AMD topped off its "Southern Islands" graphics card family with Radeon HD 7990 "New Zealand," although it didn't have a reference design board of the said SKU. Around October 2012, AIB partners PowerColor, VTX3D, and Club 3D each released their custom design Radeon HD 7990-branded graphics cards, which packed a duo of Radeon HD 7970 GPUs, a total of 6 GB of memory, making up for a dual-GPU solution. Among most of these, the GPUs were clocked in the neighborhood of 950 MHz, and memory at 5.50 GHz. ASUS joined the party much later with the ROG ARES II, with 1100 MHz core, 6.00 GHz memory, and liquid cooling, but commands a hefty $1,600. Post GTX Titan, ARES II remains, at least according to AMD, the single fastest graphics card. The company seems interested in standardizing a new set of specifications for HD 7990, which could be priced competitively against NVIDIA's GTX Titan and GTX 690.

Enter the new Radeon HD 7990 "Malta," a new codename, redone specifications (clock speeds), same dual-GPU graphics card, with [hopefully] a competitive price. Its development checks out with AMD's recent statement in its teleconference last month, where it stated that we could see "more HD 7990 action" this year. According to a Technic3D report, AMD is looking to replace the generally accepted 925/950/1350 MHz (core/PowerTune Boost/memory) clock speed standard of the HD 7990 with something over 1000 MHz, probably even 1050 MHz for the core. There is no word on memory clock speed changes, although with its 384-bit wide memory interfaces, we don't imagine the "Tahiti" GPU to be facing a dearth of memory bandwidth. The HD 7990 "Malta" like the HD 7990 "New Zealand," will lack an AMD reference design, so one could expect more custom-design cards by partners. The new SKU could launch some time before July.

EK Water Blocks, Ljubljana based premium water cooling gear manufacturer, is proud to officially release the EK-FC7990 incl. Backplate, a Full-Cover water block for undisputedly hottest gaming graphics card in the world - Radeon HD 7990 - bundled with aluminum backplate.

EK-FC7990 is a high performance full-cover water block engineered specifically for PowerColor/VTX3D/Club3D Radeon HD 7990 series graphics cards. This water block directly cools both GPUs, RAM as well as both VRMs (voltage regulation module) as water flows directly over these critical areas thus allowing the graphics card and it's VRM to remain stable under high overclocks. EK-FC7990 water block also features a high flow design therefore it can be easily used in liquid cooling systems using weaker water pumps.

EK Water Blocks, Ljubljana based premium water cooling gear manufacturer, is working on a new Full Cover water block for the undisputedly hottest gaming graphics card in the world - Radeon HD 7990.

The upcoming EK-FC7990 water block will directly cool the both GPUs, RAM as well as VRM (voltage regulation module) as water will flow directly over these critical areas thus allowing the graphics card and it's VRM to remain stable under high overclocks. EK-FC7990 GTX water block will also features a very high flow design therefore it could easily be used in liquid cooling systems using weaker water pumps.

Club 3D unveils today its brand new Radeon HD 7990 Dual GPU graphic card, the latest and fastest addition to its highly praised Radeon HD 7000 series. The Radeon HD 7990 Dual GPU graphic card is a real performance beast and features the power of two Radeon HD 7970 series processors on a single card. Prepare to be blown away by the incredible speed of the Radeon HD 7990 Dual GPU in the hottest DirectX 11 games with its processing power of 2x2048 Stream Processors and 6144MB memory. Experience amazing graphics with Morphological Anti-Aliasing (MLAA 2.0) and Adaptive Anti-Aliasing technologies that help smooth out jagged edges without compromising performance.

The Club 3D Radeon HD 7990 Dual GPU delivers exceptional performance at 40% faster than the Radeon HD 7970 GHz board and 45% faster than the standard Radeon HD 7970 and delivers incredible performance at great value. Combine two Club 3D Radeon HD 7990 Dual GPU graphic cards to create a Quad CrossFire configuration and take your gaming performance to extreme levels.

