Tag Archives: geforce

Zotac Announces PCI-E x1 GeForce GT 710 Graphics Card

Posted on by John Williamson
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Some time ago, NVIDIA unveiled the GT 710 graphics card designed for HTPCs and relatively basic usage scenarios. The company claimed that you could experience performance gains up to 10 times better than integrated graphics solutions. Of course, it’s not suited to demanding applications which is reflected in the price point and form factor. The GT 710 doesn’t require any dedicated power connectors and utilizes the PCI Express format instead. Up to this point, custom GT 710 cards from manufacturers including Inno3D, EVGA and others have employed the PCI-E x16 interface. Zotac’s latest model bucks the trend and opts for the x1 interface.

The GPU is passively cooled and supports D-Sub, HDMI and DVI-D. Furthermore, it’s capable of driving displays up to 2560×1600 and opts for a WDDM 2.0 compliant driver. Technically, the Zotac version is clocked at 954MHz and includes 1GB DDR3L memory at 1600MHz. The PCI-E interface means you can use the card in expansions slots which traditionally remain free. This allows you to keep the x16 slots full with fibre-channel cards, enterprise HBAs and more. Clearly, the GT 710’s gaming credentials are fairly basic but they are a better option than many iGPUs. Saying that, I wouldn’t recommend it and there’s greater value when purchasing a higher performing product. The Zotac GT 710 might be useful if you’re watching videos and want to install a dedicated card.

Are you a fan of low power cards like the GT 710 or feel they are pointless due to the good performance levels on APUs?

Nvidia GTX 1080/1070 Shroud Teardown Appears Online

Posted on by Samuel Wan
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Earlier in the week, we got our first glimpse of what might be the GTX 1080 might look like. That was pretty much what we expected given what saw earlier of leaked GTX 1080/1070 cooler shrouds. Today, VideoCardz has found someone who has been able to tear down the cooler shroud of the 1080/1070 and show us just how they are made. The shroud reportedly comes in 4 separate parts that are put together to form the entire component.

In the case of this specific leak, the process used is die-sinking. The biggest part comes with the GTX 10_0 punched out, with the third spot left uncut. This will allow for easier reuse to turn it either in GTX 1070 or GTX 1080 shrouds as production needs dictate. The polygonal fan bracket itself is made of magnesium alloy and is the next largest piece. Finally, we have a Nvidia logo and a side panel that has GeForce GTX punched out.

More and more leaks are expected given the fact that GP104 has already entered mass production. There is no way for GP104 to arrive at Computex unless Nvidia already has everything being made. At this point, we should be seeing GP104 cards starting to be shipped to stores in preparation for the launch. All we need now is a leak confirming the GTX 1060Ti.

Colorful Announces GTX 980 Ti iGame KUDAN

Posted on by John Williamson
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Even though the current Maxwell line-up is set to be replaced by Pascal relatively soon if recent revelations are true, it hasn’t stopped new custom models from entering production. Colourful, a vendor offering high-end solutions primarily in the Chinese market has announced their latest product based on the GM200 core. This particular GPU entitled, the GTX 980 Ti iGame KUDAN utilizes an overclocked core of 1203MHz and boost reaching 1304MHz. On another note, the graphics card is powered by two 8-pin PCI-E connectors and includes three DisplayPort connectors, one HDMI and a DVI-I port. Of course, it’s built on the 28nm process and comes with 6GB GDDR5 memory using a 384 bit bus.

The GTX 980 Ti iGame KUDAN opts for a unique cooling solution with an integrated water cooling loop and five heatpipes. Furthermore, the densely packed fin array provides exceptional thermal dissipation and should allow for some impressive manual overclocking performance. The water cooling aspect even allows you to add the GPU to a custom loop via the embedded block mount.

Colourful have employed silver plating technology to improve the PCB’s reliability compared to traditional copper alternatives. This also reduces oxidation and should allow for a longer lifespan.

The graphics card employs an impressive power delivery to enable large overclocks, and there’s EMI shielding throughout. This hefty cooling solution and impeccable components makes it a great choice of users demanding the ultimate in performance. While the timing is a little strange given the upcoming release of Pascal, I highly doubt the GTX 980 Ti is suddenly going to become outclassed by lower end options. However, its price might reduce by a decent amount once the new cards arrive.

Gigabyte Joins 75W Party With Latest GTX 950

Posted on by Samuel Wan
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Even with pascal so close, Nvidia and their partners are still pushing out new Maxwell based cards. Over the course of the last month or so, ASUS, MSI, and EVGA have all come out with new 75W TDP GTX 950 graphics cards. These new cards delete the PCIe 6 pin power connector, making them a more flexible option. Today, Gigabyte has quietly joined the party with their own 75W GTX 950 offering.

