The VirtualLink Consortium which included the likes of NVIDIA, AMD, HTC Vive, Oculus VR, Valve, and Microsoft introduced the USB-C VirtualLink standard in 2018 and was debuted by NVIDIA on the RTX 20 series founders cards. The goal was to simplify VR headset connections by combining power, video, and data over a single USB-C cable. A few niche VR headsets such as the StarVR and XTAL integrated the VirtualLink connector but the standard struggled to receive major adoption.

Valve had planned to introduce a VirtualLink connector for the Valve Index but was canceled due to technical issues. The only major headset to utilize the port is the Oculus Quest however it only uses the USB-C connector and not the VirtualLink standard. NVIDIA excluded the port from their RTX 20 series Super cards and AMD never released a card with the connector. The official VirtualLink website currently redirects to the Wikipedia page for the standard and with NVIDIA excluding the standard from all of their RTX 30 series cards it's safe to say the standard is officially dead.

Here are some of the clearest pictures of an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 "Ampere" Founders Edition PCB, albeit bare (components not yet placed). The PCB goes in this form to another production line, where a PCB placer machine with reels of components places them along both sides. We can still make out quite a few things. To beign with, there are six high current traces near where the 12-pin Molex MicroFit power connector goes in.

NVIDIA seems to have utilized both sides of the PCB effectively. The card features traces for a mammoth 20-phase VRM. The obverse side has the chokes and DrMOS, the reverse side has the capacitors. Twelve memory pads for the 384-bit wide GDDR6X memory interface surround the GPU pad. There are pads for four display output connectors, which could be a mixture of DisplayPort, HDMI, or even USB-C VirtualLink. The PCB still has its spacers on, which will be cut out after component placement, after which the PCB heads for testing and product assembly. NVIDIA is expected to announce the GeForce RTX 3090 Ampere at an online event later today.

PC hardware focused YouTube channel Moore's Law is Dead published a juicy tech-spec reveal of NVIDIA's next-generation "Ampere" based flagship consumer graphics card, the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, citing correspondence with sources within NVIDIA. The report talks of big changes to NVIDIA's Founders Edition (reference) board design, as well as what's on the silicon. To begin with, the RTX 3080 Ti reference-design card features a triple-fan cooling solution unlike the RTX 20-series. This cooler is reportedly quieter than the RTX 2080 Ti FE cooling solution. The card pulls power from a pair of 8-pin PCIe power connectors. Display outputs include three DP, and one each of HDMI and VirtualLink USB-C. The source confirms that "Ampere" will implement PCI-Express gen 4.0 x16 host interface.

With "Ampere," NVIDIA is developing three tiers of high-end GPUs, with the "GA102" leading the pack and succeeding the "TU102," the "GA104" holding the upper-performance segment and succeeding today's "TU104," but a new silicon between the two, codenamed "GA103," with no predecessor from the current-generation. The "GA102" reportedly features 5,376 "Ampere" CUDA cores (up to 10% higher IPC than "Turing"). The silicon also taps into the rumored 7 nm-class silicon fabrication node to dial up GPU clock speeds well above 2.20 GHz even for the "GA102." Smaller chips in the series can boost beyond 2.50 GHz, according to the report. Even with the "GA102" being slightly cut-down for the RTX 3080 Ti, the silicon could end up with FP32 compute performance in excess of 21 TFLOPs. The card uses faster 18 Gbps GDDR6 memory, ending up with 863 GB/s of memory bandwidth that's 40% higher than that of the RTX 2080 Ti (if the memory bus width ends up 384-bit). Below are screengrabs from the Moore's Law is Dead video presentation, and not NVIDIA slides.

ASUS formally launched the Republic of Gamers (ROG) Strix GeForce RTX 2080 Ti graphics card, which was pictured yesterday. The White Edition features a whitewashing of the cooler shroud, the back-plate, secondary base-plate underneath the cooler shroud, internal cables, and white Axial Tech fans. These fans feature webbed fan blades that direct all their airflow axially, onto the heatisink below.

