As poet and playwright Edna St. Vincent Millay once wrote: Life must go on, And the dead be forgotten. Effective as of this month, NVIDIA will no longer release Game Ready Driver upgrades for their Fermi-based graphics cards. Unlucky users who are still rocking a GeForce GTX 400 or GTX 500 series graphics card in their systems will cease to receive future performance enhancements, new features, and bug fixes. However, NVIDIA is kind enough to continue providing critical security updates for the aforementioned models through January 2019. It has been a great run, Fermi. We will miss you!

With its latest GeForce 384 series graphics drivers, NVIDIA quietly added DirectX 12 API support for GPUs based on its "Fermi" architecture, as discovered by keen-eyed users on the Guru3D Forums. These include the GeForce 400-series and 500-series graphics cards. The support appears to be sufficient to run today's Direct3D feature-level 12_0 games or applications, and completes WDDM 2.2 compliance for GeForce "Fermi" graphics cards on Windows 10 Creators Update (version 1703), which could be NVIDIA's motivation for extending DirectX 12 support to these 5+ year old chips. Whether they meet your games' minimum system requirements is an entirely different matter.

TGT is proud to announce the TGT BigBang tuning utility, developed by TGT's software engineering team. TGT BigBang works with all graphics cards based on an NVIDIA GTS 450 GPU or faster (Fermi/Kepler). TGT BigBang has been designed to also take particular advantage of NVIDIA's latest GPU generation with Kepler-architecture. TGT BigBang supports up to 8 GPUs in a system.

In addition of setting the base clock and memory clock the user can increase the power target, survey the GPU temperature and monitor the fan speed.

NVIDIA seems to be playing the blame game according to a article over at Xbit. This is what they had to say, "Chief executive officer of NVIDIA Corp. said that besides continuously increasing capital expenditures that the company ran into in the recent months will be accompanied by lower than expected gross margins in the forthcoming quarter. The company blames low yields of the next-generation code-named Kepler graphics chips that are made at TSMC's 28nm node. "Decline [of gross margin] in Q1 is expected to be due to the hard disk drive shortage continuing, as well as a shortage of 28nm wafers. We are ramping our Kepler generation very hard, and we could use more wafers. The gross margin decline is contributed almost entirely to the yields of 28nm being lower than expected. That is, I guess, unsurprising at this point," said Jen-Hsun Huang, chief executive officer of NVIDIA, during a conference call with financial analysts.

NVIDIA's operating expenses have been increasing for about a year now: from $329.6 million in Q1 FY2012 to $367.7 million in Q4 FY2012 and expects OpEx to be around $383 million in the ongoing Q1 FY2013. At the same time, the company expects its gross margins in Q1 FY2013 to decline below 50% for the first time in many quarters to 49.2%. Nvidia has very high expectations for its Kepler generation of graphics processing units (GPUs). The company claims that it had signed contracts to supply mobile versions of GeForce "Kepler" chips with every single PC OEM in the world. In fact, NVIDIA says Kepler is the best graphics processor ever designed by the company. [With Kepler, we] won design wins at virtually every single PC OEM in the world. So, this is probably the best GPU we have ever built and the performance and power efficiency is surely the best that we have ever created," said Mr. Huang.

TechPowerUp today released GPU-Z version 0.5.7, the latest version of our popular graphics system information and diagnostic utility. This release of GPU-Z comes just in time for the launch of AMD's Radeon HD 7000 series. It packs tested support for Radeon HD 7970 and HD 7350. It packs an updated PCI Express 3.0 detection routine, with better detection reliability. It fixes a bug related to "APIC counter broken" on AMD Fusion APU platforms. Detection is improved for some rare GPUs, such as HD 6450A, HD 6470M, and the more popular HD 5570.

