Sapphire Readies Radeon Hd 7950 For Mac

A representative for Imagination Technologies, a leading developer of mobile graphics processing technologies, said that the company was looking forward to increase performance of its solutions so substantially that to be able to address fully-fledged personal computers. Imagination Technologies once sold its Kyro graphics processing units for desktop PCs. Although the chip offered performance comparable to that of GeForce 2 GTS (a performance-mainstream solution back in 2001), it did not support then innovative hardware T&L transform and lighting engine and did not become popular because of that. Nowadays Imagination Technologies’ PowerVR graphics cores for mobile applications feature similar innovations found on desktop PC graphics processors. Obviously, mobile graphics chips cannot offer similar levels of performance as AMD Radeon and Nvidia GeForce provide at the moment, but since they are architecturally scalable, it is possible to build a high-end GPU for PCs featuring PowerVR architecture.

As it appears, such a plan is not excluded by Imagination. “We have our eye firmly on moving higher up the performance ladder,” said John Metcalfe, executive vice president and chief operating officer at Imagination Technologies, in an interview with. “Not only hybrids, but full PCs. We would need to get to higher performance than the cores we have currently announced. But we don’t have to change the architecture fundamentally in any way.” Modern high-end graphics processors contain billions of transistors and are pretty hard to develop and manufacture. While it should be possible to “replicate” performance of affordable GPUs from AMD or Nvidia with chips based on PowerVR architecture, it will be extremely expensive to create a GPU comparable to AMD Hawaii or Nvidia GK110. Meanwhile, without high-end GPUs it is almost impossible to address the market of discrete graphics processors.

Since ImgTec does not build actual chips, it should find a partner eager to compete against graphics solutions designed by AMD and Nvidia. In fact, there is such a partner: Intel Corp. Has been using PowerVR graphics cores inside its mobile SoCs for several years now and even has a stake in Imagination. Theoretically, it could integrate a large PowerVR GPU into its fully-fledged microprocessors for PCs and compete against traditional GPU designers. However, for some reason Intel prefers to use its own graphics cores for such chips. KitGuru Says: Keeping in mind how quickly GPUs are evolving these days, ImgTec should set its performance bars high just to continue developing advanced GPUs for mobile applications. One of the biggest problems with AMD’s latest R9 series line up of cards, was that they ran hot.

Today ASUS is ticking another box off of its to do list, by announcing a new, potentially much cooler version of the R9 280: The DirectCU II version. The box art features some Wolverine claw marks (definitely ) and gives you a one of these reasons this one should run a lot cooler than a stock card: all those lovely, direct contact heatpipes.

According to the ASUS release, it runs 20 per cent cooler than stock hardware and upto three times as quiet. Other features the card gets just for being part of the ASUS family, includes the DIGI+, which helps modulate the cards voltage to keep the card stable and reduce heat, as well as supporting ASUS’ GPU Tweak application, which will help you overclock your new card safely. Featuring a core clock of 874MHz at stock and 980MHz boosted, with 3GB of DDR5 and compatibility with resolutions up to and including 2560 x 1600, the DirectCU II card from ASUS also packs polymerized organic-semiconductor capacitors, which should give some added lifespan to the product. KitGuru Says: So who’s in a market for a new GPU? If quietness if your bag and you don’t want to both fitting an aftermarket cooler yourself, this might be the one for you. Advanced Micro Devices on Tuesday introduced its new offering for the sub-$300 market segment of discrete graphics cards, the Radeon R9 280. The novelty is not really something new as it is based on two years old code-named Tahiti graphics processing unit and resembles the Radeon HD 7950.

Nonetheless, it will likely have better prospects on the market with a new price. AMD Radeon R9 280 features 1792 stream processors, 112 texture units, 32 raster operating units and 384-bit memory bus. Graphics cards featuring the R9 280 moniker will clock the chip at 827/933MHz and will carry 3GB of 5GHz memory.

