GPU-Z gets updated to v0.7.0

 

Brings support for upcoming Radeon HD 7990 Malta

 

Techpowerup have released a new version of GPU-Z, its popular graphics subsystem information, diagnostic, and monitoring utility. The new version brings updated and added support for various GPUs including the upcoming Radeon HD 7990 Malta and also fixes some bugs found in the previous versions

 

In addition to the support for Radeon HD 7990 Malta dual-GPU graphics card, the new GPU-Z v0.7.0 also brings support for Radeon HD 8550M, HD 7340, HD 7290 and HD 8670D Richland GPUs as well as Nvidia-based Geforce GTX 680MX, GTX 675MX, GT 218, and the 9400 GT GPUs

As far as improvements and bug fixes are concerned, the new GPU-Z v0.7.0 fixes TMU count for the RV620 GPU as well as fixed voltage monitoring on the recently released AMD Radeon HD 7790 graphics cards

You can find the new GPU-Z v0.7.0 here

Asus PCIe-based SSD Raidr pixellized and detailed

Up to 830MB/s and 810MB/s read and write

  

Asus appears to be getting ready to release their first storage device, a PCIe storage card that will be a part of the Republic of Gamers line of products

Based on dual LSI Sandforce SF-2281 controllers paired up with Toshiba's 19nm 16K page size MLC synchronous NAND flash chips, the new Asus Raidr will offer some impressive sequential read and write performance of up to 830MB/s and 810MB/s with 4K read and write both set at 100k IOPS. Since we are talking about PCIe-based SSD it of course features the PCI-Express 2.0 x2 interface

The Raidr will be available in 120 and 240GB capacities for starters and while the 240GB one offers the aforementioned transfer speeds, the 120GB one is slightly "slower" at 765MB/s read and 775MB/s write. The Raidr comes with support for TRIM, has 128-bit AES data encryption support while the load and idle power consumption is at 16 and 7 Watts

Ocaholic.ch did a nice photo-shoot session with the new Asus ROG Raird which you can find here

Toshiba introduces ultra hi-res 13-incher

Odd name, 221ppi screen

       

Toshiba is stepping up its ultrabook game a notch, with an all new ultra high resolution 13-incher

 

It is called the Kirabook and it is a sign of things to come, as it is supposed to be the first in a line of Kira products. We’re not entirely sure about the name, but we like everything else

The 13-incher features a 2560x1440, 221ppi display. A 10-point touchscreen with Gorilla Glass is optional. It will ship with a range of Ivy Core i5 and Core i7 chips, 8GB of 1600MHz DDR3 and a 256GB SSD. It packs three USB 3.0 ports, HDMI, memory card reader, Bluetooth 4.0 and a Li-Poly battery, which is supposed to deliver all-day battery life

The rest of the spec just screams premium. It has a couple of Harman Kardon speakers with DTS audio processing, two microphones and an HD webcam. All this is packed in a 1.18kg chassis constructed from a pressed magnesium alloy and it measures just 0.7 inches at the waistline

The first Kiras should ship in May. There’s no word on pricing yet, but judging by the spec it will end up very pricey indeed

Asus Qube Google TV box coming on April 23rd

 

With Marvell 1500 Armada SoC

  

Asus is apparently preparing for the launch of its first smart TV device, the Asus Qube. Previously seen back at CES 2013 in Las Vegas, the Asus Qube might end up to be quite a neat little device to have next to your TV screen

Specification wise, the Asus Qube is based on Marvell's ARMADA 1500 media SoC and comes with 1GB of RAM and 4GB of storage space. Asus will also throw in 50GB of free Asus cloud storage and a neat looking remote control with QWERTY keyboard. As is the case with most Android systems, it will be able to stream content from Amazon, Google Play, Netflix, HBOGo, Pandora and others

The Asus Qube should launch in the USA on the 23rd of April with a US $129 price tag

Asus officially ships 13.3-inch Taichi 31 notebook

Dual-screen hybrid

    

