Radeon HD 4870X2 is the next true high-end card from AMD. It has two RV770 GPUs on the same PCB and high-speed GDDR5 memory for quick memory access. Xtreme user guess2098 has been able to score a Diamond Radeon HD 4870X2 2GB and post some quick overclocking tests. The stock frequencies are the same as with Radeon HD 4870, although Diamond earlier announced the XOC version which not only operated at higher frequencies it could also be overclocked further than any other Radeon HD 4870 on the market. Read the rest of this entry »

Most interestingly they spoke of major improvements in theRumors of the new AMD southbridge SB750 appeared overclocking department although not how this would be achieved. It was later revealed that there were unused pins that would come to use with AMD’s coming southbridges, the first being SB750. The secret is an updated version of the Advanced Clock Calibration, something AMD introduced with the SB700 chipset in favor of HyperFlash.
Motherboards equipped with the SB750 chipset has a new layout and sports a six-pin connection directly to the AM2+ CPU socket. These are the six pins that had been dormant. They makes it possible for the southbridge to override some of the processor’s internal settings and thus increase the overclocking potential. Read the rest of this entry »

We reported a while back that AMD is hoping to get its first 40/45nm GPU out in the first quarter of 2009. Closely after that we should see RV870. The only real specifications that have been going around is the very loose rumor of 2000 shaders, and it doesn’t look very likely. AMD is looking to master 45nm with its GPUs first of all and further improve its multi-GPU design, before doing anything radical. The RV870 will be faster than RV770, but don’t expect the same jump we saw when moving from RV670 to RV770. We’re waiting for confirmation on some numbers before we share more.

NVIDIA has something big coming, according to its own estimates something about the same size as SLI when it launched. It’s not the introduction of the rumored Radeon HD 4870X2 killer, the 55nm G200b core. That would be a bit too weak. There is a new PhysX driver that will enable PhysX on all CUDA-capable GPUs that will launch soon, but it should arrive sooner than that. Instead, the bang comes from updated CUDA support and improved drivers.

SLI will be updated, connectivity will be updated, CUDA looks like it will go commercial, and better quality and performance overall. The last part may also include improved scaling in various SLI configurations. Whether it will have the same impact as SLI had remains to be seen. More news should follow as we approach the next Big Bang.

ASUS has announced what it claims to be the world slimmest 22″ widescreen monitor, the LS221H. This monitor caters to the needs of the digital home user through several noticeable features. The touted thinness is a mere 45mm and thanks to the seamless transition between the 9H hardness-rated monitor gloss to the piano-painted glossy finish around the display, and the leather lining below it, ASUS has managed to fashion a monitor that really does look a piece of a digital home.

The anti-reflective glass has 96% transmission rate and less than 2% refection rate, which according to ASUS will result in a clearer picture and more vibrant colors. ASUS has also installed a number of LEDs into the base for some dynamic lighting effects though Light-in-Motion II.

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Advanced Micro Devices on Friday issued a statement claiming that the new chief executive officer of the company was misquoted and did not announce spin off of the chipmakerā€™s manufacturing operations in an interview with news-paper. The company stressed that as of now the potential spin off is completely a rumour.

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In an effort to create a fully integrated hard disk drive (HDD) manufacturer, Western Digital Corp. acquired ST Microelectronicsā€™ hard drive controller (HDC) development team along with intellectual property and design tools. The company believes that with media, heads and controllers developed inside the company it can accelerate time-to-market of its products as well as make manufacturing more efficient overall.

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Originally scheduled to launch in November or December this year, Intel ā€™s Nehalem-based Bloomfield processors will now launch in September along with X58 chipsets, sources at motherboard makers revealed. However, the sources pointed out that CPUs and motherboards will not officially appear in the channel until early October.

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Due to Nvidia not clearly explaining the details of the faults reported in its notebook GPUs, some channel vendors have demanded graphics card makers issue a recall for desktop-based discrete graphics cards using the same GPU core, according to sources at graphics card makers.

Nvidia has commented that the faulty notebook GPU problem only exists in a few specific notebook models made by specific clients. The company contended that desktop-based discrete graphics card products are not affected by the issue.

Taipei (Taiwan) - With falling demand for entry-level discrete graphics cards, and even mid-range cards in some cases, due to improvements in motherboard IGP performance, several graphics card makers have taken steps to enter the motherboard market.The makers who have started to launch motherboard products include PowerColorhttp, XFX, Sapphire, BFG, Gainward, Inno3D, Galaxy and Zotac