CyberpowerPC Inc., a manufacturer of custom gaming machines, today announced its Zeus series - a powerful new line of desktop computers that offer the power of thunder with Intel's new i7-3820 CPU; the speed of AMD's lightning fast FX CPUs; the refined design of NZXT's Switch 810 chassis, and legendary Advanced Hydro Liquid Cooling.

The initial Zeus rollout includes six models. The Zeus Thunder 1000, 2000, 300 and MAX will all feature Intel's latest CPUs, including the new 2nd Gen. Core i7-3820 Sandy Bridge-E quad-core CPU operating at 3.6 GHz, a 10 MB L3 cache and HyperThreading support. The Zeus Lightning series consists of the 1000 and 2000 models with the AMD FX series native 8-core desktop processor, which allows you to immerse yourself in the most advanced 3D games and achieve extreme mega-tasking with ease.

MAINGEAR, an award-winning PC system builder of custom desktops, notebooks, and workstations, now offers PC enthusiasts the AMD Radeon HD 7750 and HD 7770 graphics solutions in their award-winning desktop systems.

MAINGEAR will offer the option of choosing AMD Radeon HD 7700 series cards, which is AMD's latest mainstream variant of their 7000 series GPUs, on their desktops. The new AMD Radeon HD 7700 series graphics cards offer the world's most advance graphics with the industry's very first 28 nm GPU design at an affordable price point.

Similar to the AMD Radeon HD 7900 series, the AMD Radeon HD 7770 also offers 1 GB GDDR5 video memory, 1 DVI, 2 mini-display ports, and 1 HDMI output, as well as superior performance with dual card configurations thanks to AMD CrossFire technology. The AMD Radeon HD 7750 sports a single slot design, sips a mere 55W, and supports 1 DVI, 1 HDMI, and 1 DisplayPort output. Both the AMD Radeon HD 7900 and 7700 series graphics supports DirectX 11 and with AMD Eyefinity, and gamers and creative professionals can enjoy support for up to 6 displays for immersive entertainment and enhanced productivity.

Club3D joined the HD 7700 party by launching its pair graphics cards, the Radeon HD 7770 (CGAX-7772) and Radeon HD 7750 (CGAX-7752). The two cards appear to be contract-manufactured by TUL, the company behind PowerColor and VTX3D, as the card designs bear a striking resemblence to those by the two brands. The HD 7770 of course is based on AMD's reference board and cooler designs, with a red-colored PCB. The HD 7750, on the other hand, features a refreshing single-slot cooler. The HD 7700 packs 640 GCN stream processors, and feactures clock speeds of 1000 MHz core, and 1125 MHz (4.50 GHz GDDR5 effective) memory; while the HD 7750 packs 512 stream processors, with clock speeds of 800 MHz core and 1125 MHz (4.50 GHz GDDR5 effective) memory.

A leading brand of graphics card maker - VTX3D, today reveals the most alluring product, VTX3D HD7700 series. Based on the latest AMD Cape Verde GPU, VTX3D HD7700 series packed with incredible features and ready to satisfy everyone. With built-in 28nm GPU design and advanced DirectX 11.1 support, your games and apps have never had it this good.

The VTX3D HD7700 family includes HD7770 GHz Edition and HD7750, and both are fitted with 1GB of GDDR5 memory. VTX3D HD7770 GHz Edition and HD7750 are clocked at 1000MHz and 800MHz respectively, also together with 1125Mhz for both memory, delivering the best performance in its class. Moreover, all VTX3D HD7700 products support the latest PCI Express 3.0, delivering double the bandwidth per lane for faster communication between GPU and CPU.

GIGABYTE kicked off its Radeon HD 7700 series with a trio of graphics cards, the Radeon HD 7770 GV-R777D5-1GD (AMD reference speeds), the Radeon HD 7770 GV-R777OC-1GD (factory overclocked speeds of 1100 MHz core, 4.50 GHz memory), and the Radeon HD 7750 GV-R775OC-1GI (factory overclocked speeds of 880 MHz core, 4.50 GHz memory). The company didn't release a reference-speed Radeon HD 7750. All three cards are based on non-reference board designs by Gigabyte, consisting of Ulra Durable VGA+ PCBs and optimized large-fan (translates to lower RPM, lower noise) fan-heatsinks.