Thanks to higher frequencies, the Radeon R9 280 will offer higher performance compared to the original Radeon HD 7950, but will not be any different than the Radeon HD 7950 with boosted clock-rates introduced last summer. The main new selling point of the Radeon R9 280 is its official price of $279, which is considerably lower than that of the Radeon HD 7950 in many stores that still carry it. AMD Radeon R9 280 based on Tahiti will compete against the GeForce GTX 760 graphics board, which is powered by a cut-down version of GK104 graphics chip (1152 stream processors, 96 texture units 32 raster operating units). Previously the GeForce GTX 760 was known as the GTX 660 OEM. Based on the amount of stream processors, it is highly likely that the Radeon R9 280 will beat its arch-rival. Since the Radeon R9 280 is GCN architecture-based, it offers everything that modern graphics chips from AMD can do, including DirectX 11.2, OpenGL 4.3, OpenCL 1.1, Mantle, 4K output (through HDMI 1.4 and DisplayPort 1.2), stereo-3D output and so on. Expect AMD’s partners to offer factory-overclocked graphics cards carrying the R9 280 moniker as well as innovative cooling systems, non-reference designs and so on.

KitGuru Says: Just in case you did not get a Radeon HD 7950 a couple of years ago, AMD now offers it under a new name and for a new price point. Perhaps, that is not a bad thing for the end-user, but it clearly shows very slow innovation in the GPU world these days. Many of the leading graphics manufacturers have been working hard on developing new coolers and fan technology to reduce noise emissions as much as possible. This is never more important than when building a media center for a living room or bedroom. If you are unwilling to accept any noise at all, then why not bypass the use of fans completely and opt for a totally silent solution?

Sapphire have just released their latest silent R7 250 Ultimate, a fan less design to target the high definition television audience. Is it worth the modest £70 asking price? We have no confirmed pricing at time of article publication, however we can make some educated guesses. Current R7 250 pricing indicates 2GB models around £80 and 1GB models for a little less. The Sapphire R7 250 Ultimate ships with 1GB of GDDR5 so we would factor in the final retail cost, close to the £70 mark. Above, an overview of the Sapphire R7 250 Ultimate.

The core is modestly clocked at 800mhz and the memory 1,125mhz (4.5Gbps effective) – connected via a 128 bit memory interface. The 28nm Cape Verde core is equipped with 16 ROP’s, 32 Texture units and 512 shaders. In the recent years Advanced Micro Devices has been extraordinary slow with advancements of its professional graphics cards line.

To a large degree, this is a result of overall slow progress of discrete GPU performance these days, but for those who need performance now this hardly matters. The situation may improve a bit next month when AMD reportedly plans to introduce its new professional solution featuring the code-named Hawaii GPU.

At the NAB 2014 trade-show in early April AMD plans to roll-out an all-new FirePro graphics cards based on the latest Hawaii graphics processing unit based on the improved GCN graphics core next architecture, reports web-site. Thanks to 512-bit memory bus of the Hawaii chip, AMD could install 10GB of GDDR5 memory onto its next-gen FirePro W9000/W8000-series graphics solutions, which should boost performance in a number of professional applications. What is unclear is whether the new Hawaii-based FirePro will rely on the fully-fledged Hawaii with 2816 stream processors (SPs), 176 texture units (TUs) and 64 raster operating units (ROPs), or a cut down version with 2560 SPs, 160 TUs and 64 ROPs. At present the FirePro W9000 sports the fully-fledged Tahiti XT GPU, whereas the W8000 is powered by the cut-down Tahiti Pro.

The new flagship FirePro graphics board with 10GB of GDDR5 memory with ECC technology and increased graphics performance will be AMD’s fastest solution for professionals that will remain on top of its range until the next-gen GPUs arrive. The output configuration of the novelty will likely be similar to the FirePro W9000: six mDP ports as well as an SDI link. The new high-end FirePro will likely co-exist with the current AMD FirePro W9000 graphics board since the previous-generation Tahiti GPU offers higher double precision performance (1TFLOPS vs.

0.7TFLOPS in case of the Hawaii), which may be important for certain users. AMD did not comment on the news-story. KitGuru Says: AMD’s FirePro based on Hawaii will compete against Nvidia Quadro K5000 and K6000 graphics boards that are based on the GK110 graphics processing units. While AMD’s solution may even offer higher performance, it should be noted that the K5000 has been available for about a year now. Asustek Computer is known for exotic products that require exceptional engineering skills and which deliver performance and capabilities that are unique for the whole industry. At present the company is busy with a new “world’s first” project: a graphics card based on two AMD Radeon R9 290X “Hawaii” graphics processing units. The new dual-chip product will be called Ares III and will belong to the Republic of Gamers family.

