Finnish overclocker "The Stilt" overclocked his brand new AMD FX-8370 to a record-breaking 8722.78 MHz. The target was achieved using a base-clock of 276.91 MHz, and a multiplier of 31.5x, core voltage of 2.004V, and DRAM frequency of 1107 MHz (2214 MHz DDR). Other hardware included an ASUS Crosshair V Formula-Z motherboard, and 2x 4 GB of AMD made DDR3 memory. The setup was cooled by a liquid nitrogen evaporator. Find the validation and other details here.

SAPPHIRE Technology has just announced three new models in its successful R9 series of graphics cards based on the latest GCN (Graphics Core Next) architecture from AMD. The SAPPHIRE R9 285 Dual-X is a new model from SAPPHIRE that features a new GCN core and the company's Dual-X cooler. Dual-X, with its two aerofoil fans, and set of graduated sizes of heatpipes, is an efficient and quiet cooler design which received industry acclaim in previous generations of products. The standard R9 285 model has 2GB of the latest GDDR5 memory clocked at 1375MHz (5.5GB/s effective) and a GCN core with 1792 stream processors clocked at 918MHz. The R9 285 OC model features the enhanced clock speeds of 965MHz for the core and 1400MHz for the memory (5.6GB/s effective).

TUL Corporation, a leading manufacturer of AMD graphic cards, today introduces a unique exclusive model for Japan, the PowerColor R7 250XE. The "E" represents the meaning of "Eco"; the brand-new R7 250X features no need for external power, saves more energy yet delivers the best performance out of its class. Moreover, PowerColor R7 250XE is designed in low-profile, saving lot of space in your case, making it a excellent choice for users who search for powerful, lower power requirements as well as quieter VGA card.

The R7 250XE runs the clock speeds up to 860MHz for the core and 1125MHz for the memory, delivering the best performance in its class. Also, use a 128-bit memory interface and 1GB of GDDR5 memory, allows more bandwidth for demanding DirectX 11.2 gaming title. What's more, the new model is packed with a total of 1120 stream processors, delivering massively parallel computing power for graphics and other accelerated applications.

TUL Corporation, a leading manufacturer of AMD graphic cards since 1997, announces the latest model, the PowerColor TurboDuo R9 285 OC. This card will be offered a cost-effective choice for those who are looking for the best bang for their buck. The new TurboDuo R9 285 OC comes packed with the latest GCN architecture innovations like Direct 12 and Mantle API. Ensuring that gamers can play the most demanding games at settings better than any other card in its class.

Equipped with 2GB of GDDR5 memory, the TurboDuo R9 285 OC comes overclocked from the factory to the core clock speed of 945MHz, and 1375MHz for the memory clock speed, giving gamers blazing fast speed while gaming. In addition to factory default OC setting, the TurboDuo R9 285 OC takes advantage of PowerColor's exclusive Gold Power Kit, which includes total 7-phase design, PowerPAK SO-8, and SVI2 Green Power Manage technology, ensuring stability for its OC setting.

AMD in collaboration with Microsoft today announced the release of C++ AMP version 1.2 -- an open source C++ compiler which implements version 1.2 of the open specification for C++ AMP, available on both Linux and Windows for the first time. The release represents another step forward toward AMD's goal of supporting cross-platform solutions, multiple programming languages and continued contributions to the open source community. The tool, which leverages Clang and LLVM, accelerates productivity and ease of use for developers wishing to harness the full power of modern heterogeneous platforms spanning servers, PCs and handheld devices.

"AMD has a consistent track record of enriching the developer experience, and we're proud to make the first open source implementation of C++ AMP available to enable greater performance and more power-efficient applications," said Manju Hegde, corporate vice president, Heterogeneous Applications and Solutions, AMD. "The cross-platform release is another step in strengthening AMD's developer solutions, allowing for increased productivity and accelerated applications through shared physical memory across the CPU and GPU on both Linux and Windows."

Jon Peddie Research (JPR), the industry's research and consulting firm for graphics and multimedia, announced estimated graphics add-in-board (AIB) shipments and suppliers' market share for 2014 2Q.

The quarter in general
JPR found that AIB shipments during Q2 2014 behaved according to past years with regard to seasonality, but the decrease was more than the 10-year average. The news was disappointing, quarter-to-quarter, the market dropped 17.5 % (compared to the desktop PC market, which increased 1.3%).

• Total AIB shipments decreased this quarter to 11.5 million units from last quarter.
• AMD's quarter-to-quarter total desktop AIB unit shipments decreased 10.7%.
• Nvidia's quarter-to-quarter unit shipments decreased 21%.
• Nvidia continues to hold a dominant market share position at 62%.
• Figures for the other suppliers were flat to declining.

