NVIDIA is obviously particularly proud of its new GeForce GTX 560 Ti GPU – it suggests it “pwns the gamer’s sweet spot” in the press release – and at first glance the Fermi-based video card does have plenty going for it. Eight tessellation engines, a total of 384 CUDA cores, DirectX 11 support and a 52.5 billion/sec texture fill rate add up to a card 33-percent faster than the GeForce GTX 460 and up to 65-percent faster than AMD’s Radeon HD 6870.
In fact, NVIDIA reckons the GeForce GTX 560 Ti is up to 46-percent faster than the significantly more expensive AMD Radeon HD 6950, something we can’t see their rivals being particularly pleased about. That’s at the core 822MHz clock speed, too; NVIDIA expects some manufacturers to overclock the GTX 560 Ti to 1GHz for even more performance.
There’s also 3D Vision and NVIDIA Surround support, PhysX, Realtime Ray Tracing and, as standard, a pair of Dual-Link DVI ports and a Mini DisplayPort output. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti will start showing up in cards from ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI and more from today, priced at around $249.
Press Release:
The New NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti GPU Pwns the Gamer’s Sweet Spot
With 8 tessellation engines delivering a stunning amount of performance for today’s newest DX11 games, the GTX 560 Ti brings a new level of performance to PC gaming platforms, and well as super quiet acoustics and support for 3D Vision, PhysX, and SLI technologies, advanced features provided only by NVIDIA GeForce GTX GPUs.
SANTA CLARA, CA — (Marketwire) — 01/25/2011 — Last summer, NVIDIA astounded gamers with the introduction of the GeForce® GTX 460 GPU, which editors called “an incredible value”(i). Flash forward 5 months later, and NVIDIA is set to do it again with the immediate availability of the new GeForce GTX 560 Ti GPU. With average performance that is 33% faster(ii), overclocking headroom that is off the charts, and a performance per watt that puts competitive products to shame, the GeForce GTX 560 Ti is further proof as to why GeForce GTX GPUs are favored by PC gamers worldwide.
The GeForce GTX 560 Ti is the newest addition of the Company’s “Fermi” line of consumer GPUs that were designed to deliver stunning DirectX 11 (DX11) performance for PC gaming platforms. The GeForce GTX 560 Ti brings a new level of DX11 price/performance to the performance PC gaming market while maintaining super quiet acoustics and minimal power requirements.
Like all NVIDIA “DX11 Done Right” GPUs, the GTX 560 Ti delivers the world’s fastest performance for DX11 games in its class. When compared to the closest competitive product, the GTX 560 Ti is up to 65 percent faster(iii) in today’s newest DX11 tessellated games, and 30 percent faster(iv) in previous-generation DX9 and DX10 games. With a superior design that includes a default graphics core clocked to 822MHz, 8 tessellation engines and 384 CUDA cores that were architected for next-generation DX11 games, the GTX 560 Ti is even up to 46% faster(v) than the competition’s product offerings that cost upwards of 20% more!
“The GTX 560 Ti GPU has it all: awesome DX11 performance, terrific overclockability, and ultra quiet operation — attributes of the perfect performance GPU,” said Drew Henry, general manager of GeForce GPU business at NVIDIA. “With the GTX 560 Ti under the hood, and an awesome library of DX11 titles coming in the very short future, it is truly a great time to be a PC gamer!”
With full support for NVIDIA 3D Vision™ and NVIDIA Surround™ technologies, the GeForce GTX 560 Ti GPU also provides the graphics horsepower and video bandwidth needed to experience more than 500 games and high-definition Blu-ray movies in eye-popping stereoscopic 3D on a single display or spanning across three screens for an immersive gaming environment. And with NVIDIA SLI™ technology, the industry’s most scalable multi-GPU platform, gamers will be delighted by the sheer increase in gaming performance by adding a second GeForce GTX 560 Ti to their PC.
