Are graphics cards (and processors) now going green? AMD is certainly trying, having noted that its E-350 APU “demonstrated a significant reduction in the overall product ‘carbon footprint’” compared to previous AMD Anthlon processors and Mobility Radeon graphics cards. We’re talking a 40 percent reduction in carbon emission over the life of the APU. This is the part where the smart-aleck… → Read More
ATI, we hardly knew ye. Word on the street is that AMD, which bought ATI for a cool $5.4 billion some four years ago, will phase out the ATI name later this year. Apparently AMD’s research indicates that people prefer the AMD name to the ATI name, but that, above that, the name that really sells is Radeon. Goodbye ATI Radeon Pro, hello AMD Radeon Pro. → Read More
Have you launched VLC today? If so then you’ll already know that it has been updated to version 1.1.0. The biggest feature in this version is the addition of GPU decoding for Windows (Vista and 7 only) and Linux users. That is, you can use that fancy GPU of yours to help decode that 1080p MKV you’ve got there, leaving your CPU with enough room to breathe, or whatever. Fair warning: if you’re on… → Read More
Damn you, Sapphire. Three weeks ago I bought your vanilla Radeon 5970, and now you release the Radeon 5970 4G TOXIC Edition? What a load of bunk. Fastest video card on the planet, you say? Well I say FE$%Fxtgredth. → Read More
Nvidia wants to help out you laptop gamers. How nice of them. From now on, the company will release both desktop and mobile drivers at the same time. This isn’t such a big deal for desktop users, what with their fancy GTX 480s, but laptop users won’t have to wait for the Dells and HPs of the world to release updated drivers. Nvidia’s got you covered. → Read More
Sony just can’t seem to leave well enough alone, it turns out that they have managed to redesign the RSX GPU to make it even smaller and more efficient. A recent tear-down by Japanese fansite PocketNews showed off the fact that they Nvidia GPU used in all the PS3 Slim units has been reduced to an even smaller size since launch. → Read More
MacBooks have great battery life for a few reasons, including, but not limited to, GPU switching. However, as Ubergizmo discovered, when you run Windows 7 in Bootcamp the GPU stays on all the time, essentially sucking down battery like a fiend. The 2009 MBP also had issues – the screen was too bright and the keyboard backlight was always on – but otherwise there wasn’t much of a problem. → Read More
What’s the matter with AMD? The number two chip maker in the whole world just posted some numbers that don’t reflect too kindly on its performance over the last few months. The big, bad Sunnyvale, Calif.-based corp lost $416 million last quarter; about $195 million of that was related to a corporate spinoff (see: GlobalFoundries). When put into scary percentages, AMD’s sales fell off 21 percent. → Read More
Ah, graphics. One of the present-day netbook’s Achilles’ heels. While NVIDIA struck a deal earlier this year with VIA to work on its netbook-friendly “Nano” processors, it appears that the graphics giant is employing a wait-and-see position towards the rest of the netbook market in general. NVIDIA CFO Marv Burkett said at a recent technology conference, "We’re not saying… → Read More
Oh boy, some non-Android news for you. My guess is that it’ll be wall-to-wall Android in a few hours, so smoke ‘em if you got ‘em. That is to say, if you have no interest in Android—impossible!—may I suggest you break out the stamp collection, maybe watch Ferris Bueller’s Day Off for the 900th time? Anyhow, the next version of Adobe Photoshop, CS4, which comes… → Read More
What was previously reported as an issue contained to HP laptops, has now been linked to 10 Dell models. Nvidia had acknowledged that certain GPUs are suffering from high failure rates when undergoing “temperature fluctuations”. The problem stems from a weak die/packaging material set. While Nvidia is dealing with their supply chain problems, Dell has provided a list of affected notebooks and… → Read More
Nvidia will be making significantly less money this quarter thanks to defective GPUs. The company said yesterday that some of its laptop graphics processors have a tendency to overheat, and that it’s taking a $150-$200 million charge to cover the costs of repairs. Yes, I had to look up what “charge” means in this context. Nvidia says the problem is caused by weak materials. Sounds a lot… → Read More
Intel and NVIDIA don’t usually get along. In fact, with Intel’s recent announcements that its entering the graphic processor market, NVIDIA’s on alert, but its not scared. In fact, CEO Jen-Hsun Huang said in a conference call today that NVIDIA was read to “open a can of whoop ass,” which is awesome. But let’s face it, if Intel takes its GPU business seriously it… → Read More