The heatsink and the black PCB underneath are identical to that of the ROG Strix RTX 2080 Ti O11G, but what's changed are clock speeds. It turns out that the 1770 MHz GPU Boost previously reported referred to the software-activated "OC mode." Out of the box, this card comes with 1740 MHz GPU Boost, which is still a step up from the 1650 MHz that the O11G ships with. The card draws power from a pair of 8-pin PCIe power connectors. Display outputs include two each of DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.0b, and one VirtualLink. We know from the older report that this card is selling in the EU for 1,600€ (including VAT).

GIGABYTE today unveiled the Aorus GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER Xtreme WaterForce, its most premium offering based on the recently launched GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER GPU. Its design involves a factory-fitted 2-piece AIO liquid-cooling solution for the GPU, held together by coolant tubing. Under the shroud, the pump-block draws heat directly from the GPU and a base-plate that soaks up heat from the memory chips and VRM. Heat is dissipated by a 240 mm x 120 mm radiator ventilated by a pair of 120 mm spinners optimized for radiator-ventilation. With these, the card serves up factory-overclocked speeds of 1860 MHz GPU Boost compared to 1815 MHz reference, while the memory is untouched at 15.5 Gbps GDDR6.

The Aorus RTX 2080 SUPER Xtreme WaterForce is awash with RGB LED embellishments on almost every surface. A large acrylic diffuser takes centerstage on the cooler shroud. There are additional diffusers on the card's top, right next to the two 8-pin PCIe power inputs, and an Aorus logo on the back-plate. The two 120 mm fans each have five aRGB LEDs in the impeller-hubs. Controlling all this is GIGABYTE's RGB Fusion software. Display outputs include three each of HDMI 2.0b and DisplayPort 1.4; and a VirtualLink port. GIGABYTE is backing this card with a class-leading 4-year warranty. The company didn't reveal pricing.

Manli Technology Group Limited, one of the major Graphics Cards and other components manufacturers, today announced the superior ultimate edition of Gallardo series graphics solution - Manli GeForce RTXTM 2080 Ti & RTXTM 2080 Gallardo, addition of the latest valued software - Turbo Engine and LED Lighting Control. Two lightning flash across cooling cover, and flashing with stunning LED lights. Meanwhile, it is equipped with 5 composite copper heatpipes, and triple 90 mm fans to ensure working in a silent and cool condition.

Pictures of an upcoming AMD Radeon "Navi" graphics card bare PCB made it to the web over the weekend. The picture reveals a fairly long (over 25 cm) board with AMD markings, and a layout that doesn't match with any reference-design PCB AMD launched so far. At the heart of the PCB is a large ASIC pad that appears to be within 5 percent of the size of a "Polaris10" chip. The ASIC is surrounded by eight GDDR6 memory pads. We could guess they're GDDR6 looking at the rectangularity of their pin-layout compared to GDDR5.

The PCB has provision for up to two 8-pin PCIe power inputs, and an 8+1 phase VRM that uses premium components such as rectangular tantalum capacitors, DrMOS, and a high-end VRM controller chip. There's also provision for dual-BIOS. The display I/O completely does away with DVI provisioning, and only includes the likes of DisplayPort, HDMI, and even USB-C based outputs such as VirtualLink. The fan header looks complex, probably offering individual fan-speed control for the card's multi-fan cooling solution that could resemble that of the Radeon VII. Looking purely at the feature-set on offer, and the fact that "Navi" will be more advanced than "Vega 2.0," we expect this card to be fairly powerful, going after the likes of NVIDIA's RTX 2070 and RTX 2060. AMD is expected to unveil this card at the 2019 Computex, this June.

Colorful rolled out its flagship liquid-cooled graphics card, the iGame GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Neptune. The card comes with a factory-fitted all-in-one closed-loop liquid cooling solution. Unlike most other cards of this type, Colorful deployed a larger 240 mm x 120 mm radiator with two included 120 mm RGB LED fans. The business-end of the cooler includes a large pump-block on the card that makes direct contact with the RTX 2080 Ti GPU, and a base-plate which pulls some of the heat from the memory chips. The VRM area has its own aluminium channel-type heatsink that's ventilated by a lateral-blower.