After getting a lot of press attention with its 11.6-inch Taichi 21 hybrid dual-screen notebook, Asus has now started to ship its bigger 13.3-inch sibling, the Taichi 31. Featuring two 13.3-inch full HD IPS touchscreens on both sides of the lid, the Taichi 31 can be used as a standard notebook, tablet, or even as a presentation device with an extra screen

The Taichi 31 will be available with a couple of Core i5 or i7 processors, 4GB of RAM and various SSD storage options. It has a rear facing 5-megapixel camera, 720p front one, noise-suppressing array microphone and Band & Olufsen ICEpower sound system. The rest of the features include dual-band 802.11bgn WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, WiDi support and two USB 3.0 ports for connectivity

The battery life is rated at around seven hours, at least according to Asus. Unfortunately, Asus did not announce prices of any SKU but you can expect it to go well over US $1500.

Haswell Crystal Well has L4 cache for iGPU

Core i7 exclusive

Haswell will save your battery, Haswell has connected stand by, it promises higher performance per clock and for some it is important that. It also gets significantly better graphics

Since Intel makes huge dies, it won't be a problem to squeeze some L4 (fourth level cache) to boost memory bandwidth and lower the latency in some of its Haswell SKUs. The Haswell variant that is internally known as Crystal Well offers much larger L4 cache

The size of the cache is not clear, but we heard that there can be up to 64MB cache dedicated for graphics. This does sound a bit too much

From the mouth of engineers in the Far East, it could be that the L4 cache remains dedicated only for the GPU, but the other independent sources claim that L1, L2, L3 and L4 memory will be shared between CPU and GPU. We will have to look into which of these two theories is right

Crystal Well is reserved for GT3 based highest end processors from Intel, and we have heard that it remains an exclusive technology for Core i7 processors. You will have to pay up to enjoy it

L4 cache is nothing new to the GPU world and consoles have been using such cache to make the texture and antialiasing faster on them. Dedicated cache on GPUs has been considered by Nvidia and ATI (even before the 2006 AMD acquisition) for years. The main obstacle was always that the transistor count for GPU cache memory was very high and it would result in a huge chip, something that semiconductor manufacturers tend to avoid

It will be interesting to see Haswell Crystal Well in action when it launches later this year, but we are certain that we can see a huge performance leap from Intel Ivy Bridge 4000 series graphics

Haswell-E supports DDR4

4-channel memory. 

Even before Ivy Bridge-E hits the market, Intel is busy working on a successor to this ultra high end processor simply codenamed Haswell E. Ivy Bridge-E is on schedule to launch in Q3 2013, using the same LGA 2011 socket, existing X79 chipset as well as four channel DDR3 1866 support

There have been some rumours that Intel even considered cancelling this chipset in favour of speeding up the launch of Haswell-E, the next generation high end enthusiast chip, but so far that hasn’t been announced to partners

Haswell-E has support for upcoming DDR4 memory as well four channel memory, promising much more bandwidth compared to the previous generation. It comes with up to 12 or 16 cores and should deliver tons of computing power

Looking at the server side of things, four channel DDR4 memory and 12 to 16 cores will make a great chip for high end servers and sitting at 130W. It won't save a lot of trees in the Amazon, but it will offer a lot of compute power. At current schedule Haswell-E should show up in later part of 2014, in case Intel doesn’t change its mind and speed up the introduction of this new enthusiast core

E is supposed to have DDR4 IMC, but DDR4 is still quite far from being finalized and mass produced

Powercolor teases passive HD 7850

Powercolor HD 7850 SCS3 coming

  

Powercolor shared a quite interesting picture at its Facebook page, showing a fully passive Radeon HD 7850 graphics card

Although it did not reveal any precise details regarding the new HD 7850 SCS3 graphics card, it is safe to assume that the card will be based on reference clocks set at 860MHz for the GPU and 4.8GHz for 1 or 2GB of GDDR5 memory paired up with a 256-bit memory interface. The Powercolor HD 7850 SCS3 will actually be the only passively cooled HD 7850 once it appears in retail/e-tail, at least as far as we know