Here are some of the first high-resolution pictures of the Radeon R9 285 TurboDuo graphics card by PowerColor. The card features a meaty custom-design cooling solution, with two twin-impeller fans, and a dense aluminium fin-stack heatsink. PowerColor didn't bother with a reference-clock variant of this card. It comes factory-overclocked, at 945 MHz core (918 MHz reference), and 5.50 GHz (GDDR5-effective) memory. It features 2 GB of it.

Based on the 28 nm "Tonga" silicon, the Radeon R9 285 features 1,792 Graphics CoreNext 1.1 stream processors, 112 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface. The card draws power from two 6-pin PCIe power connectors. Display outputs include two dual-link DVI, and one each of HDMI and DisplayPort. With a modern XDMA CrossFire interface, the card lacks CrossFire fingers. It remains to be seen just how many cards the driver allows you to run in tandem. The Radeon R9 285 from AMD will launch on the 2nd of September, 2014. Prices start at US $249.

Sapphire launched its first performance-segment "compact" graphics card to take on the likes of GeForce GTX 760 ITX cards by ASUS and MSI, even if it isn't the first AMD AIB partner to do so. Sapphire's card is based on AMD's swanky new Radeon R9 285 graphics chip, which is slated for September 2nd, 2014. Called the R9 285 ITX Compact Edition, the card is a little over 17 cm long, 11 cm tall, and 2-slot thick. It features a dense aluminium fin-stack heatsink, which is ventilated by a single 100 mm fan. The card draws power from two 6-pin PCIe connectors. A single 8-pin to two 6-pin adapter is included. Display outputs include two mini-DisplayPort 1.2, one HDMI 1.4a, and a dual-link DVI, which has analog (VGA) pins, and an adapter for that is included.

This is also likely the first/only R9 285 card to feature dual-BIOS, with a push-type BIOS toggle switch. This switch lets you select between a UEFI-ready BIOS that features a UEFI GOP driver, and a "legacy" BIOS. Both run the card at the same clock speeds - 918 MHz core, with 5.50 GHz (GDDR5-effective) memory. Sapphire is also readying an OC Edition variant of this card, which comes with a puny 10 MHz overclock (928 MHz core), and untouched memory clocks. Based on the 28 nm "Tonga" silicon, the R9 285 offers 1,792 GCN 1.1 stream processors, 112 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and a 256-bit wide memory interface, which holds 2 GB of memory on this card.

Here are some of the first detailed shots of ASUS' premium custom-design Radeon R9 285 Strix graphics card, based on AMD's upcoming GPU. The card features a unique cooling solution that keeps its fans off until the GPU reaches a temperature threshold. The cooler's underlying heatsink is essentially DirectCU II, featuring a dense aluminium fin stack to which heat drawn directly from the GPU die is fed by a number of nickel-plated copper heat pipes. This particular card features a factory-overclock, and 2 GB of memory. Oh, and it comes with a back-plate. Based on the 28 nm "Tonga" silicon, the R9 285 features 1,792 Graphics CoreNext 1.1 stream processors, 112 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface. The card is set to launch on 2nd September, 2014. It will start at US $249.

AMD today announced a new technology partnership with Creative Assembly, developer behind the highly-anticipated "Alien: Isolation." Developed in conjunction with the AMD Gaming Evolved program, "Alien: Isolation" is fully optimized for a premium PC gaming experience, including native support for: AMD Eyefinity technology, 4K UltraHD, AMD CrossFire multi-GPU technology, and a wide range of DirectX 11 effects tuned for the Graphics Core Next architecture in recent AMD Radeon GPUs and AMD Accelerated Processing Units.

"The AMD Gaming Evolved program is committed to making games look great and run well for all PC gamers," said Ritche Corpus, director of ISV Gaming and Alliances, AMD. "By working with truly talented developers like Creative Assembly, we deliver on that commitment with fun and beautiful games like 'Alien: Isolation,' which give PC gamers the high-end technology they deserve."

AMD put out its own 3DMark FireStrike performance numbers for its soon-to-launch Radeon R9 285 performance-segment graphics card. Running on a test-bed powered by a Core i7-4960X six-core processor and 16 GB of DDR3-1866 memory, the R9 285 scored P7066 (performance preset) and X3513 (extreme preset); compared to an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 (337.88 WHQL driver) scoring P5650 and X2774, on the same test-bed. For a card that's in the same price-range (the R9 285 will start at $249) as the GTX 760 (currently going for as low as $239), that's an impressive performance uplift. The R9 285 will start selling on the 2nd of September, 2014.

