Soon after EVGA laid its hands on stocks of GeForce GTX 480 graphics cards, it claims from an internal test that 4-way SLI is possible on the reference design GTX 480 graphics cards. The GTX 480 was advertised to work with up to two more of its kind in 3-way SLI, in NVIDIA's presentations to the press. EVGA's feat of running four GTX 480 cards was possible on its X58 Classified 4-way SLI motherboard, which has room for four graphics cards, and a special SLI bridge that connects to four NVIDIA graphics cards with two SLI interconnect bridges each. EVGA released a special-edition GeForce GTX 285 4-way SLI ready graphics card to go with the motherboard.

The EVGA X58 Classified 4-way SLI isn't the only motherboard to support 4-way SLI, the recently released EVGA Classified SR2 also ships with the special SLI bridge. No other motherboard vendor released a 4-way bridge, yet. EVGA demonstrated the 4-way SLI setup with a run of Unigine Heaven, although it did not give away any performance numbers. 4-way SLI is not to be confused with Quad-SLI, which is also a four-GPU SLI configuration, but involves a 2-way SLI connection between two dual-GPU graphics cards (such as GeForce 9800 GX2, GTX 295, MARS). Any SLI-supportive motherboard supports Quad-SLI.

ASUS today announced the launch of the new ASUS P7F7-E WS SuperComputer motherboard which maximizes transmission speeds by integrating the industry's latest I/O technologies such as USB 3.0, SATA 6G storage interface, and IEEE 1394b FireWire standard. Additionally, the ASUS P7F7-E WS SuperComputer is equipped with the LGA1156 socket and the latest Intel 3450 chipset with onboard graphics. For extreme gaming enjoyment, up to four ATI CrossFireX cards or 3-way/2-way NVIDIA SLI cards can be accommodated to generate smoother and sharper visuals. It also leverages NVIDIA CUDA parallel computing architecture to support up to four NVIDIA Tesla cards with Clarkdale Processors for intensive high-performance computing.

The ASUS P7F7-E WS SuperComputer is the best choice for providing comprehensive I/O support. It includes USB 3.0 ports-the latest connectivity standard with 4.8Gb/s speeds-to support next-generation components and peripherals. USB 3.0 transfers data ten times faster and is backward compatible with USB 2.0 components. Additionally, the ASUS P7F7-E WS SuperComputer includes Serial ATA (SATA) 6Gb/s storage interfaces for 6.0Gbps data throughput, thus enhancing scalability, accelerating data retrieval, and doubling the bandwidth of current bus systems. To support FireWire-enabled digital video recorders and computers, the ASUS P7F7-E WS SuperComputer also includes two IEEE 1394b ports supporting up to 800 Mb/s speeds-doubling the previous IEEE 1394a speeds.

Czech technology website PCTuning confirmed a few details about NVIDIA's upcoming performance graphics accelerator, the GeForce GTX 470. It was found out that a beta driver by NVIDIA, GeForce 196.78 supports GeForce 400 series accelerators, and was able run a qualification sample of GeForce GTX 470. The card was using A3 revision GF100 silicon. The driver's System Information dialog revealed that the card indeed has 448 CUDA cores (SIMD units). Further, it has 1280 MB of memory, and a 320-bit wide memory interface. NVIDIA also changed the way it represents memory clock speeds. Since it is using GDDR5 memory, while the memory has an actual clock speed of 1000 MHz, the data rate (DDR speed) is represented first, as 2000 MHz, and "effective speed" next, which is 4000 MHz.

Given these speeds, at 1000 MHz GDDR5, the GPU has a memory bandwidth of 160 GB/s. Without compromise on looks and quality, NVIDIA kept the cooler design basic. It has a matte finish. Display outputs include two DVI-D, and one mini HDMI. It supports NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround (a technology competitive to ATI Eyefinity, to span a display head across multiple physical displays), just that NVIDIA requires at least two accelerators in SLI to use it. NVIDIA's GeForce 400 series graphics accelerators will be launched on the 26th of this month.

