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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Specifications Released

After launching its shockingly fast (claimed) GeForce GTX 1080 and GTX 1070 graphics cards, NVIDIA posted specifications of the former. The two are based on NVIDIA's swanky new 16 nm "GP104" silicon, derived from its "Pascal" GPU architecture. The architecture is detailed in our older article, here. The GeForce GTX 1080 leads the pack, featuring four graphics processing clusters, holding 2,560 CUDA cores. The core runs at a scorching 1607 MHz, with a GPU Boost frequency of 1733 MHz. In one of its demos, NVIDIA overclocked this chip to over 2100 MHz, on its reference air cooling, and the GPU barely scraped 67 °C under stress. The GTX 1080 features a 256-bit wide GDDR5X memory interface, holding 8 GB of memory. The memory is clocked at 2500 MHz (10 GHz effective), working out to a memory bandwidth of 320 GB/s.

API support includes DirectX 12 (feature-level 12_1), OpenGL 4.5, and Vulkan. Display outputs include three DisplayPort 1.4 connectors, one HDMI 2.0b, and one dual-link DVI. The reference-design card is 10.5-inch long, and double-slot. It draws power from a single 8-pin PCIe power connector, and its typical board power is rated at 180W. With the GeForce "Pascal" family, instead of caving in to DirectX 12 native multi-GPU, NVIDIA developed its SLI technology further, with the new SLI HB (high-bandwidth) bridge standard. It's essentially a 2-way bridge in which both SLI fingers of the card are used. This doubles bandwidth between the two cards, allowing higher display resolutions, and multi-display setups between high-resolution monitors. The GeForce GTX 1080 will be available from May 27, 2016, starting at US $599. The $379 GTX 1070 specifications will be revealed closer to its June 10, 2016 market availability.

Hitman DirectX 12 Support Restored with Latest Patch

IO Interactive today released a 130 MB patch for the PC version of Hitman (2016), through Steam. The patch fixes DirectX 12 API support, which was broken by the recent April 26th update, that installs the game's second episode "Sapienza, Italy." After the update, Hitman appears to be working in DirectX 12 mode, in both its in-game benchmark, and the game itself, on both our GeForce GTX 970 SLI (365.10 drivers) and Radeon R9 290 (16.4.2 drivers) machines.

Hitman Episode Two Update Breaks DirectX 12 Support

The latest update for the episodic "Hitman" game (version 1.1.2) breaks support for DirectX 12 on the PC platform. Released earlier this week, the update introduces players to the second episode based in the Medeterranean setting of Sapienza. We found that after the update, the game simply refused to start. We took advantage of the external settings tool to do some trial-and-error work.

The topmost setting, which lets you select between DirectX 12 (our original setting) and DirectX 11, fixed the issue, when we switched to the latter. We even swapped graphics cards between GeForce GTX 970 SLI (our original setup), GTX 970 single-card (NVIDIA driver 364.96), and Radeon R9 290 (AMD driver 16.4.2). Neither setups worked. A stroll through the Internet reveals that multiple other players are facing this issue. Has Square Enix done absolutely no play-testing in DirectX 12?

EVGA Announces the GeForce GTX 950 Low Power Graphics Card

The EVGA GeForce GTX 950 features a true gaming GPU designed for every PC gamer. It's built to the exact specifications of the GeForce GTX family and powered by NVIDIA Maxwell - the most advanced GPU architecture ever created - to deliver 3x the performance of previous-generation cards. More powerful than any console, this card delivers a truly interactive, cinematic experience in the latest games with advanced effects driven by NVIDIA GameWorks and DirectX 12.

The EVGA GeForce GTX 950 is now available in special low power models, but still retains all the performance intact. In fact, several of these models do not even have a 6-Pin power connector. Learn more at this page.

