EVGA is now introducing an update to the fastest graphics solution, the EVGA 9800GX2 Superclocked, KO and SSC. Up to 86.4 Billion/sec Texture Fill Rate on the SSC Model gives you the ultimate in extreme performance. 100% testing ensures the highest level of performance and stability possible. This same level of testing and quality allowed Vince "k|ngp|n" Lucido to hit nearly 30,000 points with a single EVGA 9800GX2. EVGA makes the GX2 even more extreme giving you the ultimate in high-definition gaming performance.

Version 4.0 of the popular NVIDIA BIOS Editor (NiBiTor) has been released, which brings a number of minor fixes as well as limited support for unknown devices. The listed changes are:

• Added Support for GeForce 9800 GTX
• Added Support for GeForce 9500 GT
• Added Support for GeForce 8800M GTX
• Added Support for GeForce 8600M GT
• Fixed Bug with Fan Speed IC Settings

You can download the software from this page.

BFG Technologies announced today the BFG NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT OC2 512MB PCI Express 2.0 graphics card for a suggested retail price of $249.99 USD.

NVIDIA has updated its beta ForceWare driver to version 174.74, which supports just about all GeForce FX, 6, 7, 8 and 9 series graphics cards. The changes in this release include improved performance for DirectX9 and OpenGL applications, as well as a number of game and application compatibility fixes. Download locations are as follows:

• Windows XP 32-bit - here
• Windows XP 64-bit - here
• Windows Vista 32-bit - here
• Windows Vista 64-bit - here

Although official release of the card is still scheduled for April Fools' Day, a number of European retailers are already listing NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce 9800 GTX graphics card for pre-order. There are offerings from a number of companies including ASUS and Gigabyte, but the cheapest so far looks to be Palit's card, which has been given a price tag of €273 (about $430). The card comes equipped with a G92 core running at 675MHz, 128 stream processors at 1688MHz and 512MB GDDR3 memory at 2200MHz. The card is on sale at German site ComputerHandlung.de, and is listed under the XpertVision brand name.

TechConnect Magazine has acquired some pictures and specs of ASUS' upcoming EN9800GTX/HTDP/512M graphics card, which is expected to be released on April 1st. It will run at what are thought to be NVIDIA's reference clocks of 675MHz core and 2200MHz memory, with 128 stream processors at 1688MHz. This version will come equipped with 512MB GDDR3 memory, with a price tag somewhere below $350.

Catering to avid users who require exceptionally fast graphical solutions, ASUS has today introduced the overclocking version of the latest generation of AMD dual RV670XT GPUs with the ASUS EAH3870X2 TOP/G/3DHTI/1G graphics card. Equipped with the fastest DRR3 0.8ns memory modules, the EAH3870X2 TOP provides peak performance with GPU memory clock boosts of 6%; while both the EAH3870X2 TOP/G/3DHTI/1G and EAH3870X2/G/3DHTI/1G utilize specially designed dual fansinks for efficient heat dissipation compared to reference designed single fansink solutions. The EAH3870X2 TOP/G/3DHTI/1G also comes exclusively with two extra DVI outputs for a maximum of four-display video output; as well as the hottest DX10 game: Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts.

BFG Technologies announced today the BFG Trade Up program. The program is designed to give customers a one time opportunity to exchange their current BFG graphics card within 100 days of the original date of purchase for a better model and only pay the difference in price, plus applicable taxes.

Although there's not yet been an official press release directly from NVIDIA, a number of graphics card manufacturers have today released their GeForce 9800 GX2 graphics cards. The card itself features two graphics processors with a reference speed of 600MHz core and 2000MHz memory, with 256 stream processors and DirectX 10 support. All cards released so far come equipped with 1GB GDDR3 memory. You can take a look at techPowerUp!'s own Zotac GeForce 9800 GX2 review here. Companies that have already released a 9800 GX2 include Zotac, XFX, Point of View, BFG, Club 3D, Leadtek, SPARKLE, Inno3D, EVGA, Albatron, Walton Chaintech and Foxconn.