EVGA made public its 25th release of the EVGA SLI Enhancement (version 02.25.10), a software patch that adds SLI profiles to NVIDIA's GeForce display drivers. SLI profiles are application-specific bits of software that optimise it to make use of multiple NVIDIA GPUs. The new release is based on NVIDIA GeForce 196.21 driver, and adds SLI optimisations for the following games:

• Supreme Commander 2 Demo
• Aliens vs. Predator, in all DirectX Modes
• Mass Effect 2
• Zombie Driver

Registered EVGA users (registration is free) can get the SLI Enhancement patch from here.

Lian Li Industrial Co. Ltd Ltd today has launched the PC-A77F Full Tower chassis ideal for PC power users and server systems. Incorporating USB 3.0 functionality with 4x new USB 3.0 ports as well as the standard e-SATA x1 and HD+AC97 Audio. The hair-line brushed all black aluminum chassis features three Blue LED fans on the front (3x 120mm@1200RPM), and 2x Top 140mm fans @1000RPM, as well as 1x 120mm rear fan (1500RPM). The 8x PCI expansion slots enable CrossFireX and three way SLI graphic card setups. The chassis front panel clips off conveniently as needed. The inlet fans have filters that are washable. The entire chassis is designed for tool-less implementation, so installing your hardware a nd getting your system up and running is extremely quick and easy. The dimensions stand at 220mm x 572mm x 590mm (W, H, D) for the PC-A77F.

The Lian Li patented Power Supply Bracket which allows the PSU to be secured using only the tool-less clasp is very useful to hold the PSU without the need for securing screws. The 9x internal HDD 3.5" bays have a tool-less bracket mounting system where the HDD's are secured along secure rails. The rails lock fast to ensure all HDD's are held in place with rubber grommet struts to prevent movement and vibration from today's fast moving and highly specialized HDD components. The locking mechanism slides into place and secures all the HDD's simultaneously. The PCI securing brackets are made of aluminum and have a special tool-less clip with rubber padding to secure your graphics and daughter cards with the utmost of ease. The front panel and top panel are easily detachable for access to fans and air filters. The PC-A77F chassis have all the functional and user friendly design aspects users have come to expect in high quality Lian Li cases.

Whereas NVIDIA is inching towards releasing its DirectX compliant GF100 GPU from which it has high expectations, some of its partners don't seem to give up on the two-generation old G92. Galaxy has almost finished designing a graphics card that uses two GeForce GTS 250 GPUs on one PCB, in an SLI on card setup. It refers to the card as "DualCore GTS250", and consists of a long blue PCB which holds two G92-426 GPUs (G92-426 GPUs are used on low-power variants of the GTS 250).

Each GPU is wired to 1 GB of GDDR3 memory across its 256-bit wide memory interface (total 2 GB on board). The two GPUs are connected to the system over an nForce 200 BR-03 bridge chip. The multi-GPU system is contained within the board, with no SLI fingers for expansion, even though G92 chips are Quad SLI capable.

EVGA finished its twentieth release of the EVGA SLI Enhancement Patch, a software that adds to the GeForce system drivers' SLI profiles specific to applications. These SLI profiles help applications take advantage of multiple GeForce graphics cards in SLI, or dual-GPU GeForce accelerators such as the GeForce 9800 GX2 and GeForce GTX 295. Version 20 (01.15.10) adds SLI profiles to Dark Void, Serious Sam HD, and Avatar (Demo). This patch is based on GeForce drivers 195.81. The latest version of GeForce drivers from NVIDIA bring SLI profiles to the latter two games. Registered EVGA users can download the software from here.