The GIGABYTE GV-N950D5-2GD graphics card is based on the same old GTX 950 GM206 core with 768 stream processors, 48 texture units, 32 ROPs,  and a 128-bit GDDR5 memory interface. Somehow, Nvidia has been able to reduce the TDP from 90W to 75W without reducing base performance. Unlike the versions with power, the new card features a tamer factory overclock, with only 1051 Mhz base and 1228 MHz boost clocks respectively. The cooler is a relatively standard slot with 1 fan. Without the need for a PCIe power connector, it allows the card to be used to upgrade systems that feature a weaker PSU. The value of such a card is diminished though with Pascal being so close. In my view this suggests that Nvidia may leave the low end untouched for a while, with only GP104 launching anytime soon. This may leave AMD with the Polaris 11 relatively unchallenged, only doing battle with older Maxwell cards.

Nvidia May Launch 3 Pascal GP104 SKUs at Computex

Posted on by Samuel Wan
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For those of you hoping for massive performance jump with the launch of Pascal, prepare to be disappointed. Every new generation tends to improve performance but some more than others. According to previous rumours, Nvidia is using their GP104 die to replace the GTX 980Ti with the GTX 1080 and 1070. Now, the latest reports are suggesting that Nvidia will launch 3 different Pascal SKUs, all based off of GP104, at Computex.

As the xx4 die, GP104 has traditionally been viewed as the smaller chip to the larger x10 or x00 dies that traditionally power flagships. Due to this, don’t expect Pascal to surpass the 980Ti by any large amount. Today’s news also furthers that impression. By splitting GP104 into 3 SKUs, we can expect performance between the 3 cards to be pretty close. It wouldn’t make sense to have so many close performing cards to the flagship which suggests that GP104 won’t be real flagship material.

By slipping GP104 into 3 SKUs, we will likely run into the same situation as the GTX 560Ti 448/570/580 and the 660Ti/670/680. If we take our past experience with those cards as the guideline, we can expect differentiation, not just on the core but the memory bandwidth as well. This makes the previous rumours about the GTX 1070 using GDDR5 while the GTX 1080 will use faster GDDR5X. The 1060Ti as I am calling it may feature either a gimped 192bit bus or the same situation faced by the GTX 970 with a section of VRAM being slower.

Right now, all we have to differentiate the 3 SKUs are the model numbers, the GTX 1080 will be GP104-400-A1, the GTX 1070 GP104-200-A1, and the 1060Ti will be using the GP104-150-A1. It will be interesting to see how Nvidia will differentiate the cards and how they compete against current Maxwell models. Computex can’t come soon enough!

Nvidia Sending Out Invites to Pascal Event

Posted on by Samuel Wan
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If there is any doubt in our minds that real Pascal cards are coming soon, this latest report clears that all out. According to PCTuning, Nvidia has started sending out invites to select press outlets for a Pascal event. This suggests that Nvidia already has all of their Pascal chips that are launching at Computex ready for the press to review and test out. As of right now, we still don’t know the exact date of Pascal’s launch.

Right now, whether or not the event will be a private event for press only or a live webcast sort of affair remains to be seen. This may well be the event Nvidia sometimes holds with the press beforehand in order to brief them on the chip a bit before shipping out review samples.

What’s more, the leaker is suggesting that Nvidia is going to allow reviews and other information to be released in as soon as three weeks and four weeks at the latest. This would place it at least 2 weeks ahead of Computex which has been the suggested launch. The possibilities are that the leaker is wrong, Computex will be the hard launch with a soft launch before; either way, Pascal is coming soon.

What Can We Expect From NVIDIA GTC 2016

Posted on by Andy Ruffell
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With NVIDIA’s GPU Tech Conference due to start in 2 days time, we give our thoughts as to what to expect.

Do you think we will see a new graphics card launching from NVIDIA at the event?

Check the video below for our thoughts and opinions.

Do you think a new Pascal based card is likely to be announced?

Nvidia May Have Stopped GeForce GTX 980Ti Production

Posted on by Samuel Wan
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One of the inevitable signs of an imminent  release of new products is when the old model starts becoming hard to find. A seamless transition to the new version is a mark of good logistics and something Nvidia is known for. In line with the expectations for Pascal, Nvidia has reportedly stopped shipping GTX 980Ti’s to their AiB partners, which indicates that Nvidia is winding down the supply chain for the high-end card.

A stop in GTX 980Ti production points to a Pascal chip to replace it coming soon down the line. Usually, shipments to stores are ahead by a month and production a month or so before that. If Nvidia stops supplies now, there will still be about 2-3months before supplies run low. This puts the timeframe smack dab during Computex where Pascal is expected to be launched. It seems like perfect timing for GTX 980Ti supply to dry up just as Pascal launches and becomes available.

Given the movement to 16nmFF+, we can expect the GTX 1080 to at the very least match the GTX 980Ti. With a replacement product, it makes sense for the GTX 980Ti to cease production now. For now, it seems that Nvidia hasn’t started supplying their partners with Pascal just yet but that should happen shortly if Pascal is to arrive at Computex. The leaked shrouds suggest that the AiB partners have already tooled up in expectation of Pascal. Of course, this is still an unconfirmed report, released on April 1st to boot, so take this with a fist full of salt.

