On the 29th of this month, NVIDIA will launch its newest graphics card SKU, the GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 Cores. We got our first sniff of it last month. Today we present to you all the specifications that matter: clock speeds, voltages, device IDs, etc., but first a brief history. NVIDIA launched the original GeForce GTX 560 Ti back in January, based on its spanking new GF114 silicon. It packed 384 CUDA cores, a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, 1 GB of memory, high clock speeds, and fairly decent overclocking potential. AMD's Radeon HD 6870 was "pwned" (NVIDIA's words). But then, AMD managed to work closely with its partners to create a 1 GB version of its Radeon HD 6950 graphics card. Coupled with diligent component cost balancing, AMD was able to neuter GTX 560 Ti to a good extant. With the upcoming winter shopping season, NVIDIA does not want to take any chances with its competitiveness in the $250-ish "sweetspot" segment, and hence it had to redesign the GTX 560 Ti.

The new GeForce GTX 560 Ti will come with "448 Cores" brand extension, and as it suggests, the GPU now has 448 CUDA cores as opposed to 384 cores on the original. The new SKU will use the same silicon on which the GTX 570, GTX 580, and dual-GPU GTX 590 are based: GF110. The chip will carry the marking "GF110-270-A1". Apart from the 448 CUDA cores, the new SKU will have a memory bus width of 320-bit, and standard memory amount of 1280 MB, just like the GTX 570. The GTX 560 Ti Core 448 has clock speeds of 732 MHz core, 1464 MHz CUDA cores or shaders, and 950 MHz actual (1900 MHz DDR, or 3.80 GHz GDDR5 effective) memory clock speed. So the only thing that sets the new GTX 560 Ti 448 Cores from GTX 570 is the CUDA core count (448 vs. 480 on the GTX 570).

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.

EVGA released a new Batman: Arkham City-themed GeForce GTX 580 graphics card. Carrying the model number 015-P3-1582-A1, this card carries NVIDIA clock speeds of 797/1594/4050 MHz (core/CUDA cores/memory effective). Apart from the game-themed cooler shroud sticker and a themed box, we can't really see what's new with this product. Perhaps it has a voucher for a copy of the game?

Based on the 40 nm GF100 graphics processor, GeForce GTX 580 is the single fastest GPU on the planet. It packs 512 CUDA cores, and 1536 MB of GDDR5 memory across a 384-bit wide memory bus. The GTX 580 also packs features Batman: Arkham City can benefit from, such as PhysX. Available on American retailer Newegg.com, the EVGA GTX 580 Batman: Arkham City Edition is priced at $529.99. At $30 over the base model GTX 580, it has got to pack a copy of the game.

EVGA released a teaser picture of its X79 FTW motherboard. This is EVGA's third LGA2011 motherboard, after the E-ATX Super Record 3 and XL-ATX X79 Classified. This board confines itself to the dimensions of a standard ATX form-factor motherboard (240 x 300 mm). It targets the gamer-overclocker market. The LGA2011 socket is powered by a 14-phase VRM, while the memory, 4-phase. EVGA completely did away with cylindrical conductive polymer capacitors, and used a 100% POSCAP capacitor design. Power is drawn in from a 24-pin ATX (angled) connector, 8-pin EPS, and a 4-pin Molex (for PCIe slot electrical stability). There are just four DDR3 DIMM slots, one per memory channel.

Expansion slots include four PCI-Express 3.0 x16 (two are x16 capable, all four are x8 capable), a PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (electrical x8), and one PCIe x1. NVIDIA 4-way SLI and AMD CrossFireX are supported. The only internal SATA ports on this board are the ones the X79 PCH gives out, two SATA 6 Gb/s and four SATA 3 Gb/s. There are two eSATA ports, driven by a third-party controller. There are as many as eight USB 3.0 ports on the rear-panel, and two via internal header. 8+2 channel HD audio, two GbE connections, a Bluetooth connection, and PCH-wired USB 2.0 ports (for keyboard/mouse) make for the rest of the standard connectors. There is an EVBot header on the rear-panel, that lets you connect to the EVBot monitoring/control module. The UEFI BIOS is stored in two separate EEPROMs, and a 2-way switch lets you manually switch between the two. Expect the X79 FTW to be a part of the company's first wave of LGA2011 motherboards.