EVGA's Halloween offering, the mystical graphics accelerator with two different GPUs - each handing one kind of task - is official. Behold the EVGA GTX 275 Co-op PhysX accelerator. This unique graphics accelerator uses an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275 GPU to handle the primary task of graphics processing, while offloads GPGPU related tasks, such as game physics acceleration using the company's PhysX technology, to a second GeForce GTS 250 GPU. While the GTX 275 component has 896 MB of GDDR3 memory across its usual 448-bit wide interface, the GTS 250 has 512 MB of it across its 256-bit wide interface, 1280 MB total on board (though not the total amount of memory available to a 3D application).

While not intended to be a true dual-GPU accelerator in essence that the two GPUs work in tandem to render graphics, the design ensures that the GeForce GTX 275 works with zero overhead from processing PhysX. The two GPUs are not part of an SLI multi-GPU array. With the provision of two SLI fingers, users can pair up to three of these in a 3-way SLI array. It is logically possible to pair this with other normal GeForce GTX 275 accelerators as well.

Staying ahead of NVIDIA and its own series of similar software, EVGA released the 18th edition of its SLI Enhancement Patch. The SLI Enhancement Patch is a piece of software that adds SLI profiles of usually new games to the NVIDIA GeForce driver. SLI profiles optimize help applications take advantage multiple NVIDIA GPUs installed in an SLI setup. Version 18 of the software is based on NVIDIA GeForce 191.07 drivers. It adds or enhances SLI support for the following games. Registered EVGA users (registration is free) can download the software from here.

• Enables SLI support for Borderlands
• Enables SLI support for Painkiller: Resurrection
• Enables SLI support for Wolfenstein Demo
• Enables SLI support for Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
• Enables SLI support for G-Force
• Enables SLI support for FIFA Soccer 2010
• Enables SLI support for League of Legends: Clash of Fates
• Enables SLI support for NHL 2009
• Enables SLI support for Order of War
• Enables SLI support for Race On
• Enables SLI support for Star Trek: D-A-C

Gigabyte is readying a new socket LGA-1156 motherboard, the GA-P55A-UD4. Bearing resemblance with the GA-P55-UD4, the motherboard features upgraded connectivity, with support for USB 3.0, and SATA 6 Gb/s. The new model also features an upgraded CPU VRM, with a 12+2 phase design compared to the 8+2 phase design on the GA-P55-UD4. USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gb/s features are provided using additional controllers on board. A Marvell-made SATA 6 Gb/s two-port controller replaces the familiar Gigabyte GSATA2 controller, while an NEC-made controller provides two USB 3.0 ports on the rear-panel. The USB 3.0 ports are color-coded blue, and share the port cluster with the lone gigabit Ethernet connector, while the SATA 6 Gb/s connectors are color-coded white, next to the usual six SATA 3 Gb/s ones the P55 PCH provides.

The rest of the feature-set remains largely same, with four DDR3 DIMM slots to support up to 16 GB of memory, two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots (electrically x8 when both are populated) supporting ATI CrossFireX and NVIDIA SLI, Dolby Home Theater supportive onboard audio, among other standard issues. The Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD4 will not replace GA-P55-UD4 from the market, it will coexist, albeit priced higher. It remains to be seen if this is the only "P55A" motherboard Gigabyte sells.

The third in its series of SLI profile updates, NVIDIA further expanded the list of games that benefit from its SLI multi-GPU technology, while improving support for some games that are already supported. This release comes over a month after its previous release. The software adds and updates to the driver's SLI Profiles. SLI support is added for the following games:

• Borderlands
• Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
• G-Force
• FIFA Soccer 2010
• League of Legends: Clash of Fates
• NHL 2009
• Order of War
• Pro Evolution Soccer 2010
• Race On
• Star Trek: D-A-C

SLI support is improved for the following games that already support it: Champions Online, and Dragon-Age: Origins.
DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA SLI Profile Update 3

Corsair, a worldwide leader in high performance memory and computer products, today announced the launch of the Corsair TX950W power supply unit (PSU), the latest addition to the award-winning TX-series of high-quality PSUs.

