SAPPHIRE Technology has now added two new Vapor-X Models to its HD 7970 series of high performance graphics cards based on the latest HD 7970 GHz Edition GPU from AMD.

The SAPPHIRE HD 7970 6GB Vapor-X Edition shares many of the features of the recently announced industry-leading TOXIC Edition. Its 6GB frame buffer makes it ideally suited to multi-screen gaming as well as providing the extra memory required for demanding professional applications such as content creation, video editing or rendering.

Eurocom Corporation (www.eurocom.com), a developer of long lifespan, high performance, fully upgradable Notebooks and Mobile Workstations has been testing and benchmarking and is now launching the NVIDIA Quadro K5000M GPU with 1344 CUDA cores and 4GB GDDR5 graphics memory in its Panther 3.0 Mobile Workstation.

NVIDIA Quadro K5000M graphics are manufactured on the newest 28nm kepler based GPU architecture from NVIDIA. Featuring a long list of technologies such as PhysX, CUDA, DirectX 11 and OpenCL, the NVIDIA Quadro K5000M will offer next generation graphics performance for the EUROCOM Panther 3.0 Mobile Workstation.

NVIDIA's newest product designed to strike the price-performance "sweetspot," the GeForce GTX 660, is set for a mid-August market launch, according to a SweClockers report. The new chip could roll out some time between August 13 and 19. Given that other Kepler-based SKUs have been launched on Tuesdays or Thursdays, it's likely that the launch date could be either the 14th, or the 16th. The GTX 660 will be based on the 28 nm "GK104" GPU. It will feature 1,344 or 1,152 CUDA cores, and a 192-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding 1.5 GB of memory, according to the report. The new GPU could capture a crucial sub-$300 price-point.

MSI has received high marks from all quarters for its high-end gaming laptops, including being selected for Innovations Honorees at the CES 2012 and being named as the only winner of three awards at Computex 2012. Now, MSI is introducing the GT70 and GT60-the ultimate in next-generation gaming notebooks. They feature Intel's third gen quad core processor and new generation Nvidia GeForce GTX 680M discrete graphics card-the fastest one of its kind on the planet. Specially designed to meet the extreme demands of extreme gamers around the world. These killer notebooks also boast awesome peripherals.

NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 670 presents a big problem to AMD's Radeon HD 7900 series lineup. It clearly outperforms Radeon HD 7950, outperforms Radeon HD 7970 in most cases, and maintains a healthy cost-performance lead over Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition, even if it lags behind in performance. To combat this, AMD is reportedly working on a new SKU, called Radeon HD 7950 GHz Edition.

The "new" Radeon HD 7950 GHz Edition will be priced competitively to the GeForce GTX 670 (around $350-400), will retain the core configuration of the original HD 7950, with 1,792 Graphics CoreNext stream processors, 112 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and 384-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface holding 3 GB of memory; but will feature higher clock speeds, with a core clock speed ≥1.00 GHz, and could feature AMD PowerTune with Boost feature. It is also reported that a majority of HD 7950 GHz Edition graphics cards launched to the market (later this quarter), will be cost-effective non-reference designs by AMD's add-in board (AIB) partners.

Colorful's AMD Radeon-centric graphics card brand, ColorFire, is out with a new graphics card which keeps in tune with the design principle of backing a performance-segment GPU with preposterous amounts of features (VRM, cooling, OC features, etc.) The company showed off its Radeon HD 7870 XStorm graphics card at this year's Computex event in Taipei, though it is only now that we're seeing pictures of the card taken apart. Pictured below is the card of the hour. This Radeon HD 7870 graphics card is so long, that it comes with a support brace for workstation cases and Apple Mac Pro.

The card powers the otherwise cool and quiet "Pitcairn" GPU with an 8+1+1 onboard VRM, which can be expanded by a 4-phase VRM card that supports higher power draw. The card draws power from two 8-pin PCIe power connectors. Despite a VRM design that's fit to condition power for the HD 7970 GHz Edition (or jump-start an SUV), the ColorFire HD 7870 XStorm ships with mildly-overclocked speeds of 1050 MHz core and 1250 MHz (5.00 GHz effective) memory. It packs 2 GB of GDDR5 memory across a 256-bit wide memory interface.

