Podcast #197 - Z77 Motherboards, GTX690 Rumors, and the truth behind the new Indilinx controller

Subject: General Tech | April 12, 2012 - 03:46 PM | Ken Addison
Tagged: Z77, ssd, podcast, nvidia, Marvell, Ivy Bridge, Intel, Indilinx, gtx690

PC Perspective Podcast #197 - 04/12/2012

Join us this week as we talk about Z77 Motherboards, GTX690 Rumors, and the truth behind the new Indilinx controller.

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!

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• RSS - Subscribe through your regular RSS reader
• MP3 - Direct download link to the MP3 file

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

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

Program length: 1:19:45

Program Schedule: 

1. 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. iPad 2012 vs. Transformer Prime
6. Kingwin Lazer Platinum 1000W
7. Asus ROG Maximus V GENE
8. Raspberry Pi passes EMC Compliance
9. This Podcast is brought to you by MSI Computer, and their all new Sandy Bridge Motherboards!
   
10. Will the real Indilinx controller ...
    1. please make themselves known to the staff
11. NV Tegra 4 Specifications Leak
12. Maingear Shift System: Just Delivered
13. ZOTAC Intel 7 Series Mobos
14. Leaks about NV GTX 690
15. Epic talks storm of Bullets
16. http://www.pcper.com/news/Graphics-Cards/NVIDIA-Introduces-Two-New-Rebranded-600-Series-Cards
17. http://www.pcper.com/news/Systems/PCAudioLabs-Editing-PC-Sweepstakes-Winner
18. This week: Still working on watercooling from Antec
19. Hardware / Software Pick of the Week
    1. Ryan:  thermite 
    2. Jeremy:  Scotch in Spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace!
    3. Josh:  Morrowind Overhaul
    4. Allyn:  IDE USB Dock!
20. 1-888-38-PCPER or podcast@pcper.com
21. http://pcper.com/podcast   
22. http://twitter.com/ryanshrout and http://twitter.com/pcper
23. Closing

More leaks about NVIDIA's Dual-GPU GTX 690? May be?

Subject: General Tech, Graphics Cards | April 10, 2012 - 07:18 PM | Scott Michaud
Tagged: nvidia, leak, GTX 690

More information has surfaced about NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 690 video card. While other tidbits came to light, perhaps most interesting is the expected May release.

NVIDIA has suffered from quite a few leaks near their launch of the GeForce GTX 680 GPU and its associated cards. Benchmarks were accidentally published early and product pages were mistakenly posted premature. The hot streak continues.

It may be time to just reset fate and skip to the GTX 700-series. I mean they will eventually be rebranded 700-something anyway.

I kid, I kid.

Not many specifications were leaked, although there is not much left that cannot already be assumed about the card due to the similarities with its sister part.

The reference model GTX 690 will require two 8-pin power connectors and output via three DVI ports as well as a mini DisplayPort. The already released GTX 680, by contrast, requires two 6-pin connectors and outputs by two DVI, an HDMI, and a full size DisplayPort.

The new card will require more power for its dual GK104 GPUs as the larger power connectors would suggest. While the GTX 680 is happy with 550W of total system power, the GTX 690 would like a system power supply of at least 650W. Since the 680 is expected to draw a maximum of 195W, an extra 100W would put estimates for the 690 power draw at somewhere around 295W.

Unfortunately estimates based on rated total system power are very inaccurate as power supply requirements are often raised to the nearest 50W. Really, the 690 could be anywhere between 245W and 295W and even those figures are just estimates.

Still, it looks as though my 750W power supply will survive past May when the leak claims that the GTX 690 is expected to arrive. Yay! May!

NVIDIA Tegra 4 Specifications Sheet Leaks

Subject: General Tech, Mobile | April 7, 2012 - 07:11 PM | Tim Verry
Tagged: tegra 4, tegra, SoC, nvidia, mobile

The Chinese language VR-Zone website has allegedly managed to get their hands on a leaked specifications sheet for NVIDIA’s upcoming Tegra 4 System-on-a-chip (SoC) aimed at mobile tablets. Codenamed “Wayne,” the new SoC will come in several flavors and will arrive next year.

The upcoming chips will have 10x the performance of NVIDIA’s original Tegra and five times the performance of the current generation Kal-El Tegra 3 chip. NVIDIA has run into several hurdles in integrating an LTE cell radio into their SoCs, but if the leaked document is true, the company will finally release a Tegra chp with built-in LTE 100 and HSPA42 cell radio capabilities as early as the third quarter of 2013.

