ECS Announces Three New A55 Based AMD Motherboards

Subject: Motherboards | August 9, 2011 - 06:42 PM | Tim Verry
Tagged: motherboard, ECS, APU, amd, A55

According to Tech Connect, ECS is about to release three ECS FM1 motherboards powered by the lighter A55 chipset to compliment the company’s higher end A75 boards. The new A55 based motherboards will be known as the A55F-A, A55F-M2, and the A55F-M3, the first being ATX and the remaining two boards being micro-ATX.

The new motherboards will support AMD’s A Series APUs and will feature one PCI-E x16 slot, Gigabit Ethernet, and one VGA connection. The standard ATX sized A55F-A will further have four DDR3 DIMM slots, five SATA II 3Gb/s ports, 12 USB 2.0 ports, and HDMI and DVI video connectors. The A55F-M2 on the other hand with receive two DDR3 DIMM slots, six SATA 3Gb/s ports, 12 USB 2.0 ports, and HDMI and optional DVI connections. Lastly, the A55F-M3 has two DDR3 DIMM slots, four SATA 3Gb/s ports, and eight USB 2.0 ports.

More photos of the new boards can be seen here. Price and availability of the new A55 chipset motherboards have not yet been released.

AMD will be snubbing the smartphone

Subject: General Tech | August 9, 2011 - 03:30 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: amd, tablet, smartphones, trinity

In a revent interview, AMD's SVP and GM, Rick Bergman restated that AMD has no current plans in the works to jump to the handheld market.  They will continue to focus on their current product lines and that the only ultramobile development currently underway is for tablets.  That could help them get a leg up on Intel's Atom, as Intel is definitely making a move for the hand held market.  Focusing on tablets gives them a less strict power limitation and may just give them a boost as they push to the 28nm process with only one ultra low power Trinity APU product line to design.  Check out The Inquirer for more.

"CHIP DESIGNER AMD has ruled out making a move in the smartphone market, preferring to concentrate on tablets.

Rick Bergman, SVP and GM of AMD's products group told a conference that the chip designer has no plans to get into the smartphone market, saying that its expertise in graphics does not suit that market. Instead it will be up to AMD's Z-series embedded chip to push X86 into the tablet market."

Here is some more Tech News from around the web:

Tech Talk

• Beware of Macs in enterprise, security consultants say @ The Register
• Mass WordPress hijack poisons Google Image well @ The Register
• Sale of Samsung Galaxy Tab Blocked in the EU @ Slashdot
• 10-year old hacker finds flaw in mobile games @ The Register
• Magellan RoadMate 5175T-LM Review @ TechReviewSource
• Jabra Freeway Bluetooth Car Kit Review @ t-break
• Real World Labs And Thermalright Joint Contest

AMD Accelerates APU OpenCL Performance With New SDK

Subject: Graphics Cards, Processors | August 8, 2011 - 08:28 PM | Tim Verry
Tagged: amd, APU, sdk, opencl

AMD released its new APUs (Accelerated Processing Unit) to the masses, and now they are revving the processors up with a new software development kit that increases performance and efficiency of OpenCL based applications. The new version 2.5 APP SDK is tailored to the APU architecture where the CPU and GPU are on the same die. Building on the OpenCL standard, APP SDK 2.5 promises to reduce the bandwidth limitation of the CPU to GPU connection, allowing for effective data transfer rates as high as 15GB per second in AMDs A Series APUs. Further performance enhancements include reduced kernel launch times and PCIe overhead.

AMD states that the new APP SDK will improve multi-gpu support for AMD APU graphics paired with a discrete card, and will “enable advanced capabilities” to improve the user experience including gesture based interfaces, image stabilization, and 3D applications.

The new development kit is currently being used by developers worldwide in the AMD OpenCl coding competition, where up to $50,000 in prizes will be given away to winning software submissions. You can get started with the SDK here.

AMD To Release 2GB DDR3 Radeon Branded DIMMs

Subject: Memory | August 8, 2011 - 12:38 PM | Tim Verry
Tagged: radeon, memory, ddr3, amd

When building a computer, enthusiasts are likely to combine components from several different manufacturers, especially on the Intel side.  Short of the power supply, hard drive, and accessories; however, AMD is slowing diversifying to provide components to put together an all-AMD system.  Before today, AMD already had the motherboard, processor, and graphics card (including processor graphics if that's your thing), and today Maximum PC reports that AMD may be moving into the RAM market with its own line of Radeon branded memory.  It seems that AMD's future Leo-like platform may resemble a small AMD branded borg cube.

