Graphics Cards - Page 90

NVIDIA's Founders Edition models have always been highly sought after as collector's pieces. However, with the release of the GeForce RTX 30 Series, we saw the company debut a stunning new cooler design that has carried through to the GeForce RTX 40 Series. As we saw with the release of the GeForce RTX 3060, NVIDIA again opted out of launching a GeForce RTX 4060 Founders Edition. Leaving all cards released limited to partner models.

With the GeForce RTX 4060's impressive power efficiency and small design, Redditor Clashmains_2 made their own Founders Edition RTX 4060 using the components from a Gainward RTX 3060 Pegasus graphics card. The result is a Mini-ITX form factor design with a single fan, which looks awesome.

It's so good that it looks like the real thing, with Clashmains_2 noting that they recreated the heatsink and PCB in CAD software and modeled the rest around that. From the fins to the metallic finish, it nails the modern GeForce RTX Founders Edition aesthetic while presenting an all-new Mini-ITX version.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti launched in May, and with its MSRP of USD 399 (similar to the launch price of its predecessor, the RTX 3060 Ti), a lot of the feedback around the more mainstream Ada Lovelace GPUs release was that it should have been cheaper based on its performance relative to the competition at that price range.

Just the other day, we reported one of the best deals for graphics cards going around - with the flagship RDNA 3 GPU from AMD, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX, dropping down to USD 799 as part of a promotion over at retailer Newegg - a 20% discount from the USD 999 MSRP. And that comes with a free copy of Starfield as part of AMD's new partnership with Bethesda.

Today, it's the RTX 4060 Ti's turn. No Starfield but a sizable discount from the MSRP, with the MSI GeForce RTX 4060 Ti VENTUS 2X BLACK 8G OC model seeing its already discounted USD 379.99 price dropping even lower - down to USD 334.39. As we saw with the Radeon RX 7900 XTX, the discounted price is applied after using the "ZIPTECH" code during checkout.

The flagship RDNA 3-powered AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX is currently available at its lowest price yet, USD 799 - and yes, it comes with a free copy of Starfield per AMD's new game bundle deal for Ryzen and Radeon products.

The model in question is the ASRock Phantom Gaming Radeon RX 7900 XTX 24GB, which features the company's Polychrome SYNC lighting, Phantom Gaming 3X Cooling System, and metal backplate. It also features an out-of-the-box factory overclock with max clocks up to 2615 MHz - so it should deliver better performance than AMD's reference model.

The discount represents an impressive USD 200 or 20% discount from the USD 999 MSRP. As a 4K gaming card, its direct competitor is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 - which only features 16GB of VRAM compared to the 24GB seen here.

The AMD FidelityFX Software Development Kit (SDK) is now available for developers to download. It gives them an easy one-stop solution for adding AMD FidelityFX tech into games like FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR 1.1 and FSR 2.2.1) and AMD FidelityFX CACAO (AMD FidelityFX Ambient Occlusion).

"The AMD FidelityFX SDK is the result of our aim to bring simplicity, structure, and consistency into all our great AMD FidelityFX technologies," writes AMD in the announcement, which also introduces three brand new FidelityFX tech for developers (and gamers) to play with.

The first is AMD FidelityFX Blur 1.0, a hardware-based "gaussian blur technique" for creating more cinematic visuals. The second is AMD FidelityFX Depth of Field 1.0, which is about recreating the "bokeh depth of field effect produced by camera lenses." Finally, there's AMD FidelityFX Lens 1.0, which also adds access to cinematic tools like chromatic aberration, vignette, and film-grain effects to in-game visuals.

NVIDIA has slightly altered the power connector design on its flagship Lovelace graphics cards, according to a fresh report.

This comes from a Redditor (as spotted by VideoCardz) who posted to show the purported design change on a new RTX 4090 Founders Edition, which theoretically has been made to ensure that the well-publicized instances of cable meltdown no longer happen.

