To pave the way for the GeForce GTX 680, which will arrive later this month in small but sizable quantities, with wide availability in the months to come, NVIDIA is cutting the prices of its GeForce GTX 580 graphics card. The GF110-based behemoth of 2011, will now start at 339.8 EUR, according to European price-aggregators such as Geizhals.at. The new price makes GeForce GTX 580 1.5 GB cheaper than the Radeon HD 7950, and having a slightly improved price-performance ratio. The 3 GB variants of GeForce GTX 580 are priced similar to the HD 7950. The GTX 570 starts at 249 EUR.

Club3D introduced a new custom-design GeForce GTX 570 special-edition graphics card that's Battlefield 3-themed. Carrying the item code CGNX-X5780B, this card is based on a cost-effective GF110 in-house board design by Club3D, that includes a custom-design blue-colored PCB, and Club3D's CoolStream cooler, which uses a large aluminum fin heatsink to which heat is fed by copper heat pipes, and is ventilated by a single large temperature-controlled fan. The card sticks to reference clock speeds of 732 MHz core, 1464 MHz CUDA cores, and 950 MHz (3.80 GHz GDDR5 effective) memory. The GeForce GTX 570 features 480 CUDA cores, and 1280 MB of GDDR5 memory across a 320-bit wide memory interface. This special-edition package most likely includes a copy of the game. Pricing and availability information is not at hand.

Inno3D is among the select few with a limited-edition GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 CUDA cores, the Hong Kong-based company launched its GTX 560 Ti 448SP HyperCore graphics card. The card features an in-house GF110 board design by Inno3D, and a new custom design single-fan cooler. Based on the 40 nm GF110 GPU, it features 448 CUDA cores, and 1280 MB of GDDR5 memory over a 320-bit memory interface. It features slightly overclocked speeds over reference speeds; 760 MHz core, 1520 MHz CUDA cores, against reference speeds of 732/1464 MHz. The memory clock sticks to specifications, at 950 MHz (3.80 GHz effective). Like every other GTX 560 Ti 448, this card will be available in limited quantities, and only in select North American and European markets.

GIGABYTE unveiled its GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 Cores graphics card offering, the GV-N560448-13I. This card is based on Gigabyte's in-house GF110 Ultra Durable VGA PCB, and is cooled by its own Windforce 3X Vapor-Chamber cooler. The card sticks to NVIDIA reference clock speeds of 732/1464/950(3800) MHz core/CUDA cores/memory(effective). It packs 448 CUDA cores, and 1280 MB of memory across a 320-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface.

The Ultra Durable VGA PCB makes use of a 2 oz copper layer to improve cooling and electrical stability, ferrite core chokes, Japanese solid-state capacitors, low RDS (on) MOSFETs, and tier-1 Samsung GDDR5 memory chips. The Windforce 3X Vapor-Chamber cooler makes use of a large vapor-chamber base from which heat is conveyed to aluminum fin stacks. These are ventilated by three outward-inclined 80 mm fans. Like every other GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 Cores, this card will be available in limited quantities, in the US, Canada, UK, Germany, France, Russia, and the Nordics. It will be priced under US $300.

NVIDIA released its newest graphics card model specifically for the winter shopping season, the limited edition GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 cores. Not only is this a limited edition launch, but also targeting only specific markets in North America and Europe. This includes the United States and Canada in North America; and the UK, France, Germany, Russia, and the Nordics in Europe. The new card is based on the 40 nanometer GF110 GPU instead of the GF114 that the regular GTX 560 Ti is based on. This allows NVIDIA to add 64 more CUDA cores (448 vs. 384), 25% more memory (1280 MB vs. 1024), and a 25% wider memory bus (320 bit vs. 256).