Further, the Tegra 4 SoCs will come in four flavors: T40, T43, AP40, and SP3X. T40 will represent the first Tegra 4 chp that manufacturers and consumers will be able to get their hands on -- as early as Q1 2013. It is a quad core part with one companion core and will run at 1.8 GHz. T43 is an evolution of the T40 and will bump up the clockspeed to 2.0 GHz. The AP40 chip will be the first budget Tegra 4 processor and will run anywhere between 1.2 GHz and 1.8 GHz. The T43 and AP40 SoCs are reportedly coming out in Q3 2013. All three chips -- The T40, T43, and AP40 -- are based on the ARM Cortex A15 architecture.

The final Tegra 4 chip is called SP3X, and it will arrive in Q3 2013. Aimed at mainstream tablets with 7” or smaller screens, the upcoming SoC will feature LTE support and will have a clockspeed of 1.2 GHz to 2.0 GHz. It is a quad core (plus one companion core) part but is reportedly based on the ARM Cortex A9 architecture.  The leaked release dates do seem to be in line with earlier reports, though they should still be taken with your daily dose of salt.

Right now Tegra delivers on performance and many high end mobile devices have incorporated the NVIDIA chip. Even so, they still have very little market share, and the two mainstream Tegra 4 chips -- especially the SP3X with LTE radio -- should help them make inroads against Qualcomm and Samsung who hold a great deal of market share.

Overclocked Gigabyte WindForce GTX 680 GPU Pictured

Subject: Graphics Cards | April 5, 2012 - 11:19 PM | Tim Verry
Tagged: windforce, overclock, nvidia, gtx 680, gpu, gigabyte, custom gtx 680

Popular motherboard manufacturer Gigabyte is the latest company to debut a custom version of the NVIDIA GTX 680 reference graphics card. Gigabyte’s unique take on the GTX 680 starts off with a custom dark blue PCB and ripping out the puny two six pin PCI-E power connectors. They are then replaced with one eight pin and one six pin PCI-E power connector. Then, they top it off with a custom three fan cooler. The heatsink uses three copper heatpipes with direct contact with the GPU, and two arrays of aluminum fins.

The cooler and blue PCB via VR-Zone

The extra power provided by the eight pin PCI-E connector allows for potentially higher overclocks (depending on the particular chips), and the custom cooler keeps the overclocked card nice and cool. In fact, Gigabyte is shipping the card with a factory overclock. Although they did not overclock the 2 GB of GDDR5 memory from stock, they have set the base clock frequency and boost frequency at 1071 MHz and 1124 MHz boost respectively. Compared to the reference specs of 1006 MHz base and 1058 MHz boost, that amounts to a respectable 65 MHz base overclock and 66 MHz boost overclock out of the box. Further, depending on the chip, they may be capable of overclocking much higher.

The assembled card showing the video outputs via Guru3D

So long as you can find one in stock, the NVIDIA GTX 680 GPU is shaping up to be an interesting card, especially the custom versions! More photos of the previewed Gigabyte GTX 680 WindForce edition is available here and here.

NVIDIA Introduces Two New Rebranded 600 Series Cards

Subject: Graphics Cards | April 5, 2012 - 08:37 PM | Tim Verry
Tagged: rebranded gpu, nvidia, gtx 620, gtx 605, gpu, fermi

NVIDIA is continuing the infuriating practice (though they aren't alone in doing so) of re-branding older graphics cards into the following generation to present “new” cards (or to confuse consumers and tech journalists to no end, though I suspect that’s just a side benefit). Specifically, they are taking two lower tier desktop OEM cards and rebranding them as 600 series "Kepler" cards. The NVIDIA GT 520 and GT 510 will be renamed the NVIDIA GT 620 and GT 605 respectively. Even more confusing is that the “new” cards will have less hardware, and the only addition is the support for the OpenGL 4.2 standard (versus 4.1 on the 520 and 510).  Other than that, they are two Fermi based cards in Kepler clothing.

The NVIDIA GT 620 replaces the GT 520 and features half of the graphics memory as the 500 series card, meaning that users will get 512 MB or 1 GB on the 620 instead of the 1 GB / 2 GB options of the GT 520. The card still features VGA, DVI, and HDMI video outputs. The remaining specifications can be seen in the chart below. Despite halving the memory, the new card has a very slightly higher TDP at 30 watts versus the rated 29 watts of the GT 520.

On the other hand, the NVIDIA GT 605 is the new version of the GT 510. The 600 series part also halves the amount of memory of the GT 510 counterpart with 512 MB and 1 GB versions compared to 1 GB and 2 GB versions of the GT 510. The GT 605 also has VGA, DVI, and HDMI ports. It is rated at a TDP of 25 watts like the GT 510.

Reference GT 500 and GT 600 Series Specifications (changes in bold).