PowerColor launched the world's first single-slot + low-profile graphics card based on the Radeon HD 7750, the PowerColor HD 7750 LP. The card relies on a compact air-cooler, which uses a dense hive of aluminum fins, ventilated by a 40 mm lateral-flow fan to cool the 1.5 billion transistor GPU. The card draws power from the PCI-Express slot, and uses high-grade VRM components (such as CPL-made chokes, LFPAK MOSFETs, etc.,) to condition power at minimal board footprint.

The card doesn't compromise on clock speeds, and ships with 800 MHz GPU and 1125 MHz (4.50 GHz GDDR5 effective) memory clock speeds. Built on the 28 nm "Cape Verde" silicon, the Radeon HD 7750 packs 512 Graphics CoreNext stream processors, 32 TMUs, 16 ROPs, and a 128-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding 1 GB of memory. The display connectors on PowerColor's card include one each of dual-link DVI, HDMI 1.4a, and D-Sub (detachable). The card's accessories include a low-profile bracket. PowerColor did not reveal pricing.

ASUS is working on its second Republic of Gamers (ROG) ARES graphics card, the ARES 2 dual-HD 7870. Its first ARES was dual-HD 5870. ASUS' decision to go with a pair of Radeon HD 7870 GPUs, instead of the premium HD 7970, certainly comes as a surprise. With it, one could deduce the target market-segment ASUS is aiming at: US $650-750, providing a solution that outperforms even the fastest HD 7970 GHz Edition and GTX 680 graphics cards, while being cheaper than Radeon HD 7990 (which is MIA), dual-HD 7970 X2, and of course, the GTX 690.

ASUS ARES 2 will back two 28 nm "Pitcairn" GPUs with all components unlocked; likely factory-overclocked speeds beyond those of the HD 7870 GHz Edition; and a total of 4 GB of GDDR5 memory (2 GB per GPU system). The card will draw power from two 8-pin PCIe power connectors, and will have a TDP of around 300W. It will take advantage of AMD ZeroCore CrossFire, with which it powers down the second GPU when not gaming, or with light 3D loads that the first GPU can munch on. With the monitor idling for a set amount of time, both GPUs power down. It's likely that ASUS will use a triple-slot cooling solution, despite the fact that the HD 7870 is a generally cool GPU. Pictured below is the first-generation ROG ARES (dual-HD 5870).Update Jun 26: We have received word from ASUS that "There is no plan to release a dual 7870 VGA".

Leading mainboard and graphics card maker MSI has just announced the release of the N680GTX Lightning, the new king of the graphics card world equipped with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 GPU. The N680GTX Lightning utilizes proprietary Unlocked Digital Power architecture to unleash the full performance of the graphics card without any extra modifications. The innovative patented GPU Reactor power supply back plate also reduces power supply noise and improves overclocking stability. the N680GTX Lightning is kept cool by the Twin Frozr IV cooling solution with Dust Removal technology, dual temperature-controlled fan setup and SuperPipe.

The Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 product family reached a new supercomputing milestone as the fastest adopted new processing technology to power 44 systems, including 3 Petascale-class supercomputers on the 39th edition of the Top500 list announced today.

The "SuperMUC" supercomputer at LRZ in Germany, which ranked fourth on the list, delivers 2.9 PetaFLOPs of performance, making it the most powerful in Europe, as well as the largest installation based on the new Intel Xeon processors E5 family.

At the AMD Fusion Developer Summit (AFDS) 2012, the host unveiled its next flagship professional graphics card, the FirePro W9000. What makes the card particularly interesting is that it is dual-GPU, packing two Tahiti-derived GPUs, the same chips that go into making Radeon HD 7900 series. The FirePro W9000, is what many believe to be a professional variant of the Radeon HD 7990 "New Zealand" dual-GPU graphics card, which is facing delays for reasons unknown (actually, here's a possible reason).

