MSI launched what could be the first custom NVIDIA SLI bridge cables that do more than look fancy - help ventilate your tightly stacked up graphics cards. The company announced a pair of new 3-way and 4-way SLI bridge kits, which combine a hardened bridge PCB shroud with a 120 mm fan mount. A silent 120 mm spinner is bundled, which is oriented to push air into the gaps between your graphics cards, but one that you can orient to pull air, too. The bridge shroud is styled along MSI Gaming red+black design language, and under it is a hard fiberglass PCB, with reinforced bridge connector slots. Thumb-screws and washers hold the fan mount in place between your graphics cards. MSI didn't reveal pricing.

The new MSI GTX 780Ti ties incredible performance and power efficiency into one great product. Boost your gaming experience with a stunningly beautiful, quiet design. With NVIDIA GPU Boost 2.0 you get maximum clock speeds while PhsyX and TXAA technologies give smooth, sharp graphics. Whether you're playing on stunning 4K monitors at extreme settings or multiple monitors at 2560x1600/2560x2440, the GTX 780 Ti provides horsepower to drive all of today's most demanding games. The GTX 780Ti also is ready for 3D displays and is supported by GeForce Experience which automatically optimizes your games for optimum performance.

NVIDIA today introduced the new GeForce GTX TITAN, powered by the fastest GPU on the planet and designed to unleash the world's fastest gaming PCs including personal gaming supercomputers and svelte, quiet, small form-factor PCs.

"GeForce GTX TITAN is a beast of a GPU -- and the only one in the world powerful enough to play any game at any resolution at any time," said Scott Herkelman, general manager of the GeForce business unit at NVIDIA. "And yet, all of this immense power is housed in a sleek, sexy design, so gamers can also build beautifully-designed PC gaming machines about the size of a gaming console, yet magnitudes more powerful and always upgradeable."

Specifications of NVIDIA's upcoming high-end graphics card, the GeForce GTX Titan, which were reported in the press over the last couple of weeks, are bang on target, according to a specs sheet leaked by 3DCenter.org, which is allegedly part of the card's press-deck. According to the specs sheet, the GTX Titan indeed features 2,688 out of the 2,880 CUDA cores present on the GK110 silicon, 6 GB of GDDR5 memory across a 384-bit wide memory interface, and draws power from a combination of 6-pin and 8-pin PCIe power connectors.

The GeForce GTX Titan core is clocked at 837 MHz, with a GPU Boost frequency of 876 MHz, and 6.00 GHz memory, churning out 288 GB/s of memory bandwidth. The chip features a single-precision floating-point performance figure of 4.5 TFLOP/s, and 1.3 TFLOP/s double-precision. Despite its hefty specs that include a 7.1 billion-transistor ASIC and 24 GDDR5 memory chips, NVIDIA rates the card's TDP at just 250W.More slides and benchmark figures follow.

A store listing by Danish online retailer Proshop reveals a couple of things, one, that NVIDIA's next flagship graphics card will indeed be called "GeForce GTX Titan," and two, it could be out of reach of a vast majority of enthusiasts. The retailer is listing an ASUS-branded card for 5,820.80 Danish Krone (US $1,046), and that's before Europe's famous taxation kicks in. After, that goes up to 7,276 DKK ($1,307).

If one has to infer performance of the card from this price, given that NVIDIA won't botch up price-performance in relation to GTX 690, the GTX Titan should perform on-par, or outperform the GTX 690. Even if it's a tiny bit slower, NVIDIA could focus its marketing efforts on the card's 4-way and 3-way SLI capabilities, using which one could outperform GTX 690 QuadSLI setups.

Thinking that mo' memory doesn't equal mo' problems, Gigabyte has went on and constructed a new Kepler-powered graphics card with 4 GB of onboard VRAM (double the usual amount), the GV-N670OC-4GD. This GeForce GTX 670 makes use of a WINDFORCE 3X 450W triple-fan/triple-slot cooling system, features an Ultra Durable VGA design and has its Base/Boost GPU clocks set to 980/1058 MHz (up from the stock 915/980 MHz).

