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.

MSI's all-new 17.3-inch FX700 and FR700 notebook computers with soft contours and gentle lines stand out from the crowd. In addition to chrome trim around the speakers, these laptops come with chiclet keyboards that offer a unique feel, raised multipoint touchpad, and a hot key zone with a brush metal finish. The FX700 and FR700 are also sheathed in MSI's own anti-scratch, anti-smudge raised totem seal coating technology, putting them in a class all their own.

MSI Marketing Director Sam Chern adds that the beneath their chic exteriors, the FX700 and FR700 pack muscle. Under the hood, they pack the powerful Intel Core i5 processor and MSI's TDE turbo technology. The FX700 comes with a discrete graphics card and MSI GPU Boost technology to greatly enhance system and multimedia performance as well as THX' high-end cinema-class wrap around sound. MSI worked closely with world-renowned sound system and recording equipment designer Dynaudio to incorporate high quality sound technology into laptops to design mobile computing platforms featuring stylish exteriors and exceptional multimedia performance.

The world class graphics card and mainboard manufacturer MSI officially launches the N430GT series graphics cards supporting GPU and Memory double voltage. A low-profile design accommodates most HTPC chassis. The Military Class Concept components includes SFC (Super Ferrite Choke) that improves overclocking capability, and all-solid capacitors to increase performance and durability. N430GT series graphics cards support NVIDIA PhysX and 3D Vision technology, making it the best choice of new generation HTPC graphics card.

The brand new MSI N430GT graphic card leverages MSI exclusive Afterburner software, allowing adjustment of GPU core and memory voltage up to 20% overclocking capability. Moreover, Afterburner can save up to 5 overclock setting profiles, and support Multi-GPU mode. In addition, monitoring real-time GPU temperatures gives consumers complete control over graphics card monitoring and adjustment.

NVIDIA today announced the latest addition to its Fermi class of graphics processing units (GPUs), the NVIDIA GeForce GT 430, which was specifically designed to provide the horsepower needed to power today's digital media PCs and provide the high definition video and audio experiences that desktop customers demand.

The GeForce GT 430 utilizes the Company's latest 40nm GPU, codenamed GF108, which is already designed into a variety of desktop and notebook platforms from the world's leading OEMs, including Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo, MSI, Samsung, Sony and others. For customers looking for a viable desktop upgrade from lowly integrated solutions, the GeForce GT 430 is a major step up, delivering unparalleled experiences in photo and video editing, Blu-ray 3D, as well as the next generation of GPU-accelerated Web browsers and Web content. And, when combined with NVIDIA 3D Vision technology and a compatible display, the GT 430 is also the only GPU in its class that allows consumers to experience their digital content in full stereoscopic 3D.

LG Electronics (LG) today announced the world's first premium notebook offering cinematic 3D experience at near Full HD quality. To deliver an immersive 3D experience while rendering high-quality movies, games and graphics, the LG A510 features a hardware combination never before offered on a notebook: 15.6-inch Full HD 3D LED LCD display powered by Intel Core i7 Processor and NVIDIA GeForce GT 425M graphics card with 1GB of dedicated DDR3 video memory.

"3D is increasingly becoming a common part of the home entertainment landscape so it's against this backdrop that we're working to make this technology better and more accessible for consumers," said Dr. Skott Ahn, President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. "As more and more people consume content and interact via portable screens, we think this is a natural next step for business travelers, college students and small office/home office owners. And we put the entire package in a beautifully-designed chassis because we don't think high-tech has to be a dull grey pizza box.

NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 460 graphics processor (GPU) can be crammed into some very short GPUs, as has been implemented in various designs. Galaxy has taken advantage of this, and designed a GeForce GTX 460 2 GB (256-bit GDDR5) graphics card with nearly the same length as other high-end GeForce 400 series SKUs (ballpark 10-inches), with room towards its connectors for an additional PCI-Express device. Just near PCI-Express x16 interface, there is a mini PCI-Express x1 slot, that technically can take a mini-PCIe SSD or any other PCI-E device. While Galaxy is notorious for coming up with the most wacky yet intriguing designs the most plausible utility we see of this mini-PCIe slot is perhaps an optional addon board with a smaller GPU for processing PhysX, or a mini-PCIe TV tuner (notebook grade). Aside from this, connectors include a DVI, a DisplayPort, a mini-USB (female), a switch, and a 10-pin header right behind it. Galaxy will detail this mysterious card further soon, the company told press that when released, it will be an "unprecedented design".