A leading brand of graphics card maker - VTX3D, today unrolls the VTX3D HD7990, serving PC enthusiastic with most extreme gaming performance. The HD7990 utilizes the advanced 28 nm architecture and PCIE 3.0 design to maximize GPU performance, even allowing greater OC ability with dual BIOS switch button embedded on bracket, which offers default mode and OC mode to choose, showing the most unrivaled performance than ever.

Fitted with 6 GB of GDDR5 memory connected via high speed 384bit x2 memory interface, VTX3D HD7990 is clocked at 900 MHz by default setting and 925 MHz at OC mode, both together with 1375 MHz for memory, revealing monster-like power for the most demanding games. The HD7990 also features ultra deluxe design with digital PWM, multi phases design and UHB, ensuring stability and reliability voltage for GPU with minimum conduction losses and lower temperatures at load.

Club 3D plans to be one of the very few AMD AIB partners with a Radeon HD 7990 dual-GPU graphics card. Its product is based on the same exact design as PowerColor's recently-launched HD 7990 base and flagship HD 7990 Devil13, since TUL (PowerColor's parent company) is the OEM of Club 3D Radeon series graphics cards. The card packs two 28 nm "Tahiti" Radeon HD 7970 ASICs with a PLX-made PCI-Express 3.0 bridge chip, and a total of 6 GB of GDDR5 memory across two 384-bit wide memory interfaces. It's likely that Club 3D's card sticks to the same clock profiles as PowerColor's HD 7990 base, with 900 MHz core, 925 MHz OC (toggled manually with a switch), and 5.50 GHz memory. More details are awaited.

TUL Corporation, a leading manufacturer of AMD graphic cards, today announced powerful equipment for enthusiasts: the PowerColor HD7990. Powered by dual Tahiti XT GPUs, PowerColor HD7990 easily boosts up performance with dual BIOS switch button embedded on bracket, by 900 MHz default engines clock and 925 MHz OC engines clock, delivering the ultimate gaming efforts which easily tackles demanding games titles.

Key to Ultimate Gaming
PowerColor HD7990 has equipped with trio slots and trio fans cooling solution, thermal design power capability up to 550 watts, maximizing the heat dissipated ability to cool down the dual GPUs board. Furthermore, it's built with multi phases design, UHB, digital PWM and PowerIRstage, increases steady of voltage power for GPU, stabilizes the gaming performance even at load.

TechPowerUp and PowerColor get together once again to bring you "Pimp my Rig" Contest 2012. Pimp my Rig is our undying quest for the fastest slowest rig on the planet, which will be pimped up with some rad new hardware courtesy of PowerColor, AMD, ASRock, and Cooler Master. The contest is divided into two rounds, 1 and 2. Winners of the first round, who qualify for the second round, stand to win prizes including Cooler Master HAF-XM chassis, CM Storm QuickFire Rapid keyboard, CM Storm Sentinel Adv. II mouse, AMD FX-8150 eight-core processor, and ASRock 990FX Extreme3 motherboard. The winner of the second and final round stands to win the grand prize - a PowerColor Radeon HD 7990 Devil13 dual-GPU graphics card. Contest rules and fine-print can be found in the link below. Good hunting!More information and to participate - TechPowerUp and PowerColor Pimp my Rig 2012

Some of our reliable sources passed on teaser pictures of CM Storm's upcoming case for LAN party-animals, the Scout II. The new case will retain the core design principle of portability, including the distinct handles that let you carry the case around. The new Scout II will pack features that make its innards "transport-ready" (more shock-resistant). Its handles will be reinforced with steel beams that are probably connected to the case' main frame.

The CM Storm Scout II will be an ATX mid-tower case, supporting extra-long graphics cards, including NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 and AMD Radeon HD 7990 (if it ever comes to be). Much like the original, it will feature windowed side-panels to let your show off your gear. The teaser pictures reveal the case to be heavily ventilated, with large cutouts for water-cooling plumbing. The case will be officially launched towards end of September.