The GV-N670OC-4GD also boasts 1344 CUDA Cores, a 256-bit memory interface, a memory clock of 6008 MHz, 3-way SLI support, and dual-DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort outputs. The card is available for pre-order at 439 Euro.

ASUS announced as many as five GeForce GTX 660 Ti graphics card models. The cards are based on the company's dual-slot DirectCu II cooling solution, and a PCB design that's similar to that of the GeForce GTX 670 DirectCu series. Among the five models are the GTX660 TI-DC2-2GD5, the base model that sticks to NVIDIA reference clock speeds of 915/980/6008 MHz (core/boost/memory); the GTX660 TI-DC2O-2GD5, with a mild level of factory-overclocking, at 967/1058/6008 MHz; GTX660 TI-DC2T-2GD5, or TOP variant, with 1059/1377/6008 MHz; and variants of the GTX660 TI-DC2O-2GD5 and GTX660 TI-DC2T-2GD5 that feature Steam coupons to Borderlands 2 game.

Based on the 28 nm GK104 silicon, the GeForce GTX 660 Ti packs 1344 CUDA cores, 112 TMUs, 24 ROPs, and a 192-bit wide memory interface, holding 2 GB of memory. ASUS' cards uses two 6-pin PCIe power connectors to draw power. Display outputs include a pair of dual-link DVI, and one each of HDMI and DisplayPort. The cards are 3-way SLI capable. The DirectCu II cooler uses a compound heatsink to which heat is fed by a number of copper heat pipes, which make direct contact with the GPU. ASUS plans 3 GB variants of the same models, in which six 2 Gbit memory chips make up 3072 MB of memory, with 144 GB/s memory bandwidth.

MSI's upcoming GeForce GTX 660 Ti HAWK 3 GB graphics card, installed in 3-way SLI configuration was pictured. One of the three was put through 3DMark03 and 3DMark 11. The picture reveals a card that looks similar to the company's GeForce GTX 670 Power Edition. MSI used double the memory amount, by populating the GPU's 192-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface with 3 GB of memory (2 Gbit x 12). The card is cooled by MSI's Twin Frozr IV cooling solution. It is clocked at 1020 MHz GPU core, 1098 MHz GPU Boost, and 6.00 GHz (GDDR5-effective) memory. The GPU-Z screenshot reveals more details.

While three of these cards were pictured in 3-way SLI configuration, only one of the three were put through tests. The cards were driven by a yet-unannounced GeForce 304.87 beta driver. In 3DMark03, the MSI GeForce GTX 660 Ti HAWK scored 18,731 points, and in 3DMark 11 Extreme Preset, it scored X2,862 points. Both these figures are similar to those of a reference NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670.

GIGABYTE Technology Co. LTD, a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, is pleased to introduce the world's fastest graphics cards - GV-N690D5-4GD-B. It combines the innovative new GeForce architecture with raw dual-GPU power to provide truly game-changing performance. GV-N690D5-4GD-B utilizes the latest 28nm fabrication process, GDDR5 memory and 3072 CUDA cores, and supports Microsoft DirectX 11, and PCI-Express 3.0.

It not only improves the processing ability but provides gamers a faster, smoother and richer gaming experience. Supporting NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround, 3D Vision, PhysX, and 3-way SLI, GV-N690D5-4GD-B guarantees an ultimate extreme experience. Equipped with the innovative Kepler GPU Dynamic Clocking technology, GV-N690D5-4GD-B has different clock rate - Base clock and Boost Clock. Boost clock dynamically adjusts clock speeds to bring out the best performance.

