MAINGEAR, an award-winning PC system builder of custom desktops, notebooks, and workstations, gives PC enthusiasts a reason to grin by offering the new AMD Radeon HD 7950 and AMD Radeon HD 7970 graphics solutions on their award-winning desktop systems.

Next month Asus is set to add a new member to its Eee PC line, the Eee PC 1225B which runs Windows 7 Home Premium, features an 11.6-inch (1366 x 768) LED-backlit display, and is powered by an AMD Brazos APU, either the 1.0 GHz C-60 or the much more enticing 1.65 GHz E-450.

The incoming netbook weights 1.4 kg and also has 2/4 GB of RAM, up to a 750 GB hard drive, integrated DirectX 11 graphics (Radeon HD 6290 for the C-60 version, Radeon HD 6320 for the E-450 unit), a 0.3-megapixel webcam, LAN, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0 (this is optional), stereo speakers, an SD/MMC card reader, D-Sub and HDMI outputs, and a 6-cell battery allowing for up to 7 hours of operation per charge.

The Eee PC 1225B will be available in five color versions - gray, red, silver, black and white, and is supposed to start at 349 Euro.

Over the last few months, motherboard manufacturers have been raising a big hoopla over how it's important to pick their products that feature PCI Express 3.0 (Gen 3.0) slots. There was even some drama between competing motherboard manufacturers over who was first to the market with this technology, even when consumers couldn't really make use of the technology. To begin with, you needed a next-generation Ivy Bridge CPU, then you needed a compliant graphics card. Sandy Bridge-E, fortunately, formally introduced the technology, complete with motherboards and processors that support it.

GPU maker AMD wanted to be the first to be out there with a GPU that's compliant with this interface, and so one thing led to another, and VR-Zone got to set up a test-bed using Core i7 "Sandy Bridge-E", ASUS Rampage IV Extreme (which allows users to change PCI-Express standard mode in the BIOS setup program, by forcing Gen 2 or Gen 1 mode), and an HD 7970, to see if running the GPU on PCIe 2.0 and PCIe 3.0 modes made any worthwhile difference. The results are in: zero, nada, zilch, sunna (zero in my language).

What makes the GT780DX as the gamers' ultimate weapon? In terms of power, it features the Intel Core i7 quad core CPU and latest NVIDIA's top-end GeForce GTX 570M discrete graphics card with 3 GB of GDDR5 display memory, giving it superior performance, so you can enjoy smooth graphics even when playing the latest games in high resolution. The impressive performance also serves to greatly enhance game realism and make these machines the ultimate weapons for the extreme gamer.

Eric Kuo, associate vice president for global sales, MSI Notebook, explains that the latest GT780DX not only packs performance to keep the extreme gamer engaged, it also comes with a SteelSeries keyboard specifically designed for serious gaming. The new keyboard is much more rugged and the new design better meets the needs of extreme gamers to give you the edge in the heat of battle. MSI has also incorporated Dynaudio and THX TruStudio Pro envelope-pushing sound technologies for a riveting audio experience. Designed both inside and out for gaming, the GT780DX has got your back when you're hip-pocket deep in goblin blood.

AMD today updated its A-Series line-up of desktop and notebook Accelerated Processing Units (APUs), further improving its top-performing family of dual- and quad-core APUs. Along with speed and performance improvements, AMD Steady Video update make this unique feature more compelling than ever. For desktop users, AMD extends its overclocking pedigree to the APU; for the first time users can tune both x86 and graphics settings in a single processor for boosted performance.

The updated AMD A-Series APUs combine up to four x86 CPU cores with up to 400 Radeon cores, delivering powerful DirectX 11-capable, discrete-level graphics and dedicated HD video processing on a single chip. These new APUs increase performance and deliver a richer feature set than existing AMD A-series APUs. Plus, only AMD APUs offer AMD Dual Graphics for an up to 144 percent visual performance boost when a select APU is paired with a select AMD Radeon HD 6500 Series graphics card.

KFA2, the European premium NVIDIA brand, announced today the GTX 580 MDT X4 EX OC, the latest in the line of MDT series multi-display performance gaming graphics cards. The KFA2 GeForce GTX 580 MDT X4 is designed to be the flagship product within our MDT range, offering unparalleled performance in the latest DirectX 11 games in full 1080p.

Whilst the KFA2 GeForce 580 MDT X4 supports up to 4 monitors for multi-display, its main feature includes 'Virtual single monitor mode' which shares one desktop across 3 screens, producing surround HD game play (50Mhz compatible monitors needed for this feature). This myriad of features and unrivaled performance is complimented by a KFA2 custom designed LED chassis and high efficiency triple fan cooling solution.

