CES 2013 Video: ASUS RAIDR Express PCIe SSD and ARES II Dual HD 7970 Graphics Card

Subject: Graphics Cards, Storage, Shows and Expos | January 8, 2013 - 01:07 AM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: raidr express, ces 2013, CES, ASUS ROG, asus, ARES II

No stop at the ASUS suite at CES is complete without talking to JJ and learning about what is new in the world of PC components.  Not only did we talk with him about the upcoming ARES II limited edition dual Radeon HD 7970 graphics card (that Chris has already written about earlier in the day) but also we learned that ASUS plans to enter the PCIe solid state market with the ROG RAIDR Express. 

Yeah, you read that right!

PC Perspective's CES 2013 coverage is sponsored by AMD.

Follow all of our coverage of the show at http://pcper.com/ces!

CES 2013: Live Hands-on with NVIDIA Shield Powered by Tegra 4

Subject: General Tech, Graphics Cards, Mobile | January 8, 2013 - 12:54 AM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: video, tegra 4, shield, nvidia, live

Powered by the upcoming Tegra 4 SoC, Shield is an Android-powered device built into the form of a gaming controller with a 5-in display attached.  Not only will it play Android games in a new and interesting way but NVIDIA has promised the ability to stream PC games from your GeForce-powered desktop directly to your wireless device!

We got our hands on the prototypes of the Shield and got to see the build quality, demo the Android games and even test out the PC game streaming technology.

PC Perspective's CES 2013 coverage is sponsored by AMD.

Follow all of our coverage of the show at http://pcper.com/ces!

Speeding up USB 3.0 with new hardware

Subject: Graphics Cards | January 7, 2013 - 03:59 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: usb 3.0, superspeed usb, 10 Gbps

USB 3.0 will be getting a speed boost in the near future, with theoretical speeds of up to 10Gbps which makes it a decent competitor against Thunderbolt.  We won't see this new speed on existing devices though as this is a change to the hardware on both the connector and the cable, as opposed to a software upgrade.  They will retain their backwards compatibility for those who are still stuck on USB 2.0, but with transfer speeds this quick it makes a very compelling argument for finally upgrading to a system with USB 3.0 ... just wait until the new devices arrive.  More at Slashdot.

"The USB 3.0 Promoter Group has used CES 2013 to announce an enhancement to the USB 3.0 (aka SuperSpeed USB) standard that will see the throughput performance of USB 3.0 double from 5 Gbps to 10 Gbps. The speed boost will come courtesy of enhanced USB connectors and cables that are fully backward compatible with existing USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 devices. The 10 Gbps SuperSpeed USB update (pdf) is up for industry review during the first quarter of 2013, with completion of the standard expected by the middle of the year."

Here is some more Tech News from around the web:

Tech Talk

• The TR Podcast 126: As the second turns, an unexpected journey @ The Tech Report
• CES 2013 - CES Unveiled Media Kickoff Event Coverage @ Legit Reviews
• Nouveau Driver Remains Much Slower Than NVIDIA's Official Driver @ Phoronix
• Nvidia Unveils Tegra 4 and More @ Bjorn3D
• Swann OutbackCam Review – Waterproof Infrared Security @ Techgage

ASUS Releases the Limited Edition ROG ARES II Dual 7970 and it's a Monster

Subject: Graphics Cards | January 7, 2013 - 03:07 PM | Chris Barbere
Tagged: ROG ARES II, liquid cooling, dual gpu, ces 2013, CES, asus, 7970

ASUS has just announced it's Limited Edition ROG ARES II Graphics card, and boy is it a doozy!

Dual AMD Radeon 7970 GPU's clocked at 1100 MHz are paired with 6 GB of DDR5 running at a speedy 1650 MHz memory clock.  This monster needs 3 8 Pin power connectors from the minimum recommended 850 watt power supply that can push at least 42 Amps on the 12V rail.

The ARES II will come with a 'hybrid cooling setup' that includes a custom cooler using both liquid and air cooling.  A closed-cycle liquid system with dual 120 mm fans and a radiator block cool the GPU while an 80mm 'dust-proof' fan gives additional cooling for the memory, power and other critical components.  ASUS is claiming that the cooling setup will keep everything stable even under full load and can achieve 13% more performance while running 30C cooler temperatures when compared to a reference GTX 690.