It will not be widely available, but it will clearly become a dream of many hardware enthusiasts. With two AMD “Hawaii” GPUs and 8GB of GDDR5 memory (4GB for every chip), the novelty will boast with up to 5632 stream processors as well as over 11TFLOPS of single-precision compute performance. Web-site claims that the Ares III will use one large printed-circuit board with extremely advanced multi-phase VRM and high-quality components. Since the Ares III will be a limited edition product, it is logical to assume that it will boast with fully-fledged Hawaii GPUs operating at high clock-rates. Previous-generation Ares II powered by two AMD “Tahiti” chips used a special liquid-cooling solution. The upcoming graphics board will also likely use a very advanced cooler. It is expected that Asus will demonstrate the new dual-chip flagship at Computex Taipei 2014 trade-show in early June.

The novelty will likely hit the market this summer. Asus and AMD did not comment on the news-story. KitGuru Says: Asus Ares III will indisputably be an ultimate graphics solution that will leave behind virtually everything that is on the market today. However, since it will be a limited edition product, just around a thousand of customers will be able to buy and enjoy it.

The big question is whether AMD is also working on a similar dual-chip Radeon R9 290X graphics board, which will be a more or less mass product that will become available from multiple vendors. Today we are taking a look at the new Asus GTX 750 Ti, the third Maxwell card we have reviewed since Nvidia launched back on February 18th. So far we have analysed the MSI GTX750 Ti OC Twin Frozr and the Palit GTX 750 Ti StormX Dual – both fantastic solutions so we will be interested to see how the Asus solution stacks up. The new Asus GTX 750 Ti 2GB is a modified design featuring dual fans and enhanced out of the box clock speeds. The Asus GTX 750 Ti receives a modest core clock increase, from 1,020 mhz to 1,072 mhz. Unlike the Palit GTX 750 Ti StormX Dual the memory is left at the default speeds of 1,350mhz (5.4Gbps effective).

All cards have 16 ROP’s, 53 TMU’s and 640 CUDA cores. The Nvidia reference card is using 2GB of Hynix GDDR5 memory, but ASUS have opted for Samsung branded GDDR5. The Maxwell SM architecture delivers improved efficiency and 35% more performance per CUDA core on shader limited workloads. Nvidia have changed the architecture with the SM scheduler architecture and algorithms having been rewritten to avoid stalling and further reducing the energy per instruction required for scheduling. Maxwell SM architecture enabled Nvidia to increase the number of SM’s to five in GM107, compared to two in GK107 – and all with only a 25% increase in die area. Nvidia have explained that the organisation of the SM has been changed. Each SM has been partitioned into four separate processing blocks, each with their own instruction buffer, scheduler and 32 CUDA cores.

GK107 Kepler could have a non power of two number of CUDA cores, with some shared. The new partitioning simplifies the design and scheduling logic which reduces computation latency and saves area and power demand. Pairs of processing blocks share four texture filtering units and a texture cache.

The L1 compute cache function is now combined with the texture cache function and shared memory is a separate unit, shared across all four blocks. Each Maxwell SM is smaller than a Kepler SM but delivers around 90% of the performance.

The smaller area means that Nvidia can incorporate many more SM’s per GPU. The GM107 (v GK107) has 25 percent more texture performance, 1.7 times more CUDA cores and 2.3 greater shader performance. Nvidia have improved Video capabilities with the latest hardware.

Maxwell incorporates an improved NVENC block to deliver faster encode performance over Kepler – 6-8 times real time compared against 4 times. Nvidia report a 8-10 times faster decode rate too. Maxwell also has a new GC5 power state designed to drop the GPU power demand under light workload situations – such as when playing back video. Sapphire are showcasing their upcoming 8GB R9 290X VaporX at Cebit – a solution that will be released soon to tackle the high end Titan from Nvidia. With 8GB of memory and high clock speeds – perhaps they might have a few surprises in store for the guys in green. Our sources say it will actually outperform the Nvidia’s Titan in specific circumstances, but until we get a hands on, we can’t verify this.