December thru January looks to be a busy time for AMD. Along with a few new graphics products, AMD will launch new CPUs and APUs. The company has chosen December 26 to launch its A8-3870K and A6-3670K Black Edition "Llano" accelerated processing units (APUs) in the FM1 package, which feature unlocked base clock multipliers for the processor component, making overclocking a breeze. In two of its presentation slides to distributors, it unveiled the swanky new box art of these unlocked APUs.

These chips pack four x86-64 cores based on the "Stars" K10.5 architecture with 1 MB dedicated L2 cache per core, dual-channel DDR3-1866 MHz integrated memory controller, PCI-Express 2.0 root complex, and a "discrete-class" graphics processor that packs 400 VLIW5 stream processors, DirectX 11 support, and the ability to pair with similarly specc'd discrete GPUs. The A8-3870K Black Edition features x86 core clock speed of 3.00 GHz, and Radeon HD 6550D graphics that features all 400 of those stream processors, with 600 MHz GPU clock speed. The A6-3670K Black Edition, on the other hand, has its x86 component clocked at 2.70 GHz, it features Radeon HD 6530D graphics that has 320 out of the 400 stream processors enabled, and a GPU clock of 433 MHz.

Futuremark today released an update for its 3DMark 11 benchmark suite that's built to put today's and tomorrow's DirectX 11 GPUs through their paces. Although this is a relatively minor update, Futuremark recommended that all existing users update to this version for reliability. It packs the following changes:

• Bullet physics library updated to version 2.79 to improve compatibility with future CPUs and GPUs.
• For most systems containing multiple GPUs, for example integrated graphics and an additional discrete graphics card, the user can now select the GPU to be tested using a new option on the Help tab.
• Improved error handling and user messages for the most common compatibility issues.
• SystemInfo component updated to version 4.5 for improved compatibility with current and future hardware.
• New "More" tab with information about other Futuremark products and services.

DOWNLOAD: 3DMark 11 v1.0.3 Update | Full Installer

Without so much of a stale press release, NVIDIA has today outed its very first GeForce 600M series mobile graphics cards. Unfortunately, there's not much to get excited about as the cards in question, named GeForce GT 635M, GT 630M and 610M, are based on the 40nm GPUs already used by the GeForce 500M line.

We don't want to point any fingers but the fact is the GeForce GT 635M, GT 630M and 610M strike an undeniable resemblance to the GeForce GT 555M/550M, GT 540M and GT 520M, respectively. No worries, AMD has done something similar with the first few cards in the Radeon HD 7000M series.

PC major HP made a slight slip, disclosing AMD's upcoming Radeon HD 7000M series GPUs as options available for some of its notebooks. These are the first public disclosures of a 28 nm GPU. The new options that had been made available were Radeon HD 7670M, and Radeon HD 7690M, both based on the "Thames-XT" GPU. The Thames-XT GPU is built on the 28 nm process, and features current-generation VLIW4 stream processors, a 128-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, and is DirectX 11 compliant. AMD unveiled this GPU at a press event in London on the 5th.

ZOTAC International, a leading innovator and a channel manufacturer, today unleashes the GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 cores Limited Edition graphics card geared for the latest stunning Microsoft DirectX 11-enabled titles.

The ZOTAC GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 cores Limited Edition graphics card delivers the performance and visual details gamers crave for an unmatched immersive gaming experience. Equipped with 448 lightning-fast shaders and 1280MB of GDDR5 memory, the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 cores Limited Edition graphics card packs a performance punch.

Hightech Information System Limited (HIS) today made the world's first USB 3.0 to HDMI adapter available - the HIS Multi-View+Sound. Delivering a fast and easy way to expand your visual computing experience across multiple screens, the HIS Multi-View+Sound turns your computer into a gaming and multimedia center.

ZOTAC International, a leading innovator and channel manufacturer, today debuts the silently quick GeForce GTS 450 ZONE Edition for users that demand stunning Microsoft DirectX 11 visuals and noise-less cooling.

The ZOTAC GeForce GTS 450 ZONE Edition takes the award-winning GeForce GTS 450 graphics processor with 192 high-performance shaders and passively cools it using a ZOTAC-exclusive dual-slot fan-less cooling system that features copper heat-pipes and aluminum fins to keep the graphics processor cool while operating silently.

AMD released its latest "performance driver" for Radeon graphics cards, the Catalyst 11.11a. With this release, AMD is using the term "performance driver" to refer to performance-enhancing Hotfix updates it launches between its scheduled monthly WHQL-signed updates. Catalyst 11.11a fixes some outstanding game-related bugs and improves performance and resolves driver-related bugs for a variety of recently-released titles such as Batman: Arkham City, Rage, The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, and Battlefield 3. The rest of the driver is based on Catalyst 11.11.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Catalyst 11.11a Performance Driver for Windows 7 or Vista | Windows XP

A list of changes follows.