The TX950W has been designed to meet the demanding requirements of PC enthusiasts, creative professionals and gamers. The TX950W is built using industrial-grade components to ensure clean and stable voltages, and has been qualified to operate at 100% load at an ambient temperature of 50°C for unmatched reliability.

In its continuing quest to bring gaming enthusiasts the ultimate in performance, XFX now adds "power" to its lineup with the introduction of the XFX 850W Black Edition Power Supply Unit (PSU). Designed specifically for the high performance gamer, the 850W Black Edition PSU supports multiple high-end graphics cards cards (NVIDIA SLI-Ready and ATI CrossfireX-Ready). Within the sleek black case are an array of industry-leading unparalleled features and performance enhancements that will appeal to gaming enthusiasts.

"The new XFX 850W PSU is a logical progression to the XFX line of graphics cards and motherboards," explains Eddie Memon, vice president, marketing, XFX. "XFX is known worldwide for its dedication to the gaming community, and adding a superior power supply that targets the unique needs of gamers enables us to further reinforce that relationship."

NVIDIA released its second SLI Profile Update, a software that patches the GeForce system drivers, updating and expanding the application-specific SLI profiles it comes with. In many cases, it adds to the list of applications that can utilize SLI for performance gains. This software is similar to the EVGA SLI Enhancement Patch, albeit being aimed at all NVIDIA GeForce users irrespective of graphics card manufacturer. The new SLI Profile Update adds SLI profiles for the following applications:

• Zero G
• Need for Speed: Shift
• Dreamkiller
• Biohazard 5
• Majesty 2
• Darkfall
• Time of Shadows
• Heroes of Newerth

In addition to that, it updates (improves performance) of existing profiles for Call of Duty: World at War, and Batman: Arkham Asylum.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA SLI Profile Update 2

EVGA released its 16th iteration of the SLI Enhancement Patch, a piece of software that adds SLI profiles of usually new games to the NVIDIA GeForce driver. SLI profiles are application-specific bits of software that let the application take advantage of two or more NVIDIA GPUs in SLI, or on dual-GPU cards. v16 (08.25.09) is based on GeForce 190.62 drivers, and enables SLI support for Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood Demo, apart from the numerous new game titles the driver brings in support for, including Wolfenstein Multiplayer, Allods: Online, Battlefield 1943, BioShock 2: Sea of Dreams, Cities XL, Death to Spies: Moment of Truth, Empire: Time of Troubles, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, Mini Ninjas, Risen, Saboteur, Star Wars Clone Wars: Republic Heroes, and Tales of Monkey Island. Registered EVGA users (registration is free) can download the software from here.

Although not as old as someone like ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, or DFI, in the motherboards scene, EVGA's recent motherboards have shown the company has very quickly matured and can look other companies in the eye, when it comes to enthusiast-grade motherboards for DIY system builders. Recently, the EVGA P55 FTW aka 132-LF-E657 earned some media coverage. The rest of the lineup, top to bottom, includes: P55 Classified 200, P55 FTW 200 (141-LF-E658-KR), P55 SLI (132-LF-E655-KR), P55 LE (123-LF-E653-KR), and the P55 Micro (121-LF-E652-KR).

The P55 Classified 200, and P55 FTW 200 carry nForce 200 bridge chips that make 3-way SLI possible, and faster. While not much is known about the Classified, it intends to roof the lineup with every enthusiast-grade feature available. One of the distinct features include a "Show Volt" panel, that eliminates the need for a multi-meter to physically read voltages. An LED display on the NE corner of the board displays voltages, as the probes connect to various voltage readout points. The P55 FTW 200 features four PCI-E 2.0 x16 slots in all, to support 3-way SLI. It electrical lane arrangement is detailed in the slide below. Like the Classified 200 and P55 FTW, this one supports the EVbot (discussed later).