Regardless, with 8GB of fast GDDR5 onboard, it is clearly designed for multiple screen gaming, or Ultra HD 4K resolution. Like the Titan, completely overkill for 1080p gaming.

No confirmed pricing on this solution from Sapphire, but it will be a limited edition. Retail price is expected to reflect the high premium from such a limited edition production run. Discuss on our Facebook page, over. Also check out the Sapphire R9 290X Toxic Edition 8GB – a follow up to this story – over. Kitguru says: We hope to get a hands on when the card is available for review. Following on from on the upcoming 8GB R9 290X VaporX Edition, we have also just been shown the new R9 290 Toxic Edition which is shipping in an 8GB configuration. Now based on previous releases, we know the Toxic branded products are normally Sapphire’s fastest, but we have yet to get any confirmed clock speeds.

We have heard this card is set to target the new Nvidia Titan Black at ultra high resolutions. If you are an AMD fan then these new 8GB Sapphire R9 290X cards should be the fastest that money can buy. Unlike the VaporX Edition which has blue accents on the cooler, the Toxic Edition ships with an orange accented cooler.

Both of these cards will be limited edition, and pricing has yet to be confirmed by Sapphire, likely closer to the launch date. Again without more details on the final retail clock and configurations we can’t confirm or deny core and memory speeds.

The 8GB of GDDR5 memory should make these cards ideal for gamers who are currently running triple monitor, or who are thinking of getting a new Ultra HD 4K screen in 2014. No confirmed pricing on this solution from Sapphire, but it will be a very limited edition with only a handful of cards lifted from the production run able to run stable at the clock speeds (to be confirmed). Retail price is expected to reflect the high premium from such a limited edition production run. If you have a 1080p monitor, both of these 8GB cards from Sapphire are overkill, just like the 6GB Nvidia Titan Black. Discuss on our Facebook page, over. Kitguru says: More details as we have them! While there might have been a lot of talk recently surrounding the new Nvidia Titan Black GPU, partner company GALAXY has taken lemons and made rocket fuel, by producing a new version of the GTX 780 Ti that’s managed to take the top spot on the single GPU 3Dmark Fire Strike Extreme results table.

This brand new 780 Ti makes use of the fully unlocked Kepler core GK110-425-B1 chip and according to the breakdown, runs at stock frequencies over a GHZ on the core. However, in this instance, overclocker and, Mad Tse pushed it to an eye watering 1800MHz. The card is quite a looker too, with a stark white, extended PCB and features 16 core phases, two memory phases and three extra phases for the PLL. Of course with all this though, the power draw is quite high: over 300 watts. This is why you’ll notice it takes twin eight pin and a single six pin connector for power. Image source: WCCFTech No word on what the final heatsink/fan combination will be for this card, but expect a lot of fins and a lot of heatpipes.

Pricing and a release date are also being kept under wraps, for now. KitGuru Says: A white PCB is certainly a bit different and will no doubt catch the eye of system modders as much as overclockers. Any of you tempted by the idea of a stark white GPU with crazy performance? ZiiLabs, the company which was earlier known as 3Dlabs and developed professional graphics solutions and which now designs multimedia system-on-chips, has filed a patent infringement lawsuit in the United States against Apple and Samsung.

The plaintiff alleges that products from Apple and Samsung infringe its patents related to graphics processing technologies. 3Dlabs was originally founded in 1994 (as a result of a management buy-out of Dupont Pixel Systems) and was primarily known for its Glint and Permedia graphics processors for professional applications. The company developed a lot of graphics processing technologies and owned over a hundred of appropriate patents. 3Dlabs was acquired by Creative Technology in 2002 and changed its business direction to highly-integrated system-on-chips in 2006.

The company was renamed to ZiiLabs in 2009. Although ZiiLabs has been around for a number of years, it has failed to become a significant player on the market of application processors for mobile gadgets, such as smartphones or tablets. In a bid to capitalize on its intellectual property, ZiiLabs accused Apple and Samsung of infringing ten of its patents. ZiiLabs believes that various Samsung Galaxy phones and tablets, and Samsung laptops as well as and Apple iPhone and iPad, iMac and MacBook Pro infringe a number of ZiiLabs patents. Among other things those patents cover “3D graphics rendering with selective read suspend”, “autonomous address translation in graphic subsystem” as well as “yield enhancement of complex chips.

