If the rumors are true then we can expect a dual-GPU series 500 graphics card from NVIDIA be the end of next month just bfore CeBIT 2011. Nordic hardware claims they where able to verify NVIDIA's plans to release the GeForce GTX 590 next month, a new dual-GPU graphics card with two GF110 GPUs, 1024 CUDA cores and 3GB GDDR5 memory. Power consumption is unknown, but given that a GeForce GTX 580 already has a TDP of 244W it won't be pretty.

" The new graphics card obviously comes with two GF110 GPUs and NVIDIA has chosen to go all in with the shaders. It goes with the top model of GF110 with 512 CUDA cores, which results in 1024 CUDA cores in total and 2 x 384-bit memory bus.

The reason NVIDIA has chosen to use the maximal number of CUDA cores is that this becomes a more efficient solution than turning of shader blocks and increasing frequencies. GeForce GTX 590 will instead get considerably lower clock frequencies and voltages than GeForce GTX 580 that use a single GF110 GPU. This is a pretty obvious sacrifice considering that GTX 580 is rated 244 watt TDP, with just one GPU."

If you like to learn what the performance will roughly be like, well just click here.

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Hightech Information System Limited launches its HIS 6970 & 6950 Fan Turbo 2GB GDDR5 graphics card. Offering the latest and greatest features like AMD Eyefinity technology,
AMD HD3D technology and DirectX 11 support, the new 6900 Turbo Series provides flawless image quality and unbelievable performance to the gamers at every advantages. The HIS 6950 Turbo has over-clocked its core clock speed to 840MHz and memory clock at 5,120MHz, delivering serious high-definition gaming frame rates.

The HIS 6970 Turbo supplies the same 2GB GDDR5 but at a maximum core clock speed of 900MHz and memory clock of 5,600MHz. The utmost speed will let you enjoy the high resolution and fast frame rates which directly translate into superior performance and ultra-high bandwidth.

TURBO
Pre-overclocked graphics card with the balance of the best performance and cooling effect.

HD3D Stereoscopic Technology
HD3D technology transmits two separate images to each of your eyes at the same time at a resolution beyond 1080p. Supported with HD3D glasses,
this technological innovation comes with Stereo 3D gaming, Blu-ray 3D, 3rd Party Stereo 3D middleware software and 6900 Series GPU support.

The Three Pillars

• Get immersed with AMD Eyefinity technology
• Get amazing EyeDefinition graphics with DirectX 11 technology
• Speed up applications and enjoy brilliant video with AMD EyeSpeed technology

The HIS 6950 Turbo will be available on January 28th.
The HIS 6970 Turbo will be available on February 7th.

 

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Though the samples are not yet in, MSI introduces the Big Bang Marshal, a new Intel P67 based motherboard with eight PCIe 2.0 x16 slots and Creative X-Fi MB2 sound.

Gamers and extreme users have been waiting for a mainboard that can provide them all the tools they need to get the most out of their new Sandy Bridge CPUs, and it has finally arrived. World-renowned mainboard manufacturer Micro-Star Int'l Co., Ltd. (MSI) has unleashed the Big Bang-Marshal. Defining total quality standards, the Big Bang Marshal wields the second generation Military Class components for the best build quality and reliability. A major highlight of the board is an industry leading eight (8) sets of PCI-E 2.0 x 16 slots for a staggering combination of GPUs. Combined with Creative's top-class X-Fi MB2 sound technology, it can simultaneously take care of the three major elements that gamers care about the most: stability, performance and sound effects.

The Big Bang-Marshal is also equipped with a 24-phase DrMOS power design, and has excellent performance on over-clocking and stability for the enthusiast user. Utilizing a dual 8-pin CPU power supply, plus a set of 6-pin VGA power supply design, users can steadily provide power when overclocking the CPU and mainboard -- achieving ultimate performance on the Sandy Bridge platform.

8 PCI-E 2.0 x16

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NewerTech announced it will present an eSATA to USB 3.0 adapter. The converter is available on the company's site for $29.95 and convieniently allows you to use the eSATA port as a USB 3.0 interface (of course you could also pick up a USB 3.0 PCIe controller for the same ammount of money).

Newer Technology announced today the NewerTech eSATA to USB 3.0 Adapter for using an eSATA interfaced equipped external hard drive with computers offering the

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PowerColor releases their PCS+ of the Radeon HD 6970, a overclocked card with a custom dual-fan cooling solution.