The PCB of this card features silver-plated contacts for improved conductivity. The card pulls power from a combination of three 8-pin PCIe power connectors, conditioning it using a massive 19-phase VRM. It also features dual-BIOS, with the default BIOS running the card at reference clock-speeds of 1545 MHz GPU Boost, while the second "OC BIOS" spools up GPU Boost to 1740 MHz and increases power limit. Display outputs include three DisplayPort 1.4, one HDMI 2.0, and a USB-C VirtualLink port. The company didn't reveal pricing.

When we first covered Valve's own teaser about their first-party VR hardware ecosystem under the Valve Index moniker, we were not expecting to hear much more until May. Thanks to an error on their part, product pages for the headset, base stands, and controllers were all published prematurely on Steam for a few hours yesterday, and that was enough time for all the information to be saved online by others. The product pages were not complete, and lacked details that we expect to get sooner than later, but Valve has since confirmed that all information inadvertently leaked are accurate and we now more about the retail package now.

To begin with, May 1 is targeted as the official announcement date which will also bring with it pre-order options for those going this route in PC VR. The complete package will contain the headset itself with integrated headphones, of which we have a better render available now as seen below, a tether cable using DisplayPort 1.2 and USB 3.1 Gen 1 connections (and not the VirtualLink standard we were hoping to see), a region-specific power adapter and plug(s), and two face gaskets (narrow and wide). Interestingly the now-renamed Index Controllers are not included and are an optional, separate purchase. This is also the case with the Index base stations, which all leads us to assume that existing HTC Vive controllers and base stations will be compatible with the headset, or there will be another, more complete package to choose from. No pricing information available yet, and Valve says they are still finalizing this as well as actual shipping detail- with an aim to hit it in June.

Oculus today announced an improvement to their original Rift headset, the Oculus Rift S. The new headset from oculus builds upon advances in their view of a VR experience, as well as from learnings acquired through the development of the original Rift, the smartphone-only Oculus Go, and the standalone Oculus Quest, to deliver the new, ultimate VR experience in the Oculus field.

The Oculus S features improved panels with a 2560x1440 resolution (just like the Oculus GO), offering 40% more pixels and improving the pixel subsystem with groupings of three instead of two. It also features Oculus Quest's Inside-Out tracking capabilities, with five cameras instead of the Quests' four, alongside redesigned controllers.

ASUS today introduced the Dual GeForce RTX 2080 EVO series graphics cards, available in two variants based on factory-overclock. Positioned between its RTX 2080 Dual and RTX 2080 ROG Strix series, these cards are characterized by a unique 3-slot thick cooling solution that implements a pair of Axial Tech fans. These fans feature a barrier ring that runs along the periphery of the impeller to prevent lateral airflow, and guide all of it axially (downwards onto the heatsink). The card also features an idle fan-stop, which turns these fans off when the GPU temperature is below 55 °C.

The card draws power from a combination of 6-pin and 8-pin PCIe power connectors. Display outputs include three DisplayPort 1.4, an HDMI 2.0b, and a USB-C VirtualLink. As mentioned earlier, the card comes in two variants. The base variant "DUAL-RTX2080-8G-EVO" features NVIDIA-reference clock speeds of 1710 MHz GPU Boost, while the more premium "DUAL-RTX2080-A8G-EVO" comes with 1725 MHz GPU Boost. Memory frequency is untouched on both cards, at 14 Gbps (GDDR6-effective). The company didn't reveal pricing.

A Russian retailer has leaked more specifications of NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce GTX 1660 Ti graphics card. Based on the 12 nm "TU116" silicon, this card will be configured with 1,536 "Turing" CUDA cores, but have no RT cores, and hence no RTX features. The chip could end up with 96 TMUs and 48 ROPs. The GPU is clocked at 1500 MHz nominal, and the boost frequency is set at 1770 MHz, however, the latter could be a factory-overclock set by AIC partner Palit for their GTX 1660 Ti StormX graphics card.

The memory subsystem of the GTX 1660 Ti is interesting. While it's still 6 GB of GDDR6 memory across a 192-bit wide memory bus, the memory clock itself is lower than that of the RTX 2060. The memory ticks at 12 Gbps, which results in 288 GB/s of memory bandwidth, compared to the RTX 2060, which thanks to its 14 Gbps memory achieves 336 GB/s. The card draws power from a single 8-pin PCIe power connectors. Outputs include HDMI, DisplayPort, and DVI, we don't expect any cards to ship with VirtualLink.

