AMD is attempting to revive its competitiveness that took a beating with NVIDIA's introduction of 55 nm G200b-based graphics accelerators. The method AMD seems to be adopting is by giving its existing flagship GPU, the RV770, a series of design improvements that facilitate higher clock-speeds, in turn, better performance on offer.

A lot has been said about RV790 till date, with each commentator coming up with a new version of the story. It has been more or less established that the RV790 will be a improvement over the RV770, though not a revolutionary one. Fresh information gathered by PC Games Hardware places a realistic estimate on up to where RV790 is going to push the performance envelope for AMD.

Shuttle Inc., the leading designer and manufacturer of small form factor (SFF) computers and accessories, today announced the availability of the new custom liquid-cooled SDXi Carbon extreme gaming solution showcased earlier this month at the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show.

As an extreme performance system for gamers, enthusiasts, and even professionals working with graphic design, animation, or CAD, the Shuttle SDXi Carbon features a powerful quad-core Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770 processor, dual-slot NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 graphics card, and high-speed DDR2 memory (up to 16GB) to deliver the best possible experience for today's most demanding applications. Then to ensure maximum performance and stability at all times, SDXi Carbon features the world's first Liquid I.C.E. technology that is designed to deliver the most efficient cooling solution in an extreme small form factor system. As a finishing touch, the SDXi Carbon is custom wrapped and painted in a premium automotive level finish, making the exterior of the system as unique as the interior.

Overclocking video cards has become a child's play these days, thanks to helpful software utilities that feature simple sliders to adjust clock speeds, test and apply overclocked parameters. Those serious about overclocking take to high-end cooling, and volt-modding. EVGA picked on a gray-area, where users should be given a level of control over the GPU's voltage. The company is known for taking initiatives in making performance control accessible to most users by providing easy to use utilities such as the EVGA Precision.

Now, the company is coming up with a nifty utility called the EVGA Voltage Tuner. Exclusive for registered users of EVGA GeForce GTX 200 series graphics cards, the utility allows a decent level of control over the GPU's voltage settings, within a range permissible by the GPU's BIOS. While this utility isn't an all out substitute to volt-modding, it allows for all the voltage tuning the default state of the graphics card's electrical components allow. A simple slider allows for adjusting the GPU core voltage with a resolution of milli-Volts. The results of using this utility are impressive, with a small voltage adjustment sending the maximum core overclock up by 100 MHz, a significant amount when it comes to GPUs. The first version of this utility is said to support GeForce GTX 260 (65nm), GeForce GTX 280 and GeForce GTX 295. Suceeding versions may expand the compatibility list to include some important graphics cards, namely GeForce GTX 285 and GTX 260 (55nm). The second and third screenshots below show a before&after scene of adjusting voltages using this utility.

The GeForce GTX 280 served as NVIDIA's flagship graphics accelerator for long enough. While it may not have retained the performance crown for too long, it certainly did offer a great product for its price and thermal characteristics post R700. With two new avant-grade accelerators in the form of GeForce GTX 295 and GeForce GTX 285, NVIDIA seems to have sensed that it needs to let the market digest current inventories of the GeForce GTX 280 to create favourable shelf-space for the new products.

It has been noted on Newegg.com, a leading online retailer, that price-cuts have been injected across brands for the GeForce GTX 280. The card is now available for as low as US $314.99 for the MSI N280GTX-T2D1G OC (a factory overclocked card) with prices of reference-design cards staying below $360 for most of the available products. Leading vendors such as BFGTech, EVGA, and Zotac have placed their base models around the $320 range with factory overclocked models ranging around the $350 mark. The GeForce GTX 280 will be suceeded by the GeForce GTX 285 that is expected to launch on 15th January, which sports a refreshed G200b graphics processor built on the 55nm manufacturing process and running at higher clock speeds. NVIDIA has resorted to similar price-cuts for its GeForce GTX 260 graphics accelerator to serve two purposes: making the product attractive during the crucial Christmas shopping season, and to digest inventories for the 55nm GeForce GTX 260 launch.