Back in 2012 Intel Corp. Signed a license agreement with Creative and ZiiLabs, so the company is not new to technology licensing. Back in early 2000s, Creative already accused Apple of infringing its patents by iPod music players. In the middle of the decade Apple signed a cross-licensing agreement with Creative and allowed it to make add-ons for iPod. The lawsuit was filed on the 10th of March 2014 in the Eastern District of Texas.

Apple and Samsung did not comment on the news-story. KitGuru Says: Numerous companies sue successful competitors after failing to become viable market players.

ZiiLabs is clearly not a pioneer here. What will be interesting to see if the company actually manages to earn any significant amount of money by suing Apple and Samsung, which also hold loads of patents related to computer chips and counter-sue it. Oculus VR this week revealed that Atman Binstock became the new chief architect at the company. Binstock is a well-known virtual reality specialist, who will join the already exceptionally strong team of Oculus VR. Atman Binstock was one of the lead engineers and driving forces behind Valve’s VR project, creating the ‘VR Room’ demo that garnered a lot of excitement at Steam Dev Days earlier this year. Prior to Valve, Mr.

Binstock worked at other top technology and video game companies in the industry, including RAD, DICE, and Intel. Binstock and the Valve VR team helped prove simulator sickness could be overcome and a true sense of “presence” could be delivered with virtual reality helmets. He also helped set the bar for consumer virtual reality and is dedicated to making sure Oculus delivers the highest quality VR experience. “Just over two years ago, Michael Abrash and I were sitting in a coffee shop in Kirkland. He was trying to convince me to come work on AR and VR with him at Valve,” remembers Mr. “Two years later, we have solved some of the basic problems, proven great VR is not only possible but truly magical, and now I want to bring it to the world.

I’m incredibly excited and humbled by the opportunity. We’re just scratching the surface of what’s possible, and I can’t wait to discover what’s next!” It is noteworthy that Mr. Binstock is not the first hardware/software specialist who leaves Valve Software for other companies. Last year the software firm lost a team of hardware developers who worked on the Steam Machines initiative. While Valve will definitely continue to work on its VR projects, without experienced specialists its projects will be executed somewhat slower. KitGuru Says: Oculus VR is gathering one of the strongest teams of developers in the industry. At present the company has a bunch of hardware and software specialists from numerous leading game companies.

The question is when are we going to see the final commercial products from the dream team? Nvidia has launched its new GeForce game bundles, starting from today anyone who purchases select Nvidia branded desktop GPU’s or GeForce powered notebooks will be able to redeem one of the two new offers. If you’re about to purchase a a GTX Titan, 780 Ti, 780, 770, 760, 690, 680, 670, 660 Ti or a 660, you will be graced with a copy of Daylight,the world’s first game built on Unreal Engine 4. However, if you buy a GTX 650, 650 Ti, 750, 750 Ti or one of the eligible notebooks, then you will receive £90 worth of in-game credit (£30 per title) for Heroes of Newerth, Path of Exile, and Warface. The new game bundle will replace Nvidia’s Winter bundle which included Assassin’s Creed IV, Batman Akrham Origins and Splinter Cell Blacklist.

Freebies are never a bad thing as it’s always nice to have extra value added to our hardware purchases. KitGuru Says: If you play any of the free to play games, then you might find the in-game cash useful. Bundles like this are nice to see, hopefully both Nvidia and AMD continue to include games with graphics cards.

When I sat down at the Nvidia GTX 800M briefing I was confident that I knew what was coming. The Kepler technology in GTX 700M would be superseded by Maxwell which would reduce power draw and increase battery life. No doubt there would be a long list of OEM partners who would ally the new GPUs with Intel Core i5 and Core i7. Well I was partly correct. Nvidia has a new product stack that starts at GTX 880M and goes down to GTX 820M. Every GPU is a GTX, unlike the 700 family where the big boys were GTX and the little kids were only GT. During the Press event Nvidia focused on GTX 880M, 870M, 860M and 850M but they were talking in general terms about how, for instance, GTX 880M compared with GTX 780M.