The new limited edition GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 cores features clock speeds identical to those on the GeForce GTX 570, at 732 MHz core, 1464 MHz CUDA cores, and 950 MHz (3.80 GHz effective) GDDR5 memory. Since it's based on the GF110 board, this new card is also capable of 3-way SLI, something the regular GTX 560 Ti isn't. The card draws power from two 6-pin PCIe power connectors. Display outputs typically include two DVI and a mini-HDMI. Add-in card vendors are free to design their own graphics cards based on this chip, and so expect most GTX 560 Ti 448 core cards to look similar to non-reference GTX 570 ones. ZOTAC, Inno3D, EVGA, Palit, Gainward, ASUS, Gigabyte, and MSI will have graphics cards based on this chip. Prices should typically start at US $289.

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.

Asian graphics card vendor Colorful is at it again with its innovative board designs. This time, the company is after a GeForce GTX 560 Ti (GF114-based) graphics card that boasts of very strong power delivery, and a few mysterious expansion options. Colorful's emphasis has always been on PCB design and choice of high-grade components. This particular card, most likely called the Colorful GTX 560 Ti iGame, is no exception to that. The PCB is particularly long (as much as a GF110-based board).

The additional length is put to use by an innovative arrangement of VRM phases in two rows of four phases. This card employs high-grade chokes with driver-MOSFETs (a component that integrates up/down MOSFETs and driver IC into a single compact package). This 8-phase VRM draws power from three 6-pin power connectors, and can deliver 300W of power to help with record-seeking overclocking feats. There are consolidated voltage measurement points to help manually measure voltages.

Those on a budget looking to upgrade their graphics cards might do well to wait a little while, NVIDIA is preparing an upgraded GTX 560 Ti. The current model is based on the GF114 GPU which has 384 CUDA cores, 32 TMUs, a 256-bit memory interface and 1GB VRAM. However, the new model discards the GF114 GPU and replaces it with the beefier GF110 GPU that's used on the GTX 570 & GTX 580 cards. As one would expect, this GPU will be cut down compared to its bigger brothers, featuring 448 CUDA cores, 56 TMUs, a 320-bit memory bus and likely 1280MB VRAM. Another improvement comes in the form of two SLI connectors, allowing 3-card setups to be built, but the cost compared to using more powerful cards must of course be considered before such a build is attempted. The new card will be called the "GTX 560 Ti (448 Core)", which follows a similar convention that was used with the GTX 260 when NVIDIA upgraded it to the GTX 260 (216 Core). Given that the memory bus and memory size are now the same as that of the GTX 570, it brings with it the intriguing possibility that such cards may be unlocked to full GTX 570 performance by enterprising enthusiasts who are not afraid of risking their warranty in their unending quest for better performance.

Arctic released a new VGA cooler, the Accelero Mono PLUS. This cooler can handle thermal loads of up to 200W, and maintains a compact fin-stack design, unlike the monolitic heatsink design of the Accelero L2 series. Measuring 136 (L) x 138 (W) x 51 (H) mm, its main heatsink weighs 348 g. From an exposed-copper base (with pre-applied adhesive thermal compound) arise five 6 mm thick copper heat pipes, that fan out to pass through an aluminum fin stack. This stack is ventilated by a 120 mm PWM-controlled fan that can spin at speeds between 400 and 1500 RPM. It can be as quiet as 0.4 Sone.

MSI's engineers struck gold with their Twin Frozr II cooler design, introduced a couple of generations of GPUs ago. Twin Frozr II soon became MSI's workhorse VGA cooler for high-end non-reference design graphics cards, on both the NVIDIA and ATI/AMD lines. It is reported that MSI is now selling this VGA heatsink loose in the Japanese market, so you don't have to buy an new MSI graphics card, and just upgrade your existing one with it.

This variant of Twin Frozr II has GPU retention hole layout that matches that of GF100 and GF110-based single-GPU graphics cards, i.e. GTX 465, GTX 470, GTX 480, GTX 570, and GTX 580. The cooler measures 251.9x100.9x35 mm, weighing 520 g. It consists of a nickel-plated copper base, from which five heat pipes (6 mm thick pipes towards the central portion of the base, 8 mm thick towards periphery) originate, conveying heat to a large aluminum fin stack. This stack is ventilated by two PWM-controlled fans. The Twin Frozr II is priced at ¥5,980 or US $73.

