During my most recent eggscursion, I came across the EVGA 512-P3-N879-AR. The card is a non-reference GeForce 9800 GTX+ model. EVGA took the advantage of the lower thermal footprints of the 55nm G92 core, and developed this shorter card that makes do with a single 6-pin PCI-E power input. The cooler slightly resembes that of the 8800 GTS 512, but comes with a shroud that resembles that of the GTX 200-series cards by design.

The card is 3-way SLI capable with any other 9800 GTX+ card. It sports 512 MB of GDDR3 memory clocked at 2200 MHz, with the core clocked at 740 MHz, with an 1840 MHz shader domain. The card is available at Newegg.com for US $174.99 before a $25 optional rebate.Images courtesy: Newegg

EVGA is deligthted to formally present its first motherboard designed around an Intel chipset: the EVGA X58 SLI. This motherboard is based on the highly anticipated Intel X58/ICH10R chipset combo and is optimized for those who want the absolute best from their brand new Core i7 CPUs. The motherboard was once described on our pages here, so I won't rewrite the same features again. Main specs of the board are listed below, also the first 500 members who register their brand new EVGAs here, will receive an EVGA X58 t-shirt.

EVGA have released a new version of their popular overclocking utility today. The most noticeable improvement is the support for fan control with the latest 180.xx series drivers from NVIDIA, many users were annoyed with the fact that all their fan control programs ceased to work, but EVGA has got their utility updated even before the 180.xx drivers reach WHQL standard. The changes since 1.3.2 are as follows:

• Added fan control support for NVIDIA Forceware 180.xx drivers family.
• EVGA On-Screen Display Server has been updated to version 2.8.0. Added new On-Screen Display rendering mode. Optional configurable On-Screen Display background improves On-Screen Display readability in some applications and prevents it from merging with solid color screen.
• Added G98 graphics processors support.
• Now Precision displays product version in On-Screen Display.

More information and the latest version for download is available here

Following the formal launch of the Far Cry 2 frachise BFG and EVGA, two of the official NVIDIA AIB (Add-In-Board) partners, announced they'll start bundling the game with their GeForce GTX 200 range of graphics cards. That includes both GeForce GTX 260 and GeForce GTX 280.
For a limited time, and while supplies last only, customers who buy any BFG GeForce GTX 200 series graphics card starting from yesterday will get a free full copy of Far Cry 2 ($50 value), a full copy of 3DMark Vantage Advanced Edition ($20 value), and
a BFG branded mini super bright LED electric torch. Find more details here.
EVGA is also offering a free Far Cry 2 copy, as long as you meet the following terms and conditions written here. EVGA's offer is also limited while supplies last.

Thanks to a nice spot by one of our community members, a picture of EVGA's Bloomfield-supportive motherboard has emerged, on Xtreme Systems Forums. The motherboard marks the first motherboard by EVGA, based on an Intel chipset. The X58 motherboard would offer 3-way SLI among other overclocker-friendly features, as listed below:

• Socket LGA-1366, Intel Core i7 Support
• Features Intel X58 + ICH10R chipset
• Six DDR3 DIMM slots for tri-channel memory
• Sports 100% Solid-state capacitors, enthusiast-grade design
• Enthusiast layout supporting 2-way, 3-way NVIDIA SLI and ATI CrossFireX
• EVGA VDroop control, EVGA E-LEET Utility
• 10 SATA II ports with 1 E-SATA

NVIDIA Corporation today announced that the world's preeminent motherboard manufacturers, ASUS, EVGA, MSI, Gigabyte, and DFI, have all licensed NVIDIA SLI technology for their new lineup of motherboards designed to work with Intel Bloomfield CPUs and X58 chipsets. The addition of SLI to these motherboards and adoption by major OEMs including Dell and others means consumers will be able to harness the power of award-winning GeForce GPUs in single, SLI, or 3-way SLI configurations for the fastest visual computing experience on upcoming Intel Bloomfield platforms.