ASUS, producer of top quality graphic solutions, has today introduced a new way for effective and simple overclocking with the ASUS EAH3850 SMART OC/HTDI/1G. This new Smart OC Series will allow users to increase voltages only when needed with the simple push of a button - providing them with up to 12% performance upgrades. The EAH3850 SMART OC also comes with a patent-approved luminant LED DVI output and stylish back sustainer; while the exclusive Glaciator Fansink will keep the GPU 20ºC cooler than reference designed fansinks. On top of all this, the ASUS EAH3850 SMART OC incorporates a large onboard memory size of 1GB - designed specifically to provide feature-rich DirectX 10 gaming and the best multimedia playback at ultra-high resolutions and maximum quality settings.

Admittedly HIS isn't the first company to launch an AGP HD 3850 (SAPPHIRE, PowerColor and GECUBE already have, possibly others), but it is refreshing for any users still running an AGP platform to see new cards being released. HIS has introduced two versions of its AGP HD 3850 - a standard version running at reference speeds and an IceQ 3 Turbo version overclocked from 668MHz to 720MHz core frequency and 1656MHz to 1820MHz memory. Both feature 512MB GDDR3 memory and use the AGP 8X interface. The cards come equipped with all the standard HD 3850 features that you would expect, such as DirectX 10.1 support and AVIVO, although pricing is not listed on HIS' website. It's slightly surprising to see AGP models still being released, as you would have thought most people that are likely to upgrade to a card like this would already have a PCI-Express motherboard, but HIS obviously thinks there is still a market for these cards.

According to NordicHardware, several leaked slides have revealed the price of NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce 9800 GTX card to be $349 (one even said $299-$349, but the higher value seems much more likely). The card should go on sale on March 25th, and the reference specifications have a G92-420 core running at 675MHz with 512MB of GDDR3 memory at 2000MHz.

NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce 9800 GX2 graphics card is now available to pre-order from shopblt.com, for a price of $598.41. Although the release date is still unconfirmed, the site has an estimated time of arrival as 03-22-2008, which could well be the official launch day. The actual card being listed is from PNY Technologies, although no extra details are given.

There are not many details on this unfortunately, but WE.PCINLIFE seems to have acquired a number of close-up images of NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce 9800 GTX, which will be the company's first high-end single GPU 9 series graphics card. There are 18 pictures in all, with some of the better shots shown below.

German site Allround-PC.com has acquired a few new pictures of NVIDIA's upcoming 9800 GX2 graphics card, which is set to become the company's flagship consumer card when it's released next month. The card will have two 65nm GeForce 8800 GPUs working in SLI on a single card, with a 600MHz core, 1GHz GDDR3 memory and a 1.5GHz shader clock. The pictures are below.

Catering to users who require quiet computing environments, ASUS has today introduced the latest thermal solution - the V-Cool Heatsink, which will be incorporated with the EAH3650 SILENT/HTDI/512M and EAH3650 SILENT/HTDI/256M graphic cards. Featuring the V-Engine concept and Intercooler technology, the V-Cool Heatsink guarantees an absolutely quiet and efficient heat dissipation that enables the most stable performance.

AMD is taking the whole concept of a next-generation product flying out of NVIDIA's factory doors with an unnerving level of calm. The main points of a press conference...

• The 9600GT, in benchmarks scores roughly between an HD3850 and an HD3870. The HD3850 can be had for $169USD, and the HD3870 can be had for $189USD. Suggested MSRP for the 9600GT: $169-189USD.
• The current offerings from AMD are more feature rich than the 9600GT. Such features are DirectX 10.1, 55nm manufacturing, and built-in HDCP encoding.
• AMD's offerings currently beat the 9600GT in terms of heat, power consumption and noise.

The validity of the second point can be debated, considering DX10.1 games are still a ways away, and most users are hard-pressed to find the exact difference between DX10.1 and DX10.

Well, really, the title says it all. Everyone buying a 9800GT will get the great and wonderful 3-way SLI technology, should they desire to run three graphics cards in one PC. While the 9800GT does run off of the G92 core, what really sets it apart to allow for three-way SLI is the second SLI connector on each card, and quite a few modifications to the G92 chip. The entire GeForce 9x00 series should be released by the middle of March.

According to several graphics manufacturers, the first midrange cards from NVIDIA's GeForce 9 series will start finding themselves on market shelves on February 21st. Please take this with a grain of salt, as the old saying goes, because NVIDIA refused to comment on this, citing that they cannot comment on unreleased products. Keep in mind, also, that only a few makers will be pushing out GeForce 9 cards on the 21st. The early birds will price their cards around US$169-189 MSRP, pushing the cards they are replacing (8600GTS) down to US$139-149 MSRP. For those of you who would like an introduction to the 9600 series...

