16GB of bright red DDR3-2133MHz from Mushkin

Subject: Memory | February 3, 2012 - 04:22 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: ddr3-2133, Mushkin, redline, quad channel

How does 16GB of DDR3-2133 @ 9-11-10-28 strike you that looks like candy?  If you are running an LGA2011 system with quad-channel memory 16GB will benefit you in some scenarios and who wouldn't like to brag that their desktop has more RAM than many servers.  The striking red heatspreaders will attract those who like to show off the interior of their case and the performance surpassed the Corsair kit they tested against.  OC3D does want to remind you that while quad channel RAM is fun, it doesn't offer huge advantages over dual channel RAM in real world testing.

"With the recent LGA2011 supporting Quad Channel Memory, the manufacturers are swift to take up the challenge. Cue the Mushkin Redline."

Here are some more Memory articles from around the web:

Memory

• Patriot Division 2 Viper Xtreme DDR3 1600MHz 8GB Memory Kit Review @ Hi Tech Legion
• Crucial Ballistix Elite 16Gb @ Funkykit
• G.Skill Ripjaws Z 2133CL9Q-16GBZH Memory Kit Review @ Madshrimps
• Kingston HyperX 2400mhz @ KitGuru
• GeIL Enhance Corsa PC3-12800 1600MHz 16GB Quad Channel Memory Kit Review @ Madshrimps
• Kingston HyperX Genesis 8GB DDR3 1600 Memory Kit Review @ Legit Reviews

Your watercooler is cool but this LN2 pot is downright cold

Subject: Cases and Cooling | February 3, 2012 - 12:40 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: LN2, Kingpin, F1 Extreme Dark Cooling Pot

Kingpin's F1 Extreme Dark Cooling Pot is not for the faint of heart or for that matter for the lazy.  The price you pay for exotic cooling is evaporation which unfortunately is also the key to how this type of cooling works so well.  You will constantly need to top off the Extreme Dark Cooling Pot with LN2 but for the extreme overclocker that is just part of the drill.  OC3D shows off the new pot and adds a small tutorial on setting up your CPU and motherboard for this type of cooling as insulation is important to target the heatspreader on the CPU as well as ensuring that condensation does not interfere with other components near the CPU socket.  If you need a cool looking new pot or are interested in just how this type of cooling is done then head to Overclockers.com and take a look at Kingpin's latest product.

"Overclockers have always been a bit extreme – we take hardware many people are perfectly satisfied with and then push every last MHz we can out of it within our cooling limits. Some choose air cooling, some choose water cooling. There are a few brave souls that use water chillers, but mostly those are benching operations only."

Here are some more Cases & Cooling reviews from around the web:

CASES & COOLING

• Danger Den DD-M6 Waterblock Review @ Ninjalane
• Noctua NH-D14 CPU Cooler Review @ ITShootOut
• Glacialtech Igloo H58 Heatsink Review @ Frostytech
• Xigmatek Prime @ OC3D
• NZXT Havik 120 Review @ OCC
• Noctua NH-C14 CPU Cooler Review @ circuitREMIX
• Xigmatek Prime SD1484 Review @ OCC
• Noctua NF-F12 Focused Flow Fan Review @ Ninjalane
• Cooler Master GeminII M4 @ XSReviews
• SilenX Effizio EFZ-120HA5 CPU Cooler @ SSD Review
• Kingwin 120mm Fan Review @ OCC
• Noctua NF-F12 Focused Flow Fan Review @ Ninjalane
• Sharkoon T9 Green Value Edition Case @ Kitguru
• Thermaltake Chaser MK-1 Full Tower @ Bjorn3D
• Raidmax Viper Case @ TechwareLabs
• Sharkoon T9 Value Edition (Red) Case Review @ HardwareHeaven
• Cooler Master Silencio 450 Mid-Tower Case Review @ Hi Tech Legion
• NZXT Switch 810: When Too Much Isn't Enough @ AnandTech
• Fractal Design Define XL Computer Case Review @ Benchmark Review
• Prolimatech Genesis CPU Cooler @ TechwareLabs
• NZXT Phantom Enthusiast Full Tower Case @ Real World Labs
• NZXT Phantom 410 Chassis @ Tweaktown
• Cooler Master Elite 431 Plus @ Overclockers Online
• ARCTIC Alpine 11 Plus @ Funky Kit
• Corsair Carbide 500R Arctic White Edition Review @ Madshrimps
• Bitfenix Raider @ KitGuru
• MSI Nighthawk Case Review @ TechwareLabs
• Thermaltake Commander MS-I Mid Tower @ Pro-Clockers

