparently part of a new Ventus Essential series. They look identical to previous Ventus models, but sources say they might feature enhancements or revisions to the overall build quality and components used.

Changing the make-up or revising products over their lifecycle is not uncommon, and it's something we've seen MSI do in the past - and by the sounds of things, these new Ventus E variants are not cheaper or otherwise inferior models. However, there is one big change to the display output configuration on the MSI GeForce RTX 4090 VENTUS 3X E models.

Recently, we reported that PCI-SIG was set to replace the 16-pin 12VHPWR power connector with a new 12V-2x6 power connector as part of the revised ATX 3.1 standard. The new 12V-2x6 power connector is backward compatible with the 12VHPWR connector, so it's more of a revision than a complete redesign and one that will help alleviate issues relating to overheating.

It's no secret that the move to the ATX 3.0 12VHPWR standard for the GeForce RTX 40 Series resulted in some serious issues for a small group of customers - cables melting and GPUs needing to be replaced. Ultimately, the problem was related to cables not being seated properly, leading to extreme heat.

The good news is that the new 12V-2x6 power connector is being used with new GeForce RTX 40 Series GPUs being sold and is supported on the latest power supplies. And now, with some fresh data from Linewell - a company that supplies cables to brands like ASUS - it looks like the new connector works extremely well, even when deliberately not seated properly.

Scott Herkelman, AMD's Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Graphics Business unit and the face of the Radeon brand, is leaving the company after seven years.

"After seven years at AMD and launching three increasingly competitive generations of RDNA graphics architectures, I have decided to leave AMD at the end of this year," Scott writes in a heartfelt statement posted online. His departure in a few months should give AMD enough time to find a replacement.

If AMD is looking, the company's site lists Jack Huynh as the current head of the Graphics Business Unit, which includes Radeon products. It's no secret that in the competitive GPU market, Radeon has always been the underdog, which continues to be the case with the latest RDNA 3-powered Radeon RX 7000 Series.

MSI's new 'Limited Series' products will see the company stealth drop a limited quantity of custom hardware that will only be produced once and made available for a limited time. With only 6,000 units produced, the first drop is the new GeForce RTX 4060 Gaming X NV Edition, sporting a stylish green design with RGB accents.

MSI notes that the green colorway on this custom Gaming X graphics card represents the company's "enduring partnership" with NVIDIA and is a testament to their "friendship and collaboration through the years."

It's not simply a green GeForce RTX 4060, as the aesthetic also means that the limited edition GPU sports Eco packaging that is 100% paper-based and plastic-free. Per MSI's announcement, the MSI GeForce RTX 4060 Gaming X NV Edition is available at select retailers across Europe, with the United States and Asia to follow.

With the arrival of DLSS 3.5 and the new AI-powered Ray Reconstruction technology delivering some truly game-changing results in Cyberpunk 2077's Update 2.0 and Phantom Liberty expansion, we're now at a point where AI tech and DLSS can deliver image quality that is noticeably superior to native rendering.

As bold a statement as that is, it's about the AI-powered Ray Reconstruction in Cyberpunk 2077 with the full ray-tracing RT Overdrive Mode enabled. DLSS 3.5 delivers a far less noisy image, improving reflection quality, crisper detail in shadows and ambient occlusion, and better RT lighting effects. Per my in-depth, hands-on, it's incredible stuff.

As part of a fascinating roundtable discussion hosted by Digital Foundry, Bryan Catanzaro, Vice President of Applied Deep Learning Research at NVIDIA, is already thinking about the future of DLSS - and how a hypothetical DLSS 10 is going to be a complete "neural rendering system that interfaces with a game engine."

Cyberpunk 2077's game-changing Update 2.0 is here. With the new expansion Phantom Liberty dropping next week, NVIDIA's latest GeForce Game Ready 537.42 WHQL driver adds full support for all of the new Night City 2.0 action - plus the arrival of DLSS 3.5.

For a closer look at DLSS 3.5 in Cyberpunk 2077, which takes the already beautiful ray-traced visuals in the game to the next level, be sure to check out our in-depth look with images and video.

"A true game changer, and [it applies] to ray-traced effects as the more you play, the more you begin to pick up on," I wrote. "In 4K on a GeForce RTX 4090, with performance sitting at well over 60 fps for my entire playtime, the only way to describe DLSS 3.5 in Cyberpunk 2077 is that it feels like that first time you went from 1080p to 1440p or 1440p to 4K - it's all just crisper, smoother, more realistic, and ultimately more immersive. Plus, the game runs faster with DLSS 3.5 enabled."