Hard facts about feeds and speeds were entirely absent until Nvidia released an FAQ sheet after the event. The first surprise was the revelation that GTX 880M and 870M will continue to use Kepler technology. Perhaps they will migrate to Maxwell in the future but that isn’t happening any time soon. So how, you may wonder, does GTX 880M gain 15 percent performance and GTX 870M some 30 percent? I stuck my hand in the air and asked whether the Kepler GPUs had gained some cores and was told that Nvidia has found some ‘improvements’. After the event I cleared up this mystery.

Both GTX 880M and 870M gain 130MHz in core speed and GTX 870M has 1,344 cores where GTX 770M only has 960 cores. Maxwell makes an appearance in GTX 860M and 850M, although Nvidia later added that Maxwell is also in 840M and 830M. GTX 820M continues to use Fermi so that gives us three distinct architectures in the product stack. Nvidia muddied the waters after the event when it said that GTX 860M will be available in two forms; one based on Kepler and the other on Maxwell.

The Kepler version has 1,152 cores and runs at 797MHz while the Maxwell GTX 860M has 640 cores that run much faster at 1,029MHz. Nvidia told me that ‘Performance is very similar between the two’ so I shall be interested to see whether there is any impact on battery life.

Once Nvidia had glossed over the silicon that forms GTX 800M they were able to get on to the subject they really wanted to discuss which is the software that comes with the package. Nvidia Battery Boost is something you download through GeForce Experience and which only works with GTX 800M.

The claim is that gamers will get up to double battery life, partly by setting a frame rate cap and also by clock gating the hardware in the laptop. This extends beyond the GPU and includes the CPU and memory. The other cool feature is Shadow Play which is an always-on recorder that captures a defined amount of gaming on your drive, say the last 20 minutes.

Video is recorded in H.264. You can review, edit, add music or whatever before uploading to Twitch or YouTube. I have never heard of Twitch but apparently it is massive in the USA (Ed: Seriously? This recording has a tiny overhead as it uses the on-GPU video encoder that is otherwise sat idle. Kitguru says: Reviews coming soon!

Virtually all manufacturers of graphics cards these days are unveiling factory-overclocked graphics adapters based on existing AMD Radeon and Nvidia GeForce graphics cards at CeBIT trade-show. The reason why they are refreshing their lineups now is simple: they do not expect any new high-performance graphics chips to emerge in the next several quarters. Although Nvidia Corp. Introduced its new first-generation Maxwell architecture last month, the company only addressed mainstream and mobile graphics segments with the latest GM107 graphics processing unit. The company naturally did not disclose its future plans, but launched a higher-performing GeForce GTX Titan Black for the high-end segment in February, which proves that there are no all-new high-end solutions in the pipeline.

AMD and its partners are re-introducing older GPUs under new R7 and R9 model numbers these days and even boost their performance a bit by increasing their clock-rates. Some of the company’s partners, including Sapphire Technology, are about to offer 8GB version of the Radeon R9 290X. Asustek Computer is working on a dual-chip graphics card featuring two AMD Hawaii GPUs. Since the latter was launched only in Q4 2013, its successor is not going to show up any time soon. Unfortunately, it looks like it makes no sense to expect new breed of high-end GPUs from both AMD and Nvidia earlier than in the second half of 2014. Reports citing sources among makers of graphics cards that the high-performance Nvidia GeForce based on Maxwell architecture is not due until Q4 2014 or even Q1 2015.

There are talks about AMD’s new GPU launch plans for August, but nothing is clear at the moment. The progress of the GPU performance is slow these days, partly because of slowing demand for PCs and decreasing spending on them. Another issue is that GPUs are extremely complex and are very tough to develop and produce, so it takes time to design a new architecture and a product lineup. Another reason is relatively slow progress of process technologies at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. The next-gen high-end GPUs contain over 6 – 7 billion of transistors and in order to make them cost-efficiently, AMD and Nvidia need 20nm process technology. Meanwhile, TSMC only started to offer production services with the 20nm fabrication tech earlier this quarter. AMD and Nvidia did not comment on the news-story.