Not just a FAD, AMD aims at the market ultra-thin laptop-like device

Subject: General Tech | February 3, 2012 - 12:13 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: ultrabook, amd, Financial Analyst Day, trinity

While Intel struggles to find a away to reduce costs to hit their self imposed $1000 limit on the price for ultrabooks without comprimising the quality of the machine, AMD is leveraging an old strength and a new one.  The old strength is familiar to any long time PC fan, AMD's chips are less expensive than Intel's which gives them some nice monetary leeway when creating low cost systems.  The new strength is Trinity, the next generation Llano, and the impressive graphics performance packaged in the same substrate and the smooth way it can integrate with a discreet GPU to give desktop like performance. 

One of the benefits Trinity will bring is what AMD called 'All day' battery life, with a 12 hour lifespan predicted.  Trinity uses half the power of Llano as well as featuring an improved graphics core which they predict to be half again as powerful as Intel's HD Graphics.  They also predict the new Bulldozer architecture will increase general computing power.  Check out the slides at SemiAccurate for more information.

"Much has been said about Intel’s new Ultrabook form factor. But new details from AMD’s Financial Analyst Day are radically changing the prospective competitive landscape that 2012 has to offer. During Intel’s Q3 conference call certain Intel executives were confident that AMD would always be offering a lower cost alternative to Intel products. But it seems that thing are not turning out the way that the cunning marketeers behind Intel’s “visibly smart” 2nd generation Core processors had hoped."

Here is some more Tech News from around the web:

Tech Talk

• More details about some new AMD cores @ SemiAccurate
• AMD sets out its plans for 2013, hints at a possible ARM future @ Ars Technica
• Motherboard prices to hike by 10% at end of 1Q12 @ DigiTimes
• Understanding AMD's Roadmap & New Direction @ AnandTech
• Intel promotes two executives to senior vice president @ DigiTimes
• AMD doubles down on existing Opteron server sockets @ The Register
• Ubuntu 12.04 ARM Performance Becomes Very Compelling @ Phoronix
• David vs Goliath: Can AMD Stand and Fight? @ Hi Tech Legion

Podcast #187 - Our thoughts on Ultrabooks, the Radeon HD 7950, ASUS DirectCU GTX cards, and more!

Subject: Editorial, General Tech | February 2, 2012 - 03:11 PM | Ken Addison
Tagged: ssd, sandforce, radeon, podcast, patriot, nvidia, Intel, gtx, arm, amd, 7950

PC Perspective Podcast #187 - 02/02/2012

Join us this week as we talk about our thoughts on Ultrabooks, the Radeon HD 7950, ASUS DirectCU GTX cards, 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, Josh Walrath, Jeremy Hellstrom, and Allyn Malvantano

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

Program length: 58:02

Program Schedule:

1. 0:00:40 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. 0:01:20 Ultrabooks: Intel Knows What's Good For You
6. 0:08:30 Patriot Pyro and Wildfire SSD Review - IMFT Async vs. Toshiba Toggle-mode Flash
7. 0:14:20 AMD Radeon HD 7950 3GB Graphics Card Review
8. 0:25:50 This Podcast is brought to you by MSI Computer, and their all new Sandy Bridge Motherboards!
   