The new memory in question is comprised of 2GB, DDR3 sticks and comes in three series branded the "Entertainment," "ULTRA PRO Gaming," and "Enterprise."  The enthusiastic naming conventions aside, the Entertainment series looks to be the budget modules for those looking for stable DIMMs that get the job done for cheap.  They have a rated speed of 1333Mbps and a CAS latency of 9-9-9.  The next highest series is the "ULTRA PRO Gaming" series, which promises to be overclocking friendly.  These DIMMs receive a slight boost in speed to 1600Mbps while taking a slight dip in CAS latency to 11-11-11.  The final, and likely most expensive, modules are the Enterprise series.  These modules are still somewhat of a mystery as the specifications have yet to be announced by AMD; however, they are likely geared more towards enterprise workstations than servers as they are unbuffered DIMMs.

Further, all three series are rated to run at 1.5V and have a height of 30mm.  Unfortunately, there is no word yet on price or availability.  There are; however, several photos of Radeon branded memory modules over at PC Watch for you to check out.  Do you think AMD's move to enter the DRAM market is a good thing or a bad thing for future profitability?

John Carmack Interview: Question and Topic suggestions?

Subject: Editorial, Graphics Cards, Processors | August 4, 2011 - 11:15 AM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: nvidia, john carmack, interview, carmack, amd

A couple of years back we talked on the phone with John Carmack during the period of excitement about ray tracing and game engines.  That interview is still one of our most read articles on PC Perspective as he always has interesting topics and information to share.  While we are hosting the PC Perspective Hardware Workshop on Saturday at Quakecon 2011, we also scheduled some time to sit with John again to pick his brain on hardware and technology.

If you had a chance to ask John Carmack questions about hardware and technology, either the current sets of each or what he sees coming in the future, what would you ask?  Let us know in our comments section below!! (No registration required to comment.)

Looking at the lower end of AMD's graphics, Caicos and Turks

Subject: Graphics Cards | August 3, 2011 - 04:28 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: HD 6670, HD 6570, HD 6450, amd, Caicos, turks

On the lower end of AMD's GPU lineup you will find the HD 6670, HD 6570 and HD 6450 of which the first two are based on the Turks architecture and the last on the Caicos architecture.  They mark a jump in transitor, shader and ALU counts from the previous low end cards, the HD5670 and HD 5450.  That increase has also brough with it higher power requirements and more heat to disappate which, at least on the reference cards X-bit Labs tried, results in a louder card.  They do still help a Llano based system score significantly better in gaming, but don't add a lot to the APUs abilities as a high definition player.

If you are looking for something a little stronger, Josh just poured out a few thousand words on the MSI N580GTX Lightning Xtreme Edition for you.

"Smartphones, nettops, notebooks and tablets have taken over our everyday life. But what if you don’t feel like leaving the cozy living-room and would gladly watch a blockbuster Blue-ray movie or play your favorite game for a few hours? The answer is simple: HTPC with a good graphics accelerator inside will do the trick. Let’s check out the new solutions AMD has recently rolled out for this particular market."

Here are some more Graphics Card articles from around the web:

Graphics Cards

• Multiply by Two: PowerColor Radeon HD 6870X2 @ X-bit Labs
• Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 2GB TOXIC @ Tweaktown
• Diamond Multimedia Radeon HD 6770 XOC 1GB DX11 Video Card Review @Hi Tech Legion
• AMD Catalyst 11.7 Driver Analysis @ eTeknix
• Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme Plus II VGA Cooler @ Tweaktown
• Thermalright T-RAD² VGA Cooler Review @ eTeknix
• Zalman VF3000F Dual Turbine VGA Cooler @ Tweaktown
• Desktop Graphics Card Comparison Guide @ TechARP
• Mesa 7.11 Brings Much-Needed Linux Graphics Driver Improvements @ Phoronix
• ASUS ENGTX560 Ti DirectCU II TOP @ [H]ard|OCP

Podcast #164 - Intel and AMD Earnings, Intel MLAA, 28 nanometer GPUs, Viewer Questions and more!

Subject: General Tech | July 28, 2011 - 05:16 PM | Ken Addison
Tagged: ssd, podcast, ocz, Intel, amd

PC Perspective Podcast #164 - 7/28/2011

This week we talk about Intel and AMD Earnings, Intel MLAA, 28 nanometer GPUs, Viewer Questions and more!

You can subscribe to us through iTunes and you can still access it directly through the RSS page HERE.

The URL for the podcast is: http://pcper.com/podcast - Share with your friends!

• iTunes - Subscribe to the podcast directly through the iTunes Store
• RSS - Subscribe through your regular RSS reader
• MP3 - Direct download link to the MP3 file

Hosts: Ryan Shrout, Jeremy Hellstrom, Josh Walrath and Allyn Malventano

This Podcast is brought to you by MSI Computer, and their all new Sandy Bridge Motherboards!

