Just because you own an iPad 2, it doesn’t mean you have to purchase the Apple-official Smart Cover—but it’s likely that you’ll still want to take advantage of its (incredibly cool) auto-wake feature. So we’ve rounded up all the third-party iPad 2 cases with magnetic sensors, just for you. More »
1,024 total CUDA cores, 94 ROPs, and 3GB of GDDR5 RAM on board. Yup, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590 is indeed a pair of GTX 580 chips spliced together, however power constraints have meant that each of those chips is running at a tamer pace that their single-card variant. The core clock speed is down to 607MHz, shaders are only doing 1.2GHz, and the memory clocks in at 3.4GHz. Still, there’s a ton of grunt under that oversized shroud and reviewers have put it to the test against AMD’s incumbent single-card performance leader, the Radeon HD 6990. Just like the GTX 590, it sports a pair of AMD’s finest GPUs and costs a wallet-eviscerating $699. Alas, after much benchmarking, testing, and staring at extremely beautiful graphics, the conclusion was that AMD retains its title. But only just. And, as Tech Report points out, the GTX 590 has a remarkably quiet cooler for a heavy duty pixel pusher of its kind. Dive into the reviews below to learn more, or check the new card out on video after the break.
Read – AnandTech
Read – HardOCP
Read – Tech Report
Read – PC Perspective
Read – Guru 3D
Read – X-bit labs
Read – Hot Hardware
Read – techPowerUp!
Read – TechSpot
Continue reading NVIDIA’s dual-GPU GeForce GTX 590 emerges, can’t slay the Radeon HD 6990 titan
NVIDIA’s dual-GPU GeForce GTX 590 emerges, can’t slay the Radeon HD 6990 titan originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Mar 2011 09:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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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.
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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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The iPad 2 is here. And yeah, it’s pretty great. Despite the early looks, we’re still finding surprises. Like? The screen is definitely better than the original iPad’s. That’s just the beginning. More »
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
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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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How will tomorrow’s pharmaceuticals boost your brainpower? More »
The iPad 2 is coming. We told you what’s likely to happen when Tim Cook takes the stage to show off the next-generation iPad. Today, at 1 PM EST, you can see it unveiled live, right here on live.gizmodo.com, as we provide meta liveblog coverage of the ceremonies. [Gizmodo Live] More »
We thought OCZ’s Vertex 3 Pro was some flaming hot stuff, but solid state storage reviewers have mind-boggling news — the plain ol’ Vertex 3 will bring the same completely ludicrous 550MB / sec read speeds (plus even faster 525MB / sec writes) at a down-to-earth price. Previews found the Vertex 3’s new SandForce SF-2281 controller and Micron 25nm flash memory chips edged out even its own enterprise-grade cousin in nearly every test — with a few anomalies here and there — and were reportedly too fast to achieve full performance with any SATA 6Gbps controller save the one in Intel’s new Cougar Point chipset. Best of all, they claim that OCZ’s targeting a price of just $250 for the 120GB version, or $500 for the 240GB drive benched here. That’s still a chunk of change, but considering current-gen 120GB SSDs still cost over $200 street, it sounds like OCZ and SandForce are setting a bar that will drive down prices across the board. We can’t wait.
Read – AnandTech
Read – Hot Hardware
Read – Legit Reviews
Read – PC Perspective
Read – Storage Review
OCZ’s consumer-grade Vertex 3 SSD gets benched, SandForce SF-2281 helps it spank competition originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 27 Feb 2011 15:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Ah, NVIDIA, how far you’ve come. This time last year we were all wondering if your first Fermi GPUs would operate successfully without a nuclear reactor in our backyards, yet today you’re introducing a successor to one of the best value-for-money GPUs the PC gaming world has seen in ages. Yes, the GTX 560 Ti has mighty big shoes to fill, but it’s off to a good start with 384 CUDA cores running at 1645MHz, 1GB of GDDR5 RAM running at an effective rate of 4GHz, and an 822MHz graphics clock — each one a clear and pronounced upgrade over its GTX 460 predecessor. You’ll have to check out the reviews below for a detailed breakdown of what those numbers will mean on a game-by-game basis, but there’s another way in which this new card is proving its impact already.
ATI AMD has (conveniently) chosen to cut the prices of its Radeon HD 6870 and HD 6950 cards today, while also outing an HD 6950 with just 1GB of onboard memory to serve as a direct competitor to NVIDIA’s latest. Competition, ladies and gentlemen, it’s an awesome thing.
Read – HardOCP
Read – Tech Report
Read – PC Perspective
Read – techPowerUp!
Read – AnandTech
Read – Bit-tech
Read – TechSpot
Read – TweakTown
Read – Hot Hardware
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti: second-generation Fermi for the $250 mainstream originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Jan 2011 09:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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