Items tagged with mainstream
A couple of weeks back, we got the chance to get some hands on time with AMD’s upcoming mainstream and low-power APUs (Accelerated Processing Units), codenames Beema and Mullins. These APUs are the successors to last year’s Temash and Kabini APUs, which powered an array of small form factor and mobile platforms. With this release, however, AMD was laser focused on improving power consumption and efficiency, expanding the platform’s capabilities through both hardware and software tweaks, and of course improving performance over the previous generation. Beema and Mullins are based on the same piece of silicon, but will target different market segments. Beema is the mainstream...
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A couple of weeks back, we got the chance to get some hands on time with AMD’s upcoming mainstream and low-power APUs (Accelerated Processing Units), codenamed Beema and Mullins. These APUs are the successors to last year’s Temash and Kabini APUs, which powered an array of small form factor and mobile platforms. With this release, however, AMD was laser focused on improving power consumption and efficiency, expanding the platform’s capabilities through both hardware and software tweaks, and of course improving performance over the previous generation. Beema and Mullins are based on the same piece of silicon, but will target different market segments. Beema is the mainstream...
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AMD announced its new AM1 platform, which consists of dual- and quad-core Kabini APUs that slot into motherboards using the FS1b socket. The idea is that AM1 gives users a powerful but compact and affordable--not to mention upgradable--system. Designed for the mainstream market, Kabini APUs come equipped with Jaguar core architecture and Graphics Core Next (GCN), as well as support for USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gbps, and are destined to land on microATX and miniITX motherboards from all the usual manufacturers, including ASRock, ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI, and more. MSI AM1 motherboard “AMD continues our APU technology leadership by introducing the AM1 platform with ‘Socketed Kabini’, an APU...
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We’re only a few days removed from the launch of the affordable Radeon HD 6790 and AMD is already at it again, this time with a new entry-level DirectX 11 GPU targeted at users looking to upgrade from integrated graphics solutions, the Radeon HD 6450. The Radeon HD 6450 shares many of the same features as its higher-end counterparts in the Radeon HD 6000 family, but the GPU used on this new card is pared down significantly to bring costs and power consumption way down. The GPU at the heart of the 6450 is manufactured on TSMC’s 40nm process node and is comprised of roughly 370M transistors. It features 160 steam processors (the 6790 has 800), eight texture units, and four ROPs. There...
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Many positive commentaries have been written about Intel's current flagship Core i7 processors and its companion X58 Express chipset, due to the solid performance gains offered by the platform. In addition to the increased performance offered by Core i7 processors though, the X58 chipset also brings with it native support for ATI CrossFireX and NVIDIA SLI multi-GPU technologies--provided support is available in the BIOS--as well as support for the flexible triple channel memory controller integrated into the Core i7. What might be concerning for some, however, is the overall cost of putting together all of the components we just mentioned. Currently, the...
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Since the RV770 GPU's initial arrival, we have seen the technology used in the GPU creep up and down AMD's product stack. At first, the RV770 powered only the ATI Radeon HD 4850 and 4870, but soon thereafter two RV770's were linked together to form the current flagship Radeon HD 4870 X2, and then the GPU was scaled down to form the Radeon HD 4600, 4500, and 4300 series of products. Ultimately, AMD ended up with competitive offerings at virtually every price point ranging from $39 on up to over $550. But there is an approximate $80 price gap between the $160-ish Radeon HD 4850 and roughly $80 Radeon HD 4670 that AMD plans to fill today with the release of the Radeon HD 4830.As its name suggests,...
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Since the RV770 GPU's initial arrival, we have seen the technology used in the GPU migrate up and down AMD's product stack. At first, the RV770 powered only the ATI Radeon HD 4850 and 4870, but soon thereafter two RV770's were linked together to form the current flagship Radeon HD 4870 X2. Then the GPU was scaled down to bring out the Radeon HD 4600, 4500, and 4300 series of products. Ultimately, AMD ended up with competitive offerings at virtually every price point, ranging from $39 on up, to over $550 for the flagship product. But there is an approximate $80 price gap between the $160-ish Radeon HD 4850 and the roughly $80 Radeon HD 4670, that AMD plans to fill today with...