It turns out that the "third" long (physical x16, electrical x4) PCI-Express slot on most higher-end Z77 chipset-based motherboards, across vendors, are wired to the CPU, and not the Z77 PCH, as the media assumed. Early buyers of these motherboards were greeted by an informative sticker stuck to the third slot, which tells them that to use the third slot, a 3rd Generation Core "Ivy Bridge" processor must be installed, although the motherboard very much supports 2nd Generation Core "Sandy Bridge" processors.

This can be explained by taking a close look at the block diagram of Intel Z77 Express system. Z77, in combination with "Ivy Bridge" processors, allows the CPU root complex to drive three devices. Its single PCI-Express x16 link can be arranged in three ways: x16/NC/NC; x8/x8/NC; and x8/x4/x4. As you can see, the third long slot is taken into the configuration. Intel figured out that since PCI-Express 3.0 x4 offers bandwidth comparable to PCI-Express 1.0 x16 to gen 3-compliant graphics cards, it's wise if the third electrical x4 slot is also wired to the CPU's PCIe root complex. This renders most high-end LGA1155 motherboards with such CPU-driven third x16 (x4) slots 3-way SLI/CrossFireX-capable. Sweet.

Palit Microsystems Ltd, the leading graphics card manufacturer, announced a brand new Jetstream series at the GeForce GTX 680 The Palit Jetstream series of graphics cards features innovative cooling and an optimized product design to deliver gamers the ultimate gaming experience. As the latest and most powerful GPU in the series, the Palit Jetstream GeForce GTX 680 Jetstream guarantees gamers cutting-edge performance and an explosive new gaming experience.

The factory overclocked Palit GeForce GTX 680 Jetstream is at boost clock 1150 MHz that is +92 MHz than the standard speed and 2GB GDDR5 memory clock is set at 6300 MHz (+292 MHz higher). Equipped with the Jetstream cooler and optimized product design, Palit GeForce GTX680 Jetstream performs 12.5% higher at 3DMark11 Xscore and average 10% higher among all hot gaming titles.

Palit-owned AIB maker Gainward has done as expected today by unveiling a branded GeForce GTX 680 graphics card. Seen below, the Kepler-powered card features support for DirectX 11(.1), CUDA, PhysX, 3D Vision Surround, and for 3-way SLI.

Like all the other stock GTX 680s announced today, Gainward's offering has 1536 CUDA Cores, a base GPU clock of 1006 MHz, a 256-bit memory interface, 2 GB of GDDR5 VRAM @ 6000 MHz, a PCI-Express 3.0 bus, two 6-pin PCIe power connectors, and dual-DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort outputs. The card is now available priced at €498.95.

MAINGEAR, an award-winning PC system builder of custom desktops, notebooks, and workstations, offers PC gamers and enthusiasts the next generation of NVIDIA architecture that delivers a powerful new graphics solution to redefine smooth, seamless, lifelike gaming on their award-winning desktop systems.

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 is the fastest single GPU graphics card on the market today with superior power efficiency that allows for the card to be extremely quiet, along with new key visual technologies as well as added multi-display capabilities. MAINGEAR desktops equipped with the new NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 graphics card offer the fastest graphics performance to date thanks to NVIDIA's GPU boost technology, which dynamically maximizes clock speeds based on the workload of the program to push performance to new levels and brings out the best in every game. This new generation of NVIDIA graphics provides the best gaming experience possible with maximum detail settings enabled.

NVIDIA released its newest graphics card model specifically for the winter shopping season, the limited edition GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 cores. Not only is this a limited edition launch, but also targeting only specific markets in North America and Europe. This includes the United States and Canada in North America; and the UK, France, Germany, Russia, and the Nordics in Europe. The new card is based on the 40 nanometer GF110 GPU instead of the GF114 that the regular GTX 560 Ti is based on. This allows NVIDIA to add 64 more CUDA cores (448 vs. 384), 25% more memory (1280 MB vs. 1024), and a 25% wider memory bus (320 bit vs. 256).

