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8800GS to stay alive for a while longer
2008-04-18 04:14:00
Fudzilla - 8800GS to stay alive for a while longer: "We’ve learned that the Geforce 8800GS will stay alive for a while longer, at least until Nvidia's partners get rid of their stock.Nvidia loaded a lot of Geforce 8800GS with a good price onto its partners' shoulders. The cheapest ones you can find in Europe will cost you €87 or a bit more, and even a heavily overclocked XFX card will cost just slightly over €100, at least in Germany.In the U.S. you can find 8800GS cards for $129.99 or $99.99 after mail-in rebate, which is again a great price. We are, of course, mentioning the best-case scenario prices, not the average ones.Therefore, for the time being Geforce 8800GS won’t be renamed to Geforce 9600GTO or anything with 9, but at later date this is possible."
More About: Stay , Alive

Nvidia To Launch GeForce 9600 GSO In May
2008-04-18 04:14:00
VR-Zone : Nvidia To Launch GeForce 9600 GSO In May: "Nvidia is planning to launch the GeForce 9600 GSO next month to replace the 'not so popular' GeForce 8800 GS. Apparently, GeForce 9600 GSO and 8800 GS are of the same G92 core with 96 stream processors but card makers are 100% free to design their own PCB and determine their own clocks. We can expect many variants of cards with different types of cooling coming up to be branded as Overclocked Edition. This rebranding move hopefully will boost the sale of the cards, be more price competitive against the ATI's offerings and clear the crippled G92 inventory."
More About: Geforce

GT200-300 is taped out
2008-04-17 19:50:00
Fudzilla: "Looks that GT200 is also going to be ready for late Q2 launch. We only have some limited data, but the chip that we call GT200 is tapped out and the prototypes of the card are already up and running. The device is known as Nvidia GT200-300 and this naming scheme might implicate that this is something that we've seen listed as D10U-30.We can only speculate is this a 55 or 65nm or if this card has one or two chips, but we can confirm that this configuration has 1024MB of memory.The chip, however, is called GT200-300. The shocking part is that both R700 and new GT200 might be launched at roughly the same time, or very close to each other."

Larrabee to emerge in late 2009
2008-04-17 19:50:00
Fudzilla - Larrabee to emerge in late 2009: "Sources within the graphics industry expect to see Larrabee retail products in late 2009 and currently neither Nvidia nor ATI sees it as a threat, at least not in a short term.Intel promised to show Larrabee in late 2008, but everyone who has been in this industry a few years knows that Intel has to go through painful driver development and polishing cycles.It took ATI years to catch up to Nvidia on the game support and drivers and Intel's IGP driver is simply a laughable application that shows a 2D picture and plays some video.Until the later part of 2009, Nvidia and ATI will be the only two GPU manufactures to consider and even when Larrabee launches you shouldn’t expect a miracle, at least not from the first batch."
More About: Late , Emerge

R700 to launch close to Computex
2008-04-17 19:49:00
Fudzilla: "RV770 chips are looking good and the highest end R700 based product might launch around Computex (starts at June 3 2008). We believe it will actually be a few days earlier, but it can as well be a few days after.The chips and cards are supposed to be available at launch date and ATI is doing the logistics part better than ever before. RV670 was a great product that raised many eyebrows, and as Jon Paddie said in one of our correspondence, Nvidia had to launch a few products around RV670 to counter it.We've seen that many G92-derived products including 8800GT, 8800GTS, 9800GTX and eventually G94 (D9P) – 9600GT who made RV670 runs for the money. Despite that, ATI sold all RV670s it produced in Q4 2007 simple as Nvidia couldn't pump enough G92s. Nvidia cards were faster than Radeon 3870 and 3850, but ATI was a bit cheaper and had a good price / performance ratio."
More About: Close , Launch

RV770 with GDDR3 in May already | NordicHardware
2008-04-17 18:03:00
RV770 with GDDR3 in May already | NordicHardware: "We know that RV770 is in production and that things have been going quite smoothly up till now. We've been looking forward to seeing the first cards at Computex in June, but it seems like the card will be ready even sooner. We've been hearing stories about a launch in late May, and more stories have popped up now saying the same thing. Since GDDR5 is still at an early stage it seems that the first models may use GDDR3 instead. This should put RV770 cards at a very interesting price point. Yields are good and GDDR3 chips are plentiful. Let's just hope that there is something to the specifications circulating in the east, and we might have a real killer at hand."