"Dell Gaming is known for industry-leading graphics and unparalleled performance," said Patrick Cooper, Director of Product Planning for Dell Gaming. "With the marriage of NVIDIA SLI and the latest generation of Intel chipsets, we will continue to offer hardcore gamers the opportunity to push their Alienware systems beyond the limits of today's hottest titles."

The tier-one partners of NVIDIA, namely EVGA, XFX and BFG, sell motherboards based on NVIDIA nForce chipsets, with motherboards designed by NVIDIA itself, with a few exceptions where EVGA improvised their designs. With NVIDIA licensing SLI to Intel, allowing their upcoming Bloomfield-supportive X58 chipset to support the SLI multi-GPU technology, and for $5 per supportive board, it took less than guess work to think NVIDIA's partners would start using Intel X58 chipsets to grab their share of Core i7 motherboard market as quickly as they can.

In a recent press release, NVIDIA counted EVGA in the partial list of motherboard vendors who are working on motherboards based on the X58 platform, and offer SLI support. In the same press release, Joe Darwin, Director of Technical Marketing at EVGA was quoted saying "By licensing NVIDIA SLI technology, the EVGA X58 motherboard will deliver the ultimate 2-way and 3-way SLI platform to, once again, meet the enthusiast's demand." So we beg to ask: Will NVIDIA actually work on a LGA-1366 chipset, or will the new found love with selling high performance chipsets for the mainstream, such as MCP7A, replace it? Only time will tell. In the mean time, and on a rather comic note, get ready for the first EVGA motherboard to support ATI Crossfire X.

Following a news article about the launch of the 730i which we covered here, EVGA has launched its first motherboard based on the Nvidia 730i Chipset with onboard graphics. You can find out more information on EVGA's Product Page, and a video overview is available here.

EVGA is proud to announce the latest product to the EVGA Motherboard family; the EVGA nForce 730i. With support for DirectX 10 and NVIDIA GeForce Boost Technology, the EVGA nForce 730i represents the latest in graphics technology and can provide up to a 70% increase in overall visual performance! All of these innovations are combined to make the EVGA nForce 730i the best single GeForce Graphics platform available.

Get it all with from The Force Within: With support for NVIDIA PhysX and CUDA Technology, the EVGA nForce 730i will provide you a full spectrum of visual nirvana and unsurpassed graphics processing power.

EVGA is one of the elite NVIDIA partners that sells NVIDIA-designed motherboards based on the nForce chipsets, apart from being a leading graphics card vendor. EVGA for one, added innovation to the NVIDIA designs with its own level of enhancements, such as improved capacitors, more number of CPU power phases than NVIDIA's own designs, among others. EVGA brands these higher-grade motherboards under the "FTW" series. If you've spent long enough time on an internet bulletin board, you would know that FTW means "for teh win".

EVGA decided to give its flagship motherboard, the nForce 790i SLI FTW an improvement with its power circuits. The new board, 790i SLI FTW PWM circuitry a digital upgrade. The board features an 8-phase circuit for the CPU. It also provides digital power management. This is said to push up its overclocking capabilities. The board provides vDroop control and onboard power, reset and clear CMOS buttons. The motherboard supports all LGA-775 socket processors including the ones with 1600 MHz FSB. It supports memory with speeds of up to DDR3 2000 MHz. The nForce 790i SLI FTW DIGITAL PWM is now on sale at $339.99, $40 higher than the older nForce 790i SLI FTW.

NVIDIA's move to give the GeForce GTX 260 a performance boost by increasing its shader count by 24, to make 216 in all has worked in pusing the performance envelope high up. Our review of the Zotac GeForce GTX 260 Amp2 has shown that at a price range the new GPU based graphics cards fall in, they offer terrific value.

EVGA has decided to cash in on this move with their lineup of cards that sport the newer GPU. Among this, is a high-end card that comes with factory-fitted water blocks. The EVGA e-GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 HC16 comes with a full coverage water block. What's more, the other side of the PCB has been provided with cooling for vital parts of the PCB as well. What's even more surprising is that the card uses a power design similar to that of the GeForce GTX 280. It comes with 6-pin + 8-pin PCI-Express power inputs. Evidently, the enhanced power circuit keeps the card overclock-stable beyond the speeds it comes in. The GPU core is clocked at 648 MHz, with 1404 MHz for the shader domain. Memory is clocked at 1053 MHz. It comes with the usual 896 MB of memory. This card however, carries a price-tag of US $489.99, leaving the enhanced PCB and cooling to justify it.