The new limited edition GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 cores features clock speeds identical to those on the GeForce GTX 570, at 732 MHz core, 1464 MHz CUDA cores, and 950 MHz (3.80 GHz effective) GDDR5 memory. Since it's based on the GF110 board, this new card is also capable of 3-way SLI, something the regular GTX 560 Ti isn't. The card draws power from two 6-pin PCIe power connectors. Display outputs typically include two DVI and a mini-HDMI. Add-in card vendors are free to design their own graphics cards based on this chip, and so expect most GTX 560 Ti 448 core cards to look similar to non-reference GTX 570 ones. ZOTAC, Inno3D, EVGA, Palit, Gainward, ASUS, Gigabyte, and MSI will have graphics cards based on this chip. Prices should typically start at US $289.

GIGABYTE TECHNOLGY Co. Ltd., a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, today announced the launch of their latest X79 series enthusiast motherboard range. Supporting the latest 2nd Generation Intel Core i7 processor family for high-end desktops, these new X79 Express Chipset motherboards unite unrivalled desktop PC performance with a new level of hardware flexibility and control. GIGABYTE 3D Power and its all new 3-way Digital Power Engine offers ultimate control of your PC's power delivery, while GIGABYTE 3D BIOS provides a wholly more intuitive and graphical UEFI BIOS environment.

"This new GIGABYTE X79 series range of boards are all about giving enthusiasts and professionals unprecedented control over their PC's hardware," commented Tim Handley, Deputy Director of Motherboard Marketing at GIGABYTE. "GIGABYTE 3D Power and 3D BIOS give hardcore gamers, extreme overclockers and cutting-edge content creators absolute mastery over every aspect of their PC."

ASRock's first wave of socket LGA2011 motherboards comes a full circle with the X79 Extreme4. The series consists of the X79 Extreme4, X79 Extreme4-M (micro-ATX), X79 Extreme7, and X79 Extreme9. There aren't many micro-ATX LGA2011 motherboards that we're hearing about, and hence ASRock might get the opportunity to charge a premium for the X79 Extreme4-M, making this the most affordable LGA2011 board from ASRock's stable. It still packs a lot of features and connectivity. To begin with, it is consistent with the black and gold styling of the other boards, including the active fan-heatsink over the X79 PCH.

The LGA2011 socket is powered by an 8-phase VRM design, which is identical to that of the X79 Extreme4-M. The socket is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots, supporting quad-channel DDR3 memory (one DIMM per channel). It has an interesting combination of expansion slots, making use of all 7 spaces available to the ATX form-factor. It includes three PCI-Express x16 (first two are permanent PCI-Express 3.0 x16, the third is permanent PCI-Express 2.0 x8), two PCI-Express 2.0 x1, and two legacy PCI. Storage connectivity includes two SATA 6 Gb/s and four SATA 3 Gb/s internal ports wired to the X79 PCH, three additional SATA 6 Gb/s and one eSATA 6 Gb/s wired to ASMedia-made SATA controllers.

Gigabyte's top-tier socket AM3+ motherboard lineup is shaping up in a big way, with a bleeding-edge GA-990FXA-UD7 at the top of the pile. Gigabyte has yet another motherboard to cater to fans of the AM3+ platform, the GA-990FXA-UD5. The UD5 features a more conventional-looking component layout, with the northbridge located where it usually is. You still get the 10-phase VRM from the UD7, the black Ultra Durable 3 PCB, but this board is designed for multi-GPU setups with up to 3 graphics cards: supporting 3-way SLI and CrossFireX.

Expansion slots include five PCI-Express 2.0 x16, of which three (slots 1,3,5) are PCI-Express 2.0 wired to the AMD 990FX northbridge, with electrical configurations of x16/x16/NC or x16/x8/x8. Slots 2 and 4 are electrical x4, wired to the SB950 southbridge. Other slots include a PCI-E x1, and a legacy PCI. Storage connectivity is similar to that of the UD7, with eight SATA 6 Gb/s internal ports, a power-eSATA, and a normal eSATA.

