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AMD launches Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition, demands rematch with NVIDIA
If you've been missing out on the graphics card wars of late, then here's a quick rundown. AMD launched its high-end $549 Radeon HD 7970 at the end of last year, and it reigned comfortably for a few months until NVIDIA came out with the masterful GeForce GTX 680. That would have been the end of the matter, at least for this product cycle, except for one crucial factor: time. Having reached the market so much earlier, AMD has now had six months to not only tweak its drivers but also its 28nm silicon. That process has already culminated in 1GHz cards at the low- and mid-ranges, and today it leads to the (slightly predictable) announcement of a Radeon HD 7970 'GHz Edition' -- priced at $499 and expected to be available from a range of board makers from next week. To keep you amused in the meantime, there's plenty of detail in the gallery below and after the break. Update: review roundup added here.%Gallery-158843%
AMD releases Radeon HD 7750 and 7770 GPUs, reviewers like and don't like
Not into that whole $500 fuse-melting monster graphics card thing? Then good news for you: AMD has finally brought out two more affordable models in its 28nm Radeon HD range. The 7770 is priced at $169 and claims to be the world's first reference GPU that comes factory clocked to 1GHz. Meanwhile, the 7750 comes in at $109 and boasts a low enough wattage (75W, versus 100W for the 7770) that it doesn't require its own power connector. Both cards pack 1GB RAM and run on AMD's Cape Verde architecture, which makes them slightly different to the Tahiti-powered 7900 series, although they do inherit key top-end features like ZeroCore Power, PowerTune and Eyefinity 2.0.Reviewers have mixed opinions, as befits a healthy blogosphere, but the low-power 7750 generally comes off slightly better, especially for those looking to build a budget or HTPC rig. AnandTech likes the power-to-performance ratio of both cards, but dislikes the price-to-performance of the 7770, noting that the older 6850 still offers more in this respect -- at least for gamers. HotHardware concludes that AMD might have "technically" priced both cards "just right," considering how they stack up against NVIDIA's GeForce GTX560 and 550, but in practice those NVIDIA cards deliver a lot more punch for just a few extra dollars. Feel free to glean further details for yourself via the PR and review links below.
AMD announces next-gen Radeon HD 7970 for $549, says it 'soundly beats' rivals
A fresh contender for your blow-out 2012 Olympic gaming rig: AMD's first 28nm GPU, the Radeon HD 7970. It's scheduled to arrive on January 9th, priced at $549 -- nearly $200 more than its direct ancestor, the 6970. Then again, this newcomer packs some supremely athletic specs, including a 925MHz engine clock that can be readily OC'd to 1.1GHz, 2,048 stream processors and an uncommonly muscular 384-bit memory bus serving 3GB of GDDR5. At the same time, AMD hopes to make the card more practical than the dual-processor 6990 by bringing the card's power consumption down to less than 300W under load and a mere 3W in 'long idle' mode, and promising quieter cooling thanks to improved airflow and a bigger fan. We'll have to wait for benchmarks in January before we hand out any medals, but in the meantime NVIDIA's forthcoming 28nm Kepler GPU might want to step up its training schedule. Update: Pre-release reviews are out already and our round-up will follow imminently.
Gibson launching self-tuning guitars, rockers rejoice
Gibson's Powertune system has been in the works for quite awhile, and although there are other axes out there that claim to tune themselves, only a Gibson will do for some. Reportedly, the firm is readying a "new line of instruments" that are equipped with the system, which includes "an additional set of pickups mounted underneath the strings that are used specifically for the tuning process." By using all sorts of digital electronics and fancy algorithms, the equipment is able to automatically tune the strings, but it only activates when users pull out the Master Control Knob. Purportedly, the system can have have all six strings back in tune "within a few seconds," and you can even utilize a number of pre-programmed alternate tunings if that's your bag. 'Course, it's certainly debatable whether the hands-off approach to tuning is worth the extra $899 or so, but it's sure sweet to have the opion. Click on for more pictures.
