TDJ: CPU comparison, GTX 560

Our fellow Cowcotland just update its comparative processors dual, tri, quad and hexa-cores by adding the test of the Pentium dual-core G620, bringing to 47 the total number of processors tested. How is the youngest to compete? For their part, our colleagues at the Counter of the Hardware recently posted a review of the GeForce GTX 560 ...

• You applied hot glue to your old cpu as part of a presentation display. If you clean it off will it still work (09/05/2011)
• Get Alert When High CPU usage on Windows with ResLoad Notifier (25/05/2011)
• Fix Bent CPU Pins (09/05/2011)
• What is the cpu in your laptop (31/05/2011)
• maximum CPU's per VM on vSphere 4 (09/05/2011)

Central processing unit (wikipedia)  

Catalyst 11.6: AMD enables Steady Video

AMD has just put online version of June's unified graphics drivers Catalyst. Logically numbered 11.6, these new drivers are compatible with the Radeon HD 2400 and newer, as well as chipsets Radeon 3000 and newer, GG and FireStream cards from 9170 to 9350. As usual, this new version of Catalyst brings new features, bug fixes and performance improvements.

Note, for example, improved performance in CRYSYS, F1 2010, Far Cry 2 or HAWX and with the engine Unigine. Steady Video functionality aimed at stabilizing real-time video, for example when they are filmed by a camera is also enabled in the Catalyst 11.6. In short, to know all the news of these drivers, just read the release notes.

Snapdragon: Krait, Adreno, 4G, future start

This morning, Qualcomm presented in detail the range 2011 with interesting information: the Snapdragon "2" was delivered last week to manufacturers for integration into smartphones late 2011. So back on the chips of the American manufacturer. Snapdragon is the first QSD8250, released in 2009. This smart all-in-One (SoC) integrates a CPU Scorpion - an ARM-compatible core that lies between the Cortex A8 and Cortex A9 in performance - GPU Adreno 200 (from the purchase of the mobile range of ATi ) and - notably - a GPS receiver and a modem.

AMD launches mobile Llano, the second "Fusion"

After Brazzos (AMD "E"), the company announced Llano, its new platform that uses a chip "Fusion". AMD's new line "A" will come to replace the Athlon Xx II in mid range, with some interesting graphics. A test is scheduled on Tom's Hardware a few days, but we will present here the different chips. As with its Intel Atom or AMD Sandy Bridge and E, A is the AMD Unified: it has a northbridge, a processor and a graphics card in the same chip.

Xbox 360: towards a new chip Fusion

Microsoft should offer a new Xbox 360 Slim, with a new chip to replace the chipset, CPU and GPU. This chip SoC (System on a Chip, All-in-one) will allow Microsoft to cut costs and consumption of its console. Note that a year ago that this rumor and nothing concrete has been presented at the time. This is not the first time inside the console is changing: the first version of the console using a platform "Xenon" combining a 90 nm GPU and a 90nm CPU, the second (Zephyr) adds HDMI The third (Falcon) passed the 65 nm CPU and GPU then Opus 90 nm (for the VAS) proposed a 65 nm CPU and GPU 90 nm.

NVIDIA PhysX SDK 3.0.1 formalizes its

NVIDIA has released version 3.0 of its SDK (Software Development Kit) PhysX. This API allows for recall of managing real-time physics, especially in video games, all running on Windows, GNU / Linux, Mac OS, Xbox 360, PS3 or the Android platform. This new version brings PhysX reviewed and corrected, with improvements in the computational load of collisions, multithreading management (multi-core platforms appreciate) or the rapid integration of graphics with no loss performance.

Back on the Computex: MSI

The news was rather rich computer these days, different manufacturers present at Computex advantage of this event to showcase their latest products, technologies and innovations. Now that the show closed its doors, we'll be back a little more detail on the different stands of manufacturers, starting with MSI (because it has to start somewhere).

As for graphics cards, MSI N580GTX exposing his Lightning Xtreme Edition, a GeForce GTX 580 overclocked and factory equipped with a fan that changes color depending on the temperature of the card. The same fan also works upside down for 30 seconds when starting the system to prevent dust from accumulating in the cooler.

The Radeon HD 6870 X2 PowerColor at $ 449

The manufacturer PowerColor has taken advantage of Computex to expose its Radeon HD 6870 X2, a graphics card that should come compete with the GeForce GTX 580 from NVIDIA. This graphics card, rather imposing, carries two GPUs clocked at 900 MHz Barts (a total of 2240 stream processors) and 2 GB of GDDR5 memory running at 1050 MHz on a bus 2 x 256-bit.

Equipped with DVI (x2), HDMI and DisplayPort mini (x2), the Radeon HD 6870 X2 is also equipped with a dual-slot cooling consists of an aluminum radiator crossed by several copper heat pipes and two fans. Finally, note the presence of two power connectors PCI-Express 8-pin. Expected by the end of the month, the Radeon HD 6870 X2 PowerColor should be offered at a recommended retail price of 449 dollars.