Here are some of the first proper pictures of ASUS ROG Crosshair V Formula motherboard, a set of press-shots leaked to the Czech press, which has since been retracted. The ROG Crosshair V Formula comes in two packages, with and without ASUS Thunderbolt card (an addon card by ASUS that provides Bigfoot Killer NIC and Sound Blaster X-Fi hardware-accelerated audio). The Crosshair V made its first appearance with a box-shot disclosure by NVIDIA announcing SLI on AMD chipset motherboards; later a table listing out specifications of some of ASUS' fist socket AM3+ motherboard was published.

The Crosshair V Formula is a socket AM3+ motherboard based on AMD 990FX + SB950 chipset, supporting AMD's upcoming FX-series processors based on the Bulldozer architecture. It combines the best features ASUS has to offer, targeting both gamers and overclockers. The AM3+ socket is powered by a strong 10-phase Digi+ Extreme Engine VRM, it supports dual-channel DDR3 memory with speeds of over DDR3-2133 MHz. Expansion slots include four PCI-Express 2.0 x16, which configure as x16/x16/NC or x16/x8/x8, with the fourth slot being electrical x4, wired to the southbridge. NVIDIA 3-way SLI and AMD CrossFireX are supported.

A picture of ECS' top of the line socket AM3+ motherboard also made it to the web. Called the ECS Black Series A990FXM-A, the board expands a little on the chipset's features. Its component layout is similar to most AM3+ motherboards we've seen, with the AMD 990FX northbridge being located south of the CPU VRM area, sharing heat with it over a common heatsink. The CPU socket is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots supporting dual-channel DDR3-1866 standard, and DDR3-2133 MHz by overclocking.

Expansion slots include three PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (x16/NC/x16 or x16/x8/x8), supporting NVIDIA 3-way SLI and AMD CrossFireX. Other expansion slots include two PCI-E x1 and a PCI. Storage connectivity includes six internal SATA 6 Gb/s from the southbridge, and a third-party SATA/IDE controller that gives out an internal IDE connector and two eSATA 3 Gb/s ports. Other connectivity features include 8+2 channel HD audio, dual gigabit Ethernet, four USB 3.0 ports (two by header), and Bluetooth. There are some overclocker-friendly features, such as onboard power/reset, rear-panel CMOS clear, onboard PC speaker, diagnostic LED display, and long 8-pin EPS connector for accessibility. Like most other boards, the ECS A990FXM-A is expected to be out in mid-June.

Stores in Taiwan have started stocking up on Gigabyte's latest high-end LGA1155 motherboard, the GA-Z68X-UD7 B3. Based on the new Z68 chipset that combines the overclocking capabilities of P67 with the Flexible Display Interface (FDI) feature of H67, Z68 will be Intel's most functional desktop chipset for the LGA1155. Gigabyte's board carries forward the feature-set of the P67A-UD7, and adds a GUI-based Hybrid EFI setup program. Quite surprisingly, there are no display outputs, so we're not quite sure why the designers opted for Z68 in the first place.

The GA-Z68X-UD7 uses a 24-phase VRM that uses driver-MOSFETs to power the CPU, four DDR3 DIMM slots to support dual-channel memory, four PCI-Express x16 slots supporting 3-way SLI and CrossFireX. Gigabyte is probably using an NVIDIA nForce 200 bridge chip for the additional PCI-E lanes. Storage connectivity includes four SATA 6 Gb/s, six SATA 3 Gb/s, and two eSATA/USB combo ports. There are at least four USB 3.0 ports. Gigabyte's new board will reach western markets later this month, after Z68's formal launch.

NVIDIA today announced that NVIDIA SLI technology has been licensed by the world's leading motherboard manufacturers -- including Intel, ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI and EVGA -- for use on their Intel P67 Express Chipset-based motherboards designed for the upcoming Intel Sandy Bridge processors.