NVIDIA looks to restore the market position it lost to ATI in the past two quarters. Its plans will be spearheaded by the G200b graphics processor, on which are based products that outperform and offer better value than ATI products in its price-bands. The GeForce GTX 280 lost its position as the fastest graphics card to the Radeon HD 4870 X2. While NVIDIA is looking to establish itself as the maker of the fastest grachics card with the dual-G200b based GeForce GTX 295, the Radeon HD 4800 Series faces a two-pronged attack from NVIDIA's products, in which the GeForce GTX 285, will fit in as a sub-$400 product that looks to be "too good for its price to opt for a Radeon HD 4870 X2". The GeForce GTX 285 comes with reference clock-speeds of 648 MHz (core), 1476 MHz (shader) and 2484 MHz (memory).

German website ComputerBase.de put the GeForce GTX 285 (GeForce GTX 280 overclocked to its specs) through a broad range of games and synthetic benchmarks. Its evaluation found the GeForce GTX 285 living-up to NVIDIA's performance projections when pitted against a GeForce GTX 280, that of increments of roughly 10%. The review was conducted at a set resolution of 1680x1050, with different AA/AF modes.The full review (in German) can be read here (Google Translated to English).

Our colleagues over at Expreview published today information on a new Inno3D video card, part of the company's premium iChiLL series. The Inno3D iChill GeForce GTX 280 Extreme Edition pictured below comes with the massive Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme VGA cooler that features five copper heatpipes and three ultra quiet 80mm PWM fans with low noise impeller. Although the huge cooler suggests that the card should be factory overclocked, it's not. It comes with stock clock speeds - 602MHz core, 1296Mhz shader and 2214MHz for the 1024MB of GDDR3 memory - but no one can stop you from overclocking it yourself. Remaining specs include DirectX 10 support, PhysX support with the latest GeForce drivers, CUDA support and triple-SLI support, plus the standard dual-DVI ports. The release date and pricing information for this product are yet to be determined.

Following the industry-wide launch of the new 55nm GeForce GTX 260, NVIDIA would launch its fastest single-GPU graphics card: the GeForce GTX 285. This card is based on the 55nm G200b core. It has identical specifications to the GeForce GTX 280, except for its higher reference clock speeds, and lower power consumption. Due to these, NVIDIA seems to have given it the "285" number, while the 55nm GTX 260 continues to hold its "260" due to identical reference clock speeds as its 65nm counterparts.

ChipHell sourced two NVIDIA company slides which show some of the specifications of GeForce GTX 285 and its expected level of performance in comparison to the GeForce GTX 280. There is also a little mention about the testing conditions: a Core i7-based machine running 32-bit Windows Vista. Across the various synthetic and real-world gaming tests, the GeForce GTX 285 is rated to perform over 10% faster compared to the GTX 280. In games such as Crysis Warhead, Call of Duty: World at War, and FarCry 2, the leads were below 10%.

NVIDIA is planning a massive transition of the G200 architecture to the newer 55nm silicon fabrication process. With this, maintaining electrical constraints, the clock speeds of the GPU can be increased to levels that make them highly competitive, while also cutting manufacturing costs. With the newer G200b core running hypothetically cooler, the company is also planning a dual GPU card named the GeForce GTX 295. Its single GPU flagship offering will be called GeForce GTX 285.

While nothing substantially new is on the cards, GeForce GTX 285 has everything that makes it identical to the GTX 280, specifications wise, except for the clock speeds. This is where, NVIDIA gets to take the advantage of the superior electrical and thermal efficiencies of the 55nm core to step up clock speeds and thereby increase performance. While the clock speeds are unknown at this point in time, it is predicted that the new card has a 10% performance increase over the GeForce GTX 280. The card continues to be based on the NVIDIA P891 PCB the current cards use, and hence the GPU gets to use the high-grade power circuitry at its disposal to gain high clock speeds. The power consumption of the new card is pitted at 183W (down from 236W for the GTX 280). The card would need two 6-pin PCI-Express power inputs. The GeForce GTX 285 is slated for January 2009.