RS780D to do three-way hybrid CrossFireX
2008-04-17 17:52:00
Fudzilla: "AMD's upcoming RS780D or 790GX chipset will add support for a new type of hybrid CrossFire, as not only will the onboard graphics work in conjunction with a graphics card, but it will work with a pair of graphics cards for some very interesting CrossFireX setups.We're not sure how much of a performance boost you'd get from a setup like this, but an extra boost for free is never wrong. Well, free is a relative term here, as we're not sure how many people would consider this platform when it launches, as starting out with integrated graphics and then moving up to one and then two graphics cards seems like an odd concept.Hang on, isn't that what Nvidia is allowing you to do with the 780a chipset? Well, anyhow, the 790GX is limited to dual x8 bandwith per x16 slot, so it's not meant to be a replacement for the 790FX chipset, but it might replace the 790X chipset in due time."
More About: Hybrid

Nehalem to launch in three SKUs
2008-04-17 17:48:00
Fudzilla - Nehalem to launch in three SKUs: "Intel’s previous plan was to launch Nehalem in its Bloomfield variation as a high-performance chip, just as it did with the QX9770, the first 45nm desktop quad-core. Other 45nm Penryn generation chips were to follow later in Q1, but most of them slipped in Q2.Bloomfield, a desktop version of Nehalem, now shows its presence in Q4 2008 desktop M3 mainstream roadmap where it is supposed to co-exist with Q9550 Quad core Yorkfield, clocked at 2.83GHz.Intel divides its mainstream roadmap to M3 the top of the mainstream, M2 as the middle part and M1 as the mainstream parts for the slowest of the dual-core series that in Q2 include E8300 and E6550 parts.The second Bloomfield Nehalem based SKU is supposed to co-exist with the Q9650 45nm quad-core clocked at 3.0GHz, and it is listed in the performance market. The top one should live with QX9770 in the extreme market."
More About: Launch

Dual-core Atom aims for Q3 2008
2008-04-17 17:48:00
Fudzilla - Dual -core Atom aims for Q3 2008 : "Single-core Atom integrated solutions are just around the corner and most of the launch platforms will go in ultra low-cost notebooks such as MSI's Wind PC and Asus Eee PC 900.The desktop parts will follow shortly and they will be used for many upcoming thin clients. The Atom platform will always include the motherboard and a CPU soldered to it.The Q3 brings a bit more interesting products, including Atom 3 series. The Atom 3xx will be the branding for the dual-core that will dissipate close to 8W of power, which is still insignificant compared to any current dual-core CPU.It looks like the Atom 2xx series brand will be reserved for single-core, while Atom 3xx will become the brand of dual-cores."
More About: Dual Core , Core

Intel G45 DX10 to play World in Conflict
2008-04-17 17:47:00
Fudzilla - Intel G45 DX10 to play World in Conflict : "G45 is Intel's new and much faster chipset and we've learned that this one will finally get a DirectX 10 driver. Again, we are about to laugh.Well, let's be serious for a moment,as Intel has reported that DirectX 10 games are running on its current beta DirectX 10 driver and that World in Conflict is currently the best performing game on Eaglelake (G45) desktop and Cantiga GM45 mobile chipsets.Performance enhancements are the second most important thing with this driver, as Intel chases the Vista premium logo and this is its top priority. It is still not clear if Intel can make it, but there is a 'High Confidence of Vista Premium Logo with DX10,“ which clearly indicates that Intel doesn’t know if it can make it.It passes about 94 percent of WHQL, but it need to pass it all. It will be incredibly interesting to see the G45 in action and compare it to some real IGP chipsets with Nvidia and ATI graphics inside."
More About: Play