At the GPU Technology Conference (GTC), an annual event hosted by NVIDIA, the company named the next two succeeding GPU architectures to Fermi (the current generation architecture on which are based GeForce 400 series GPUs). NVIDIA's next major GPU design change will come in the form of "Kepler", probably named after the German mathematician Johannes Kepler. The only concrete details about this architecture is that chips will be built on the 28 nanometer silicon fabrication process, and that going by the architecture's double-precision GPU compute performance per Watt represented on a graph, NVIDIA expects Kepler to be 4~5 times faster than Tesla, and over twice as fast as Fermi, again, at double-precision GPU compute performance per Watt.

Kepler is slated for 2011, though which part of the year will it be out (since AMD's answer to Fermi isn't far away), wasn't revealed. Looking much further away into the future, much like Intel mentioned Sandy Bridge's successor (Gesher) way back when unveiling Nehalem, NVIDIA talked about Kepler's successor slated for 2013. This one is called Maxwell, probably in honour of Scottish mathematician James Maxwell, with expectations of no less than three times the double-precision computation power per Watt of Kepler. These chips will be built on the 22 nanometer process.

Palit's subsidiary Gainward has a low-profile GeForce GTS 450 graphics card in the making, much like Palit's card. Both these are yet to ship to major markets. In the mean time, Korean website Brainbox.com did a picture preview of Gainward's card, called GTS 450 GOOD Low-Profile. The pictures reveal a neatly-designed PCB and cooler assembly modeled along the lines of high-end graphics cards in which hot air is directed right out of the case. The assembly includes a blower, a shroud that directs air-flow, a large heatsink with densely packed aluminum fins that channel air through, and a heatsink over the MOSFETs.

The PCB seats the GF106 GPU right in the middle. While it looks long, it's only because the PCB is half-height to give that illusion. In reality the PCB is 7.4" long, not longer than the full-height NVIDIA reference PCB, and should fit in most SFF cases that have two expansion slots. The PCB uses a simple 4-phase VRM driven by an ON-Semi controller, there are four GDDR5 memory chips on either sides of the PCB, totaling 1 GB. The clock speeds stick to NVIDIA reference: 783/1566/900(3600) MHz, display outputs include and are limited to one DVI and an HDMI. Power is drawn in from one 6-pin PCI-E power connector facing downwards à la Radeon HD 4870 X2. Gainward's card may charge a slight premium over the full-height cards, for the convenience it offers. More pictures at the source.

Without making much noise, ASRock introduced its latest compact PCs, the Vision 3D 135B. Original name aside, the 135B is essentially a mobile-on-desktop system, that is powered by the Intel Calpella mobile platform. At the center of this is a Core i3 370M dual-core processor clocked at 2.40 GHz, and an NVIDIA GeForce GT 425M DirectX 11 compliant GPU that packs 96 CUDA cores and dedicated memory. There's 4 GB of dual-channel DDR3-1066 MHz memory on board. Apart from these, there's 500 GB of storage, a Blu-ray + DVD-RW slot-in combo drive, and connectivity that includes WiFi b/g/n, gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0, 8-channel HD audio, and display outputs that include DVI and HDMI. The unit itself measures 200(W) x 70 (H) x 200 (L) mm, and comes in matte black and silver options. ASRock did not give out a price.

NVIDIA today announced the latest addition to its Fermi-class of graphics processing units (GPUs), the NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 -- which was designed to deliver the best DX11 price/performance in the $129 USD price category. According to the latest Steam survey, a leading indicator of the hardware used by PC gamers today, 56 percent(i) of gamers play at mainstream resolutions, typically between 1600x1050 and 1280x1024. The GTS 450 was specifically designed to excel at these resolutions, delivering awesome DX11 performance with 4X antialiasing turned on, enabling more gamers than ever before to experience incredibly detailed characters, terrain and game environments with blazing fast performance and awesome visuals.