Hightech Information System (HIS) launched the HIS 7770 1GB GHz Edition. The card is targeted at the mass market with competitive graphics performances at good value. The card is the first card in the world tuned at 1GHz clock speed, offering significantly higher speed than the previous generation.

If you are looking for the most advanced performance card that flawlessly runs games and delivers outstanding overall performances for playing movies, photo editing as well as daily tasks, the HIS 7770 1GB GHz Edition is the perfect choice.

XFX launched a plethora of Radeon HD 7700 series graphics cards, 9 models to be precise. These are essentially based on two designs by the company, a single-fan Ghost Thermal Technology board, and a dual-fan Double Dissipation board, spread across both the HD 7770 and HD 7750 SKUs, and in a variety of factory-overclock bins such as Core Edition (AMD reference speeds), Black Edition (1095 MHz core for the HD 7770, TBD for HD 7750), and SuperOverclock Edition (1120 MHz core for the HD 7770, TBD for the HD 7750).Other specifications and a video presentation by XFX follow.

AMD has just launched the new Radeon HD 7700 series, in a bid to cement its competitiveness in the sub-$200 market-segment. The Radeon HD 7700 series, according to AMD, is designed to offer "the world's most advanced graphics for everyone." The series is based around a new ASIC built on the 28 nm fab process, codenamed "Cape Verde". The new chip takes advantage of the Graphics CoreNext architecture, and features 10 GCN compute units, amounting to 640 stream processors; 40 TMUs, and 16 ROPs; and a 128-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface.

The Radeon HD 7770 has all components on the chip enabled, and features clock speeds of 1000 MHz core, and 1125 MHz (4.50 GHz GDDR5 effective) memory, yielding 72 GB/s memory bandwidth. This card draws power from a 6-pin PCIe power connecor. The Radeon HD 7750, on the other hand, features 512 stream processors, and 32 TMUs. The rest of the specifications are identical to the HD 7770, except core clock speed: 800 MHz. The Radeon HD 7770 is priced at US $159, while the HD 7750 is available as low as $109.

AnandTech is reporting Eric Demers is leaving AMD. This apparently was backed up with an official statement from AMD. Here is what they both had to say,

I just found out that AMD's Eric Demers (Corporate VP & CTO, Graphics Division) is leaving the company at the end of this week. He's not going to Intel or NVIDIA but I suspect that someone of Eric's talents will remain in the industry. I just had dinner with Eric a couple of weeks ago and he seemed very positive on AMD's roadmap going forward. Given how important the GPU is becoming in this ever expanding industry, someone like Eric is in very high demand.

We now have an official statement from AMD:

Eric Demers, AMD Corporate Vice President and CTO, Graphics Business Unit, has decided leave AMD to pursue other opportunities. AMD Chief Technology Officer Mark Papermaster will assume interim responsibility for the Graphics Business Unit CTO role until a replacement is found. AMD remains fully committed to our critical graphics IP development and discrete GPU products. We have a tremendous depth of talent in our organization, a game plan that is resonating with our customers and our team, and we are continuing to bring graphics-performance-leading products to market. We will attract the right technology leader for this role. We thank Eric for his contributions to the business and wish him well in his future endeavors.

Here is the first picture of XFX' flagship graphics card based on the AMD Radeon HD 7770 GPU, the XFX Radeon HD 7770 Double Dissipation Black Edition. The picture reveals that XFX is sticking to a slightly-modified version of the AMD reference PCB, its variations don't appear to go beyond a red-colored DVI connector. It's the cooler, where all the action is. XFX used a slightly downscaled version of the "Double Dissipation" cooler it designed its Radeon HD 7900 series graphics cards with.

The cooler appears to use large copper plate that makes contact with each of the aluminum fins that run the entire length of the card. These aluminum fins are then ventilated by two fans that spin at low speeds (low noise), ensuring even ventilation, and better cooling compared to AMD reference cooling solution. A picture of a portion of the product box has text that claims this cooler is up to 13 dBA quieter than the reference design cooler, and up to 7 °C cooler. The "Black Edition" moniker would indicate that this card is factory-overclocked.