Several reliability updates were introduced. This includes fixed (improved) fillrate calculation on Fermi architecture, fixed ROP count on GT 420, GT 520, HD 5450, HD 6450; fixed random values showing as default clocks on some NVIDIA cards; fixed random value showing as shader clock on NVIDIA cards without shader clock; and addition of process size, die size, transistor count for Radeon E6760.DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z 0.5.7 and TechPowerUp GPU-Z 0.5.7 ROG-Themed

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.

Graphics major NVIDIA has begun sampling the first GPUs of its next-generation Kepler family. Kepler succeeds the present generation Fermi family of GPUs, that make up the GeForce 400 and 500 series. Members of the GeForce Kepler family will follow the codename nomenclature of GK1xx, like GeForce Fermi followed GF1xx. The first GPU being sampled is codenamed GK107. The codename suggests that this isn't the top-end part, it's more like a lower-mainstream or value segment offering.

It is reported that GK107 has a 128-bit GDDR5 memory bus, which also supports inexpensive DDR3 memory. It is built in small quantities on TSMC's 28 nanometer fab process (as the foundry isn't ready for 28 nm bulk manufacturing. NVIDIA will follow a "bottom-to-top" strategy, when dealing with a new fab process technology. It will first design the smallest, simplest GPUs in the lineup, and then gradually move on to larger ones. The first GK107-based SKUs will succeed the GeForce GT 500M series. NVIDIA will carve out four SKUs, internally, NVIDIA will refer to those as N13P-LP, N13P-GS, N13P-GT and N13E-GE, with N13E-GE being the "enthusiast" part. Its market SKU will likely succeed the GeForce GT 560M.

Eurocom Corporation, a leading mobile technology developer is launching new GPU's for the Modular Embedded and CUDA Developer Markets based on the industry standard MXM 3.0b specification. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M and NVIDIA Quadro 5010M are new cards offered by Eurocom to those looking for high performance graphics processors. The solutions are aimed at embedded systems, SFF (Small Form Factor) PC and CUDA developers that require high performance GPUs.

The industry standard modular MXM 3.0b specification for graphics subsystems allows for improved cooling capability, reduced power and height, enabling engineers to create smaller, more efficient embedded systems, reduce development time and costs and to introduce new designs faster to market. Modular graphics solutions offer additional functionality as well as increased levels of performance compared to integrated graphics for developers of all kinds.

Zalman is making changes to its VF3000F GPU fan-heatsink, to give it compatibility with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 and GTX 580. The heatsink is largely unchanged from the Fermi-ready one introduced back in September 2010, with only a few minor compatibility tweaks. The new variant still measures 239 (L) x 98 (W) x 51 (H) mm, weighing 430 g. It uses two green LED-illuminated 92 mm fans that spin at 1400-3000 RPM, featuring EBR bearing.

The VF300F is essentially a large aluminum fin array to which heat is conveyed by five 6 mm thick copper heat pipes. The heat pipes converge at a large copper base. The heatsink is ventilated by the two 92 mm fans, and is topped off with a green chrome cooler shroud. A syringe of ZM-STG2 TIM is bundled. The new VF3000F is expected to be priced on par with the older model, €40 - €45.

MVKTech released the latest stable version of NVIDIA BIOS Editor, also known as NiBiTor. The popular NVIDIA GeForce/Quadro BIOS file manipulation utility has been updated to version 6.02, and comes with added support for a large number of GPUs, particularly high-end mobile GPUs and mainstream desktop. This includes the recently released GTX 550 Ti, apart from GT 440, GT 330, GT 130, G 100, and Quadro Fermi 600. Mobile GPUs supported with this version include GTX 470M, GTS 425M, GTS 350M, and updated support for GTX 460M.

