PC Hardware Thread

[ALPHA17]

My uncle is coming from Chicago in February, so I think I should ask him to bring one gfx card for me.

The plan is like, I'll ask him to open the package and bring it with him and keep the bill in his pocket so if the custom guys see it, he can show the bill and prevent them from charging hefty charges on their imaginary price tag.

 

You can keep the bill with the card, just make sure the package is open.

Should I worry about DOA?

 

As much you would worry if you got the card from say, Amazon or Shop n' Ship India.

[SRINI87]

Saw some rumor that first maxwell chips will be 28nm, hoping its not true :|

fuuuuuuuu :X

[ALPHA17]

Saw some rumor that first maxwell chips will be 28nm, hoping its not true :|

fuuuuuuuu :X

 

High chances because nVidia has not told when it has taped out its first 20nm wafers whilst AMD announced that early October with plans to ramp up production by February.

[SRINI87]

 

AMD Hawaii GPU Die Shot Analyzed – Fully Unlocked Chip May Have 48 Compute Units and 3072 Stream Processors

The fully enabled Hawaii GPU as seen from the die shot has 48 Compute Units, 192 Texture Mapping Units and 64 Raster Operators. The 48 Compute units amount to a total of 3072 stream processors. That’s the same number of cores once featured on AMD’s Radeon HD 6990 dual-chip graphics card and also the same number of cores which are currently available on NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 690 dual-chip card. Although there’s no comparison between the cores since all cards are based on different architectures but its still a surprise that AMD can integrated such a high number of cores in their flagship chip, NVIDIA’s GK110 has a maximum 2880 Cuda core count on the high-performance GeForce GTX 780 Ti and its Tesla/Quadro variants.

Read more: http://wccftech.com/amd-hawaii-gpu-die-shot-analyzed-fully-unlocked-chip-48-compute-units-3072-stream-processors/#ixzz2p18hOS3l

[reddevil23]

Sapphire R9 270 Dual X 4GB listed on flipkart as forthcoming. Priced at 19k

[ALPHA17]

Sapphire R9 270 Dual X 4GB listed on flipkart as forthcoming. Priced at 19k

 

Honestly not worth the premium over the 2GB card in my books. The HD7870 / R9-270X are not meant for anything over 1080p with current titles and for that 2GB is more than enough. The extra V-RAM is just easy money for the company.

[SRINI87]

Details Regarding Nvidia Geforce GTX 790 Finally Surface – 4992 Cuda Cores and 10 GB of Memory

 

Nvidia ”GTX 790” Will have 10 GB GDDR5 of Memory, 640Bit Bandwidth and 4992 Cuda Cores – Stated to Release sometime February.

It appears that the ”GTX 790” will not be a Dual 780 Ti, a Dual Titan or even a Dual GTX 780. It is rather something inbetween these three. A 780 has 2304 Cuda Cores, a Ti 2880 and a Titan 2688. The Nvidia Geforce GTX 790 will have:

• Cuda Cores: 2496 (x2)
• Memory: 5Gb GDDR5 (x2)
• Mem Bus: 320 Bit (x2)
• Core: GK110 (x2)

 

Read more: http://wccftech.com/details-nvidia-geforce-gtx-790-finally-surface-4992-cuda-cores-10-gb-memory-5/#ixzz2pUWLYHXz

[SRINI87]

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 880M Specifications Confirmed – Rebranded GTX 780M With 8 GB VRAM, Faster Clocks

The GeForce GTX 880M is technically the same chip as the GeForce GTX 680M and GTX 780M with 1536 Cuda Cores, 128 TMUs and 32 ROPs but it has some key improvements. The VRAM has been expanded to 8 GB GDDR5 and the clock speeds have been bumped to 954 MHz base and 933 MHz boost although the memory is clocked at 5 GHz effective rate. The memory runs along a 256-bit interface pumping out 160 GB/s bandwidth though we don’t know how the higher VRAM would benefit users in terms of raw performance numbers.