9. 0:26:38 Asus DirectCU II Roundup: ENGTX560, ENGTX570, and ENGTX580 Review
10. 0:40:35 Raspberry Pi Linux Computer Will Have Fast GPU For The Price
11. 0:44:20 If you thought Intel did well wait until you see ARM
12. 0:47:00 AMD 7700 and 7800 Release Dates Leak To Web
13. 0:51:20 Live Blog: AMD Financial Analyst Day
14. 0:52:20 Hardware / Software Pick of the Week
    1. Ryan: Radeon HD 7950 Cards
    2. Jeremy: I'm giddy as a schoolgirl, albeit a very mercenary one
    1. Josh: And it is on sale! $770 off!
    2. Allyn: Corsair Force 3 - very good pricing.
15. 1-888-38-PCPER or podcast@pcper.com
16. http://pcper.com/podcast   
17. http://twitter.com/ryanshrout and http://twitter.com/pcper
18. Closing

A Texas sized party with Kyle and the [H] gang

Subject: General Tech, Shows and Expos | February 2, 2012 - 02:23 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: amd, Texas GamExperience

While we at PC Perspective wait for Quakecon before heading to Texas, [H]ard|OCP hosts the AMD GamExperience in Dallas during January.  This is the third year in a row they've given gamers the chance to experience the newest in games and gaming peripherals and it must have been a good one since they only managed to recover enough to post the pictures today.  As you can see below they are just as hard on the audience as Ryan and the crew, but with $55,000+ worth of prizes to give out it is possible to get gamers to do pushups.  Check out what you missed here.

We did have a man on the scene, if you haven't seen Steve's coverage you really should.

"We recently put on the third "GamExperience" here in Dallas, TX! We invited 600 of our closet friends and 20 companies that crank out some of the best computer hardware in the world and put them all in one room together for some gaming and geek talk. And yeah, free stuff too, about $50,000 worth!"

Here is some more Tech News from around the web:

Tech Talk

• Physics hardware makes Kepler/GK104 fast @ SemiAccurate
• Kinect for Windows released @ Hack a Day
• How-To: Make Your Own Aerogel @ MAKE:Blog
• Asus denies problems with Transformer Prime again @ The Inquirer
• HTC sends out a fix for WiFi security problem @ The Inquirer
• Ex-Apple engineer emits Zevo ZFS for Mac OS @ The Register
• OC3D: 2012 Competition MADNESS

AMD shows 18mm thin reference ultrathin notebook based on Trinity

Subject: Graphics Cards, Processors, Mobile | February 2, 2012 - 02:02 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: amd, trinity, hsa, ultrabook, ultrathin

Today at the AMD Financial Analyst day in Sunnyvale, Lisa Su, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Global Business Units, showed off a reference design from Compal of an 18mm think ultrathin notebook that they are obviously hoping to compete with Intel's Ultrabook push.

The notebook is based on AMD's upcoming Trinity APU that improves on the CPU and GPU performance of the currently available Llano APU.  There weren't many details though Su did state they were hoping for prices in the $600-800 range would could but a lot of pressure on Intel. 

Live Blog: AMD Financial Analyst Day

Subject: Editorial, Graphics Cards, Processors | February 2, 2012 - 12:31 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: reports, gpu, fad, cpu, APU, analyst, amd

Consider this fair warning: tomorrow here at PC Perspective you will learn the future of AMD.  Sound over dramatic?  We don't think so.  After a pretty interesting year in 2011 for the company and AMD has said on several occasions that this year's Financial Analyst Day was going to reveal a lot about what the future holds for them on the GPU, CPU and APU front.  

Hopefully we will learn what AMD plans to do after the cancelation of the second-generation of ultra lower power APUs, how important discrete graphics will be going forward and what life there is for the processor architecture after Bulldozer.  

We will be in Sunnyvale at the AMD campus covering the event and we will be holding a live blog at the same time...right here.  The event starts at 9am PST on February 2nd, aso be sure you set your calendars and bookmark this page for all the news!!

FirefoxX: Coming soon to a TF2 user handle near you!