Expect nothing but NVIDIA all over the place today. After BFG it's EVGA's turn with six more GeForce GTX 280 cards. Some of them come overclocked, some are even watercooled.

From the beginning of this month EVGA started selling its first GeForce 9800 GX2 water block - the Hydro Copper 18 waterblock with a 100% copper design and SLI compatibility. Starting today, EVGA will start offering the block along with an EVGA GeForce 9800 GX2 video card (part number: 01G-P3-N899-AR). Regardless of the full cover high-performance water block, the EVGA card comes with stock clock speeds - 600MHz for both NVIDIA G92 GPUs, 1512MHz for the 256 Stream Processors and 2000MHz for the 1024MB of GDDR3 memory. This bundle is compatible with all 1/2" and 3/8" water cooling systems, barbs are also included in the package. The e-GeForce 9800 GX2 Hydro Copper 18 1024MB is available now in extremely limited quantities, so if you can afford to pay the $699.99 premium for it, hurry up.

EVGA, once again released a new version of its Precision overclocking utility. What's new in v1.1.0:

• Allows up to 10 unique profile's, and ability to assign hotkeys to these profiles to allow in-game
• Ability to view temperatures in the system tray
• Core/Shader Clock Link/Unlink capability
• Fan Speed manual or auto adjustment
• Real-Time on-screen display support for ingame temp, framerate, and clock monitoring
• Logitech Keyboard LCD Display support
• In-app temp/clockspeed monitoring of GPU's (up to 4 supported)
• Information button shows device, driver, memory size, BIOS Revision and SLI mode
• Ability to choose different skins, with more coming soon

Download it directly from EVGA.

EVGA has released a new version of its Exclusive Precision Overclocking Utility. Version 1.02 change log:

• Added tray icon temperature monitoring feature
• Added set of synchronization protocols aimed to improve Precision usage safety in conjunction with third party hardware monitoring tools
• Added exception handling to PLL clock frequency monitoring routines
• Precision settings are now stored in display adapter model specific profiles to allow keeping the settings when installing new version
• Now the uninstaller allows you to keep Precision settings
• Compact graph mode is enabled by default now
• Now Precision reverts to default skin if corrupted skin is selected

DOWNLOAD

DisplayLink and EVGA today announced that they have teamed to deliver a new generation of affordable USB graphics adapters (UGAs) for mass-market retail consumers. EVGA's new UV Plus+ Family of products which consists of the UV12 and UV16 USB graphics adapters, are based on DisplayLink network display technology, enabling any available USB port on your desktop PC or notebook to be turned into an additional video output for use with another display. The GPU-less design utilizes a virtual driver and high-performance DDR memory with full support for Windows Vista Aero and high resolution capabilities. Once the USB 2.0 capable EVGA UGA is used to connect your system to an additional monitor, the following three video modes will be accessible: mirrored desktop, extended desktop and primary display. Furthermore the included software will let you expand (left, right, above or below), rotate (left, right, or upside-down), or mirror your virtual workspace. Both adapters are now available through EVGA's network of partners with a sub-$100 price tag. Please proceed here for more information.

EVGA is proud to announce the first ever EVGA designed GeForce 9800 GX2 water block - the EVGA 9800GX2 Hydro Copper 18 waterblock (part number: 200-CU-HC18-B1) with a 100% copper design and SLI compatibility. Being a full cover block, the Hydro Copper 18 is compatible with all reference 9800 GX2 cards and can be used in both 3/8" ID and 1/2" ID water cooling systems. Available now for pre-order, you'll have to hurry up if you want to buy one, because the block is said to be produced in a limited quantities. The price is little steep though, $249.99.