 

Preliminary performance results posted on the website reveal a 10-15% performance improvement over the GTX 780M achieved with the higher clock speeds. Following are a few results of the GTX 880M in 3DMark 11 and 3DMark 2013:

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 880M Performance:

• 3DMark 11 Performance Score - P8230 Marks
• 3DMark Firestrike - 5366 Marks
• 3DMark CloudGate - 19250 Marks
• 3DMark IceStorm - 93569 Marks

Read more: http://wccftech.com/nvidia-geforce-gtx-880m-specifications-confirmed-rebranded-gtx-780m-8-gb-vram-faster-clocks/#ixzz2pUylppZQ

Edited January 5, 2014 by SRINI87

[varundbest]

Details Regarding Nvidia Geforce GTX 790 Finally Surface – 4992 Cuda Cores and 10 GB of Memory

 

Nvidia ”GTX 790” Will have 10 GB GDDR5 of Memory, 640Bit Bandwidth and 4992 Cuda Cores – Stated to Release sometime February.

It appears that the ”GTX 790” will not be a Dual 780 Ti, a Dual Titan or even a Dual GTX 780. It is rather something inbetween these three. A 780 has 2304 Cuda Cores, a Ti 2880 and a Titan 2688. The Nvidia Geforce GTX 790 will have:

• Cuda Cores: 2496 (x2)
• Memory: 5Gb GDDR5 (x2)
• Mem Bus: 320 Bit (x2)
• Core: GK110 (x2)

 

Read more: http://wccftech.com/details-nvidia-geforce-gtx-790-finally-surface-4992-cuda-cores-10-gb-memory-5/#ixzz2pUWLYHXz

 

I wonder what it will cost....

[SRINI87]

$1000 maybe

[SRINI87]

AMD Kaveri APU A10-7850K Gaming and General Performance Unveiled – Mantle 45% Faster Than DirectX

 

Last but not least, we also have an update on the performance of AMD’s Mantle API which is mentioned to be 45% faster than DirectX. The Oxide demo with A8-7600 APU runs below 10 FPS in DirectX mode but reaches past 30 FPS with Mantle API which is a huge gain and something we could expect in Battlefield 4 when the update arrives this month. There are some good performance numbers below which you might want to check since many people have been asking for more credible, official and legitimate numbers regarding the Kaveri APU and the wait is finally over.

Read more: http://wccftech.com/amd-kaveri-apu-a107850k-gaming-general-performance-unveiled-mantle-45-faster-directx/#ixzz2pbwBw2vg

[ALPHA17]

OP updated,

• VisionTek reveals the CryoVenom R9-290
• AMD debuts FreeSync to counter G-Sync
• Oculus VR shows a new version of the Oculus Rift VR headset

[Sach4life]

When can we expect to buy oculus rift?

Edited January 7, 2014 by Sach4life

[Heaven Angel]

Late 2014 expected.

[ALPHA17]

Battlefield 4 demoed with AMD's Mantle during CES conference, runs "up to 45% faster"

 

Not sure where the actual demo is shown in their entire CES 2014 video, so please bear with me.

 

Also take all of this with a pinch of

Source: PCGamer

[WhiteWolf]

[ALPHA17]

OP updated,

• nVidia Maxwell debuts Q1 2014 on laptops and desktops.

[pbpoovannagamer]

Best Graphics Cards For The Money: January 2014

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107.html

 

 

 

The graphics card world crashed into 2014 with Radeon R9 290/290X cards topped by aftermarket heat sinks and fans, more details about the the Kaveri APU, wonky pricing, and rumors of new Nvidia graphics cards. Our recommendations change as a result.

[ALPHA17]

[Rumour] nVidia GTX750Ti might be first 'Maxwell' card to retail

 

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti has leaked on several occasions in the past but it was never launched. My best guess would be that NVIDIA canned the card since the GK106 architecture failed to live up to the performance expectations and had to go back to the drawing board. Its still odd of them to use the GeForce 700 series branding for the GeForce GTX 750 Ti whereas every new generation of GPU architecture gets a totally brand new naming scheme hence the Maxwell series should have been called GeForce 800 series. NVIDIA is currently using the GeForce 800 series branding on the mobility lineup.

 

We have been hearing reports that NVIDIA will start up the Maxwell lineup from bottom to top. This means the entry level and mid range cards would arrive first followed by the mainstream and performance tier cards. This could hint at why NVIDIA never launched entry level parts in the GeForce 700 series lineup since the desktop line-up only consists of GeForce GTX 780 Ti, GeForce GTX 780, GeForce GTX 770 and GeForce GTX 760.

 

Source: WCCFTECH via Sweclockers, image courtesy Videocardz.

[SRINI87]

That would be interesting