While between the GeForce GTX 580 and Radeon HD 6970, the former is clearly the faster graphics card, the two share a disputed lead over each other in their dual-GPU avatars, GeForce GTX 590 and Radeon HD 6990, attributed to the HD 6990 sustaining clock speeds closer to those on its single-GPU implementation, and a better electrical design. While NVIDIA is fixing the electricals on a revised PCB design scheduled for release in the weeks to come, companies like ASUS are wasting no time in designing their own PCBs that can let the two NVIDIA GF110 GPUs sustain clock speeds identical to those on the single-GPU GTX 580. This would pose serious competition to the HD 6990. To ward that off, PowerColor is working on a new Radeon HD 6970 X2 graphics card, which has two AMD Cayman GPUs clocked on par with single-GPU HD 6970, and having the same overclocking headroom.

The new card from PowerColor is not just an overclocked HD 6990, but also has the overclocking headroom of the HD 6970. Further, unlike the HD 6990, it uses Lucid Hydra technology. The PLX-made, AMD-branded PCI-Express bridge chip is replaced by a LucidLogix-made bridge chip that gives each GPU PCI-Express 2.0 x16 bandwidth. Users can run the two GPUs in either AMD CrossFire (with Hydra features disabled), or enable Lucid Hydra Engine features, and let the two GPUs work in tandem with any other graphics card installed in the system, that uses GPUs of any make and generation.

The Republic of Gamers MARS II, detailed earlier, is a new custom dual-GF110 based graphics card in the works at ASUS. Here are some of its first pictures, revealing a monstrosity that's about as long as a Radeon HD 5970, a couple of inches higher, and three slots thick. Its cooler sticks to the black+red color scheme in use with ASUS ROG products for a while now, and uses an intricate cutout design.

The shroud suspends two 120 mm high-sweep fans that blow air on to two heatsinks with highly dense aluminum fin arrays to which heat is fed by copper heat pipes. The card draws power from three 8-pin PCI-Express power connectors. The card uses two NVIDIA GF110 GPUs with the same core configuration and clock profile as GeForce GTX 580, effectively making MARS II a dual-GTX 580, which also provides the overclocking headroom of a GTX 580, something impossible on a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590.

Here are the first pictures of ASUS' Republic of Gamers (ROG) MATRIX GTX 580 graphics card, this triple-slot single-GPU monstrosity is designed to humble every other air-cooled GTX 580 graphics card in the market. The card packs a NVIDIA GF110 graphics processor with high out of the box clock speeds. It is ready for overclocking and easy voltage modifications. The card features redundant BIOS ROM chips to provide a fallback if flashing the BIOS fails. Apart from one-touch BIOS selection, there are buttons on the card itself that gives you on-the-fly fan control.

The ROG MATRIX GTX 580 comes with out of the box clock speeds of 816/1632/4008 MHz (core/CUDA cores/memory effective), and packs 1536 MB of GDDR5 memory over a 384-bit wide memory interface. The card features a number of ROG-exclusive features such as iROG and fancy illuminated MATRIX logo. The card is powered by a large 19-phase VRM that draws power from two 8-pin PCI-Express power connectors. The beast is cooled by a large triple-slot fan-heatsink that uses two large fans to ventilate a complex heatpipe-fed heatsink. Display connectivity includes two DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort. There's no word on the availability.

Presenting more graphics processing output than any single-board product developed to date, the ASUS GTX 590 uses dual NVIDIA GF110 cores. With ASUS exclusive Voltage Tweak to drive the card at 918MHz, it enables DirectX 11 gaming in the highest resolutions possible and with all details and effects turned on to maximum, as well as smooth and realistic 3D gaming and movies through NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround for three-screen displays.

