A little later this week, NVIDIA will launch its third SKU based on the GK104 silicon, targeting key performance-segment price points, the GeForce GTX 670. It is possible that NVIDIA will allow AIC partners to come up with custom-designs from day one. One such designs is Galaxy's, which needs no more than one expansion slot in your system. Galaxy's single-slot GeForce GTX 670 appears to use an NVIDIA reference-design PCB, albeit in its signature shade of blue. One could tell so, with the VRM area appeared to be located towards the front, and the PCB appearing to be cutting off at two-thirds the length of the card (where the PCIe power connectors are located).

The extra length of the card is productively used to position a lateral-flow fan. Since there is no PCB, the fan compartment is more roomy, which could mean a bigger fan, with the possibility of intakes on the reverse side of the card. This could result is a slower, quieter cooler. The fan guides air through an aluminum channel stack, with some of the channels being made of copper. It's likely that Galaxy is using a vapor-chamber plate to transfer heat from key components over to the air channels. The portion of the heatsink over the VRM MOSFETs has cylindrical structures, which reminds us of Radeon HD 4850 VRM area.

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.

TechPowerUp today announced GPU-Z 0.6.1, and with it, a new graphics card giveaway in partnership with PowerColor, in which you could win some of the fastest and coolest Radeon HD 7000 series graphics cards in the industry. Version 0.6.1 of GPU-Z adds support for some new GPUs on the horizon, such as NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690, GeForce GTX 670, GeForce GT 640 (desktop), GeForce GT 630, GeForce 605, GeForce GTX 675M (mobile), and GeForce GTX 670M; AMD Radeon HD 7970M (mobile), and Radeon HD 7450 (desktop); Intel HD 4000 and HD 2500 "Ivy Bridge". GPU-Z 0.6.1 improves NVIDIA GPU Boost clock speed detection. A host of other stability and reliability changes were made (refer to the change-log below).

With GPU-Z 0.6.1, TechPowerUp is teaming up with PowerColor to present to you this year's first GPU-Z Giveaway, in which you could win some great graphics hardware. Up for grabs are PowerColor HD 7970 PCS+ Vortex II, PowerColor HD 7870 PCS+ Vortex II, and the yet-unannounced PowerColor HD 7770 PCS+ Vortex II. To participate in the Giveaway, simply run GPU-Z 0.6.1 (main version), click on the "PowerColor Giveaway" tab, and follow the instructions. Entries are open till June 01, 2012; multiple entries may lead to elimination. Good Luck!DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z 0.6.1 | TechPowerUp GPU-Z 0.6.1 ASUS ROG Edition

The complete change-log follows.

Here are the first pictures of MSI GeForce GTX 670. The GTX 670 will be NVIDIA's third SKU based on the GK104, and will be positioned to compete with AMD Radeon HD 7950. The card pictured below is nearly identical to a Leadtek-branded one that was pictured last week, which leads us to believe that this could very well be NVIDIA reference design, with just MSI's sticker on. One can deduce, by the location of the two 6-pin PCIe power connectors, that this card also uses a different PCB layout from the one GeForce GTX 680 does.

The source also mentions some specifications, some of which we know from older reports, some of which we don't. The card packs 1344 CUDA cores, 112 TMUs, 32 ROPs, a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface holding 2 GB of memory, and clock-speeds of 900 MHz (core base), 1250 MHz actual or 5.00 GHz effective GDDR5 memory. It is predicted that future non-reference designs could come in much shorter PCBs thanks to rather slim VRM requirements, and just 8 memory chips, the GPU package isn't too big, either. Display outputs include two dual-link DVI, and one each of HDMI and DisplayPort. So the ability to set up 3D Vision Surround from one card could remain intact. Lastly, the box mentions "OC Edition", and so the card could come with out of the box overclocked speeds. There's also a juicy typo on that box.