RV770 is already in production
2008-04-17 17:41:00
Fudzilla - RV770 is already in production: "We learned that the RV770 GPU already went to production and there is a big chance to see R700 generation much earlier than anyone has expected. TSMC is already in pilot production and the chips are, as we reported earlier, developed in 55nm machitecture.The way it looks now, there is a strong possibility that R700 should show its face at Computex (June 3) while the launch itself might be shortly before or after Computex. We still don’t have the final details.RV770 is the based on the R700 design and the R700 itself consists of two RV770 chips. From what we know, RV770 should be at least fifty percent faster than the RV670.If all goes well there is a big chance that R700 will launch in Q2, but rather later than earlier. We are still in the dark about the real details of D10U 30 as this GPU(s) has a similar schedule and ought to launch in Q2."
More About: Production

MS fixes Vista SP1 glitch
2008-04-14 04:25:00
MS fixes Vista SP1 glitch - The INQUIRER: "MICROSOFT says 'a few' users experienced problems with installing Vista SP1 due to a fault with the installer.The Servicing Stack Update (SSU) contains code to check if there are any pending reboots or other updates to install. If it sees either of these circumstances, it prevents the install from starting. In some cases, the SSU got its knickers in a twist and thought it needed a reboot itself to complete the installation and the system entered an infinite reboot loop.Recognising that this was a tad inconvenient, MS pulled the SSU from Windows Update last month and is now releasing a patch that installs before the SSU and prevents it attempting a reboot during installation. The SSU has also been modified to check to see if the patch has been applied before starting installation.The upshot is that MS reckons all the problems have been knocked on the head and that everything will now be hunky dory."
More About: Glitch

OCZ officially launches EliteXStream PSUs
2008-04-13 19:05:00
Fudzilla - OCZ officially launches EliteXStream PSUs: "OCZ has officially launched its new EliteXStream power supply series, the same one we had chance to see during CeBIT. The PSUs in this series will be available in 800W or 1000W, and they will feature a single +12V rail design.The new EliteXStream PSU series is cooled by an internal 120mm fan, and has a high efficiency of 82 percent. As mentioned, both of the models in this new series will have a single +12V rail with enough Amps (80A for 1kW version and 62A for 800W version) for any setup you throw at it. Both models will come with one 20+4Pin ATX, one 8-pin CPU, four 6+2-pin PCI-E, and 17 drive connectors.The EliteXStream series will feature overvoltage, overcurrent and short-circuit protection, and will also be backed by a 5-year warranty. According to our retail sources, it should be available sometime this month, but the suggested price is still unknown. We'll update the article as soon as we get some info regarding the pri...

Geforce 9500GT reviewed
2008-04-13 18:52:00
Fudzilla - Geforce 9500GT reviewed: "Geforce 9500GT specifications are finally out. The new Nvidia entry level card works at 550MHz, Shaders work at 1375MHz and memory at 1600MHz. The card still uses 128 bit memory interface, but the good news is that it performs better than the 8600GT.Of course, we are talking about the fastest version of 9500GT with DDR3 memory, but it’s still quite an impressive number.The Chinese review site promises 31FPS in Crysis at 1024x768 with no effects on, but probably at some modest quality settings. The card scores impressive 5853 in 3Dmark06.To make it easier to understand, the Geforce 9500GT is a halved 9600GT. This means less performance and features, but at a much lower price.You can check out the first review here."

OCZ adds mainstream to Silencer PSU series
2008-04-13 18:46:00
Fudzilla - OCZ adds mainstream to Silencer PSU series: "OCZ has announced four new additions to its Silencer series, ranging from 370W all the way to mainstream 500W. These new PSUs will focus on mainstream systems and their stability, sufficient power and high-efficiency.The lowest rated model is 370W, next in line is 420W and the last stand is 500W, which will be available as 500 EPS12V model and Dell-aimed identical model. All four models feature a single +12V rail design, are cooled by a 80mm fan and all four are certified with 80+ efficiency.All four models come with a 5-year warranty and can be found here."
More About: Series

Next Nvidia card is D10U-30
2008-04-13 18:43:00
Fudzilla - Next Nvidia card is D10U-30: "Nvidia plans to release a new card in Q2 2008 codenamed D10U-30 and the new card will come up with 1024MB of DDR3 memory. This is the chip that comes before GT200, and GT200 should be out in Q3 or early Q4.The board will have quite nasty heat dissipation, as we’ve learned that Nvidia warned its partners to expect approximately 225 to 250W dissipation from the card. This information leads us to believe that this is yet another dual chip card.We still don’t know that much about it, but we have confirmed its existence. We wonder if it is 55nm G92 shrink behind this card."
More About: Card