AMD Releases Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.4.1

AMD released its latest version of the Radeon Software Crimson Edition drivers. Version 16.4.1 comes with optimization for "Quantum Break," with up to 35 percent higher performance seen a machine running the Radeon R9 Fury X, compared to the previous 16.3.2 drivers. It also provides software support for the two hottest VR headsets - Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. The drivers also address a bug seen on "Hitman" (2016), which cases the game to flicker when shadow quality is bumped up to "high," in DirectX 11 mode. Most importantly, the drivers fix a frame-rate capping issues noticed on some DirectX 12 applications.
DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.4.1 for Windows 10/8.1/7 64-bit | Windows 10/8.1/7 32-bit

AMD Announces Exciting DirectX 12 Game Engine Developer Partnerships

AMD today once again took the pole position in the DirectX 12 era with an impressive roster of state-of-the-art DirectX 12 games and engines, each with extensive tuning for the Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture at the heart of modern Radeon GPUs.

"DirectX 12 is poised to transform the world of PC gaming, and Radeon GPUs are central to the experience of developing and enjoying great content," said Roy Taylor, corporate vice president, Content and Alliances, AMD. "With a definitive range of industry partnerships for exhilarating content, plus an indisputable record of winning framerates, Radeon GPUs are an end-to-end solution for consumers who deserve the latest and greatest in DirectX 12 gaming."

Microsoft Details Shader Model 6.0

Microsoft is giving final touches to Shader Model 6.0, an update to a key component of its Direct3D API. This succeeds Shader Model 5.0, which remained largely unchanged since the introduction of DirectX 11.0 in 2009. Shader Model 6.0 provides a more optimized pathway for shader code to make its way to the metal (GPU, hardware). The outgoing Shader Model 5.0, which is featured on DirectX 11 and DirectX 12, relies on FXC, an offline shader compiler, to both compile and optimize HLSL shader code, supporting HLSL v1.4 to v5.1 code.

Shader Model 6.0, on the other hand, dedicates compiling to Clang HLSL compiler, and optimization to multiple LLVM passes. Since Shader Model 6.0 supports HLSL code from v5.0 upwards, it should also benefit existing DirectX 11 and DirectX 12 apps, while relegating older apps to the then legacy Shader Model 5.0 pathway. In addition, Shader Model 6.0 claims to provide the right performance to cope with API level features such as tiled resources (mega-textures). It remains to be seen how Microsoft deploys Shader Model 6.0.

NVIDIA Unveils the Quadro M6000 24GB Graphics Card

NVIDIA announced the Quadro M6000, its new high-end workstation single-GPU graphics card. Based on the GM200 silicon, and leveraging the "Maxwell" GPU architecture, the M6000 maxes out all the hardware features of the chip, featuring 3,072 CUDA cores, 192 TMUs, 96 ROPs, and a 384-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding 24 GB of memory, double that of the GeForce GTX TITAN X. Its peak single-precision floating point performance is rated at 7 TFLOP/s.

Where the M6000 differs from its the GTX TITAN X is its workstation-grade features. It drops the HDMI 2.0 connector for a total of four DisplayPort 1.2 connectors, supporting a total of four 4K Ultra HD displays. The dual-link DVI connector stays on. There's also an optional stereoscopic 3D connector. The nView MultiDisplay tech provides more flexible display-head configurations than the ones you find on NVIDIA's consumer graphics GPUs; you also get NVIDIA GPUDirect support, which gives better memory sharing access for multi-GPU systems. The M6000 supports most modern 3D APIs, such as DirectX 12, OpenGL 4.5, and Vulkan; with compute capabilities over CUDA, OpenCL, and DirectCompute. NVIDIA didn't reveal pricing.

AMD "Polaris" Based Graphics Card Display Connector Layout Pictured

At its Capsacin event, AMD demoed one of the first DirectX 12 AAA games, Hitman (2016), on a machine running its next-generation GPU. This GPU is based on its "Polaris" architecture, and while the press got no specs to take home, they did catch a glimpse of the card's rear I/O panel. The display connector layout is unlike anything AMD has at the moment, on its reference-design cards, and looks similar to what NVIDIA offers on some of its high-end graphics cards.