You surely can't have missed the fracas around melting cables after the RTX 4090 was launched, with NVIDIA admitting that if the power cable isn't properly plugged into the graphics card, such a loose connection could cause overheating issues.

NVIDIA's RTX 4060 Ti graphics card with 16GB of VRAM is supposedly launching next week - if the rumors are correct - but word is that reviews will be thin on the ground.

Hardware Unboxed tweeted to let us know that there is no official review program for this 16GB spin on the RTX 4060 Ti, and even outside of NVIDIA - which isn't producing a Founders Edition - the company's graphics card making partners "really don't want to know about it [the 4060 Ti]."

Hardware Unboxed further notes that every NVIDIA partner says they won't be providing any review samples, and they aren't even certain of the launch date (rumored to be July 18).

Last week we saw American overclocker Allen "Splave" Golibersuch break the 4.0 GHz barrier using the flagship liquid-cooled ROG Matrix GeForce RTX 4090 all-in-one from ASUS. An impressive milestone and a conclusion of sorts to a race that was heating up between Splave and German overclocker CENS that saw a back-and-forth over the course of days and weeks to see who could get to 4.0 GHz first.

For a brief moment, CENS held the crown by pushing a Colorful GeForce RTX 4090 iGame LAB to an incredible 3.975 GHz. And although the race to 4.0 GHz is over, this hasn't stopped CENS from grabbing some LN2 and going again with the overclocker posting "a fun one" with a 4095 MHz GPU clock speed, or basically 4090 MHz to match the naming of the GeForce RTX 4090.

CENS posted the results on Twitter with an accompanying picture showing his setup, and it's very cool to see what it looks like when a GPU is pushed beyond what we thought was possible.

NVIDIA is planning to launch the new 16GB variant of the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti this month, but with an MSRP of USD 499, the consensus is that, sure, more VRAM is great to see, but the price is too high for a GPU with the same underlying specs as the 8GB variant.

For MSI and its premium GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Gaming X Slim, we'll see the revised 2-slot cooling design that debuted at Computex 2023 in the stylish white color. Images of the GPU have appeared online via Twitter user hongxing2020, and it also looks like this GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB will use a 16-pin power connector even though it's a 165W graphics card.

It's hard to tell without full specifications, but the connector could also be the new 12V-2x6 power connector seen on the GeForce RTX 4070 Founders Edition model. Interestingly, due to low power requirements, most RTX 4060 Ti models feature the standard 8-pin power connection, so there shouldn't be an issue with the switch to 16-pin.

NVIDIA's RTX 4060 Ti with 16GB of VRAM has been a controversial graphics card since it was first announced, and just ahead of its launch, the divisive feelings around this model are very much still present.

This time we're hearing from NVIDIA's partners who manufacture graphics cards using Team Green's chips, via Andreas Schilling, editor of a German tech site.

Note that we must be cautious about rumors on Twitter, but we're told that Schilling spoke to some add-in board (AIB) makers and that it looks like "very few" are interested in promoting the graphics card in a "big way," as you can see in the tweet.

Here's a bit of a weird one, ASUS is launching a new GeForce RTX 3060 Ti with the 16-pin 12VHPWR connector that debuted with GeForce RTX 40 Series. The 'ATS-RTX3060TI-O8GD6X-GAMING-V2' or ASUS GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Atlas Shark initially made use of the 12-pin connector that we saw across many Ampere GPUs to minimize the need for multiple 8-pin plugs.

Pictures of the new connector on this GPU were posted by Extreme Player over at Bilibili, with confirmation that the new model was shipped to consumers and retailers in April 2023. The physical design looks unchanged outside the switch to the new 16-pin 12VHPWR connector.

Regarding the make-up of the GPU, the older 12-pin and newer 16-pin connectors share the same physical make-up. It's believed that no revisions were required to the rest of the GPU design outside of accommodating the new connector. With the controversy surrounding melting connectors and word of a revision to the existing 12VHPWR coming soon, you might wonder why ASUS has decided to ship a GeForce RTX 3060 Ti with a 16-pin 12VHPWR connector.

