Do you have several graphics cards from different vendors and chipset manufacturers? Wish you could mix and match them together on a single system for better graphics performance?  Well now you can!

Meet the HYDRA 200 chip designed by the folks at LucidLogix Technologies. Announced this week at Intel IDF 2009, HYDRA 200 works with the Intel i5/i7 processor and the P55 platform to enable you to mix and match GPUs of any configuration for scalable high performing 3D graphics. This means you can match GPUs from NVIDIA, ATI, you name it, into a single system and get additional throughput as a result.

One of the first motherboards to feature the new HYDRA 200 chip is the newly announced MSI Big Bang Gaming Motherboard. .Expect the MSI Big Bang Gaming Motherboard to be available this holiday season (although no price has been specified as of yet).

[Check out the press release]

Technorati Tags: LucidLogix HYDRA 200

It’s finally happened (and it was about time!). The graphics processor has finally reached the gigahertz plateau thanks to the introduction of the new factory over-clocked ATI Radeon HD 4890 GPU from AMD. While many computer enthusiasts have broken the gigahertz barrier with their respective GPUs, this is the first commercially available GPU to hit 1GHz using standard air-cooling techniques. Yes.. no need to break out some fancy schmancy cooling techniques here folks. Couple several of these 1GHz GPUs together and you’ve got yourself one fast graphics powerhouse of a system!  Maybe it’s time for me to revisit PC gaming again!

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: AMD, ATI Radeon HD 4890

If you’re like me, then you probably have a love/hate relationship with the Atom platform. On one hand, the processor itself is pretty sweet – offering decent performance at a low price point and low power consumption. Yet on the other hand, you have to deal with the crappy Intel integrated graphics that typically comes with the platform. Yes, all you netbook owners out there with Atom processors know what I’m talking about.

This is where NVIDIA’s new Ion platform is so incredibly important. Ion takes the Intel Atom processor and couples it with the GeForce 9400M chipset resulting in a system capable of playing 3D games and high definition video content.

I saw demos of the Ion platform firsthand at CES 2009 last month and I have to admit – I was sold on the idea.

Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to actually benchmark the platform so I had no real idea what to expect performance number wise from the system. Luckily, it appears the NDA for the Ion platform has been lifted resulting in several websites releasing performance reviews of the new platform.

First up, we have the folks from Anandtech who received a white colored reference system from NVIDIA. Here’s a snippet from the review:

“Ion addresses one of Atom’s primary deficiencies – poor graphics performance. It can’t, however, make Atom something it’s not. It’s faster to use Photoshop on Ion than on any of the current Atom platforms, but I still don’t want to. It’s better to play games on the Ion than on a regular Atom system, but it’s not fun to. “

Moving on, the folks at LaptopMag had this to say about the Ion platform:

“Assuming Ion doesn’t take too heavy a toll on battery life, and that it doesn’t add too much to the cost of these very price-sensitive machines, Nvidia’s platform could very well redefine netbooks.”

Finally, there’s a review of the platform over at PC Perspective which has this to say:

“This is not a product that will win over everyone’s heart – gaming is okay, but not great, power consumption is still questionable and costs will go up – but I think more people will give the netbook market a look once they start to see ION-based products hitting the shelves. And of course NVIDIA is not only aiming for the netbook market; I would love to see ION-based platforms show up in larger, lower-cost laptops in the 12-15″ screen size range as well as in basic HTPC designs. ”

Clearly the Ion platform is a good thing for the Atom processor. We’ll get better 3D graphics performance, better video decoding performance, and of course, a better overall PC experience. Graphics and/or video intensive applications will receive a noticeable boost in performance on the Atom platform and even Windows Vista will become usable on the platform.

Yet despite the improvements, there are still questions to be answered – such as pricing and power consumption. However a bigger issue may arise out of the success of the Ion platform. Solving the graphics shortcomings with the GeForce 9400M chipset will ultimately push the focus of the customer back to the deficiencies of the Atom processor. Hopefully this will spur Intel and others to develop higher performing, yet low power and inexpensive processors.

Technorati Tags: NVIDIA Ion, Intel Atom, NVIDIA GeFoce 9400M Chipset

Here’s an interesting press release that went across the wire this morning.

