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NVIDIA GTX 465 detailed ahead of June 1 launch, GTX 460 also rumored
Hey, you there, wanna check out some unreleased new hardware from NVIDIA? Donanimhaber, the same site that brought us early (and accurate) specs of the GTX 470 and 480, is back with the above shot of an ASUS-built GTX 465 that is intended to entice the more mainstream crowd into the Fermi party. Essentially a GF100 with its wingtips trimmed, this'll offer the same 607MHz graphics and 1,215MHz processor clock speeds of the 470, but comes with a narrower 256-bit memory interface, a tamer 3.2GHz effective memory clock, 352 rather than 448 CUDA cores, and -- happily -- lower power requirements. This word is also corroborated by Bit-tech, whose scribes expect a launch at the start of Computex. The Turkish site also has news of a GTX 460, which they say will show up in the middle of July with 768MB of GDDR5, while also being "cheaper and slower" than the 465. Hit the Hexus link below for some early benchmarks of the latter card.
NVIDIA puts its Tegra 2 eggs in Android's basket, aims to topple Apple's A4
Microsoft's Kin One and Kin Two might not turn out to be the most auspicious devices for Tegra's debut in the smartphone arena, but NVIDIA seems to be learning from its mistakes. Admitting that the company committed too strongly to Microsoft with the first-gen iteration, Jen-Hsun Huang has now said that the second generation of Tegra will look to Android devices first and foremost. This newfound focus will materialize with both smartphones and tablets in the third and fourth quarter of this year, and will, according to Jen-Hsun, offer device makers a viable competitor to Apple's A4 SOC. In other news, NVIDIA has now shipped "a few hundred thousand" Fermi cards, and has also achieved 70 design wins with its Optimus graphics switching technology. Eleven of those are now out in the wild, but the vast majority are still to come, mostly as part of the seasonal "back to school" refresh at the end of the summer. These revelations came during the company's earnings call for the first quarter of its 2011 fiscal year, and you can find the full transcript at the source below. [Thanks, TareG]
NVIDIA GTX 480M will bring Fermi to laptops this June, crazy power requirements and all
We had an inkling NVIDIA wouldn't keep the Fermi goodness just to the desktop and here's our first pseudo-official confirmation. Rushing in ahead of any announcements, Eurocom has started listing a GeForce GTX 480M part, replete with 2GB of GDDR5 memory and a $345 markup relative to ATI's Mobility Radeon HD 5870. It's not clear whether the 100W number refers to the TDP or power requirements of NVIDIA's new GPU, but it's safe to expect both to be pretty high. The MXM 3.0b interface provides a 256-bit linkup between the GPU and CPU, lending plenty of bandwidth, but it also demands plenty of PCB real estate. As a result, Eurocom is offering the GTX 480M on its 17-inch Cheetah and Panther and 18.4-inch Leopard desktop replacements, but not on its 15.6-inch Cougar. Man, no love for the Cougars. According to the listing, we're only a month or so away from release. [Thanks, Jacob]
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 4-way SLI exemplifies law of diminishing returns
What's better than three monstrous GeForce GTX 480 graphics cards in a 3-way SLI configuration? How about four... is what we'd like to say, if Hardware.info hadn't just discovered that said setup is a huge waste of cash. With a full four GTX 480 cards buckled into an X58 Classified 4-Way SLI motherboard plus a Core i7-980X processor and a massive 1.5 kilowatt power supply to squeeze the juice, the €4,064 ($5,440) box still lost to a similarly configured 3-way rig in a wide variety of benchmarks. You could argue the system was CPU-limited, but Hardware.info used the fastest consumer chip available -- so it seems there's no place in today's market (keyword: today) for GTX 480 4-way SLI. Except, of course, for droolworthy snapshots like the above.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 set up in 3-way SLI, tested against Radeon HD 5870 and 5970
Not many mortals will ever have to worry about choosing between a three-way GeForce GTX 480 SLI setup, an equally numerous Radeon HD 5870 array, or a dual-card HD 5970 monstrosity, but we know plenty of people would care about who the winner might be. Preliminary notes here include the fun facts that a 1 Kilowatt PSU provided insufficient power for NVIDIA's hardware, while the mighty Core i7-965 test bench CPU proved to be a bottleneck in some situations. Appropriately upgraded to a six-core Core i7-980X and a 1,200W power supply, the testers proceeded to carry out the sacred act of benchmarking the snot out of these superpowered rigs. We won't spoil the final results of the bar chart warfare here, but rest assured both camps score clear wins in particular games and circumstances. The source link shall reveal all.
