Filed under: Desktops, Gaming

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Desktops

ATI just announced its new mainstream graphics cards, the Radeon HD 4670 and 4650. At the heart of both cards is a 55nm 320-core TeraScale GPU, which is a modified version of the RV770 chip found in the Radeon HD 4800 series — it’s a lower spec chip, but it has essentially the exact same feature set. The $80 HD 4670 has 512MB of GDDR3 RAM, while the $60 HD 4650 uses 512MB of GDDR2 memory; both are relatively power-sipping with 60 watt and 50 watt draws respectively under full load. Should be out soon — HotHardware just tested an HD 4670 and found it to be quite a performer, check it all out at the read links.

Read - ATI Radeon HD 4600 series PR
Read - HotHardware test

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Desktops, Gaming

Sure, times might be tough at AMD, but that’s not stopping the crew at ATI from gunning for NVIDIA’s newest gear — the company just announced the new HD Radeon 4850 X2 and 4870 X2. Aimed at the “super high-end” of the market, the $399 4850 X2 and $599 4870 X2 feature two GPU chips on a 625 or 750MHz bus, respectively, with up to 2GB of 900MHz GDDR5 RAM. ATI says that there’s a 20 percent overhead from pairing up the processors, so the X2s should offer 180 percent of the single GPU cards — certainly enough to outgun a single NVIDIA GTX 280, and reportedly enough to match a dual-280 setup depending on the game. We’ll see for sure when the inevitable flood of benchmarks hits when these bad boys arrive next month — any gamers out there going to take the plunge?

Read - ExtremeTech
Read - CNET

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Gaming

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Gaming

Eran Badit of NGOHQ.com has already made some considerable progress getting PhysX to run on AMD hardware, and it looks like he’s now getting a helping hand from a somewhat unexpected source, with NVIDIA itself reportedly giving the project its blessing. Apparently, NVIDIA has even gone so far as to invite Badit to join its developer program, which gives him access to documentation, SDKs and, most importantly, direct access to hardware and NVIDIA engineers, a move that Badit describes as “impressive, inspiring and motivating.” Badit is decidedly less impressed by AMD, however, which has apparently been unwilling to provide with any hardware or support for the project. That stubborn stance, he surmises, can only be due to AMD’s backing of Intel’s Havok physics engine, which NVIDIA would no doubt like to have out of the picture (hence its willingness to help here).

[Via TG Daily]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Gaming

Is this the Radeon card destined to leapfrog NVIDIA’s performance leading GTX 200 series? We’ll know in August (or soon thereafter), that’s the rumored release date for AMD’s Radeon HD 4870 X2 graphics card. As the X2 name implies, the card packs a pair of RV770-based GPUs and should be ready to sample with 2GB (!) of that “world’s fastest” GDDR5 memory by the end of this month. It’s worth noting that the leaked images show a total of 1GB of GDDR5 (16 Qimonda GDDR5 chips) on that black PCB. AMD will then make the 4870 X2 (RV770XT) cards available to its partners in mid-August, hitting retail soon after for an estimated $499 according to sources over at DigiTimes.

Read — Leaked images
Read — August launch

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

Just five days after ATI fessed up with an official release of its Radeon HD 4850, along comes a similar announcement for the just-leaked Radeon HD 4870. This dual-slot beast is finally being outed on the record, and at the very least, Diamond Multimedia’s version will come stocked with 512MB of DDR5 memory, a clock speed of 725 MHz, 900MHz memory speed and 800 stream processors. The unit also provides CrossFireX upgradeability and should be available here soon from your favorite online retailer.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Desktops, Gaming

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Gaming

Considering that we’ve already seen AMD’s ATI Radeon HD 4850 benchmarked, it’s not like we really needed some official verbiage to cement our belief that the unit was real. Nevertheless, said verbiage certainly doesn’t hurt, and that’s precisely what’s been delivered this morning. The HD 4850 is a single-slot PCIe 2.0 card featuring 512MB of DDR3 RAM, a 625MHz clock speed, 993MHz memory speed, 480 stream processors and support for CrossFireX / DirectX 10.1. We’re also told that at least Diamond Multimedia’s HD 4850 is available as we speak from a number of fine retailers, thus we presume everyone else’s version of the card shouldn’t be too far behind.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Desktops, Gaming

Judging by the fact that AMD tipped the whole world off to its upcoming RV770-based GPUs earlier this week, we don’t suppose it’ll be too upset that a 512MB MSI Radeon HD 4850 happened to land a little early in the PC Perspective labs. Design wise, there’s nothing too out of the ordinary — a single-slot cooler design, twin dual-link DVI ports, single 6-pin PCIe power connector and one goofy looking monster that you’ll never see again once this thing gets installed. Care to see how it fared when facing the pressures of modern day gaming? You know where to look.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Desktops, Gaming

Hey Mac users, tired of looking longingly at that PC-lovin’ ATI Radeon HD 3870? AMD has teased you long enough, and at long last, the Mac & PC Edition has arrived. This card is optimized for use within Apple’s Mac Pro systems and includes 512MB of GDDR4 RAM, 320 stream processors, PCI Express 2.0 support and twin dual-link DVI ports for treating that pair of 30-inch Cinema HD displays like they ought to be treated. Check the read link for the full list of specifications, and get set to drop $129 when this one lands later this month.