Colorful, the launch partner of NVIDIA in Asia, announces the latest high-end graphics card, GeForce GTX 590. Based on a reference design, the card has scratch artworks on the stickers, which infuses the card some symbolic significances. GTX 590 equips with 24 pieces of GDDR5 memory modules in total, 12 pieces on the front and the same quantity on the back, memory capacity is up to 3GB and the clock is set at 3414MHz. 2 pieces of GF110 chips are installed on the PCB and each of the chips has 5 phases VRM, the clock of these two GPUs are both set at 607MHz.

Originally slated for March 22, NVIDIA has reportedly delayed the launch of its new high-end GeForce GTX 590 graphics card to March 24, sources told Expreview.com. The reason for this delay is not known, and NVIDIA isn't confirming this delay. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590 is a dual-GPU high-end graphics card that uses two GF110 GPUs in an SLI on a stick solution.

An alleged partner presentation slide leaked to the internet reveals quite a bit more about the GeForce GTX 590 than what we already know. To begin with, it lays to rest speculations surrounding the shader configuration, each of the two GF110 GPUs have all 512 CUDA cores enabled. Next, the full width of the memory interface is utilized, giving you 1536 MB per GPU, or 3 GB of total memory on the card.

The rest are fascinating features, such as a removable cooler shroud that lets you clean the card from time to time (you might need to clean it now and then for the best cooling performance), heatsinks that use vapor-chamber technology, getting rid of those pesky heat-pipes, high-grade 12-layer PCB that uses 2 oz copper layers, and a 10-phase VRM (looks like 4+1 phase per GPU). As expected, the final iteration of the card needs to draw power from two 8-pin PCI-E power connectors. "Barely Street Legal"? Is it because they'll throw you out of LAN parties for having too much of a performance advantage? Hmmm.

VR-Zone got a hold of the cooler shroud design of NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce GTX 590 graphics card. The drawing reveals something very similar to that of the GeForce GTX 295 rev. 2 (or single-slot), and tells us a bit about the cooler. The cooler will use a large fan (probably 80 mm in diameter) to blow air on to two heatsinks on its either sides. Channels, and the heatsinks themselves will guide air across both ends of the cooler. Hot air from the first GPU (closest to the display connectors) will exhaust from the rear bracket, while that from the second GPU (farthest from the display connectors), will exhaust into the case. There are spaces on either sides of the fan for partner product artwork. There is more space on top. Next to the cutout for the power connectors, is the GeForce logo. NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 590 is a dual-GPU graphics card based on two GF110 cores. It will be released on the 22nd of March.

SPARKLE Computer Co., Ltd., the professional VGA card manufacturer and supplier, today announced the SPARKLE GTX 570 Thermal Guru Graphics Card with Effective Own Design Cooler, the ultimate DX11 3D monster from SPARKLE, which delivers intense performance and premium cooling effect for gamers who demand the best.

The SPARKLE GTX570 Thermal Guru Graphics Card is the latest new addition to SPARKLE's GTX 570 Series. Its core and memory clock are 732 and 1900 MHz respectively. Designed specifically for gamers who demand the best, the SPARKLE GTX570 Thermal Guru Graphics Card is built with NVDIA GeForce GTX 570 GPU. Based on 40nm processor and advanced GDDR5 memory technology, it consists of ground-breaking features including Microsoft DirectX 11 and NVIDIA PhysX which lead to incredibly immersive HD gaming experience and unrivaled performance.

The dust seems to have settled down, after AMD's launch of the Radeon HD 6990, extending the red-team's performance lead previously held precariously by the Radeon HD 5970, to the GeForce GTX 580. It looks like NVIDIA will challenge the performance leadership with GeForce GTX 590, a dual-GPU graphics card that uses two GF110 GPUs (the ones on GTX 570 and GTX 580), for an SLI-on-a-stick solution. Rumors of NVIDIA working on this card became concrete as early as in November 2010, when NVIDIA's reference board became public for the first time.