Sources tell Expreview that AMD is working on a new graphics processor (apart from the mysterious RV790), as an immediate reaction to the 55nm high-end GPUs NVIDIA is set to release. NVIDIA on its part is working on GeForce GTX 260 (55nm), GeForce GTX 285 (successor to GeForce GTX 280) and the dual-GPU monstrosity, GeForce GTX 295. To rival this, according to the source, AMD is working on the RV775 and derivatives based on its yields' performance.

These GPUs are slated for January thru March 2009. It has some very interesting specifications. To begin with, 840 stream processors. While stream processors on a current generation RV770 cannot be added/subtracted in quantities of 40 stream processors, perhaps, the increment of 40 SPs is derived from an extra ALU cluster the RV770 comes with by default (which helps in die harvesting, where the spare ALU cluster makes up for any damaged cluster, thereby improving yields). This would require near-perfect GPUs in the making (if re-engineering of the RV770 on a large scale is to be avoided). Another interesting point is regarding the smaller die. At this point we are clueless as to how that is possible without re-engineering the RV770 at a large scale. Treat yourselves to the specifications meanwhile:

Thanks to our friends over at Expreview, we can post what's reported as the first photo of NVIDIA's 55nm GT200b graphics core. According to the information, all NVIDIA cores marked with the G200-103-B2 nomenclature are made using NVIDIA's 55nm processing technology. First cards to ship with the revised GPU will be GeForce GTX 260 series. The video cards will hit the market in January next year, with unchanged memory (896MB) and stream processor specs (216sp). Non-reference versions of the cards as well as reported GT200b models of GeForce GTX 280 and dual-core GeForce GTX 260GX2 will go on sale at the same time, too. Hopefully, the installment of the new core will bring prices of the NVIDIA cards further down.

Alienware introduced its fleet of high-performance gaming PCs based on Intel's newest Core i7 processors. The range is branded as Area 51 X-58. Its range starts from US $1,349, with the base model using the Core i7 920 processor, which is configurable to Core i7 940 and the Core i7 965 Extreme Edition. Memory options go up to 12 GB of DDR3 1066 MHz memory, and base graphics card being the ATI Radeon HD 4870, configurable up to NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 SLI or Radeon HD 4870 X2 CrossFireX.

There are options for up to 2 TB of storage, or the option to pick performance over storage, with two WD VelociRaptor 300 GB drives in RAID 0. Parallel to this brand is Alienware's other brand, the ALX X-58. The ALX comes with the same base CPU and memory, but ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 or two GeForce 9800 GTX, 2 TB of storage, along with the option of a Blu-Ray burner. The ALX X-58 starts at $3,699. These systems come equipped with 700, 1000 or 1200W power supplies depending on the hardware opted for.

Today, Intel made its newest piece of silicon, the Core i7 series processor official with the introduction of three models based on the newer architecture, and socket. One of the significant feature-additions for Core i7 is the 192-bit wide DDR3 memory bus, meaning that memory modules in groups of three or six can be used to make use of the triple-channel memory controller the processors come with.

For memory vendors, it means selling kits consisting of three or six modules of 1 GB or 2 GB per module, resulting in 3 GB, 6 GB or potentially, a 12 GB kit (consisting of six 2 GB modules). Corsair, on its part, has been advertising the benefits of 4 GB system memory in the recent past, in a bit to sell its 2x 2GB kits. One of the important benefits Corsair noted was, that it benefited today's games. Come Core i7, and Corsair thinks 6 GB of memory would significantly benefit gaming PCs based on the Core i7 processors. The company released a whitepaper, in which gaming performance between Core i7-based systems equipped with 3 GB and 6 GB of memory were compared.

When ASUS selected the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 GPU for its new CG6155 extreme gaming machine, it wasn't simply because of its raw graphics horsepower. Creating the best gaming PC used to be a simple matter of using CPUs and GPUs with highest available raw power to deliver the fastest gaming experience. But while CPU performance and raw graphics rendering are still important, new advances in physics, multi-GPU technology, 3D stereo, and parallel computing have amplified the importance of the GPU, making the right GPU a critical component in consumers' buying decisions.