[Via TUAW, thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals, Storage

A full six months after Samsung took the wraps off of GDDR5 memory, along comes word from AMD that the next-generation ATI Radeon graphics cards will boast said technology. Apparently AMD will be tapping Qimonda for its supply of GDDR5 modules, which should boost gaming performance as well as benefit stream processing, “where GPUs are applied to address complex, massively parallel calculations.” As Hot Hardware points out, the release comes just weeks away from the rumored debut of the Radeon 4000 series, so if our deductive reasoning is sound, we’d surmise that the looming Radeon 4800 will indeed feature GDDR5.

[Via Hot Hardware]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Although most of the attention in the increasingly-competitive CPU market has been focused on Intel and newcomer NVIDIA lately, AMD’s still in it to win it, and it looks like it’s taking some bold moves. First up, the company says over 100 laptop designs based on the new Puma mobile platform are being developed for delivery in June, over twice as many as it’s had in the past. AMD’s touting Puma’s Hybrid Graphics mode that allows the system to intelligently switch between a Radeon HD3400 and integrated graphics for max power-savings, so it’ll be interesting to see how the system stacks up against Intel’s Atom and VIA’s Isaiah — like NVIDIA, AMD seems to be betting that consumers care more about graphics than raw horsepower.

That bet might also explain why AMD’s technical director of sales and marketing Guiseppe Amato also recently told CustomPC that its next generation of chips will look “completely different” than Phenom, and that it will be capable of solving “problems that today we think can never be addressed by hardware.” That’s a pretty bold claim — the whole processor market is getting pretty boastful lately, have you noticed? — but we’re at a loss to explain what it means. Any ideas?

Read - 100 laptops to be based on Puma at launch
Read - AMD’s next CPU architecture will be completely different

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Desktops, Gaming

Forget FPS and polygon crunching, we want one of these ASUS EAH3850 just for its sheer logic-defying properties. ASUS really took AMD’s CrossFireX multi-GPU capabilities and ran with them, stuffing a ludicrous trio of GPUs onto a single “concept” card. Three RV670 cores power the setup, and it’s kept cool by some heatpipes and a water block. If your box doesn’t implode in incredulity, that means you can power four monitors with the three GPUs, or power a single monitor with all four at once for some seriously serious World of Warcraft, though we’ll have to wait for benchmarks to see how well this setup actually runs.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Desktops, Gaming

Believe it or not, Alienware’s Aurora ALX rig was boasting quad SLI support two whole years ago. After yesterday’s official launch of ATI’s CrossFireX technology, now the ALX has another partner in quad GPU crime. Dubbed the Area-51 ALX CFX, this rig features a 3.0GHz Core 2 Extreme QX9650 processor, up to 4GB of RAM, a bevy of HDD choices, optional Blu-ray burner, a 1,000-watt power supply and of course, twin 1GB Radeon HD 3870 X2 cards (four GPUs in all). Granted, this thing will run you at least $5,649 as a CrossFireX-equipped rig, so think carefully if slicing into your son’s college fund is really worth 4x the graphical mayhem.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Desktops, Gaming

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Gaming

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Displays, Gaming

DisplayPort is the most fun when you snag it on the cheap, and according to some leaked specs over on Madbox PC, AMD has a $50 Radeon in the works that’ll have you running that 30-incher off of USB for a pittance. The Radeon HD 3450 card is based on the RV620 core, running at 525MHz, with 256MB of RAM and just a VGA plug to accompany the DisplayPort. The HD 3470 ($60) hits 600MHz and 512MB of RAM, and does DVI, while the HD 3650 ($100) maxes out the trio at 800MHz, with 512MB of RAM as well and the RV635 core to back it up. You might not be thrashing around in Crysis, but HD video and perhaps some last-gen shooters should be totally within your grasp whenever AMD gets these to market.

[Via Gadget Lab]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Laptops

We already knew Toshiba’s Dynabook TXW/69DW came loaded with an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2600 GPU, but according to AVing, Japan could be seeing a revamped iteration that includes the HD 3800. Moreover, the 15.4-inch machine would boast an Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 CPU and PM965 Express chipset, but we’re left to wonder if any of the other critical components would be upgraded, too. Nevertheless, it seems that a price / release date is also uncertain, but if you just so happen to peep one of these in downtown Tokyo, be sure to holler in comments.

[Via SlashGear]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Desktops, Gaming

Here we go, AMD just announced the immediate availability of their ATI Radeon HD 3800 series of GPUs. Four days earlier than predicted. According to AMD, these are the world’s first to support DirectX 10.1, 55nm process technology, and tri and quad multi-GPU support with ATI CrossFireX. Out today are the $179 Radeon HD 3850 with 256MB of GDDR3 memory and $219 Radeon HD 3870 with 512MB of GDDR4. Now, how ’bout giving us the Phenom processor AMD, and we’ll call it a day?

[Via I4U]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!