Troubles don't seem to end for AMD's Radeon HD 7990 dual-GPU graphics card, with sources indicating that AMD has no new product launches till late-August. Sections of the press reported that the HD 7990 could be released some time this month. A couple of factors could be behind the delay. For starters, there have been reports of shortage of PEX8747 PCIe bridge chips by PLX, which is at the heart of dual-GPU graphics cards, including the GeForce GTX 690. Another factor could relate to how AMD plans to achieve competitive price-performance and performance-Watt ratios for the HD 7990. Meanwhile, launches of NVIDIA's mid-range GeForce GTX 660 Ti and GTS 650 are reportedly closing in.

At the AMD Fusion Developer Summit (AFDS) 2012, the host unveiled its next flagship professional graphics card, the FirePro W9000. What makes the card particularly interesting is that it is dual-GPU, packing two Tahiti-derived GPUs, the same chips that go into making Radeon HD 7900 series. The FirePro W9000, is what many believe to be a professional variant of the Radeon HD 7990 "New Zealand" dual-GPU graphics card, which is facing delays for reasons unknown (actually, here's a possible reason).

The W9000 packs a total of 6 GB of GDDR5 memory, up to 264.8 million pixels/s; 4 TFLOPs single-precision and 1 TFLOPs double-precision floating-point performance. The card design does away with lateral-flow cooler, and uses a triple-fan heatsink assembly that packs three 90 mm low-speed (low-noise) fans. A surprise here, is that the card draws power from [just] two 8-pin PCIe power connectors (it's probably using two low-voltage Tahiti chips). It's an established fact that FirePro products are merely variations of Radeon products with possibly higher build quality, and an expanded software feature-set.

An increasing number of high-end graphics cards and motherboards are relying on PCI-Express bridge chips to expand the PCI-Express lane budgets, no thanks to the puny number of PCI-Express lanes today's mainstream computing platforms come with. Following the transition to PCI-Express Gen 3.0, with Intel's new platforms (Ivy Bridge and Sandy Bridge-E HEDT), there is a demand for Gen 3.0-compliant PCIe switching hardware, especially x48 bridge chips (which take in a PCI-Express x16 link, giving out two x16 links or four x8 links). Such chips are used on high-end motherboards to expand the number of PCIe slots, and on dual-GPU graphics cards.

It appears like NVIDIA does not have a PCIe Gen 3.0-compliant bridge chip of its own, and so the only company with one, is PLX Technology, with its PEX8747. The chip has been used on a variety of high-end motherboards, and NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 690 dual-GPU graphics card. PLX reportedly saw high demand, which resulted in several companies bagging initial allocations of the chip, leaving others out to dry, with the part being listed as out-of-stock by its maker. Newer clients of the chip will have to wait until PLX undertakes the next big production cycle, to get their allocations of the chip.

Apart from a few Radeon HD 7970 "X2" dual-GPU graphics cards, and a few non-reference design HD 7970, we didn't hear much about new Radeon SKUs, at Computex. AMD or its partners never even talked about the Radeon HD 7990. It appears now, that the company is working on three new SKUs that will likely replace existing ones, in a bid to replenish the competitiveness of its "Southern Islands" GPU family. The three new SKUs include the Radeon HD 7990, of which we've been hearing for a greater part of this year; the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition, which we knew was taking shape for some time now; and the new Radeon HD 7930.

Launch of the Radeon HD 7990 has been facing quite a few delays. We can't imagine technical hurdles with regard to board design, but the performance yield, and performance-per-Watt figures the SKU will have to produce, to ever make it to the market. The HD 7990 has the tough task of performing within an acceptable range of the GeForce GTX 690, on both these fronts.