Subject: General Tech | February 1, 2012 - 05:55 PM | Scott Michaud
Tagged: mozilla, firefox

Firefox is my default browser. I often complement Firefox with Google Chrome due to habits introduced in the dark ages where Flash and crash were more ironic rhymes for Firefox users, but I stuck with it. I watched as it grew from a suite and innocent Mozilla build into the standalone browser it is today. Could Firefox be ten already? It seems like it was just yesteryear -- it was just four and we were out in the textfield try{}ing to play catch(){}.

If you are a developer -- and if you are still reading then you probably are -- this version of Firefox has a lot to offer you. While a lot of the features touted as new are not, they are certainly much upgraded from what we are used to. Allow me to put it like this: you may be able to finally uninstall Firebug. You may infer what you like from that statement. Some highlights of the developer features include a built-in page inspector, a web console interface, and scratchpad.

The page inspector allows developers to examine their own websites as well as study the websites of others in a much friendlier interface than Firebug. For quick tweaks, you can edit the CSS from within page inspector and turn whole properties on and off and immediately see its effect.

The web console interface allows you to edit your site as it is temporarily rendered from a command-line interface. This appears to be mostly useful for smaller Javascript tweaks and additions if you have a small change that you would like to iterate upon quickly. The web console also allows you to see network requests which should help greatly with optimizing load times.

Scratchpad is a new developer feature for Javascript which is just too complicated to test upon with the console interface. Scratchpad is somewhere between Notepad and Notepad++ and is used to quickly experiment with full Javascript scripts on the website you currently have loaded.

Don't just take my word for it, see it!

More general enhancements were, of course, also made with this version: WebGL is now antialiased; security, performance, and stability fixes were introduced; and add-on compatibility is much less annoying. The experience feels much more responsive and clean than it has recently, continuing on the advancements started with Firefox 7.

What do you think? Looking forward to new WebGL content now that it will not be as jaggy? Excited about the developer tools or performance enhancements? Let us know!

Rawr, ASUS unleashed the X79 Sabertooth

Subject: Motherboards | February 1, 2012 - 05:16 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: asus, Sabertooth, Patsburg, x79, lga 2011

ASUS Sabretooth TUF series has been growing, from the P67 version on the Intel side to the 990FX version for AMD users and now has an X79 model.  These boards all feature TUF Thermal Armor which not only gives a unique look but is also intended to provide enhanced cooling.  This is a high end family, which features ASUS' customized back panel and a five year warranty to help justify the price.  It sports three PCIe 3.0 slots, two at 16x and one at 8x as well as a pair of PCIe 2.0 1x slots and a legacy PCI slot.  For storage you four SATA 6Gbps ports and two 6Gbps eSATA ports split between three controllers as well as four 3Gbps ports.  You also enjoy a half dozen USB 3.0 ports and even Firewire.  Take a look at one of ASUS best offerings for LGA2011 processors at Hardware Canucks.

"In mid November we saw the launch of the enthusiast-based Sandy Bridge Extreme platform along with the X79 (code name Patsburg) chipsets and since then we have brought you reviews of the i7-3960X CPU and the Rampage IV Extreme motherboard. Today we continue our walk down the LGA2011 road and bring you another highly anticipated board from ASUS: the Sabertooth X79."

Here are some more Motherboard articles from around the web:

Motherboards

• ECS X79R-AX Black Series Motherboard Review @ Legit Reviews
• Sapphire PURE Black X79N @ Tweaktown
• Gigabyte GA-X79-UD7: Mainboard for LGA 2011 CPUs Overclocking @ X-bit Labs
• Gigabyte X79 UD3 Motherboard Review @ Ninjalane
• ASUS P9X79 WS Workstation Motherboard @ Benchmark Reviews
• ASRock X79 Extreme9 Review - Price For Performance? @ AnandTech
• ASUS P8H67-M Evo Intel H67 Express Motherboard Review @ PCSTATS
• ASRock Z68M-ITX/HT Mini-ITX @ Kitguru
• BIOS Option Of The Week - PSB Parking @ TechARP
• ASUS F1A75-M Pro Review - Micro-ATX Llano at $110 @ AnandTech

Putting Bulldozer to the proper use; how well does it serve?

