GPUs & Graphic Cards

16 June 2008 - Utilizing the highest built-in multi-cores enhanced graphics processors in the history, N280GTX-T2D1G has 240 processor cores with 1GB graphics memory and N260GTX-T2D896 has 192 processor cores and 896MB graphics memory. Beyond the field of play, the MSI N200GTX series seamlessly shifts intense processing tasks from the CPU to the GPU, like transcoding video to a personal video player which is 7x faster than the CPU.

16 June 2008 - ASUS today introduced the world’s first overclocking version of the latest generation of NVIDIA GPUs – the GeForce™ GTX 280 and GeForce™ GTX 260 chipset; with the ENGTX280 TOP and ENGTX260 TOP graphic cards. This powerful series of graphics cards provides 12% improvements in gaming experiences with the ENGTX280 TOP/HTDP/1G. Additionally, the ASUS ENGTX280/G/HTDP/1G and ENGTX260/G/HTDP/896M will also come bundled with the latest game, Alone in the Dark.

14 June 2008 - We did some power draw tests on the GTX 280 cards in single and SLI mode on a QX9650 + 790i SLI setup. With single GTX 280 card, the system is drawing 147W at idle and 292.2W at peak and the 3DMark Vantage score is P10324. With GTX 280 SLI, the system is drawing 190.1W at idle and 508W at peak. The 3DMark Vantage score is P15813. Stay tuned for our full review in a few days time.

7 June 2008 - AMD has informed their partners that the new launch date for Radeon HD 4800 (RV770) series is now 25th June therefore Radeon HD 4850 (RV770PRO) and Radeon HD 4870 (RV770XT) will launch together. AMD has also finalized the core clocks of the 4850 and 4870 cards and they will be clocked at 625MHz and 750MHz respectively. Radeon HD 4870 with GDDR5 is expected to perform 1.3x better than the Radeon HD 4850 with GDDR3.

6 June 2008 - While we are away for Computex, CJ let us know that the Radeon HD 4870 X2 R700 prototype card is out and it beats the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 in 3DMark Vantage. The R700 card is basically made up of two RV770 GPUs with 2x256-bit memory interface to either GDDR3 or GDDR5 memories. We asked our sources about R700 in Computex and apparently AMD is going to let AIB partners to decide the specs themselves. Therefore, the partners will set their own clock speeds, PCB design, memory types, cooler solutions etc. and there will be Radeon HD 4850 X2 and 4870 X2 cards differentiate by the memory type. The R700 card apparently doing pretty well at this stage scoring about X5500 in 3DMark Vantage Extreme preset while the GeForce GTX 280 card is scoring X4800.

3 June 2008 - We have spotted a RV770PRO demo system over at Computex and we have checked out the settings of the beta Catalyst drivers for RV770 series. The card can be easily overclocked to 700MHz core and as a result, the score for 3DMark Vantage is P6466.

3 June 2008 - While scouring the halls at Computex, VR-Zone managed to come across the GT200 and managed to capture some detailed shots of it. Check in and take a look around!

2 June 2008 - Today, NVIDIA introduced the Tegra family of processors, the world’s first single-chip computer capable of the rich high definition and internet experiences we’ve come to expect from our PCs, but on small pocket type devices. NVIDIA Tegra is a heterogeneous processor architecture with multiple processors, each architected for a specific class of tasks – an 800 MHz ARM CPU, a HD video processor, an imaging processor, an audio processor, and an ultra-low power GeForce® GPU.

16 June 2008 - POINT OF VIEW is launching today the first graphics cards in the brand new graphics cards GeForce GTX 200 series, the GeForce GTX 260 and GeForce GTX 280.

15 June 2008 - We've managed to get our grubby hands on NVIDIA's latest graphics card, the GeForce GTX 280. Not only did we take it apart, we are going to provide you with some preliminary results.

13 June 2008 - Since we have some GTX 280 cards with us so we put them together and run some tri-SLI action. We overclocked our QX9650 to 4GHz to remove some CPU bottleneck and the 3DMark Vantage performance preset score scales from P17759 to P21350. Do let us know in our forums what tests you would like see.

7 June 2008 - Here are some close-up shots of a stripped down GeForce GTX 280 card for you guys to enjoy over the weekend. The markings on the IHS is labeled as G200-300-A2 and has a total of 16 Hynix 0.8ns GDDR3 memory chips.

4 June 2008 - After walking around the exhibition grounds of Computex (Nangang), we return with many images of various graphics cards available in the market. Well, let's hope the wallet doesn't get itchy...

3 June 2008 - We have spotted a system running GeForce GTX 280 at Computex and we took some screenshots on its 3D settings and GPU-Z. There aren't any gaming benchmarks installed in the machine though.

3 June 2008 - Here's a screenshot of the GeForce GTX 280 running on GeForce Release 177.23. We are told that this thing runs cool during idle and runs much faster than 9800GX2. If you look hard enough, you will find some GT200 cards lurking around Computex.

1 June 2008 - CJ sent us a performance chart comparing Radeon HD 3870 X2 against the GeForce GTX 280 and GTX 260 on some of the games out there. Although, the benchmarks are done internally by Nvidia but it is probably conclusive to compare GTX 280 and GTX 260 here. The drivers for GeForce GTX 200 cards is the upcoming GeForce Release 177 while the drivers for 3870 X2 is a rather old Catalyst 8.3.