Windows 7 schedule stepped up
2008-04-10 17:39:00
Windows 7 schedule stepped up - The INQUIRER: "MICROSOFT is so disappointed with Vista that it is prepared to speed up the Windows 7 so that it appears next year.Beknighted blighter of Blighty, Sir William Gates III told the Inter-American Development Bank: 'Sometime in the next year or two we will have a new version.'Of course he was talking about Windows 7 and Gates said he was super-enthused about what it will do in lots of ways. Windows 7 will ship in consumer and business versions, and in 32-bit and 64-bit versions. The company also confirmed that it is considering a subscription model to complement Windows, but did not provide specifics or a time frame.According to CNET, the Vole officially expects to ship the successor to Vista roughly three years from Vista's January 2007 debut. Now it is is unclear is whether Gates was referring to early testing of Windows 7 coming within the year, as opposed to a widespread release or debut."
More About: Windows , Schedule , Windows 7

Single-core Atom already sampled
2008-04-10 17:39:00
Fudzilla - Single -core Atom already sampled: "Many manufacturers have got samples of Atom / Diamondvile processors to make their designs ready for the Computex. The sample CPUs are running at 1.6GHz and they are branded as Atom 2x0.We can confirm that they can be completely passively cooled, but so far there is no word of dual-core Diamondvile samples.Dual-core is reserved exclusively for desktop systems, but there might be someone who would like to plug this CPU in a notebook design. After 1.6GHz comes 1.87GHz, but so far Intel didn’t send any samples of that part."
More About: Core

Intel's "Nehalem" Flirts With 3.2 GHz at IDF 2008
2008-04-09 19:24:00
DailyTech - Intel's "Nehalem" Flirts With 3.2 GHz at IDF 2008 : "With the launch and excitement of Intel's Silverthorne-based Atom processors behind it, Intel is turning its sights to the more salient and profitable next generation architecture for desktop, server, and mobile processors. Intel used the Spring IDF 2008 as a showcase for its Nehalem processor architecture.Intel's Nehalem is truly a radical architecture departure from Intel thanks to its integrated memory controller that will support triple-channel DDR3-1333 memory. This won't be the only design element taken almost verbatim from AMD's playbook; Intel also plans to incorporate the new QuickPath Interface on Nehalem. QuickPath is almost identical in spirit and implementation to AMD's current interconnect technology, HyperTransport.The first available Nehalem processors will be built on the existing 45nm manufacturing process, will incorporate SSE4 instructions, and will feature four fully integrated cores. Each cor...

Ubisoft joins the Steam family
2008-04-09 19:12:00
Fudzilla - Ubisoft joins the Steam family: "After Valve’s recent deals with Atari and Epic, where they would offer their games through Steam networks, Ubisoft also joined in. Valve and Ubisoft arranged for more than 40 Ubisoft games to find their way online.Among the games you’ll find Assasin’s Creed, Heroes of Might and Magic collection, Tom Clancy series, IL-2 Sturmovik collection as well as Far Cry. Many of these will be featured on Steam in the coming weeks.It seems that Valve has serious plans for setting up a global gaming network by enlisting the biggest gaming companies, and it seems their plans are working."
More About: Family

Radeon 3870 X2 with 2GB possible
2008-04-09 19:12:00
Fudzilla - Radeon 3870 X2 with 2GB possible: "Some ATI partners are working on the 2GB version of Radeon 3870 X2. We know that this is possible despite the fact that 2GB won't bring any significant performance increase, but 2GB sounds twice better than 1GB.We remember that Diamond multimedia did launch a 1GB version of Radeon 2900 XT and that it had a lot of success with this product. We believe that the same success will follow the brave ones who launch the Radeon 3870 X2 with 2GB. In practice, each chip will address 1GB memory, but this doesn’t make a big difference.The real Build of Material cost of 2GB card is insignificant and you can expect this card very soon. In the e-tail / retail market it will end up more expensive than the 1GB version, simply as the companies know that people are willing to pay more for more memory."