Subject: Systems | February 1, 2012 - 04:10 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: amd, interlagos, bulldozer, supermicro, opteron 6200

Over at The Inquirer you can take a look at the performance of the Opteron 6274 as a server chip, as opposed to the desktop benchmarks that have made up the bulk of Bulldozer reviews on the web.  SuperMicro has assembled a server containing a dual-socket Opteron 6274 for a total of 32 cores and 64GB of ECC DDR3-1333 RAM across eight channels running on 64-bit Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1.  While the machine was quite powerful it still has difficulty keeping up with Intel, for instance its performance on CineBench was about the same as provided by an X5680 Westmere Xeon which is not Intel's best silicon. On the plus side, the scaling for multithreaded applications was quite good.

"IS BULLDOZER better in a workstation than a desktop? Let's see if it can be.

AMD's Bulldozer chip, while eagerly awaited, didn't really have a stellar debut as a mainstream - or high end, for that matter - desktop processor, still having a way to go before seriously challenging the incumbent Intel. The core, cache and memory performance all need a bit more power, although recent news such as Microsoft Windows' kernel patches do seem to help a little bit towards extracting more oomph from the unusual 'two integer units sharing one floating-point' approach."

Here are some more Systems articles from around the web:

Systems

• Alienware X51 Launch Details @ Hardware Heaven
• ZOTAC ZBOX AD04 Plus AMD Fusion Mini PC Review @ HardwareHeaven
• Sony Z Series @ Kitguru
• Ultimate SFF Lanparty Machine: Intel Xeon E5 (SNB-EP 8C/16T) on an ASUS Rampage IV GENE @ VR-Zone

You aren't done playing Skyrim yet, the official Mod tools are on their way

Subject: General Tech | February 1, 2012 - 03:15 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: skyrim, gaming, creation kit, bethesda

Attention all modders and Elder Scrolls fans, the official Bethesda Creation Kit for Skyrim is coming down from the mountain to give a shout out to the community.  It will be a free download via Steam under Tools and will not only give you the tools to mod the game but it can also replace the Nexus Mod Manager for updating and enabling or disabling mods.  From the description of the Creation Kit those familiar with previous versions from Elder Scrolls games and Fallout 3 will be familiar with the interface. If you want to see a video of this tool in action head to Rock, Paper, SHOTGUN and feast your eyes on the newest drain on your free time.

"Bethesda is soon to release the Creation Kit for Skyrim, that’ll allow official modding to begin, along with some really powerful-looking tools. It will also plug directly into the Steam Workshop, which will make adding user-created mods to your game over 39024% easier. You can see a video giving an overview of those features below."

Here is some more Tech News from around the web:

Gaming

• Know Your Enemy: Firaxis On XCOM, Part 1 @ Rock, Paper, SHOTGUN
• Star Wars: The Old Republic @ Tweaktown
• An Hour With… King Arthur II @ Rock, Paper, SHOTGUN
• Most Anticipated PC Games of 2012 @ Techspot
• Syndicate Video Preview @ IGN
• FIFA 12 (PS3) Review @ HardwareHeaven

AMD 7700 and 7800 Release Dates Leak To Web

Subject: Graphics Cards | February 1, 2012 - 02:32 PM | Tim Verry
Tagged: radeon, pitcairn, hd 7870, hd 7850, hd 7770, hd 7750, cape verde, amd

It is now February, and despite the weather outside (which feels like late spring/early summer) not following the middle of winter approach, the year has only just begun. AMD has really been on the ball with new releases; however, and has managed to launch two of the three planned enthusiast level graphics cards with the AMD Radeon HD 7970 and the Radeon HD 7950 on January 9th and 31st respectively. What this means is that the company has the rest of the year to dole out the cheaper and lower performance cards. Even so, if this leaked slide is to be believed, it looks like AMD will not be wasting any time and is planning to roll out a slew of 7700 and 7800 series card launches before the second quarter of this year is over!