The W9000 packs a total of 6 GB of GDDR5 memory, up to 264.8 million pixels/s; 4 TFLOPs single-precision and 1 TFLOPs double-precision floating-point performance. The card design does away with lateral-flow cooler, and uses a triple-fan heatsink assembly that packs three 90 mm low-speed (low-noise) fans. A surprise here, is that the card draws power from [just] two 8-pin PCIe power connectors (it's probably using two low-voltage Tahiti chips). It's an established fact that FirePro products are merely variations of Radeon products with possibly higher build quality, and an expanded software feature-set.

AMD today announced immediate availability of the AMD FirePro W600 professional graphics card, the company's first professional graphics card to leverage AMD's Graphics Core Next architecture and 28nm production technology, for use in high-resolution, content-rich, multi-screen display wall environments. With this launch, AMD is addressing a growing need for large, dynamic screens that are easily updated with new content.

"Whether we are checking flight times at the airport or watching the latest ads on massive screens in city squares, digital signage has quickly become an important and ubiquitous part of our lives," said Matt Skynner, corporate vice president and general manager of AMD Graphics. "To enable these displays, the digital signage industry demands technology that can be regularly refreshed with new, feature-rich content. With the launch of the AMD FirePro W600 professional graphics card, AMD is helping advance the digital display wall industry by providing suppliers and developers with impressive display density, performance and exceptional value."

What you might pass away for a bare entry-level graphics card at first glance, could end up being Sapphire's new Radeon HD 7750 single-slot low-profile graphics card. The design is a beneficiary of 28 nm "Cape Verde" silicon, which is found to have good-enough temperatures on its reference-design board. The card is ideal for mini-ITX systems. It relies entirely on the PCI-Express slot for power, and uses a 2+1+1 phase VRM, which utilizes high-grade driver-MOSFETs on its GPU phases.

The card sticks to AMD reference clock speeds of 800 MHz core, with 1125 MHz (4.50 GHz effective) memory. It packs 1 GB of GDDR5 memory over a 128-bit wide memory interface. The GPU packs 512 Graphics CoreNext stream processors. Display outputs include one each of dual-link DVI, mini-DisplayPort, and mini-HDMI. Adapters converting them to standard-size connectors, and a low-profile bracket will come included.

In February, Sapphire launched its HD 7750 Ultimate fan-less, silent graphics card. At Computex, the AMD Radeon major unveiled the model of this kind, based on the faster Radeon HD 7770 GPU. Called the Sapphire HD 7770 Ultimate, the card relies on a much larger aluminum fin heatsink than the one featured on the HD 7750 Ultimate, to cool the GPU. The heatsink makes the card about as long as an HD 7900 series model, although its PCB isn't as long. This allows a large portion of the heatsink to passively (by convection) vent its hot air above, without being interrupted by the PCB.

Despite its large heatsink, the Sapphire HD 7770 Ultimate does not need more than two expansion card slots in your system. Sapphire did not compromise on the clock speeds, although the card sticks to AMD reference speeds of 1000 MHz core, 1125 MHz (4.50 GHz effective) memory. It holds 1 GB of GDDR5 memory across a 128-bit wide memory interface. Based on the 28 nm "Cape Verde" silicon, the HD 7770 packs 640 Graphics CoreNext stream processors. Sapphire will launch the HD 7770 Ultimate a little later this year.

Here are the first pictures of PowerColor's ambitious Radeon HD 7970 X2 Devil 13 dual-GPU graphics card taken apart. The pictures reveal a PCB that's both longer and taller than that of the HD 7970, to create room for two 28 nm "Tahiti" GPUs, a total of 24 GDDR5 memory chips (12 on each side), a PLX PEX8747 PCIe 3.0 bridge chip, and a VRM that consists of 5+2+1 phases per GPU system. The card draws power from three 8-pin PCIe power connectors. The VRM consists of solid-state chokes and Renesas Driver-MOSFETs. Display outputs include two each of DVI and mini-DP, and an HDMI. Each GPU system has a pair of BIOS'es (performance and failsafe).

Last week, we were teased with the first picture of PowerColor's Vortex III cooling solution. A little later that week, we also got reports that AMD's add-in board (AIB) partners are working on off-spec dual-GPU graphics accelerators, calling them "Radeon HD 7970 X2", even as AMD's own HD 7990 is on course. It turns out that the card the Vortex III is designed to cool is PowerColor's newest high-end creation, the Radeon HD 7970 X2 Devil13.