Detailed Specifications include:

Ryan was able to snap a few pics of the card at the ASUS booth and we can't wait to get our hands on it, but with pricing and availability yet to be announced, this may be a card out of reach of most of us.

PC Perspective's CES 2013 coverage is sponsored by AMD.

Follow all of our coverage of the show at http://pcper.com/ces!

CES 2013: Tegra 4, the Vision of Windows RT?

Subject: General Tech, Graphics Cards, Mobile, Shows and Expos | January 7, 2013 - 12:42 PM | Scott Michaud
Tagged: CES, ces 2013, nvidia, windows rt

It is the day after the NVIDIA keynote and the Tegra 4 floodgates are open. Sure, the rumors were fairly accurate, but I guess speculation waits for a solid basis to be believable.

The Tegra 4 marries 72 of the expected GPU cores with four… “plus one” as the bonus core is present although 4+1 branding does not seem to be… ARM Cortex-A15 cores. This push to an A15-based design provides a significant performance increase over Tegra 3. Another interesting feature is the ability to transmit 4K video should you have a suitable source or the rendered application can support 4K at a suitable framerate. You can then add in Icera’s LTE modem which is interesting in its own right to see a compelling product.

Jen-Hsun spent about as much time justifying the need for speed as he did hyping its performance. Photographers, particularly those who wish to dabble with HDR, are able to use the Tegra 4 to vastly increase the speed of image processing at the time of taking the shot. Tonal mapping for an HDR image will take just 200ms of processing which allows HDR to be used along with burst mode and a flash.

Paul Thurrott over at the Supersite for Windows ponders whether this was Microsoft’s vision for Windows RT. He wonders whether Microsoft will try to take a mulligan on the first generation similar to Windows Phone 7-based devices led us to Windows Phone 8. At the same point, the weight which the Surface was designed to bare is pretty immense if it was just designed to buckle to Tegra 4. I would not put it past Microsoft although the Surface does not strike me as a product designed to have a doughy half-baked middle -- despite what actually shipped.

PC World also notes how Qualcomm continues to improve their products and have just recently transitioned to a 28nm process for the Snapdragon S4. Qualcomm is a giant and even then there is also Samsung to contend with in the ARM space -- then you consider x86 brings at least Intel to the game with its massive advantage in legacy software that are usually not abstracted by a platform-independent runtime layer.

PC Perspective's CES 2013 coverage is sponsored by AMD.

Follow all of our coverage of the show at http://pcper.com/ces!

CES 2013: NVIDIA Grid to Fight Gaikai and OnLive?

Subject: Editorial, General Tech, Graphics Cards, Systems, Mobile, Shows and Expos | January 7, 2013 - 01:07 AM | Scott Michaud
Tagged: CES, ces 2013, nvidia

The second act of the NVIDIA keynote speech re-announced their Grid cloud-based gaming product first mentioned back in May during GTC. You have probably heard of its competitors, Gaikai and OnLive. The mission of these services is to have all of the gaming computation done in a server somewhere and allow the gamer to log in and just play.

The NVIDIA Grid is their product top-to-bottom. Even the interface was created by NVIDIA and, as they laud, rendered server-side using the Grid. It was demonstrated to stream to an LG smart TV directly or Android tablets. A rack will contain 20 servers with 240 GPUs with a total of 200 Teraflops of computational power. Each server will initially be able to support 24 players, which is interesting, given the last year of NVIDIA announcements.

Last year, during the GK110 announcement, Kepler was announced to support hundreds of clients to access a single server for professional applications. It seems only natural that Grid would benefit from that advancement: but it apparently does not. With a limit of 24 players per box, equating to a maximum of two players per GPU, it seems odd that a limit would be in place. The benefit of stacking multiple players per GPU is that you can achieve better-than-linear scaling in the long-tail of games.

Then again, all they need to do is solve the scaling problem before they have a problem with scaling their service.

PC Perspective's CES 2013 coverage is sponsored by AMD.

Follow all of our coverage of the show at http://pcper.com/ces!

Brace Yourself: The PC Perspective CES 2013 Coverage is Coming!

Subject: Graphics Cards, Networking, Motherboards, Cases and Cooling, Processors, Systems, Storage, Mobile, Shows and Expos | January 5, 2013 - 10:47 AM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: CES, ces 2013, pcper

It's that time of year - the staff at PC Perspective is loaded up and either already here in Las Vegas, on their way to Las Vegas or studiously sitting at their desk at home - for the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show!  I know you are on our site looking for all the latest computer hardware news from the show and we will have it.  The best place to keep checking is our CES landing page at http://pcper.com/ces.  The home page will work too. 