The connector layout sees four connectors on the first slot (same level as the card's PCB), which includes three DisplayPorts and one HDMI port; and one DVI connector on the second slot, with an air-vent next to it. The "Polaris" architecture supports DisplayPort 1.3 and HDMI 2.0a standards. DisplayPort 1.3 serves up enough bandwidth for 5K (5120 x 2880 pixels) at 60 Hz, 4K-HDR (3840 x 2160 with HDR) at 60 Hz, or 4K-SDR at 120 Hz. The SFF desktop setup running this card was able to render Hitman with Ultra settings and 2560x1440 pixels resolution, over 60 fps.

AMD Radeon Fury X2 Reference Air Cooled?

AMD, which has been timing its upcoming dual-GPU "Fiji" graphics card to launch sometime this year, may have demoed a production version of the card in one of its launch partners, Falcon Northwest's, Tiki high-end gaming desktop, as a "VR developer box." AMD's Roy Taylor, in a recent tweet, captions a picture of this dev box as being "the world's best DirectX 12 VR developer box," leading the press to speculate that it's running the company's dual-GPU "Fiji" card.

A close look at AMD's VR dev box, through its windowed graphics card compartment, reveals an air-cooled AMD reference graphics card, which VideoCardz' trigonometry pins as being shorter than a Radeon R9 390X reference board. It could be a reference R9 380X, but then a reference dual-GPU "Fiji" PCB is roughly of the same length, and a R9 380X wouldn't earn the title of being the "world's best" from a senior AMD exec while there are faster AMD cards, such as the R9 Fury. The ability of the full-spec "Fiji" silicon to cope well with a rather simple air-cooler in the R9 Nano fans even more speculation that a dual-GPU "Fiji" board could make do with a powerful air-channel cooler.

AMD Releases Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.2 Beta Drivers

AMD released its monthly major update to Radeon Software Crimson Edition, its software suite that provides drivers and system software for AMD Radeon discrete and integrated graphics processors. Version 16.2 Beta comes with game-specific optimization for "Ashes of the Singularity" Benchmark 2.0, including support for features such as DirectX 12 multi-GPU and asynchronous compute shaders. Performance improvements are added for "Rise of the Tomb Raider," and CrossFire profiles are added for "Tom Clancy's The Division" and XCOM 2. A number of bugs related to "Rise of the Tomb Raider" and "Fallout 4" were fixed.
DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.2 Beta for Windows 10/8.1/7 64-bit | Windows 10/8.1/7 32-bit

The change-log follows.

Rise of the Tomb Raider to Get DirectX 12 Eye Candy Soon?

Rise of Tomb Raider could be among the first AAA games that take advantage of DirectX 12, with developer Crystal Dynamics planning a massive update that adds a new renderer, and new content (VFX, geometry, textures). The latest version of the game features an ominously named "DX12.dll" library in its folder, and while it doesn't support DirectX 12 at the moment, a renderer selection has appeared in the game's launcher. DirectX 12 is currently only offered on Windows 10, with hardware support on NVIDIA "Kepler" and "Maxwell" GPUs, and on AMD Graphics CoreNext 1.1 and 1.2 GPUs.

Futuremark Releases 3DMark 2016 Beta with VRMark Preview

Futuremark dropped an early Holiday present for enthusiasts, with a beta of 3DMark 2016. While it doesn't pack the all-awaited "Time Spy" DirectX 12 game-test, you still get a lot. To begin with, it includes a preview to VRMark, a 3D VR benchmark designed for VR headsets. It's a very early release, and as such doesn't generate a score. It doesn't yet support multi-GPU setups. You still get a groovy VR rendition of the "Fire Strike" game test universe. The beta also comes with a brand new user-interface that's a little more easy on the eyes, and quick to get your way around. The beta is being distributed through Steam and open to everyone who owns the paid version of 3DMark on Steam. Grab it from the link below.
DOWNLOAD: 3DMark 2016 Beta