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We have explained in numerous articles in the past that the bulk of GPU sales are made in the form of ether IGPs (Integrated Graphics Processors) or affordable, mainstream graphics cards. As powerful and exciting as the ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 or GeForce GTX 280 cards may be, AMD and NVIDIA simply don't sell as many flagship products as they do mainstream cards.It is because of this fact that both companies consistently refresh their mainstream offerings every few months or so, and continually push new features and performance down their respective product lines. As many of you may have expected, since AMD recently released the RV770 GPU,...
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NVIDIA has announced the new GeForce 9500 GT today and it's their latest addition to their sub-$100 graphics card offering. Of course the card won't bring the same level of 3D performance as current high-end, more expensive products but its feature set is comparable to just about anything else on the market. In comparison to the recently released GeForce GTX series, the GeForce 9500 GT has only a fraction of the number of stream processors, ROPs, and texture units available, but the GPU's configuration does put it on par with or ahead of the GeForce 8500 / 8600 series of graphics cards, that the 9500 GT will eventually replace. Check it out, here....
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As much as we love to write about the latest and greatest flagship graphics cards here at HotHardware, the fact of the matter is, cards that fall into the more mainstream market segments are vastly more popular with consumers--at least in terms of the overall sales numbers in the retail channel. As such, the major players in discreet graphics, currently NVIDIA and ATI, typically drive many more features and into this segment from year to year, while also increasing performance significantly.The latest mainstream graphics card to land in our lab comes by way of NVIDIA. NVIDIA's new GeForce 9500 GT is the company's latest weapon in its arsenal of sub-$100 graphics cards but...
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OCZ Technology Group Announces PC Power & Cooling’s Expansion of Silencer Line, Including the All-New 500W for Mainstream Systems Sunnyvale, Calif.—April 3, 2008—OCZ Technology Group, a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance memory and PC components, today announced the release of all-new additions to the Silencer line of power supplies from PC Power & Cooling including a 500W EPS12V and Dell™ compatible model. The efficient and economical 370W, 420W, and 500W Silencers offer mainstream system builders and professionals a robust power resource at an affordable price point. "I am pleased that PC Power & Cooling is able to offer exceptional Silencer series performance...
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Less than a decade ago Apple was in serious trouble, and even after Steve Jobs retuning to the helm, the company still wasn't out of the woods until the iPod phenomenon hit. They were losing ground to windows on all fronts, and one of the most important might have turned out to be schools. While this is all old news to most of us, not everyone has taken a close look at the ramifications of the success of the iPod.“...students who are used to Apple products grow up, get jobs, and make money. They will then buy more Macs, and will also make Apple products more "mainstream" and become more common in the workforce.”It may still take a while before the adoption of Macs hits critical mass,...
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The small Intel Core 2 Duo chip that allows Apple to make their MacBook Air so slender is not exclusively licensed for use by Apple. Newsfactor reports that both Lenovo and Fujitsu are interested in using the 65 nanometer scale chip in their own ultrathin notebook offerings. Earlier this month, Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the MacBook Air at the annual Macworld conference. The new laptop is so thin -- three-quarters of an inch at the thickest part -- that it fits into a manila envelope. The svelteness is achieved in part by a special chip Intel designed for the new machine, based on the older Merom line of processors.During the Macworld presentation, Intel CEO Paul Otellini said Jobs had asked...
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Just in case you missed the new link at the top of the page, we wanted to let you all know that we've just posted an article in which we evaluate the features, bundles, and performance of three mainstream GeForce 8 series cards, the MSI NX8600GT T2D256E, the Gigabyte GV-NX86S256H with Silent-Pipe III, and the MSI NX8500GT TD256E. All three of these cards fall within the sub-$200 price range, but they don't perform at similar levels due to difference GPU and memory clock speeds. Click the link below and check them out, it's interesting to see how these current DX10-class cards stack up to last-generation's mainstream offerings. You may just be sirprised by the results... Read The Entire...