AMD is planning to launch its next performance-segment CPUs alongside its Radeon R9 285 graphics card; the FX-8370 and its energy-efficient variant, the FX-8370E. Based on the 32 nm "Vishera" silicon, the FX-8370 is an eight-core socket AM3+ processor, featuring out of the box clock speeds of 4.10 GHz, with TurboCore frequencies of 4.30 GHz. The standard variant features 125W TDP, while the FX-8370E features 95W. The two will sell at the same price-points as the FX-8350. The FX-8370E will sell at a slight premium.

AMD announced the latest round of free games with its upcoming graphics cards, the Never Settle: Space Edition. The bundle adds several new space-themed games to the 27 free games you can choose, as a reward for going AMD Radeon. These games include Star Citizen, Alien: Isolation, Space Run, and Habitat. Buyers of all AMD graphics cards with unused Never Settle coupons can choose from these four titles.

It's confirmed the GeForce GTX 760 really is on AMD's crosshair's with the Radeon R9 285. Based on the 28 nm "Tonga" silicon, which is designed to offer "Tahiti" like performance at the energy-efficiency levels comparable to NVIDIA's GK104, the R9 285 features 1,792 Graphics CoreNext stream processors, 112 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding 2 GB or 4 GB of memory. The card will feature clock speeds of 918 MHz core, 5.50 GHz memory. AMD claims the R9 285 will be up to 15 percent faster than the GeForce GTX 760. It will start at US $249, with partners coming out with custom-designs on day-one (September 2nd, 2014).

AMD production manager Devon Nekechuk, speaking at the company's 30 Years of Graphics event, disclosed that all AMD GPUs based on the Graphics CoreNext architecture will support DirectX 12, Microsoft's next generation multimedia API. The company is already up-to-date on the DirectX feature-level support, with support for DirectX 11.2. The company isn't drumming that up too loud, probably because it's developing an ecosystem for its own/competing AMD Mantle 3D API.

AMD disclosed the first details of its upcoming Radeon R9 285 graphics card, designed to compete with NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 760. Based on the 28 nm "Tonga" silicon, the card features 1,792 of the chip's 2,048 Graphics Core Next 1.1 stream processors, 112 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface. AMD AIBs will have variants with 2 GB and 4 GB of memory. The company didn't disclose clock speeds, but the card will be designed to offer performance rivaling (or outperforming) the R9 280, at energy-efficiency levels rivaling NVIDIA's GK104 silicon. Below are some of the first custom-design graphics cards.

AMD is preparing to expand its performance-segment socket AM3+ processor lineup, steering clear of the 220W TDP of its FX-9000 series. The two chips are the FX-8370, and the FX-8370E. The FX-8370 will likely replace the FX-8350 around the $180 mark; while the FX-8370E will be its energy-efficient variant. Both chips offer clock speeds of 4.10 GHz, with 4.30 GHz TurboCore frequencies. While the FX-8370 has a rated TDP of 125W, the FX-8370E features 95W, without a reduction in clock speeds. The FX-8370E could hence come at a slight premium.

Both the FX-8370 and FX-8370E are eight-core processors based on the 32 nm "Vishera" silicon, featuring four "Piledriver" CPU modules that have 2 MB of L2 cache each, and 8 MB of L3 cache shared between the four modules. The chips feature dual-channel DDR3 integrated memory controllers, with native support for DDR3-1866 MHz, and 5.2 GT/s HyperTransport 3.1 system bus. Instruction-sets include AVX, AES, SSE4.2, FMA3, and XOP. The chips will run on all existing socket AM3+ motherboards, with some needing BIOS updates.

AMD is set to launch its new performance-segment graphics card, the Radeon R9 285, on the 2nd September, 2014. Ahead of its launch, the company is expected to tease the card at its August 23rd press-event, celebrating 30 years of graphics and gaming. On that day, AMD will share "partial" details of the card.

The R9 285 is based on AMD's swanky new 28 nm "Tonga" silicon, which is being drummed up to be AMD's best answer to NVIDIA's GK104. The chip offers performance rivaling "Tahiti," at the power consumption of GK104. The R9 285 is being designed to offer performance roughly that of the Radeon R9 280, at energy-efficiency, and pricing to drop lead on NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 760. A month later, presumably in early October, the company plans to launch the faster R9 285X, offering performance comparable (if not higher than) the R9 280X, at the energy-efficiency levels of GTX 770. "Tonga" physically features 2,048 Graphics CoreNext 1.1 stream processors, 128 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, which will hold 2 GB or 4 GB of memory.

AMD's new entry-level graphics card to counter NVIDIA's GeForce GT 730/740, is the new Radeon R7 250XE, which has been showing up unannounced, in certain Japanese stores. Its reference-design card is pictured below, as having a low-profile, single-slot design. The card is said to be based on a refreshed, energy-efficient variant of the 28 nm "Cape Verde" silicon, featuring 640 stream processors, a 128-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface holding 1 GB of memory, and clock speeds of 860 MHz core, and 4.50 GHz memory. The card is being designed to capture the $60-$70 price-point.

