It's a fact of life: all of the manufacturer graphics cards are built using the same core GPUs from Nvidia and AMD, so for a card to stand out, it needs to bring a little something special to the table. Some manufacturers go for sky-high overclocks; others go for unique cooling systems. MSI offers both with the newly announced GTX 680 Twin Frozr III OC.
All right, the Nvidia GTX 680 is finally here, and it's awesome! The high end graphics card is so awesome, in fact, that picking one up will set you back a cool $500 -- more than many people are willing (or able) to spend on gaming. Fortunately for fraggers on a budget, we're starting to hear rumors about more moderately priced cards like the GTX 670 Ti.
If you were ogling that nifty-looking, waterblock-sporting EVGA GTX 680 Hydro Copper graphics card we highlighted yesterday but couldn't quite justify laying out the dough, maybe today's news will kick you off the proverbial fence: EVGA has unveiled an awesome new "Global Warranty Policy." Basically, anyone can return any covered EVGA graphics card from anywhere in the world going forward, regardless of whether or not they're the original owner.
If you've dropped the dough on a spiffy new enthusiast-level Sandy Bridge-E processor, you may decide to drop a corresponding level of dough on a spiffy new enthusiast-level Nvidia HTX 680 graphics card. (If so, we salute your Maximum-ness.) There's just one little caveat you should be aware of, however; Nvidia's initial WHQL drivers for the GTX 680 nerfs data transfer levels to slower PCI-E 2.0 speeds, rather than the blazing fast enthusiast-level PCI-E 3.0 x16 speeds the X79 chipset is capable of.
If those spiffy new Kepler-based GTX 680 graphics cards do in fact end up hitting the streets tomorrow, as has been widely rumored, enterprising overclockers will no doubt be looking to tweak their new hardware to even higher levels of performance. Boosting core frequencies should be a cinch for owners of MSI-brand GTX 680s; the company joined forces with Guru3D to release a new Beta version of its Afterburner overclocking utility, complete with support for Kepler GPUs.
Want to know all the deep, dirty and highly technical details about your graphics card that the Windows Experience Index refuses to share with you? Hardcore system tweakers have been turning to TechPowerUp's GPU-Z for just that kind of info for a while now, and today the application got a fresh new coat of paint. GPU-Z v0.6.0 adds, amongst other things, support for many of the new Radeon 7000 hitting the streets -- and support for GTX 600 cards that will supposedly be hitting the streets soon. (Maybe even this week?)
Another day, another pair of new AMD Radeon HD graphics cards, this time from Sapphire and PowerColor. The two offerings are from opposite ends of AMD's assault on the entire price point spectrum -- the PowerColor being a 7770 card, and the Sapphire a high-end 7970 -- but they're both capable of hitting 1GHz speeds out of the box.
With a nary a peep from rival Nvidia, AMD today rolled out two additional 28nm graphics cards, both of which are built around the Pitcairn GPU that nestles into the mainstream spot just below Tahiti. The new cards are the Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition ($349) and Radeon HD 7850 ($249), and they both feature AMD's 28nm Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture specifically designed for general computing.
If your AMD-based build keeps getting all hot and bothered, your rampant "incognito mode" Chrome browsing isn't to blame -- you've probably got a problem with thermals. Pouring a bucket of ice cold water over your PC isn't recommended, but that's not to say that a little aqua can't help cool things down. PowerColor just announced what it claims is the first Radeon HD 7970 with a liquid cooling waterblock built right onto the card.
Following AMD's 
-
Technology
Entertainment
-
Music
-
Creative
Sport & Auto
- About Future
- Jobs
- News
- Advertising
- Digital Future
- Privacy Policy
- Cookies Policy
- Terms & Conditions
- Shop
- Investor Relations
- Contact Future
© Future US, Inc. 4000 Shoreline Court, Suite 400, South San Francisco, California, 94080. All Rights Reserved.