NVIDIA Ramping Up GeForce Now to be “Netflix of Gaming”

Posted on by Ashley Allen
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NVIDIA is expanding its GeForce Now game on-demand service, which streams PC and console games to the NVIDIA Shield set-top box. The service currently has over 100 games available, for a monthly subscription fee, and has plans to not only expand its library, but also improve the quality of streamed games when it moves its cloud data centres to Maxwell-based GPUs, replacing its old Kepler-based units, later this year.

“We are still on the path of being the Netflix of gaming,” Phil Eisler, General Manager of GeForce Now cloud gaming at NVIDIA told VentureBeat. “The cloud gives us good analysis and data. About half of our customers are millennial gamers, and half are parents who enjoy playing games with their children.”

“Gamer dads who are 35 and older struggle to find time to play games with their kids. They like the convenience of the system and the retro content. The millennial gamers, meanwhile, are very impatient and like to get their games quickly,” he added.

Following the data centre upgrade, “[GeForce Now] will be the highest-performing system that you can get access to in your living room by the end of the year,” Eisler said. “Our focus is getting games to work in 30 seconds and we are working on ways to cut that in half. Other services may take minutes. So we focus on the most convenient way to play.”

OCUK Offers Free SSD with ASUS GTX 970 Graphics Cards

Posted on by Bohs Hansen
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Who doesn’t like to get free stuff? And especially when it is something as sweet as a solid state drive. That is what you currently can get, at least if you purchase one of the participating ASUS GTX 970 graphics cards at Overclockers UK.

For a limited time, and as long as stock lasts – as always – you can get a Kingston HyperX Fury 240GB solid state drive for free on top of the Nvidia based GTX 970 graphics card that your purchasing. It isn’t just some cheap SSD either as it comes from Kingston’s HyperX division. The 7mm slim 2.5-inch SSD delivers a solid performance, and for free, who can complain. You still get the bundled game Tom Clancy’s The Division on top too, making this a very good deal for a well-performing graphics card.

Speaking of the graphics card, the first of the two participating ASUS graphics cards are the GTX 970 DirectCU II OC Strix with 4GB GDDR5 memory, a core clock of 1141MHz, and a boost clock up to 1253MHz. The second card is the GeForce GTX 970 Turbo OC which also comes with 4GB GDDR5 memory, but a slower clock speed. The Turbo OC has a core clock of 1088MHz and a boost clock of 1228MHz.

Which of the two cards you pick for your setup is based on optical preference, amount you want to spend, and probably more things too – but it is safe to say that both are great graphics cards where you get a lot of bang for the buck, especially considering the extras you get in this deal. The DirectCU II OC Strix will set you back £299.99 while the Turbo OC will cost a little less and set you back £275.99.

Will you be picking up one of these deals? And if, which of the two cards will you go for. Let us know in the comments.

MSI Releases 75W GTX 950 GPUs OCV2 and OCV3

Posted on by Samuel Wan
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For graphics cards, 75W is a golden number as it dispenses with the need to have a separate power. This allows users to avoid a PSU upgrade and broadens the market for the card. Originally launched at 90W, it looks like Nvidia has managed to trim an additional 15W savings to produce 75W GTX 950s. First started off by ASUS, MSI is getting into the 75W GTX 950 as well with 2 new additions to their lineup.

Dubbed the GTX 950 2GD5 OCV2 and GTX 950 2GD5T OCV3, they will replace/supplement the 90W GTX 950 2GD5 OCV1 and GTX 950 2GD5T OCV2 respectively. Both cards are based on NVIDIA’s GM206-251 GPUs, with the 251 indicating either a special bin or a new process that Nvidia is using. Of course, the chips are still the same GTX 950 with 768 CUDA cores, 48 TMUs, and 32 ROPs with 128-bit GDDR5 memory interface fed by 6.6Gbps of 2GB GDDR5. Both cards are factory overclocked to 1076Mhz stock and 1253Mhz Boost.

Between the OCV2 and OCV3, the only difference is in the cooler and form factor. The OCV2 uses a single fan and is geared towards mITX of other small form factors. The OCV3 sports a larger dual-fan cooler and is longer to boot. Both cards feature hardware-accelerated decoding and encoding, making them good choices for HTPC or to upgrade an existing desktop system for some moderate gaming. No word yet has been revealed about pricing but expect it to fall near MSI’s current offerings.

Nvidia GeForce 364.51 Beta Fixes Installation Bugs

Posted on by Samuel Wan
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In light of the installation bugs and issues that plagued yesterday’s release of GeForce driver version 364.47, Nvidia has issued a new driver that promises the solve the issues. The new Geforce 364.51 beta driver promises to fix the issues and will be receiving WHQL certification shortly.

UPDATE 3/8/16: After finding a critical installation issue, the team has replaced yesterday’s driver (364.47) with today’s new driver (364.51).
This driver has been submitted to Microsoft for WHQL-approval and we will update the driver package online as soon as we have the certified package.