GIGABYTE extended its all-white trim to its third graphics card from the RTX 20-series, the RTX 2070 Gaming OC White (model: GV-N2070GAMINGOC WHITE-8GC). This follows similar trims for the RTX 2060 Gaming OC Pro White and RTX 2070 Gaming OC Pro White. As with the others, the card's USP is its mostly-white cooler shroud with chrome inserts, and a matching white metal back-plate. Contrasting them are a trio of 90 mm matte-black fans with chrome hub stickers, and the black PCB carried over from the original Gaming OC series.

As with the RTX 2070 Gaming OC, this card offers a factory-overclock of 1725 MHz boost, compared to 1620 MHz reference. The memory is untouched at 14 Gbps (GDDR6-effective). The cooler offers 0 dBA mode (idle fan-stop). The card draws power from a combination of 8-pin and 6-pin PCIe power connectors. Display outputs include three DisplayPort 1.4, one HDMI 2.0b, and a USB-C VirtualLink. Based on the 12 nm "TU106" silicon, the GeForce RTX 2070 offers 2,304 CUDA cores, 288 tensor cores, 36 RT cores, 144 TMUs, 64 ROPs, and a 256-bit wide GDDR6 memory interface, holding 8 GB of memory. GIGABYTE is offering a unique 4-year warranty with this card, if you register your purchase with them.

ASUS today introduced an "affordable" GeForce RTX 2070 graphics card and a variation of its cheapest RTX 2070 product, the Turbo EVO. This card looks almost identical to the RTX 2070 Turbo ASUS launched last September, but comes with a handful physical changes. To begin with, its 80 mm lateral-blower fan comes with a double ball-bearing motor, and an IP5X-compliant dust-proof impeller. The build quality is also improved since ASUS is building the card on a fully-automated process it calls "Auto Extreme," coupled with a 144-hour stress-test for each card. Also, while the original RTX 2070 Turbo draws power from a combination of 8-pin and 6-pin PCIe power connectors, the new RTX 2070 Turbo EVO only needs a single 8-pin PCIe power input.

There is a catch, though. Unlike the original RTX 2070 Turbo, the new RTX 2070 Turbo EVO lacks a USB type-C VirtualLink connector. The clock-speeds of both cards are identical, with 1620 MHz GPU Boost, and 14 Gbps (GDDR6-effective) memory. You can tell the two cards apart on a store shelf by paying attention to the box. The EVO's box features an "Auto Extreme" graphic on the front face, and carries the model number "TURBO-RTX2070-8G-EVO," while the original RTX 2070 Turbo goes with "TURBO-RTX2070-8G" (no "EVO"). The company didn't reveal pricing, although it wouldn't surprise us if both the cards are sold at the same baseline price of USD $530.

NVIDIA late Sunday announced the GeForce RTX 2060 graphics card at $349. With performance rivaling the GTX 1070 Ti and RX Vega 56 on paper, and in some cases even the GTX 1080 and RX Vega 64, the RTX 2060 in its top-spec trim with 6 GB of GDDR6 memory, could go on to be NVIDIA's best-selling product from its "Turing" RTX 20-series. At the CES 2019 booth of NVIDIA, we went hands-on with a few of these cards, beginning NVIDIA's de-facto reference-design Founders Edition. This card indeed feels smaller and lighter than the RTX 2070 Founders Edition.

The Founders Edition still doesn't compromise on looks or build quality, and is bound to look slick in your case, provided you manage to find one in retail. The RTX 2060 launch will be dominated by NVIDIA's add-in card partners, who will dish out dozens of custom-design products. Although NVIDIA didn't announce them, there are still rumors of other variants of the RTX 2060 with lesser memory amounts, and GDDR5 memory. You get the full complement of display connectivity, including VirtualLink.

NVIDIA today introduced NVIDIA TITAN RTX , the world's most powerful desktop GPU, providing massive performance for AI research, data science and creative applications. Driven by the new NVIDIA Turing architecture, TITAN RTX - dubbed T-Rex - delivers 130 teraflops of deep learning performance and 11 GigaRays of ray-tracing performance.