Latest reports suggest that NVIDIA has chosen March 22 as the launch day of GeForce GTX 590. Incidentally, that is also the launch date of EA/Crytek's much-hyped, initially DirectX 9 action/shooter game, Crysis 2. GeForce GTX 590 uses two GF110, though the shader configuration and clock speeds are not known. Since NVIDIA is chasing the top-spot, you can expect the most optimal configuration for the GF110s. A total of 3 GB (1536 MB per GPU system) on board, and NVIDIA's workhorse PCI-E bridge, nForce 200 will be the traffic cop and radio station between the two GPUs. The card will be able to do 3DVision Surround (NVIDIA's multi-display single head technology comparable to ATI Eyefinity) on its own, without needing a second card.

Sparkle computer's CeBIT bit booth featured an eye-catching new graphics card, the Sparkle One GTX 570. This is the first air-cooled single-slot GeForce GTX 570 series graphics card. While it is thin, the card is extremely long. We estimate around 13-inches long, if not more. Sparkle seems to be making use of the extra length to squeeze in as much metal (heatsink) as possible. A fan pushes air backwards. The card features clock speeds of 752/1504/4000 MHz (core/shader/memory).

Like every other GTX 570, it's based on the 40 nm GF110 GPU with 480 CUDA cores enabled, and 1280 MB of GDDR5 memory across a 320-bit wide memory interface. Display outputs include one each of DVI, HDMI, and DisplayPort. Sparkle expects the card to be released by next month.

SPARKLE Computer Co., Ltd., the professional VGA card manufacturer and supplier, today announced the SPARKLE GTX580 Thermal Guru Graphics Card with Effective Own Design Cooler, the ultimate DX11 3D monster from SPARKLE, which delivers intense performance and premium cooling effect for gamers who demand the best.

The SPARKLE GTX580 Thermal Guru Graphics Card is the latest new addition to SPARKLE's GTX 580 Series. Its core and memory clock are 772 and 4008 MHz respectively. Designed specifically for gamers who demand the best, the SPARKLE GTX580 Thermal Guru Graphics Card is built with NVDIA GeForce GTX 580 GPU. Based on 40nm processor and advanced GDDR5 memory technology, it consists of ground-breaking features including Microsoft DirectX 11 and NVIDIA PhysX which lead to incredibly immersive HD gaming experience and unrivaled performance.

EVGA rolled out a new custom-design GeForce GTX 570 graphics card that makes use of a shorter PCB and a cooler design inspired from that of the GeForce GTX 560 Ti, which offers better high-definition display connectivity compared to the standard model. Called the EVGA GeForce GTX 570 HD (model: 012-P3-1571-AR), the card makes use of a shorter GTX 570 PCB the company earlier displayed at CES with a yet unreleased dual-fan GTX 570. Display connectivity on this card includes two DVI, a full-sized (standard) HDMI 1.4, and a full-sized DisplayPort.

The cooler design is largely borrowed from NVIDIA's reference GeForce GTX 560 Ti, consisting of a circular heatsink with spirally-projecting aluminum fins, spreading heat to additional aluminum fin blocks on its either sides. It is ventilated by a large centrally-located fan. The card sticks to NVIDIA reference clock speeds of 732 MHz core, 1464 MHz CUDA cores, and 950 MHz (3800 GDDR5 effective) memory. Based on the 40 nm GF110 core, the GPU packs 480 CUDA cores, and connects to 1280 MB of memory over a 320-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface. EVGA's GeForce GTX 570 HD is priced at $349.99, on par with the reference base model.

What happens in Gainward, stays in Palit. Gainward's parent company, Palit, is also readying a GeForce GTX 580 graphics card with 3 GB memory, like its subsidiary. Featuring a non-reference PCB and cooling assembly, Palit's latest card uses twelve 2 Gbit GDDR5 memory chips over a 384-bit wide memory interface to achieve 3072 MB (3 GB) in total. It features a more traditional-looking cooler compared to the Gainward GTX 580 Phantom; which makes use of two fans to cool a large aluminum fin array. Palit's card is clocked at 783 MHz (core), 1566 MHz (CUDA cores), and 1005/4020 MHz (memory actual/effective). Based on the 40 nm GF110 core, the GTX 580 features 512 CUDA cores, and is compliant with the latest in consumer graphics technologies.