We had received reports of some users having issues installing driver version 364.47.  Initial investigation suggests the issue was related to doing an “Express” installation.  If you happen to have a pending installation of 364.47, we recommend that you do not install it and either use the new 364.51 beta version or wait for the WHQL certified version.

According to Nvidia, the issue stems from using the Express installation option with 364.47. However, some user reports suggested that Custom installations also suffered from the issues. Hopefully Nvidia has truly nailed down the source of the bugs and 364.51 will fix it. For now, users are reporting that 364.51 is not causing any installation issues. You can find the latest driver here. Be sure to use DDU and do a clean installation.

Nvidia GeForce 364.47 Drivers May Cause Massive Issues

Posted on by Samuel Wan
2

After the release of Nvidia’s GeForce 364.47 driver, some users are reporting a host of issues, most notably BSODs. During the installation, some users are experiencing a black screen and a failed installation, then a crash. The system then fails to properly boot Windows afterwards. Despite the WHQL certification, it seems that this bug managed to sneak past Nvidia’s bug testing.

According to the latest user reports, it seems that booting into safe mood and manually removing all of the driver files solves the issue. For those who haven’t updated, using Display Driver Uninstaller to uninstall the driver, then manually deleting all the driver files before installing 364.47 seems to prevent the issue from popping up. Some users are also reporting that multi-monitor systems are also running into the issues more often so running a single display to install seems prudent.

These issues have popped up in recent months after a good period of stable drivers. Perhaps Nvidia should reconsider how they test their drivers in the future. Hopefully, this issue will be fixed quickly before less tech savvy users run into the issue. The driver has improvements and fixes for Tom Clancy’s The Division, Hitman, Need for Speed, Ashes of the Singularity, and Rise of the Tomb Raider so if you don’t play any of these, it may do well to skip the update for now. This is one more example why device drivers should never be automatically updated.

NVIDIA Release GeForce 364.47 WHQL for The Division & Need for Speed

Posted on by Ashley Allen
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NVIDIA has released the 364.47 WHQL Driver for its GeForce graphics cards, bringing with it Game Ready optimisation for Tom Clancy’s The Division, Hitman, Need for Speed, Ashes of the Singularity, and Rise of the Tomb Raider, plus fixes for many known issues with Windows 10.

The release notes are as follows:

Game Ready

This driver provides the optimal experience for Tom Clancy’s The Division, Hitman, Need for Speed, Ashes of the Singularity, and Rise of the Tomb Raider.

Gaming Technology

This driver provides support for the Vulkan 3D API.

Application SLI Profiles

Added or updated the following SLI profiles:

  • Hitman – SLI profile added
  • The Technomancer – SLI profile added
  • Zui Zhong Bing Qi (Ultimate Weapon) – SLI profile updated

3D Vision Profiles

Added or updated the following 3DV profiles:

  • Call of Duty: Black Ops3 – Not recommended
  • Far Cry Primal – Not recommended
  • Just Cause 3 – Not recommended
  • Need for Speed – Not recommended
  • StarWars Battlefront (2015) – Not recommended
  • Rise of the Tomb Raider – Updated to 3DVision Ready

3D Compatibility Mode Profiles

These games must be run in DirectX 10/11 mode to see improvements and are not compatible with 3D Vision Surround mode.
Added or updated the following compatibility mode profiles:

  • Call of Duty: Black Ops3 – Excellent
  • Just Cause 3 – Excellent

Software Modules

  • NView – version 147.00
  • HD Audio Driver – version 1.3.34.4
  • NVIDIA PhysX System Software – version 9.15.0428
  • GeForce Experience – version 2.10.2.40
  • CUDA – version 8.0

Windows 10 Fixed Issues

  • Discrete GPU remains on by default, even if no app is running. [200172650]
  • Flickering is seen on the LVDS, but not an external monitor, when clone mode is set with G-SYNC enabled. [200170772]
  • [364.07, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate] With ShadowPlay enabled, game crashes at launch pointing to nvwgf2um.dll. [200168443]
  • [361.14] System hangs during driver installation. [200149074]
  • [361.91] Stutter in DirectX 9 games when AA forced override is used. [1731438]
  • TDR on Adobe Illustrator CC 2015 with drivers after Release 353. [1726408]
  • The Twitch broadcast game title does not match Twitch’s game library. [1708975]
  • [SLI] Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate needs an SLI profile. [1666227]

Windows 8.1/Windows 8/Windows 7/Windows Vista Fixed
Issues

  • [361.91] Stutter in DirectX 9 games when AA forced override is used. [1731438]

  • [361.75, GK104] Call of Duty Black Ops III: volumetric light corruption. [1724810]

  • [SLI] Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege shows corruption when Alt+Tab used in fullscreen mode. [1724562]

  • [SLI] Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate needs an SLI profile. [1666227]

  • [SLI] 3D Surround does not work in Titanfall. [1545116]

The 364.47 GeForce WHQL Driver can be downloaded here.