"Turing is NVIDIA's biggest advance in a decade - fusing shaders, ray tracing, and deep learning to reinvent the GPU," said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. "The introduction of T-Rex puts Turing within reach of millions of the most demanding PC users - developers, scientists and content creators."

Following MSI, which has already introduced its 2070 Aero Mini-ITX graphics card, GIGABYTE is looking to be the next vendor to introduce such a form-factor graphics card. Being Mini-ITX, the PCB real-estate is small, hence the option for a single-fan cooling solution. And of course, since a smaller cooling system and PCB imply more concentrated heat output, the GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 2070 Mini-ITX will ship with stock clocks and no factory overclocking (which means 1410 base and 1620 MHz boost clocks).

Connectivity-wise, the GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 2070 Mini-ITX features five display connectors: 3x DisplayPort 1.4, 1x HDMI 2.0b and 1x VirtualLink, which all fit in due to the dual-slot design of the graphics card. Pricing is unknown for now.

GIGABYTE debuted liquid-cooled WaterForce editions of its Aorus Xtreme GeForce RTX 20-series graphics cards early November, with three products, two based on the RTX 2080, and one RTX 2080 Ti. While the RTX 2080 got two variants, one featuring an AIO liquid cooling solution, and another with a full-coverage water-block for DIY liquid cooling; the RTX 2080 Ti at the time only released in the full-coverage water-block trim, with no variant that has an AIO CLC. GIGABYTE changed that today, with the new "N208TAORUSX W-11GC," or Aorus GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Xtreme WaterForce.

This card features a slightly spruced up version of the Asetek-sourced AIO closed-loop liquid cooling solution its RTX 2080-based sibling features, with a larger base-plate to draw heat from the additional memory chips and MOSFETs that come with the RTX 2080 Ti. The card features the same factory-overclock as the water-block equipped twin, with a GPU Boost frequency set at 1770 MHz (vs. 1545 MHz reference). The memory is overclocked to 10140 MHz (GDDR6-effective, vs. 14000 MHz reference). The cooler features RGB LED embellishments along the front, top, back-plate, and the two included 120 mm fans for the radiator. It draws power from a pair of 8-pin PCIe power connectors. Display outputs include three each of HDMI 2.0b and DisplayPort 1.4, and a VirtualLink port. The card could be priced upward of $1,400.

MSI's most recent addition to their NVIDIA GeForce based line up has appeared. The newly minted RTX 2070 AERO ITX is as you may have guessed a graphics card that targets the mini-ITX market. It is currently the smallest RTX series graphics card to be spotted thus far, with it being perfect for this form factor as it lacks a few features seen on the higher end RTX 2080 and 2080 Ti that add complexity. Essentially the lack of NVlink on all RTX 2070 offerings allows for a simpler PCB design that is better suited for this design. There is also the fact anyone wanting SLI would not be looking at ITX focused cards anyway.

The other feature removed likely for cost savings is the VirtualLink (USB-C) connector that delivers power, video, and data for virtual reality headsets. While not entirely a deal breaker it still makes using it for a small form factor VR system a bit more difficult going forward. That said, considering the slow adoption of VR its removal is still a relatively safe bet for MSI for now. Taking a closer look at the packaging shows no indication of a pre-applied overclock, meaning MSI's RTX 2070 AERO ITX should come with NVIDIA reference clock speeds of 1410 MHz base / 1620 MHz boost on the core. The 8 GB of GDDR6 memory should have clocks of 1750 MHz (14000 MHz effective). As for the graphics card's TDP, it should also keep to the reference specification of 175-watts. Currently, pricing and availability are still unknown.

NVIDIA today introduced the Quadro RTX 4000 graphics card - the company's first midrange professional GPU powered by the NVIDIA Turing architecture and the NVIDIA RTX platform. Unveiled at the annual Autodesk University Conference in Las Vegas, the Quadro RTX 4000 puts real-time ray tracing within reach of a wider range of developers, designers and artists worldwide.

