News AMD’s Eyefinity graphics card connects up to six monitors to a PC

cnet.com – We don’t have dates, prices, or benchmark scores yet, but after a demo in our offices last Thursday, we can at least report on our brief experience with AMD’s forthcoming Eyefinity graphics card technology. By enabling you to connect up to six monitors to a single PC, Eyefinity opens a wide array of display possibilities with appeal for a number of different kinds of users.

Even before we saw Eyefinity in person, it was clear that this is a niche technology aimed at those willing to spend a lot of money. By way of example, AMD brought in six, 22-inch Dell Professional P2210H displays and a pair of Adtec vertical mounts to support them, for a retail total cost of around US$1,650. READ MORE

GeForce 240 GTS NVIDIA GeForce GT 240 Graphics Card

IXBT – Obviously, it’s becoming costly to release products with GDDR3 memory. It’s high time to move on to GDDR5 that allows reducing the bus down to good old (and cheap) 128 bits, leaving the bandwidth high enough.

Thus, they made the new GeForce GT 240 GPU that has a smaller core and reduced power consumption thanks to the 40nm process technology. While it has the same 96 stream processors as GeForce 9600/9600 GSO, it has fewer texture processors and ROPs, as well as the narrower 128-bit bus that works with GDDR5 memory (though GDDR3 is still supported as well).

But you can’t say that NVIDIA just renewed the 9600 GPU to sell it as something new. GT 240 has new features as well, including the fully-fledged support for CUDA, Phys

News Terry Makedon “CatalystMaker” Interview

INSIDEHW – Did you ever ask yourself how ATI drivers are made, and who makes them? Well, first of all, there are three teams that work on the same driver code at the same time! Why? Continue reading this interesting interview that we had opportunity to conduct with Terry Makedon, Catalyst drivers maker for AMD/ATI graphics cards, and you will found out.

- When you start the process of creating the new drivers, where are you heading for? Is there a primary focus on the specific things (game compatibility/ performance, application compatibility/performance, performance boost, etc)? For example, what are you looking to achieve with next driver edition? Are the goals different for different generations of the cards?

News NVIDIA’s Fermi Launch Delayed Until March

TechGage - This news can be filed under “rumor”, because nothing is verified, but the word that’s spreading like wildfire is that NVIDIA’s first Fermi-based graphics cards are going to be delayed until March. As you may recall, Fermi was originally supposed to launch late this year, but was rumored to have been pushed back until January. As it stands, it’s being pushed back even further, which I’m sure makes ATI all the happier.

Interestingly enough, Fermi shared similar goals as Intel’s Larrabee, a chip that was also delayed just earlier this month. Could Fermi’s delay be related? It’s hard to say, because if that were the case, then it would mean that NVIDIA was more interested in simply getting something out the door, rather than have a truly revolutionary product.

More likely would be other causes, that could range from efficiency issues to problems with producing the die on a 40nm node. You may recall that this past fall, NVIDIA showed off a Fermi card that was touted as being the real thing, but was actually a mock-up, which led everyone to believe that there were issues somewhere. But just last month, the company teased with an image of a Fermi-based card running Unigine’s DirectX 11 demo, although even that couldn’t be verified as true since it’s just a photo. READ MORE

NVIDIA Cards NVIDIA cuts down specification of Fermi chips for Tesla cards

EliteBastards – Although we won’t be seeing products based on “Fermi” (aka GF100) until a few months into 2010, NVIDIA have already announced their first Tesla-based offerings that will be using this architecture.  However, what we weren’t expecting to see was for these parts to be using a cut-down version of GF100 with fewer Stream Processors – is this a sign of further issues for NVIDIA’s latest and greatest architecture, or simply a design decision for these particular parts?

2. Radeon HD 4000 AMD Radeon HD 4000 series has ‘known performance issues’ with OpenCL

EliteBastards – For some time now we’ve been looking forward to OpenCL and what it can bring to the world of general purpose computing which uses a GPU for its processing power.  However, if you’re a Radeon HD 4000 series graphics board user, it appears as though you might have to revise your expectations for OpenCL performance downward somewhat, at least unless the developer of said application gives specific consideration to the functionality of your card.

GeForce 285 GTX MSI N285GTX SuperPipe OC

enthusiast.hardocp.com – The MSI N285GTX SuperPipe OC is an appealing enthusiast video card. It has an aesthetic appeal that actually translates into real-world benefits. The SuperPipe technology seems to be a real winner for MSI. This technology allowed the MSI NX285 GTX to remain very cool at idle and full load operation in comparison to a standard GTX 285. We also experienced impressive power numbers, which were lower than a GTX 285 slightly, even though it has a higher clock speed and two fans. The fan noise itself is quiet, so it won’t be making you dive for the nearest bomb shelter when you start it up. Our only disappointment is in the actual overclock achieved, it was just average, we expected more since the cooler does seem to shine in the temperature department. Perhaps there are other factors involved keeping it from achieving higher speeds. READ MORE

GeForce 285 GTX, Radeon HD 4890 ASUS Launches Video Cards with Super ML Caps

enthusiast.hardocp.com – ASUS has introduced the world’s first graphics cards to utilize Multilayer Polymer Capacitors (Super ML Caps) with the self-designed ENGTX285 and EAH4890 Series. Both equipped with the Super ML Cap, the ASUS designed ENGTX285 Series allows users to enjoy up to 3.3 times GPU overclocking margins and up to 15°C cooler GPU temperatures when compared to reference designed boards; while the ASUS designed EAH4890 is equipped with the Super ML Cap, Voltage Tweak Technology and a specially designed fansink to offer up to 3 times GPU overclocking margins and 10°C cooler GPU temperatures.

Radeon HD 4890 ASUS EAH4890 Video Card Evaluation

enthusiast.hardocp.com – ASUS is known as the one of the largest and most successful motherboard manufacturers in the world, but they make more than just motherboards. They also offer graphics cards, notebooks, netbooks, optical drives, handheld PCs, and many other computer hardware accessories.
This article will focus on a brand new addition to their video card lineup: The ASUS EAH4890, featuring the new AMD Radeon HD 4890 GPU and 1GB of GDDR5 memory.
(…) Today, AMD is officially launching an update for spring of 2009, with the Radeon HD 4890. This video card is powered by AMD’s ATI RV790 GPU, which is an updated version of the RV770 which powers the Radeon HD 4870 and 4850 series’ of video cards. READ MORE

GeForce 285 GTX MSI GeForce N285GTX OC with a water block

The company presents its new MSI graphics card N285GTX OC, equipped with a block-type Water Full Cover. On the red PCB laminate are installed eight GDDR3 memory chips with a total capacity of 1 GB, 240 stream processors, 512 bit memory controller and a connector for SLI graphics, a system consisting of three accelerators.

The pre-block design of waterborne copper are equipped with a standard threads 1 / 4 inch. Given the advanced cooling system, the card works with increased clock frequencies – 702, 1476 and 2600 MHz band (648/1476/2484 MHz Reference), respectively for the core, shader and memory units.

MSI N285GTX OC price will fluctuate within the limits of 400 pounds.

READ MORE