GraphicsCard
Latest
Asus rolls out HDMI-enabled EAX1600PRO / EN7600GT graphics cards
Asus is no stranger to kicking out curious motherboards and other peripherals that we geeks just can't help but love, and following up on its undertaking of auxiliary displays and the AquaTank PCI card is a couple of swank new video cards that tout an HDCP-friendly HDMI port. The half-height ATI Radeon X1600 EAX1600PRO was apparently crafted with the common HTPC builder in mind, as its diminutive size lends itself to becoming a perfect fit for those tight spaces within AV-like media center PC cases. But before you gamers get too excited, you should probably know that in-game performance is likely to be less than stellar, but HotHardware did note that its model wasn't shy when overclocked. Interestingly, this HTPC-centric card comes bundled sans a true HDMI-to-HDMI cable, which leaves us all a bit miffed considering the niche it's trying to appease. The EN7600GT ups the ante by delivering the frame rate luxuries as only an NVIDIA GeForce 7600 can, but its full-height design will definitely cause problems in slimmer enclosures. Other extras found on this device are its SLI-capabilities, DVI / S-video outputs, and optical audio jack, but considering it packs just 256MB of GDDR3 RAM, the hardcore gamers in the crowd are still not likely to find themselves impressed. Still, with the EAX1600PRO ringing up at just around a cool hundred, and the more powerful EN7600GT asking just about twice that, these here cards look to be solid options if you're just getting around to creating your own HTPC.[Via Slashdot]
AMD integrates ATI Radeon X1250 into Vista-certified 690 chipset
Although ATI's R600 graphics chip may have hit a recent snag, it seems that the company's Radeon X1250 GPU is coming along just fine, as it claims the proud title of "world's first" integrated graphics unit to receive Vista certification. The chip, of course, is a critical piece of AMD's latest 690-series chipset, which integrates Aero-capable graphics, 1GHz HyperTransport interface speeds, and support for Sempron, Athlon 64/64 FX/64 FX X2 processors, PCI Express, Microsoft's DirectDraw, hardware acceleration for MPEG-2/4 and WMV9, TV output, HDCP-compatible DVI / HDMI outputs, and the general smorgasbord of connectors we're all used to seeing these days. Putting the resources of the ATI / AMD merger to full use, the 690 family claims to be the first chipset from the pair that supports ATI's Avivo technology, which purportedly makes your multimedia experiences within Vista a smooth ordeal. AMD's latest should be available right now for an undisclosed price, but we'd wait for a few hands-on opinions before rushing out and skipping over a dedicated GPU in your next rig.[Via 64-Bit-Computers]
Samsung's GDDR4 graphics memory goes to 2000MHz
While Samsung has been dabbling in the RAM world quite a bit of late, kicking out the micro-sized OneDRAM and cellphone-bound gigabit-density DRAM, the firm is now officially loosing its 2000MHz GDDR4 RAM on the world. While the zippy memory is already found on ATI's Radeon X1950 card, it'll now be available en masse to graphics card producers in order to speed up current and future offerings "by up to 66-percent." By using 80-nanometer production technology, the memory boasts a 4Gbps throughout, which is nearly two-thirds higher than the widely used 2.4Gbps GDDR4 variety out now; additionally, it'll be offered to vendors in just a 512MB density, rock a 32-bit data bus configuration, and utilizes "JEDEC-approved standards for signal noise reduction to help attain the highest possible speed." No word on how much Sammy plans on charging speed-freaked manufacturers, nor how long it'll take for a kilowatt-burnin' card other than the X1950 to include such a luxury, but we wouldn't count on it being too much longer, regardless.[Via TGDaily]
ATI's R600 graphics chip hits snag
We've had our eye on ATI"s new top-end R600 graphics chip for some time now, first getting a look at some impressive early benchmarks and then being taken aback by the foot-long graphics card the chips will call home (at least in some configurations). Sadly, it seems that those with money and power (as in 270W) to spare will have to wait a bit longer to slot one of the behemoths into their own PCs, with The Inquirer reporting that the R600 chips, and consequently the graphics cards based on 'em, have been delayed yet again, now pushed back to sometime in the second quarter of this year. There doesn't seem to be any word on the reason for the delay, but the news apparently came straight from ATI parent company AMD. Given what the cards are likely to cost, however, we're guessing that at least some won't be too disappointed in the delay, with the extra time allowing you to save up some more money and make some more excuses for why you're spending so much on a graphics card.[Via TG Daily]
Shots surface of ATI's R600 -- and boy is she a big one
We already know that this little monster hums along at quite a clip, but how does it look? Monstrous, of course. Those of you hoping to get off easy with the case size and power supply requirements are going to have to think again, ATI's R600 tops out at a record-busting 12.4-inches in length. ATI will have two SKUs of the R600 at launch, the XTX which features 1GB of DDR4 RAM and the R600XT with a mere 512MB of GDDR3 -- weak sauce, we know. The XTX version comes in retail and OEM versions and it's the OEM one (pictured) that really gets outlandish, with the 12.4-inch length and 270W of power consumption. The retail XTX cuts it down to 9.5-inches and 240W, while the weaker XT matches those specs. A little bit down the road, ATI will follow these up with the R600XL which will be cheaper and hopefully less demanding. Just for a frame of reference: NVIDIA's 8800 GTX was deemed outlandish with its longest-ever 10.4-inch length and beefy 165W power requirement. How much bigger are these things going to get? Oh, that's right, once they get outside our PCs there just won't be any stopping 'em.[Via fx57; thanks Noah D]