• Computex 2011: PowerColor doubles your gaming pleasure with dual Radeon HD 6870 X2, 6970 X2 (04/06/2011)
• Computex 2011: PowerColor doubles your gaming pleasure with dual Radeon HD 6870 X2, 6970 X2 graphics cards (04/06/2011)
• PowerColor dual Barts/HD6870 video card surfaces and it looks awesome (10/05/2011)
• Powercolor expected to unveil double-barreled Radeon at Computex (10/05/2011)
• AMD Radeon HD 6790 tipped to bring mid-range battle to GeForce GTX 550 Ti (29/03/2011)

PowerColor (homepage)  PowerColor (wikipedia)  Radeon (wikipedia)  

3 without the Eyefinity DisplayPort with a Radeon HD 6970

HIS advantage of Computex to unveil a new graphics card, the Radeon HD 6970 IceQ Mix. With a dual-slot cooling IceQ HIS clean, this card has the distinction of being compatible Eyefinity on three screens, but without the obligation to use one of DisplayPort outputs. The Radeon HD therefore has two DVI outputs and an HDMI output, and two mini DisplayPort outputs.

The Radeon HD 6970 IceQ Mix also embeds a GPU Cayman (probably running at 880 MHz, a frequency identical to the reference model) and 2 GB of GDDR5 memory running at prior to 1375 MHz. HIS has unfortunately not yet provided pricing or availability date.

• AMD drops ATI name from latest Cayman GL FirePro graphics cards (25/05/2011)
• Best GPU (13/04/2011)
• Apple iMac 27-inch (3.1GHz, Spring 2011) Editors' Choice (04/05/2011)
• Powercolor expected to unveil double-barreled Radeon at Computex (10/05/2011)
• Yeah, I Could Rock That: AMD's 5×1 Eyefinity Setup Looks Sick (16/03/2011)

DisplayPort (wikipedia)  Evergreen (GPU family) (wikipedia)  Radeon (wikipedia)  

PowerColor Radeon HD exposes its 6970 X2

PowerColor advantage of the Computex show a model of Radeon somewhat special: the Radeon HD 6970 X2. Boarding, as its name suggests, two graphics chipsets Cayman clocked at 880 MHz (for a total of 3072 stream processors), this card also has 4 GB of GDDR5 memory running at 1375 MHz on a bus 2 x 256-bit .

PCB, relatively long and high, reveals three power connectors PCI-Express 8-pin (this passage raises fears the worst as regards the consumption of the card). Note also the presence of a bridge - probably a smart LucidLogix - between the two graphics chipsets. Two DVI outputs, an HDMI output and two mini DisplayPort are finally present.

Zotax: 3 screens simultaneously on a GTX 560

Zotac manufacturer will soon launch on the market a GeForce GTX 560 a little special because that can simultaneously manage up to three screens. The GeForce GTX 560 Multiview is indeed equipped with two DVI, DisplayPort output and two HDMI outputs. To qualify for the triple-display, however, will require mandatory use both HDMI and one DVI or DisplayPort.

The rest is classic features. We thus find a GPU clocked at 820 MHz, 336 Cores CUDA running at 1640 MHz and 1 GB of GDDR5 memory running at 1002 MHz on a 256-bit bus. The cooling dual-slot is in turn composed of an aluminum radiator, multiple copper heat pipes and a single 80mm fan. Zotac has sadly not yet indicated the price of the GTX 560 Multiview.

• Projection film court à Cannes (13/05/2011)
• Detour (10/06/2010)
• Flux: Better Lighting For Your Screen (28/03/2011)
• New 'Captain America' Plot Details Reveal Marvel Movie Connections (11/05/2011)
• 7 Km From Pondicherry... (12/12/2010)

GeForce GTX 560M: Optimus using

Nvidia today launched a new graphics chip for notebooks, the GeForce GTX 560M. It is a revolution? No, not really. The 560M uses the same GPU as the previous GTX 460M. It has the same number of units, the same memory bandwidth. The only difference is the reference frequency set by Nvidia: 775 MHz (1550 MHz for CUDA cores) cons on the 675 MHz GTX 460M.

These 100 MHz are 14.8% more, the newcomer should provide significantly higher performance. The main interest of this 560M is really in its compatibility with technology from Nvidia Optimus. For the first time, manufacturers will take advantage of this opportunity to offer laptops for gamers also offering autonomy.

YouTube manages the NVIDIA 3D Vision

YouTube has released a 3D stereoscopic movie player compatible with HTML 5 and Firefox Vision 3D NVIDIA, according to a statement posted on the website of the manufacturer of graphics cards. YouTube has released a 3D stereoscopic movie player compatible with HTML 5 and Firefox Vision 3D NVIDIA, according to a statement posted on the website of the manufacturer of graphics cards.