The best visuals in the world and the most technically advanced graphics mean very little if the game isn't great - it always begins and ends with gameplay. After spending several hours with Cyberpunk 2077's Update 2.0 and the new Phantom Liberty expansion, it's safe to say that the massive amount of changes, the new story, and the new district of Dogtown to explore delivers on that initial hype surrounding the game back in 2020.

From the revamped combat, skills, and policing system to a Night City that feels alive with things to see and do, Cyberpunk 2077 is a revelation three years later. On top of this, the new RT Overdrive mode brings full path-traced lighting to the game, and the brand new DLSS 3.5 AI-powered 'Ray Reconstruction' takes the ray-traced visuals to a whole new level.

With or without DLSS 3.5, Cyberpunk 2077 is still one of the best-looking and most technically advanced games you can play on PC, assuming you've got a powerful enough GPU from the GeForce RTX 30 or 40 Series. With Ray Reconstruction, let's just say it's the beginning of a bright, neon-lit future.

Cable management is a big part of building your own PC and sits alongside choosing the right components, case, power supply, and even system fans. No matter how great a build could potentially look, with a white GPU here and an RGB-lit AIO CPU cooler over there, all of that goes out of the window if you see cables everywhere.

Cable management has been a key part of chassis design for several years now, and when you're dealing with so many cables running to and from a motherboard and power supply, keeping all of that out of sight adds more to the overall aesthetic than you'd think. This is why the recent rise in getting rid of cables sticking out of a graphics card is great news.

There are a number of solutions on the table, but the INNO3D's GeForce RTX 4070 Twin X2 OC White 'Stealth' Edition offers a simple, elegant, and beautiful solution because it's compatible with most cases and builds. The popular GPU from the GeForce RTX 40 Series is the first to feature the company's Stealth Cable Management, and after going hands-on, we feel like Solid Snake or Splinter Cell's Sam Fisher - we don't want to break cover.

They call it a flagship for a reason, something that sits on top of a lineup as the most premium edition or version. And with the launch of ASUS's most powerful GPU to date, the ROG Matrix GeForce RTX 4090 all-in-one with liquid metal cooling and a 360mm radiator, you're looking at a world-record-setting GPU setting a new record. For price.

With the GeForce RTX 4090 carrying an MSRP of USD 1,599, the ROG Matrix GeForce RTX 4090 is currently being sold for almost double that, USD 3,199. An eyewatering figure that makes this more of a luxury item than a GPU you'd consider while browning a storefront. It's the most expensive GeForce RTX 4090 model available but also the most powerful.

Sporting the highest out-of-the-box GPU boost clock of any GeForce RTX 4090 GPU, an impressive 2670 MHz (which is a 6% increase over NVIDIA's reference specs), it also sees a power-limited increase to 600W to support overclocking. Plus, it's the first ASUS GPU to sport T1000-like liquid metal.

Three years later, it's hard to deny that Cyberpunk 2077 is one of the most technically advanced and visually impressive PC games currently available. The upcoming release of the highly anticipated Update 2.0 and Phantom Liberty expansion on PC with full path-traced lighting, Frame Generation, and DLSS 3.5's Ray Reconstruction make it look like something from the future.

DLSS 3.5's Ray Reconstruction replaces traditional hand-tuned denoisers (a technique used to clean up an image and fill in missing details) with an AI denoiser trained on 6 times the data used to create Frame Generation.

The result is improved ray-traced reflection detail, lighting, ambient occlusion, and more - Bryan Catanzaro, Vice President of Applied Deep Learning Research at NVIDIA, believes it makes the game look better than what's possible with native rendering.

We're now at a stage where NVIDIA's DLSS rendering technology on PC has matured to the point where if it's not included in a major AAA-style release, many begin to wonder why. This led to the recent community backlash and speculation surrounding the PC launch of Starfield, which only featured support for AMD's impressive but inferior FSR 2 technology.

Was its omission a calculated move that was part of the overall partnership between Bethesda and AMD? We'll probably never know, but the good news is that DLSS is officially being integrated into Starfield. The better news? Modders managed to add DLSS Super Resolution and Frame Generation support into the game ahead of its full release in a single day.

NVIDIA is amazed by how easily the technology can inserted into games like Starfield and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (another example of DLSS being modded in), with Bryan Catanzaro, Vice President of Applied Deep Learning Research at NVIDIA, opening up about fan-made DLSS mods in a recent discussion.