3DMark "Time Spy" Benchmark 5 Times Heavier on your GPU than "Fire Strike"

At a media event held in China, graphics card maker GALAX revealed Futuremark's next big 3D graphics benchmark. The unnamed next-gen 3DMark suite will include DirectX 12 game tests, including one titled "Time Spy." This game test (GT) features a museum-like 3D scene, rich in eye-popping lighting effects, and GT scenes from previous-generation 3DMarks serving as miniature exhibits within the test.

From the looks of it, your DirectX 12 compatible GPU is in for a trial by fire, in what promises to be an exciting next-gen 3D benchmark. The benchmark renders at 1080p, 1440p, or 4K, and is said to be "5 times" heavier on your GPU than "Fire Strike," Futuremark's DirectX 11 test that featured in the 2013 release of the suite. What's more, the benchmark will explicitly require Windows 10 64-bit, since it requires Direct3D 12 API support, and needs >2 GB of memory. Futuremark mentioned an "early" Q1-2016 launch for this benchmark.

A video presentation follows.

BIOSTAR Announces GeForce GTX 950 Gaming Graphics Card

BIOSTAR announces its latest graphics card designed to tackle the needs of gamers with competitive performance. BIOSTAR GeForce GTX 950 features 2GB of GDDR5 memory, with 768 CUDA cores, and support for NVIDIA PhysX and DSR Technology. Game in silence with the Low noise output via its heat pipe cooling design, and be prepared for the latest titles with its complete DirectX 12 support.

The BIOSTAR GeForce GAMING GTX 950 features NVIDIA's 2nd-generation Maxwell GPU which boasts highly-improved performance-per-watt versus other cards. With performance intended for 1080p gamers, the GTX 950 is the perfect lightweight card for MOBA gamers featuring various optimizations to improve your gaming experience while delivering the best performance-per-watt that only the latest-generation Maxwell GPU can offer. Armed with 768 CUDA cores and complimented by 2GB 128-bit GDDR5 memory, this card brings stunning visuals with support for up four monitors: dual-DVI, DisplayPort and HDMI supported.

NVIDIA Details "Pascal" Some More at GTC Japan

NVIDIA revealed more details of its upcoming "Pascal" GPU architecture at the Japanese edition of the Graphics Technology Conference. The architecture will be designed to nearly double performance/Watt over the current "Maxwell" architecture, by implementing the latest tech. This begins with stacked HBM2 (high-bandwidth memory 2). The top "Pascal" based product will feature four 4-gigabyte HBM2 stacks, totaling 16 GB of memory. The combined memory bandwidth for the chip will be 1 TB/s. Internally, bandwidths can touch as high as 2 TB/s. The chip itself will support up to 32 GB of memory, and so enterprise variants (Quadro, Tesla), could max out the capacity. The consumer GeForce variant is expected to serve up 16 GB.

It's also becoming clear that NVIDIA will build its "Pascal" chips on the 16 nanometer FinFET process (AMD will build its next-gen chips on more advanced 14 nm process). NVIDIA is innovating a new interconnect called NVLink, which will change the way the company has been building dual-GPU graphics cards. Currently, dual-GPU cards are essentially two graphics cards on a common PCB, with PCIe bandwidth from the slot shared by a bridge-chip, and an internal SLI bridge connecting the two GPUs. With NVLink, the two GPUs will be interconnected with an 80 GB/s bi-directional data path, letting each GPU directly address memory controlled by the other. This should greatly improve memory management in games that take advantage of newer APIs such as DirectX 12 and Vulkan; and prime the graphics card for higher display resolutions. NVIDIA is expected to launch its first "Pascal" based products in the first half of 2016.