According to Tom’s, the “new” cards are still Fermi based despite the new implied Kepler generation naming scheme. Granted, these are OEM cards but it still is a bit dishonest to rebrand them, especially in the case of the GT 620 where it is the same rank but with the Kepler generation digit at the beginning. There have been some comments around the Internet that the two new rebranded cards were brought into play to allow OEMs to sell PCs with new 600 series discrete graphics. At this level, it really doesn’t matter per se as they will still do HTPC and desktop graphics well enough and are not going to be purchased by customers directly, but it’s still annoying (heh). What do you guys think about the graphics card rebranding in general, whether it’s on the desktop or mobile market?

NVIDIA urges you to program better now, not CPU -- later.

Subject: Editorial, General Tech, Graphics Cards, Processors | April 4, 2012 - 04:13 AM | Scott Michaud
Tagged: nvidia, Intel, Knight's Corner, gpgpu

NVIDIA steals Intel’s lunch… analogy. In the process they claim that optimizing your application for Intel’s upcoming many-core hardware is not free of effort, and that effort is similar to what is required to develop on what NVIDIA already has available.

A few months ago, Intel published an article on their software blog to urge developers to look to the future without relying on the future when they design their applications. The crux of Intel’s argument states that regardless of how efficient Intel makes their processors, there is still responsibility on your part to create efficient code.

There’s always that one, in the back of the class…

NVIDIA, never a company to be afraid to make a statement, used Intel’s analogy to alert developers to optimize for many-core architectures.

The hope that unmodified HPC applications will work well on MIC with just a recompile is not really credible, nor is talking about ease of programming without consideration of performance.

There is no free lunch. Programmers will need to put in some effort to structure their applications for hybrid architectures. But that work will pay off handsomely for today’s, and especially tomorrow’s, HPC systems.

It remains to be seen how Intel MIC will perform when it eventually arrives. But why wait? Better to get ahead of the game by starting down the hybrid multicore path now.

NVIDIA thinks that Intel was correct: there would be no free lunch for developers, why not purchase a plate at NVIDIA’s table? Who knows, after the appetizer you might want to stay around.

You cannot simply allow your program to execute on Many Integrated Core (MIC) hardware and expect it to do so well. The goal is not to simply implement on new hardware -- it is to perform efficiently while utilizing the advantages of everything that is available. It will always be up to the developer to set up their application in the appropriate way.

Your advantage will be to understand the pros and cons of massive parallelism. NVIDIA, AMD, and now Intel have labored to create a variety of architectures to suit this aspiration; software developers must labor in a similar way on their end.

The only thing better than an in stock GTX 680 would be two of them

Subject: Graphics Cards | March 29, 2012 - 06:18 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: sli, nvidia, gtx 680

The name of the game in [H]ard|OCP's latest review is scaling at 5760 x 1200, specifically the scaling of two GTX 680s in SLI as well as a pair of HD 7970s in Crossfire.  Some games like Mass Effect 3 will not benefit much as the difference between 150fps and 170fps will be hard to do but others such as Battlefield 3 and Arkham City stress these cards somewhat at this resolution, but even 50fps is rather impressive when pushing about 7 million pixels.  Read on and be prepared to feel a little jealous, maybe jealous enough to snatch up a Galaxy model which is back in stock. (didn't last 2 minutes)

"We've got two GeForce GTX 680 video cards to test SLI performance against Radeon HD 7970 CrossFireX. Will these less expensive GTX 680 video cards offer a better gameplay experience or choke at high resolutions due to a smaller VRAM footprint? We will prove to you which solution offers better efficiency and performance."

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

Graphics Cards

• Palit GeForce GTX 680 JetStream Edition Graphics Card Review @ HardwareHeaven
• Palit JetStream GeForce GTX 680 @ Tweaktown
• GeForce GTX 680 3-way SLI @ Tweaktown
• Surround on a Stick! Single Card Nvidia Surround Tested @ Bjorn3D
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 - The Nitty Gritty @ eTeknix
• ASUS GeForce GTX 680 MaxOC vs R7970 MaxOC vs GTX 580 OC @ HardwareHeaven
• NVIDIA GPU Boost Technology Report @ TechARP
• Desktop Graphics Card Comparison Guide @ TechARP
• HIS Radeon HD 7770 iCooler GHz Edition 1GB @ Tweaktown
• Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 OC 2GB Graphics Card Review @ eTeknix
• HIS Radeon HD 7870 IceQ Turbo Overclocked @ Tweaktown
• XFX R7850 Black Edition Double Dissipation Graphics Card and AMD Anti-Aliasing Analysis Review @ HardwareHeaven
• XFX HD7850 Black Edition @ Kitguru
• Sapphire HD 7850 OC Radeon Review @ TechwareLabs
• MSI Radeon HD 7970 Lightning 3GB Video Card Overclocked @ Tweaktown
• XFX's Radeon HD 7850 and 7870 Black Edition @ The Tech Report