Sapphire announced its Radeon R9 290X graphics card lineup, which includes a reference design board that sticks to AMD reference clock speeds of 1000 MHz core, and 5.00 GHz memory; and a Battlefield 4 Special Edition SKU that includes an Origin key to the game. Both products are based on AMD's reference board design. Based on the 28 nm "Hawaii" silicon, the R9 290X features 2,816 stream processors, 176 TMUs, 64 ROPs, 4 tessellation units, and a 512-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding 4 GB of memory. The lineup starts at US $549.99.

Here's the first picture of an AIB-branded Radeon R9 290 (non-X) graphics card, the Club3D Radeon R9 290. The card sticks to AMD's reference board design, which like the Radeon R9 290X, could have exclusive market presence for a while, before AMD's add-in board (AIB) partners come up with their own board designs. This particular card features a factory-overclock, although we don't have the clock speeds at hand. The reference design clock speeds, which will be loaded into the card's failsafe secondary BIOS, will be 946 MHz core, and 5.00 GHz (GDDR5-effective) memory. Based on the 28 nm "Hawaii" silicon, the Radeon R9 290 features 2,560 stream processors, 160 TMUs, 64 ROPs, and a 512-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding 4 GB of memory.

Around all the buzz surrounding the Radeon R9 290X, we're ignoring its smaller, more affordable sibling, the Radeon R9 290 (non-X). It's being reported that the SKU will be formally launched on the 31st of October, 2013. From leaked AMD presentation slides, we know that the R9 290 is based on the same 28 nm "Hawaii" silicon as the R9 290X, but with a lower stream processor count, standing at 2,560, and a proportionately lower TMU count, at 160. The rest of the components on the chip are untouched, it still features a 512-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding 4 GB of memory. The GPU core is clocked up to 946 MHz, and memory at 5.00 GHz, churning out 320 GB/s of memory bandwidth. The leak also highlighted the review NDA lifting time for the R9 290X, which is tomorrow.

Apple today redefined pro computing with the launch of the all-new Mac Pro. Designed around an innovative unified thermal core, the Mac Pro features the latest Intel Xeon processors with up to 12 cores, dual workstation-class GPUs, six Thunderbolt 2 ports, PCIe-based flash storage and ultra-fast ECC memory. Packing amazing performance in a stunning new design, the all-new Mac Pro starts at $2,999 (US) and will be available in December.

"The new Mac Pro is our vision for the future of the pro desktop, everything about it has been reimagined and there has never been anything like it," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "The new Mac Pro packs up to 12-core Xeon CPUs, dual FirePro GPUs, ultra-fast ECC memory, new PCIe flash storage, Thunderbolt 2 expandability and more into a radical new design that is one-eighth the size of the previous generation Mac Pro."

Hightech Information System (HIS) today unleash the HIS R7 260X iPower IceQ X² 2GB GDDR5. HIS R7 260X iPower IceQX² 2GB GDDR5 features iPower for more voltage, Boost Clock & iTurbo for appealing performance, IceQX2 for cooler and quieter. Armed with iPower design, the extra PWM phases provide the card with higher and more stable power output which leads to appealing overclocking. With the latest technologies and features of R7 260X chipset, the card provides amazing graphics experience to all users.

Hightech Information System (HIS) today proudly announces the HIS R9 280X iPower IceQX2 Turbo Boost Clock 3GB GDDR5. HIS R9 280X iPower IceQX2 Turbo Boost Clock 3GB GDDR5 features iPower for more voltage, Boost Clock & Turbo for appealing performance, IceQX2 for cooler and quieter. Armed with iPower design, the extra PWM phases provide the card with higher and more stable power output which leads to a better-than-expected overclocking. In comparison with 850MHz of the reference board, the core clock of the card has been by default set at 1000MHz.

With the latest technologies and features of R9 280X chipset, the card provides an all-round graphic experience to all users. The state-of-the-art IceQX2 coolers empower the card with the best cooling solution. The card is cooler than the reference design and is below 28dB during watching movies, surfing on internet and ordinary work. Even when graphic-intensive gaming is being played, the card still remains at very quiet level. The card comes with the innovative overclocking software iTurbo. With the user-friendly design, the user can control the temperature, speed and voltage of the card by very simple steps.