As a result, customers who purchase a SLI-certified P67-based motherboard and a Sandy Bridge processor can equip their PCs with a single or a dual combination of NVIDIA GeForce GPUs, including the recently released GeForce GTX 580 GPU and GTX 570, the world's fastest DX11 GPUs. 3-way SLI is also available on supported platforms.

EVGA released its newest socket LGA1366 motherboard, the EVGA X58 SLI3 (model: 131-GT-E767-TR). This model completes EVGA's lineup of new LGA1366 motherboards that pack USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gb/s support, other models include the EVGA X58 FTW3 and EVGA X58 Classified3. Among the three, the X58 SLI3 is the most affordable, and targets a sub-$200 price point. The model and its overall design are derived from the X58 SLI, but with 2-port USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gb/s controllers.

The LGA1366 socket is powered by a 6-phase VRM, it's wired to six DDR3 DIMM slots for triple-channel memory support. The motherboard supports all released Intel Core i7 LGA1366 processors, including the six-core models, out of the box. Expansion slots include one PCI-Express 2.0 x16, two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (electrical x8), two PCI-E x1, and one PCI. 2-way and 3-way SLI are supported. Apart from the six SATA 3 Gb/s ports from the ICH10R southbridge, there are two SATA 6 Gb/s ports (color coded red). Connectivity includes 8-channel HD audio, gigabit Ethernet, two USB 3.0 and a number of USB 2.0 ports. The EVGA X58 SLI3 is listed on the company's store, at US $199.99.

Acer, the world's second largest vendor in the PC market, today announced its newest Acer Aspire "Predator" gaming desktop PC is armed for combat and ready to do battle in the U.S. A force to be reckoned with, the power-packed AG7750-U2222 gaming rig harnesses the pinnacle of processor, graphics and memory technologies for conquering the fiercest opponents.

Taking bold style and performance to a killer level, the Aspire Predator is designed for avid gamers with a "take no prisoners" attitude. It's a monster machine outfitted with plenty of ammo, including Intel Core i7 quad-core processors, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470 graphics with 3-way SLI support and a whopping 12GB DDR3 memory for blowing away the competition.

NVIDIA today released GeForce 257.21 WHQL driver suite for GeForce series graphics cards and NVIDIA ION platforms, this is the first WHQL-signed driver in its 256 series of drivers, which archives two main goals as far as driver packaging goes: unifying desktop and mobile GeForce drivers; and unifying GeForce 400 series drivers with that which supports GeForce 6 thru GeForce 300 series into one package (NVIDIA initially had a separate package for GeForce 400 series). GeForce 257.21 also packs a boatload of changes, including a large number of game-specific performance increments, new technologies, updates key extra components, and fixes bugs.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 257.21 WHQL for Windows 7/Vista 64-bit, Windows 7/Vista 32-bit, Windows XP 32-bit, Windows XP 64-bit
A complete list of changes follows.

EVGA is readying a new high-end socket LGA1366 motherboard building on its FTW (for the win) moniker, the X58 FTW3, carrying the EVGA SKU code of 132-GT-E768-KR. The new motherboard was spotted on the North American online retailer NCIX.com, where it was listed for US $342.39 and CA $319.99, before EVGA even launched the product or gave it a product page on the company website.

The 132-GT-E768-KR is a standard ATX motherboard. The CPU is powered by an 8-phase standard VRM, it is wired to six DDR3 slots for triple-channel memory support. The X58 IOU is cooled by a larger than usual heatsink, which slants towards the socket to give clearance to large CPU coolers. The X58 and ICH10R stick to the specifications, with no additional bridge chip. Expansion slots include three PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (x16, x8, x8 when all three are populated, x16, x16, NC when the first two are), supporting 3-way SLI, 2-way SLI, and ATI CrossFireX. Connectivity includes two SATA 6 Gb/s and six 3 Gb/s ports, two gigabit Ethernet controllers, 8 channel audio, two USB 3.0 and 8 USB 2.0 ports, and support for the EVBot OC module. EVGA should officially introduce this board soon.