For games and applications that feature tessellation -- the key feature of DX11 -- the GTS 450 is up to 65% faster than the closest competitive product(ii). Even in last generation DX9 and DX10 games, the GTS 450 is faster by over 30%(iii), including in the blockbuster PC title StarCraft II. This makes the GTS 450 a terrific GPU for playing this year's hottest games including the upcoming holiday titles like Civilization V and HAWX 2, both of which feature support for DX11 and tessellation, and other games, such as Dead Rising 2.

Well placed sources seem to have finally pieced together specifications of NVIDIA's GeForce GTS 450 graphics card, the company's mid-range offering that competes with ATI Radeon HD 5700 series products. In the run up to this, we've come across reports showing that the SKU is based on a GPU codenamed GF106, then we came across NVIDIA reference design PCB drawings, followed by clock speeds, and finally, pictures of the GPU itself revealing quite a bit about the die size. The most recent report affirms the specs we know till now, plus revealed the CUDA core count, which is 192. The CUDA cores are clocked at 1566 MHz, and that the memory is clocked at 902 MHz (3608 MHz effective).

So as a quick recap of the tech specs of the GeForce GTS 450, it's based on the new 40 nm GF106 silicon, the die area is roughly 240 mm². The GPU has 192 CUDA cores, and a 128-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface holding 1 GB of memory. The core is clocked at 789 MHz, and memory at 902 MHz (3608 MHz effective), translating into 57.8 GB/s of memory bandwidth, CUDA cores at 1566 MHz. It supports 2-way SLI, and gives you access to the latest PC graphics technologies, including support for DirectX 11 and OpenGL 4.x, along with support for a wide range of NVIDIA-exclusive technologies. NVIDIA's GeForce GTS 450 will be released by mid-September.

Developed in conjunction with Bang & Olufsen ICEpower, the ASUS SonicMaster standard delivers the most advanced multimedia features available for laptop PCs. The new N Series from ASUS is the first ever range of laptops to address the problem of sub-standard audio on portable PCs. Two new Intel Core i5 models are available, 15.6" and 17.3" screens, and both combine superior audio technology with eye-catching designs. Each new model also features the latest NVIDIA GeForce 400M 3D chipset with Optimus technology for outstanding power source-optimised graphics performance.

Almost defunct enthusiast PC hardware vendor BFG Technologies may have just hit the final nail in its coffin, after it started sending denials to RMA applicants. The company was best known for its NVIDIA GeForce graphics accelerators, and announced its exit from the graphics industry this May. In rather quick succession, it also stopped shipping other products, while announcing that it will honor its warranties and RMAs.

Much to the disgruntlement of its customers, the company is now reportedly returning products sent for RMA with a covering letter saying that it cannot replace the product since a major supplier stopped doing business with it, apologizing for any inconvenience caused...well, apart from the $100s worth paperweights.

NVIDIA reported revenue of $811.2 million for the second quarter of fiscal 2011 ended Aug. 1, 2010, down 19.0 percent from the prior quarter and up 4.5 percent from $776.5 million from the same period a year earlier.

On a GAAP basis, the company recorded a net loss of $141.0 million, or $0.25 per share, compared with net income of $137.6 million, or $0.23 per diluted share, in the previous quarter and a net loss of $105.3 million, or $0.19 per share, in the same period a year earlier. GAAP gross margin was 16.6 percent compared with 45.6 percent in the previous quarter and 20.2 percent in the same period a year earlier.

NVIDIA released the WHQL-signed GeForce 258.96 driver suite. This particular version of the driver were earlier released in its beta form last week. The drivers provide official support for the GeForce GTX 460, GeForce GTX 480M, GeForce 315/310 series graphics accelerators, apart from supporting every GeForce GPU since 6-series, and ION chipsets. Along with updates to the graphics driver, it also brings along updated PhysX system software, and updated HDMI audio drivers. The release notes documents (for Windows 7/Vista and Windows XP) reveals numerous game-specific performance updates, and bug fixes.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 258.96 WHQL.

