AMD Radeon RX 5700 Series Unveiled

Yesterday AMD announced its Radeon RX 5700 Series graphics cards at their Next Horizon Gaming event at E3 in Los Angeles. The NAVI based products are fabbed at 7nm, feature GDDR6 memory and are based on a new architecture called RDNA (RadeonDNA). Click on the link below to read Guru3d's preview on the company's latest video cards which are due to go on sale July 7th....

The full story

Source: Guru3d

Windows 10's First Major Update Rolls Out Today

The first major Windows 10 update has arrived, and a plethora of tweaks and a handful of new features comes with it. Microsoft says this update brings performance and compatibility improvements, as well as some new business-oriented features. The company also claims that Win10's boot time and performance in common tasks should be improved nearly 30% versus Windows 7 on the same machine.

The full story

Source: The Tech Report

Gainward goes on the Rampage

The German firm has announced what must be a candidate for the most powerful single card solution available at the time of writing.
The Rampage700 "Golden Sample" 2048MB Goes Like Hell edition features two ATI RV770 GPUs clocked at 790MHz which along with 2GB of 950MHz (DDR 3800) GDDR5 memory are cooled by a huge - twin 80mm fan, quad heatpipe, triple slot - custom designed cooler. DisplayPort, DVI, HDMI and VGA outputs provide users with the best video connectivity currently available. The suggested retail price for this monster is US$599.

Source: VR-Zone

Windows 7 update

If you've decided to skip Windows Vista then you'll be pleased to hear its replacement will be available sometime during the second half of 2009. Called simply Windows 7, Microsoft's next operating system (OS) is a more polished product, think Vista Second Edition. Mail, Movie Maker and Photo Gallery (at least) have all been removed from the OS and will be available through the firm's excellent Live platform, or another service of your choice.

For the latest information on Windows 7 and Windows Live click on the respective links.

CeBIT 2008 - DFI

On Monday DFI unveiled what is certainly its best motherboard to date.
The LANParty UT X48-T3R is a server grade quality enthusiast board based on Intel's X48 / ICH9R chipset with full support for the latest socket LGA775 45nm quad-core CPUs. Other features include an extended BIOS enviroment, a new heat-pipe cooler designed in co-operation with Thermalright called the Heat Freezer, DDR3 memory and ATI CrossFire X technology support.

More information

Specification

CPU: Core 2Duo, Core 2 Quad and Core 2 Extreme
Socket: Intel LGA775
Chipset : Intel X48 + ICH9R
FSB : 1600MHz
Memory : DDR3 1600MHz
PWM: Volterra 8-phase digital
Display : CrossFireX technology
Audio : 8-Channel DFI Bernstein Audio module
Storage : 8 x SATA II ports
RAID : 0/ 1/ 0+1/ 5 support
Chipset cooling: Thermalright Heat Freezer

Board image

Mushkin Redline update

I'm happy to report Mushkin has several new Redline products in the pipeline. The design for an ultra high-end memory cooler is being finalised now, this will be fitted to new Redline DDR2 and DDR3 modules due in March. The as yet unnamed cooler uses a "flattened heatpipe which transfers the heat from the DRAM to an extruded aluminium shell with radiator arrays", and is "way better looking" than the prototype shown during CES 2008 in January.

The 1kW Redline PSU specs are also in the process of being finalised, while the 1.2kW and 1.5kW versions have been put on hold until the market matures.

Thanks to Brian for the update.

Mushkin GeForce 8800 GT

At the end of 2007 Mushkin revealed it would be entering the graphics card market. The firm's first product, an overclocked version of NVIDIA's popular GeForce 8800 GT 512MB (G92) model is due out later this month. Named the Mushkin GeForce 8800 GT HP Overclocked Edition, the card has 675MHz core, 1690MHz shader and 1900MHz memory frequencies, all improvements on NVIDIA's reference speeds of 600 / 1500 / 1800Mhz respectively. An interesting cooler design and bundle help to differentiate this product from the competition.