We'll have stories covering companies like, Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, Zotac, Sapphire, Galaxy, EVGA, Lucid, OCZ, Western Digital, Corsair and many many more that I don't feel like listing here.  It all starts Sunday with CES Unveiled and then the NVIDIA Press Conference where they will announce...something.

Also, don't forget to subscribe to the PC Perspective Podcast as we will be bringing you daily podcasts wrapping up each day.  We are also going to try to LIVE stream them on our PC Perspective Live! page but times and bandwidth will vary.

PC Perspective's CES 2013 coverage is sponsored by AMD.

Follow all of our coverage of the show at http://pcper.com/ces!

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 SE Information Comes Out

Subject: Graphics Cards | January 4, 2013 - 09:10 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: nvidia, kepler, gk106, gtx 660 se

Are you ready for another entry to the confusing graphics market?  NVIDIA has you covered with the upcoming GeForce GTX 660 SE that will target the $180-200 market and hit the AMD Radeon HD 7870 1GB square in the jaw.  With the current lineup of GeForce cards that is the one area where NVIDIA is at an obvious disadvantage with the gap between the GTX 650 Ti and the GTX 660. 

As is usually the case, when a new graphics card is ready to hit the market, leaks occur in all directions.  Already we are seeing screenshots of specifications and benchmarks from PCEVA.  If the rumors are right you'll see the GTX 660 SE released in Q1 of 2013 with 768 CUDA cores, 24 ROPs and a 192-bit memory bus.  Interestingly, the GTX 660 SE will be based on GK106 and has the same core count as the GTX 650 Ti...the performance differences will be seen going from the 128-bit memory bus to 192-bit.  

Current GPU-Z screenshots are showing a clock speed of 928 MHz with a Boost clock of 1006 MHz, running just about the same clock rates as the GTX 650 Ti (though the 650 series does not have GPU Boost technology enabled).  It also looks like the GTX 660 SE will use GDDR5 memory running 5.6 GHz and a 2GB capacity. 

With CES just around the corner (we are leaving in the morning!) we will ask around and see if anyone has more information about a solid price point and time frame for release!

AMD Has Lots to DisplayPort at CES 2013

Subject: General Tech, Graphics Cards, Displays | January 3, 2013 - 07:32 PM | Scott Michaud
Tagged: ces 2013, CES, DisplayPort, amd

It has been several months since we first heard about AMD’s multi-stream transport hub -- its friends call it MST hub -- announced with the FirePro W600 last June. Since then news has been pretty quiet about the 1-to-4 DisplayPort device.

It turns out that AMD wants to roll the dice in Vegas along with several other demonstrations.

Image from Rage3D Forums

The cute feature for the MST is its ability to split a 4K image into four 2K monitors. The reason why this is cute is because the hub enables the user to plug four-times as many monitors as they have DisplayPort 1.2 sockets on their GPU. The W600, for instance, contains 6 DisplayPort 1.2 plugs which enable it to drive 24 separate monitors from a single-slot card.

Image from Rage3D Forums

Unfortunately, another feature of DisplayPort 1.2 is the ability to route sound uniquely to each display. The hub, as announced in June, is incapable of providing audio from its one input to its four displays.

A last goodie is the capacity to mix landscape and portrait monitors together in an Eyefinity setup. Stay tuned for our impending CES 2013 coverage for more details on these demos.

PC Perspective's CES 2013 coverage is sponsored by AMD.

Follow all of our coverage of the show at http://pcper.com/ces!

Meet Tahiti LE, the new 7870 MYST Edition

Subject: Graphics Cards | January 2, 2013 - 04:08 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: powercolor, 7870 LE, MYST edition, tahiti LE, amd

The 7870 Limited Edition is a bit of an odd duck when you compare it to a stock 7870GHz Edition; it has 1536 stream processors as opposed to 1280 on the stock card, the base clock of 925MHz (975MHz Boost Clock) is slower than the 1GHz but the RAM is clocked even higher than a 7950 at 6GHz.  [H]ard|OCP wanted to see just how these tweaks effected the performance of the card, both at stock speeds and at their highest stable overclock of 1.2GHz GPU and 6.2GHz VRAM.  Check out the performance results to see if this card can approach the HD7950's power.