The card clocks in at a 940MHz core (stock: 880MHz) and 2GB GDDR5 clocked at 5700MHz (stock: 5500MHz).

TUL Corporation, a leading manufacturer of AMD graphic cards, today expands its award-winning PCS+ series into the HD6970 series with the PowerColor PCS+ HD6970. Featuring all the latest technology, the PowerColor PCS+ HD6970 clocks in at 940MHz core speed and 1425MHz memory speed, easily accelerating gaming machines with nearly 2.9 teraFLOPs of computing power and delivering amazing gaming performance.

The PowerColor PCS+ HD6970 is equipped with a unique dual fan cooling solution; built with two large 92mm cooling fans, heat is easily dissipated from the 3x 8

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We already posted about it during CES, but OCZ is now officially releasing the OCZ Z-Drive R3 PCIe SSD that chunks out speeds up to 1000MB/s. This storage device  uses four SandForce SF-1565 SSD controllers and ships with 300GB, 600GB and 1.2TB of MLC NAND flash memory. The performance figures are quite impressive, the storage device can handle read speeds of up to 1000MB/s, write speeds as high as 970MB/s, sustained write speeds of up to 900MB/s and 135,000 IOPS (random 4K write).
OCZ Technology Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:OCZ),a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, announces the latest Z-Drive R3 PCI-Express SSD solution for enterprise and OEM clients. Showcased for the first time at CES 2011, the Z-Drive R3 updates the existing lineup with greater performance, reliability, and design flexibility with a new compact footprint for server applications, and is the first SSD to officially deploy OCZ
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Woaah, 3-slot coolers for mid-range products. There's something interesting. Point of View announces today that it is first to market with a high performance NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 TFC Series (TFC stands for triple fan cooling).

The POV/TGT GeForce GTX 560Ti TFC series consisting of the three performance levels: Charged, UltraCharged and

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AMD Catalyst 11.1 Win 7 | Vista (32-bit)

AMD Catalyst 11.1 Win 7 | Vista (32-bit)

AMD Catalyst 11.1 Win 7 | Vista (64-bit)

KFA2 submitted two cards, one focused at pure silence is the Galaxy GTX 560 Ti GC / KFA2 GeForce GTX 560 EX OC ANARCHY. The second card tested today is the GeForce GTX 560 White Edition aka KFA2 GeForce GTX 560 LTD OC White edition.

The KFA2 GeForce GTX 560 EX OC ANARCHYcomes with a 

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An interesting comment originates from Intel CTO Justin Rattner who claims that a new hardware-based security technology under development by Intel researchers will stop zero-day attacks in their tracks. Rattner said the technology will be ready to be released later this year, it will not be signature-based but other than that he didn't share a lot of information about this new security technology.

The technology won't be signature-based, like so much security is today. Signature-based malware detection is based on searching for known patterns within malicious code. The problem, though, is that zero-day, or brand-new, malware attacks are often successful because they have no known signatures to guard against.

Intel is working around this problem by not depending on signatures. And the technology will be hardware based, though it's still unclear if it will have a software component. "Right now, anti-malware depends on signatures, so if you haven't seen the attack before, it goes right past you unnoticed," said Rattner, who called the technology "radically different".

"We've found a new approach that stops the most virulent attacks. It will stop zero-day scenarios. Even if we've never seen it, we can stop it dead in its tracks," he said.

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Taiwanese motherboard makers claim that Renesas has not yet carried out its planned price cut for USB 3.0 host ICs. The company has no reason to cut its prices because Taiwan-based design houses have not yet obtained USB-IF certification for their USB 3.0 solutions.
With a global market share of 95%, Renesas currently quotes US$2.20-2.50 for its USB 3.0 host ICs, much higher than US$1.70-1.80 quoted by ASMedia Technology, Etron Technology and VIA Labs of which their products were just adopted by Asustek Computer, ASRock, Elite Computer Systems and Gigabyte Technology for entry-level motherboards, the sources indicated.

The three Taiwan-based design houses may obtain USB-IF certification for USB 3.0 host ICs as early as the end of February 2011, and thus Renesas is expected not to reduce its quotes until as late as the end of the first quarter of 2011, the sources indicated.