Here's the first picture of XFX' Radeon R9 290X graphics card, leaked to the web by Danish retailer ProShop. The card sticks to AMD reference design, and we're hearing that it will be a while after its launch, that we'll begin to see non-reference design R9 290X graphics cards. In the mean time, AMD's add-in board partners are spicing up their R9 290X packages with goodies, and factory overclocks that the reference design cooler can handle. This card, for example, includes an Origin key to Battlefield 4 (standard edition). ProShop is pricing the card at the equivalent of $1,550, although we're inclined to believe it's just a placeholder price. Radeon R9 290X should be available from October 24.

AMD today announced revenue for the third quarter of 2013 of $1.46 billion, operating income of $95 million and net income of $48 million, or $0.06 per share. The company reported non-GAAP operating income of $78 million and non-GAAP net income of $31 million, or $0.04 per share.

"AMD returned to profitability and generated free cash flow in the third quarter as we continued to successfully execute the strategic transformation plan we outlined a year ago," said Rory Read, AMD president and CEO. "We achieved 26 percent sequential revenue growth driven by our semi-custom business and remain committed to generating approximately 50 percent of revenue from high-growth markets over the next two years. Developing industry-leading technology remains at our core, and we are in the middle of a multi-year journey to redefine AMD as a leader across a more diverse set of growth markets."

Here are results from the first formal review of the Radeon R9 290X, AMD's next-generation flagship single-GPU graphics card. Posted by Chinese publication PCOnline.com.cn, the it sees the R9 290X pitted against the GeForce GTX TITAN, and GeForce GTX 780. An out-of-place fourth member of the comparison is the $299 Radeon R9 280X. The tests present some extremely interesting results. Overall, the Radeon R9 290X is faster than the GeForce GTX 780, and trades blows, or in some cases, surpasses the GeForce GTX TITAN. The R9 290X performs extremely well in 3DMark: FireStrike, and beats both NVIDIA cards at Metro: Last Light. In other tests, its half way between the GTX 780 and GTX TITAN, leaning closer to the latter in some tests. Power consumption, on the other hand, could either dampen the deal, or be a downright dealbreaker. We'll leave you with the results.More results follow.

Microsoft stated in its recent company blog that the Xbox One console won't support third-party 3D APIs such as OpenGL and AMD Mantle (specifically mentioning the two), and that the console will be built to take advantage of the latest DirectX 11.2 API. AMD jumped in with a quick statement on the matter, so developers don't take Microsoft the wrong way, stating that AMD Mantle was never intended to be a 3D API for consoles, but rather PCs. The API would be compatible with DirectX HLSL (shading language), to simplify porting games from DirectX over to Mantle. Says AMD;

What Mantle creates for the PC is a development environment that's _similar_ to the consoles, which already offer low-level APIs, close-to-metal programming, easier development and more (vs. the complicated PC environment). By creating a more console-like developer environment, Mantle: improves time to market; reduces development costs; and allows for considerably more efficient rendering, improving performance for gamers. The console connection is made because next-gen uses Radeon, so much of the programming they're doing for the consoles are already well-suited to a modern Radeon architecture on the desktop; that continuum is what allows Mantle to exist.

As proponents of the DirectX API, which single-handedly shaped consumer 3D graphics market for the past decade and a half, it shouldn't come as a shocker, that Microsoft's next-generation entertainment platform, the Xbox One, will not support AMD's ambitious Mantle project, a 3D API that's tailor-made for the company's Graphics CoreNext GPU micro-architecture, on which the GPU driving the Xbox One is based. The company released a statement to that effect mentioning that "other APIs" such as OpenGL and AMD Mantle won't be supported on Xbox One. Says Microsoft;

We are very excited that with the launch of Xbox One, we can now bring the latest generation of Direct3D 11 to console. The Xbox One graphics API is "Direct3D 11.x" and the Xbox One hardware provides a superset of Direct3D 11.2 functionality. Other graphics APIs such as OpenGL and AMD's Mantle are not available on Xbox One.