"PowerColor has released a new graphics card based on the new AMD "Tahiti" 7870 LE core. We will investigate whether it is a worthy Limited Edition or simply a Lame Edition by comparing it to a Radeon HD 7870 GHz edition and a GTX 660 Ti with comparisons also to an HD 7950. Will this card be a deal, or a dud? You may be surprised."

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

Graphics Cards

• AMD Radeon HD 8790M Video Card Preview @ Legit Reviews
• PowerColor PCS+ Radeon HD 7870 (Tahiti LE) 2GB Myst @ Tweaktown
• HIS Radeon HD 7850 IceQ Turbo 2GB Review @ Custom PC Review
• HIS Radeon HD 7950 3GB IceQ X2 Overclocked @ Tweaktown
• VTX3D HD7990 @ Kitguru
• ASUS HD 7970 DirectCU II Review @ OCC
• HIS Radeon HD 7850 2GB IceQ Turbo Video Cards in CrossFire @ Tweaktown
• Graphics cards in Windows 8 and DirectX 11.1: more efficient with better performance @ Hardware.info
• Arctic Cooling Accelero Hybrid VGA Cooler Review: Not For the Faint of Heart @ AnandTech
• Water and Air for a Graphics Card: ARCTIC Accelero Hybrid Cooling System @ X-bit Labs
• Nouveau NVIDIA Driver Can Be Faster With Linux 3.8 @ Phoronix

Phoronix on OpenCL Driver Optimization, NVIDIA vs. AMD

Subject: Editorial, General Tech, Graphics Cards | December 28, 2012 - 02:43 AM | Scott Michaud
Tagged: opencl, nvidia, amd

The GPU is slowly becoming the parallel processing complement to your branching logic-adept CPU. Developers have been slow to adopt this new technology but that does not hinder the hardware manufacturers from putting on a kettle of tea for when guests arrive.

While the transition to GPGPU is slower than I am sure many would like, developers are rarely quick on the uptake of new technologies. The Xbox 360 was one of the first platforms where unified shaders became mandatory and early developers avoided them by offloading vertex code to the CPU. On that note: how much software still gets released without multicore support?

Phoronix, practically the arbiter of all Linux news, decided to put several GPU drivers and their manufacturers to the test. AMD was up first and their results showed a pretty sizeable jump in performance at around October of this year through most of their tests. The article on NVIDIA arrived two days later and saw performance trended basically nowhere since February with the 295.20 release.

A key piece of information is that both benchmarks were performed with last generation GPUs: the GTX 460 on the NVIDIA side, with the 6950 holding AMD’s flag. You might note that 295.20 was the last tested driver to be released prior to the launch of Kepler.

These results seem to suggest that upon the launch of Kepler, NVIDIA did practically zero optimizations to their older "Fermi" architecture at least as far as these Linux OpenCL benchmarks are concerned. On the AMD side, it seems as though they are more willing to go back and advance the performance of their prior generation as they release new driver versions.

There are very few instances where AMD beats out NVIDIA in terms of driver support -- it is often a selling point for the jolly green giant -- but this appears to be a definite win for AMD.

Win a Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 2GB GHz Edition FleX Graphics Card!

Subject: Editorial, Graphics Cards | December 19, 2012 - 06:56 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: video, sweepstakes, sapphire, never settle, giveaway, contest, amd

Remember those really cool game streams we hosted with AMD on Medal of Honor Warfighter, Hitman: Absolution and Far Cry 3?  Well can you believe that one of the winners from our Far Cry 3 event hasn't replied to our request for a shipping address which means only one thing:

We have an extra Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition FleX graphics card to hand out!

Lucky you!  Since it is the holiday season, we wanted to make this EASY for you.  Here is how you enter:

• First entry: Leave a comment in this very news post!
• Second entry: Subscribe to our YouTube channel (http://youtube.com/pcper) and leave a comment on this video on YouTube!
• Wait patiently.

We'll randomly pick a winner from anywhere in the world to get this kick ass prize on December 26th, so you'll have something to look forward to on the day after Christmas.

Good luck to all of you and our most heartfelt thanks to AMD, Sapphire and of course the fans of PC Perspective for a great 2012!!