Intel's latest driver non-WHQL driver release for Arc graphics (version 31.0.101.4826) not only supports some of the biggest PC game releases on the horizon but also dips into the back catalog to boost performance for a few classics. Namely, Hitman Absolution and Bioshock Infinite, two titles getting a sizable bump to 1080p performance when running on Intel Arc graphics cards.

Up to 17% for Hitman Absolution and 27% for Bioshock Infinite. This builds on the major driver update we got in August, which focused on improving performance on some of the most popular and most-played DirectX 11 titles, including Apex Legends, GTA V, and Overwatch 2.

At the time, Intel told us that the per-game optimizations were being approached from the perspective of what's highest on the Steam charts and then working their way down. Seeing more DirectX 11 titles get some Arc love is great, especially when it arrives alongside Day One support for new titles.

NVIDIA's next-generation GPU architecture, codenamed Blackwell, is the successor to the current Ada Lovelace generation and the beginning of a new era of GPU design for the company. This is due to Blackwell being used for both the company's data center and AI side in addition to consumer GPUs for PC gaming and creators - a shake-up from the Hopper and Ada mix we see today.

Information on Blackwell has been swirling around the internet for a few years, with the early word indicating that the next generation of GPU architecture will adopt a chiplet design similar to AMD's approach with RDNA and the flagship Radeon RX 7900 Series. New info from NVIDIA insider kopite7kimi points to NVIDIA's Blackwell being very different at the top end - between the data center and consumer versions.

GB100, rumored to be the flagship Blackwell GPU, will adopt a chiplet or Multi-Chip Module (MCM) design, pointing to NVIDIA making a major change to packaging. With new info outlining that the consumer flagship GeForce RTX 5090 will use GB202, the PC gaming side will remain monolithic.

Although the GeForce RTX 4090 is still considered to be the absolute pinnacle (and overkill) of modern gaming GPUs capable of delivering triple-digit 4K performance, rumors are already swirling around NVIDIA's next-generation GeForce RTX 50 hardware - specifically the flagship GeForce RTX 5090.

The latest round of information on what will be the top Blackwell architecture cutting-edge 3nm GPU for PC gaming comes via multiple sources: panzerlied at Chiphell, NVIDIA insider Kopite7kimi, and GPU news outlet Videocardz.com. The GeForce RTX 5090 is set to be as much of a monster and upgrade over the previous generation as the GeForce RTX 4090.

First up, though, it looks like NVIDIA will be producing two Blackwell GPU series, one for high-performance computing (HPC) and AI with the 'GB1' label, with 'GB2' GPUs for gaming. So, what's in store for the GeForce RTX 5090 and GB202 GPU? A lot, let's dig in.

FurMark is a lightweight but intensive GPU benchmark tool that pushes graphics hardware (and your system to its absolute limit) and has been a staple part of GPU reviewing for well over a decade. It has also been a source of controversy, or at least a mixed reception, with several instances over the years of GPUs and PCs allegedly failing during or after FurMark tests to the point where hardware required replacing.

To the point where some consider the benchmark a true test of the quality of hardware and a way to test to see if there are any defects in a new product. It's been 16 years since FurMark got its last Version 1.X update, with the developer Geeks3D set to launch Version 2.0 of the application later this month. The latest beta release, v.2.0.10, was released via the Geeks3D Discord channel in late August.

FurMark 2.0 provides the same lightweight user interface to initiate or run custom tests across various resolutions, with expanded support for modern GPUs and resolutions.

You might have seen ASUS's new flagship liquid-cooled ROG Matrix GeForce RTX 4090 all-in-one pop up in a few headlines in recent months. American overclocker Allen "Splave" Golibersuch used the ROG Matrix GeForce RTX 4090 to smash through the 4 GHz boost clock barrier back in July and then followed this up by beating the 3DMark Fire Strike Extreme world record with the same GPU.

So even though it's common knowledge that the GeForce RTX 4090 is the most powerful graphics card available in 2023, there are key differences between models - and some RTX 4090s are just more capable than others - with or without the aid of LN2. Enhanced power delivery and the best of the best components make the ROG Matrix GeForce RTX 4090 the sort of card overclockers look for.

Announced in May of this year, and we got the chance to see an early version of the card up close at Computex 2023, ASUS is finally ready to launch the ROG Matrix GeForce RTX 4090 - with the card's release date set for September 19.