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Tt eSPORTS has announced its Black Element, a new gaming mouse with a 6500dpi laser sensor. The peripheral features nine macro buttons and is aimed at MMO and RTS gamers.

It offers OMRON gaming switches to guarantee a life expectancy of up to 5 million clicks, an adjustable weight system, gold-plated USB connectors, a fancy lighting system, a rubber coating for enhanced hand grip, and 128KB onboard memory for storing up to 45 macro keys within 5 game profiles.

Pricing and availability is to be announced.

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The new Fractal Design Arc Series of cases create a niche of their own; a combination of stellar performance and cooling options with stylish, minimalistic looks and an overall understated elegance.

Key features
* Stylish, minimalistic front panel with alu-look
* Optimized for performance, massive cooling and water cooling support
* A total of 7(!) fan slots (2x 120mm in front, 2x 120/140mm in top, 1x 120mm in bottom, 1x 120mm in rear,1x 120/140mm in side panel)
* Three fans included (1x 120mm in front, 1x 120mm in rear and 1x 140mm in top)
* Support for dual 120mm radiator in top*
* 6x white painted HDD trays, with silicone mounting
* Upper HDD cage is removable and rotatable
* USB3 support in front panel
* Excellent cable routing and cable routing covers
* Easily removable front panel with clip on fan slots
* Extra, vertically mounted expansion slot, suitable for fan controllers or non-input expansion cards

*The component support in the case when using radiator in top is depending on the thickness of the radiator. See info below. When having a 2x120mm radiator mounted in top, you cannot use the rear 120mm fan slot at the same time.
- Up to 40mm radiator thickness: Support for most water CPU coolers and larger memory modules.
- Up to 50mm radiator thickness: Support for most water CPU coolers and standard memory modules with a height of max 35mm.
- Up to 70mm radiator thickness: Support for only certain water CPU coolers, depending on the water inlet and outlet. Supports standard memory modules with a height of max 35mm.

This new Arc Mini case in micro ATX format offers plenty of cooling options, up to 7 fans of various sizes can be installed. Unique for its small size, it also offers room to mount a thick, dual 120mm radiator in the top panel.

Elegant top and front panels are both easily removable and pre-fitted with fan filters to ensure a dust free interior. The sleek black interior is matched and contrasted with white expansion slots and HDD trays. Similar to the Define Series, all the HDD trays are fitted with anti-vibration silicon grommets. The upper HDD cage is removable and rotatable, which enables support for even the longest graphic cards.

Tangled cables are a thing of the past as the Arc Series offers an innovative, convenient, and great looking way to hide them away. The motherboard mounting plate has rubber covered holes in which you can easily route the cables to a compartment behind the motherboard, which has more than ample storage space.

Cooling system

• Fan controller for 3 fans included
• 1 front mounted Fractal Design 120mm fan @ 1200rpm included
• 1 rear mounted Fractal Design 120mm fan @ 1200rpm included
• 1 top mounted Fractal Design 140mm fan @ 1000rpm included
• Additional 4 fan slots available for optional fans; one 120mm in front, one 120mm in bottom, one 120/140mm in top and one 120/140mm in side panel

Specifications

• 6x 3,5 inch HDD trays, compatible with SSD!
• 2x 5,25 inch bays, with 1x 5,25>3,5 inch converter included
• On top of front panel: 3x USB 2.0, 1x USB 3.0 and Audio I/O
• Removable filter below PSU (PSU not included)
• M/B compatibility: Mini ITX and Micro ATX
• 4+1 expansion slots with sleek white painted brackets
• Supports graphic card lengths up to 260mm when removable HDD-Bay is in place
• Supports graphic card lengths up to 400mm without removable HDD-Bay
• Supports CPU coolers with height of 165mm
• Supports PSU's with a depth of maximum circa 170mm, when using bottom 120mm fan location. When not using the bottom 120mm fan location, the case supports also longer PSU's, typically 200-220mm
• Case size (WxHxD): 210x395x486mm with front and top bezel in place 
• Net weight: 9 kg

  

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AMD just released AMD Catalyst 11.1 WHQL. We have a discussion thread open on these drivers right here.   