The new graphics card uses what appears to be a reference PCB, takes two although we do not doubt that the SCS3 will be able to cope with HD 7850 temperatures when it comes to passively cooled graphics cards a good case airflow is a must. It features DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort outputs and it appears that it will need a single 6-pin PCI-Express power connector

Unfortunately, Powercolor did not shed any details regarding the actual release date or the price

OCZ working on 20nm SSD refresh

Both Vector and Vertex to get it

  

Ever since we heard a rumor regarding OCZ's Vertex 5 series SSDs, we have been asking around and once again our sources came through and gave us a clear picture of what we can expect from OCZ pretty soon

The rumor from Nordichardware was somewhat accurate, as OCZ is indeed working on a new Vertex SSD with 20nm MLC NAND flash memory. According to our sources, we will also see a new controller that, although based on Barefoot 3 design, is a new, or to be precise an optimized respin that will feature some sort of power saving opimization. It is still not clear if the performance would benefit from the respin

The name Vertex 5 is not carved in stone as our source points out and although it has been mentioned a couple of times it might also end up to be Vertex 4.20, something that OCZ already did with the Vertex 3. Until the boxes go out to printing the name can be changed easily

In addition to the new Vertex 4, our sources point out that OCZ will eventually come up with a new Vector as well and as you could have guessed it will be a Vector with 20nm NAND flash chips

It is also not clear on what kind of effect will these two new SSDs have on pricing of previous models but according to our sources we might see it, or even them, as soon as next month

We will certainly keep an eye out for further updates

ZTE unveils new Geek smartphone

5-incher with Android and Intel

  

ZTE has unveiled its first Android smartphone based on Intel's Clover Trail+ CPU and it chose a rather awkward nam, the ZTE Geek

Built around a 5-inch 1280x720 screen, the ZTE Geek does not look that bad and can be considered a cheaper alternative to the Lenovo K900 revealed earlier. The Geek features the same Intel Clover Trail+ dual-core Z2580 CPU clocked at 2GHz paired up with PowerVR SGX 544MP2 graphics and 1GB of RAM. The resto of the features include 8GB of internal storage, rear 8-megapixel and front 1-megapixel camera and 2300mAh battery with wireless charging

On the connectivity side of things we are looking at 3G with HSPA support, 802.11abgn WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS but lacks LTE. It runs on Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean OS which is very commendable

ZTE did not reveal any details regarding the actual availability date or the price. Why it decided to call it a geek phone is anyone's guess

Via Electronista.com

Asus Fonepad coming to UK on April 26

The real Nexus 7 killer at £179.99

  

Techradar.com managed to get their hands on the official release date and price for the UK launch of the Asus Fonepad, a 7-inch, Intel Atom based tablet that has full phone and 3G HSPA+ support

According to Techradar.com, the new Asus Fonepad might be the real Nexus 7 killer considering that it packs some impressive specs, full 3G capabilities with phone support and most importantly, an impressive £179.99 price tag. For comparison sake, the Google Nexus 7 16GB WiFi-only actually has exactly the same price tag

In case you missed it, the Asus Fonepad is based on Intel's Lexington single-core (dual-thread) Atom Z2420 clocked at 1.2GHz and paired up with PowerVR SGX 540 GPU clocked at 400MHz. It has a 7-inch 1280x800 touchscreen, 1GB of RAM, 1.2-megapixel front camera, 16GB of storage, mircoSD and microSIM slots that brings full phone and 3G HSPA+ support. It features 4270mAh battery that should, according to Asus, keep it alive for up to 10 hours of video playback and around 32 hours of 3G calls. It will initially run on Android Jelly Bean 4.1.2 OS but Asus promised that the Android 4.2 update will come as soon as possible

According to Techradar.com, Asus Fonepad should appear for pre-order in the UK at Carphone Warehouse, Amazon and Sainsbury's as of April 12, while shipping should start on April 26.