NVIDIA's GeForce 8800 GTX reviewed
If you're looking to impress with your gaming rig and money is no object, it doesn't look like you can do much better than NVIDIA's latest bit of graphics excess, the DirectX 10-compliant GeForce 8800 GTX . That's according to the good folks at bit-tech.net, who recently got a chance to put this monster of a graphics card through its paces, finding that it delivered on performance -- but, obviously, isn't for everybody. For one thing, you'll want to have at least a 24-inch monitor to take full advantage of the card, with bit-tech actually saying that the card is too fast for use with resolutions less than 1900 x 1200. Not surprisingly, it also consumes loads of power, with NVIDIA recommending a minimum 450W power supply; that, of course, is for a single card -- we're a little scared to think of what you'll need for an SLI setup. Bit-tech did find a few problems with the device, including a few glitches with image quality in Half-Life 2: Episode One, although they suspects that'll be remedied with a driver update.
Peakstream software taps into GPU for supercomputing power
While building a supercomputer has been whittled down to a science, Peakstream has developed a suite of applications that look towards those speedy PCI Express slots -- not the CPU socket -- for an extra boost of power. The company boldly states that a supercomputer can be created by harnessing the power of "common CPUs combined with the resources of modern graphics cards" to increase performance by "20x." This extreme form of load balancing exploits the tremendous potential housed in today's GPUs in order to schedule workloads, offload tasks onto the optimal processor(s), and manage calculations to minimize the queue of tasks to be completed. Granted, the biggest boon of a graphics processor is the extraordinary floating-point performance; for instance, ATi's X1950 XTX pumps out 750 GFLOPS in dual-graphics mode, while it'd take 31 Intel Xeon 5100 CPUs to crank out those same figures -- thus Peakstream feels that mathematical and computational applications (sorry, Doom fans) are best suited for its software. While having your own personal supercomputer churning those Engadget Folding@home cycles would be mighty impressive, the average joe isn't apt to drop $2,000 (per node) for Peakstream's suite, but maybe this explains the real intentions behind those 200 watt, energy sucking, externally-housed graphics cards after all.
Next-gen nVidia and ATI GPUs to require 200 watts?
So we've got CPUs moving towards more efficient designs, a (somewhat) general consensus that there should be energy-saving methods applied wherever possible, and yet somehow we see a steady increase in power usage from graphics processing units each time they're updated. It doesn't take a circuitry engineer (although that qualification could be helpful) to understand that higher clock speeds lead to higher frame rates, at least generally speaking, and companies like nVidia and ATI have apparently been taking the high road in order to boost those FPS figures. Current top-end graphic cards can easily suck down 100 watts (or more) when under full load, but it appears that requirement could nearly double -- the two graphical big shots are reportedly looking to offer powerhouse cards that almost need to be wired straight in to the power station to function. Japan's PC Watch has reported that the forthcoming G80 from nVidia may consume up to 175 watts, while ATI's R600 could demand an unprecedented 200 watts to produce its eye-candy. While these figures may be a bit staggering, they aren't exactly shocking -- we've already heard rumors that ATI's next major chipset may be released in an external form, at least partially for power-related reasons. While we can't say for sure what's happening behind the tightly-sealed doors at nVidia or ATI AMD, we hope someone in there is paying attention to these concerns, because we're not exactly cool with needing a separate power strip (and an additional occupation) to feed our gaming habits.
Nvidia Quadro Plex 1000 goes nuts with 80 billion pixels-per-second
Maybe Nvidia's recent tough talk following the acquisition of ATI wasn't just talk. They're backing up those words with some serious graphics muscle: a unit called the Quadro Plex 1000 that can pump 80 billion pixels per second for pro graphics needs. Like, really pro graphics needs. Before we hurt ourselves trying to figure just exactly how many Marios that is, we'll run the rest of the specs by you. The Quadro Plex comes in a desktop (pictured) or 3U rackmount configuration, and is designed for working with 12-megapixel HD video, 3D graphics, scientific visualization, simulations and whatever else needs that type of GPU power. One node involves eight Quadro FX cards, jammed into two Plex 1000 systems and paired up via SLI, all of which is hosted by a 32-bit Intel or 64-bit AMD machine running Windows or Linux. All that juicy Quake II power (we keed! we keed!) can be yours starting at a mere $17,500, and should be available beginning next month.