BIOSTAR Announces Hi-Fi H170S3H Motherboard

BIOSTAR announces its latest motherboard designed for Intel 6th-generation processor which offers a packed array of features perfect for gaming and entertainment. The BIOSTAR Hi-Fi H170S3H features Hi-Fi Audio, Hi-Fi Power and 3D Hi-Fi to fully maximize your listening experience. This coupled with the full barrage of BIOSTAR enhancements, gives you the ultimate value for your gaming build without breaking the bank. Native support for PCI-E M.2 allows you to arm yourself with high-speed M.2 storage and choosing H170 gets you more USB3.0 ports along with native PCI-E RAID0 and RAID1 support. The board supports DDR3 memory so no need to change DIMMs when you upgrade your PC.

The BIOSTAR Hi-FI H170S3H comes with an optimal power design with MOSFET cooling for sturdier power delivery to the CPU to enhance performance, coupled with Crossfire support with 2x PCI-E X16 slots gives you more flexibility in upgrading later on with another GPU. The board also supports onboard dual-HDMI, both are 4K ready. The Hi-Fi H170S3H is certified BIOSTAR 6+ Experience board covering BIOSTAR's expertise: Audio+, Video+, Speed+, Protection+, Durability+ and DIY+.

NVIDIA Coming Around to Vulkan Support

NVIDIA is preparing to add support for Vulkan, the upcoming 3D graphics API by Khronos, and successor to OpenGL, to its feature-set. The company's upcoming GeForce 358.66 series driver will introduce support for Vulkan. What makes matters particularly interesting is the API itself. Vulkan is heavily based on AMD's Mantle API, which the company gracefully retired in favor of DirectX 12, and committed its code to Khronos. The 358 series drivers also reportedly feature function declarations in their CUDA code for upcoming NVIDIA GPU architectures, such as Pascal and Volta.

TechPowerUp Releases GPU-Z 0.8.6

TechPowerUp released version 0.8.6 of GPU-Z, the popular graphics subsystem information and diagnostics utility, which gives you detailed info on your installed graphics chips, and lets you monitor the various sensors of your GPUs. To begin with, the new version comes with DirectX 12 support, with the ability to tell which feature-level of Direct3D your hardware supports. Command-line usage has been added with the "/help" argument. Support was added for several GPUs, notably GTX 950, Microsoft Surface Book GPU, R9 Nano, and AMD "Carrizo" iGPU.

The app can now wake up AMD GPUs in laptops that are power-gated to conserve power (and which would hence not get properly detected). BIOS reading is improved, and incorrect fan-speed reading, and a rare BSOD in AMD R9 Fury series GPUs, are fixed. Several stability improvements for Intel iGPUs were made, with the addition of support for Intel "Braswell," "Cherry Lake," and "Skylake" iGPUs. AMD GPU clock speed detection with no AMD driver installed, has been improved. A rare case of misreading BIOS in multi-GPU setups, has been fixed. Voltage monitoring on some Sapphire graphics cards has been fixed.
DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z 0.8.6 | GPU-Z 0.8.6 ASUS ROG Themed

The change-log follows.

DirectX 12 Mixed Multi-GPU: It Works, For Now

One of biggest features of DirectX 12 is its asymmetric multi-GPU that lets you mix and match GPUs from across brands, as long as they support a consistent feature-level (Direct3D 12_0, in case of "Ashes of the Singularity"). It's not enough that you have two DirectX 12 GPUs, you need DirectX 12 applications to make use of your contraption. Don't expect your older DirectX 11 games to run faster with a DirectX 12 mixed multi-GPU. Anandtech put Microsoft's claims to the test by building a multi-GPU setup using a Radeon R9 Fury X, and a GeForce GTX 980 Ti. Some interesting conclusions were drawn.