The Xbox One will support DirectX 11.2, an evolution over DirectX 11, which adds support for a new feature called "Tiled resources," which lets 3D apps more efficiently manage available hardware resources, by streaming portions of single large textures as a 3D scene being rendered demands it. It heralds a kind of virtual memory system for the GPU, and Microsoft could encourage game developers to take advantage of it, for their Xbox One titles. Such a feature already exists with OpenGL.

A HIS-branded AMD reference design Radeon R9 290X graphics card was taken apart by Expreview, revealing its cooling solution, the PCB, the VRM, and the star attraction, the company's new 28 nm "Hawaii" silicon. The pictures match with an earlier, blurrier leak from September. The cooling solution is typical AMD fare, with its copper plate covering the GPU, memory, and VRM areas, aluminium channels, and a lateral-flow fan. The PCB features the swanky new 7.08 billion-transistor chip from AMD, sixteen GDDR5 memory chips (all of which are on the obverse side), and the 5+1+1 phase VRM, which uses CPL-made chokes, IR-made DirectFETs, and a new IR-made VRM controller. The first reviews of the Radeon R9 290X should be published later this month. Find more pictures at the source.

An alleged company slide detailing the architecture of AMD's upcoming "Hawaii" GPU was leaked to the web, revealing a monstrous combination of components. The GPU maintains the same component hierarchy as "Tahiti." The most distinguishing feature here is that whereas "Tahiti" features two shader engines, "Hawaii" features four. What it translates to, is double the geometry processing power, four independent geometry processors with a tessellation unit each, and double the number of ROPs, at 64. Each shader unit features 11 compute units (CU), the number-crunching machinery of the GPU. Each CU holds 4 TMUs (texture memory units), and 64 stream processors.

The four shader engines of "Hawaii" are tied to a unified command processing structure, a 1 megabyte L2 cache, a 512-bit wide GDDR5 memory interfaces, and the ancillaries, that include the PCI-Express 3.0 x16 bus interface, six display controllers (six TMDS links in all), CrossFireX XDMA, and multimedia accelerators that include UVD (accelerates high-def video), VCE (video codec engine, accelerates multimedia codecs), and the new TrueAudio hardware DSP.

XFX today unveiled the XFX Radeon R9 290X, R9 290, R9 280X, R9 270X, R7 260X and R7 250 graphics cards, XFX's first series of AMD GPUs with AMD's 2nd Generation GCN Architecture and PowerTune Technology designed for super optimized gaming performance. XFX's new GPUs also feature AMD's Mantle and AMD TrueAudio technology, the latest innovations that redefine the GPU by enabling both gamers and game developers with unprecedented audio and performance enhancements for compatible games.

AMD offers greater flexibility with its multi-GPU solutions, letting you mix and match any two GPUs based on the same silicon. It was quite natural to expect a Radeon R9 280X to work in tandem with a Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition from the previous generation, since the two are based on the same "Tahiti" GPU, which is now proven. HardwareCanucks managed to run that combo without a hitch, and log performance results across a bouquet of game tests. The publication also notes that one should be able to similarly pair a Radeon R9 270X with a Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition (the one based on "Pitcairn," not "Tahiti LE"). Have a Radeon HD 7950? Feel free to add an R9 280X to the mix.

In the wake of AMD rolling out the $299 Radeon R9 280X, $199 Radeon R9 270X, and $139 Radeon R7 260X; NVIDIA is giving final touches to price cuts to several of its SKUs, beginning with the GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost. Originally priced at $149, pricing of the card could be adjusted closer to that of the R7 260X. Our review of the card revealed NVIDIA's offering to be a staggering 24 percent faster overall. NVIDIA could also lower the price of the now $180 GeForce GTX 660. All eyes, however, are on the $249 GeForce GTX 760, which is sandwiched by AMD's offerings.

There's also talk of NVIDIA developing a new SKU, possibly the "GeForce GTX 760 Ti" or "GeForce GTX 765" (likely names), to occupy the $240~260 price range. We expect this chip to be essentially an overclocked GeForce GTX 670 with GPU Boost 2.0; which may not quite go after the R9 280X, since it's already performing on par with the GeForce GTX 770. The new price cuts could take effect very soon; although DigiTimes isn't ruling out a second round of price-cuts in November, either.