Gigantic ASUS periodical reveals and specs numerous new laptops
Curious what's inside a new ASUS laptop? Then Notebook Review has the treat for you -- earlier this month, forumite David took the time to download the company's massive 108MB ASUS World Magazine PDF and laid out the spec sheets for not one, not two, but a veritable smörgåsbord of potent portables. There's 36 in all; we've told you about some of them before, to be sure -- but others are getting solid specs for the first time, and there are even a few diamonds in the rough. Enough chit-chat, on with the show! U-series: Otherwise known as ASUS' Bamboo Collection, the U-series laptops were highlighted at CES, where we discovered they would have Core i5 CPUs and USB 3.0 support. Well, that's not the whole story. They've also all got NVIDIA Optimus auto-switching graphics between an onboard Intel GMA HD and the GeForce 310M 1GB. Oh, and forget Core i5 -- these machines support processors all the way up to the 2.66GHz Core i7-620M. Highlight: The U30JC, with a combo Blu-ray drive and a chiclet keyboard that won a iF Product Design Award. UL-series: ASUS for "UnLimited," you can read UL as "ultra low," as in Intel's ultra low voltage (ULV) processors that provide 8+ hours of battery life and let these notebooks stay cool despite being under an inch thin. We saw the UL80JT sport NVIDIA Optimus at CES and got hands-on with the Optimus-equipped UL50VF; now, the UL30JT now has it as well. Highlight: That same UL50VF, with an estimated 12+ hours of battery life. More after the break -- save pricing and availability, unfortunately -- or feel free to hit up the source link to download the entire electronic magazine for yourself. %Gallery-89273%
CyberPower, Digital Storm and Maingear add NVIDIA Fermi GPUs to flagship gaming PCs
Origin PC kicked things off on Friday by shoving NVIDIA's latest and greatest into its Genesis desktop, and now a few more in the custom PC game have upped the ante by offering a similarly delectable taste of Fermi. NVIDIA's new GeForce GTX 470 and 480 have been all the rage over the weekend, and if those raucous benchmarks have you convinced that the time to buy is now, a trio of system builders are here vying for your attention. Digital Storm's Black|OPS rig can now be ordered with a GTX 480 (starts at $2,891), while CyberPower is giving prospective customers the ability to add the latest Fermi GPUs into a smattering of towers. Maingear's formidable SHIFT supercomputer is also seeing the update, but it's really asking for trouble with a triple GTX 480 configuration that demands a minimum investment of $6,199. In related news, ASUS, Zotac and a slew of other GPU makers are cranking out new boards based on the minty fresh core, so you shouldn't have a difficult time finding one if the rest of your rig is a-okay for now.
NVIDIA unleashes GeForce GTX 480 and GTX 470 'tessellation monsters'
Let's get the hard data out of the way first: 480 CUDA cores, 700 MHz graphics and 1,401MHz processor clock speeds, plus 1.5GB of onboard GDDR5 memory running at 1,848MHz (for a 3.7GHz effective data rate). Those are the specs upon which Fermi is built, and those are the numbers that will seek to justify a $499 price tag and a spectacular 250W TDP. We attended a presentation by NVIDIA this afternoon, where the above GTX 480 and its lite version, the GTX 470, were detailed. The latter card will come with a humbler 1.2GB of memory plus 607MHz, 1,215MHz and 1,674MHz clocks, while dinging your wallet for $349 and straining your case's cooling with 215W of hotness. NVIDIA's first DirectX 11 parts are betting big on tessellation becoming the way games are rendered in the future, with the entire architecture being geared toward taking duties off the CPU and freeing up its cycles to deliver performance improvements elsewhere. This is perhaps no better evidenced than by the fact that both GTX models scored fewer 3DMarks than the Radeon HD 5870 and HD 5850 that they're competing against, but managed to deliver higher frame rates than their respective competitors in in-game benchmarks from NVIDIA. The final bit of major news here relates to SLI scaling, which is frankly remarkable. NVIDIA claims a consistent 90 percent performance improvement (over a single card) when running GTX 480s in tandem, which is as efficient as any multi-GPU setup we've yet seen. After the break you'll find a pair of tech demos and a roundup of the most cogent reviews.%Gallery-89115%
Origin PC stuffs 4.4GHz Core i7-980X, Fermi-based GTX 470 and 480 into Genesis desktop
Hope you didn't just pull the trigger on a new Origin PC Genesis, else you'll be forced to know that your rig was made obsolete in record time. Okay, maybe not obsolete, but there's precisely no doubt that you'd rather be rocking a new Fermi card than whatever you've got now. Right on cue, NVIDIA has launched its latest pair of powerhouse graphics cards, and as of right now, prospective Origin PC buyers can opt for either the GTX 470 or GTX 480 on the Genesis desktop. Better still, you can buy 'em in single, dual or triple SLI configurations, and in case you're down for paying the premium, a 4.4GHz overclocked Core i7-980X Extreme Edition CPU can sit alongside of it (or them).