Here is the first picture of an NVIDIA reference design GeForce GTX 670. For the most part, its design will resemble that of reference design GTX 680. The card pictured below is said to have had Leadtek branding, which later got removed. GeForce GTX 670 is carved out of 28 nm GK104 silicon by disabling one of the card's eight SMX units, resulting in a CUDA core count of 1344. Its clock speeds are lower than those of the GTX 680, with around 950 MHz core base clock, and core boost clock a little over 1 GHz. It features 2 GB of memory across a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface. The latest price speculation puts it at US $399-$429.

A Gainward-branded GeForce GTX 670 graphics card went up for pre-order in The Philippines, listed for pre-order for PHP 19,990 (US $470), by Philippine retailer PCHub. The price is backed by "price protection", which as we understand, transacts the difference between launch-price and pre-order listing price with the buyers before shipping (refunds the difference, if the launch price is lower, collects the difference to ship, if the launch price is higher (we doubt), or refunds the pre-order amount). The store sale page doesn't list any other specifications than memory size (2 GB) and memory bus width (256-bit GDDR5). Other specifications of the GTX 670 could be found here (older article).

Organized by MSI, the two-month long Beat it gaming competition starts this month in Malaysia. In addition to the main event, other activities will include the qualifying round in five universities, a three-day road show, and an advance purchase and discount sales campaign for the GT70 and GT60--MSI's next generation gaming laptops.

Toshiba's Digital Products Division (DPD), a division of Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., today announced two new high-performance laptops, the Qosmio X875 and Qosmio X875 3D, designed for enthusiast gamers, media creators and advanced users who demand the most powerful equipment. The laptops are fully equipped with the latest processor technology from Intel and NVIDIA, providing users with the power and speed required to take on the most demanding tasks and graphics-intensive applications with ease.

Following the launch of a couple of more GK104-based SKUs, namely GeForce GTX 670 Ti, and GeForce GTX 670, some time in May; NVIDIA will launch its third (after GK104 and GK107) Kepler architecture-based silicon, codenamed GK106. GK106 will make up sub-$200 SKUs, and succeeds the GF116, on which SKUs such as the GeForce GTX 550 Ti, are based. The GK106 will make up at least one known desktop SKU, called GeForce GTX 660.Its specifications are listed below.

We know from a late-March article that NVIDIA is working on two new SKUs based on its GK104 silicon, for launch in May. With the Kepler architecture, particularly with the design of the new-generation Streaming Multiprocessors (SMX), NVIDIA substantially increased CUDA core density. Each SMX holds 192 CUDA cores, and as with the previous-generation Fermi architecture, the SMX count is the only thing NVIDIA can tinker with, to control CUDA core count in new GPUs. GeForce GTX 680's little brother, hence will have 7 out of 8 SMX units enabled, and end up with a CUDA core count of 1344. This leaves easier to configure parameters such as clock speeds, for NVIDIA to design the perfect SKU to capture a price-point. NVIDIA is targeting the sub-$399 market, while somehow maintaining competitiveness with Radeon HD 7950.Specifications of the new SKU follow.

NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 680 literally kicked the door open as it made its entry. We're learning of NVIDIA's plans to milk the GK104 chip by carving out two more SKUs: the GeForce GTX 670 Ti, and GTX 670. These two SKUs will let NVIDIA capture price points deep within the $400-499 and $300-399 ranges, to compete with AMD's Radeon HD 7950 and Radeon HD 7870. These two SKUs will be released in May. Around the May-June time-range, NVIDIA could also introduce the GTX 690, which we're hearing is a dual-GK104 graphics card that's designed to compete with Radeon HD 7990, which launches in April.

Also in May, NVIDIA will launch desktop discrete graphics card SKUs based on the GK107 chip, which makes up its GeForce GT 650M/640M mobile graphics SKUs. Following this, some time in Summer, NVIDIA will release a new chip, the GK106, which will make up the GeForce GTX 660, which will be out to compete with Radeon HD 7850, and HD 7700 series. It looks like NVIDIA is waiting on current inventories of GF114-based SKUs to get digested, including those of the recently-launched GeForce GTX 560 SE, and is hence in no hurry to launch a new GPU to capture the sub-$250 price-points. Besides the dual-GPU Radeon HD 7990, there's nothing new in the works, at the red camp that we know of.