As one step down from the 7900 series, Pitcairn represents AMD's new "mid-range" parts.  As of now, the Pitcairn series includes Pitcairn XT and Pitcairn Pro which will be labeled the Radeon 7870 and 7850 respectively.  This recent leak does not stray too far from previous rumors, and both Pitcairn 7800 series AMD cards should see a March 2012 launch.  The article further specifies a March 6th, 2012 release as the first day of the German CeBit 2012 trade show.  In name, Pitcairn is the successor to the current Barts XT and Barts Pro based Radeon HD 6870 and HD 6850 cards, but is rumored to offer a similar level of performance to the 6950 and 6970 graphics cards. Allegedly, the cards will utilize 2GB GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit memory interface. Further, the Pitcairn XT that will be the HD 7870 will have 1536 ALUs (arithmetic logic unit) at 950 MHz, 96 texture units, 32 ROPs (Raster Operations Pipeline), 24 SIMDs (single instruction, multiple data), and a 120 watt TDP (thermal design power). The HD 7850 on the other hand will be slightly scaled back with only 1408 ALUs at 850 MHz, 88 texture units, and 22 SIMDs. Also, the memory clock will be scaled back. The reductions in hardware will give the card a supposed lower 90 watt TDP. 

Moving down the performance ladder, AMD will launch the Cape Verde XT and Cape Verde Pro based Radeon Hd 7770 and HD 7750 cards later this month on February 15th, 2012. BSN claims that the Cape Verde cards will use either 1 GB of GDDR 3 or GDDR5 memory and will be in the $100 and $160 price range (with the 7770 on the high end of the scale and 7750 on low end). According to this article over at Tom's Hardware, the 7700 series cards will be much smaller than their bigger brothers at a bit over 8 inches in length. They will feature a 128-bit memory interface, 6 pin PCI-E connector, approximate 100 watt power consumption, and a Graphics Core Next GPU architecture.

The 7770 graphics card.  (Image leaked from ChipHell)

The remaining card that is likely to be of interest to our readers is the dual GPU monster that is the 7990.  This card will be based off of two 7970 GPUs.  Unfortunately; however, further details and pricing are not known.  There is speculation that the 7990 card will have 6 GB of GDDR5 graphics memory, 256 texture units, 64 ROPs, 62 compute units (CUs), and a massive number of stream processors at 4,096 based on the card being comprised of two 7970 cards.  Also, the launch date is still listed as "To Be Determined."

Lots of information is still speculation, but if it holds true, AMD is looking to get as much of a lead on Nvidia as possible by getting as many of their 7000 series out of the gate as possible.  Which 7000 series cards are you most interested in?

If you thought Intel did well wait until you see ARM

Subject: General Tech | February 1, 2012 - 12:24 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: RISC, quarterly earnings, earnings, arm

For total dollar revenue over 2011 the only company that can touch Intel's earnings would be Apple, who actually contributed to Intel's growth over the past year.  When you talk about percentage growth over last year however ARM actually beat Intel's 21% growth, although not by much.  Their pre-tax growth approached 50% for the year and they blew away analyst's predictions both quarterly and yearly.  This probably has to do with the 2.2 billion ARM-powered chips sold globally over the past year, not just the new chips that power your phones and tablets but also chips they've been making for a long time which appear in vehicles, appliances and toys.  ARM's way of doing business is different from Intel who prefer to tie you into an all Intel hardware or no Intel hardware contract, ARM is happy if their chips co-exist with others on a device; they just want a chip in there.  As The Register points out, this flexibility as well as the release of an ARM compatible version of Windows 8 could make the coming years rather interesting.

"ARM, the eponymous designer of the chip architecture, had a stonking 2011 with revenue and profits up as it tightened its hold on both embedded and generic computing.