NVIDIA's recent announcement of extending all its multi-GPU technologies to Intel chipsets-based socket LGA-1156 motherboards, even as the company reportedly plans its own chipset, comes in at no better time than this, when rival AMD has a decent lineup of GPUs, processors, and desktop platform technologies, all of which well-oiled. To beat AMD in the game, and propagate its own GPU and multi-GPU technologies, some sort of loose alignment with Intel is inevitable, especially considering ATI CrossFireX has been freely available to motherboard makers for several product generations now.

In a recent presentation circulated to sections of the media, NVIDIA put forward a sort of quasi-platform to rival AMD Dragon, although it isn't named or defined, NVIDIA refers to it as "Power of 3". Part of its key components include Intel socket LGA-1156 processor (from the Core i3/i5/i7 series) running on a motherboard with Intel P55 chipset, Windows 7, and two or more NVIDIA GeForce GPUs. To deal with two or more GPUs, NVIDIA defines its existing "NVIDIA SLI Ready" marker and the seemingly new "NVIDIA PhysX Ready" marker. The difference between the two is that the latter lets you install a second (or third) graphics card that is dedicated to PhysX.

NVIDIA Corporation today announced that Intel Corporation, and the world's other leading motherboard manufacturers, including ASUS, EVGA, Gigabyte, and MSI, have all licensed NVIDIA SLI technology for inclusion on their Intel P55 Express Chipset-based motherboards designed for the upcoming Intel Core i7 and i5 processor in the LGA1156 socket. As a result, customers who purchase a validated P55-based motherboard and Core i7 or Core i5 processor when available can equip their PCs with any combination of NVIDIA GeForce GPUs, including Quad SLI, for the ultimate visual computing experience.

"NVIDIA SLI technology is a perfect complement to the processing prowess of our new Core i7 and Intel DP55KG desktop board," said Clem Russo, VP and General Manager of Intel Client Board Division at Intel Corporation. "NVIDIA and Intel share a combined passion for furthering the PC as the definitive platform for gaming, and this combination will surely be attractive to anyone building or purchasing a brand new PC this fall."

NVIDIA's SLI multi-GPU technology served as the biggest selling point of nForce series chipsets, as it was exclusive to it. With the advent of LGA-1366 processors and the Intel X58 chipset, NVIDIA allowed the Intel chipset to support the technology, as it soon became clear that it isn't going to be easy for NVIDIA to come up with an LGA-1366 chipset. Users of the older LGA-775 however still have the option of buying nForce 700 series based motherboards to use SLI, and hence no real attempt was made to ensure the technology is available to Intel chipsets. Until now.

A member of Expreview's Chinese enthusiast community has successfully enabled SLI on an Intel chipset based LGA-775 motherboard, the first feat of its kind since much older attempts on i975 platforms using much older GeForce hardware. Firewings_[CCG] successfully ran SLI of GeForce 8600 GT and GeForce GTX 260 cards on his Intel X38+ICH9R chipset based ASUS Maximus Formula motherboard. The feat is headed by software he modified, details of which will surface soon. The mod was validated by Expreview staff, who used the software to run GeForce GTX 260 SLI on a more recent P45+ICH10R based Maximus II Formula motherboard. "By installing the software that Firewings [CCG] provides us, we managed to enable SLI configuration in Directory Services Restore Mode. Due to some 'small problems' according to Firewings [CCG], the SLI configuration can't be realized in normal mode for now, but he says this will be fixed soon," commented Expreview. With SLI enabled, the multi-GPU setup was able offer performance scaling that proves the mod works.

EVGA seems to have found its roots in Intel's 5-series chipset due to lack of chipsets from NVIDIA that support the latest Intel processors. In the process, EVGA gets to make Intel 5-series motherboards brandishing SLI support, as well as some pretty impressive enthusiast-grade features. With the X58 Classified series, EVGA took on the mighty ASUS to give out a full-featured motherboard for overclocking LGA-1366 processors. It looks like the company is working on another motherboard with similar credentials for LGA-1156 socket processors, based on the Intel P55/P57 chipset.