It was yesterday when the EVGA Precision utility first became available, and now just a day later here's a brand new version released. The EVGA Precision 1.01 features the following changes:

• Added desktop shortcut creation feature to the installer
• Fixed problem with instance checking in the installer
• Added display driver version detection for Vista x64

DOWNLOAD

Little update on our previous story that EVGA is to announce a new overclocking utility. The Precision overclocking tool was confirmed today to be released this week, by the administrator of EVGA's support forums. He also revealed some exclusive features of the tool, such as Logitech G15 LCD applet integration and in-game GPU temp/frequence and FPS readings.

EVGA has become the first graphics manufacturer to introduce two new video card under the GeForce 9600 GSO brand. The e-GeForce 9600GSO 384MB (384-P3-N966-TR) and e-GeForce 9600GSO Superclocked 384MB (384-P3-N967-TR) both feature NVIDIA's 65nm G92 GPU with 96 stream processors, second gen PureVideo HD, 100% DirectX 10 and PCI Express 2.0 support. The regular version comes clocked at 550MHz/1375MHz/1600MHz core/shader/memory clock speeds while the Superclocked model works at 650MHz/1620MHz/1900MHz. EVGA also includes the Step-up Program, EVGA 24/7 Tech Support, EVGA Forums, EVGA Gaming Servers, EVGA Advanced RMA (EAR) and the upcoming EVGA Precision Graphics Tuning Tool exclusive for these cards.

At the EVGA forums a hint has been posted that they will have a new overclocking tool called "Precision" soon.

In addition to changing core, memory and shader clock you will also be able to adjust SLI clocks as well as fan speeds.

EVGA is now also offering overclocked versions of GeForce 9800 GTX. The three new cards are e-GeForce 9800GTX SSC 512MB, e-GeForce 9800GTX KO 512MB, and e-GeForce 9800GTX SC 512MB, with SSC being the fastest 9800GTX to date at 770MHz/2300MHz core/memory and 1.94GHz shader clock speed. All these new card are coupled with EVGA's Limited lifetime warranty, step-up program, 24/7 support and more.

EVGA is now introducing an update to the fastest graphics solution, the EVGA 9800GX2 Superclocked, KO and SSC. Up to 86.4 Billion/sec Texture Fill Rate on the SSC Model gives you the ultimate in extreme performance. 100% testing ensures the highest level of performance and stability possible. This same level of testing and quality allowed Vince "k|ngp|n" Lucido to hit nearly 30,000 points with a single EVGA 9800GX2. EVGA makes the GX2 even more extreme giving you the ultimate in high-definition gaming performance.

Official NVIDIA partner EVGA has released a new e-GeForce 8800GT 1024MB G92-powered card part of the AKIMBO line-up. The AKIMBO cards feature a dual-slot cooling system that resembles the stock 8800 GTS 512MB cooler, and strangly enough all AKIMBO cards have standard clocks. The new 1GB GeForce 8800 GT model has 112 Stream Processors set to 1500MHz, a GPU clocked at 600MHz and GDDR3 memory at 1800MHz. The card is in stock now for $299.99.

EVGA is happy to announce the 790i Ultra SLI motherboard, foundation for the world's fastest gaming PCs, delivering top performance for 1600 MHz FSB Intel CPUs with extreme CPU overclocking, and unmatched gaming for 2-way, 3-way and Quad SLI technology. EVGA 790i Ultra offering new DDR-3 Technology supporting up to 2GHz providing world-record setting memory speeds and component control with ESA (Enthusiast System Architecture).

It's time to suit up and join the front lines with the fastest 8800GT card in its class, the EVGA 8800GT AKIMBO card: Featuring a 65nm GPU with an astonishing GPU Core clock of 720MHz, the exclusive dual slot heat sink and fan drops temperatures as much as 25 degrees Celsius, keeping your card cool and ready to perform at any given notice. Your new secret weapon supports 2-way SLI and the latest PCI-E 2.0 standard, now is the time to lock, load, and game. Frag it up with the EVGA 8800GT AKIMBO card.