Program length: 1:26:36

Program Schedule:

1. 0:00:43 Introduction
2. 1-888-38-PCPER or podcast@pcper.com
3. http://pcper.com/podcast
4. http://twitter.com/ryanshrout and http://twitter.com/pcper
5. 0:02:13 Intel and AMD Provide Positive Earnings
6. 0:13:35 Bulldozer will be on time, missing CEO or not
7. 0:14:45 Intel MLAA: Matrox had the right idea, wrong everything else
8. 0:23:00 This Podcast is brought to you by MSI Computer, and their all new Sandy Bridge Motherboards!
9. 0:24:04 Intel reproduces '8MB bug', fix coming soon.
10. 0:32:20 Video Perspective: AMD Steady Video Technology on AMD A-Series APUs
11. 0:35:28 Phone in your overclocking, MSI Afterburner App for Android
12. 0:37:00 OCZ wraps both its ARMs around a new SSD controller and gives it a little TLC
13. 0:40:55 AMD CFO States They Will Have 28 Nano-meter GPUs Out This Year
    1. more info on low power HKMG aka HPL
14. 0:45:45 Apple is da bomb! Vulnerability found in battery circuitry
15. 0:54:05 Email from Tom about Eyefinity
16. 0:59:06 Email from Greg about Eyefinity again
17. 1:05:05 Email from Luke about SSDs
18. 1:10:08 Email from Jesse about SRT notebooks
19. 1:14:05 Quakecon Reminder - http://www.quakecon.org/
    1. Tshirts, prizes, stuff!
    2. Win a truck: http://www.pcper.com/news/Shows-and-Expos/QuakeCon-2011-Arrive-clunker%E2%80%A6-leave-beast
20. 1:16:32 Hardware / Software Pick of the Week
    1. Ryan: Evernote
    2. Jeremy: isostick ... 1/2 way through the kickstart process even
    3. Josh: dirt cheap USB 3.0 16GB
    4. Allyn: Sony DSC-HX100V
21. 1-888-38-PCPER or podcast@pcper.com
22. http://pcper.com/podcast   
23. http://twitter.com/ryanshrout and http://twitter.com/pcper
24. 1:25:46 Closing

AMD Catalyst 11.7 Windows release and 11.8 preview

Subject: Graphics Cards | July 27, 2011 - 03:24 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: catalyst, amd

You can get the official 11.7 Catalyst driver from AMD right here, just make sure to pick the right OS version.

Resolved issue highlights:

• All issues experienced with mouse cursor lag have been resolved
• Log event (Event ID 62464) issues when playing video content have been resolved
• Resolves system hangs seen in the AMD Catalyst™ 11.6 driver on specific HDMI and DP displays
• Bluray playback using PowerDVD 10 under High Performance mode no longer randomly displays a blank screen.
• Some Divx format files no longer display video corruption using WinDVD.
• AMD SteadyVideo is now applied to Home Video clips using WinDVD 10.
• Chequerboard corruption is no longer displayed intermittently when playing DirectX 10 titles in a Crossfire configuration and Eyefinity enabled.
• Shogun II now renders the cinematics correctly when run in various Eyefinity configurations.
• Video playback now works correctly when Hardware acceleration is enabled with VLC Player version 1.1.9.
• Crossfire now functions correctly when playing Hamilton’s Great Adventure.
• PowerDVD now correctly handles 3D Bluray content. Portal 2 no longer displays flickering on water surface textures with Medium and Low Shader detail settings.

Highlights of the Linux AMD Catalyst™ 11.7 release include:

This release of AMD Catalyst™ Linux introduces support for the following new operating systems:

• RHEL 5.7 support (early look)
• Ubuntu 11.04 production support

Highlights of the AMD Catalyst™ 11.8 preview driver include:

• Enables AMD HD3D technology support on DisplayPort panels, such as Samsung 750 and 950 series 3D displays.
• Improves performance up to 10% in Crysis 2 DirectX 11 version for both non-Anti-Aliasing, and application enabled Anti-Aliasing cases on the AMD Radeon™ HD 6000 and AMD Radeon™ HD 5000 Series
• Improves performance up to 8% in Fear 3 DirectX 11 version with application enabled Anti-Aliasing on the AMD Radeon™ HD 6000 and AMD Radeon™ HD 5000 Series
• Improves performance up to 30% when AMD’s Morphological Anti-Aliasing (MLAA) is enabled through the Catalyst™ Control Center on the AMD Radeon™ HD 6000 and AMD Radeon™ HD 5000 Series

The AMD Catalyst 11.8 Preview driver can be found here: http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/Catalyst118DriverPreview.aspx