Of course, we are yet to see some reviews so we'll hold our final judgement until we see it in action

More here

Gelid launches new SlimHero CPU cooler

59mm tall low-profile cooler

  

Gelid Solutions have announced the new SlimHero CPU low-profile cooler, a new member of its Silent line of products

Based on a combination of copper heatpipes and uniquely shaped heatsink that lower the air flow resistance, the new SlimHero comes with a silent and slim 120mm fan with PWM control. The full height of the cooler is 59mm, making it suitable for most if not all SFF cases but also ends up with enough cooling power to cope with up to 136W TDP CPUs

The new SlimHero supports Intel socket 775/1155/1156/1366 and AMD AM2/AM2+/AM3/AM3+/FM1/FM2 sockets and should be available immediately with an MSRP of US $32 or €25.

Asus MeMO Pad starts to ship

Tries to take on Nexus 7 with US $149 price tag

  

As promised back in January, Asus has now started shipping its 7-inch MeMO Pad to retail/e-tail outlets. Priced at US $149, the Asus MeMO Pad aims to take some of that cheap glory from the Asus-made Google Nexus 7.

In order to keep the price at US $149, Asus obviously had to make some cut-backs so the MeMO Pad ditches the Nvidia Tegra 3 chipset for VIA WM8950 chipset with a 1GHz clocked Cortex A9-based single-core CPU paired up with Mali-400 GPU and 1GB of RAM. It features a 7-inch 1024x600 TN touchscreen. On the other hand, while Nexus 7 is limited with either 16 or 32GB of internal storage, Asus MeMO Pad will have 16GB of internal storage that will be expandable by dirt cheap microSD card

According to the specification sheet, the Asus MeMO Pad will run on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean OS, have all the usual connectivity options and feature a 16Wh 4270mAh battery that should keep it live for up to 7 hours

The new Asus MeMO pad should start to appear in a number of major retail/e-tail shops including Amazon, GameStop and Fry's Electronics and will be available in grey, pink and white color options

Via Electronista.com

New Xbox will be always on

Or still on the shop shelf

Microsoft deep throats have confirmed to Paul Thurrott that the much rumoured pricing options for Microsoft's next-gen platform, claims always-online requirement are accurate

Thurrott has claimed that the Xbox 720 will launch in November beginning at $300 for a subscription-based model. A standard model will sell for around $500. In other words it is going to be very expensive. But he said that the Xbox 720 won't be the only new Xbox on shelves this season. Microsoft is planning a $99 "Stingray" Xbox 360. There is no information on what this box is yet

Thurrott said this is a confirmed feature for the platform, claiming the system's notes specifically state that the Xbox 720 "must be Internet-connected to use." Apparently the Xbox 720 reportedly stops functioning if an Internet connection drops for three minutes. This was my experience of the early Xbox so I am not surprised

EVGA and Kingpin break 3DMark Fire Strike world record

EVGA X79 Dark and EVGA GTX Titan cards to blame

 

EVGA and Vince “k|ngp|n” Lucido have set a high bar in the new 3DMark Fire Strike benchmark, setting a new world record for each category including Fire Strike and Fire Strike Extreme in SLI mode as well as Fire Strike and Fire Strike Extreme on a single card

EVGA noted that EVGA Pricison X 4.0 utiliy was used to overclock the graphics cards and the record was obtained using the upcoming EVGA X79 Dark motherboard and two EVGA Geforce GTX Titan graphics cards. The results are certainly impressive and according to 3DMark Fire Strike Hall of Fame, Kingpin was running Intel Core i7-3930K CPU and managed to get 22,054 points in 3DMark Fire Strike with two GTX Titan graphics cards and 11,559 points in Fire Strike Extreme, again with SLI

With a single GPU, Kingpin and EVGA's hardware scored 14,600 in 3DMark Fire Strike and 7,308 in 3DMark Fire Strike Extreme benchmark. Currently, Kingpin is firmly holding the first place followed closely by Shammy with Asus hadware