The AMD Catalyst software suite 11.1 contains the following:

• AMD display driver version 8.812
• HydraVision
  

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AMD Catalyst 11.1a Hotfix Jan 26 release for Windows 7

Last week we already saw some photo's from an AMD employee holding the card, this time its 4gamer that was able to snag some photo's of the upcoming Radeon HD 6990 dual-GPU graphics card.

One single long PCB embeds two GPUs, a fan in the middle pushes air outwards. It is assumed that the Radeon HD 6990 uses two 40 nm Cayman GPUs and packs a total of 3072 stream processors, and a massive 4096 MB of memory, two GB per GPU.

Also have a peek at the display which has of one dual-link DVI and four mini-DP 1.2. Power is drawn in from one 6-pin and an 8-pin PCIe connector. The card can partner up with another of its kind for 4-GPU CrossFireX.

We expect to see the product go live during CeBIT in early March.

  

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KFA2 submitted two cards, one focused at pure silence is the Galaxy GTX 560 Ti GC / KFA2 GeForce GTX 560 EX OC ANARCHY. The second card tested today is the GeForce GTX 560 White Edition aka KFA2 GeForce GTX 560 LTD OC White edition.

The MSI GTX560 Ti Twin Frozer II tested today indeed comes all customized and factory overclocked, Armed with some Military grade components and a robust build the dark PCB of the MSI GTX560 Ti Twin Frozer II will carry a GPU clocked at 880 MHz and it's memory at 4200 MHz, both thus a nice chunk faster than reference.

To top things off, MSI put the Twin Frozr II cooler on this card and that admittedly does do wonder as we measure peak temperatures BELOW 55 Degrees C.

Read the full Guru3D article here.

 

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SPARKLE presents The SPARKLE GeForce GTX 560 Ti Graphics Card, -- the newest addition to its GTX 500 Series of DirectX 11 graphics cards designed for mainstream market. The SPARKLE GeForce GTX 560 Ti Graphics Card adopts the Fermi 2.0 architecture which upgrades core algorithms such as texture filtering and Z-axis compression over Fermi 1.0 architecture, so that the corresponding instruction operation efficiency is greatly enhanced.

At the same time, with semiconductor chip manufacturing technology improvements at TSMC, through the upgrading of core components and semiconductor manufacturing process optimization of its characteristics, still based on TSMC 40nm process in the premise, The SPARKLE GeForce GTX 560 Ti Graphics Card can run at higher frequencies. By the two improvements, the Performance/Watt ratio of the SPARKLE GeForce GTX 560 Ti Graphics Card has great increase over GeForce GTX 470 graphics cards.

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ZOTAC raises the performance bar with a new performance-class graphics card

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Palit announces the new generation of performance level graphics cards

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GPU-Z is a lightweight utility designed to give you all information about your video card and GPU.

• Added support for NVIDIA GTX 560 Ti, 480M, 485M
• Added release date for 6800 GT, 6600 GT, 6600, 6200, 8800 GTX, 8800 GTS, 8800 Ultra, 8600 GTS, 8500 GT, 8800 GS, 9600 GSO, 8800 GT, GTS 250, GT 440
• Found a new way to disable NVIDIA's power limiter
• Fixed crash in sensors panel
• Added CHL8214 & CHL8226 support for AMD Barts and Cayman
• Improved the automatic update check to run completely in the background and only appear when an update is available (manual update check is unchanged)

Download

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To compete with the yesterday's announced GeForce GTX 560 Ti from NVIDIA AMD releases the Radeon HD 6950 with 1GB GDDR5. Here's a little price update:

• Radeon HD 6870 1GB: drops from $239 to $219
• Radeon HD 6950 1GB: introduced for $259
• Radeon HD 6950 2GB: drops from $299 to $269

These are seriously competitive prices. We have the 1 GB version in house yet have not had the time to test it, expect a full review early next week though.

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looks like it will take a while before Intel will start supporting USB 3.0 natively. Panther Point will be Intel's first chipset to offer USB 3.0 support. This chip will be part of the Ivy Bridge-based platform, which is expected to arrive just under a year from now. Panther Point will offer four USB 3.0 ports as well as ten USB 2.0 ports.