 

New ASUS GTX 950 Ditches PCIe Power Connector

Posted on by Samuel Wan
2

Maxwell has been Nvidia’s most efficient GPU architecture to date, offering great performance/watt. While the lower end cards aren’t quite as power efficient as some of their bigger siblings, the GTX 950 is as good as it gets, offering decent 1080p performance at 90W. That, however, is set to change as Nvidia is preparing a 75W GTX 950, one that ASUS is launching first.

Due to the fact that it only requires 75W, the ASUS 950 can afford to draw all of its power straight from the PCIe 3.0 x16 slot, cutting down on cable clutter and PSU requirements. Despite losing out on power headroom, ASUS has still managed to give the card a factory OC mode of 1051 MHz Base and 1228 MHz Boost A more tame default Gaming mode has it at 1026 MHz Base and 1190 MHz Boost. This all the while keeping the same GM206 core of 768 CUDA cores, 64 texture mapping units, 32 ROPs and a standard 2GB of GDDR5 VRAM.While the boost clocks are pretty good, it’s important to keep in mind that those are the max figures and with the cut-down power delivery, it’s unlikely the card will keep or even hit those numbers, especially under load. As with all silicon, Nvidia and ASUS is either binning chips heavily, 28nm is getting much better (unlikely this late into the node) or simply cutting enough voltage while maintaining base clock speeds.

This late into the generation, it looks like Nvidia is prepping for an efficiency battle with AMD’s upcoming Polaris which set to be many times more efficient than current GCN cards. The new GTX 950 may have to do battle on it’s own for a while till Nvidia get their own competing Pascal cards out.

Geforce 361.91 WHQL Driver Released – Game Ready for Street Fighter V and Hitman Beta

Posted on by Ashley Allen
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NVIDIA has released the Geforce 361.91 WHQL Driver for its graphics cards, bringing with it Game Ready drivers for Street Fighter V, the beta release of Hitman, ARMA 3, and Monster Hunter Online, plus SLI updates for Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate and XCOM2.

NVIDIA Geforce 361.91 WHQL Driver changelog [PDF]:

Game Ready

Learn more about how to get the optimal experience for ARMA 3, Street Fighter V, Monster Hunter Online, and HITMAN (Beta).

Application SLI Profiles

Added or updated the following SLI profiles:
– Assassin’s Creed Syndicate – SLI profile changed (with driver code as well) to
make the application scale better
– Bless – SLI set to SLI-Single
– Need for Speed – profile EXEs updated to support trial version of the game
– Plants vs Zombies Garden Warfare 2 – SLI profile added
– XCOM 2 – SLI profile added (including necessary code change)

Windows 10 Fixed Issues

– TDR on Illustrator CC 2015 with drivers post Release 353. [1726408]
– [361.75] Enabling NVIDIA Surround after a driver clean install causes NVIDIA
Control Panel to crash. [1724062]
– Windows 10 Open Devices and Printers ejects NVIDIA GPU. [1720849]
– Adobe Illustrator CC 2015 intermittently crashes on exit with NVIDIA drivers post
Release 353. [1711214]
– [SLI, Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate] Need SLI profile. [1666227]

Windows 8.1/Windows 8/Windows 7/Windows Vista Fixed Issues

– [Quadro K5200, Quadro M4000] Poor performance observed with Dassault Catia V5
R20, R21, R22. [200170447]
– [361.75] Enabling NVIDIA Surround after a driver clean install causes NVIDIA
Control Panel to crash. [1724062]
– [SLI] Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege shows corruption when Alt+Tab used in fullscreen
mode. [1724562]
– [SLI, Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate] Need SLI profile. [1666227]

NVIDIA Geforce 361.91 WHQL Driver can be downloaded here.

Nvidia Pascal Launch May Be Sooner Than We Thought

Posted on by Samuel Wan
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Last month we received word that the first Pascal chips would be launching a bit sooner than expected. At that time, GP100 was expected to drop in April and GP104 in June. According to the latest rumors, it looks like that timetable was accurate, with the GP100 based Tesla chip coming in April around GTC. What’s more, we’re getting more details about when the rest of Nvidia’s Pascal lineup will launch.

As with the previous report, GP104 will arrive in June and it looks like the GTX lineup will be based off that, with both the GTX 1080 and 1070 being GP104 chips. Near the end of the year in Q4, we can expect GP106 and GP107. These will be longer end chips and likely power the GTX 1060 and 1050. Finally, we have the Titan which will use GP100 and a GP108 in early 2017. This follow’s Nvidia’s new trend of releasing a GTX x80 first, followed by the Titan, then finally a GTX x80Ti. While it’s good for Nvidia’s sales, it moves high-end users into a quicker upgrade schedule than if all the cards launched at the same time.