Although AMD has plans to unveil its dual-GPU Radeon HD 7990 some time during Computex 2012, next month, it is reported that its add-in board (AIB) partners will be rolling out custom-design dual-GPU graphics cards labelled "Radeon HD 7970 X2." These cards most likely feature a pair of 28 nm "Tahiti" GPUs with high GPU clock speeds (perhaps above those of the HD 7990, perhaps even over 1 GHz). The new cards could then target the performance levels of NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 690 at competitive prices. It could also be AMD's strategy to give the onus to AIB partners to come up with "off-spec" dual-GPU cards to compete with GTX 690 in terms of performance, while maintaining an "on-spec" Radeon HD 7990 that seeks a higher price-performance ratio than that of the GTX 690.

Even as NVIDIA is on the verge of unveiling its GeForce GTX 690 dual-GPU graphics card, at GeForce LAN Shanghai, AMD is in no hurry. Its competitive graphics card to the GTX 690, the Radeon HD 7990 "New Zealand", will be kept under the wraps till Computex 2012 (early June), DonanimHaber learned. Radeon HD 7990 will pack two completely unlocked 28 nm "Tahiti" GPUs, a total of 4,096 Graphics CoreNext stream processors, 6 GB of GDDR5 memory, and the ability to drive 6-monitor Eyefinity, out of the box.

It turns out that the cryptic picture posted on NVIDIA GeForce Facebook page indeed is a teaser for NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690, a dual-GPU graphics card based on two GK104 GPUs. Several independent sources told SweClockers that NVIDIA is preparing to launch this SKU "in the week beginning April 30," i.e., no later than May 5. It is quite possible that NVIDIA launches it on the 30th, to share the limelight with Intel's new 3rd Generation Core "Ivy Bridge" processors, which will be released to market on the 29th. The card will feature a total of 3072 CUDA cores, and 4 GB of GDDR5 memory. We haven't heard much about its competitor, the Radeon HD 7990.

We know from older reports that NVIDIA is working on GeForce GTX 690, a dual-GPU graphics card based on the 28 nm GK104 silicon, we also know that its launch will be strategically timed to follow that of AMD Radeon HD 7990. Expreview scored a few juicy details about this card. To begin with, it is reported that GeForce GTX 690 will draw power from two 8-pin PCIe power connectors.

The GeForce GTX 690 will use a PCI-Express 3.0-compliant bridge chip. Its display outputs will include three DVI and one DisplayPort. PSU with at least 650W capacity will be made a system requirement. The entire feature-set of GeForce GTX 680 will be carried over. The exact specifications, core configuration, and memory amount, remain at large.

Admittedly, this is a terrible day for news on unannounced GPUs, but we rushed it in anyway. Here are the first board shots of AMD's next-generation dual-GPU graphics card, the Radeon HD 7990 (codename: "New Zealand"). Sources told us that AMD working overtime to release this SKU, to restore performance-leadership of the Radeon HD 7900 series. The dual-GPU card, according to the specifications at hand, is bearing AMD's coveted "GHz Edition" badge, its core is clocked higher than that of the HD 7970.

But first, the board shot. Pictured below is the first picture of this beast. Right away you'll question its authenticity for using a 70 mm fan instead of a lateral-flow blower, but that design change serves a purpose. Despite its high performance, the previous-generation Radeon HD 6990 was plagued with user complaints of high noise. That's because a single, normal-sized lateral-flow blower was positioned in the center, blowing through two sets of aluminum channels, at a very high speed. With the HD 7990, AMD on the other hand, borrowed the ventilation design of NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 590, to a large extant. It reused the fan found on reference-design HD 7850 and HD 7770, and placed it in middle of two heatsinks.

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.