Nothing in the PC platform really becomes an industry standard before Intel embraces it. Same is the case with USB 3.0, which, over an year after its entry into the industry, has seen limited market adoption and motherboard integration, driven mostly by 2-port PCI-E controllers. Internal presentation slides sourced by Heise show that the Panther Point chipset, which drives Intel's Ivy Bridge processors, embeds a 4-port XHCI compatible USB 3.0 SuperSpeed controller. The controller sits aside two EHCI USB 2.0 controllers, and shares 4 ports over a USB hub. So, out of the 14 USB ports from the chipset, 4 will be SuperSpeed capable  (via TPU via Heise.de)

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Rude Gameware presents a 5000dpi laser gaming mouse with adjustable weights, 1ms response time, onboard memory, 7 programmable buttons with macro support and on-the-fly DPI adjusting. The Fierce Laser Gaming Mouse v2 will start shipping next month for $49.95.
Rude Gameware, a gaming company that will go to almost any length to give gamers an advantage announced it has improved on it's already near perfect gaming mouse, the Fierce Laser Gaming Mouse. Injecting it with proprietary, performance-enhancing components that lawyers have advised to never admit to in writing, Rude Gameware has improved the abilities of their laser gaming mouse by over 60%! The Fierce Laser Mouse V2 now sports an overpowered 5000 DPI laser engine with lighting response time of only 1 millisecond - enough power and speed to shatter gaming records! The Fierce Laser Gaming Mouse V2 includes all the stuff gamers want in a mouse without any extra complications, but still carries a tiny suggested retail price of only $49.95. Plus, we assure you it's fully legal.

Features of the Fierce Laser Gaming Mouse v2 include:

• 5000 DPI Laser Engine
• 1000 Hz polling with 1 millisecond response time
• Onboard memory to save your modifications
• 7 independently programmable buttons and macro support
• Adjustable weights
• Zero-acoustic ultra smooth Teflon feet
• Always-On mode
• On the fly sensitivity DPI adjustment (no driver needed)
• LED DPI Indicator
• Gold plated USB connector for maximum conductivity
• 7 foot, lightweight, non-tangle cord
• Included customization software

"We wanted to give gamers a greater competitive advantage," said Michael Epstein, Chief Rude Officer. "Don't ask us how we did it. Just know you'll see a big increase in your performance, while maintaining plausible deniability if you're ever questioned about how you achieved such great results."

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Synology launched the DiskStation DS411slim, a palm-sized 4-bay NAS server, which boasts a read speed of over 100MB/sec and is tailored for home and small office users who look for a green and quiet file sharing and backup solution, along with multimedia enrichment.

With a small and lightweight construction, the DS411slim measures 120X105X142mm, nearly a quarter of the size of a conventional 3.5-inch 4-bay NAS server, and weighs 0.66 kg only. However, its compact design does not sacrifice its high performance, which reaches 106.9MB/sec reading and 48.6MB/sec writing speeds under RAID 5 configuration in a Windows

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We are reviewing these as we speak, KFA2, the New European premium brand of Galaxy, announced today its launch of the two new custom edition KFA2 GTX 560 Ti Graphics cards

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We have posted three new article at Guru3D.com, all covering the all new GeForce GTX 560 Ti released today.

GeForce GTX 560 Ti review

The GeForce GTX 560 Ti itself, aimed against the Radeon HD 6800 series the GeForce GTX 560 Ti is based on a new GPU refresh, the GF114 silicon which features 384 shader processors, a 256-bit GDDR5 memory interface, and a core clock speed of 822 MHz. All factors combined deliver a product onto the market that is quite interesting performance and features wise, a product that is noiseless and has a power consumption level we can all life with.

Read here

GeForce GTX 560 Ti SLI review

Why not double up that shader count and thus performance with the help of NVIDIA's SLI technology. We'll tell you a bit about multi-GPU gaming, the challenges, the requirements and of course a nice tasty benchmark session. We'll have a peek at temperatures, power consumption and overclocking of the GeForce GTX 560 Ti cards in SLI mode to squeeze out every last ounce of performance.

Read here

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560 Ti SOC review

The product in queue for review here comes from Gigabyte, they unleashed a product tagged as SOC edition (Super OverClock), and that surely applies as the GeForce GTX 560 Ti SOC (GV-N560SO-1GI) is brutally clocked at in the factory at 1 GHz for you (reference is 822 MHz). The full gigabyte of 256-bit gDDR5 memory clocks in at 4580 MHz (effective data rate) over the reference 4008 MHz.

Read here

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