Featuring the award-winning GeForce GTX 280 GPU and a motherboard built around the NVIDIA nForce 790i Ultra SLI MCP platform technology, the ASUS CG6155 gaming PC supports NVIDIA 3-way SLI technology enabling ASUS customers to equip their PC with one, two or even three GeForce GTX 280 GPUs. The CG6155 is a true "extreme gaming" machine, designed for hardcore gaming aficionados who want the maximum visual and physics fidelity possible.

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.

Swiftech updated today its portfolio to include a GT200 adapter kit for its MCW60 Revision 2 GPU water block. This adapter will make the current MCW60 Rev. 2 GPU blocks compatible with all reference NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 and GeForce GTX 280 video cards. The MCW60 waterblock is a liquid cooling solution for high-end graphics processors. It uses the same base plate technology as the award-winning Apogee CPU water-block and offers easy integration in most water cooling loops. Until now the block was compatible with most ATI and NVIDIA video cards thanks to various base plates. This latest GTX 200 hold-down kit will cost you $6.99. Please visit Swiftech for more information.

The battle for supremacy in the current generation of consumer graphics hasn't calmed down as yet. Just as reports came in of NVIDIA giving the GeForce GTX 260 a boost with its shader compute power by enabling 24 shader units, taking on the Radeon HD 4870, GeForce GTX 280 seems to be enjoying its $420~$440 price-tag. For sure it isn't the fastest graphics accelerator but its compelling price tag is what is drawing buyers away from the HD 4870 X2.

AMD had already announced in its press release for the Radeon HD 4870 X2 launch that it would release a HD 4850 X2 at a roughly $400 price range. That moment seems to be coming closer, when ATI has a graphics card for $399, that outperforms the GeForce GTX 280. Three slides from the company have surfaced. The first one lists out its vital specifications, including its maximum power draw, rated at 230W. The memory bandwidth of this card is 128 GB/s, and it ends up with 2 GB of GDDR3 memory.

Taiwan-based Micro-Star International (MSI) presented today N280GTX OC HydroGen, the company's fastest clocked, water cooled GeForce 280 GTX card. The card is said to run the world's highest core clock settings at 700MHz, a boost of 17% over the default 280 GTX core speed. That's achieved by the full cover water block of course. Its micro-channel design allows for that speed to be achieved, while maintaining working temps of under 40'C. Another advantage of this water block is its single slot design, allowing for easier multiple video card installation. No price tag or retail availability were announced by the time of this post.

NVIDIA regulates its partners from coming up with non-reference cooler or PCB designs for certain high-end products. It seems like NVIDIA has either lifted the regulation over GeForce 9800 GTX(+) or has given Palit the exception of coming up with a non-reference design for the GeForce 9800 GTX+. Palit showcased a card sporting a red PCB with a component arrangement dissimilar to that of the NVIDIA PCB, at the ongoing NVISION event. Quick snaps of this card were taken at the Palit booth. Additionally, Palit also showed-off a GeForce GTX 280 card with a factory-fitted Tieton water block made by Danger Den.

BFG has announced that it will be offering its rebate program to Europe for the NVIDIA GTX 260 and GTX 280 graphics cards following price cuts last month (which we covered here ).
To qualify for this rebate program the qualifying products needed to have been purchased between June 16th and July 16th, 2008 and registered within 30 days of purchase.
Closing date is August 20th 2008.

If you happened to have bought a GeForce GTX 280 card when it released for US $649, you'd probably be extremely disgruntled, with people paying as low as $499 for the same thing now, and just weeks after release. Such changes in the tech-industry even cause major legal trouble for card vendors when such customers sue them in this regard. Ironically, the role of NVIDIA is limited to dictating prices, the partners have to bear the brunt of such awkward situations. XFX is the first partner to have announced a cash-back scheme for people who purchased their GTX 200 series products at their old (high) prices.