Source: Matbe

Mushkin XP-800AP PSU announced

This week Mushkin announced the release of a 800W power supply aimed at gamers and enthusiasts. The XP-800AP provides a comprehensive set of features including Active PFC, 110-240V input, VersaPlug modular cabling, four PCIe cables with 6/8-pin adaptable connectors, user-selectable single +12V rail/quad +12V rail, 900W peak power, thermally controlled 135mm fan, 64A output at +12V, EPS 2.91 support, and industrial-grade components. With a generous five year warranty and ample power, this unit should be ideal for most people intent on pushing multi-CPU and multi-GPU systems to their limits.

Source: Mushkin

DFI announce 790FX board

Today DFI released details on the LANParty UT 790FX-M2R, their first motherboard to support AMD's new Spider platform.
The AMD 790FX / SB600 AM2+ board supports Hyper Transport 3.0 FSB technology, providing up to 41.6GB/s of bandwidth, an important feature for CrossFire users. Other features include three PCI Express 2.0 slots, a 7-Phase Digital PWM, six SATA 3G ports, two Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports, one 1394 IEEEa port, Bernstein 7.1 ch audio and advanced heatpipe technology cooling the chipset. The board will be available December 2007.

Product information

Source: DFI press release

NVIDIA introduces ESA

The Enthusiast System Architecture (ESA) is the industry’s first open-standard PC monitoring and control protocol for real-time communication and control of system thermal, electrical, accoustic and operating characteristics. ESA-certified components and applications allow enthusiasts and power users to diagnose component-specific issues and tune their systems to meet their individual needs.

Source: NVIDIA ESA product page

AMD's 2008 graphics plans

A welcome change in plans could see AMD release three new enthusiast graphics parts in 2008. These will be the R680 (2 x RV670) in Q1/2008, followed by the R700 in late Q2/2008 (DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort), and finally the R780 (R700 refresh) in Q4/2008. While very little is known about any of these products, it will be interesting to see if AMD can deliver this aggressive release strategy.

Source: Fudzilla

AMD demo Phenom system

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) used its 2007 Technology Analyst Day to stage a live demonstration of the next-generation Phenom quad-core processor. The 3.0GHz chip was installed in a RD790 based system featuring three ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT's, two running graphics, the third employed for physics. The Phenom CPU, RD790 chipset and RV670 GPU are all part of AMD's spider platform which is due later this year.

Source: AMD

OCZ buys PC Power and Cooling

Boutique PSU manufacturer PC Power & Cooling has been snapped up by OCZ Technology. Doug Dodson, the firm's founder and sole shareholder will receive $10 million upfront, including $6 million in cash, followed by a further contingent consideration of up to $3 million. Doug will stay on as a member of OCZ's senior management team.

Source: Custom PC

NVIDIA introduces 8800 Ultra

Today NVIDIA announced the latest edition to its 8800 family, the Ultra, essentially a 8800 GTX on steroids. While the number of stream processors (128) and memory capacity (768 MB) remains unchanged, core (612 / 575 MHz), shader (1500 / 1350 MHz), and memory clock (1080 / 900 MHz) frequency increases mean memory bandwidth climbs from 86.4 to 103.7 GB/s and the texture fill rate increases from 36.8 to 39.2 billion pixels per second when compared to the GTX. The 8800 Ultra will be available from May 15th with prices starting at around $830.

Source: TG Daily

AMD slashes CPU prices

The AMD Intel price war intensified yesterday when the former announced significant cuts across its entire desktop microprocessor range. Everything from the Quad FX-74 to the Sempron 3000+ are down in price, the most dramatic reduction saw the Athlon 64 X2 6000+ cut by over 45% to $241. Intel is expected to respond with reductions of its own later this month, placing even more pressure on AMD's falling margins. The next-generation K10 and R600 products just can't come soon enough for the green team.

New AMD processor price list

Source: VR-Zone