With an estimated selling e-tail price starting at $249 USD, the GTX 560 Ti is available starting today from the world’s leading add-in card partners, including ASL, ASUS, Colorful, ECS, EVGA, Gainward, Galaxy, Gigabyte, Innovision 3D, Jetway, Leadtek, MSI, Palit, Point of View, PNY, Sparkle, Zotac and others. At launch, there will be a wide assortment of GTX 560 Ti cards available, including those with stock clocks of 822MHz and others that are clocked much higher, including some at 1GHz.
For more information about the GTX 560 Ti, please visit www.geforce.com.
An unannounced dual-core AMD graphics card believed to be the Radeon HD 6990 has been casually flaunted at a Fusion APU launch event. According to itPOC, AMD GPU general manager Matt Skynner whipped out the card while discussing the company’s APU technology; the HD 6990 is believed to pair two sets of 1,920 stream processors for a total of 3,840.
There’s also talk of 4GB of GDDR5 memory, while connectivity includes dual-DVI and three Mini DisplayPort outputs. The double-width card is expected to suck down 30W during idle and 300W under full load.
AMD is expected to officially announce the Radeon HD 6990 in the latter half of February 2011. No word on pricing at this stage, but we’d expect it to be at the top end of the market.
AMD has announced its latest notebook graphics option, the AMD Radeon HD 6000M series, consisting of up to 1.3 teraFLOPS of crunching power paired with the ability to drive up to six displays simultaneously. The Radeon HD 6000Mfff range includes thin & light, mainstream, performance and gaming options, all of which support AMD HD3D.
The HD 6300M kicks off the ultraportable line, while the HD 6400M steps into the mainstream. The HD 6500M/6600M/6700M slot into the performance series, and the gaming enthusiast gets the HD 6800M and HD 6900M.
At the top end, that means things like a 580-680Mhz clock, 960 Stream processing units, 48 texture units, 128 Z/Stencil ROP units and 32 Color ROP units on the HD 6900M.
Press Release:
AMD Extends Leadership in Notebook PC Graphics with its Second-Generation of DirectX® 11-capable Mobile Graphics Technology; Delivering the Ultimate in Efficiency and Performance
—The AMD Radeon™ HD 6000M series are a top-to-bottom family of DirectX® 11-capable mobile graphics processors designed to deliver exceptional performance in every segment—
LAS VEGAS, Nev. —1/4/2011
AMD (NYSE: AMD) today introduced its next generation mobile graphics technology, the AMD Radeon™ HD 6000M series, delivering AMD’s highest performing notebook graphics for those who want to experience games, entertainment, and productivity on the go. Harnessing AMD’s second-generation of Microsoft DirectX® 11-capable mobile graphics architecture, the AMD Radeon™ HD 6000M series provides users with:
Models offering up to 1.3 teraFLOPS of compute power for an unrivaled gaming experience on up to six displays using AMD Eyefinity technology.1
AMD HD3D technology for the ultimate in stereo 3D entertainment.2
AMD EyeSpeed technology for improved video and application performance.3
Notebooks featuring the new graphics technology are previewed at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in the Wired: Make a Scene booth, located in the Grand Lobby of the Las Vegas Convention Center.
“One year ago AMD claimed the title of undisputed technology leader in mobile graphics performance and since then we continue to pave the way for mobile computing innovation,” said Matt Skynner, corporate vice president and general manager, GPU Division, AMD. “With the introduction of the AMD Radeon™ HD 6000M series, AMD’s best just got better by cementing its leadership in notebook graphics. Through our feature-rich line of top-to-bottom next-generation notebook graphics, including AMD’s fastest performing notebook graphics processor, we’re enabling a superior visual computing experience in virtually every segment.”
AMD Radeon™ HD 6000M series graphics represent powerful support for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) with existing and upcoming 2011 AMD Mainstream notebook platforms planned to feature true “Eye-Definition” Gaming with DirectX 11 support and AMD Eyefinity technology, plus amazing AMD HD3D Technology—all designed to accelerate mobile performance.
