GPUs & Graphic Cards

28 August 2008 - The GECUBE team has now developed a more advanced offering in the form of the HD4850 1.0GB Overclocking series. The new HD4850 1.0GB Overclocking series includes an exclusive ceramic fan that delivers not only an ultra-quiet working environment, but also extreme performance with core and memory frequencies of up to 650MHz/993*2MHz.

26 August 2008 - VR-Zone has learned that Nvidia is moving on to 40nm process much quicker than expected. Nvidia is usually conservative when moving on to a finer process technology but seems like this time round, they are determined to get there ahead of AMD. This move is risky but probably Nvidia has done some serious simulation and prototyping to estimate the yield and stability of the TSMC 40G process technology. The first GPUs on 40nm process technology will be the mobile parts codenamed N10x, the successor to the current 65/55nm NB9x. Nvidia is expected to apply a die shrink to their desktop parts too to lower cost and thermal envelope so there might be a chance to see a GX2 solution for GT200.

22 August 2008 - We revealed some information earlier on how the Radeon HD 4600 series cards will perform and now here are some photos on the card itself.

20 August 2008 - TUL today announced PCS+ HD4870 1GB solution, special cooling design delivers amazing gaming performance. Difference with reference board design, PowerColor PCS+ HD4870 1GB uses ZeroTherm exclusive cooling system, included dual S-shape heatpipe and 94pcs fin design, with 4 phase core power on-board, efficiently reduces up to 10°C temperatures. PowerColor PCS+ HD4870 1GB based on RV770 core chip, with 800 stream processors and GDDR5 high-speed memory, clocks at 800MHz core speed and 925 MHz effective memory speed.

20 August 2008 - With the powerful enhance of Golden Sample version, Gainward HD 4870 Golden Sample graphics comes with 775 MHz core clock, 4000MHz memory clock and 800 units of stream processors, 512MB or 1024MB high speed DDR5 memory and 256bits memory bandwidth with PCI-express 2.0 interface supports. To enhance more benefits for end-users, Gainward HD 4870 Golden Sample designed with dual BIOS and dual fan technology. Besides a better tri-heat-pipe design, GAINWARD also improved the thermal design with dual fan solution.

14 August 2008 - Gainward announced it’s own design graphics card of HD4850 chipset, the Gainward HD4850 graphics cards to the market. From performance point of view, the GAINWARD HD4850 Golden Sample brings a 700MHz core clock and 1100MHz memory clock, designed with higher efficiency heatpipe and special cover for better protection and air flow.

12 August 2008 - AMD today announced that it has entered into an agreement with Blizzard Entertainment® that will allow AMD to bundle Blizzard’s best games across all ATI Radeon™ graphics products, to deliver a superior gaming experience. As the exclusive graphics sponsor for BlizzCon™ 2008 in Anaheim, Oct. 10-11, AMD will treat gamers to the unparalleled graphics capabilities of the ATI Radeon™ HD 4800 series in all PCs for game play at BlizzCon™.

9 August 2008 - This new version of the HD 4850 has been production engineered by SAPPHIRE to bring a number of benefits to the end user. Still carrying 512MB of DDR3 memory and offering the same performance as the original model based on the reference design, with clock speeds of 625MHz (core) and 993MHz (memory), the SAPPHIRE model features a revised PCB layout with quality components and a new dual slot cooler with copper core which delivers more efficient and quieter operation. This version is shipping from the first week in August and will be available at a lower price than the launch model.

27 August 2008 - We have rounded up several brands of the GeForce 9400 GT cards. It is 55nm based G96 cores and has no SLI support.

22 August 2008 - Palit announces the own design Radeon™ HD 4870 Sonic Dual Edition, which is a revolutionary graphics solution with dual bios and dual fan. With dual bios design, Palit Radeon™ HD 4870 Sonic Dual Edition has a core frequency of 750 MHz and 512 MB of cutting edge GDDR5 memory at 3.8 GHz. With a flick of the “Smart Switch” button the card will turbocharge to 4GHz memory speed and 775 MHz core!

21 August 2008 - AMD is slated to launch the Radeon HD 4600 series on September 10th and now we managed to get our hands on some benchmarks compared to HD 3850 and 9500GT cards. RV730 has 320 SP (same as RV670), 32 texture (2x RV670), 8/32 color/Z(1/2 RV670 on color and same as RV670 on Z). HD 4670 (RV730XT) is clocked at 750MHz core and 2GHz GDDR3 memory while HD 4650 (RV730PRO) is clocked at 650Mhz core and 1GHz GDDR2 memory. Under 3DMark Vantage, HD 4670 scored P35xx while HD 4650 scored P21xx. In comparison, HD 3850 DDR2 scored P32xx and 9500GT DDR3 scored P19xx.

20 August 2008 - ZOTAC announced the two latest additions to its silent ZONE Edition product lineup – the ZOTAC GeForce 9500GT DDR2 and GeForce 9500GT DDR3 ZONE Editions. The ZOTAC GeForce 9500GT DDR2 and GeForce 9500GT DDR3 ZONE Editions eliminate noise from the graphics card by replacing the active GPU cooler on ZOTAC GeForce 9500GT DDR2 and GeForce 9500GT DDR3 models. In place of the active GPU cooler is a large passive cooler that allows the ZOTAC GeForce 9500GT ZONE Editions to operate silently.

14 August 2008 - NVIDIA has posted their first quarterly loss in 5 years and one of the underlying reason is the $200M charge for fixing the die packaging problem on the mobile GPUs. Apparently, this problem might affect certain desktop parts too as Nvidia has recently issued a PCN to their customers informing that they are changing the underfill material for their G86 desktop products from Namics 8439-1 to Hitachi 3730. There might be a chance that this problem could surface on other parts that uses the same underfill material.

13 August 2008 - Available for free from www.nvidia.com/theforcewithin, the PhysX-enabled content from this first GeForce Power Pack includes: • Warmonger—Full free game! Destroy walls, floors, and whole buildings to open up new paths or close existing ones. • Unreal Tournament 3 PhysX Mod Pack—includes three maps with amazing effects that fundamentally change the gameplay • A sneak peek at the upcoming Nurien social networking service, based on the Unreal Engine 3 (with built-in benchmark) • A sneak peek at the upcoming game Metal Knight Zero (with built-in benchmark) • All new NVIDIA “The Great Kulu” tech demo that showcases the use of PhysX soft bodies in a real game play environment • All new NVIDIA “Fluid” tech demo—a simulation of realistic fluid effects with a variety of liquids

12 August 2008 - AMD has officially announced Radeon HD 4870 X2 graphics card today and VR-Zone has rounded up several partners' offerings from HSI, MSI, ASUS, Palit, Sapphire, Club3D, PowerColor, GeCube, Force3D, Gainward

9 August 2008 - Sapphire introduces two new professional graphics accelerators – ATI FirePro™ V5700 and ATI FirePro™ V3700.ATI FirePro V5700 also features 512MB of frame buffer memory, dual link DVI and Display Port connections while ATI FirePro™ V3700 graphics accelerator features 256 MB of frame buffer memory, two dual-link DVI connectors and VGA mode support on all display outlets. The new ATI FirePro V3700 is generally available, and the ATI FirePro V5700 is expected to begin shipping in September 2008.