The Tesla launching first makes a whole lot of sense as enterprise users can pay the high premiums for early HBM2 and 16nm. A June launch for GP104 may point to them using HBM2 as the timeline is a bit tight for GDDR5X though it is doable. The biggest question is how well Pascal will perform as it is a stopgap architecture between Maxwell and Volta, like a Maxwellv2 though the die shrink to 16nm should make some great gains in and of itself.

Nvidia Pascal Flagship May Arrive Sooner Than Expected

Posted on by Samuel Wan
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Even as this generation’s GPUs are continuing to fly off the shelves, Nvidia is already gearing up for their Pascal launch. Despite being quieter than AMD, it looks like Nvidia will launch their Pascal cards around the same time, in 2H 2016 as AMD’s Polaris will. What’s more, 2H 2016 will see Nvidia’s flagship Pascal GPU based on TSMC’s 16nmFF+ process and utilizing HBM2. This is still a rumour right now but it does fit the time frame since 1H 2016 would be too soon and 2017 too late.

The biggest question is what does”flagship” mean exactly. Ever since GTX 680 was launched, Nvidia has been playing around with the word flagship. Traditionally, the big dies like GF110 would launch first with the smaller mainstream GF104 launching after. Kepler and Maxwell saw that switch with GK104 and GM104 launching ahead of GK110 and GM200 respectively. This suggests that the so-called “flagship” may only be GP104 and not GP100. Even if it is GP100, it may well be a cut-down version, similar to how the GTX 780 was the cut-down variant of the later GTX 780Ti. This strategy does maximize sales for Nvidia but isn’t that great for consumers.

Whatever the card is, be it GP104 or GP100, it is going to use HBM2, giving it at least 512GB/s with 8GB of VRAM but potentially much higher at 16-32GB with 1TB/s+ of bandwidth. With AMD set to launch Polaris around the same time, Q3 2016 should make for exciting times as a slew of new GPUs arrive.

Nvidia Partners Increased Profits due to GeForce Supply Issues

Posted on by Samuel Wan
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The past year has not been particularly good for the PC industry as a whole. Despite the launch of Microsoft’s new Windows 10 OS and various hardware releases, PC shipments have continued to fall, facing heavy pressure from mobile devices and tablets. Some firms have been hit hard, with Micron for instance, reporting poor financials among others. There does appear to be a few bright spots though, with gaming related sales up, and for Nvidia AiB partners such as Asus, eVGA and Zotac in particular, this has meant increased profits.

Buoyed by the strong Maxwell 2.0 chip powering most of the 9xx series of graphics cards, Nvidia partners like MSI, ASUS, Galaxy, Colorful, Palit and Gigabyte have managed to increase their profits despite little change in shipments. This is apparently due to high demand in China, outstripping supply and raising prices by as much as 15% on average. With shipments not keeping up, this has meant that these partners have been raking it in over the 2015 year.

Colorful, ASUS and Palit for instance are seeing a 20% increase in revenue over 2014 despite shipments being the same. Gigabyte however, went the opposite route and kept profits the same despite a 10% drop in shipments. Since the profits are going to the OEMs instead of the retailers, the price increases are probably due to the OEMs. Instead of increasing production and shipments to meet demand, it looks like the OEMs have decided to keep supply constant and raises prices instead, which is bad news for the consumer as they will ultimately pay more for the product, but great for the manufacturer as they haven’t had to work any harder to meet the demand. It may also hint that a launch for Pascal is expected soon as Nvidia and their partners start clearing the channel to pave the way.

Nvidia May Launch Confusing GT 930 in Early 2016

Posted on by Samuel Wan
3

For the longest time, both AMD and Nvidia have taken to rebranding their low-end cards in order to present something “new” at low cost. While rebranding has become the norm, Nvidia’s GT 930 may be setting a new standard when it comes to that. Set to launch in Q1 2016, the GeForce GT 930 will reportedly come in 3 widely different flavours spanning 3 generations over 6 years in total.

From what we know right now, the 930 will use either Fermi, Kepler or Maxwell based chips. These will also be paired with either GDDR5 or DDR3 VRAM, accessed over either a 64bit or 128bit interface, meaning a lot of variation in performance. Due to the different chips used, the features offered and power consumption characteristics will vary widely as well.

The oldest chip is the Fermi one, the GF108 released back in 2010 with 96 CUDA cores. Slightly newer is the Kepler-based GK208 which was released in 2013 and features 384 CUDA cores. Finally, there is the new chip which is the Maxwell-based GM108 featuring 384 CUDA cores, offering the most features and performance. With such great variation, it won’t be surprising if consumer end up being confused and won’t be sure which GT 930 they are getting till they start gaming.

NVIDIA Releases GeForce 361.43 WHQL Driver With Fixes and VR Improvement

Posted on by Bohs Hansen
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Nvidia is ready with a new WHQL certified driver just in time before Christmas. The new driver fixes quite a few bugs such as the wrong clock speeds and higher power consumption on 144 Hz monitors when a GM20x-based card is used. The main focus of the driver is however on the VR part of things and it contains the latest GameWorks VR tweaks, bug fixes, and optimizations to ensure you have the ultimate VR gaming experience.