AMD‘s new Radeon HD 6900 series video cards have officially launched, in the shape of the AMD Radeon HD 6950 and the Radeon HD 6970. Slotting in at the top end of AMD’s range, the new cards replace the Radeon HD 5870 from late-2009 with DirectX 11 support, boosted tessellation and image quality – the former up to 2.9x that of the HD 5870 – and 2GB of video memory.
There’s also a bevy of new features designed to squeeze the best out of your visuals, including Enhanced Quality Anti-Aliasing (EQAA), with a new sampling technique to help improve visual quality, Morphological Anti-Aliasing (MLAA), compatible with any DirectX 9, 10 or 11 application, and improved anisotropic filtering. Meanwhile AMD’s HD3D technology is supported, along with Unified Video Decoder 3 (UVD3).
The HD 6970 packs an 880MHz clock, 1,536 stream processors and 176 GBps of memory bandwidth, while the HD 6950 makes do with an 800MHz clock and 1,408 stream processors. They’re expected to go on sale immediately, with RRPs of $369 and $299 respectively.
Press Release:
AMD Launches Its Most Advanced Enthusiast GPU Ever, AMD Radeon™ HD 6900 Series Graphics
— Enhanced second-generation architecture supporting DirectX® 11, new image quality features, AMD Eyefinity multi-display technology and up to 2GB of graphics memory for high-resolution gaming —
SUNNYVALE, Calif. — Dec. 15, 2010 — AMD (NYSE: AMD) today introduced AMD Radeon™ HD 6900 series graphics, its most advanced enthusiast GPU representing the intelligent choice for enthusiast gamers. The AMD Radeon™ HD 6900 series of graphics cards provides gamers with an enhanced second-generation, Microsoft DirectX® 11-capable architecture for breakthrough performance, advanced image quality features for the best looking games, and innovative AMD PowerTune power management technology that dynamically adjusts power draw on the fly. With flexible and cost-effective AMD Eyefinity multi-display technology and AMD HD3D technology for 3D entertainment, the new AMD Radeon™ HD 6970 and AMD Radeon™ HD 6950 graphics cards offer The Ultimate Visual Experience™. Graphics cards in the AMD Radeon™ HD 6900 series are available immediately from retailers worldwide, with select models starting at $299 US SEP.
“AMD Radeon™ HD 6900 series graphics feature AMD’s second-generation, DirectX® 11-capable architecture, new image quality improvements and up to 2GB of graphics frame buffer, making it an intelligent choice for gamers and enthusiasts,” said Matt Skynner, corporate vice president and general manager, GPU Division, AMD. “Delivering DirectX® 11 performance with intelligent tessellation, image quality improvements with new anti-aliasing modes and even intelligent power consumption with AMD PowerTune technology, the AMD Radeon™ HD 6900 series graphics cards make an excellent gift this holiday season.”
Efficient Architecture for Leading DirectX® 11 Performance
· Improved architecture for greater performance: With AMD Radeon™ HD 6900 series graphics, AMD has further improved its GPU design efficiency, realizing a 10 percent improvement in performance/mm2.[1] AMD Radeon™ HD 6900 series graphics provide an extremely smooth and efficient computing experience, enabling gamers to realize unparalleled image quality.
· New AMD PowerTune technology: Designed with intelligent power tuning features, including the introduction of enhanced power containment, the AMD Radeon™ HD 6900 series automatically adjusts GPU power draw by dynamically controlling clocks speeds, allowing gamers advanced performance inside of the power envelope they specify.[2]
· The time to upgrade is now: Gamers looking to move to a DirectX® 11-capable GPU will find there has never been a better time to upgrade, with the AMD Radeon™ HD 6970 offering up to 2.5 times the gaming performance of 2008’s similarly priced high-end graphics solution.[3]
· Intelligent tessellation: The AMD Radeon™ HD 6900 series of graphics cards features dual 8th generation tessellation units, delivering up to 2.9x tessellation performance compared to ATI Radeon™ HD 5870 graphics.[4]
· Increased memory for higher image quality: With 2GB of video memory serving as the new standard for graphics card frame buffers, gamers can enjoy superior quality graphics without needing to increase the memory footprint, even at extreme resolutions.