You can check out more over at the 3DMark Fire Strike Hall of Fame

Samsung Galaxy S II getting Jelly Bean update finally

Most likely last one for the 2011 flagship

 

Samsung Galaxy S II, the 4.3-inch flagship launched by Samsung back in 2011, is getting its taste of Jelly Bean

Updates started rolling out to the GT-I9100P model which is based on the Exynos 4120 and earlier Samsung already updated the GT-I9100G version, based on a TI SoC. According to Phonearena.com, the update is massive and one of the biggest one. Keep in mind that Galaxy S II launched with Android 2.3 Gingerbread and now it will be getting the same OS as the  Galaxy S III. This will also most likely be the last update for the Galaxy S II, but having Jelly Bean on a two-year old smartphone is something to really brag about

The quick list of release notes include buttery smooth performance and stability thanks to Google's Project Butter, a full user interface revamp, TouchWiz Nature UX, S Cloud, improved camera features, new lockscreen, new widgets, a bunch of new features including Google Now, a new notification bar and two home screen modes

It is definitely nice to see Samsung taking care of its 2011 flagship smartphone and some other manufacturers could certainly take a leaf out of Samsung's book

More here

LG Optimus G Pro hits Japan

With 5-inch IPS FullHD screen

 

Following the recent succesful launch in Korea, LG Optimus G Pro has found its way to Japan shores and is now available through NTT Docomo. Packed in an Optimus G body, the Japanese version features a slightly smaller 5-inch FullHD IPS screen

As noted and rumored earlier, the Japanese version of the Optimus G Pro will feature a 5-inch IPS LCD FullHD touchscreen rather than the 5.5-inch bound for international release. This means that it also has a slightly better 440 ppi. The rest of the specs include quad-core 1.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 600, 2GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage expandable by microSD card slot. It still features 13-megapixel main snapper, 2.1-megapixel front camera and the same 3000mAh battery which is now non-removable

The Japanese version of the Optimus G Pro is slightly thicker than its international counterpart since it is packed in an Optimus G body so full dimensions are set at 139x70x9.9mm

It runs on Android Jelly Bean 4.1.2 OS and, as noted, available through NTT Docomo

Asus ROG Rampage IV Extreme Black pixellized

Will not go on sale

 

A set of pictures featuring a full black version of the ROG Rampage IV Extreme has showed up at Asus ROG site. Based on the same design layout as the original ROG Rampage IV Extreme the new one will never reach e-tail/retail shelves as this one is made for some special project

In case you missed it, the Asus ROG Rampage IV Extreme Black is based on Intel X79 Express chipset, supports Intel socket LGA2011 processors, up to 64GB of quad-channel DDR3 memory in eight DIMM slots, as well as 4-way SLI/Crossfire and comes fully packed with all the standard Asus ROG features

According to a post over at Asus ROG Nordic Facebook page, the ROG Rampage IV Extreme Black will not be available for sale and Asus only made a few of those for a small project. The ROG.Asus.com site notes that those motherboards are currently at Nvidia HQ and we would surely want to see more of that special project

You can check out more here

GloFo demos working 20nm TSV silicon

New method of stacking chips, without mortar

 

Globalfoundries has demonstrated a working 20nm chip using through-silicon vias (TSV). Glofo has been looking at TSV as a method of stacking chips and TSMC and Nvidia have also dabbled with stacked designs

 

Glofo claims it can use copper as the TSV fill material and that TSVs could be used in the transition from 28nm to 20nm. Of course, AMD will be the top client for Glofo’s 20nm process, but it is still unclear whether Glofo will be able to start producing TSVs at 20nm

It is still unclear when the 20nm TSV process will be ready for volume production, and it might take a while. Globalfoundries believes that the promise of 3D chip stacking will soon be a reality, but then again we’ve heard this before

However, the fact that it already has working silicon is a very encouraging sign

EVGA responds with GTX 680 Mac Edition

The GTX 680 for your Mac Pro

 