The 9600 GT adopts a 65nm process and is manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). The GPU sees an increase in processing units, 64, and memory bus width, 256-bit, over previous 8600 GTS cards, 32 and 128-bit. The GPU's performance should see an increase of over 40% compared to the 8600 GTS. The new GPU also introduces Dual-Streaming Decode technology which allows two high-definition image decoding processes to be performed at the same time and provides picture in picture (PIP) functionality.

It's time to suit up and join the front lines with the fastest 8800GT card in its class, the EVGA 8800GT AKIMBO card: Featuring a 65nm GPU with an astonishing GPU Core clock of 720MHz, the exclusive dual slot heat sink and fan drops temperatures as much as 25 degrees Celsius, keeping your card cool and ready to perform at any given notice. Your new secret weapon supports 2-way SLI and the latest PCI-E 2.0 standard, now is the time to lock, load, and game. Frag it up with the EVGA 8800GT AKIMBO card.

With the launch of the GeForce 9 series getting closer and closer, AMD is hard pressed to find something to keep themselves competitive. While the RV670 and R680 are regaining some much needed market share, they will both pale when the GeForce 9 series is released to the public. Thankfully, AMD is not going down without a fight. About the same time as the GeForce 9 series is released, AMD is releasing a little something called the RV770. At this point, it appears that the RV770 is about 50% faster than the current HD3870, which is certainly respectable. How this compares to the GeForce 9 series is still a mystery. The release of CrossFire X technology ought to really help benchmark numbers, assuming AMD can make buying four AMD GPUs cost about as much as two from NVIDIA.

The current drivers available from ATI (Catalyst 8.1) support an interesting new mode: interoperability between an HD3870 and an HD3850 in CrossFire mode. Fudzilla had both the time and resources to test this out, so they did. Before the test results are considered, please remember that these are just initial drivers. Both Catalyst 8.2 and 8.3 will offer more impressive CrossFire results. To make a long story short, and to sum up a lot of bar charts, AMD is well on their way to making Hybrid CrossFire a feasible solution for a lot of people, especially once more graphics cards can be mixed-and-matched. Please check out Fudzilla for all the benchmarks.

The most notable increase was 50% in Half Life 2. NVIDIA does not have anything comparable to Hybrid CrossFire.

SAPPHIRE Technology, industry leader in graphics upgrades for the PC, has just launched a new version of its successful HD 3850 with enhanced memory configuration of 1GB.

The new SAPPHIRE HD 3850 has 1GB of GDDR3 memory, running at 829MHz (1.66GHz effective). It has a core clock speed of 703MHz, higher than the standard model, which together with the large onboard memory delivers exciting levels of graphics performance especially in games or applications where large volumes of texture or data are involved.

AMD recently unveiled plans to put out R680, RV635 and RV620 chips, which would power high-end, mid-range and budget cards, respectively. While this is all well and good, AMD said that the anticipated R700 series of graphics chips would not be put out until at least 2009. This decision will hopefully give AMD a chance to return to profitability. The long wait for a new graphics family will also give AMD more time to ensure that they're putting out a high-quality product that will dominate the market. During the event that this was discovered at, AMD also put out some details of the upcoming Leo platform. For more about the Leo platform, please check the source link.

It would seem as though NVIDIA is celebrating the day that I get my full drivers license, sans passenger restrictions, by releasing the revamped NVIDIA GeForce 8800GTS 512, based on the impressive G92 micro-architecture. The new 8800GTS 512 will only come in one flavor, which, as the name suggests, will sport 512MB of 256-bit VRAM. This is opposed to the previous versions, which ship with either 320MB or 640MB of 320-bit VRAM. The new 8800GTS 512 will come with 128 Stream processors, a welcome improvement from the previous 96 Stream processors. The new 8800GTS also has another welcome surprise: an engine clock of 650MHz, higher than any 8800 series GPU before it. Current rumor has it that the 8800GTS 512's 512MB of VRAM will be clocked at roughly 1.96GHz. The 8800GTS 512 should be available on December 11th for between $299 and $349 USD.