Intel's Battlemage GPUs have a sizeable question mark hanging over their future, if one leaker is to be believed - and don't expect these graphics cards to debut any time soon (indeed, if the 2nd-gen products turn up at all - more on that later).

This is from Moore's Law is Dead (MLID), who has got a whole bunch of info from sources with their ears to the ground, and the overall - worrying - message here is that Battlemage has had a whole pile of issues.

Apparently things are so bad with the 2nd-gen range from Intel that its future is "very uncertain," we're told - hinting that it may not even come out. (That cancelation rumor is something Intel has strenuously denied in the past, it has to be noted).

AMD Software Adrenalin Edition 23.7.1 is here for Radeon graphics card owners. Although it doesn't feature anything brand-new in terms of game optimizations for upcoming releases, it does manage to resolve one big issue that has been around since the Radeon RX 7900 XT and Radeon RX 7900 XTX launched in December 2022.

And that is, it resolves the high-idle power issue that became an ongoing issue when pairing either one of these GPUs with a 4K FreeSync display or multimonitor display configuration. Another big fix comes to VR performance, with the release notes for the new Radeon drivers noting that "suboptimal performance or occasional stuttering" when playing VR games on the Radeon RX 7000 series has also been resolved.

It's great to see these fixes from AMD, as it showcases that even though some issues can linger for months, the Radeon team is paying close attention to the 'Known Issues.' Hopefully, we'll see the 'Factory Reset' installation issue resolved soon, too - as that one has been listed for a while after reports of the feature causing havoc with Windows.

NVIDIA's RTX 4060 Ti graphics card launched in an initial incarnation that offered 8GB of VRAM, much to the chagrin of many gamers, and if you were waiting for the 16GB variant, it's almost at hand now.

We already knew that NVIDIA was planning on bringing the 16GB flavor out in July, of course, but we're still not sure exactly when - info that MEGAsizeGPU, a regular hardware leaker on Twitter has provided.

As ever, treat this with a good deal of caution, but the theory is that the RTX 4060 Ti 16GB will emerge on July 18, which is just under a fortnight away.

The race to achieve a boost clock frequency of 4 GHz on a GPU looks to be over, with American overclocker Allen "Splave" Golibersuch hitting this milestone moments ago, recording a GPUPI V3.3 - 32B result of 4005 MHz.

Bang on 4 GHz, and although the HWBOT submission outlines a 45sec 402ms run with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 at 4005 MHz - we assume this is the same flagship liquid-cooled ROG Matrix GeForce RTX 4090 all-in-one from ASUS he used to achieve a 3.94 GHz result just days ago.

The race to 4 GHz has been heating up recently, with overclocker Cens pushing a Colorful GeForce RTX 4090 iGame LAB to an incredible 3.975 GHz reclaiming the OC crown. We posted that achievement earlier today, so Splave hitting 4 GHz looks to have made that world record attempt somewhat short-lived.

Recently we reported on NVIDIA working with PCI-SIG to redesign the 12VHPWR connector for the GeForce RTX 40 Series with the new 12V-2x6 power connector as part of the new ATX 3.1 standard. This revelation came to light via an extensive report at Igor's Lab outlining how adjustments to pin depth help alleviate issues with the connection not being seated or plugged in correctly.

The outlet has now posted an additional report showing that the GeForce RTX 4070 Founders Edition model from NVIDIA features a modified 12VHPWR connector compared to what was seen on the GeForce RTX 4080 Founders Edition.

It notes that the RTX 4070 connector features a 1.7 mm inward offset for the sensor pins, compared to the 0.45 mm offset for the RTX 4080, and this is similar to what is being planned for the new 12V-2x6 connector being developed.

The race to hit and sustain a 4 GHz boost clock frequency on a GPU is heating up, with the Colorful GeForce RTX 4090 iGame LAB reclaiming the OC crown after being overclocked to an incredible 3.975 GHz. This new world record arrives just a couple of days after ASUS posted its result of 3.94 GHz for its new flagship GPU the ROG Matrix GeForce RTX 4090.