Owners of a GeForce compatible drivers 275 or older can use their glasses to view certain videos fillings. NVIDIA has released a web page with examples. NVIDIA's announcement is part of a larger event for Google. The editor supports officially stereoscopy after two years of testing alpha and finally he has to deploy its large-scale system.

Catalyst Hotfix available 11.5b

AMD has released new drivers for its graphics cards. According to the manufacturer's instructions, the Catalyst Hotfix 11.5b provide important bugs. CrossFire modes Witcher Brink and 2 are finally available. AMD has also solved problems of flickering screen in DirectX 9 games Civilization 5, Dead Rising 2, Fallout 3, Mafia 2, NBA 2010, ShenGuiChuanQi, Starcraft 2, Warcraft III and World of Warcraft.

March II: the great Asus GeForce

At Computex, Asus will offer an exceptional graphics card, the Mars II. After Ares (based on the Radeon) and Mars (based on the GeForce GTX 285), March II will use two GeForce GTX 580 in parallel. This card will be close to a GeForce GTX 590 - which already uses two GPUs GF110 - but with a priori higher frequencies.

Indeed, the GeForce GTX 580 working 772/2004 MHz (GPU / memory), while the GTX 590 is simply 607/1707 MHz. We know that the Mars II will use a cooling system DirectCU II and it will offer 3 GB of GDDR5 memory (twice actually 1.5GB). Initial information is patchy and the frequency chips is not known, it is replaced by a classic "TBD" (To Be Determined).

Two new AMD FirePro

AMD has announced the arrival on the professional market with two new FirePro cards, the V7900 and V5900. Compatible with DirectX 11 API, OpenGL 4.1 and OpenCL 1.1, both cards support CrossFire technology Pro, and Eyefinity PowerTune. The FirePro V7900 features a GPU clocked at 725 MHz Barts and features of 1280 Stream Processors functional.

The side of the V5900, the GPU is clocked more than 600 MHz and only 512 stream processors are available. Side-board memory, there are 2 GB of GDDR5 memory (running at 1250 MHz on the FirePro V7900 and V5900 on 500 MHz) on a 256-bit bus. The TDP of 150W reached V7900, cons just 75W for his little sister.

Nvidia Optimus finally Linux compatible

You can now use technology Optimus Nvidia, that is to say enabling the fly to a GeForce installed in a laptop in addition to Intel's integrated GPU processor with Linux. This small miracle is the result of Martin Juhl, developer of Open Source program Bumbledee. Bumbledee is not yet at the official Nvidia drivers in Windows: it does not switch automatically between the GeForce IGP and depending on the application launched.

The drivers and firmware of the week

We inaugurate this week a new section bringing together the various drivers and firmware that manufacturers have posted in recent days. Graphics drivers, or network storage, Windows or Linux: everyone will be served! Drivers NVIDIA GeForce 275.27 beta version, for GeForce 8M and newer, Quadro FX and NVS to M as well as chipsets ION.

Available for Windows Vista and 7 (32 and 64 bit). Drivers NVIDIA GeForce 275.27 beta version, for GeForce 6 and newer chipsets as well as ION. Available for Windows XP, Vista and 7 (32 and 64 bit). The drivers of NVIDIA GeForce graphics version 270.41.19, for GeForce 6 and newer, and the Quadro CX, FX and NVS and chipsets ION.

GeForce GT 545 and 530 for OEMs

NVIDIA goes on and launching new graphics cards. The manufacturer has indeed bring to market two new GeForce GT 545 and GT530. Intended for the OEM market, these two maps should be enjoyed by PC manufacturers. Low-profile format, the GeForce GT 530 then embeds a GPU clocked at 700 MHz with 96 CUDA cores running at 1400 MHz.

There are also 1 or 2 GB of DDR3 memory (depending on version) running at 898 MHz on a 128-bit bus. Of VGA, DVI and HDMI are available. Side of the GeForce GT 545, both versions should appear. The first features a GPU clocked at 720 MHz (1440 MHz for the 144 CUDA cores) and 1.5 GB or 3 GB of DDR3 memory running at 900 MHz on a 192-bit bus.

Powercolor: Radeon HD 6850 Silent

The manufacturer has formalized its PowerColor SCS3 (Silent Cooling System 3) HD6850, Radeon HD 6850 features a passive cooling system (in other words: a simple radiator crossed by several heatpipes) and therefore completely silent. However, much attention optimize the flow of air into the cabinet ...

Equipped with a floor of a three-phase power, the Radeon HD 6850 graphics chipset embeds a clocked at 775 MHz and has 960 Stream Processors. There is also 1 GB of GDDR5 memory operating at 1 GHz on a 256-bit bus. CrossFireX compatible, this SCS3 HD6850 also has the DVI (x2), HDMI and DisplayPort.