Revenue for the last quarter of 2011 was up by more than 20 per cent on the previous year, to £137.8m, while profit before tax jumped more than twice that percentage to £69m. For the whole of 2011 the numbers are very similar, revenue hitting £491.8m ($773m) and profit topping £229.7m ($362m), rather better than analysts had predicted."

Here is some more Tech News from around the web:

Tech Talk

• Radeon HD 7950 launches, beats GTX 580; HD 7990 and 7870 launch date leaked @ ExtremeTech
• SeaMicro packs 2TB of DRAM into a 10U @ SemiAccurate
• Microsoft ditches plug-ins for Internet Explorer 10 in Metro @ The Register
• AMD Leo DirectX 11 Demo Released @ NGOHQ
• Using Google documents as a web proxy @ Hack a Day
• Win a Dell XPS with OC3D & Dell Outlet

MSI Announces 7950 Twin Frozr III Graphics Cards

Subject: Graphics Cards | January 31, 2012 - 05:48 PM | Tim Verry
Tagged: msi, HD7950, hd 7950, graphics cards, gpu, amd

MSI today officially announced their new Radeon HD 7950 graphics cards with Twin Frozr III coolers. Specifically, the new cards are part of the "R7950 Twin Frozr 3GD5/OC" series. The new Twin Frozr III cooler features a nickel plated block, two 8mm Superpipes (heatpipes), and dual 80mm propeller blade fans that, according to MSI, delivers up to 10 degrees Celsius lower GPU temperatures versus reference coolers. Further, the dark gray Twin Frozr III cooler reduces noise by 13.7dB by using two slower spinning fans versus the single reference design fan spinning twice or more as fast. This extra bit of overclocking headroom has allowed MSI to claim a large "core and memory voltage potential providing up to 37.5% overclockability" Just like the company's motherboards, they are advertising the new graphics cards as being built with Hi-c CAP Super Ferrite Choke and solid capacitors that pass MIL-STD-810G testing. Based on the AMD 28nm Radeon HD 7950 reference design, the card supports the PCI Express 3.0 interface.  Also, the card features 1 DVI, 1 HDMI, and two Mini-DisplayPort video outputs.

Further specifications include 3 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 384 bit bus, a core clock speed of 880 MHz, and memory clock of 5,200 MHz (effective, 1,300 MHz base). The card itself measures 261mm x 111mm x 38mm, (just under 10.3") which means that it should fit comfortably inside most Mid Tower (or larger) cases. While the 80 MHz increase in GPU clock speed over the reference design is not saying much, the cards themselves should have plenty of overclocking headroom beyond what MSI does at the factory. In our review of the AMD Radeon HD 7950 graphics card with reference cooler we achieved a nice 1050 MHz clock speed, and the "Supa-pipe" (as Josh likes to say) powered Twin Frozr III 7950 cards should be able to go even further beyond that, specific GPU permitting of course.

In addition to the new Twin Frozr III cooler powered cards, MSI is releasing a version of the Radeon 7950 with a reference design cooler and another Radeon 7970 card with a reference cooler to provide gamers with plenty of alternative options. Unfortunately, there is no word (yet) on pricing or availability.  The Twin Frozr III version of the 7950 sure looks a lot cooler, so it will be interesting to see if it actually keeps the GPU cooler (heh).

Faster than a speeding GTX 580; the HD7950 arrives

Subject: Graphics Cards | January 31, 2012 - 05:22 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: tahiti, southern islands, radeon, pcie 3.0, HD 7970, hd 7950, dx 11.1, amd, 28nm

A smattering of reviews of the newly released HD7950 have arrived to the web as the card that many enthusiasts have been waiting for finally arrives.  The card does not differ significantly from the HD7970 with 1,792 Stream Processors down from 2,048, 112 Texture Units versus 128, a core clock 125MHz lower at 800MHz and 5GHz effective on memory versus 5.5GHz for the HD7970.  Apart from those changes it is still the same silicon and the same 4.31 billion transistors which raises hopes that a similar BIOS mod to the one which allowed you to turn some HD6950s into HD6970s will exist for this card as well.  [H]ard|OCP's testing shows the card to be better than a GTX580 but not enough to be an upgrade for current owners of that card but anyone with the ~$450 and an older card would do well to consider this car.