It looks like the Mac market is the new frontier for discrete graphics makers, as after Sapphire's HD 7950 Mac Edition, EVGA has stepped up and  announced the new EVGA GTX 680 Mac Edition

The EVGA GTX 680 Mac Edition looks like your standard GTX 680 graphics card except for a small Mac Edition label. It uses standard dual-slot blower style cooler, feature two dual-link DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort 1.1 outputs and support four displays

Based on the GK104 Kepler GPU, the GTX 680 packs 1536 CUDA cores and works at 1006MHz base and 1058MHz Boost clocks and packs 2GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 6008MHz and paired up with a 256-bit memory interface

Some of new and key features listed by EVGA for the GTX 680 Mac Edition include Nvidia GPU Boost technology, support for four concurrent displays, Nvidia SMX Engine and CUDA technology, OpenGL 3.2 (4.3 in Windows) support and Boot Camp support

The new EVGA GTX 680 Mac Edition is currently listed but not yet available over at EVGA's store with a US $599.99 price tag which is US $100 more expensive than yours standard Geforce GTX 680.

You can find more here

Asus officially launches GTX 670 DirectCU Mini

Highest performance per centimeter

 

Pictured earlier in March, the GTX 670 DirectCU Mini has now been officially announced by Asus and the strange card can easily claim the title of the world's highest performance graphics card, ahem, per centimeter

The new Asus GTX 670 DirectCU Mini is quite shorter than your average GTX 670 (24.13cm) as it is a mere 17cm long. Since small form factor PCs based on mini ITX motherboards are quite popular these days we are quite sure that Asus' GTX 670 DirectCU Mini will do good in retail/e-tail

According to info, the new Asus GTX 670 DirectCU Mini works at 928MHz base and 1006MHz boost GPU clocks and features 2GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 6008MHz. It needs a single 8-pin PCI-Express power connector and comes with two DVI, DisplayPort and HDMI outputs

Asus noted that its exclusive DirectCU thermal design that combines a heat-spreading vapor chamber and the CoolTech fan keeps the card up to 20 percent (or 7.5?C) cooler than the reference GTX 670. The new graphics card is also much quieter despite its small size

Unfortunately, the price or the availability date have not been announced

Xbox Next controller similar to 360

Some small tweaks, but not much different

 

The controller to be used in the Next Xbox, or 720 if you will, is apparently very similar to the controllers used by the Xbox 360. Other than some minor tweaks, it appears that Microsoft has decided that it is hard to improve on a good thing

Reports claim the controller has the same two analog sticks, same D-pad position, same triggers, same bumpers, and, of course, the center power button. It is difficult to say if the buttons have been improved at all; but it is said to be bit smaller in overall physical size, with attention given to refining the contours and shape of the controller. Still, it is said to be quite similar

Seagate shipping 4TB drives with 1TB platters

Cutting costs, upping performance

 

Seagate has started shipping the world’s first 4TB drives with 1TB platters. The company claims the four-platter approach helps reduce costs, while at the same time improving performance

It is simple math really, higher density results in higher transfer speeds, and using fewer platters helps keep things simple and cheap. Seagate claims the drive can deliver data rates of up to 146MB/s, while consuming 35 per cent less power than the competition

The new drive spins at 7200rpm and it features 64MB of cache. According to Maximum PC, the new drive has already been listed for as little as $190.