If you’ve got $600 burning a hole in your pocket, maybe head on down to your nearby electronics superstore and throw down for the NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2. It’s got 256 processing cores on a single board and it’s “up to 60% faster than the closest competitor,” according to NVIDIA. It can be paired up with another 9800 GX2 in Quad SLI mode for Vista, just in case… → Read More
So you’ve got this big, powerful video card stuck to your computer, just sitting there on idle unless you’re playing a game or rendering something. Why not put it to work? Nvidia has made it possible to take advantage of the carefully engineered parallel architecture of today’s graphics cards through its CUDA (Complete Unified Device Architecture). Macs have missed out, though… → Read More
[photopress:Picture_3.jpg,full,center] PNY is laying down a new graphics card that’s a GeForce with a crappy box but great stats. It’s for gamers, so you pesky video editors can skip to the next post. But if you’re a keyboard-hunched killer, dig these groovy stats from the press release after the jump: → Read More
[photopress:NvidiaBottle_080605.jpg,full,left]The makers of many a fine GPU, whom we shall call NVIDIA, yesterday announced it was buying AGEIA, a company centered around physics engines for games. GPU makers started putting physics chips, developed by companies like AGEIA, on their video cards, so it only makes sense that they would start snapping up said companies. We can only imagine that this… → Read More
AMD’s newly-announced FireStream technology was announced earlier today and is being touted as the first of its kind to contain a double-precision floating point. The technology is based on ATI’s Radeon graphics card line and the new chips will cost $2000 a pop. The floating point, as you’ll remember from gradeschool, “is a numerical-representation system in which a string… → Read More
Now that GPU manufacturers are touting their ability to tackle high-def content, it’s a good idea to investigate exactly which GPUs you should spend your money on. The two main camps, nVidia and ATI/AMD, both have several GPUs on the market, at several different price points, so choosing one is quite a hassle. Thankfully, AnandTech put several GPUs to the test, seeing how they fared in… → Read More
PC Gamers will always find a way to justify buying the latest, greatest card on the market. ATI and nVidia know this, which is why they keep releasing cards on a weekly basis. ATI’s latest offerings include the Radeon 2400 HD and 2600 HD. Both cards will be available at fine retailers online and off. Both GPUs feature AMD’s Unified Video Decoder technology, which lessens the load on… → Read More
Now that the Elite buzz is laid to rest with the US launch today, rumors are buzzing around about a possible switch to smaller, cooler, cheaper 65nm Xenos GPUs for the Fall. Now, the source is China-based Commercial Times so I’m going out on a limb and saying this could be the biggest rumor…today. Sources were cited as saying an engineering version had been shipped and that production would… → Read More
The sleuths at llamma.com got their hands on an Xbox 360 Elite and were kind-hearted enough to crack it open for us. While the CPU and GPU do appear to be different than the regular 360′s, llamma doesn’t know if they’re the rumored 65nm design or not. (The 65nm chips are supposed to help drive down the cost of manufacturing, eventually leading to a lower priced 360.) Also of note… → Read More
Graphics card specialist nVidia will launch a host of new video cards next month, with what appears to be an overclocked 8800 GTX leading the charge. “Sources” said that nVidia will call its new top of the line card the 8800 Ultra and is intended to one-up AMD’s yet to be released Direct X 10 graphics card. (That card was supposedly to be unveiled last week, but AMD got cold feet… → Read More
It’s always fun to look at, dream about, lust after the high-end stuff, but when it comes down to it, most of us go right for the midrange option on whatever we’re buying. That’s what makes the new CrossFire-ready 256MB X1650 XT so appealing. It’s reasonably priced at $149 and has a good helping of the features you’ll find on the more expensive cards from the company. → Read More
working better on GPUs than CPUs has gone to nVidia’s head. After they finished high-fiving each other and downing a combined 374 Coronas, they set in motion a plan to develop a CPU with GPU features. According to nVidia, OEM manufacturers want a CPU that blends CPU functionality along with graphics functionality in order to lower costs and only have one chip instead of two on their boards. → Read More
we looked at earlier to run the Folding@Home software, you’ll get 20 to 40 times the output compared to a CPU. That’s a mighty bold claim, one that Techreport discovered wasn’t quite as it seemed. Although Stanford claims the beta GPU client runs 20 and 40 times faster on new Radeons, and although Radeons have many gigaflops of processing power, the current client doesn’t… → Read More
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