The Ultimate Visual Experience™: As AMD’s most advanced DirectX® 11-capable GPU, AMD Radeon™ HD 6900 series graphics offer a single high-performance solution for a realistic visual experience. DirectX®11 has quickly become the new standard for PC games and the majority of game developers chose to develop their DirectX® 11 games on AMD Radeon™ graphics cards. Beyond DirectX® 11 games, the AMD Radeon™ HD 6900 series also enables an exceptional gameplay experience in DirectX® 9, DirectX® 10, DirectX® 10.1 and OpenGL titles in single card or multi-card AMD CrossFireX™ configurations.[5]
An Advanced Gaming Experience with AMD Eyefinity Technology and Advanced Display Options
· Improved image quality: Enhanced anti-aliasing features enables dramatically improved image quality and enhanced visual quality features for intensely realistic looking games. New features include Enhanced Quality Anti-Aliasing (EQAA), which uses a new sampling technique to help improve visual quality, Morphological Anti-Aliasing (MLAA), compatible with any DirectX® 9, DirectX® 10, or DirectX® 11 application, and improved anisotropic filtering.
Simple, flexible, affordable multi-display computing with AMD Eyefinity technology: Providing an expanded and more immersive field of view, AMD Eyefinity technology continues to be the most affordable multi-display solution available, offering incredible choice in display compatibility and configurations.[6] More than 60 game titles have been AMD Eyefinity-validated or are AMD Eyefinity-ready titles, and hundreds more are AMD Eyefinity-compatible.
Continued industry leadership in multi-display computing: The AMD Radeon™ HD 6900 series of graphics cards offer support for both DisplayPort 1.2 and HDMI 1.4a, offering enthusiasts incredible multi-monitor configuration options, flexibility in display selection, and new DisplayPort audio features.
3D entertainment choices with AMD HD3D technology: AMD continues to deliver a broad and affordable selection of 3D solutions with the AMD Radeon™ HD 6900 series graphics cards, featuring AMD HD3D Technology, and backed by our open 3D initiative for stereo 3D gaming and movies.[7]
Accelerate Your Life with AMD Accelerated Parallel Processing
AMD Accelerated Parallel Processing (APP) technology lets you do more, faster: Enthusiasts will enjoy improved performance and new features in top media, entertainment and productivity applications with AMD APP technology.[8]
Enhanced video quality features: AMD Radeon™ HD 6900 series graphics cards feature Unified Video Decoder 3 (UVD3), a dedicated video playback accelerator that helps users get the most out of HD video, online video and Blu-ray™ 3D, while enjoying a range of video quality improvements such as advanced post-processing and scaling, dynamic contrast enhancement, color correction and more.
Extensive support of industry standards: AMD Radeon™ HD 6900 series graphics cards fully support DirectCompute and OpenCL™, ensuring broad application support today and tomorrow.
AMD’s reportedly delayed Radeon HD 6970/6950 GPUs are apparently on course for release in the third week of December 2010, though initial supplies of the new chips are expected to be limited. Quoting sources at video card manufacturers, DigiTimes claims that AMD will price the new Radeon HD 6970 at around $50-70 less than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580.
That’s supposedly because initial benchmarking has shown that the GTX 580 outperforms the HD 6970, and AMD is expected to undercut its rival so as to make up for the disadvantage. Still, it’s also tipped to have a lower TDP than the NVIDIA, as well as offer more connections: two DVI ports, two Mini DisplayPorts, and an HDMI port. According to earlier leaks, the Cayman-based video cards will pack 1,536 stream processors, 32 ROPs, 96 texture units and 2GB of GDDR5 memory.
NVIDIA has outed its latest graphics card, and the company has Apple Mac Pro users firmly in its sights. The NVIDIA Quadro 4000 for Mac packs 256 CUDA cores and 2GB of GDDR5 memory, which connectivity includes a DisplayPort and a DVI-I (Dual Link) connector built into its bracket, and an optional 3D stereo bracket; NVIDIA also throw in a DisplayPort to Mini DisplayPort adapter.