A leaked company slide by AMD confirmed that its high-end "Hawaii" silicon indeed features 64 raster operations units (ROPs). In reference to its predecessor, "Tahiti," the slide speaks of 2 times the ROPs (32 on "Tahiti") and 1.4 times the stream processors (2048 on "Tahiti," so 2816 on "Hawaii"). Other known specifications include up to 1 GHz GPU clock, up to 5.00 GHz memory clock, and a 512-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding 4 GB of memory. Reviews of Radeon R9 290X could surface around mid-October.

GIGABYTE, the leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, is pleased to announce GIGABYTE Radeon R9 280X Overclock Edition Graphics Card (GV-R928XOC-3GD) and GIGABYTE Radeon R9 270X Overclock Edition Graphics Card (GV-R927XOC-2GD). GIGABYTE once again not only launch new model, but make the new models factory overclocked! With patented WINDFORCE 3X, GV-R928XOC-3GD and GV-R927XOC-2GD perform fantastic for gamers. GV-R928XOC-3GD with 2048 GCN stream processor and 3 GB high-speed GDDR5 memory runs at 384-bit memory interface; GV-R927XOC-2GD with 1280 GCN stream processor, 2 GB high-speed GDDR5 memory and 256-bit memory interface.

GV-R928XOC-3GD is equipped with exclusive WINDFORCE 3X plus patented "Triangle Cool" technology. The powerful airflow and heat dissipation capability keeps the graphics card cool and quiet, and of course leads to the best performance. Even more, both GV-R928XOC-3GD and GV-R927XOC-2GD are well overclocked to 1100 MHz at boost clock. These two models are packed with groundbreaking features like DirectX 11.2, AMD PowerTune and CrossFire technology. Gamers should never settle for anything less.

If with great power comes great responsibility then definitely with new graphics cards come brand new drivers. Enter the AMD Radeon R9 and R7 Series cards and the first (publicly-available) driver to support them, the Catalyst 13.11. Still in beta mode, this fresh Catalyst works with the Radeon R9 280X, R9 270X, R7 260X, R7 250 and R7 240, as well as the Radeon HD 7000, HD 6000 and HD 5000 Series cards.

The Catalyst 13.11 Beta (V1) is supposed to feature some fixes, plus improvements for Battlefield 4 as well as for TESV: Skyrim and Total War: Rome 2. To download the driver just click on the links below.

• AMD Catalyst 13.11 Beta V1 Driver for Windows 7/8/8.1
• AMD Catalyst 13.11 Beta V1 Driver for Linux

A renowned brand of graphics card maker - VTX3D, today introduced the latest R9 and R7 series: the VTX3D R9 280X and R9 270X/R7 250/R7 240 X-Edition. These four models are designed to provide the greatest gaming experience to all gamers, fully support Microsoft DirectX 11.2 and PCI Express 3.0, and deliver the unsurpassed performance.

The R9 280X is equipped with 3GB of GDDR5 memory connected via a high speed 384 bit memory interface and 1500 MHz of memory speed, it has a core clock of 850MHz that is able to boost 1000MHz. R9 270X X-Edition is fitted with 2GB GDDR5 memory and runs with a core clock speed of 1030 MHz that can also have a boost clock of 1080Mhz. R7 250/R7 240 X-Edition support 1GB of GDDR5 and 2GB of DDR3 memory respectively, both are connected via 128 bit memory interface. The R7 250 operates at 1030 MHz core clock and 1150 MHz memory clock, the R7 240 is clocked at 750 MHz of core and 900 MHz of memory speed. But by using the AMD PowerTune technology, both are able to boost 1080MHz and 800 MHz respectively, and deliver ultimate gaming performance.

ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) today announced the launch of Matrix R9 280X Platinum edition and Matrix R9 280X standard edition, two new graphics cards powered by the latest AMD Radeon R9 280X graphics-processing unit (GPU). As dedicated gamers have come to expect from ROG, the new Matrix R9 280X graphics cards are tricked out with exclusive technologies and tools including an efficient copper-based thermal design for faster performance at lower temperatures, VGA Hotwire connections for voltage control, DIGI+ voltage-regulator modules (VRMs) for smooth and stable power and GPU Tweak, an easy-to-use tuning software that allows users to squeeze every last drop of performance out of their graphics card.

