Posted 10/22/09 at 08:45:04 PM by Paul Lilly

Ghosts and goblins aren't the only things you'll see this Halloween. According to news and rumor site Fudzilla, EVGA and Nvidia have joined forces to launch a hybrid graphics card on October 31st.

It's mostly speculation at this point, but the card is rumored to combine GT200b and G92b GPUs onto a single PCB. Why the mix? The GT200b will be responsible for rendering all those pretty graphics while you're saving the universe, and the GT92b will flex its PhysX muscle.

Fudzilla says the hybrid card will most likely sport a GTX 275 and GTS 250, which would give the card 240 stream processors and 896MB of memory for rendering, and 128 stream processors and 512MB of memory for PhysX duties. Not a bad idea to combine the two on a single piece of hardware, albeit it could be somewhat risky this close to the launch of Fermi.

No word yet on price.

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Posted 05/25/09 at 09:50:17 AM by Paul Lilly

Biostar today adds to its T-Series motherboard lineup, this time with a hybrid board capable of running both DDR2 and DDR3 memory (not at the same time).

"Needless to say, the double DDR2/DDR3 design make it possible for users to enjoy better compatibility and cost saving on future memory upgrade," Biostar wrote in a press release. "This motherboard also supports Biostar's exclusive G.P.U. energy-saving technology."

The TP45E Combo motherboard dedicates two slots to each memory standard with support for up to 4GB of DDR3-800/1066/1333, and up to 8GB of DDR2-667/800/1066. Other notables include "whole solid capacitors," 1600MHz frontside bus support, 3 PCI slots, 2 PCI-E x1 slots, a single PCI-E Gen2 x16 slot, 6 SATA ports, and 5.1 surround sound.

No word yet on price or availability.

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Posted 05/04/09 at 11:08:12 AM by Paul Lilly

There's fast, and then there's stupid-fast, and a new hybrid SSD drive will fall into the latter category if it can live up to the speed claims being put out by its manufacturer, who says a single DDRDrive X1 can hit a staggering 300,000 IOPS.

The new drive combines 4GB of DDR memory for high-speed operation along with 4GB of NAND flash memory for backup duties. By doing so, the manufacturer claims a full 4GB backup will take no longer than 60 seconds. Equally impressive, the drive scales at a 1:1 ratio with multiple drives, making it theoretically possible to backup 32GB, 64GB, or even 128GB in 60 seconds with the appropriate configuration.

DDRDrive CTO Christopher George says the hybrid drive was designed with a maximum IOPS performance in mind, and according to the X1's spec sheet, it offers 512B reads and writes up to 300,000+ and 200,000+ IOPS, respectively, and 4KB reads and writes up to 50,000+ and 35,000+ IOPS, respectively. By comparison, Intel's fastest SSDs offering 35,000 IOPS in 4KB read and 3,300 IPOS in 4KB writes.

Less impressive is the DDRDrive X1's read and write transfer rates, which is bound by its PCI-E Gen 1 interface and checks in around 250MB/s (read) and 155MB/s (write).

The 4GB/4GB DDRDrive X1 is available now for $1,495.

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Posted 03/09/09 at 09:59:27 AM by Paul Lilly

If you're not yet ready to make the the jump to DDR3 memory but are itching to upgrade nonetheless, MSI has you covered, and it doesn't matter if you're an AMD or Intel fan. The motherboard maker has released a pair of hybrid motherboards, one for each camp, supporting both DDR2 and DDR3 RAM.

On the AMD side, MSI's AM3-based 790GX-8D supports both DDR2-1066 and DDR3-1333 memory when paired with an AM3 processor, and also works with AM2+ CPUs with DDR2 memory. Four slots of each are crammed onto the PCB, however you can't use both memory technologies at the same time. Moving away from the memory, the board also comes with two PCI-E x16 slots, two PCI-E x1 slots, and a single standard PCI slot. Using the onboard graphics, gamers can also set up a CrossFireX hybrid configuration.

Switching gears to Intel, MSI's P45-8D sports four each DDR2 and DDR3 slots as well, though it remains a generation behind as an LGA775 board with support for Intel's Core 2 processors. On the expansion front, the P45-8D comes outfitted with a one PCI-E x16 slot, one PCI-E x1 slots, and three standard PCI slots.

The P45-8D is available now for around $170 street. No word yet on price or availability for the 790GX-8D.

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Posted 06/30/08 at 07:48:41 AM by Chris Moody

Asus has laid claim to launching the world's most intelligent graphics card with the release of their ROG (Republic of Gamers) EN9600GT MATRIX/HTDI/512M. Asus goes on to say, “Much like a sci-fi movie where the protagonists can do just about anything, the ROG MATRIX Series will allow gamers to unleash the true power of graphics cards.” Can you smell the hype? I love the smell of hype in the morning.

Make the jump to hear more about the MATRIX EN9600GT video card including specs!

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