NVIDIA to get official with Fermi GPUs, will 'more than double the performance' of existing cards
It's sure taken 'em long enough, but the Wall Street Journal is reporting that NVIDIA will finally allow the long-awaited Fermi design to reveal itself to the world. We're guessing that the GeForce GTX 470 and GTX 480 that we've been hearing (and hearing) about will be the flagship GPUs to get launched, but whatever the case, the WSJ assures us that the new line will "more than double the performance of its current products." As you'd expect, the Fermi cards -- which will ship with 512 480 or 446 cores (depending on model), three billion transistors and a whole heap of expectations -- will support 3D titles along with the latest video processing software, but they'll also be aimed at more unconventional markets like "medical research and oil-field exploration." Sounds gnarly, NVIDIA, but we're just interested in seeing our frame rates hit triple digits in Crysis 2 -- got it?
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 and 470 specs and pricing emerge
We're only a week away from their grand unveiling, but already we've got word of the specs for NVIDIA's high end GTX 480 and GTX 470 cards. Priced at $499, the 480 will offer 480 shader processors, a 384-bit interface to 1.5GB of onboard GDDR5 RAM, and clock speeds of 700MHz, 1,401MHz, and 1,848MHz for the core, shaders and memory, respectively. The 470 makes do with 446 SPs, slower clocks, and a 320-bit memory interface, but it's also priced at a more sensible $349. The TDPs of these cards are pretty spectacular too, with 225W for the junior model and 295W for the full-fat card. Sourced by VR Zone, these numbers are still unofficial, but they do look to mesh well with what we already know of the hardware, including a purported 5-10 percent benchmarking advantage for the GTX 480 over ATI's HD 5870. Whether the price and power premium is worth it will be up to you and the inevitable slew of reviews to decide. [Thanks, Sean]
NVIDIA GTX 480 makes benchmarking debut, matches ATI HD 5870 performance (video)
We're still not happy with NVIDIA's failure to publish anything on its site alerting users about the doom that may befall them if they switched to the 196.75 drivers, but the company's making an effort to get back into our good books with the first official video of its forthcoming GeForce GTX 480 and even a benchmark run against ATI's flagship single-GPU card, the HD 5870. It looks like you'll need to jack in a pair of auxiliary power connectors -- one 8-pin and one 6-pin -- to power the first Fermi card, as well as plenty of clearance in your case to accommodate its full length (stop giggling!). NVIDIA's benchmarking stressed the GTX 480's superior tesselation performance over the HD 5870, but it was level pegging between the two cards during the more conventional moments. It's all well and good being able to handle extreme amounts of tesselation, but it'll only matter to the end user if game designers use it as extensively as this benchmark did. As ever, wait for the real benchmarks (i.e. games) before deciding who wins, but we're slightly disappointed that NVIDIA's latest and greatest didn't just blow ATI's six-month old right out of the water. Benchmarking result awaits after the break, along with video of the new graphics card and a quick look at NVIDIA's 3D Vision Surround setup. Go fill your eyes.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 leaks out with Fermi on board
Well well, what's this? After months of whispers and small leaks, it seems the Fermi-powered NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 is starting to leak out into the wild before it launches on the 26th. Obviously the pictures don't tell us much about performance, but we can tell you that you'll need a serious power supply to juice this thing up -- and a serious fan to cool it down. We'll see how the GTX 480 and little brother 470 stack up against ATI's latest when they finally arrive, but for now hit the read link for a few more shots.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 and GTX 470 Fermi cards launching March 26th
It's okay, we understand your confusion, but the news here isn't that NVIDIA uses CoTweet as its Twitter client. What's exciting is that the GeForce GTX 480 and GTX 470 -- the company's first to use the new Fermi architecture -- are just over a month from release. Friday, March 26th, and given that also happens to coincidence with the kickoff date for Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) East 2010 (of which NVIDIA is a major sponsor), we tend to think that's not just some convenient coincidence. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
NVIDIA's first two Fermi cards to be known as GeForce GTX 470 and GTX 480
Don't get too excited, we don't have specs or release windows yet, but we do have hilariously inflated model names to share with you. NVIDIA's all-new graphics architecture, commonly known as Fermi and recently re-coded as the GF100, has its first two commercial product names -- the GeForce GTX 470 and GTX 480 -- which as you'll have noticed skip right past the 300s and nearly double the model numbers of the company's current gen offerings. Let's just hope the performance lives up to such a blusterous naming scheme.