You can also see Ryan's take on this card alone as well as how it scales in CrossFire in our review here.

"The new Radeon HD 7950 marks the launch of AMD's more affordable Radeon HD 7900 series GPU. The Radeon HD 7950 is priced to compete with the GeForce GTX 580. We'll look at performance in comparison to several video cards in single-GPU, dual-GPU CrossFireX, Eyefinity, and Overclocking to see where it truly lands."

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

Graphics Cards

• AMD's Radeon HD 7950 @ The Tech Report
• AMD Radeon HD 7950 Review Feat. Sapphire & XFX: Sewing Up The High-End Market @ AnandTech
• XFX Radeon HD 7950 Black Edition Overclocked 3GB Graphics Card Video Review @ eTeknix
• XFX Radeon R7950 Black Edition Video Card @ Benchmark Reviews
• XFX & Sapphire HD 7950 3GB Review @ OCC
• XFX Radeon HD 7950 Black Edition Double Dissipation 3GB @ Tweaktown
• Sapphire 7950 Overclocked Edition Video Card Review @ Techwarelabs
• Sapphire HD 7950 OC @ Modders-Inc
• AMD Radeon HD 7950 & XFX R7950 Black Edition Video Card Review @ Legit Reviews
• PowerColor, Sapphire, XFX HD 7950 Review @ Neoseeker
• AMD Radeon HD 7950 Launch Review @ Neoseeker
• Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 3GB DDR5 Overclocked Version DX11.1 Video Card Review @ Hi Tech Legion
• Powercolor HD 7950 PCS+ @ Overclockers.com
• AMD Radeon HD 7950 Video Card Review @ Hardware Secrets
• Sapphire HD7950 Overclock Edition @ OC3D
• AMD Radeon HD 7950 Launch Articles @ HardwareHeaven
• XFX HD 7950 Black Edition Double Dissipation Review @ Hardware Canucks
• Sapphire HD 7950 Dual Fan OC Review @ Hardware Canucks
• AMD Radeon HD 7950 Review; Tahiti Pro Arrives @ Hardware Canucks
• XFX HD7950 Black Edition Overlocked @ Kitguru
• PowerColor HD 7950 PCS+ 3 GB @ techPowerUp
• XFX R7950 Black Edition @ OC3D
• HIS HD7950 @ Kitguru
• AMD Radeon HD 7950 3 GB @ techPowerUp
• HIS HD7950 @ OC3D
• XFX Radeon HD 7950 Black Edition Overclocked 3GB Graphics Card Review @ eTeknix
• HIS Radeon HD 7950 @ Guru of 3D
• PowerColor Radeon HD 7950 PCS+ @ Guru of 3D
  

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• Radeon HD 7950 Crossfire review 2 and 3-way @ Guru of 3D
• AMD Radeon HD 7950 CrossFire @ techPowerUp
• Sapphire HD7950 Overlock Edition Crossfire @ Kitguru
• Overkill 3D - HD7950 Quadfire @ OC3D
  

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• XFX HD 7970 Black Edition Double Dissipation 3 GB Review @ OCC
• The Radeon HD 7970 Reprise: PCIe Bandwidth, Overclocking, & The State Of Anti-Aliasing @ AnandTech
• Catalyst 12.1 Windows 7 Driver Analysis @ Tweaktown
• Desktop Graphics Card Comparison Guide @ TechARP
• Deepcool Gamer Storm Dracula VGA Cooler Review @ Hardware Secrets
• Swiftech Apogee HD Water Block Review @ OCIA
• Galaxy MDT GeForce GT 520 Review: Quad-Display Budget Card @ Techspot