NVIDIA sends GeForce GTX 550 Ti into the $150 graphics card wars

It wasn’t that long ago that we were commending ATI on the stellar regularity of its product launches while NVIDIA was floundering, yet now the roles are reversed and we’re seeing NVIDIA flesh out its second generation of Fermi products with the midrange GeForce GTX 550 Ti presented today. Its biggest attraction is a $150 price tag, but it makes a major concession in order to reach that pricing plateau — there are only 192 CUDA cores inside it, equal to the previous-gen GTS 450, but less than the celebrated GTX 460. NVIDIA tries to ameliorate that shortage of parallel processing units by running the ones it has at an aggressive 1800MHz allied to a 900MHz graphics clock speed, and it also throws in a gigabyte of RAM running at an effective rate of 4GHz. That too is constrained somewhat, however, by a 192-bit interface, rather than the wider 256-bit affair on its bigger brother GTX 560 Ti. What all these specs boil down is some decent performance, but few recommendations from reviewers — mostly due to the abundance of compelling alternatives at nearby price points. Hit up the links below for more.

Read – AnandTech
Read – Tech Report
Read – Guru3D
Read – PC Perspective
Read – techPowerUp!
Read – Hexus

NVIDIA sends GeForce GTX 550 Ti into the $150 graphics card wars originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Mar 2011 09:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVGA GeForce GTX 460 2Win has ‘double the win,’ becomes NVIDIA’s first dual-Fermi graphics card

Why, it was only yesterday that we were eyeballing a dual-GF104 board from Galaxy, presuming it an artifact of a 2010 project that went nowhere, but there’s at least one NVIDIA partner that’s going to deliver exactly such a creation, and soon at that! EVGA has just set loose the details of a new GTX 460 2Win graphics card, which ticks along at 700MHz, has 672 cumulative CUDA cores served by 2GB of GDDR5, and reportedly collects more 3D Marks than NVIDIA’s finest card out at the moment, the GTX 580. The company also gleefully reports that pricing of the 2Win model will be lower than the 580’s. It’s interesting that NVIDIA is opting for a pair of the older-gen GF104 Fermi chips here, but then again, those have been big winners with critics and price-sensitive gamers alike, with many touting the use of two GTX 460s in SLI as a more sensible solution than the elite single-card options. Well, now you have both, in a manner of speaking. Skip past the break to see EVGA’s latest in the flesh.

[Thanks, Ben]

Continue reading EVGA GeForce GTX 460 2Win has ‘double the win,’ becomes NVIDIA’s first dual-Fermi graphics card

EVGA GeForce GTX 460 2Win has ‘double the win,’ becomes NVIDIA’s first dual-Fermi graphics card originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Mar 2011 02:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Visualized: NVIDIA’s dual-Fermi card that never was

PAX East 2011, which kicks off tomorrow, is widely expected to finally deliver a dual-GPU solution from NVIDIA’s Fermi family of graphics chips, a PCI Express-saturating single-card workhorse to be known as the GTX 590. While we wait for its arrival, however, here’s a sentimental look back upon 2010 and another little prototype that NVIDIA had kicking around its labs back then. Emerging over in a Chinese forum, this dual-GPU board features two GF104 chips (the same that made the GTX 460 such a winner) and a snow white PCB paintjob that makes it look utterly irresistible. We’re loving the four DVI outputs and, just like you, have no idea why this card never came out, but that shouldn’t obstruct the enjoyment of looking at the darn thing. More pics after the break.

Continue reading Visualized: NVIDIA’s dual-Fermi card that never was

Visualized: NVIDIA’s dual-Fermi card that never was originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 10 Mar 2011 06:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AMD launches Radeon HD 6990 powerhouse for $699, maintains ‘world’s fastest’ title

If you’re scoring at home, NVIDIA currently holds the lead in single-GPU graphics cards with its GeForce GTX 580, but ATI’s dual-chip Radeon HD 5970 has been holding down the absolute speed crown for a good long while. Now, bearing the name of AMD Radeon HD 6990, its successor sidles up to the throne and demands attention as the fastest single expansion board you can plug into your shiny new motherboard. The 6990 boasts a massive 4GB of GDDR5, 3,072 Stream Processors, 64 ROPs, and an 830MHz core clock speed. A dual-BIOS switch will let you crank that clock up to 880MHz with a corresponding increase in voltage, but don’t expect to see much overclocking headroom above that.

Reviewers note, alongside their fawning assessment of the world’s best performance, that the HD 6990 is a massively power-hungry card (375W TDP) and one that makes quite a bit of noise while going through its herculean tasks. That’s in spite of a new vapor chamber cooling system that allegedly supports up to 450W of thermal output. If all this strikes you as a somewhat flawed execution, maybe you’ll join us in hoping NVIDIA’s imminently upcoming response, dubbed the GTX 590, will be able to offer a neater, more efficient assault on the extreme peaks of graphical performance.

Read – HardOCP
Read – AnandTech
Read – Tech Report
Read – PC Perspective
Read – techPowerUp!
Read – Hot Hardware
Read – Hexus

AMD launches Radeon HD 6990 powerhouse for $699, maintains ‘world’s fastest’ title originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 Mar 2011 00:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Imagination Technologies’ PowerVR SGX543MP2 really is faster, better, stronger (video)

You may have heard of the PowerVR SGX543MP — you know, the GPU behind Sony’s NGP and possibly on its way to the iPad 2 and iPhone 5 — but chances are, you’ve yet to see it working up close. Well, feast your graphics-hungry eyes on this: that’s Futuremark’s Tai Chi benchmark running on a tellingly sheathed device at GDC 2011, working the MP2 (dual-core) iteration of the processor, and that fine smartphone to its right is the Nexus S, sporting the PowerVR SGX540 you’ve come to know and love. As you can tell, Imagination Technologies’ promises of 4X the performance aren’t just baseless boasts — the lady on the left moves with grace and fluidity, while her counterpart on the right is all sorts of herky-jerky. Think that’s fast? Check out what the GPU can do with two more cores.