NVIDIA Fermi / GF100 architectural details revealed
Fermi hardware might still be two months away, but NVIDIA has done the sage thing and released some tantalizing numbers and architectural details to keep the fanboys chirping in the meantime. The GF100 will signal the end of tiresome rebadging and clock speed massaging, and early adopters will find 512 CUDA cores, 48 ROPs, and a 384-bit GDDR5 memory interface sprawled across three billion transistors. Big changes are also afoot in how the card will do its work, with a reorganization toward a more parallel workflow leading to promises of up to eight times better geometry performance than on the GT200. HardOCP reports that anti-aliasing results have improved "notably," while the video we've got stashed after the break for you shows the GF100 beating the GTX 285 handily in a Far Cry 2 benchmark. Still, the PC Perspective crew expressed some apprehension about the massive die size and how it could impact yields given the still young 40nm production process -- a sentiment echoed by other publications who questioned whether NVIDIA would not have been better off trying for a less ambitious, more gaming-oriented board. We should all know that answer soon enough. Read - AnandTech Read - Hot Hardware Read - PC Perspective Read - HardOCP Read - Tom's Hardware
NVIDIA Fermi pushed back to March, ATI prepping midrange refresh for early Q1?
Considering the present date, it's no longer a mystery that Fermi won't be seeing the glaring lights of store shelves this year, but now DigiTimes reports that the delay might be even longer than feared. Sources from within board manufacturers have been informed by NVIDIA that the launch of the 40nm GPU will be pushed back to March 2010. Though NVIDIA's flagship DirectX 11 card has yet to get out of the starting blocks, ATI -- already the proud papa of a litter of DX 11 parts -- is said to be preparing a renewed onslaught on the mainstream market with two new releases slated for late January or early February. The HD 5670 (Redwood) and HD 5450 (Cedar) will slot in alongside the unannounced HD 5570 and HD 5350 to flesh out the lower and middle portions of ATI's Evergreen refresh. So that's one whole family of DirectX 11 parts from ATI, and one long wait from NVIDIA.
NVIDIA's Fermi-based GeForce 100 GPU makes a Twitter appearance
We'd been hearing that NVIDIA's Fermi chips had been delayed, but they're apparently far enough along for spokesperson Brian Burke to tweet this image of the new Fermi-based GeForce 100 GPU running the Unigine Heaven DX11 benchmark earlier today. That's certainly one way to hit back at ATI's launch of the fastest graphics card ever, the Radeon HD 5970, but we'd much rather have some hard info to work with. We've pinged NVIDIA, we'll let you know if we hear anything. [Thanks, Alex]
NVIDIA Tesla 20-series GPUs promise to dramatically cut supercomputing costs
Sure, you've been hearing NVIDIA toss around names like CUDA, Fermi and Tesla for what seems like ages now, but we're guessing this is the sort of thing that'll get most folks to really take notice: a promise to cut supercomputing costs by a factor of ten. That rather impressive feat comes courtesy of the company's new Tesla 20-series GPUs, which come in the form of both single GPU PCI-Express Gen-2 cards and full-fledged GPU computing systems, and promise a whole host of cost-saving benefits for everything from ray tracing to 3D cloud computing to data analytics. Of course we are still talking about "cheap" in supercomputing terms -- look for these to run between $2,499 and $18,995 when they roll out sometime in the second quarter of 2010.
NVIDIA Fermi GT300 GPU delayed until 2010?
We're so sorry, true NVIDIA believers, but that airbrushed "I love Fermi" shirt is just gonna have to wait a little longer to see the light of day, at least according to a report from our favorite chip-centric foreign news syndicate, Digitimes. Taiwanese industry sources say the release of its Fermi GT300 GPU has been delayed until Fiscal 2011, which for the company means not until at least late January 2010. That "NVIDIA New Year" fete you've been gloating about on Facebook? We really hope you can get the deposit back on the rented space.