The KFA2 GeForce 570 MDT X4 is designed to play the latest DirectX 11 games in full 1080p. Whilst the KFA2 GeForce 570 supports up to 4 monitors its main feature includes 'Virtual single monitor mode' which shares one desktop across 3 screens, producing surround HD game play.

The card features 4 DVI ports to support digital PC displays natively, and also has one Mini-HDMI port with digital audio for use with HDTVs. Like the GTX 560 Ti MDT X5, the GTX 570 MDT X4 also allows you to connect an additional display for the Windows desktop to use for chats, playlists, video, supporting all the latest features such as DirectX11 and PhysX.

The Khronos Group today announced the ratification and public release of the OpenCL 1.2 specification, the latest update to the open, royalty-free standard for cross-platform, parallel programming of modern processors. Released eighteen months after OpenCL 1.1, this new version provides enhanced performance and functionality for parallel programming in a backwards compatible specification that is the result of cooperation by over thirty industry-leading companies. Khronos has updated and expanded its comprehensive OpenCL conformance test suite to ensure that implementations of the new specification provide a complete and reliable platform for cross-platform application development. The OpenCL 1.2 specifications, online reference pages and reference cards are available here.

"The OpenCL working group is listening carefully to feedback from the developer and middleware community to provide significant and timely functionality for heterogeneous computing in this cross vendor open standard," said Neil Trevett, chair of the OpenCL working group, president of the Khronos Group and vice president of mobile content at NVIDIA. "The OpenCL working group is also broadening its membership and has growing representation from the mobile and embedded industries and is enabling innovative devices such as FPGAs to be driven through OpenCL."

EVGA has just announced a new dual GPU card based on the GF114 GPU - check out the product launch page here and the product page here. If their performance graph on that launch page is accurate, then the card is around 30% faster than a GTX 580 when running the Unigene Heaven benchmark. The output panel contains three DVI connectors for NVIDIA 3D Surround, along with a mini HDMI port. The cooler has three fans, which should make for a well-cooled and reasonably quiet card. The marketing blurb says:

Introducing the EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 2Win
It may not be called a GTX 585, but it's the next best thing. This card harnesses the power of two EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti GPU's for blistering fast DirectX 11 performance, including tessellation performance that destroys the competition. Experience a whole new level of interactive gaming and combine up to three displays off a single card for the ultimate in 3D entertainment, or disable Surround and combine up to four displays for maximum productivity. With these features and more, the EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 2Win gives you double the GPU's and double the win!

Translated, this means that your life isn't worth living without one of these babies in your rig. Apparently.

SAPPHIRE Technology has just announced a new model in its successful HD 6900 series of graphics cards - the HD 6970 2GB with a new super efficient Dual fan cooler and Dual BIOS giving users the choice of fast, quiet operation or performance tuning.

The new SAPPHIRE HD 6970 has the same internal architecture as the standard model, with 1536 stream processors and 96 texture processing units, and clock speeds are 880MHz for the core and 1375Mhz (5.5Gb/sec effective) for the 2GB of GDDR5 memory. This new design has two 90mm fans with thin impellers that can move the same amount of air at 10% lower rotation speeds than conventional fans, keeping noise low, and their special dust repelling bearings contribute to high reliability.

AMD today launched the AMD FirePro V4900, which delivers unequaled performance for Digital Content Creation (DCC) and Computer Aided Design (CAD) professionals at an entry-level price point. By leveraging AMD's most advanced graphics technology, including AMD Eyefinity technology, the AMD FirePro V4900 significantly improves application performance and drives efficiency in the workplace. In fact, the AMD FirePro V4900 more than doubled the performance of competitive offerings in many CAD and DCC application tests.

"The AMD FirePro V4900 stands in a league of its own and redefines entry-level professional graphics card capabilities," says Sandeep Gupte, general manager of Professional Graphics, AMD. "The AMD FirePro V4900 leverages AMD's most advanced graphics technology, which not only enhances user experience and boosts performance of professional applications, but also features AMD Eyefinity multi-display technology that supports up to six displays, increasing user productivity."

AMD today released its latest official version of Catalyst, a software suite that provides drivers for AMD/ATI Radeon graphics processors, A-Series APUs, 7-series and 8-series integrated graphics, and related system software. Catalyst 11.10 WHQL launched today has essentially the same change log as the 11.10 Preview 3 driver, except that it's WHQL-signed. Catalyst 11.10 WHQL is the driver to have when playing some of the latest titles such as Battlefield 3 and Rage.