The company reckons that, with its new NVIDIA Scalable Geometry Engine, the Quadro 4000 for Mac can process up to 890 million triangles per second. That’ll show its hand in supported apps like pple Final Cut Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Autodesk Smoke, Mathworks Matlab and Adobe Creative Suite 5, for image and video processing.
It’ll also work in Windows apps running under BootCamp, and if you have a pair of cards you can have four displays running simultaneously. Unsurprisingly, all this performance doesn’t come cheap. The NVIDIA Quadro 4000 GPU will be priced at $1,199 when it arrives later this month.
Press Release:
It’s Here — NVIDIA Quadro Delivers NVIDIA Fermi Architecture to the Mac Pro
Award-Winning Professional Graphics Solution Delivers Blazing Fast Performance on Software From Adobe and Others
SANTA CLARA, CA — (Marketwire) — 11/16/2010 — NVIDIA announced today the expansion of its award-winning line of NVIDIA® Quadro® professional graphics solutions to the Mac platform, bringing the computational and visualization breakthroughs enabled by NVIDIA Fermi architecture to Mac Pro users.
For professional users operating on Mac OS X Snow Leopard, this means the wait is over. The NVIDIA Quadro 4000 graphics processing unit (GPU) for Mac is optimized to accelerate workflows and drive a range of top professional applications. For example, the Adobe Mercury Playback Engine in Adobe® Premiere® Pro CS5 software leverages NVIDIA CUDA™ parallel processing technology to enable film and video professionals to work unconstrained. Other examples include visual effects and image processing applications from The Foundry, including NUKE and STORM, and MATLAB from MathWorks.
“Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 and the Adobe Mercury Playback Engine, accelerated by NVIDIA Quadro GPUs, have redefined the non-linear editing workflow, delivering huge productivity gains,” said Ginna Baldassarre, senior product manager at Adobe. “Adobe looks forward to working with NVIDIA to help more Mac users reap the benefits of real-time performance and the ability to create compelling, multi-layer projects with multiple HD or higher resolution video clips, all while instantly viewing results.”
The Foundry is a leading developer of visual effects software for film and broadcast.
“The Foundry’s software has been used to help create visual effects for many Hollywood blockbusters, including ‘Avatar,’ ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ ‘Harry Potter,’ ‘Iron Man,’ ‘Star Trek,’ ‘District 9,’ ’2012,’ and ‘Transformers,’” said Bruno Nicoletti, Founder and CTO, The Foundry. “The Quadro 4000 is a powerful GPU blockbuster for the Mac.”
MathWorks MATLAB is a high-level technical computing language and interactive environment for algorithm development, numeric computation, data analysis, and data visualization, all of which benefit tremendously from fast double precision, a unique Quadro 4000 GPU for Mac feature. Graphics features, including 2-D and 3-D plotting functions, and 3-D volume functions required to visualize engineering and scientific data, are available in MATLAB.
“The visualization features in the Quadro 4000, coupled with GPU-accelerated computation for algorithm development and deployment with MATLAB and Parallel Computing Toolbox, are a powerful combination of capabilities for the Mac platform,” said Silvina Grad-Freilich, manager of parallel-computing marketing, MathWorks. “We are pleased that our Mac users will be able to leverage Fermi-grade computational performance in their applications.”
The high-end NVIDIA Quadro 4000 GPU for Mac, with 256 NVIDIA CUDA processing cores and 2GB of fast GDDR5 memory, delivers exceptional graphics performance across a broad range of design, animation and video applications. With new NVIDIA Scalable Geometry Engine technology, the Quadro 4000 for Mac can process up to 890 million triangles per second¹, enabling professionals to design, iterate and deliver higher quality results in less time.
