GDDR6 Memory Coming in 2014!

If you didn't know about AMD's involvement in GDDR RAM, now is the right time! 

When it comes to graphics memory it's the AMD i.e. Advanced Micro Devices company that is actually behind the creation of GDDR memory standard. Their GDDR3 memory which launched in 2004 was very successful and is still in wide use on low end graphics cards and other applications. GDDR4 never really took off, because the advantages over GDDR3 weren't great enough! GDDR5 is the current standard and can bring more than 250GB/s of achievable bandwidth. Now, the technical standards to define the next generation GDDR6 memory are currently being worked out by AMD working with memory industry standards body, JEDEC. 

GDDR6 is expected to be launched in 2014 and should last beyond 2020. It's generating a lot of interest from all the usual suspects such as NVIDIA, Intel, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, CISCO and many others. This is the field where AMD is the company in charge, and regardless for whom are you rooting for, without AMD's memory team - our present (and the future) would look significantly different.

"GDDR5 as a memory standard was designed as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The Single-Ended GDDR5 i.e. Dr. Jekyll was created to power the contemporary processors, while the Differential GDDR5 i.e. Mr. Hyde was designed to "murder Rambus and XDR". Ultimately, the conventional S.E. GDDR5 took off better than expected and clocked higher than anyone hoped for. While the estimates for the top standard were set at 1.5GHz QDR, i.e. 6 "effective GHz" with overclocking, we got both AMD and NVIDIA actually shipping retail parts at 1.5GHz, with overclocks as high as 1.85GHz (7.4 "GHz"). This brought us to more than 250GB/s achiveable bandwidth, meaning that the purpose of Differential GDDR5 was lost." 

Just around the time of DDR4 as well. Sounds like a good combination to me! It will be interesting to see what kind of speeds and bandwidth can be achieved and if it can really last 6 plus years! 

More news:  

(vr-zone.com) GDDR6 memory coming in 2014

(legitreviews.com) GDDR6 to debut 2014

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By: Air T. 

NVIDIA "Kepler" GeForce GTX 680 official specifications sheet leaked!

The slide leaked from PCOnline.com.cn site and it seems to be the real deal. The specification list reveals already rumored and pretty much confirmed numbers of a single core flagship GeForce GTX 680.

The Nvidia GTX 680 will have a very high GPU clock at a quite impressive 1006MHz.


Specifications and price:

Kepler GK104 will have die size of 294mm^2 and 3.54 billion transistors
CUDA Cores: 1536
Base Clock: 1006MHz
Boost Clock: 1058MHz
Memory Config: 2GB of GDDR5 paired with a 256-bit memory interface and clocked at 6.0Gbps
TDP: 195W
Power Connectors: in line two 6-pin PCI-Express power connectors
Outputs: 2x DL-DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort 1.2
Bus Interface: PCI-Express 3.0 x16 bus interface

Price: MSRP of US $549
Release date of GeForce GTX 680 is set for March 22nd.

GeForce GTX 560 Ti, GTX 570 and GTX 580 are getting price cuts up to $50 (GTX 580 is already available at lower price).

 Credits: (diy.pconline.com.cn)
 

Interesting comparison Geforce GTX 680 vs. Radeon HD 7950 / 7970

Credits: (3dcenter.org)

And some more specs:

Two pictures of GeForce GTX 680 came from Chiphell.com

Credits: (chiphell.com)

More news:  

(pconline.com.cn) GeForce GTX 680 Specifications

(3dcenter.org) Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 Vs. Radeon HD 7950 / 7970 chart comparison

By: Air T.

AMD A10-5800K Black Edition is a Top Trinity with Turbo at 4.2GHz

AMD’s flagship of the Trinity lineup is the A10-5800K Black Edition and it comes in early Q2!

 

The top of the range Trinity APU the quad-core A10-5800K Black Edition series is designed for gaming which has an HD 7660D integrated GPU with 384 Radeon cores (2.0). The GPU is running at 800Mhz while the CPU clocks at 3.8Ghz and can do 4.2Ghz in Turbo mode.

Trinity is a big thing for AMD. The company has high hopes with this chip in both mobile and desktop space. In near future we could expect quite a few interesting mobile Trinity parts, including low-voltage versions for ultrabooks.