Nvidia added support for GameWorks VR 1.1 including VR SLI support for OpenGL applications and support for the latest Oculus SDK and as of Windows 10 November Update, Fermi GPUs now use WDDM 2.0 in single GPU configurations. As always, there was a list of new SLI profiles added for compatibility and this time that includes profiles for Bless, DayZ, Dungeon Defenders 2, Elite Dangerous, and Hard West.

Other than the previous mentioned things, Nvidia also added some more fixes for flip timing and event notification bugs, fixed a driver bug where the hot-plugging the output would result in any following hotplug device to be ignored, and what many might be looking forward too, a fix for Star Wars Battlefront SLI lag that started with driver 359.06.

You can read the full change logs here or download the fresh drivers here. If you got your Nvidia Experience installed, then you can also use that instead for a convenient upgrade.

EVGA Releases AIO-Cooled GeForce GTX 970 HYBRID GAMING

Posted on by Bohs Hansen
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Cooler is better and that isn’t a motto that’s just relevant to the top of the line graphics cards, it’s something that applies to all models throughout the ranks. Those who are in the market for a new GeForce GTX 970 powered graphics card and at the same time want something that runs as cool as possible, they should take a look at the just released EVGA GeForce GTX 970 HYBRID GAMING graphics card. The new graphics card comes with an all-in-one liquid cooler as well as a blower fan for optimal cooling and without the hassle of installing an aftermarket cooler yourself.

Without the trouble of mounting aftermarket solutions, tubing and filling, the EVGA GeForce GTX 970 HYBRID GAMING is pure plug and play like any other graphics card. The only difference is that you’ll also need to mount the 120mm radiator with the fan to the chassis.

The AIO solution is utilizing a pure Copper Base heatsink for optimal cooling and maximum heat transfer. You also get a card with a virtually silent operation as the fans won’t have to work as much as traditional cooling solutions and thanks to the variably controlled fans on both the graphics card itself and on the radiator.

The cooling solution is very effective and the card will hover around 40 degrees during maximum load usage, which is quite nice compared to the up to 90 degrees seen on reference cards.

The EVGA GeForce GTX 970 HYBRID GAMING graphics card has 1664 CUDA Cores, a base clock of 1140 MHz and a boost clock of 1279 MHz. It comes with 4GB GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit memory bus and clocked at 7010MHz. The card is also ready for up to 3-way SLI setups.

NVIDIA Releases 359.12 Hotfix Driver to Resolve GTX 860M Stability Issues

Posted on by John Williamson
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A significant number of NVIDIA GTX 860M owners have been experiencing random freezing during certain games which made it impossible to use their hardware as intended. For example, one user said:

“Just tried battlefront. My Y50-70 with 860m 4gb completely locks up as soon as I loaded a game.”

This seems to be a fairly common occurrence as most of the complaints revolve around general instability. Patching any major faults via driver updates is a difficult process and requires a great deal of testing. Although, the gaming experience shouldn’t be like this in the first place and consumers expect much better from NVIDIA. Thankfully, NVIDIA has now released a hotfix which theoretically resolves the regular crashing. While it’s too early to say if the hotfix has been a resounding success, early reports are positive:

“The new hotfix is working fine. Tested on Fallout 4, Witcher 3 and Cities Skylines. Acer Aspire V15 Nitro Black Edition 860M, i5 4210H.”

Please note, the hotfix is specifically designed to fix issues with the GTX 860M and not other solutions like the GTX 870M. If you’re interested in giving the hotfix a try I’d strongly recommend uninstalling the older drivers via Display Driver Uninstaller. Once complete perform a fresh install of the 359.12 located here.

Rumours Suggest Upcoming NVIDIA GeForce Price Cuts

Posted on by Bohs Hansen
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AMD has gained some foothold on NVIDIA as of late and we’ve also recently heard that the long-awaited new Fury-based dual-GPU card might make its appearance soon. That leaves the ball in NVIDIA’s corner and it is time for the to hit back. The latest rumours now suggest that NVIDIA might be preparing a series of price cuts on their GeForce GTX 900 series graphics cards. The price cuts, if the rumour is true, will affect the GTX 980 and below graphics cards, so should you want a GTX 980 Ti, then the price might stay the same for a bit longer.

The price cuts should make the holiday shopping a little nicer for those who are in the market for a new NVIDIA-based graphics card. With the new pricings, you should be able to get the GeForce GTX 960 for $179 USD, the GeForce GTX 970 for $299 USD, and the GeForce GTX 980 for $449 USD.

All three cards that are set to be discounted have their own market aspect. The GTX 960 is perfect for League of Legends or DOTA gamers that don’t require a large amount of GPU horsepower while the GTX 970 is perfectly suited for 1080p to 1440p gaming of all sorts. The GTX 980 is a really sweet card that can pull 1440p with the best of settings in most games and even makes some games playable in 4K.