The Quadro 4000 GPU for Mac also provides additional display flexibility through a DisplayPort and a DVI-I (Dual Link) connector built into its bracket, and a 3D stereo bracket for optimal stereo connection to the system. A DisplayPort to mini-DisplayPort cable is also included to enable mini-DisplayPort only Apple displays. Additionally, users can enable up to four high resolution displays from a single Mac Pro using dual NVIDIA Quadro 4000 for Mac boards.
The NVIDIA Quadro 4000 GPU for Mac enables dramatic increases in computing performance. Minimum system requirements include Mac OS X v10.6.5 or later with MacPro3,1 (early 2008), MacPro4,1 (early 2009), or MacPro5,1 (mid-2010). The Quadro 4000 processing unit for Mac is designed, built and supported by NVIDIA to provide best in class performance, reliability, compatibility and stability with professional Mac applications. NVIDIA and its ISV partners believe it’s the right choice in providing the dependability that video production and graphics professionals require.
Availability and Pricing
The Quadro 4000 GPU for Mac ($1,199 MSRP, USD) is available this month at Apple.com, select Apple resellers and system integrators, and from authorized distribution partners including: PNY Technologies in the Americas and Europe, ELSA in Japan, and Leadtek in Asia Pacific.
To learn more, visit: www.nvidia.com/quadro.
Follow NVIDIA Quadro on YouTube and Twitter: @NVIDIAQuadro.
About NVIDIA
NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) awakened the world to the power of computer graphics when it invented the GPU in 1999. Since then, it has consistently set new standards in visual computing with breathtaking, interactive graphics available on devices ranging from tablets and portable media players to notebooks and workstations. NVIDIA’s expertise in programmable GPUs has led to breakthroughs in parallel processing which make supercomputing inexpensive and widely accessible. The Company holds more than 1,600 patents worldwide, including ones covering designs and insights that are essential to modern computing. For more information, see www.nvidia.com.
(1)Raw throughput number calculated by graphics processing clusters, GPU clock rate, and triangle throughput.
NVIDIA has officially launched the GeForce GTX 580 GPU, and they’re unsurprisingly pretty excited about it. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 is billed as the world’s fastest DX11 GPU, 30-percent faster than the GTC 480 and packing 512 cores, 16 PolyMorph engines and support for either stereoscopic 3D or triple-displays.
Compared to the AMD Radeon HD 5870, meanwhile, the GeForce GTX 580 is apparently up to 160-percent faster in titles involving tessellation. It shows its power in older titles, too; in previous-generation DX9 and DX10 games, the GeForce GTX 580 is faster by up to 62 percent NVIDIA claims.
It’s also meant to be quieter, with a new vapor chamber thermal solution, and churns through 2bn triangles per second. Cards from ASUS, Gigabyte and other NVIDIA partners go on sale today, priced at around $499.
Press Release:
NVIDIA Delivers World’s Fastest DX11 GPU… Again!
GeForce GTX 580 GPU Brings New Level of Geometric Realism to PC Gaming
The new NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 is the world’s fastest DX11 GPU, delivering an astounding level of geometric realism to PC gaming.
The new GeForce GTX 580 has been reengineered from the transistor-level up to deliver an increase of up to 35 percent in performance per watt, and performance that is up to 30 percent faster than the original GeForce GTX 480.
NVIDIA’s Endless City harnesses the horsepower of the GeForce GTX 580′s incredible tessellation engines to procedurally generate urban detail never before possible in an interactive world. Sit back, relax and enjoy the view.
Tired of game characters that remain unchanged as they take damage and fall over dead looking as good as when they arrived? For your viewing pleasure we introduce the battle of ALIEN VS TRIANGLES where tessellation is used to transform and destroy an enemy using “multi-dimensional tessellation.”
SANTA CLARA, CA — (Marketwire) — 11/09/2010 — NVIDIA® today announced the latest consumer GPU based on the NVIDIA® Fermi architecture, the GeForce® GTX 580, which has been reengineered from the transistor-level up to deliver increased power efficiency and performance over previous generation products.