“Qualcomm has acquired certain graphics and multimedia technology assets, intellectual property and resources that were formerly the basis of AMD’s handheld business. The acquisition enhances Qualcomm’s multimedia capabilities, allowing Qualcomm to strengthen its leadership position in delivering more advanced products that redefine next-generation mobile user experiences.”

According to Steve Mollenkopf, executive VP of Qualcomm and president of Qualcomm CDMA Technologies, “This acquisition of assets from AMD’s handheld business brings us strong multimedia technologies, including graphics cores that we have been licensing for several years”

Under the terms of the agreement, Qualcomm has extended job offers to various design and development teams from AMD’s handheld business. AMD will receive $65 million dollars from AMD as part of this transaction.

So what exactly is AMD handing over to Qualcomm? In a report over at CNET’s News.com, AMD states that they are providing “vector graphics and 3D graphics technologies and IP” to Qualcomm. However, this does not include the Imageon line of graphics processors. The company will retain the rights to Imageon and “honor existing customer commitments” but will not make future updates to the Imageon road map.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: AMD, Qualcomm, handheld graphics

The other major AMD related news release today was the introduction of the new ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 graphics card which AMD/ATI calls the “world’s fastest graphics card.” Unlike NVIDIA which opted to create larger and faster GPUs, AMD opted to go the multi-processor route by building smaller GPUs and then combining them for graphics processing performance. According to AMD, the new Radeon HD 4870 X2 delivers 2.4 teraFLOPS of processing power on a single card thanks to 2GB of GDDR5 memory and two RV770 GPUs on the card clocked in at 750 MHz for a total of 1600 stream processors.

So that’s nice and dandy but is this all marketing fluff or is there something to what ATI is saying when it comes to multi-processor graphics cards? Luckily, there are a number of first hand reviews on the net so let’s see what they’re saying online.

First off, we have the folks at ExtremeTech:

ATI takes the performance crown by a good margin with the 4870 X2, but we expect future products to solve the common multi-GPU problems.

Over at Guru3D:

Money aside, what a true pleasure it has been testing the 4870 X2 cards. Personally I play my games at 2560×1600, I’m one of those lucky bastards to own a 30″ Dell screen, and playing games like Call of duty 4 or Mass Effect with framerates over 80 FPS in that resolution with the highest Image Quality settings available .. that’s just amazingly impressive .. well even that might be a slight understatement. Astounding is likely the right word for this product.

At the TechReport:

However, if you want the absolute ultimate graphics subsystem, you’ll find it in a pair of Radeon HD 4870 X2 cards, which unspooled a fluid ribbon of track in front of us in GRID at over 100 FPS at 2560×1600 resolution.

HotHardware has this to say:

In the end though, the Radeon HD 4870 X2 simply rocks.

Good ol Anandtech says:

The Radeon HD 4870 X2 is good, it continues to be the world’s fastest single card solution, provided that you’re running a game with CrossFire support.

Yes, those are certainly good reviews for the new Radeon.. but if you read the reviews yourself, you’ll notice a common theme – these cards are expensive! Heck – they’re more expensive than some low end PCs out on the market. Now if money is no object, then it appears the HD 4870 X2 is certainly the fastest card out there – also assuming you run the right games.

However, if money is something of a concern, you might be interested in the other new ATI product announced today – the ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 graphics card. The 4850 will be priced under $400 dollars (which is still darn expensive in my eyes) and offer 2GB of DDR3 memory and two GPUs clocked at 625MHz.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: ATI, AMD, Radeon HD 4870 X2, Radeon HD 4850 X2

Get ready for Intel’s new Centrino 2 Processor technology as Intel has introduced a sum total of 14 new processors, a new chipset, and new Wi-Fi chip.  Five new processors are being introduced today as part of Intel’s new Centrino 2 Processor Technology. The company is also introducing the new Intel Core 2 Extreme processor for mobile platforms which runs at a fast 3.06GHz. Finally, the company will unveil eight new processors over the next 90 days – one of which will be the first ever quad core mobile processor and others being second generation products for the ultra-thin and light notebook class.

The Intel Centrino 2 processor technology and Centrino 2 with vPro Technology was formally known as Montevina and feature faster Wi-Fi performance (with support for draft 802.11n technology), new business-class manageability capabilities, and improved performance and battery life.