"With NiBiTor we provide graphics card enthusiasts or hardcore overclockers full control over some advanced features and functionality found on firmware of supported cards. And by doing so users can gain some extra performance, enable certain hidden features, tweak memory timings, access device related information, adapt bootup settings, change fan speed options and even get extra stability using their NVIDIA based graphics accelerators which will just give them that little extra value," commented the developer.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA BIOS Editor (NiBiTor) v6.02

Palit Microsystems Ltd, the leading graphics card manufacturer, releases the most powerful dual-GPU graphics card- Palit GeForce GTX 590. With dual Fermi-based GTX 500 GPUs, vapor chamber cooler and the world's fastest speed, Palit GeForce GTX 590 is the strongest DirectX 11 graphics card on the planet. Palit GeForce GTX 590 is now available in Russia, Australia and Japan for you to experience the breathtaking gaming performance.

Armed with dual 512-core GPU that clocked at 607MHz and 3GB of GDDR5 memory at 1707MHz, Palit GeForce GTX 590 simply is the world's fastest Dx11 graphics card. The twin GTX 500 GPUs combine to deliver the astonishing DirectX 11 gaming experience that can devastate competing GPUs with ease by offering 20% higher performance. And with NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround technology, you can now have the optimized 3D gaming under multi-monitor setting form a single Palit GeForce GTX 590.

ZOTAC International, a leading innovator and the world's largest channel manufacturer of graphics cards, motherboards and mini-PCs, today reveals the GeForce GTX 590 graphics card -- the world's fastest graphics card capable of delivering extreme visual clarity and mind-boggling frame rates. The new ZOTAC GeForce GTX 590 combines a pair of high-performance graphics processors to form the ultimate graphics card for gamers that obliterates existing visual and performance barriers.

A pair of Fermi graphics processors delivers a combined 1024 unified shaders for earth-shattering performance that is ready to tackle all current and upcoming game titles powered by Microsoft DirectX 11 technology with the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 590. Large amounts of video memory - 3GB -enable the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 590 to tackle the latest titles with maximum details and enhance games with up to 32x levels of anti-aliasing for stunning visuals and details that mimic reality.

NVIDIA today introduced the GeForce GTX 590, the fastest dual graphics card available today which also happens to be the world's quietest too. Powered by dual NVIDIA Fermi-class GPUs on a single card, the GTX 590 is designed for über enthusiasts and those looking to build the ultimate PC gaming rig.

With a combined 1024 NVIDIA CUDA architecture cores, 3GB of GDDR5 memory, 6 billion transistors and over 2200 individual components all packed into an 11 inch dual slot card, the GTX 590 delivers a staggering 32 tessellation engines that can power today's cutting edge DX11 games at resolutions of 2560x1600 and higher. With four separate video outputs on each card, consumers can configure their PC with four independent displays, or they can span their gaming across 3 3D displays, at a resolution up to 5760x1080 for an intense, immersive, stereoscopic gaming experience utilizing NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround technology.

PC gaming just got a lot more fun today with the introduction of the GeForce GTX 550 Ti graphics processing unit (GPU) with an estimated e-tail price of £119. The GTX 550 Ti is the latest in NVIDIA's Fermi line of consumer GPUs, designed to deliver stunning DirectX 11 performance. It brings a new level of price/performance to mainstream PC gaming, while maintaining exceptionally quiet acoustics and requiring minimal power.

Like all NVIDIA "DX11 Done Right" GPUs, the GTX 550 Ti delivers the world's fastest performance in its class for DX11 games. Compared with the closest competitive product, the GTX 550 Ti is up to 50 percent faster in today's newest DX11 tessellated games, and 38 percent fasteri in previous-generation DX9 and DX10 games. And with NVIDIA SLI technology, the industry's most scalable multi-GPU platform, gamers will be able to increase their PC's gaming performance by adding a second GeForce GTX 550 Ti.

SPARKLE Computer Co., Ltd., the professional VGA card manufacturer and supplier, today announced The SPARKLE GeForce GT 440 Graphics Cards for home theater enthusiasts and casual gamers, which have everything users need to spoil users senses. The SPARKLE GeForce GT 440 Graphics Cards adopt the Fermi architecture which accelerate your digital life. Designed with unparalleled levels of price/performance, the SPARKLE GeForce GT 440 Graphics Cards are the perfect GPU for LAN party pwning.The SPARKLE GeForce GT 440 Graphics Cards dominates the competition and offers amazing game realism on the latest DirectX 11 titles like Civilization V. Equipped with the latest industry leading technologies including NVIDIA 3D Vision, NVIDIA PhysX, high performance NVIDIA GeForce drivers, and more, the SPARKLE GeForce GT 440 Graphics Cards have everything you need to spoil your senses.