Just as its detractors thought they were done with it, and just as people started to think that attrition among some of its "popular" designers cost EVGA dearly, the company hit back with teaser pictures of the Super Record 3 or SR3, it promised back in June, it would deliver to the enthusiast community. And yes, it matches its description! The SR3 is a dual socket LGA2011 2P enthusiast desktop/workstation motherboard in the E-ATX form factor. Socket 0 is wired to eight DDR3 DIMM slots (two DIMMs/channel), while socket 1 to four slots (1 DIMM/channel).

In LGA2011 2P systems, the processor sitting on socket 0 is wired to the PCH (SR3 looks to have Patsburg-T), while the processor on socket 1 is wired to the one on socket 0 using two QPI links, closing the daisy-chain. Socket 0, apart from its 4 GB/s DMI link, has a PCI-Express 2.0 x4 (another 4 GB/s) link to supplement the DMI link, so the storage controllers don't get bottlenecked with just DMI. Both processors contribute to the PCI-Express lane budget of the motherboard. There are seven PCI-Express x16 slots, among which four are PCI-Express 3.0 x16 capable, every slot is PCI-Express 3.0 x8 capable. NVIDIA 4-way SLI is supported. This board will support Sandy Bridge-EP Xeon processors, though we don't know at this juncture if Core i7 Sandy Bridge-E is 2P capable.

EVGA was missing on the LGA2011 motherboard wall at this year's Computex event in June. EVGA is one of the top brands overclockers and enthusiasts look forward to, for motherboards. As a late consolation, EVGA gave out a teaser picture of one of its upcoming X79 motherboards a little later in June. At GeForce LAN 6, however, EVGA made full use of the spotlight to unveil its X79 Classified (E799), a top-tier socket LGA2011 motherboard clearly designed for overclockers.

The X79 Classified uses a traditional LGA2011 motherboard layout, but with wide open spaces to make insulating it (against condensation) easier. The CPU power delivery seems to be in the hands of some very high-grade VRM design, it draws power from two 8-pin EPS connectors apart from the 24-pin ATX (that's right-angled). There are just four DDR3 DIMM slots, one per memory channel. A 4-phase memory VRM is deployed. Over the chipset area, a large contiguous heatsink covers most hot components in the central-right region. We don't expect there to be a bridge chip.

The EVGA GTX 580 Classified 3072MB, previously announced on TechPowerUp, is now available to buy according to this forum post by an EVGA product manager - in limited quantities, of course. According to Gaming Blend, this card can amazingly reach a doubled 1.6GHz core clock when overclocked using waterblocks - GTX 590 eat your heart out! This card also has custom designed VRMs to take all the extra power that the card will use, which means that they won't squeal when the card is overclocked hard and also when running intensive applications such as Folding@Home.
UPDATE: Turns out that 1.6GHz overclock was actually achieved using LN2, not water. To confirm it, click the EVGA promo link after the jump and see the extreme cooling section video, or just skip directly to the YouTube video here.

EVGA made finally released a backplate accessory for NVIDIA's reference-design GeForce GTX 560 Ti graphics cards. Priced at $20, the backplate is made of brushed metal. It helps reduce PCB bending by reinforcing it, as well as helps with heat dissipation. Then there's the obvious aesthetic lift it gives to your rig by covering up the soldered parts of the PCB. The backplate should fit NVIDIA reference design GTX 560 Ti graphics cards of all makes. It is available on the EVGA online store.

After much delay, EVGA released its first wave of LGA1155 motherboards based on the Intel Z68 chipset featuring Intel Smart Response technology. Quite surprisingly, none of EVGA's Z68 motherboards feature display outputs. The series is topped by Z68 FTW, designed for enthusiasts and overclockers; followed by Z68 SLI, geared for gamers with NVIDIA SLI graphics setups; and Z68 SLI Micro, an SLI-ready board in the micro-ATX form-factor.

The Z68 FTW uses a similar layout to the P67 FTW. It uses a strong VRM to power the CPU and memory, it provides as many as six PCI-Express x16 slots, making use of a nForce 200 bridge chip that makes it 3-way and 4-way SLI ready. It is loaded with overclocker-friendly features such as EVbot support, a front-panel OC controller, and an overclocking gauge. The Z68 FTW is also available as a package without those two accessories.