AMD today announced its Radeon R7 line of mainstream solid-state drives. Built by OCZ, the drives feature Toshiba-made MLC NAND flash, and OCZ's Indilinx Barefoot 3 M00 processors. Built in the 7 mm-thick 2.5-inch form-factor, the drives feature SATA 6 Gb/s interface, and are available in three capacities, 120 GB, 240 GB, and 480 GB.

All three offer sequential read speeds of up to 550 MB/s; while the 120 GB variant offers up to 470 MB/s of sequential writes; the 240 GB and 480 GB ones offer up to 530 MB/s. Their 4K random read performance numbers are up to 85,000 IOPS, up to 95,000 IOPS, and up to 100,000 IOPS, respectively; while the 4K sequential write performance for all three are rated at up to 90,000 IOPS. The Radeon R7 is essentially an OCZ Vector 150 with lighter processor clocks, and could be priced accordingly.

Jon Peddie Research (JPR), the industry's research and consulting firm for graphics and multimedia, announced estimated graphics chip shipments and suppliers' market share for 2014 2Q.

Graphics chips are without doubt one of the most powerful, exciting, and essential components in tech today: not only does every computer require one (or more), but the technology is entering into major new markets like supercomputers, remote workstations, and simulators almost on a daily basis. New technologies and compute programs are taking advantage of the ability of GPU power to scale. On top of that, PC gaming momentum continues to build. It would be no exaggeration to say that GPUs are becoming the 800-pound gorilla in the room.

AMD announced that it will webcast its 30 Years of Graphics and Gaming commemoration, hosted by AMD's Chief Gaming Scientist, Richard Huddy on Saturday, Aug. 23, 2014 at 10:00 AM EDT (9:00 AM CDT/7:00 AM PDT). A real-time video webcast of the showcase will be accessible on the Investor Relations home page: ir.amd.com. A replay of the webcast can be accessed approximately four hours after the conclusion of the live event and will be available for one year after the event. Additionally, viewers will also be able to access the live broadcast on the AMD Twitch channel. A replay of the webcast will be accessible on the AMD YouTube channel.

AMD has today made available an updated Release Candidate of its Catalust 14.7 graphics driver for Windows 7 and 8.1 (32 and 64-bit). This new build, RC3, features all the goodies from the previous non-WHQL driver (14.7 RC) and adds performance improvements for Xaviant's Lichdom: Battlemage, tweaks enabling 'smoother gameplay' on Ubisoft's Watch Dogs, a CrossFire profile for Carbine Studios' WildStar, and 'display interface enhancements to improve 4k monitor performance and reduce flickering'.

The Catalyst 14.7 RC3 has support for the Radeon HD 5000, HD 6000, HD 7000, HD 8000, R5 200, R7 200 and R9 200 Series graphics cards and can be downloaded from this page.

Sapphire unveiled a factory overclocked version of the mainstream Radeon R7 250X Vapor-X graphics card it launched back in February, the Radeon R7 250X GHz Edition. Based on the same exact board design, featuring the same dual-fan Vapor-X cooling solution as its predecessor, the GHz Edition card features clock speeds of 1000 MHz core, and 4.80 GHz (GDDR5-effective) memory; compared to reference clock speeds of 925 MHz core and 4.50 GHz memory. The card takes in power from a single 6-pin PCIe power connector. Display outputs include two dual-link DVI, and one each of HDMI 1.4a and DisplayPort 1.2. Based on the 28 nm "Cape Verde" silicon, the Radeon R7 250X features 640 stream processors, 40 TMUs, 16 ROPs, and a 128-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface. This card features 2 GB of it.

According to a block diagram of AMD's new 28 nm "Tonga" silicon, it features the same amount of shading power as "Tahiti," if not more. The chip features a total of 2,048 Graphics CoreNext 1.1 stream processors, spread across 32 compute units (CUs). The chip also features 128 TMUs. The block diagram was part of press-material AMD distributed with its recently launched FirePro W7100 professional graphics card, which is based on "Tonga."

The W7100 uses just 28 of the 32 CUs, and hence features 1,792 stream processors. Other features of "Tonga," according to the block diagram, include a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, 32 ROPs, TrueAudio DSP, and a modern XDMA CrossFire interface. The first consumer graphics card based on this chip is the Radeon R9 285. It is expected to feature 1,792 stream processors, and offer performance rivaling the Radeon HD 7950 Boost at lower power draw, and priced to compete with the GeForce GTX 760. That could leave the possibility of a future "R9 285X" with the chip's full complement of stream processors.