KitGuru Says: One thing that clearly prospers because of slow GPU performance progress is adoption of dual-GPU and triple-GPU configurations. According to Jon Peddie Research such multi-GPU systems were rather popular in Q4 2013 even among system builders. It probably makes sense to expect a large share of enthusiast PC gamers to use a multi-GPU system this year since performance demands of potentially popular titles like Titanfall should be rather high. Advanced Micro Devices on Thursday confirmed that it would unveil its next-generation FirePro graphics cards aimed at the professional market later this month. While the company did not officially said that it plans to release Hawaii GPU-based FirePro graphics solutions, it did call the new products “groundbreaking”, which means all-new technology. Matt Skynner, corporate vice president and general manager of graphics business unit at AMD, will host a special preview news conference in Sunnyvale, California on the 26th of March at 9:15 a.m.

PDT, to showcase “powerful new professional graphics innovations” from AMD. The company did not elaborate about details, but it is highly likely that it will introduce new FirePro W8000- and W9000-series professional graphics solutions powered by the Hawaii chip, AMD’s most powerful graphics processing unit to date.

Earlier this month it was reported that AMD planned to roll-out an all-new FirePro graphics card based on the latest Hawaii graphics processing unit based on the improved GCN graphics core next architecture in early April. Thanks to 512-bit memory bus of the Hawaii chip, AMD could install 10GB of GDDR5 memory onto its next-gen FirePro W9000/W8000-series graphics solutions, which should boost performance in a number of professional applications. The output configuration of the novelty will likely be similar to the FirePro W9000: six mDP ports as well as an SDI link. Keeping in mind that AMD offers a pretty broad lineup of professional graphics cards, it is logical to expect the company not to limit itself with the announcement of just two professional graphics solutions, but to unleash a family of new products. For example, AMD could refresh its mainstream FirePro series as well as add Hawaii-based Radeon Sky graphics card into the lineup of solutions for the cloud. What is unclear is whether the new Hawaii-based FirePro will rely on the fully-fledged Hawaii with 2816 stream processors (SPs), 176 texture units (TUs) and 64 raster operating units (ROPs), or a cut down version with 2560 SPs, 160 TUs and 64 ROPs.

At present the FirePro W9000 sports the fully-fledged Tahiti XT GPU, whereas the W8000 is powered by the cut-down Tahiti Pro. It is natural to expect different configurations of GPUs on future graphics cards as well.

Sapphire Readies Radeon Hd 7950 For Macbook Air

The new high-end FirePro will likely co-exist with the current AMD FirePro W9000 graphics board since the previous-generation Tahiti GPU offers higher double precision performance (1TFLOPS vs. 0.7TFLOPS in case of the Hawaii), which may be important for certain users. KitGuru Says: It has been quite a while since AMD updated its professional graphics cards lineup. So, it is about time. Advanced Micro Devices is working on a dual-chip graphics card with two code-named Hawaii graphics processing units (GPUs). The new flagship graphics solution will feature a liquid-cooling system and will be widely available from various manufacturers. Wireless settings guide for macbook pro. It took AMD over a year to develop a dual-chip graphics card with two Tahiti graphics chips.

Being late to market, AMD Radeon HD 7990 did not manage to become truly popular since enthusiast-gamers already had Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 690 and GeForce GTX Titan graphics boards. With dual-chip Hawaii solution, AMD will not make the same mistake again and be late to market with its new flagship graphics card. At CeBIT 2014 trade-show AMD demonstrated its reference design Radeon R9 295 X2 graphics card with two Hawaii graphics chips, reports web-site.

The graphics board clocks GPUs at 1GHz and uses a liquid cooling system akin to that of Asus Ares II solution. AMD’s Radeon R9 295 X2 is projected to be launched in the coming weeks and will compete against rumoured Nvidia GeForce GTX graphics card with two GK110 graphics processors. The price of a dual-chip Hawaii graphics solution should be rather high since it will feature an expensive printed-circuit board with two 512-bit memory buses, two high-end GPUs and an innovative cooling solution. Do not expect Radeon R9 295 X2 to cost less than $800. AMD did not comment on the news-story. KitGuru Says: The Radeon R9 295 X2 will likely become an ultimate solution for those who want to play in ultra-high-definition resolutions. Still, given the price, it will be a rather rare device.