EVGA teased its community with a picture of one of its first single-socket LGA2011 motherboards. The graphics card major was missed at this year's Computex event at the wall holding upcoming LGA2011 boards. The company then pacified its fans with news that it was working on a monstrous dual-LGA2011 motherboard along the lines of the SR-2. We can't tell very much about the board in the picture below, except that it has socket LGA2011 with a typical CPU area layout, makes smart use of the congested VRM area with high-C capacitors and driver-MOSFETs, and looks to have some innovations such as right-angled 24-pin ATX power connector. Power, reset, and clear CMOS buttons are found at a place accessible to overclockers, so are some voltage measurement points. One can also see a heat pipe winding its way about into the frame on the top-left corner. That's about it with what we can tell from the picture.

Even as the GeForce GTX 580 Classified is in the oven at EVGA, the company released to market the GTX 570 Classified. This card features an entirely different design to the GTX 580 Classified. It is roughly as big as the reference design, with a cooler that resembles it. It draws power from an 8-pin and a 6-pin power connector, unlike the reference design drawing it from two 6-pin ones, leading us to believe that the design idea here is to give GTX 570 a VRM as strong as the one on the reference GTX 580, allowing good overclocking.

The card features 1280 MB of memory over a 320-bit wide GDDR5 interface, clocked at 975 MHz (3.90 GHz effective), churning out 156 GB/s of bandwidth. The core is clocked at 822 MHz, and the 480 CUDA cores available are at 1644 MHz. These, against reference speeds of 732/1464 MHz (core/CUDA cores). The display connectivity is different from the one on the reference design, it features two DVI connectors, and one each of DisplayPort and HDMI (both full-sized). Available on EVGA's online store, the GTX 570 Classified is priced at US $359.99.A promotional video follows.

In the wake of ASUS' ROG MATRIX GeForce GTX 580 and MSI N580GTX Lightning, EVGA is ready with its own enthusiast-grade GeForce GTX 580 designed for extreme overclocking. The EVGA GTX 580 Classified combines a strong electrical circuitry with powerful air-cooling and a feature-set designed for overclockers. To begin with, the card uses a tall PCB that draws power from one 6-pin and two 8-pin PCI-E power connectors.

The card uses a strong VRM circuitry that consists of solid-state chokes (which can't whine), direct-FETs (low RDS), and proadlizers (better power conditioning). The power connectors are fused to prevent surges from damaging anything, there are consolidated voltage measurement points, LEDs are used to indicate power status of each power domain (NVVDD, FBVDD, and PEXVDD). The card also features two BIOS ROMs that are selectable by a switch. One stores an overclocked profile, and the other stores a failsafe reference speed profile.

After treating the gaming community to some groovy mousepads, EVGA turned its attention to the overclocking community, with the new Frostbite thermal interface material (TIM). This white, silver-based TIM has a thermal conductivity of 6.5w/m-k, and is said to be less viscous than other silver-based TIMs. EVGA is pitching it for use in bleeding-edge overclocking setups, with sub-zero cooling solutions. EVGA even got renowned overclocker K|ngp|n to endorse it, saying that the Frostbite TIM is easy to apply and holds on longer during extreme bench sessions. Available in 2 g syringes, the EVGA Frostbite TIM is priced at US $9.99.

EVGA solidified its gamer-centric image by rolling out a trio of gaming mousepads. All three are essentially of the same size and specs, but differ with the graphic on the surface. The three are "XL" sized (14" x 10.25" or 35.5 cm x 26 cm). All three have the same rigid/metal-coated surface that provides low friction, meaning that it's is a speed-centric surface. A non-slip rubberized base provides traction with whatever is below. As for the designs, the first one is dedicated to the EVGA Gaming Community (EGC), and shows a shield surrounded by all sorts of gun barrels; next is a plain EVGA Gaming logo with a pattern in the background; the third design is of a tactical shooter background with "Pwnage" in the foreground. All three are priced at US $14.99 at the company's online store.

EVGA released a new non-reference design graphics card based on the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 (part: 025-P3-1579-AR), boasting of twice the memory amount, at 2560 MB (2.5 GB). The 2.5 GB of GDDR5 memory is installed over a 320-bit wide memory interface, with a memory clock speed of 950 MHz (3.80 GHz effective), providing a memory bandwidth of 152 GB/s. The added memory could improve performance on HD gaming with 120 Hz refresh-rates (for flicker-free stereo 3D). The core is clocked at 732 MHz, with the 480 CUDA cores running at 1464 MHz. The card uses EVGA's in-house design GF110 PCB, that is shorter than NVIDIA's reference design. Its cooler resembles that of the GTX 560 Ti, and is designed to be quieter. Display outputs include two DVI, and one each of HDMI 1.4a and DisplayPort. EVGA's GTX 570 HD 2.5 GB is priced at US $399.99 at EVGA's online store.