AMD Announces Mobility 8000M Graphics Family with Modified Architecture

Subject: Graphics Cards, Mobile | December 17, 2012 - 03:08 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: radeon, mobility, amd, 8800m, 8700m, 8600m, 8500m, 8000m

AMD appears to be jumping the gun a bit here but has decided to announce the Radeon 8000M-series of mobile GPUs prior to CES.  Before you get all riled up about the next generation of graphics technology, you should know that the new parts we are showing here are still built on the same 28nm Graphics Core Now (GCN) architecture that you'll find in the Radeon HD 7000 series of desktop graphics cards and even some already-existing Radeon mobility parts like the HD 7970M.  We were told there are "some changes" but details were minimal.

Radeon HD 8500M and 8600M GPUs will both feature 384 stream processors with the variance related to the maximum clock speed.  The 8600M will hit 775 MHz core clock while the 8500M will cap out at 650 MHz.  Memory speeds are identical.  Keep in mind that the desktop Radeon HD 7750 card has 512 stream processors and it runs at up to 900 MHz so you that can put the performance of these mainstream GPUs in perspective.

The 8700M uses the same 384 stream processor GPU though it gets a bit higher clock speed at 850 MHz.  The 8800M is the only GPU announced today to increase the core count to 640 stream processors and a clock speed of 700 MHz for a total compute capability of 992 GFLOPs.  Though the specifications are nearly equivalent to the build of the desktop Radeon HD 7770 part it is worth mentioning that the theoretical peak performance of that GPU is 1.28 TFLOPs; nearly 30% higher than the 8800M.

AMD was coy but hinted that this mainstream product announcement will be added to later in Q1 with higher end enthusiast-level SKUs.  No 8900s yet guys, check back later.

When asked about the changes in this mobility GPU release compared to the 7000M series already available today, we only know that this is built on the same 28nm process but that the "architecture is slightly different and more efficient" than the 7000 chips.  These are NEW chips and are NOT rebrands of currently available products.  We don't have die sizes, transistor counts or TDPs until further notice.

AMD did provide a couple of quick graphs comparing the performance of the Radeon HD 8870M against the GeForce 650M G5 and The 8770M against its own previously releaesd 7670M part.  Take all of this with a grain of salt until we can do our own testing, as per usual.

For now, I would say our readers should be very timid about the idea of a new series of GPUs from AMD without more information on the actual changes in performance will be compared to Souther Islands.  Based on what we are hearing the changes are very minor.

Lucid Virtu MVP 2.0 Coming Soon and Will Be Sold Directly to Consumers

Subject: General Tech, Graphics Cards, Processors | December 14, 2012 - 05:07 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: virtu MVP, virtu, lucid, ces 2013, CES

In preparation for the upcoming CES 2013 show in January we have started having some pre-meeting discussions with various companies, one of which was Lucid.  While speaking with them we learned some interesting news about the upcoming v2.0 release of their Virtu MVP software including new features and a new availability option.

Lucid's Virtu MVP software is the technology that allows DIY PC builders and notebook vendors to easily accommodate utilization of both integrated and discrete graphics in a single system without the need to adjust settings or to move monitor cables around.  With Virtu MVP you can take advantage of the QuickSync technology of your Ivy Bridge processor but still utilize the performance of a discrete graphics card for gaming.  This can all be managed and handled on a single display with a single cable. 

Other additions like Virtual Vsync and HyperFormance were added in MVP and aim to improve the gaming experience in the same way that Virtu enhances the overall user experience.  And while Matt Smith liked the results from the software in his recent testing with an Origin laptop, there were a couple things that bugged us: the interface and the inability to get the software on your own.

Next month Lucid will be launching the new version 2.0 of its software that should increase the responsiveness of the interface while also drastically improving the visuals and style.  Also included will be native Windows 8 support.

Perhaps the most interesting news is that Lucid will soon start offering the software directly to consumers as a download instead of requiring that you get it from your motherboard or system vendor.  This is great news for users that have purchased motherboards without Virtu software and those of you that might want to buy a really low cost board that would lack those features as well.  You will apparently be able to buy it in Q1 from www.lucidlogix.com and the price should be "under $30" which likely indicates a $29.99 starting offer. 

What we don't know is how this will affect Lucid's motherboard partners - will they stop carrying the software as a bundle going forward or will they still offer it on select SKUs?  Lucid wouldn't divulge any of that yet but I assume we'll find out more at CES next month.