The GeForce GTX 580 GPU delivers the world’s fastest performance for DirectX 11 (DX11) games, and support for NVIDIA 3D Vision™, Surround, PhysX®, SLI® and CUDA™ technologies, further entrenching GeForce-based PCs as the most robust gaming platforms in the world. The combination of an innovative vapor chamber thermal solution and new architectural enhancements make the GTX 580 the fastest and quietest GPU in its class, delivering an increase of up to 35 percent in performance per watt(i), and performance that is up to 30 percent faster than the original GeForce GTX 480(ii).
For the most recent games that feature tessellation — the key feature of DX11 — the 512-core GeForce GTX 580 is up to 160 percent faster(iii) than the closest competitive product. Even in previous-generation DX9 and DX10 games, the GeForce GTX 580 is faster by up to 62 percent(iv), including in the blockbuster PC title StarCraft II.
“For Crysis 2, we’ll take advantage of what NVIDIA’s new GeForce GTX 580 GPUs bring,” said Cevat Yerli, president and CEO of Crytek. “A supersoldier that needs to save NYC from an alien invasion needs the best tech possible. That’s not only his Nanosuit, but also stunning DX11 geometric realism that a GPU like the GeForce GTX 580 can offer for our PC gamers.”
“At Epic, we’ve standardized on NVIDIA GeForce GPUs for Unreal Engine 3 development,” said Tim Sweeney, Founder, Epic Games. “The GTX 580 offers even more rendering and compute power than NVIDIA’s previous high end GeForce GPU but thanks to its new cooling system it’s also much more quiet. Whether you’re an engineer working with the Unreal Technology or a gamer who wants the ultimate Bulletstorm experience, the GTX 580 delivers.”
With full support for NVIDIA 3D Vision and NVIDIA Surround technologies, the GeForce GTX 580 GPU also provides the graphics horsepower and video bandwidth needed to experience games and high-definition Blu-ray movies in eye-popping stereoscopic 3D on a single display or spanning across three screens for an immersive gaming environment. And with NVIDIA SLI™ technology, the industry’s most scalable multi-GPU platform, gamers will be delighted by the sheer increase in gaming performance by adding a second or third GeForce GTX 580 to their PC.
The GeForce GTX 580 is available starting today from the world’s leading add-in card partners, including ASL, ASUS, Colorful, ECS, EVGA, Gainward, Galaxy, Gigabyte, Innovision 3D, Jetway, Leadtek, MSI, Palit, Point of View, PNY, Sparkle, Zotac and others.
Summary Highlights of New GeForce GTX 580 GPU:
512 cores and 16 PolyMorph engines deliver massive tessellation and compute firepower for games
Hard launch with immediate availability at an estimated SEP of $499 USD.
Up to 35 percent improvement in performance/watt efficiency
New vapor chamber thermal solution results in the quietest GPU in its class
New level of geometric realism — 2 billion triangles/second
Provides game developers total creative freedom to create cutting-edge DX11 games
New details on AMD’s Radeon HD 6900 series graphics cards have been squeezed out over the weekend, with live shots of the Radeon HD 6970 arriving at ZOL together with some early specifications at Fudzilla. According to the leaks, the Cayman-based video card will tote 1,536 stream processors, along with 32 ROPs, 96 texture units and a full 2GB of GDDR5 memory.
Connectivity, meanwhile, includes two DVI ports, two Mini DisplayPorts, and an HDMI port. That makes for more options than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580, while TDP is also tipped to be lower than the NVIDIA card.
However, it seems we may have to wait a little longer for the Radeon HD 6970 to arrive. According to Expreview. AMD initially planned to release the new card on November 22, but delays in developing the new BIOS and drivers means the HD 6970 will likely miss that date.
Today marks the launch of the new AMD Radeon video cards and XFX has pulled the wraps off new HD 6870 and 6850 video cards for gamers. The new cards have many nice features including support for 3D gaming with DisplayPort 1.2 and HDMI 1.4a ports on the cards. The cards support 120Hz frame rates for use with active 3D glasses.