HardOCP previewed the ATI Radeon HD4870 X2. In the preview it was pitted against a single BFG GeForce GTX 280 OC (overclocked) and Crossfire X setup using two cards was pitted against two GeForce GTX 280 cards in SLI. Across variable settings, the HD4870 X2 was compared to the GTX 280. In Crysis the competition was neck-to-neck while the ATI cards returned marginally lower average frame rates. In Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, the ATI cards outclassed the NVIDIA cards significantly, where the Anti-Aliasing (AA) performance of the cards proved to be a trump-card, with the cards returning over 30% performance increments in both single and Crossfire X configurations over the GeForce GTX 280 OC and its SLI configuration. With the AA bottleneck reduced, the R700 is a monster. Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures shows what this card is truly capable of, the author of the preview goes on to use "AMD AA Performance FTW" to head a write-up on the AA system. AMD has reworked AA and also a new mode that doesn't tax the video memory as much has been added. The total of 2 GB GDDR5 memory only helps this cause.

The card in Crossfire X peaked 700W though not much is revealed with the power-testing. You can read the article here.

A suspicious new model of the flagship GeForce GTX 280 made by Leadtek going by the name 'GeForce GTX 280 Extreme' is put on pre-order on the popular British computer component online store Overclockers UK (OCUK). It can be found here. There are some hints that point toward this being based on a 55nm core:

• Extremely high parameters such as 738 MHz core, 1666 MHz shader domain and 2520 MHz memory albeit GDDR3, traditionally Leadtek doesn't offer such high manufacturer overclock for even its premium variants.
• Such insanely high parameters cannot be reached by a manufacturer on reference cooling, for example, even the EVGA e-GeForce GTX 280 HC (liquid-cooled) comes with 670 MHz core, 1458MHz shader domain and 2430 MHz memory.
• Although traditionally OCUK isn't very discount-friendly, and that this is a premium GTX 280 variant, that still doesn't warrant a whopping £387.74 (US $771.29) price-tag.

The Leadtek website neither has a product entry for this nor is it part of any of their press-releases leading us to believe it's an upcoming product. With such parameters, it only puzzles us if it indeed is the GT200b making for 'UFO sightings' in the markets.

Pre-release performance evaluations suggest that the Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB GDDR5 model will on an average be 50% faster than the GeForce GTX 280 and in some tests 80% faster. A second model, the HD 4850 X2 (2GB GDDR3 memory, 2x RV770Pro) will also convincingly outperform the GeForce GTX 280. The R700 series will be brought into the market late-July thru August.

NVIDIA Plans to Nuke R700?

Let's face it, the ATI RV770 and its derivatives have become a rage. Everybody loves this chip and wants a card based on this, be it the card that made NVIDIA slash their prices, the HD4850 or the HD4870 which rivals the GeForce GTX 260 at a decent price. In surveys conducted by several websites, be it TweakTown or Hexus.net, majority community members chose ATI as a brand over NVIDIA, rougly indicating that the HD4000 series has done an excellent repair job with ATI and its brand value.

Nothing (exciting) is going NVIDIA's way these days, their notebook graphics division has taken a beating over the recent faulty parts issue. The NVDA stock is a little volatile at the stock market these days, after the company announced it predicts weaker earnings this quarter financial year. Here's something to ponder: If NVIDIA predicts weaker earnings, how come talks are they have something to counter the R700, which AMD already made statements about, saying it will "overwhelm the GeForce GTX 280"?

AMD, Austin have managed a benchmark score of X12515 in the 3DMark Vantage benchmark using two Radeon HD4870 X2 cards in CrossfireX, a feat that takes three GeForce GTX 280 cards in 3-way SLI to achieve. The R700 boards were clocked at 778 MHz core, while the GDDR5 memory was clocked at 980 MHz QDR (effectively 3.92 GHz). This brings the total on-board video bandwidth to a stellar 250.8 GBps.With inputs from TG Daily