Catalyst 11.10 WHQL brings in a few new features, too, such as support for 5x1 Eyefinity, with maximum resolution increased to 16000 x 16000 pixels on Radeon HD 6000 series GPUs, and in DirectX 11 applications, and improved Vision Engine Control Center / Catalyst Control Center applications (VECC is installed for A-Series APUs and Chipset IGPs, CCC is installed for discrete Radeon GPUs).

DOWNLOAD: AMD Catalyst 11.10 WHQL for Windows 7 and Vista 64-bit | Windows 7 and Vista 32-bit

AMD today announced revenue for the third quarter of 2011 of $1.69 billion, net income of $97 million, or $0.13 per share, and operating income of $138 million. The company reported non-GAAP net income of $110 million, or $0.15 per share, and non-GAAP operating income of $146 million.

"Strong adoption of AMD APUs drove a 35 percent sequential revenue increase in our mobile business," said Rory Read, AMD president and CEO. "Despite supply constraints, we saw double digit revenue and unit shipment growth in emerging markets like China and India as well as overall notebook share gains in retail at mainstream price points. Through disciplined execution and continued innovation we will look to accelerate our growth and refine our focus on lower power, emerging markets, and the cloud."

Celebrating the launch of the much anticipated Battlefield 3 game, SAPPHIRE Technology is introducing the SAPPHIRE HD 6970 BF3 Special Edition - featuring two SAPPHIRE exclusive technologies, SAPPHIRE FleX and Vapor-X cooling as well as performance enhancing options for the enthusiast and access to a FREE copy of the full game!

The SAPPHIRE HD 6970 BF3 Special Edition is based on AMD's award winning second generation DX 11 graphics engine with the powerful configuration of 1536 stream processors and 96 texture processing units delivering smooth and detailed graphics to the latest generation of games and applications. SAPPHIRE FleX technology allows the direct connection of three DVI monitors in Eyefinity mode without the need for special adapters, making it the simplest solution to multi-screen enjoyment, and the highly efficient SAPPHIRE Vapor-X cooling enables performance to be maximised whilst keeping noise levels low.

AMD detailed its upcoming "Virgo" PC platform that consists of next-generation "Trinity" APU (accelerated processing unit), and current-generation AMD A75 "Hudson-D" chipset. A notable revelation here is that the next-gen APUs will be compatible with AMD A75, although it will be designed for a new socket called FM2. It remains to be seen if FM1 and FM2 are pin-compatible.

"Trinity" packs four x86-64 cores based on the next-generation "Piledriver" architecture, arranged in two Piledriver modules. A module is a closely-knit group of two cores, with certain shared and dedicated resources. Each Piledriver module has 2 MB of L2 cache shared between the two cores. In all, Trinity, with its two modules, has 4 MB of L2 cache without any L3 cache.

Leadtek Research Inc., known globally for its extreme visual graphics technology, added the new WinFast GTX 560 Ti Hurricane graphics card to the Fermi II generation family for enthusiasts. It features dual 90 mm fans, two 8 mm cooper heat-pipes, a large copper base and many fan fins equipped behind the GeForce Fermi 114 chipset, which can reduce temperature more effectively than the standard version containing only two 6 mm cooper heat-pipes from the chipset manufacture. This not only means improvements in the thermal solution but also in noise emission. Only 21 dB is measured during idle time, and even during peak time, it is just 43 dB. Leadtek will release more dual fan design graphics cards, naming them "Hurricane", to highlight these features.

Palit unveiled a new limited-edition GeForce GTX 560 Ti based non-reference design graphics card, the Palit GTX 560 Ti Twin Light Turbo. The card's design is based on a black colored PCB (Palit uses a red-colored one on its regular GTX 560 Ti cards), and a unique GPU Cooler design. The heatsink follows essentially the same structure as the one featured on Gainward Phantom cards, in which heat is conveyed to the aluminum fin stack by four heat pipes, but the fans that ventilate the card are located on the side of the heatsink facing the PCB, rather than on top of it. The fans draw in air from the heatsink. Palit claims that the cooler has a noise output of less than 10 dBA.

The clock speeds of the card are not given out, yet. Like every other GTX 560 Ti, this card makes use of a 40 nm GeForce Fermi 114 GPU, is DirectX 11 compliant, packs 384 CUDA cores, and makes use of 1 GB of GDDR5 memory across a 256-bit wide memory interface. Display outputs include two DVI, and one each of D-Sub and HDMI (full-size). There is one SLI connector that allows 2-way SLI with any other GTX 560 Ti card, and power is drawn in from two 6-pin PCIe power connectors. Availability and pricing information is not known at the moment.