A little earlier this month, it was reported that major notebook vendors are planning price-cuts of their current-generation Ultrabooks, to clear inventories and pave the way for next-generation Ivy Bridge-based ones that stick to a more well-defined specification; the price-cuts previously mentioned were in the range of 20-25%. The range is looking more like 20-30% according to the latest DigiTimes report.

Major notebook vendors seem to be in a hurry to make the market digest inventories of current-generation Ultrabooks that are based on anything from ULV "Sandy Bridge" Core processors, to low-power Celeron and Pentium chips, some even AMD Brazos. In addition to Ultrabooks, conventional notebooks based on Sandy Bridge Core processors, and client desktops also stand to face price-cuts.

HP today announced the powerful new HP t610 Flexible Series Thin Client and HP t510 Thin Client with industry-leading performance and security, enabling businesses to protect their data more effectively while improving employees' user experience.

The HP t510 and HP t610 come standard with dual-core CPUs and offer graphics cores that offload computing from the server to the chipset, enabling users to easily stream multimedia and work with high-definition (HD) graphics. The HP t510 and HP t610 also enable the use of multiple monitors and remote connections.

AMD's Radeon HD 7770 mid-range graphics card, which is slated for a little later this month, got its first public shot at 3DMark 11. The card was put through the Performance preset of the benchmark, where it scored P3535 points. The bench was driven by an Intel Core i7-3960X processor. The reviewer also took GPU-Z screenshots of this card, revealing low core temperature. Based on the 28 nm Cape Verde GPU, the HD 7700 is said to have 640 Graphics CoreNext stream processors, and 1 GB of memory over a 128-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface. It is designed for sub-$200 price points.

Much like a previous exposé with Radeon HD 7950, the specifications of Radeon HD 7770 that were rumored in our previous article have been confirmed by users. It confirms several specifications, starting from the stream processor count of 640, to the 128-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface. The GPU has an out of the box core clock speed of 1.00 GHz, it could be possible that this is a factory-overclocked card, if not, the core clock speed rumor sparked off by the Verdetrol marketing campaign are true, after all.

In the second quarter of this year, AMD will launch its next-generation accelerated processing unit, codenamed "Trinity", starting with quad-core A10 and A8 parts in the quarter, followed by dual-core A6 and A4 parts in the third-quarter of 2012 (more here). DonanimHaber scored a specifications-sheet that details all the models AMD has in store for this year, also giving us an insight to what constitute each of these model numbers.

An interesting revelation here is that AMD does not have triple-core APUs anywhere in its lineup. The A10 lineup consists of quad-core APUs that come with Radeon HD 7660D graphics, while the A8 lineup also consists of quad-core APUs, but with slower Radeon HD 7560D graphics. The A6 lineup consists of dual-core APUs with Radeon HD 7540D graphics, while the A4 lineup has dual-core APUs with Radeon HD 7480D graphics.

TechPowerUp today released the latest version of GPU-Z, the popular graphics subsystem information and diagnostic utility. GPU-Z briefs you on the graphics hardware installed in the system, and lets you monitor clock speeds, voltages, temperatures, fan-speeds, and other information in real-time. The new version adds full-support for AMD's Radeon HD 7700 series "Cape Verde" GPUs (HD 7770 and HD 7750) that are bound for launch a little later this month. The new version also has an updated ASIC Quality calculation formula that makes reading on NVIDIA GPUs more reliable.

Other important updates include voltage monitoring support for Radeon HD 7970 and HD 7950; support for some rare GeForce GT 520 variants that are based on GF108, GeForce GTX 555 (OEM), GeForce 305M, and GeForce 610M; and more reliable memory size reading for AMD Radeon graphics cards with large memory sizes. Sensors now refresh in the background by default (and not just when the Sensors tab is in the foreground). The board ID is now displayed along with the BIOS version string.DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z 0.5.9 | TechPowerUp GPU-Z 0.5.9 ASUS ROG-Themed

The complete change-log detailing even more updates follows.