EVGA released the first consumer-channel graphics card based on NVIDIA's GeForce GT 545 graphics processor. The GT 545 has been an OEM-only SKU. Based on the 40 nm GF116 silicon, the GT 545 has 144 of the chip's 192 CUDA cores enabled, the same 192-bit wide memory interface, but making use of DDR3 memory instead of GDDR5 on the GeForce GTX 550 Ti. Clock speeds set at 720 MHz core, 1440 MHz CUDA cores, and 900 MHz (1800 MHz effective) memory, churning out memory bandwidth of 43 GB/s. There is 1.5 GB of memory.

EVGA's implementation resembles NVIDIA's reference design. It uses a short full-height PCB, and a single-slot cooler. Display outputs include one each of HDMI 1.4a, D-Sub, and DVI. It can pair with another card of its kind in 2-way NVIDIA SLI. Backed by 10 year warranty (if purchased this month), the EVGA GeForce GT 545 1.5 GB is priced at US $150.

At this year's Computex event, we were treated to socket LGA2011 motherboards by various motherboard manufacturers, except EVGA. The company makes some of the highest grade enthusiast motherboards in the Intel platform, and so it was missed. It is however, said to be working on a monstrous dual-socket LGA2011 motherboard based on the Intel X79 chipset, that would replace its dual-socket LGA1366 EVGA SR-2.

Just imagine, such a monstrosity would combine two six/eight/twelve-core LGA2011 Sandy Bridge-E processors with eight channels of DDR3 memory, and four PCI-Express 3.0 x16 (electrical x16) links to drive its graphics cards and connectivity. EVGA said that it will have single-socket LGA2011 motherboards by the time the platform launches, and this dual-LGA2011 about a month later.

G.Skill International Co. Ltd., manufacturer of extreme performance memory and high performance solid-state storage, has released its latest SATA 3 6gbps SSD, Phoenix II Pro, based on the latest SandForce SF-2200 controller with the whopping random write speed up to 60K IOPS, and numerous ultra high performance memory series designed for the latest released platforms at Computex 2011.

Duke Nukem seems to be attracting as much attention from his swarm of male fans as the school uniform-clad strippers from the game. This fandom is building up obscene levels of hype with the various collectors' edition bundles available on the web, on pre-order, that give a variety of Duke Nukem memorabilia along with a copy of Duke Nukem Forever, a game that has been in production for 14 years. Some of the gamers who are going to play the game hadn't even graduated from Fisher Price when the last Duke game came out.

EVGA wants to be one of those to come out with (no pun intended) a bundle of their own, called "Duke's Fully Loaded Package". As a top-tier graphics card vendor, its bundle includes - you guessed it - a graphics card that handles the game well, in this case, a specially-branded GeForce GTX 560 1 GB clocked at 810/1620/4008 MHz (core/CUDA cores/memory), apart from a copy of Duke Nukem Forever (PC), memorabilia that includes "The History, Legacy and Legend of Duke Nukem Forever" artbook, Duke Nukem Forever mousepad, a "radioactive" belt-buckle, and a specially designed package. Those craving for Duke's fully-loaded package (again, no pun intended) from EVGA, can pre-order it from here.

Here is the first EVGA-branded CPU air cooler, the EVGA SuperClock. Based on the design of Swiftech Polaris 120, the EVGA SuperClock uses nearly the same materials, but uses black-colored fins and heat pipes, apart from an illuminated fan. Like the original, the main heatsink consists of a heat pipe direct contact base, where the five heat pipes make direct contact with the CPU, the pipes in the central portion of the base (which receive most of the heat), propagate from a portion of the aluminum fin array that gets the maximum airflow. The heatsink is ventilated by a 120 mm spinner that lights up red, spins at 750 - 2500 RPM, pushing up to 84 CFM of air. At US $49.99, it's cheaper than the Swiftech Polaris 120, that's priced at $59.99 on the company store.

EVGA released a 3 GB (3072 MB) variant of its top of the line single-GPU graphics card, the EVGA GTX 580 FTW HydroCopper 2. It significantly lower clock speeds than the original 1.5 GB variant, of 772 MHz GPU, 1544 MHz CUDA cores, and 1002 MHz (4008 MHz effective) memory, against the 1.5 GB variant's 850/1700/4196 MHz (core/CUDA cores/memory effective). The card comes with a Swiftech-made EVGA HydroCopper 2 full-coverage water block pre-fitted, along with an EVGA GTX 580 backplate. The water block makes the card truly single slot, with the company replacing the double-slot bracket with a single slot one. The 3 GB EVGA GTX 580 FTW HydroCopper 2 is priced at US $739.99, a $40 premium over the 1.5 GB variant.