ZOTAC International, a leading innovator and the world's largest channel manufacturer of graphics cards, motherboards and mini-PCs, today introduces a new graphics card for mainstream users seeking a performance kick - the new ZOTAC GeForce GT 440 series graphics cards with 512MB and 1GB DDR5 memory.

Powered by the high-performance NVIDIA Fermi architecture, the ZOTAC GeForce GT 440 series pack 96 customizable unified shaders capable of rendering beautiful DirectX 11 graphics or accelerate NVIDIA CUDA-enabled video transcoding and image editing applications. The customizable shaders enable the ZOTAC GeForce GT 440 series to accelerate streaming high-definition Internet video powered by Adobe Flash technology for flawless playback free of dropped frames and stuttering.

SPARKLE Computer Co., Ltd., the professional VGA card manufacturer and supplier, today presents The SPARKLE GeForce GTX 560 Ti Graphics Card, -- the newest addition to its GTX 500 Series of DirectX 11 graphics cards designed for mainstream market. The SPARKLE GeForce GTX 560 Ti Graphics Card adopts the Fermi 2.0 architecture which upgrades core algorithms such as texture filtering and Z-axis compression over Fermi 1.0 architecture, so that the corresponding instruction operation efficiency is greatly enhanced.

At the same time, with semiconductor chip manufacturing technology improvements at TSMC, through the upgrading of core components and semiconductor manufacturing process optimization of its characteristics, still based on TSMC 40nm process in the premise, The SPARKLE GeForce GTX 560 Ti Graphics Card can run at higher frequencies. By the two improvements, the Performance/Watt ratio of the SPARKLE GeForce GTX 560 Ti Graphics Card has great increase over GeForce GTX 470 graphics cards.

After the successful launch of the World's First Independent Produced GeForce GTX 580 V-Go Graphics Card, SPARKLE Computer Co., Ltd., the professional VGA card manufacturer and supplier, today announced the GeForce GTX 570 V-Go Graphics Card, becoming the world's first manufacturer who can independently produce high-end graphics cards using Fermi 2.0 architecture. "V-Go, the series is represent the independent produced graphics cards, inherit the expertise spirit on graphics cards manufacturing for 16 years" said Kevin Wang the General Manager of SPARKLE ."We are pleased with the new high level of SPARKLE R&D and production capabilities. As another masterpiece of V-Go series, GeForce GTX 570 V-Go Graphics Cards inherit the blood of Fermi 2.0 Architecture also has a better price advantage."

NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) today reported revenue of $843.9 million for the third quarter of fiscal 2011 ended Oct. 31, 2010, up 4.0 percent from the prior quarter and down 6.6 percent from $903.2 million from the same period a year earlier.

On a GAAP basis, the company recorded net income of $84.9 million, or $0.15 per diluted share, compared with a GAAP net loss of $141.0 million, or $0.25 per share, in the previous quarter and GAAP net income of $107.6 million, or $0.19 per diluted share, in the same period a year earlier. GAAP gross margin was 46.5 percent compared with 16.6 percent in the previous quarter and 43.4 percent in the same period a year earlier.

The successful Fermi series from NVIDIA continues to expand with the new GTX 580, featuring 512 CUDA cores and achieving the most impressive DirectX 11 performance ever fielded by a single NVIDIA GPU. ASUS has added its own exclusive Voltage Tweak to the GTX580 for significant output gains on demand. The hardcore performance of the ASUS GTX580 offers full HD NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround gaming and movie watching on up to three screens, and CUDA parallel computing that puts the great power of the GPU at the disposal of the CPU for overall system enhancement.