AMD is pushing on with a desktop product lineup that's leveraging its Piledriver CPU and Graphics CoreNext GPU architectures in 2012. Apparently, the company will have a faster product development cycle to catch up with Intel's "Tick-Tock", as revealed in a roadmap slide scored by DonanimHaber. The current product lineup will remain unchanged in the first quarter of 2012. Then in the second quarter, AMD will launch a few more socket AM3+ FX-8000, FX-6000, and FX-4000 series eight, six, and four-core processors; along with the much talked about "Trinity" accelerated processing unit.

The fastest "Trinity" APUs will get a new brand identifier, the A10-5000 series. These APUs will pack next-generation "Piledriver" modular cores and Radeon HD 7600D series graphics. Around this time, AMD will also launch the Brazos 2.0 low-power APU for netbooks, nettops, and embedded computing devices. Brazos 2.0 will get the E2-1000 series branding. The big change is reserved for the third quarter of 2012, when AMD launches the successor of its less-than-lucky AMD FX "Bulldozer" processor family.

Reviewers who have probably received their AMD Radeon HD 7700 series samples by now, were taken aback when they found a prescription medication bottle in their packages. No NVIDIA-styled Press Deck booklet, or even former-ATI styled Ruby doll, but a medicine bottle, which reads "Verdetrol". The label directed them to insert the blue capsules inside it to the heat vents of the graphics card, when benchmarking, so it "acts as a performance enhancement".

The point in all this? Apparently AMD's Radeon HD 7770 features 1 GHz core clock speed out of the box, making it the first GPU ever to do so, and AMD wants to make a song and dance about it. What's more, AMD will use a special branding called "GHz Edition" to mark all its future SKUs that come with 1 GHz (or more) GPU core clock speed, indicating that AMD has more SKUs in the pipeline with ≥1 GHz core clock speed. It doesn't stop with this hysterical medicine bottle thingie, no sir, AMD even set up a teaser site dedicated to "Verdetrol".

In the coming week, AMD will release its Radeon HD 7700 series, which aims to increase its competitiveness in the sub-$200 market. The latest specifications exposé reveals AMD's new design strategy: Instead of increasing components such as stream processors and ROPs, which would increase transistor counts, and unnecessarily increase power draw, AMD is counting on a lesser number of better-configured Graphics CoreNext stream processors. While the previous-generation HD 5770/6770 "Juniper" GPU featured VLIW5 stream processors, the new "Cape Verde" GPU, which will go into making up Radeon HD 7770 and 7750, will feature GCN stream processors. Apart from architectural performance improvements, AMD is counting on increased clock speeds to do the trick. The specifications are listed below.

Cape Verde Physical

• Built on TSMC 28 nm process, ~1.5 billion transistors
• 10 Graphics CoreNext Compute Units (CUs)
• 640 stream processors
• 40 TMUs, 16 ROPs
• 128-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface

AMD released its latest Catalyst Application Profile update for AMD Catalyst, version 12.1 CAP 2, as it's called, adds application-specific CrossfireX optimizations to the driver, which lets the driver effectively use two or more AMD Radeon GPUs working in tandem optimally. It also fixes any bugs that exist with current optimizations. 12.1 CAP 2 includes profiles for the following applications:

• Star Wars: The old republic : Improves CrossFire performance and resolves flickering seen on Map
• Unigine Tropics - Resolves flashing shadow reflections with CrossFire enabled
• Wargame: European Escalation: Improves CrossFire performance

DOWNLOAD: AMD Catalyst Application Profiles 12.1 CAP 2

Japanese built-to-order gaming PC maker Ark PC unveiled an AMD-powered variant of its Tathlum Gaming PC desktop (model: CY-AF8A99A-C2). The machine is built into a Cooler Master HAF 912 Advanced chassis, and is accompanied by a 23-inch full-HD monitor. In the driver's seat is AMD FX-8150 processor, seated on an ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX motherboard, with 8 GB dual-channel DDR3-1333 MHz memory, and AMD Radeon HD 7970 3 GB graphics. The processor is cooled by a Zalman CNPS9900MAX Red. Other components of interest include a Hitachi DeskStar 1 TB 7200 RPM SATA 6 Gb/s hard drive, onboard HD audio, and gigabit Ethernet. A SilverStone ST75F-SST-P 750W 80 Plus Silver PSU powers it all. Windows 7 Home Premium x64 is the OS of choice. The Tanthum CY-AF8A99A-C2 is priced at 167,800 JPY (US $2,175).