On the processor side of the new Centrino 2 platform, there are initially five new mobile processors manufactured on a 45nm process. These processors feature:

• 1066 MHz front side bus speeds
• Up to 6MB L2 cache
• Deep Power Down Technology which turns off processing components such as core clocks and cache memory when the laptop is idle

Three processors also reduce laptop processor wattage about 30 percent – down to just 25 watts.

On the chipset front of the Centrino 2 platform, there’s the new Intel 45 Express chipset and the new Intel Wi-Fi Link 5000 series. Wi-Fi Link 5000 provides the draft 802.11n support with data rates up to 450Mbps.  The Intel 45 Express chipset also supports “switchable graphics” which is a new power saving feature allowing for both integrated and discrete graphics on a single notebook – letting the user easily switch between the two options depending on power needs.

Now that Intel has formally announced Centrino 2 products, expect a stream of new notebook announcements from hardware manufacturers.

For additional details into Centrino  2, check out ExtremeTech’s coverage here.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Intel, Centrino 2 Processor, Intel 45 Express

Think general purpose microprocessors have high transistor counts? Think again folks! NVIDIA has unveiled their latest family of GeForce GTX 200 GPUs and these bad boys have a TON of transistors – 1.4 billion transistors to be roughly exact. Making up the GTX 200 family are two processors – the high end GTX 280 and the mid-range GTX 260. The new GPUs are basically the same processor with the GTX 280 having all the capabilities enabled and the GTX 260 having some of the capabilities disabled.

With the new GTX 200 series of GPUs, NVIDIA is stating that bigger is indeed better – at least for the high end graphics world. They’ve packed a ton of horse power into a single die – resulting in a processor which is bound to be super large and power hungry. Thus – don’t expect graphic cards using the GTX 200 processors to be small in size. Heck you might even need a PSU upgrade.

Now contrast this with ATI’s philosophy which boils down to multi-processors for scalability. They’re keeping their designs small and fairly compact – hoping to tack on more processors if the demands are needed. In fact, AMD has pretty much conceded the high end graphics market to NVIDIA, instead focusing on delivering near high end performance at mid-range costs.

With the new GTX 280 based cards expected to cost around $650 and GTX 260 cards around $400, one has to wonder if these processors are worth it? Well, the reviews thus far have been somewhat mixed. One thing is certain – the GTX 200 is definitely the fastest processor even designed by NVIDIA. However, many of also found that current 9800 GX2 cards are just as fast if not faster than the single GPU GTX 280. Another interesting observation found in the reviews: The GTX 260 is the better bargain between the two new GPUs simply because you get 15-25 % performance degradation at a 40% cost reduction.

For more “light” reading, check out the early reviews from:

• ExtremeTech
• Anandtech
• TechReport
• HotHardware
• PCWorld
• Guru3D
• Hexus.net
• Maximum PC

Technorati Tags: NVIDA GeForce GTX 200, GTX 280, GTX 260

If there’s one problem with today’s notebook systems, it’s the generally under-whelming performance of their graphics subsystems. Graphics vendors usually strike a balance between performance and power consumption – with power consumption often winning due to the sheer fact that you’ve got yourself a mobile device. Well, AMD is looking to change all of that with the introduction of the new ATI XGP Technology. XGP stands for eXternal Graphics Platform and that pretty much says it all. The ATI XGP is designed to be an external graphics solution that connects to your notebook system using an external PCI Express 2.0 connector. The initial launch of the ATI XGP features the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3800 Series Graphics solution and delivers features such as:

• ATI Avivo HD technology for smooth HD playback via full hardware acceleration
• Integrated Digital Outputs enable viewing standard and high definition content
• Support for ATI CrossFireX technology multi-GPU capabilities
• Independently powered and cooled external graphics solution
• Enthusiast class graphics performance for notebooks
• ATI XGP with a single ATI Radeon graphics processor and a notebook PC can drive up to 4 displays
• Dedicated USB 2.0 connector enables attachments of TV tuners, Blu-ray devices, etc

So how does this all work exactly? Well when you’re home or in the office, just connect the ATI XGP to your specially designed notebook with PCI Express 2.0 connector and experience high end graphics performance great for multimedia playback and high end gaming. When you need to go on the road, disconnect the XGP from your notebook and work with the integrated graphics on the notebook – allowing you to perform basic activities as well as efficient power management.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: ATI XGP, PCI Express 2.0