Without making too much noise, EVGA released a new custom-design graphics cards based on the GeForce GTX 580 and GeForce GTX 560 Ti GPUs; the EVGA GTX 580 DS SuperClocked and GTX 560 Ti DS SuperClocked. Both cards use a dual-fan ventilated cooler that makes use of a large, dense aluminum fin heatsink to which heat is fed by heat pipes. The GTX 580 DS SuperClocked comes with clock speeds of 797/1594/4050 MHz (core/CUDA cores/memory effective), while the GTX 560 Ti DS SC comes with 900/1800/4212 MHz speeds. Both cards also use custom design PCBs, the GTX 580 model uses a high-flow backplate. The GTX 560 Ti DS SC is priced at US $219, and the GTX 580 model at $519.

Corsair, a worldwide designer and supplier of high-performance components to the PC gaming hardware market, today announced that a PC equipped with its Dominator GT ultra-high performance DDR3 memory was used to set new world records with the 3DMark 11 and 3DMark Vantage benchmarks. Well-known overclockers Vince "K|ngp|n" Lucido and Illya "TiN" Tsemenko posted list-topping scores of P24347 in 3DMark 11 and P79364 in 3DMark Vantage.

The hardware used included an EVGA Classified SR-2 motherboard, dual Intel Xeon X5690 CPUs, four custom-modified EVGA GeForce GTX 580 GPUs, and three 2GB Corsair Dominator GT GTX2 DDR3 memory modules. A total of seven Kingpin Cooling liquid nitrogen pots were used to cool the CPUs, GPUs, and the Intel 5520 chipset.

After quite some lull, a new motherboard by EVGA is taking shape, the EVGA P67 FTW B3. As the name suggests, it is a top-tier motherboard by the company, based on the Intel P67 B3 chipset. The P67 FTW ("for the win", in gamer jargon) supports LGA1155 Intel Core i3/i5/i7 processors, and is geared for extreme overclocking of CPU and GPUs, and is particularly laid out for supporting 3-way and 4-way NVIDIA SLI. The board uses an NVIDIA nForce 200 bridge chip over the processor's PCI-Express 2.0 x16 link to give out two x16 links, which are further configured as four x8 links, if four x16 slots are populated with graphics cards. The board uses a 12-phase CPU VRM with split heatsinks, the CPU is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots, supporting dual-channel DDR3.

Storage connectivity includes two internal SATA 6 Gb/s, four SATA 3 Gb/s; other connectivity includes 8-channel HD audio, two gigabit Ethernet interfaces, USB 3.0, and a number of USB 2.0. There are several overclocker-friendly features, such as support for EVGA EVBot, an external overclock control and monitoring module, jumpers to toggle specific PCI-Express slots, consolidated voltage measurement points, onboard power/reset buttons, and LED POST diagnostic readout. A strong VRM and feature-rich BIOS should top it up. The new board is priced at a juicy US $200, and should be available soon.

One of NVIDIA's principal partners, EVGA, released no less than four special edition SKUs for the GeForce GTX 590 graphics card. The SKUs bear EVGA's coveted "Classified" brand extender, which is used on only the most high-end products by the company. First, there's the EVGA GTX 590 Classified Hydro Copper Quad SLI (03G-P3-1599-A2), which is two GeForce GTX 590 graphics cards prepped for water-cooling with HydroCopper water-blocks, packed into one box; next there's the EVGA GeForce GTX 590 Classified Quad SLI (03G-P3-1598-A2), that's two reference design cards in one box; then there are single-card water-cooled (03G-P3-1599-AR) and single-card reference design (03G-P3-1598-AR) packages.

The dual-card (QuadSLI) packages include some EVGA memorabilia, a black t-shirt and a large mousepad. All four SKUs pack cards with the same clock speed profile: 630 MHz core, 1260 MHz CUDA cores, and 864 MHz (3456 MHz effective) memory. The HydroCopper cards feature full-coverage water-blocks. As for pricing, the water-cooled QuadSLI pack is priced at $1,729.99; reference-design QuadSLI pack at $1,429.99; water-cooled single-card at $879.99; and reference-design single-card at $729.99.