Although it doesn't matter anymore, there are several bits of evidence supporting the theory that NVIDIA originally intended for its GK104-based performance graphics card to be named "GeForce GTX 670 Ti", before deciding to go with "GeForce GTX 680" towards the end. With the advent of 2012, we've had our industry sources refer to the part as "GTX 670 Ti". The very first picture of the GeForce GTX 680 disclosed to the public, early this month, revealed a slightly old qualification sample, which had one thing different from the card we have with us today: the model name "GTX 670 Ti" was etched onto the cooler shroud, our industry sources disclosed pictures of early samples having 6+8 pin power connectors.

Next up, while NVIDIA did re-christian GTX 670 Ti to GTX 680, it was rather sloppy at it. The first picture below shows the contents of the Boardshots (stylized) folder in NVIDIA's "special place" for the media. It contains all the assets NVIDIA allows the press, retailers, and other partners to use. Assets are distributed in various formats, the TIFF is a standard image-format used by print-media, for its high dot-pitch. Apart from a heavy payload, the TIFF image file allows tags, that can be read by Windows Explorer, these tags help people at the archives. The tags for images in TIFF format, of the GTX 680 distributed to its partners in the media and industry contain the tag "GTX 670 Ti".

Closely trailing the launch of NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 680, and keeping up with its own streak of launching a new graphics card line each month since January, AMD will unveil its Radeon HD 7990 graphics card in April, or so it's reported. INPAI reports the clock-speed and chip-configuration of the upcoming dual-GPU monstrosity. The Radeon HD 7990 packs two 28 nm "Tahiti" GPUs as a "Crossfire on a stick" solution. The Tahiti chips will be clocked at 850 MHz (core), and 1250 MHz (5.00 GHz effective) memory.

The chip-configuration of each of the two Tahiti chips will be the same as that on the Radeon HD 7970, with 2048 Graphics CoreNext stream processors, 128 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and 384-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding 3 GB of memory, each. The total memory on the card will hence be 6 GB. With the Radeon HD 7970 refusing to budge from its US $549 price-point, it's quite natural that the Radeon HD 7990 will be priced very high. It is gunning to retain the performance crown that's currently disputed between the Radeon HD 6990 and GeForce GTX 590.

AMD's Radeon HD 7800 series performance GPUs that target cost-benefit sweet-spots will be launched in the first half of March. The launch will include Radeon HD 7870 and Radeon HD 7850. The two SKUs are based on a new 28 nm ASIC codenamed "Pitcairn". Little is known about its specifications at this point, from reliable sources at least.

In April, AMD's rival NVIDIA will get its GeForce Kepler family of GPUs, all guns blazing. In April alone, NVIDIA is expected to launch a high-end part, the GeForce GTX 690, a performance part, the GeForce GTX 660, and mainstream part GeForce GTX 640. The three will be based on three new ASICs built on the 28 nm process, the GK110, GK104, and GK106, respectively.

April will be the most interesting month for PC enthusiasts as Intel will launch its third-generation Core processor family, codename "Ivy Bridge". Little is known about AMD's high-end Radeon HD 7990 "New Zealand".

Even 12 months ago, an Intel Nehalem-powered gaming PC with 6 GB of system memory was considered high-end. Now there's already talk of a graphics card taking shape, that has that much memory. On Thursday this week, AMD launched its Radeon HD 7970 graphics card, which features its newest 28 nm "Tahiti" GPU, and 3 GB of GDDR5 memory across a 384-bit wide memory interface. All along, it had plans of making a dual-GPU graphics card that made use of two of these GPUs to give you a Crossfire-on-a-stick solution. AMD codenamed this product "New Zealand". We are now getting to learn that codename "New Zealand" will carry the intuitive-sounding market name Radeon HD 7990, and that it is headed for a Q1 2012 launch.

This means that Radeon HD 7990 should arrive before April 2012. Tests show that Tahiti has superior energy-efficiency compared to previous-generation "Cayman" GPU, even as it has increased performance. From a technical standpoint, a graphics card featuring two of these Tahiti GPUs, running with specifications matching those of the single-GPU HD 7970, looks workable. Hence, there is talk of 6 GB of total graphics memory (3 GB per GPU system).