Toshiba Corporation announced the introduction of the industry's first notebook PC featuring playback of 3D content in the Blu-ray 3D format. The new "dynabook TX/98MBL" will be available from the end of July in the Japanese market.

dynabook TX/98MBL features a 15.6-inch wide LCD display with LED backlighting and a 120Hz scan rate. It employs WinDVD BD for TOSHIBA to play back content in the Blu-ray 3D format and NVIDIA 3D Vision software and hardware to deliver a rich 3D experience.

NVIDIA today announced its latest performance-segment addition to the DirectX 11 compliant GeForce 400 series, the GeForce GTX 465. Based on the 40 nm GF100 GPU, the GTX 465 cuts some components to position the new SKU below the GTX 470. It has five streaming multiprocessors (SMs) disabled, leaving a CUDA core count of 352, and a memory bus width of 256-bit. The reference design card has 1 GB of GDDR5 memory.

The reference design board is largely based on the GeForce GTX 470, with two memory chip pads unused. The card can pair with three more of its kind for 4-way SLI. Apart from DirectX 11 compliance it features support for NVIDIA exclusive technologies like CUDA, PhysX, and 3D Vision Surround. The GeForce GTX 465 starts at US $279.

While NVIDIA's official GTX 465 launch won't be until Monday 31st 3 AM EST, large online retailer Newegg already started listing the cards. In total seven cards from NVIDIA's largest board partners are listed. They're all priced at $279 and available immediately. This is good news because it confirms that we will see a hard launch on Monday, without inflated prices. In terms of cooling everybody will stick to the GTX 470's thermal solution with the exception being Gigabyte and Palit (we reviewed the GTX 470 with the dual fan cooler here).

The listings also confirm the rumored specifications of 352 shaders cores, 1 GB memory, 256-bit memory interface and clock speeds of 607 MHz core / 1215 MHz shader.

Our review will be ready on time and posted when the NDA is expired.

NVIDIA made its GeForce GTX 480M GPU official today. The DirectX 11 compliant GPU is based on the GF100 core and packs all the features of its desktop counterpart, such as decentralized hardware tessellation, next-generation CUDA and DirectCompute 5.0. The GF100 core has a configuration similar to the GeForce GTX 465 desktop GPU. It has three of its four graphics processing clusters (GPCs), and 11 out of 16 streaming multiprocessors (SMs) enabled, giving a CUDA core count of 352. To reduce the overall board footprint, the GPU makes do with a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, with 1 GB of memory.

To make keep up with the electrical constraints of notebooks, the GTX 480M uses much lower clock-speeds than any desktop product that uses GF100. The core is clocked at 425 MHz, shader domain at 850 MHz, and memory at 600 MHz (real) or 2.40 GHz (effective), which gives a memory bandwidth of 76.8 GB/s. As mentioned earlier, the full feature-set of its desktop counterparts is packed with the GTX 480M, including support for NVIDIA 3D Vision, PureVideo HD, PhysX, and CUDA. It can pair with up to two boards of its kind in 2-way SLI. Constraints of the notebook form-factor won't allow any more boards, anyway. The GPU is open to Notebook manufacturers to plan their designs around. NVIDIA claims the GTX 480M to be the fastest notebook GPU. It finds direct competition in the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870, which is based on the 800 stream processor-laden Juniper core.

TechPowerUp rolled out a new version of GPU-Z, the popular graphics sub-system diagnostic utility. Version 0.4.3 comes with a load of new features and stability updates. Highlights include full capability to monitor voltages on the GeForce GTX 480, a new method of voltage monitoring which extends support for many ATI and NVIDIA graphics cards, support for the upcoming GeForce GTX 465, GT 320M GT 335M, ION variant, GT 340, Tesla C2050, Tesla M2050, and other Quadro series GPUs, new display languages including Spanish and Hungarian, among other stability updates.DOWNLOAD: GPU-Z 0.4.3

Change log follows.