Advanced Micro Devices and OCZ Storage Solutions, a subsidiary of Toshiba Corp., on Monday said that they would showcase personal computers powered by AMD hardware and Vector 150 series solid state drives at the Game Developers Conference later this week. The systems will illustrate how developers can enhance productivity and efficiency in their work. “Our presence at the 2014 Game Developer Conference will feature a number of high-performance gaming systems running 24/7 in harsh conditions,” said Darren McPhee, director of product marketing at graphics business unit at AMD. “We knew that OCZ Vector SSDs were uniquely ready to meet the reliability requirements of our gaming installations. Between the high performance graphics of AMD Radeon GPUs and the fast load times of OCZ Vector SSDs, visitors to AMD’s booth in the South Hall are in for a great gaming experience!” GDC enables OCZ to team up with valued industries partners like AMD to reaffirm the company’s commitment to the gaming market segment, and promote the use of NAND flash-based storage for both developers and the gamers themselves. GDC is the world’s largest game industry event, attracting over 23 thousand professionals including programmers, artists, producers, designers, audio professionals, business decision-makers, and other digital gaming industry authorities. OCZ’s premium Vector 150 series, designed for workstation users along with enthusiasts, will be in AMD systems that promote improved CPU and GPU performance, enhanced rendering, speed, and overall system performance.

Professional developer applications demand peak transfer speeds and ultra-high performance; OCZ SSDs offer 100 times faster access to data, quicker boot ups, faster file transfers, and a more responsive computing experience than hard drives. KitGuru Says: It is interesting to note that AMD was rumoured to be interested in selling AMD Radeon-branded solid-stat drives about a year and a half ago. Since the company has not started to sell them and now partnered with OCZ to demonstrate the power of solid-state drives, it is highly likely that we are not going to see any AMD-branded SSDs anytime soon. Even though the Nvidia Titan was never truly designed as a gamers card, the high end enthusiast audience have been buying them en masse since they released. A muted launch in February this year saw the new Nvidia GTX Titan Black hit retail shelves. Nvidia didn’t sample the new card, with the reasoning that it was not a target for the gaming audience.

Nvidia partners didn’t really sample the cards either, as they were forced to adhere to the Nvidia reference cooler design. Even though the Titan Black retails for around £800 – the wealthy enthusiast gamer has been snapping them up to play the latest Direct X 11 titles.

Is the Titan Black really worth the £300 premium over some of the best GTX780 Ti’s currently available today? Does the Titan Black’s extra 3GB of GDDR5 memory really make a difference with current games at Ultra HD 4K resolutions? Since the Nvidia Titan Black launched, we have been inundated with emails and comments from asking if we can take a look at the new hardware. Nvidia might have expected these requests to come from CUDA developers aching to analyse the double precision performance – but alas, they were all gamers. To get the most in the latest games from either a GTX780 Ti or GTX Titan Black then we recommend you pair up with at least a 30 inch 1600p screen. This is why we have tested today at both 2560×1600 and 3840×2160 resolutions.

We have been testing at Ultra HD 4k for the last 6 months because we know the future of enthusiast level gaming will be based around a single Ultra HD 4K screen. This is exactly why you should be considering at a GTX Titan Black. We know some our audience are still using triple screen configurations, but research in the last year has shown that most people will never consider more than one screen, due to the physical desk space required to house them all. Unless you pick up specialised monitors then the bezel on each screen can also prove distracting when gaming across a spanned image. It is worth reiterating that the cost of an Ultra HD 4K screen will continue to drop this year and we think in 2015 that they will finally become affordable for a much wider audience. A case in point is the ASUS PQ321QE panel we use for Ultra HD 4k testing – last year this cost £2,999.99 and it has already dropped by March 2014 to. Thats a sizable 25 percent drop within four months.

Today we include additional tests, because hundreds of readers have asked us to include results at 1080p. It is worth pointing out that I sincerely don’t recommend you spend £800 on a graphics card to play games at 1920×1080 resolution, but the level of feedback has made us aware that a lot of our readers are feeling neglected.