Decked in red and black, the card is a custom-design dual-GPU graphics card from PowerColor, which incorporates two 28 nm Tahiti GPUs in CrossFire configuration. The GPUs have all their components enabled, and clocked on par with single-GPU Radeon HD 7970. The two GPU systems cumulatively hold 6 GB of GDDR5 memory (3 GB per GPU, over 384-bit wide interface). The card draws power from three 8-pin PCI-Express power connectors, and has a rated TDP of 525W. The card will be exhibited at Computex, where it will be further detailed.

With its competition checked thanks to good performance by its GK104 silicon, NVIDIA was bold enough to release die-shots of its GK110 silicon, which made its market entry as the Tesla K20 GPU-compute accelerator. This opened flood-gates of speculation surrounding minute details of the new chip, from various sources. We found one of these most plausible, by Beyond3D community member "fellix". The source of the image appears to have charted out component layout of the chip by some pattern recognition and educated guesswork.

It identifies the the 7.1 billion transistor GK110 silicon to have 15 streaming multiprocessors (SMX). A little earlier this week, sources close to NVIDIA confirmed the SMX count to TechPowerUp. NVIDIA revealed that the chip will retain the SMX design of GK104, in which each of these holds 192 CUDA cores. Going by that, GK110 has a total of 2880 cores. Blocks of SMX units surround a centrally-located command processor, along with six setup pipelines, and a portion holding the ROPs and memory controllers. There are a total of six GDDR5 PHYs, which could amount to a 384-bit wide memory interface. The chip talks to the rest of the system over PCI-Express 3.0.

GIGABYTE's first and only GeForce GTX 670 graphics card is the GV-N670OC-2GD, a non-reference design graphics card that implements the company's popular WindForce 3X cooling solution, coupled with its UltraDurable VGA+ PCB. While the PCB layout appears to be identical to that of NVIDIA reference design GeForce GTX 680, it is backed by GIGABYTE exclusives such as 2 oz copper PCB layers, electrical ripple control, tier 1 GDDR5 memory chips, ferrite core chokes, low RDS (on) MOSFETs, and Japanese solid-state capacitors.

Out of the box, the GV-N670OC-2GD features clock speeds of 980 MHz core, 1058 MHz GPU Boost, and 6.00 GHz effective GDDR5 memory. It loads 2 GB of memory across a 256-bit wide memory interface, with 192 GB/s bandwidth. Display outputs include two dual-link DVI, and one each of HDMI and DisplayPort. The card is capable of 4-way SLI. The cooling solution consists of two aluminum fin stacks, to which heat is transported by three copper heat pipes that make direct contact with the GPU, and ventilated by three 90 mm fans. GIGABYTE is asking US $415 for the GeForce GTX 670 WindForce 3X OC 2 GB.

AMD's Radeon HD 7970 could not hold on to the single-GPU performance crown for too long. It lost it to NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680, and the upcoming GeForce GTX 670 threatens to damage its competitiveness even further. Reports suggest that AMD is working on a new Tahiti-based graphics card SKU, the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition. AMD unveiled the "GHz Edition" moniker to denote SKUs that come with engine clock speed ≥1 GHz. The new HD 7970 GHz Edition will come with reference core clock speed of 1050 MHz.

AMD needn't tinker with memory clock speed, as it already has a 384-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface compared to the GeForce GTX 680 and its 256-bit memory bus width. Sources told Atomic PC that improved yields and manufacturing processes have benefitted Tahiti just as well as GK104, and ES Tahiti chips from the latest batches "easily" hit 1250 MHz core. These batches could make custom-design graphics cards with extremely high core clock speeds possible.

Thanks to the impressive power-draw and temperature figures its GeForce GTX 680 could come up with, NVIDIA's newest SKU based on the 28 nm GK104 silicon, the GeForce GTX 670, will feature a compact PCB. The reverse side of this PCB was first pictured on a Colorful-branded graphics card. A picture of its obverse side was posted earlier today. In comparison to the GTX 680, the GTX 670 PCB is quite short. The eight GDDR5 memory chips are distributed between both the sides, these chips are wired to the GPU over a 256-bit wide memory interface. The VRM area is pushed towards the front-end of the PCB. It consists of a 4+2 phase design. The card draws power from two 6-pin PCIe power connectors. Display outputs include two dual-link DVI, and one each of HDMI and DisplayPort. There are two SLI bridge connectors, giving it 4-way SLI capability.