A price cut could also tempt many people to opt for a second graphics card to their already existing and get a sweet SLI setup going. Would a price cut like this tempt you to get a new NVIDIA graphics card or are you holding back a little longer? Let us know in the comments.

BIOSTAR Announces GeForce Gaming GTX 950 Graphics Card

Posted on by Bohs Hansen
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There are quite a few people who don’t need the best of the best graphics card to play the games they are playing or do the work they are doing, and luckily there are a lot of options on the market for them. There is one more now as BIOSTAR announces their new GeForce GTX 950 based gaming graphics card, the VN9505XPX1.

While the card isn’t top of the line, it still supports all the technologies you’d want for the next few years such as DirectX 12, PhysX and DSR technologies and would be perfectly suited for 1080p MOBA games such as League of Legends and DOTA players. The new BIOSTAR GeForce GTX 950 graphics card comes with a 1026MHz base clock speed and a turbo up to 1190MHz. The card has 768 CUDA cores and comes with 2GB GDDR5 memory that runs at 6610MHz on a 128-bit memory bus.

You can connect up to four monitors at the same time via the two DVI ports, one DisplayPort, and one HDMI connector. The maximum supported resolution is 5120 by 3200 pixels, which naturally isn’t a resolution you should try to game in with this card. A card with a GPU like this also comes with a low power consumption and it generates less heat, which in return means that the card will run silently and eco-friendly.

BIOSTAR GeForce GTX 950 GPU Features:

  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX950 GPU
  • 2GB GDDR5, 128bit with ultra-speed memory
  • Low noise, heat pipe cooling design
  • NVIDIA super 768 CUDA processing
  • Dual DVI/display port/HDMI output support
  • PCI Express 3.0 x16 bus interface
  • Support NVIDIA Surround with up to Four Monitors
  • Complete DirectX 12 support
  • Support NVIDIA PhyX and DSR Technology

NVIDIA 358.91 WHQL Drivers Released – Ready for Fallout, Battlefront and SC2

Posted on by Peter Donnell
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Are you ready for a week of awesome gaming? If you’re planning on sitting down to enjoy some of the latest and greatest PC games of the year, such as Bethesda’s Fallout 4, or EA’s Battlefront and even SC2: Legacy of the Void, you’ll want to ensure you have the latest drivers for your Nvidia graphics card.

The new Nvidia GeForce 358.91 WHQL Driver is the latest “game-ready” driver, which packs in optimizations for the three big game releases. The only downside is that the driver doesn’t add anything new for any other game, or any general bug fixes, so if you’re not playing Fallout, Battlefront or SC2, there’s really no point in updating the drivers just yet.

Game Ready
Learn more about how to get the optimal experience for Fallout 4, Star Craft II: Legacy of
the Void, and Star Wars: Battlefront.

Application SLI Profiles.
No SLI profiles were added with this release.

3D Vision Profiles
No 3D Vision profiles were added with this release.

3D Compatibility Mode Profiles
No compatibility mode profiles were added with this release.

Software Modules
NView – version 146.78
HD Audio Driver – version 1.3.34.4
NVIDIA PhysX System Software – version 9.15.0428
GeForce Experience – version 2.5.15.54
CUDA – version 7.5

The new drivers can be downloaded from the official Nvidia website.

Windows 10 Drivers Gives AMD R9 Fury X Advantage Over Nvidia 980 Ti

Posted on by Bohs Hansen
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We only have two major players left in the consumer graphics card market, AMD and Nvidia, and Nvidia has had the lead for quite some time now. The new AMD Fury, Fury X, and Nano cards are impressive on their own, but they still couldn’t quite beat Nvidia’s cards on the full scale.

The newest Windows 10 drivers seem to have given AMD an edge again as they have shown performance increases on all current generation AMD cards. However, the most impressive result to come out of this is that the Fury X managed to leap ahead of the Nvidia GeForce 980 Ti according to the latest comparisons by TechPowerUp via WCCFtech.

With the older test setup, Nvidia was ahead of AMD most of the way. The GTX 980 Ti was 8% ahead of the R9 Fury X, and the GTX 980 was 2% ahead of the R9 390X at 1440p. Moving up to 4K resolution and the GTX 980 Ti and R9 Fury X come in at the same result and so do the GTX 980 and R9 390X.

Older drivers and test setup

After the move to the newest Windows 10 drivers, which aren’t the recently announced Crimson update, Nvidia’s lead shrinks. At 1440p, the GTX 980 Ti that previously was 8% ahead of the R9 Fury X now comes in at the same result while the R9 390x makes up 5% and gets 3% ahead of the GTX980. Even the R9 290X gets a huge boost of 9% over the GTX 970 card.

Again, moving up to 4K resolution and we see that AMD takes the full lead. The R9 Fury X jumps ahead of the GTX 980Ti by 5%, the R9 390X and 290(X) also stay ahead of the GTX 980 and GTX970/GTX780 Ti respectively. This is pretty impressive and really shows what a driver optimising can do.

New Windows 10 AMD Drivers