GIGABYTE, a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, is pleased to present the latest premium graphics card - GV-N580D5-15I-B. Built with next-generation NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 GPU and GDDR5 memory technology, GV-N580D5-15I-B runs every blockbuster games with amazing performance. Different from its previous generation, GV-N580D5-15I-B runs quieter with its innovative vapor chamber thermal design. Supporting NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround, 3D Vision, PhysX , and 3-way SLI, GV-N580D5-15I-B guarantees ultimate extreme DirectX 11 gaming experience.

Here are the first pictures of what is touted to be the GeForce GTX 580 reference design graphics card by NVIDIA, by sections of the Chinese media. There are some interesting inferences that can be drawn just by the looks of the card. To begin with the cooler bears an uncanny resemblance to one of the earliest design iterations of the GeForce GTX 480 (pictured here and here). In its final iteration, NVIDIA gave the GTX 480 a more massive cooler, perhaps to keep up with its finalized clock speeds. If the design of the GTX 580 cooler is anything to go by, it means that either NVIDIA refined the GF100 architecture in the GF110 (on which GTX 580 is based) a great deal, increasing performance per Watt; or that since GTX 580 is in its development stage, its final version could look different. GeForce GTX 580 is being designed as a counter to AMD's Radeon HD 6900 series single-GPU graphics cards that are based on the new Cayman graphics core, which is slated for release in late November. It is expected to be 20% faster than the GTX 480.

Zotac is another NVIDIA partner who isn't pleased that the GeForce GTX 480 isn't holding performance leadership, but has the engineering potential to outdo it. Earlier in June, Galaxy showed off a dual Fermi graphics card that makes use of two GF100 graphics processors in the GeForce GTX 465 configuration. Zotac waited for a more mature implementation of the Fermi architecture, found out that the GF104-based GeForce GTX 460 isn't lacking much in performance compared to the GTX 465, with vastly better thermal specifications, and went on to design its latest high-end card, which it now refers to as the Zotac GeForce GTX 460 X2. The card makes use of two GeForce GTX 460 1 GB GPUs in an internal SLI, much like every other dual-GPU NVIDIA card.

The card uses an NVIDIA nForce 200 bridge chip to semaphore and broadcast data between the two GPUs, a dual 3+1+1 phase VRM that draws power from two 8-pin PCI-E power connectors, and display connectivity is relayed to the rear-panel from both the GPUs, that's four dual-link DVI, and one mini-HDMI. What this also means is that with just this one card, you can use the 3D Vision Surround feature, while retaining SLI multi-GPU scaling. If that's not all, there's a SLI connector, which lets you pair this with another card of its kind, for GTX 460 Quad-SLI. Zotac is yet to finalize a cooling solution to suit it best. GF104 could be NVIDIA's easiest route to a dual-GPU graphics card that establishes performance leadership. The GF104 physically has 384 CUDA cores (336 on Zotac's card, since it's in the GTX 460 configuration), and has shown to be capable of high GPU/Shader clock speeds. More details about Zotac's card are awaited.

NVIDIA slipped in a new OEM-only consumer graphics SKU, the GeForce GT 440. This development closely trails the market-wide launch of the GeForce GT 430, which in turn was an OEM-only SKU earlier. Hence there is some scope for the GT 440 to make a retail appearance soon. The specifications, according to its product page, leads us to believe that this could be a GF106-based SKU, with all 6 of its memory paths used (192-bit), albeit with DDR3. Partners have the option of installing either 1536 MB (1.5 GB) or 3072 MB (3 GB) of memory.

The Fermi-derived GF106 core is configured with 144 CUDA cores, 594 MHz core clock, 1189 MHz CUDA core clock, and either 800 or 900 MHz of DDR3 memory, providing memory bandwidth of up to 43.2 GB/s. The card supports 2-way SLI, its display connectivity consists of one each of DVI, HDMI, and D-Sub. Maximum board power is rated at 56W.