The ASUS GeForce GTX 690 graphics card debuts 28nm dual-GPU performance, presenting the most powerful card of the generation thus far. It enables gaming with superior speed, smoothness, and detail. Due to smarter fabrication, its power demands are relatively modest for energy-conservative operation. This promotes easier quad-SLI setups with paired ASUS GeForce GTX 690s. ASUS continues to offer gamers the best overclocking experience with the exclusive GPU Tweak utility, which goes well together with DirectX 11 and OpenGL 4.2, plus technologies such as NVIDIA GPU Boost, advanced anti-aliasing (TXAA/FXAA), and Adaptive Vertical Sync.

Announced last week, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 enthusiast graphics card started selling, at an MSRP of US $999 (prices vary greatly by region). A variety of add-in card (AIC) partners will launch their GTX 690 graphics cards today. The GeForce GTX 690 is a dual-GPU graphics card that packs two 28 nm GeForce Kepler 104 GPUs, arranged in an internal SLI configuration. Both these chips have all their components unlocked, including 1536 CUDA cores, and 2 GB of GDDR5 memory across a 256-bit wide memory interface. The card hence ends up with a total of 3072 CUDA cores, and 4 GB of memory. The card should be available on leading retail stores. Despite its high price, it could sell out fast.

Here are the first pictures of Colorful GeForce GTX 670. The card, according to the source, sticks to NVIDIA reference design. It's not much different from the other GeForce GTX 670 cards pictured till date, but it's the card's rear view picture that caught our attention. We noticed from pictures of MSI's card, that the two 6-pin PCI-E power connectors are located more towards the central portion of the card, than towards the end, this led us to believe that the GTX 670 will have a shorter than usual PCB, which these latest pictures confirm.

The PCB (rear) picture reveals quite a few things. To begin with, the VRM area is moved to the front portion of the PCB, similar to AMD's HD 7800 series. A great deal of compacting has been done, the eight GDDR5 memory chips are spread across both sides of the PCB (four on each side), probably to manage heat and wiring better. The portion of the cooler that's sticking out of the card needn't pack metal parts (heatsinks), there's just a chamber for the fan. NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 670 is expected to launch later this month.

Leading international graphics card and mainboard maker MSI today announced MSI R7870 Hawk, equipped with AMD's 28nm Radeon HD 7870 GPU. MSI introduce the flagship design concept of Lightning series into R7870 Hawk, adopting UnlockedDigitalPower that incorporates an Unlocked BIOS, DigitalPWM Controller, and Enhanced Power Design to boost overclocking potential and make overclocking easier than ever. With the industry first "GPU Reactor" power panel, it reduces power supply noise as well as increases overclocking stability. As for thermal solution, MSI R7870 Hawk utilizes the latest Twin Frozr IV Thermal Design with Dust Removal Technology.

The dual 8cm fan setup with PropellerBlade Technology generate massive airflow for fast heat dissipation while remaining whisper silent. The two form-in-one heatsinks improve cooling for memory and the power module as well ensure structural integrity. The R7870 Hawk uses Military Class III components which have passed rigorous testing to meet MILSTD810G standards, guaranteeing the card's stability and reliability under actual use conditions. Moreover, the "3X3 OC Kits" are designed to simplify overclocking, which makes it easier for users to fine-tune their graphics cards. Competing with flagship design of Lightning series, R7870 Hawk absolutely stands out on top among the industry's HD 7870 based graphics cards.

ORIGIN PC announces the availability of their smallest laptop yet, the powerful, lightweight, new EON11-S and Intel's new 3rd Generation "Ivy Bridge" Core Processors. The new compact high performance laptop debuts with ORIGIN PC's exclusive new laptop design, Intel's 3rd generation mobile processors, NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M graphics, and NVIDIA Optimus Technology. Origin PC is also offering Intel's 3rd generation "Ivy Bridge" processors to their full line of award winning desktops and laptops for gamers, artists, enthusiasts and professionals.