Of course, these results result from extreme overclocking with LN2 cooling and see hardware makers partner with veteran and talented OC masters. On the ASUS side, it partnered with overclocker SPLAVE; for Colorful, that's overclocker Cens.

And with Cens managing to get within 25 MHz of the 4 GHz barrier, there's a good chance we might see that barrier being smashed very soon.

Intel Arc A380 represents the company's entry-level discrete gaming GPU, priced below USD 150 at retail outlets. Thanks to its excellent video support, it's the sort of GPU perfect for older systems or hybrid media servers. And with that, ASRock has unveiled its new Intel Arc A380 Low Profile 6GB graphics card with a height of just 69mm and a length of 169mm.

Specs-wise, you've got the ACM-G11 GPU with 1,024 stream processors, clock speeds of 2.0GHz, and 6GB of GDDR6 memory on a 96-bit bus. As an entry-level GPU, it's not meant to play the latest games with detail settings cranked up, but based on reviews, it can certainly hold its own when dialing things down - which is expected for an entry-level product.

One plus of the Intel Arc A380 is that it doesn't require any external power or cable to be connected, with the 75W of motherboard power via the PCIe slot being enough. ASRock's Intel Arc A380 Low Profile 6GB features a robust design, with its twin-fan cooling also offering a 0dB mode - a big plus if you plan to put one in a media PC.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is a powerful GPU. Per our review of the Founders Edition model last year, we noted that it trumped both the RTX 3090 and RTX 3090 Ti regarding in-game performance with superior efficiency and cooling. The RTX 4080 is a 4K beast, with the big sticking point from many being its price point of USD 1,199.

This is a fair point of criticism because no matter how advanced its high-end Ada Lovelace architecture might be - the price increase over the previous generation saw potential buyers simply looking toward the flagship GeForce RTX 4090 as a better option. There's also something to be said about exceeding the USD 1,000 barrier for a gaming GPU, which makes the idea of a USD 999 GeForce RTX 4080 16GB graphics card seem far better.

And that's what's on offer over at Newegg, with the MSI Ventus GeForce RTX 4080 16GB GDDR6X available for USD 999 after taking a further $100 off its discounted USD 1,099 price via a coupon.

NVIDIA's newly launched RTX 4060 GPU is already getting substantial price cuts in Europe, and the latest to be spotted brings the graphics card a full 10% under its MSRP - plus there are similar cuts to the 4060 Ti and AMD RX 7600, too.

This price-cutting action is happening at Spanish online retailer CoolMod, which has the Inno3D RTX 4060 Twin X2 reduced from €340 down to €300 (technically, the MSRP is €335).

As VideoCardz, which spotted this, points out, there are similar reductions on the RTX 4060 Ti, which is 11% below MSRP (at €400 for a Palit model) and an even bigger 13% drop with the RX 7600 (down to €260).

DLSS has a new 'Ultra Quality' mode, and the first game to implement it is the recently released F1 23 - at least, that's what we assumed. This new DLSS Super Resolution setting isn't about boosting performance but improving a game's visual fidelity with NVIDIA's AI-based DLAA anti-aliasing tech.

This means the new DLSS 'Ultra Quality' mode doesn't take a lower-resolution image as the input; it uses AI to improve image quality at your native resolution to deliver better results than techniques like TAA and MSAA. As long as you've got the frame to spare, it makes DLSS a single package that can handle all AA and upscaling tasks. However, the option appearing with the 'Ultra Quality' name in F1 23 was an error.

Early reports for its use in F1 23 (as seen at DSOG) note that the image quality looks superior to native 4K rendering with TAA with nearly identical performance regarding frame rate. A statement from NVIDIA clarified the confusion about what 'Ultra Quality' was doing, noting that "this was an error in naming, this is DLAA and will be updated in a future patch."