PCPer Live! Far Cry 3 Game Stream - Win Games and Graphics Cards!

Subject: Graphics Cards | December 5, 2012 - 04:47 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: video, tahiti, radeon, never settle, live, far cry 3, amd

UPDATE: If you missed the live stream you can watch the replay embedded right here!  Tune in to see some Far Cry 3 action as well learn about some of the technology that Ubisoft has included in the title!

On December 4th on the PC Perspective Live! page we will be streaming some single player game action of the new Far Cry 3.  Far Cry has long been a franchise that includes great gameplay and never before seen graphics technology and the third installment looks to follow that trend!  Early previews of the game have been very exciting!

Far Cry 3 Game Stream

5pm PT / 8pm ET - December 4th

PC Perspective Live! Page

Warning: this one will DEFINITELY have mature language and content!!

The stream will be sponsored by AMD and its Never Settle game bundles which we previously told you about.  Depending on the AMD Radeon HD 7000 series GPU that you buy this holiday season you could get as much as $170 in gaming content including:

• FREE Sleeping Dogs
• FREE Hitman: Absolution
• FREE Far Cry 3
• 20% off Medal of Honor Warfighter

AMD's Robert Hallock (@Thracks on twitter) will be joining us via Skype to talk about the game's technology, performance considerations as well as helping me with some co-op gaming!

Of course, just to sweeten the deal a bit we have some prizes lined up for those of you that participate in our Far Cry 3 Game Stream:

• 2 x Sapphire FleX HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB (!!)
• 3 x Complete Never Settle Bundles (Sleeping Dogs, Hitman, Far Cry 3, 20% Off MoH)
• 5 x Sleeping Dogs keys
• 5 x Hitman: Absolution keys
• 5 x Far Cry 3 keys

Pretty nice, huh?  That's a LOT of games (as well as some Radeon graphics cards) and all you have to do to win is be present on the PC Perspective Live! Page during the event as we will announce both the content/sweepstakes method AND the winners!

Stop in on December 4th for some PC gaming fun!!

AMD Never Settle Sweepstakes Part 3: ASUS HD 7970 DirectCU II for FREE!

Subject: Graphics Cards | December 5, 2012 - 01:53 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: never settle, HD 7970, asus, amd

UPDATE: We have selected a winner for this contest!  If you didn't get an email from me on it, then better luck next time.  We'll have more contests coming up very soon at PC Perspective!!

AMD is really excited about its Never Settle campaign and the bundle packages it has built for the holiday season.  PC gamers looking for an uprade will defintely want to read up on the special promotion but we have another surprise for you as well - A FREE GRAPHICS CARD!

AMD and ASUS are partnering up with PC Perspective to hand out an ASUS HD 7970 DirectCT II graphics card, perfect for gaming on your PC!

Not only do you get the card in this sweet contest but you'll get the same software bundle as if you had purchased them at retail.

That means a 20% off coupon for Medal of Honor Warfighter, a FREE copy of Far Cry 3, a FREE copy of Hitman: Absolution and a FREE copy of Sleeping Dogs! 

What do you have to do to enter to win this hardware?  It couldn't be easier:

1. Visit your favorite PC Perspective pages like our YouTube channel, Facebook page and Twitter account.  You should subscribe, like and follow us, you know...if you want to.  We'd appreciate it!
2. Check out the AMD Never Settle page to read up on the bundle and special offers they are running right now!
3. Leave a comment here on this post!

That's it - we love our fans so we want to make sure everyone gets a chance to win some free stuff!  Sorry though, North American readers only on this one!

We will close the contest on Wednesday December 12rd at 1pm EST or so - so get your entries in!  Thanks again for being a fan of PC Perspective, thanks to AMD for the great prizes and stay tuned for MORE contests and giveaways in the coming days!

AMD Radeon HD 8990 Rumored for 2013 Launch

Subject: Graphics Cards | December 4, 2012 - 04:41 PM | Tim Verry
Tagged: venus, Sea Islands, radeon hd 8990, hd 8990, dual gpu, 28nm

Earlier this year rumored specifications for AMD’s upcoming HD 8000-series graphics cards leaked to the Internet. Details on the 8800 and 8900 series cards have since been revealed along with rumored/estimated clock speeds and pricing. One card that has, until now, remained an unknown is the dual-GPU Radeon HD 8990, however.