AMD announces Sky Series GPUs for cloud gaming

 

Takes on Nvidia's GRID

 

AMD has now officially announced its new Radeon Sky Series graphics cards aimed at cloud gaming platforms

Featuring three products based on Graphics Core Next architecture and either Tahiti or Pitcairn GPU, the Sky Series aims to lead the way in performance and define cloud gaming experiences for gamers, according to AMD. David Cummings, Senior Director, AMD Professional Graphics noted that real time gaming through the cloud represents a significant opprtunity that AMD wants to lead in thanks to its extensive graphics hardware and software capabilities and that, by closely working with CiiNow, G-Cluster, Otoy and Ubitus, will deliver exceptional AMD Radeon gaming experinces to the cloud

Short note was also made regarding the AMD RapidFire technology that will be behind this seamless experiance by enabling highly efficient and responsive game streaming as a power of flexible cloud gaming technology. A quick check at AMD's site explains that AMD RapidFire is a combination of hardware and software that enables cloud gaming partners to benefit from an open API that should simplify the manipulation of key hardware contros in order to provide HD visual quality, minimal latency and optimal network bandwidth. It also provides support for direct access to the Sky GPUs from virtual machines like VMware SEX/SXi and Citrix XenServer in order to provide greater density and more simulataneous game streams from a single server

As noted earlier, the Sky Series features three different SKUs, the Radeon Sky 900, Radeon Sky 700 and the Radeon Sky 500. The flagship Radeon Sky 900 is a dual-slot, dual-GPU solution, based on two Tahiti GPUs The GPU works at 825MHz and it has 6GB of GDDR5 memory (3GB per GPU) paired up with a 384-bit memory interface. It delivers 480GB/s of memory bandwidth, the TDP stands at 300W, and it supports AMD RapidFire and PowerTune, but lacks AMD ZeroCore Power tech

Next in line is the single-GPU Tahiti-based Radeon Sky 700 that is also a full-height/full-length dual-slot graphics card. It works at 900MHz for the GPU and comes with 6GB of GDDR5 memory paired up with a 384-bit memory interface. It features 264GB/s of memory bandwidth and the max TDP set at 225W. AMD RapidFire, PowerTune and ZeroCore Power technologies are on board as well

Last but not least is the AMD Radeon Sky 500. This full-height/full-length single-slot graphics card is based on Pitcairn XT GPU (aka HD 7870), works at 950MHz for the GPU and packs 4GB or GDDR5 memory paired up with a 256-bit memory interface. The max TDP is set at 150W, has 154GB/s of memory bandwidth and features the full set of AMD technologies

According to the feature and benefits tab at AMD's "cloud gaming" site, AMD Radeon Sky Series graphics cards can support up to six simultaneous HD game streams per GPU and thus maximize available space in cloud gaming data centers. According to AMD, this was tested on CiiNow cloud services with AMD Opteron 6380 16-core server, Colfax CX 125-N44 1U rack mount server and one AMD Radeon Sky Series model 700 GPU

Interestingly enough, AMD claims that these are designed for silent operation and simplify thermal design for servers with passive cooling

You can check out AMD's cloud gaming part of the site here

Microsoft to merge RT with Blue

Blue screen of death for RT

 

Software giant Microsoft will no longer launch products under its Windows RT line and will instead merge the product line into the software giant's next-generation Windows, codenamed Blue

According to Digitimes, quoting its famous unnamed sources, the PC supply chain had pushed the Windows on ARM (WoA) platform aggressively. But the Windows RT's name misled most consumers into believing that the operating system is able to support all existing x86 Windows programs

The fact that it had a lack of apps, as well as compatibility problems also did not help. The next-generation of Windows will appear at the Microsoft Build Developer Conference 2013 in June. Most Asian supply chain experts think that Wintel PC demand will drop down the loo before Intel and Microsoft's next-generation products show up in the second half of the year

More here

OCZ extends its Far Cry 3 bundle

Now includes all Vector models

 

Earlier last month, OCZ decided to launch a Far Cry 3 bundle that was available with its flagship Vector SSD, but only with 256GB and 512GB models

Today, we have been informed that the bundle was extended to the entire Vector SSD range, so even those that buy the cheapest 128GB Vector SSD will be able to download the Far Cry 3 game

The special offer is available for North America, South America, EMEA and Asia regions but excludes Africa and China. The download code expires on July 14th, 2013 so there is more than enough time in case you did not already download your copy

All you need to do is, of course buy an OCZ Vector SSD, and head to this OCZ dedicated site