Both of the cards are DirectX 11 compliant and has 1GB of GDDR5 RAM onboard. The core speed of the 6850 is 775MHz and the core of the 6870 runs at 900MHz. The shaders in the cards are clocked at 800MHz in the 6850 and 960MHz in the 6870 card for better performance.
Both of the new video cards support 3D Blu-ray movies and have AMD EyeSpeed video acceleration tech for better video quality and performance no matter the source. The new cards also support AMD CrossFireX technology and have AMD parallel processing technology.
AMD’s latest Radeon HD 6870 and 6850 GPUs are official, and ASUS has wasted no time slapping them into a couple of new video cards. However, they’ve also taken a few liberties and made some tweaks of their own; the ASUS EAH6850 DirectCU/2DIS/1GD5 and EAH6870/2DI2S/1GD5 cards are each overclocked out of the box, to 790MHz and 913MHz respectively, and they each get the company’s Voltage Tweak tech which promises up to 50-percent performance boost over the AMD reference design.
They’ve also tweaked the cooling systems, replacing the plastic cover with an aluminum one; good for a 14-degree C drop in surface temperatures, apparently. They’ve also installed a custom-flattened, all-copper heat pipe system that drops running temperatures by 20-percent and makes for a quieter card, too.
Up to six simultaneous displays can be supported, and there are HDMI, Mini DisplayPort, DVI and D-Sub connections to choose from. Each has 1GB of memory. No word of official pricing at this stage, but a quick Google pulls up numbers in the region of $215 for the EAH6850 and $240 for the EAH6870.
Press Release:
ASUS Releases New EAH6800 Series Graphics Cards
The latest generation cards from AMD are enhanced by ASUS for more engaged gaming
Featuring even more processing power than the successful EAH5000 Series of graphics cards, the new ASUS EAH6800 Series continues to serve PC enthusiasts with cutting-edge technology and a range of exclusive performance-boosting improvements to the AMD reference design.
Both the EAH6850 DirectCU/2DIS/1GD5 and EAH6870/2DI2S/1GD5 cards feature AMD Eyefinity multi-display technology, AMD HD3D technology and DirectX® 11 support. In addition, exclusive Voltage Tweak overclocking technology offers a 50%* performance boost over the reference design. The EAH6850 DirectCU and EAH6870 also ship with factory overclocked cores set to 790MHz and 913MHz..
The ASUS EAH6850 DirectCU also incorporates exclusive DirectCU cooling that uses custom-flattened, all-copper heat pipes in direct contact with the GPU core. This improves cooling by 20%* compared to the reference design and offers quiet operation when the card is idle. The ASUS EAH6870 is equipped with an aluminum fan cover that improves cooling efficiency and reduces surface temperatures by 14 degrees Celsius, compared to the reference design’s plastic cover.
Product Highlights
Exclusive ASUS Voltage Tweak technology offers real-time voltage adjustment of various GPU components, including the core and video memory, making ASUS EAH6800 Series graphics cards 50%* faster than the reference design.
The EAH6850 DirectCU is factory overclocked to perform at 790MHz. This is 15MHz higher than stock performance, resulting in higher frame rates in games.
ASUS proprietary cooling technology, DirectCU, puts copper heat pipes in direct contact with the GPU core. This results in the EAH6850 DirectCU running 20%* cooler than the reference design.
The EAH6870 features a stylish aluminum fan cover that dissipates heat more efficiently. This lowers surface temperatures by 14 degrees Celsius, compared to the reference design’s plastic cover.
Proprietary AMD Eyefinity technology supports up to six** displays for a fully immersive viewing experience.
AMD HD3D technology for stereoscopic 3D gaming and movie watching.
* Subject to system configuration and usage. Results may vary.
** DisplayPort 1.2 compatible monitors required for six-screen AMD Eyefinity output. Please visit www.amd.com/Eyefinity for more information.
Availability
ASUS EAH6800 Series graphics cards are expected to ship October 22, 2010 and will be available from authorized ASUS resellers.