Sean Hollister contributed to this report.

Imagination Technologies’ PowerVR SGX543MP2 really is faster, better, stronger (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Mar 2011 09:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Radeon HD 6990 pictured, GeForce GTX 590 rumored for PAX East 2011 reveal

Multiple cores are old hat, particularly in the GPU world where you can have hundreds of simultaneous processing units working in concert, but multiple GPUs on the same PCB, that’s still exciting territory (not least because of the crazy thermal and power requirements that go with it). AMD and NVIDIA are set to clash horns on this field of battle once again, fishing for mindshare as much as they are for high premium sales, with the Radeon HD 6990 and GeForce GTX 590, respectively. The former has already slipped out of the shadows of mystery to reveal a size slightly longer than an A4 sheet of paper, while the latter is being rumored for an unveiling at the PAX East 2011 gamer gathering. Expected GTX 590 specs include 1024 total CUDA cores, 3GB of onboard RAM with dual 384-bit memory controllers, and three DVI outputs for some single-card 3D Vision Surround gaming. This year’s PAX East is kicking off on March 11th and AMD is also looking very close to launching its part, so you should need no more than a couple of weeks’ worth of patience before everything about the latest and greatest from both camps is known.

Radeon HD 6990 pictured, GeForce GTX 590 rumored for PAX East 2011 reveal originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Feb 2011 12:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AMD Radeon HD 6970M reviewed: major leap from HD 5870M, not quite a GTX 485M

What has 960 shaders, two gigabytes of dedicated GDDR5 memory with throughput of 115.2GBps, and the ability to churn 680 million polygons each and every second? Yes, the Radeon HD 6970M. AMD’s fastest mobile chip to date has been doing the review rounds recently and the response has been unsurprisingly positive. Most modern games failed to trip up the 6970M even at 1920 x 1080 resolution, though the usual suspects of Crysis and Metro 2033 did give it a little bit of grief. All in all, the leap from the HD 5870M was significant, although NVIDIA’s still relatively new GeForce GTX 485M has managed to hold on to its crown as the most powerful GPU on the mobile front. Benchmarks, architectural details, battery life tests (what battery life?), and value-adding enhancements await at the links below.

AMD Radeon HD 6970M reviewed: major leap from HD 5870M, not quite a GTX 485M originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Feb 2011 09:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AMD has a 5W Fusion APU to put in your future tablet of choice

The same Singapore event that brought us our first look at AMD’s humongous Radeon HD 6990 has also served as the stage for the company’s first showing of a new, even lower-powered Fusion APU. The regular dual-core Ontario (C-50) variant requires a 9W power budget to operate, but AMD’s managed to shrink that down to 5W in a chip designed specifically to be used in tablets. Clock speed remains at 1GHz and the core count hasn’t bee touched, but the memory controller has been dumbed down and peripheral ports have been reduced to one of each type. This streamlined C-50 has already found a home in Acer’s 10.1-inch Windows 7 tablet and should prove decently popular among manufacturers looking for an x86 alternative to the coming tidal wave of ARM-based devices.

AMD has a 5W Fusion APU to put in your future tablet of choice originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Jan 2011 06:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Softpedia, Netbook News  |  sourcePC Watch  | Email this | Comments

Android Honeycomb port for Nook Color gets graphics acceleration, first demo video

Can’t wait until February 2nd to see more of Android 3.0 in action? That’s not a problem, as today we’ve got a whole 129 seconds of video showing Google’s latest mobile software doing its thing on the Nook Color. The OS was ported to B&N’s tablet on Friday, when we were promised further work would be taking place over the weekend to enable hardware acceleration of the GUI, and what do you know, that goal has been achieved with plenty of Sunday to spare! Most core functionality is still not available, but the delicious Honeycomb interface is very much in effect. Jump past the break for the eye candy feast.

[Thanks, Jules]

Continue reading Android Honeycomb port for Nook Color gets graphics acceleration, first demo video

Android Honeycomb port for Nook Color gets graphics acceleration, first demo video originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 30 Jan 2011 07:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AMD Radeon HD 6990 shows up in its metallic flesh, looking larger than life

What does the next great superpower of desktop graphics look like? Well, it shares an unmistakable family resemblance to the current champ, but its dimensions have somehow been made even larger. Yes, we’re talking about AMD’s Radeon HD 6990 — a dual-GPU monstrosity that’s set to serve as the company’s 2011 flagship — which has just been shown off at an Asia Pacific Fusion Tech Day gathering. Aside from the crazy imagery (one more after the break and a gallery at the source), we’ve found a promise that this polygon deliverator will be available in late Q1 2011. Which gives us just enough time to rent out a room big enough to house it. Now, when’s Crysis 2 coming out?

[Thanks, Christopher]

Continue reading AMD Radeon HD 6990 shows up in its metallic flesh, looking larger than life

AMD Radeon HD 6990 shows up in its metallic flesh, looking larger than life originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Jan 2011 07:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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