ASUS today announced the launch of its R9 200 and R7 200 Series DirectCU II graphics cards, powered by the latest AMD Radeon R9 and R7 series graphics-processing units (GPUs). The new R9 280X, R9 270X and R7 260X graphics cards are brimming with exclusive ASUS technologies and tools including DirectCU II cooling technology for cooler and quieter gaming performance, DIGI+ voltage-regulator modules (VRMs) for smooth and stable power supply and GPU Tweak, an easy-to-use software for tuning the graphics card. The R9 280X, R9 270X and R7 260X are all ASUS TOP-rated graphics cards, meaning they are overclocked to perform faster than reference - respectively turning in core speeds of 1070MHz, 1120MHz and 1188MHz.

AMD announced market availability of several of its new Radeon R9 and Radeon R7 series discrete graphics SKUs. Leading the pack for today's launch is the Radeon R9 280X. Heavily based on the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition, the card is priced at $299, and is designed to offer an interesting price-performance combination. In raw performance, it competes with the now $410 GeForce GTX 770, yet it's priced just $50 more than the $249 GeForce GTX 760. Based on the same 28 nm "Tahiti" silicon as the HD 7970 GHz Edition, it features clock speeds of 1000 MHz core, with 6.00 GHz memory. It features 2,048 stream processors, 128 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and a 384-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding 3 GB of memory.

The next card on AMD's block is the Radeon R9 270X, which is designed to strike a price-performance sweet-spot at $199. Essentially an overclocked Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition, the card is based on the 28 nm "Pitcairn" silicon, featuring clock speeds of 1050 MHz core, and 6.40 GHz memory. It features 1,280 stream processors, 80 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding 2 GB of memory. Lastly, there's the Radeon R7 260X, an interesting sub-$150 product, priced at $139. Based on the same "Bonaire" silicon as the Radeon HD 7790, it features higher clock speeds, and double the standard memory amount. It features clock speeds of 1100 MHz, and 6.50 GHz memory. The chip features 896 stream processors, 56 TMUs, 16 ROPs, and a 128-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding 2 GB of memory. The three cards will launch through the various AMD add-in board (AIB) partners, in their non-reference designs.

AMD today announced that Verizon is deploying SeaMicro SM15000 servers for its new global cloud platform and cloud-based object storage service, whose public beta was recently announced. AMD's SeaMicro SM15000 server links hundreds of cores together in a single system using a fraction of the power and space of traditional servers. To enable Verizon's next generation solution, technology has been taken one step further: Verizon and AMD co-developed additional hardware and software technology on the SM15000 server that provides unprecedented performance and best-in-class reliability backed by enterprise-level service level agreements (SLAs). The combination of these technologies co-developed by AMD and Verizon ushers in a new era of enterprise-class cloud services by enabling a higher level of control over security and performance SLAs. With this technology underpinning the new Verizon Cloud Compute and Verizon Cloud Storage, enterprise customers can for the first time confidently deploy mission-critical systems in the public cloud.

Disappointed at the $729.99 Newegg.com pricing of the Radeon R9 290X? No worries. AMD's second SKU based on the "Hawaii" silicon could be lighter on the wallet. Japanese retailers leaked the specifications sheets of both the upcoming R9 290X, and its lighter sibling, the R9 290 (non-X). Specifications of the R9 290X match rumors. The chip features 2,816 stream processors, up to 1000 MHz of GPU clock, single-precision floating point performance of 5.16 TFLOP/s, and 4 GB of GDDR5 memory across a 512-bit wide memory interface, clocked at 5.00 GHz, yielding 320 GB/s of memory bandwidth. The R9 290, on the other hand, features 2,560 stream processors, up to 948 MHz GPU clocks, 4.9 TFLOP/s single-precision floating point performance, and the same memory subsystem as the R9 290X. Both cards feature an identical combination of power connectors, 8-pin PCIe and 6-pin PCIe. Both feature hardware support for DirectX 11.2, OpenGL 4.3, and Mantle.