According to road map the release date seems to be the second quarter and third quarter. All members of AX-5000 quad-cores series will appear in Q2 (April). While the double-core models will appear in Q3 (July).


For full specifications list of next AMD APU family with AMD A10-5800K, A10-5700, A8-5600K, A8-5500, A6-5400K and the A4-5300 check out the table bellow!

Credits: (donanimhaber.com)

There is no clear information about prices! But we could expect them to be released soon!

More news:
(donanimhaber.com) AMD A10 Series A10-5800K Black Edition
(cpu-world.com) AMD-A10-Series (Bulldozer) - A10-5800K
(guruht.com) AMD A10-5800K - A10-5700 - A8-5600K

By: Air T. 

Nvidia GK104 PCB pictured with some unusual power connector design!

First "real" Kepler (GK104) PCB shot from Asian website chiphell! They claim to be a real picture of the reference PCB.

The PCB is green in color and it's obviously an early engineering sample. The final product (branded GeForce GTX680 / GTX670 Ti) will likely have a black-colored one. The estimated length of the card is about 25 cm. On the picture we see the front side of PCB of a total 8 memory chips, which confirms the heavily rumoured 256Bit wide memory interface, with likely 2 GB of GDDR5. But it may be even 512-bit interface if the memory chips are placed also on the back side!
 

On the CAD drawing of NVIDIA's GeForce Kepler 104 (GK104) reference board we see that there are two SLI bridge connectors, giving it 3-way and 4-way SLI support. Two way SLI bridge interface appears only on the flagship graphics cards! It seems that NVIDIA could potentially aim with the GK104 as a high-end product to compete with AMD's flagship card Radeon HD7970! 

Other connectors on the card are dual DVI, one HDMI and one DisplayPort output. The card is loaded with a 5+2 phase power design (5-phase NVVDC configuration).

On the last two pictures we see a strange double-decker power connector. External power supply has a new plug with two 6pin PCI-E + 8pin PCI-E connector!

More news, pictures on:
(Computerbase.de) Erscheint Nvidias KEPLER als GK104 grafikchip am 23.maerz
(Vr-zone.com) Nvidia GK104 PCB pictured
(Techpowerup.com) GK104 PCB Pictured in Full

By: Air T. 

ASUS Maximus V Gene - mATX (intel Z77 chipset) specifications revealed!

Asus does it again! Beautiful and a lot of features on a micro ATX (mATX) motherboard for the latest Intel Core i7/i5/i3 3nd generation processors (LGA1155 socket), that even fits in compact gaming PC case! It's the ASUS Republic of Gamers motherboard based on upcoming Intel Z77 chipset.

Credits: (maximum-tech.net)

ASUS ROG Maximus V GENE LGA1155 Z77 Motherboard Details:

 
 Specifications:

- LGA1155 socket for 3nd generation Intel Core procesor-based platform and 2nd Generation Core i7/ i5/ i3/ Pentium/ Celeron processors
- 8 phase CPU power design + 4 -phase iGPU power design Extreme Engine DIGI+ II power design
- 4 DIMM, Dual-channel DDR3 2600+ MHz (O.C.)
- 2 x PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots
- 1 x PCI-Express 2.0 x4 slot
- 1 x mPCIe combo add-on card
- supports both NVIDIA SLi and AMD Crossfire
- 2 x SATA 3Gb/s (Black)
- 4 x SATA 6Gb/s (Red)
- 1 x eSATA 2 Gb/s
-  2 x USB 3.0 (blue)
- 4 x USB 2.0 (1 for ROG Connect)
- 1 x Clr CMOS switch
- 1 x ROG connect button
- 1 x S/PDIF out (Optical)
- Intel Gb LAN
- 7.1 channel HD audio I/O (SupremeFX III circuitry).

It comes with an HDMI and a DisplayPort for display connectivity.
 

One of new interesting features is called a mPCIe COMBO! 

 

Video: How To Use The Maximus V GENE mPCIe Combo card

Finally some impressive mATX motherboard! Really like the arrangement on this motherboard. It looks much better than the Gigabyte Z77 G1. Sniper M3.

The exact pricing details and release dates are unknown, but we could expect them to be released soon!

By: Air T.