MSI launches two Bonaire cards

Single design with and without factory-overclock

 

MSI has offically announced its own HD 7790 graphics cards and decided to go for a single design that will be available with and without factory-overclock

To be known as the MSI R7790-1GD5 and the MSI R7790-1GD5/OC, the cards feature a custom cooling solution with a single center-placed 10cm fan with Propeller Blade technology, dual heatpipes and an expanded heatsink

The standard, MSI R7790-1GD5 works at reference 1000MHz for the GPU and 6000MHz for 1GB of GDDR5 memory paired up with a 128-bit memory interface, while the MSI R7790-1GD5/OC ended up with a slight GPU overclock to 1050MHz. Based on the Bonaire XT GPU, the cards feature 896 stream processors and both have DisplayPort, HDMI and two DVI outputs

Both cards should be available pretty soon with a suggested price of around US $149.99 for the standard, reference clocked version

Gainward launches two GTX 650 Ti Boost graphics cards

Gainward Golden Sample

 

Gainward has launched two GTX 650 Ti Boost graphics cards and one will be a part of Gainwards' impressive "Golden Sample" series

Interestingly enough, Gainward decided to scrap Nvidia's reference design with a blower-style fan and use its own custom solution with two fans on the Golden Sample, and a single-fan version on the reference clocked card. In case you somehow missed them, the GTX 650 Ti Boost is based on the GK106 GPU, packs 768 CUDA cores, works at 980MHz for the base, 1033MHz for boost GPU clock and comes with either 1 or 2GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 6008MHz and paired with a 192-bit memory interface

The more interesting Gainward GTX 650 Ti Golden Sample works at 1006MHz base and 1072MHz boost GPU clocks and even slightly overclock memory clock set at 6108MHz

Both cards should be available pretty soon

Havok announces Project Anarchy

Complete 3D mobile game engine for free

 

Today at the 2013 Game Developers Conference, Havok announced and unveiled its new Project Anarchy, a complete end-to-end mobile 3D game production engine that will be free on many mobile platforms without any restrictions

Project Anarchy will include Havok's Vision Engine and will have access to Havok's Physics, Animation and AI tools, already used in some impressive game titles like Skyrim, Assassin's Creed and others

Ross O'Dwyer, Head of Developer Relations at Havok noted that Havok is impressed by what the AAA industry created with their technology so far and that they are delighted to be able to offer professional grade tools to mobile developers for free

The free download that Havok plans to release this Spring will also include a broad range of game samples and tutorials. Havok also launched a dedicated www.projectanarchy.com site in order to promote and support developers by building an online community, encouraged to do free sharing and collaborative development of extensions and customizations

MSI launches couple of GTX 650 Ti Boost graphics cards

The Gaming Series is here

 

Following the launch of the Nvidia GTX 650 Ti Boost graphics card, MSI decided to launch a couple of SKUs including two versions cooled by famous Twin Frozr III cooler that will be a part of the new Gaming Series lineup

Two standard GTX 650 Ti Boost graphics cards from MSI will be recognizable by a cooler that has a 100mm center placed fan and will be sold under N650Ti-2GD5 BE and N650Ti-2GD5/OC BE model names. The reference clocked one works at 980MHz (1033MHz boost) GPU clock and feature 2GB of GDDR5 memory clocked 6008MHz and it is paired up with a 192-bit memory interface. The OC version works at 1006MHz base and 1072MHz boost clock while the rest of the specs remains the same

Earlier this month at Cebit, MSI announced the arrival of its new Gaming Series branded products that will include both graphics cards and motherboards. MSI decided that the GTX 650 Ti Boost is good enough to be a part of this series and has launched two models, both cooled by MSI's Twin Frozr III cooler. The N650Ti TF 2GD5 BE and the N650Ti TF 2GD5/OC BE both feature same cooler. The first one is reference clocked while the OC version works at 1033MHz base and 1098MHz boost clocks

All new MSI GTX 650 Ti Boost graphics cards should be available pretty soon