The EVGA 132-LF-E657 is a full-featured LGA-1156 motherboard focussed on overclocking. The CPU is powered by a lavish 12-phase circuit that makes use of DrMOS (driver-MOSFETs). The CPU socket further seats LICC (Low Inductance Ceramic Capacitors). Electrical stability is brought about by two 8-pin ATX CPU power connectors, a design first featured on the X58 Classified. Additional power stability for the expansion slots is brought about by a 4-pin Molex input. The four DDR3 DIMM slots are powered by a 3-phase circuit. Intel Braidwood technology is supported on this motherboard. The technology involves an NVRAM module that speeds up OS and applications loading. There are two clock generators on this board, perhaps to handle two independent clock domains that gives the user greater control over a few settings.

Despite NVIDIA now releasing their own SLI patches, EVGA have still continued to release theirs. Version 14 is based on NVIDIA's 190.38 Drivers.

New SLI profiles from EVGA SLI Enhancement Patch:

• Enables SLI support for Section 8
• Enables SLI support for Tales of Monkey Island: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal
• Enables SLI support for Rise of Flight
• Enables SLI support for FUEL
• Enables SLI support for Prototype digital version
• Enables SLI support for Merchants of Brooklyn

Maybe annoyed by EVGA, NVIDIA today released their own SLI profile patch, which primary objective is to accelerate a number of games when ran on systems with multiple NVIDIA video cards. Version one of the NVIDIA SLI profile patch should be used with version 186.18 display driver. It adds support for Anno 1404 (Dawn of Discovery) and ARMA II. The patch works under Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7, both 32-bit and 64-bit.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA SLI Profile Patch 1

EVGA published the 13th release of its SLI Enhancement Patch. The patch works in conjunction with NVIDIA's drivers, and expands its SLI profiles for games. Based on GeForce drivers 186.18 WHQL, EVGA SLI Enhancement Patch v13 adds SLI support for the games ArmA 2 and Merchants of Brooklyn, along with the new SLI profiles GeForce 186.18 brings for the games Dark Sector, Trine, Prototype, Wallace and Gromit's Grand Adventures, Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, Free Realms, Wolfenstein, Order of War, Disciples 3, and Bigworld. Registered EVGA users (registration is free) can download the software from here.

EVGA released yet another version of its SLI Enhancement Patch, version 12 (05.21.09). This release comes barely a week after version 11, and continues to be based on NVIDIA GeForce 185.85 drivers. Apart from the list of new games the driver supported, namely Guitar Hero: World Tour, Earthrise, Digital Combat Simulator: Black Shark, Shadow Harvest, and Terminator: Salvation, the patch adds SLI support for SBK 09, Zeno Clash, and Merchants of Brooklyn.

The EVGA SLI Enhancement Patch works in with NVIDIA GeForce drivers, and helps expand the list of games that support NVIDIA SLI technology beyond what the drivers offer, by adding SLI profiles made by EVGA. Registered EVGA users can get the patch from here.

SilverStone is going for the (over)kill with a 1500W enthusiast-grade PC power supply. The Strider Series 1500W (model: SST-ST1500) is one of the first 1000+ Watt PSUs to carry the 80 Plus Silver efficiency rating. This PSU made for an early-sighting at this year's CeBIT event, and is gearing up for launch very soon. It delivers 1500W of continuous, and 1600W of peak power. It features a 100% modular cable design, meaning that even the 24-pin ATX and EPS cables are modular unlike in most modular PSUs.

The unit measures 150 x 86 x 220 mm (WxHxD). Under the hood are eight +12V rails, that belt out up to 120A of current. Active PFC is available. The ATI CrossFireX and NVIDIA SLI certified PSU features four 6+2 pin, and eight 6-pin PCI-Express power connectors. High-grade Japanese capacitors are used. A 135 mm fan with a minimum noise-output of 19 dBA keeps this beast cool. Applications? Plenty: an enthusiast could run a highly-tweaked multi-GPU PC, and be able to directly power one or two thermo-electric coolers.