EVGA claims high-end graphics throne
2008-04-09 19:09:00
Fudzilla - EVGA claims high-end graphics throne: "EVGA has announced three more graphics cards based on the 9800GX2 GPU. These three will be a part of EVGA's SSC, KO and Superclocked series. EVGA is the first one to release factory overclocked 9800 GX2s, but we doubt that it will be the last partner to do this.The highest clocked, SSC edition 9800GX2 will work at 675MHz for the core, 1,674MHz for the Shaders with the 1GB of GDDR3 memory at 2,100MHz. The KO edition will work at a more modest 650MHz for the core, 1,620MHz for the Shaders and 2,050MHz for the memory. The last one, the Superclocked edition, will work at 625MHz for the core, 1,562MHz for the Shaders and 2,000MHz for the memory.All three will use the reference design and cooling. Unlike the new 9800GTX, which has a green sticker, EVGA's 9800GX2 comes in ATI's favorite red colored box and sticker; ironic isn't it? EVGA's water-cooled 9800 GX2, part of EVGA's Black Pearl edition, will also come soon."
More About: Graphics , High , Claims

NVIDIA GT200 : GeForce 9900 GTX & 9900 GT In Q3
2008-04-09 19:06:00
GT200 : GeForce 9900 GTX & 9900 GT In Q3: "No it is not some April Fool jokes. VR-Zone has learned that there will be two high end parts from Nvidia to replace the current GeForce 9800 GX2 and 9800 GTX in Q3. These two parts are GeForce 9900 GTX and GeForce 9900 GT based on the new GT200 architecture. GeForce 9800 GX2 and GTX will have a short lifespan since they will be replaced in a couple of months time. Nvidia has positioned GeForce 9900 GTX to replace 9800 GX2 and this gave a clue that a single GT200 card will actually outperform a dual G92 card. Likewise for GeForce 9900 GT, outperforming and replacing 9800 GTX. CJ revealed to us that Nvidia will have a hard time fitting GT200 onto the PCB since the GPU is gonna be large and very power hungry so we can probably assume it is still 65nm based. The PCB for GT200 will be P651."
More About: Geforce

Radeon 3830 is a China-only product
2008-03-30 15:42:00
Fudzilla - Radeon 3830 is a China -only product: "You might remember the hype about Radeon 3690, a product that never showed its face in E.U. or the U.S., and we can confirm that the new super hyped Radeon 3830 is again a China-only product.What we learned is that the chip behind 3690 and 3830 looks to be the same thing. Both cards have the slower version of RV670PRO chip, and it is likely that 3830 will have slightly higher clocks with 128-bit memory. You can be sure that this card will end up dramatically slower than Radeon 3850 and it would probably do poorly in demanding markets such as the E.U. and U.S.American and E.U. readers can rest peacefully, as this card won't get to our markets, at least not for the time being."
More About: Product

AMD launches energy efficient Phenom 9100e
2008-03-30 15:39:00
Fudzilla - AMD launches energy efficient Phenom 9100e: "Apart from the regular Quad-core Phenoms, AMD has launched an energy efficient 65W part designated Phenom X4 9100e. You probably remember AMD's Sempron EE and Athlon BE series of energy efficient CPUs; in fact, the Athlon BE is still the most energy efficient dual-core desktop CPU on the market.The new 9100e gets an 'e' suffix instead, and it's rated at 65W, unlike the plain Phenoms which suck up to 95W or 125W in higher clocked models. This is a B2 stepping part, it's clocked 1.8GHz, while the voltage is 1.10~1.15v. It's nice to see AMD is targeting this market segment, if only we could figure out which market segment this is supposed to be.Energy efficient server parts make sense, and both Intel and AMD have quad-core server parts rated well below 65W. Low-end CPUs for office and home use, such as the EE and BE parts mentioned earlier also make sense. But a desktop quad-core, well, not really. Diesel powered Aston Marti...
More About: Efficient