To begin with, yes, alternate-frame rendering, the most common multi-GPU method, works. There were genuine >50% performance uplifts, but nowhere of the kind you could expect from proprietary multi-GPU configurations such as SLI or CrossFire. Second, what card you use as the primary card, impacts performance. Anandtech found a configuration in which the R9 Fury X was primary (i.e. the display plugged to it), and the GTX 980 Ti secondary, to be slightly faster than a configuration in which the GTX 980 Ti was the primary card. Mixing and matching different GPUs from the same vendor (eg: a GTX 980 Ti and a GTX TITAN X) also works. The best part? Anandtech found no stability issues in mix-matching an R9 Fury X and a GTX 980 Ti. It also remains to be seen how long this industry-standard utopia lasts, and whether GPU vendors find it at odds with their commercial interests. Multi-GPU optimization is something both AMD and NVIDIA spend a lot of resources on. It remains to be seen how much of those resources they'll be willing to put on a standardized multi-GPU tech, and away from their own SLI/CrossFire fiefdoms. Read the insightful article from the source link below.

BIOSTAR Announces Hi-Fi Z170Z5 Combo Motherboard

BIOSTAR's latest Intel based motherboard features a DDR4 + DDR3 combo solution, Super Durable Solid Capacitors, and the BIOSTAR 6+ Experience. With BIOSTAR's enhancements users will enjoy mainboards that have enhancements in these areas of BIOSTAR expertise: Audio+, Video+, Speed+, Protection+, Durability+ and DIY+.

BIOSTAR's latest mainboard, the Hi-Fi Z170Z5 is based on Intel's H170 chipset which is a single-chip design that supports Intel 6th generation socket 1151 Intel Core processors. The Biostar Hi-Fi H170Z5 features support of either DDR3 or DDR4 memory modules with 2-DIMM DDR3L-1866(OC)/1600/1333 for up to a 16G maximum capacity and 2-DIMM DDR4-2133/1866 for up to a 32G maximum capacity.

AMD Achieves High-End Embedded Performance Leadership with New R-Series

AMD today announced new AMD Embedded R-Series SOC processors that establish performance leadership across a targeted range of embedded application market requirements for digital signage, retail signage, medical imaging, electronic gaming, media storage and communications and networking. Designed for demanding embedded needs, the processors incorporate the newest AMD 64-bit x86 CPU core ("Excavator"), plus third-generation Graphics Core Next GPU architecture, and state-of-the-art power management for reduced energy consumption. Combined, these AMD innovations and technologies provide industry-leading graphics performance and key embedded features for next-generation designs.

The single-chip system-on-chip (SOC) architecture enables simplified, small form factor board and system designs from AMD customers and a number of third party development platform providers, while providing astounding graphics and multimedia performance, including capability for hardware-accelerated decode of 4K video playback. With a robust suite of peripheral support and interface options, high-end AMD Radeon graphics, designed for the industry's first Heterogeneous Systems Architecture (HSA) 1.0 certification, and support for the latest DDR4 memory, the new AMD R-Series SOC addresses the needs of a wide range of markets and customers.

AMD Releases Catalyst 15.10 Beta Drivers

AMD released Catalyst 15.10 Beta drivers. These drivers address issues with Star Wars: Battlefront Beta, and comes with quality and performance optimization for Ashes of the Singularity in DirectX 12 mode. It also addresses a rare crash that occurs when maximizing a minimized web-browser window with a YouTube 4K video playback in it. Issues with Cyberlink PowerDVD playback on 3D displays connected via HDMI are also addressed.
DOWNLOAD: AMD Catalyst 15.10 Beta for Windows 10/8.1/7 64-bit | Windows 10/8.1/7 32-bit

Microsoft Acquires Havok Physics from Intel

Microsoft acquired Havok Physics, the industry's most popular in-game physics API, from Intel. Microsoft intends to add Havok's IP to its existing tools and platforms, including DirectX 12, Visual Studio, and Azure. Havok will continue to remain accessible to all its existing licensees and partners, including Activision, EA, Ubisoft, Nintendo, and Sony. It currently features in more than 600 AAA game titles across major platforms, such as the PC, PlayStation, Wii, and Xbox.
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