The existence of a dual GPU Sea Islands card has been especially suspect as a result of the ever-elusive Radeon 7990 and its almost-certain cancellation in an official AMD-branded form. On the other hand, a road map leaked by BitDreams.se and discovered by Maximum PC seems to suggest that an HD 8990 is at least being considered.

The Radeon HD 8990 follows the dual GPU traditions of its predecessors by combining two 8970 GPUs onto a single PCB. That means, if the previously leaked 8970 specifications hold true, the 8990 graphics card will have 5,120 stream processors, 320 texture units, 96 ROPs, and a 384-bit memory bus for each GPU. The card will have between 6 and 12GB of GDDR5 memory (3GB-6GB per GPU). The dual GPU card will have a maximum TDP of 375W and will come with slightly lower GPU core and memory clockspeeds compared to two individual 8970 cards. The GPU will be clocked at 950MHz and the memory will be clocked at 1250MHz. The single GPU Radeon 8970 will come clocked at 1050MHz core and 1500MHz memory, however.

The dual gpu 8990 card, as well as the rest of the 8000 series will support DirectX 11, Shader Model 5.0, and OpenGL 4.2. Bit Dreams lists the maximum single and double precision performance at 10.2 and 3 TFLOPS respectively, making this a rather powerful card that is not quite the same performance as two 8970s but will take up less space. Interestingly, the card would be noticeably faster than AMD’s FirePro S10000 card (essentially two 7950 gpus) at 1.48 TF double precision and 5.91 TF single precision. That would suggest that Venus is much more efficient than Tahiti, if the numbers turn out to be true.

The card will allegedly be released sometime in the second quarter of 2013 (Q2’13). Pricing is likely to be around $1,000 but so far pricing information has not leaked. Even taking these numbers with a spoon of salt, a dual GPU 8000 series card is sure to be welcome by enthusiasts. Here’s hoping it ends up being released (unlike the 7990) and is as fast as it’s rumored to be!

How much horsepower do you need to BLOPS2 properly?

Subject: Graphics Cards | December 3, 2012 - 02:02 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: nvidia, call of duty, black ops 2, amd

[H]ard|OCP set out to determine how well AMD and NVIDIA's cards can deal with the new Call of Duty game.  To do so they took a system built on a GIGABYTE Z77X-UP4-TH, a Core i7 2600k @ 4.8GHz, and 8GB of Corsair RAM and then tested a HD7970, 7950 and 7870 as well as a GTX680, 670 and 660Ti.  There is good news for both graphics companies and gamers, the HD7870 was the slowest card and still managed great performance on maximum settings @ 2560x1600 with 8X MSAA and FXAA.  For the absolute best performance it is NVIDIA's GTX680 that is your go to card though since this is a console port, albeit one that [H] describes as well implemented, don't expect to be blown away by the quality of the graphics.

"Call of Duty: Black Ops II is the first Call of Duty game on PC to support DX11 and new graphical features. Hopefully improvements to the IW Engine will be enough to boost the CoD franchise near the top graphics-wise. We also examine NVIDIA's TXAA technology which combines shader based antialiasing and traditional multisampling AA."

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

Graphics Cards

• Far Cry 3 VGA Graphics Benchmark performance test @ Guru of 3D
• A brief history of video cards: 64 GPUs tested from the last five years @ Hardwaare.Info
• Gigabyte GeForce GTX 680 Super Overclock Graphics Card with WindForce 5X Cooling System @ X-bit Labs
• ASUS GeForce GTX 680 2GB DirectCU II Review @ circuitREMIX
• GIGABYTE Geforce GTX 670 (2GB) WINDFORCE 3X Video Card Review @circuitREMIX
• Four passive graphics cards review: 100% quiet @ Hardware.Info
• The Best Graphics Cards: AMD and Nvidia GPU Comparison with Latest Drivers @ Techspot
• NVIDIA Publishes Open-Source 2D Driver Code @ Phoronix
• 8-Way NVIDIA Nouveau GPU Comparison @ Phoronix
• 12-Way Radeon Gallium3D GPU Comparison @ Phoronix
• AMD Catalyst vs. Open-Source Gallium3D Driver Performance @ Phoronix
• HIS Radeon HD 7950 IceQ X Boost 3 GB @ techPowerUp
• Club3D HD7970 RoyalAce Graphics Card @ Kitguru