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The premium graphics card market is in a lopsided state. NVIDIA's GeForce 8800 series is still relatively unchallenged in the high-end space, a position which has been futher solidified with the addition of the 8800 Ultra. By giving the GeForce 8800GTX a nominal speed bump, NVIDIA continues to maintain its lead. ATI, on the otherhand, is still trying to get their R600 on store shelves in mass quantities, after receiving a lukewarm reception at launch. The Radeon HD 2900 XT we recently reviewed turned out to be a decent performer, but is nowhere near the challenger to the GeForce 8800 as we all thought it might be. While "who's the fastest" may be the most popular and exciting topic, it's...
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On the heels of its announcement yesterday of adding Quad-Core Intel Chips to their lineup, Dell is now announcing systems based on the AMD Opteron processor. This looks like a major push from the PC manufacture to expand its line and offer a wide variety of solutions to fill a variety of market opportunities. Dell has announced two new PowerEdge servers that features: the PowerEdge 6950 and PowerEdge SC1435. The Dell PowerEdge 6950 is a four-socket server designed for demanding enterprise applications such as database, server consolidation, and virtualization, as well as migration efforts from legacy RISC-based systems. The PowerEdge SC1435...
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NVIDIA Strengthens Mainstream Product Line with Two GeForce 7 Series GPUs GeForce 7600 GS and GeForce 7300 LE GPUs Deliver GeForce 7 Series Features and Performance at Affordable Prices GAME DEVELOPERS CONFERENCE 2006—SAN JOSE, CA—MARCH 22, 2006—NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA), the worldwide leader in programmable graphics processor technologies, today expanded the Company's GeForce 7 Series product line for the mainstream market segment with two aggressively-priced graphics processing units (GPUs). Available immediately from leading retail and e-tail outlets worldwide are: GeForce 7300 LE GeForce 7300 LE GeForce 7600 GS The GeForce 7600 GS GPU—this NVIDIA SLI-Ready...
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Using water to cool the components in a PC was once considered and outlandish idea, and maybe even a little crazy. We all know what happens when water gets spilled onto something electronic, so why intentionally pump it into a system? Well, the short answer to that question is that water is far more effective at absorbing and removing heat than air. But the problem with using water is that it must be confined in a closed loop, like it is in most automobiles, and it cannot make direct contact with any exposed circuitry that has an electric current running through it. This wasn't an insurmountable problem by any means, though. Once the idea of using water to cool a desktop PC caught on, hardcore...
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Battles have been won by each side, but the war over which graphics card produces the best image quality will never be over. FiringSquad has taken the top 3 contenders of today, ATI, Nvidia, and XGI, and have put their image quality to the test. Is it ATI, Nvidia... or even XGI? "Today Alan Dang looks at the deinterlacing performance of the NVIDIA GeForce 6600, the ATI Radeon X800, and the XGI Volari 8300. Test-taking skills will tell you that FiringSquad wouldn't have bothered talking about the XGI Volari 8300 unless it had something special to offer..."...
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Tomorrow on nZone.com, NVIDIA will release a new set of Forceware drivers that bring with them a few new features, and the prerequisite list of bug fixes. And whether you're a budget conscious gamer or a hard-core graphics junkie, the new features unveiled in these drivers are sure to pique your interest. Before we fill you in on what NVIDIA has in store, here's a quick list of what's been fixed in the Forceware v77.76 drivers... Single GPU Issues • GeForce 7800 GTX: At extremely cold temperatures (less than-10 degrees C), the GPU clock speed enters "high temperature" slowdown mode. • GeForce 7800 GTX, Windows XP: Enabling gamma-correct antialiasing causes poor performance...
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