While Intel and AMD are making efforts to come up with low-power x86 processor platforms to compete with the plethora of ARM processor vendors, manufacturers of the target devices of these low-power x86 processors - tablets, netbooks, and smartphones; note that the architecture simply isn't competitive due to its prices. ARM processors are manufactured by a variety of companies, in a variety of different SoC configurations, and as such the tough competition among these companies ensure ARM processor platforms are comparatively cheaper to low-power x86 ones.

Intel recently debuted its 32 nm "Medfield" Atom processors, with power consumption as low as 11W for the platform. In the second half of 2012, it will launch another line of processors with under 10W power consumption, for high-end smartphones. AMD, on the other hand, will unveil "Hondo", which combines its x86 architecture with Radeon graphics IP, and a power consumption target of less than 5W. In 2013, it plans to launch the "Temash" APU, with power consumption under 2W, and built on the 28 nm process.

AMD may be busy building up hype for its Trinity-generation APUs (accelerated processing units) but it's still churning out new chips, the latest releases being the rather low-profile Athlon II X4 641 and X4 638. Both of these models are made on 32 nm technology, have an FM1 packaging, and boast four 'Stars' x86 cores just like those found in Llano APUs (but unlike Llano, these Athlons don't have integrated graphics).

The Athlon II X4 641 comes with a core clock of 2.8 GHz, 4 MB of L2 cache, and a 100 W TDP, while the Athlon II X4 638 features a 2.7 GHz clock, 4 MB of L2 cache, and a TDP of 65 W. Both CPUs are priced at $81 (pricing is for 1000-unit tray quantities).

AMD today announced the departure of Emilio Ghilardi as senior vice president and chief sales officer, effective immediately. Rory Read, AMD president and chief executive officer, will serve as interim chief sales officer while the company actively seeks a replacement.

"I'd like to thank Emilio for his contributions to the business and wish him well in his future endeavors," said Read. "Developing relationships with our customers that are grounded in a foundation of trust through consistently delivering on our commitments is critical, and we are making progress toward that goal. AMD enters 2012 with significant momentum, and we are building upon that momentum by embracing the shifts occurring in the industry and marrying market needs with innovative technologies to become a consistent growth engine."

Mr. Ghilardi joined AMD from Hewlett Packard in 2008.

Back in the 1990's, when the software industry knew the 32-bit x86 address-space limitation was closing in, they geared up for transition to another machine architecture, then came AMD64 and EM64T, which allowed an x86 processor to perform in both 64-bit and 32-bit modes. Microsoft didn't want users of its 64-bit Windows to be deprived of using software coded for 32-bit Windows, which was infinitely more in number than 64-bit software. Hence it developed what is known as Windows-on-Windows 64 (WOW64), a translation layer that interfaces 32-bit software and drivers to the 64-bit OS and drivers. With its next major Windows version, Windows 8, Microsoft wants to give the ARM architecture a big push, with a Windows 8 version for ARM computing devices (such as tablets and netbooks). Guess what?

A latest bulletin at MSDN hints at the possibility of Microsoft working on a x86-to-ARM translation layer, which allows you to run desktop windows (Win32) software on Windows 8 ARM, effectively "Windows-on-Windows ARM". Without specifically pointing out the ability to run Win32 software on ARM, the bulletin mentions the ability to run non-metro applications (native Windows) on SoC (system-on-a-chip) architectures. It could also just be a reference to Intel's single-chip SoCs such as Medfield, which are x86-based. If Microsoft pulls off a "WOWARM", it could spell terrible news to Intel, because something such as the hypothetical WOWARM is all that stands between ARM and high-performance desktop PCs. In a market that only has two other competitors (AMD and VIA), dozens more could join in overnight, including NVIDIA's karmic entry after being shunned off an x86 license.