NVIDIA today released two beta GeForce driver packages, 197.75 beta for GeForce 400 series products, and 197.57 beta for GeForce 6 series thru GeForce 300 series. While these drivers don't come with big lists of changes, NVIDIA recommends that you use these drivers to play the beta release of APB (All Points Bulletin).

DOWNLOAD:

• GeForce 197.75 beta for GeForce 400 series, for Windows 7/Vista 64-bit, Windows 7/Vista 32-bit, Windows XP 32-bit, Windows XP 64-bit;
• GeForce 197.54 beta for GeForce 6 series thru GeForce 300 series, for Windows 7/Vista 64-bit, Windows 7/Vista 32-bit, Windows XP 32-bit, Windows XP 64-bit

NVIDIA rolled out version 197.45 of its GeForce driver suite. The WHQL-signed drivers are the latest to support GeForce 6-series to GeForce 300 series, excluding the DirectX 11 compliant GeForce 400 series. Other products supported include the ION platforms. For GTX 480 and GTX 470, NVIDIA recently released GeForce 197.41 WHQL. The drivers released today, version 197.45 WHQL, include changes such as PhysX system software updated to version 9.10.0129, on-chip HD audio driver to version 1.0.9.1, several game-specific performance increments, adds SLI profiles for new games, and enhances those for existing ones, and a number of bug-fixes detailed in the Release Notes document (for Windows XP and Windows 7/Vista). Details on game-specific performance increases follow:

• Up to 13% performance increase in Crysis: Warhead with a single GPU, up to 30% performance increase in Crysis: Warhead with SLI technology
• Up to 13% performance increase in H.A.W.X with single GPU, up to 15% performance increase in H.A.W.X with SLI technology
• Up to 30% performance increase in Left 4 Dead with single GPU, up to 28% performance increase in Left 4 Dead with SLI technology

The new drivers add SLI and multi-GPU support for top new gaming titles including Assassin Creed II, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Command and Conquer 4: Tiberium Twilight, Grand Theft Auto IV: Episodes from Liberty City, Mass Effect 2, Napoleon: Total War, and Zombie Driver, and enhances SLI support for Metro 2033, Supreme Commander 2, Unigine, and World of Warcraft.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 197.45 WHQL

This morning the first of the long awaited retail GeForce GTX 480 cards arrived. The card came from Zotac and photos are below. It is from the same shipment that will be sold on store shelves in the next days. At first glance the card looks completely identical to the NVIDIA press sample, with the exception of some black foam on the back of the card. Another diffence is the BIOS which I put up for download here.

I am told that the reason for the black foam is to ensure some spacing between the cards when running in SLI mode, so that they can breathe. It also acts as safeguard against short circuits which could happen when the metal cooler surface of one card touches the back of the other card.

NVIDIA released version 197.41 of its GeForce driver suite, specifically for the DirectX 11 compliant GeForce 400 series GPUs. These drivers are WHQL-signed, and come in time for the market-availability of GeForce GTX 480 and GTX 470 graphics cards. Although NVIDIA didn't mark out any significant changes to this version, it bundles PhysX system software v9.10.0129, and on-chip HD audio driver v1.0.9.1. These drivers enable support for CUDA 3.0 and OpenGL 3.2. A proper release-notes document from the company is awaited for more details.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 197.41 WHQL for GeForce GTX 400 series

NVIDIA is said to be working on another GF100-based SKU, which further cuts down from the GeForce GTX 470. The new SKU, GeForce GTX 460, is expected to rival ATI Radeon HD 5850 in the sub-$300 market segment. The GF100 will be configured to have a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, driving 1024 MB (1 GB) of memory. Clock speeds could be another thing NVIDIA uses as the determining factor. The GTX 460 will not have a reference design as such, and AIC partners will be allowed to release their own designs from day one. The new SKU is expected to release in June. Pictured below is the GTX 470 PCB.