Two triple-core Phenom X3 8x00s launched
2008-03-30 15:36:00
Fudzilla - Two triple-core Phenom X3 8x00s launched: "AMD has launched its Phenom X3 8x00 tri-core CPUs and they should shortly be available. It is a Q1 product and why not launch it in the second to the last day of the quarter?The good thing about this product is that it performs almost as well as a quad-core, and as it has three working cores it will certainly cost less.You can check our small review of Phenom X3 8600 at 2.3GHZ here.Phenom X3 is nothing more than K10 with one core disabled, but AMD believes that this CPU has a great future, especially when paired with AMD 780G chipset.Phenom X3 8400 works at 2.1GHz, while Phenom X3 8600 works at 2.3GHz and both of them are clearly B2 revision; but at these clocks, there is no bug that can affect your work.These CPUs should be available shortly and ZT Systems will be the first to launch The ZT Affinity 5202Zi system powered by Phenom X3 8400 Triple -core. The launch is timed for March 31 at 10PM EDT, indeed the last day of Q1 2008."
More About: Core , Launched

AMD announces four 9x50 Phenoms
2008-03-30 15:36:00
Fudzilla: "As of today, AMD has finally launched four Quad B3 K10 cores. The slowest TLB bug-free CPU, also known as B3, will work at 2.3GHz and ends up branded Phenom 9650. It has a 95W TDP, 2MB total dedicated L2 cache (4x512KB), 2MB L3 cache, 3600MHz HyperTransport bus and fits in socket AM2+.It will cost $215, but the price is effective as of April 7th. There won’t be any 9550 B3 at 2.2GHz and if you want this speed you should get yourself Phenom 9500.All four 9X50 CPUs should be available as of today. Second in line is the 9750 with 2.4GHz clock and this one comes in two versions, the one with 95W TDP and second with 125W TDP. Surprisingly, both cost $215, which doesn’t make much sense, as it is the same price as 9650.The fastest of the Phenoms is the 9850 Black Edition, clocked at 2.5GHz it has a 125W TDP and 4000MHz Hypertransport. It will cost just $235, $20 more than the 9750, which makes it an excellent choice if you want a Phenom.These prices are from AMD’s official...

Quad-SLI doesn’t work on XP
2008-03-30 15:29:00
Fudzilla: "If you are after Quad SLI with two 9800GX2 cards you can forget about -aying under XP. Nvidia clearly said that at least for the time being Quad SLI driver works only under Vista.Both Vista 32 and 64bit are included but so far the current Forceware 174.53 for XP doesn’t have support for Quad SLI.Maybe it is time to move to Vista and play games, but traditionally games run a bit slower on Vista than on XP, at least this was the case for a long time.You can get the XP driver without Quad-SLI support here and we will try to ask Nvidia if there are future plans for Quad SLI support under Windows XP."
More About: Work

Asus P45 lineup revealed
2008-03-30 10:51:00
Fudzilla - Asus P45 lineup revealed: "In a press release about its new EPU, Asus revealed the product names of a wide range of its upcoming Intel P45 based motherboards. Although we don't have the specifications of all of the products, some of them were shown earlier this month at CeBIT.The models are the P5Q Deluxe, P5Q-E, P5QC, P5Q PRO and finally, the P5Q. The P5Q Deluxe and P5Q-E were on display at CeBIT, but the other three models are new and very little is known about the specifications apart from the chipset upon which they're based and, of course, the fact that all models will feature Asus's EPU.It seems like the P45 chipset might be closer than we expect, although it's strange that Asus has made a statement about upcoming products so early. Some of the models will also feature Asus' Express Gate flash memory based Linux OS, but the press release isn't clear on which models will have this feature."
More About: Lineup

Nvidia can do switchable graphics with Intel
2008-03-30 10:13:00
Fudzilla - Nvidia can do switchable graphics with Intel : "Switchable graphics, that's what Intel calls a notebook PC that has a discrete mobile GPU and an IGP core in the same system, with the option to switch between them as the name suggests.The concept is really simple. If you plug your notebook computer into the power outlet you switch on the discrete GPU and if you are on battery you will switch back to the IGP. The other day we reported that Intel is working with ATI to make an Intel CPU+ chipset that meets ATI’s discrete mobile GPU environment and now we've learned that Nvidia can do the same.There will be a Centrino platform notebook powered by Nvidia graphics that will support switchable graphics and all this is scheduled for the second part of 2008. It can be done so its now up to Intel and Nvidia to convince the OEMs and ODMs to do it."
More About: Graphics