Professionals from the manufacturing, architecture, engineering and media creation industries witnessed a seismic shift in computer graphics with the launch of Turing in August. The field's greatest leap since the invention of the CUDA GPU in 2006, Turing features new RT Cores to accelerate ray tracing and next-gen Tensor Cores for AI inferencing which, together for the first time, make real-time ray tracing possible.

As a follow up to last week's all-in-one liquid cooling based product, GIGABYTE today released the Aorus Xtreme GeForce RTX 2080 Ti and RTX 2080 WaterForceWB. These cards are targeted at enthusiasts with DIY liquid cooling setups, and come with a factory-fitted full-coverage water block, instead of the AIO cooler. The block's primary material is nickel-plated copper with mirror finish, while its top is mainly acrylic, with opaque embellishments, a part of which is an addressable RGB LED diffuser that takes input from a standarized aRGB header. The opaque portion of the top also features a glowing Aorus logo.

The underlying PCB of the RTX 2080 Ti WaterForce WB packs a 16+3 phase VRM that draws power from a pair of 8-pin PCIe power connectors, 1770 MHz GPU Boost frequency, and a memory overclock of 14140 MHz (vs. 14000 MHz). The RTX 2080 WaterForce WB features the same PCB as its AIO-equipped twin, with a 12+2 phase VRM, 1890 MHz GPU Boost, and 14140 MHz memory OC. While the block itself is around 1-slot thick, a second row of display connectors makes the card 2-slot. Among these connectors are three each of DisplayPort 1.4 and HDMI 2.0b, and VirtualLink.

The VirtualLink Consortium was formed in July 2018 with some of the major VR industry players such as Oculus, AMD, NVIDIA, Valve and Microsoft as founders. HTC has joined the group, and will therefore begin to support the implementation of the VirtualLink specification, which makes it possible to connect VR headsets to the PC with just one USB-C cable. Enjoying premium virtual reality experiences has so far been cumbersome. The cables needed to keep the headset connected to the PC limit the movements, and in fact that is one of the reasons that the standalone headsets are beginning to gain interest among users.

VirtualLink cable spec is based on the Alternate Mode function of the USB Type-C standard, and allows the cables and connectors to carry non-USB signals. The VirtualLink cable can carry four high-speed DisplayPort High Bit-Rate 3 (HBD3) lanes, a single USB 3.1 data channel, and 27 watts of power for the headset's displays and sensors. Setting up and using the VR headset with this kind of cable and connector will be therefore easier and not as clunky as before.

Manli Technology Group Limited, the major Graphics Cards and other components manufacturer, today announced the brand new RTX 20 series family graphics solution - Manli GeForce RTX 2080 Ti & RTX 2080 Gallardo with RGB Lights. Manli GeForce RTX 2080 Ti & RTX 2080 Gallardo delivers extremely cool, fast and smooth gaming experience. Powered by the latest NVIDIA Turing GPU architecture and revolutionary RTX platform. It also couples with real-time ray tracing, artificial intelligence and programmable shading.

ASUS today announced the Republic of Gamers (ROG) Strix, ASUS Dual, and ASUS Turbo graphics cards based on the new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti and RTX 2080 GPUs, which feature support for high-speed GDDR6 memory and VirtualLink for quick, single-cable connections for next-generation VR headsets.

The new NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPUs have reinvented graphics and set a new bar for performance. Powered by the new NVIDIA Turing GPU architecture and the revolutionary NVIDIA RTX platform, the new graphics cards bring together real-time ray tracing, artificial intelligence, and programmable shading. This is not only a whole new way to experience games-this is the ultimate PC gaming experience.

The new GPUs were unveiled at a special NVIDIA two-day event called the "GeForce Gaming Celebration" which kicked off tonight at the Palladium in Cologne, Germany ahead of Gamescom 2018.

NVIDIA today unveiled the GeForce RTX series, the first gaming GPUs based on the new NVIDIA Turing architecture and the NVIDIA RTX platform, which fuses next-generation shaders with real-time ray tracing and all-new AI capabilities.

This new hybrid graphics capability represents the biggest generational leap ever in gaming GPUs. Turing -- which delivers 6x more performance than its predecessor, Pascal -- redefines the PC as the ultimate gaming platform, with new features and technologies that deliver 4K HDR gaming at 60 frames per second on even the most advanced titles.