As NVIDIA celebrates the launch of its two new flagship products: the GeForce GTX 295 and GeForce GTX 285, Sparkle made an addition to its mainstream graphics lineup with a 1 GB variant its GeForce 9600 GSO accelerator (model: SX96SO1024D3-HM). Traditionally, the G92 graphics processor in the 8800 GS, 9600 GSO should have a 192-bit memory bus, but with this particular card, Sparkle chose a 128-bit memory bus and added 1 GB of GDDR3 memory.

The card features a dual-slot cooler for the GPU. Its core is clocked550 MHz. Its 96 stream processors are clocked at 1375 MHz. The memory runs at 800 MHz (1600 MHz DDR). It supports NVIDIA CUDA and PhysX technologies and is SLI capable. It will be priced around US $100.
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1GB Extreme Fast Large-capacity GDDR3 memory
Today‘s game, such as Crysis, Alone in the Dark 5, Stalker: clear sky, they normally use a large number of bump texture, transparent texture to describe faces of characters and render realistic gaming scenes, so these games put higher demands on the capacities of video memory. The current situation demands at least 512 MB video memory to run these games. Compared with ordinary GeForce 9600 GSO graphics cards on market, SPARKLE GeForce 9600 GSO 1GB Graphics Cards come with incredible large 1GB GDDR3 video memory can let mainstream users to pass the 3DMark Vantage High Test which strictly demand at least 512MB video memory, providing much more detail information to mainstream users for better understanding its graphics capability.

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2nd Generation PureVideo HD
High-definition video decoder and post-processor delivers unprecedented picture clarity, smooth video and accurate color for movies and video.

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Cooling System
Exquisitely made cooling fans or passive cooling system with heat-pipe, which have high performance thermal compound ensures optimal thermal dissipation even after years of use.

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Full Microsoft DirectX 10 support
World’s first DirectX 10 GPU with full Shader Model 4.0 support delivers unparalleled levels of graphics realism and film-quality effects.

* NVIDIA™ PhysX
GeForce GPU support for NVIDIA PhysX technology, enabling a totally new class of physical gaming interaction for a more dynamic and realistic experience with GeForce.

* NVIDIA™CUDA Technology
CUDA technology unlocks the power of the GPU's processor cores to accelerate the most demanding system tasks such as video transcoding delivering up to 7x performance over traditional CPUs.

WITH NVIDIA'S GTX 295 announcement just around the corner, the satanic rumourmill - as Nick fondly puts it - is in overdrive once again, fuelled by leaked specs and a vivid imagination, it seems.

What are we talking about? Well, several Chinese forums were a-buzz today with talk of a RV775XT and RV775Pro, alleged derivatives of the current RV770 marchitecture with some odd bits and pieces of additional tech - smaller dies on the same process without a re-design, for example. This included a return to GDDR4, die sizes mysteriously shrinking on a 55nm process, and some extra stream processors and TMUs.

The most interesting part of the posts was the one about DAAMIT having refined the fabbing process resulting in better yields that would allow it to put out parts with lower redundancy, that is, less silicon set aside for the eventuality of a manufacturing defect. This would mean some serious cherry-picking taking place and a limited supply of cards, at best, not to mention the economics of the thing...

We rang up ATI's Chris Hook about this and he clarified several points about those specifications. The general consensus is that someone compiled fragments of possible products and put them in a nice looking table. While, in good PR fashion, not admitting or denyinganything we threw at him, he did help us figure out what's wrong with the info.

ATI won't be launching anything in January, that's more or less guaranteed. A refresh to the current range of cards will be launched over the course of 1H-09, but not as early as January (CeBIT sounds like as good a time as any). That will include a delayed RV740 derivative and a suped-up RV770, which should receive the HD 49xx moniker. GDDR3 and GDDR5 will remain the memory bits and pieces, but ATI has dropped GDDR4 for good... too expensive and too much like GDDR5, said the Cap'n. Now the juicy bit is that AMD has narrowed down the 40nm parts launch to the first half of 2009 too, so between the derivatives and the shrinks there will be plenty of options on the market in 2009.

Last, but certainly not least, the 58xx series cards will be reserved for Q4 2009 and will pair up with Microsoft's DirectX 11 launch. So fanbois and fangoils, you'll have to wait a while.

There was more but we were sworn to secrecy, under penalty of death by Sasquatch buggery. We'll keep it to ourselves.

We have already got used to the way details on unreleased products keep leaking on the Internet, a good time before the official announcement from producers. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that, while browsing the Internet this morning, we stumbled upon an article talking of NVIDIA's 2009 GeForce GTX 295. More specifically, the aforementioned card appears to have already had its first photo session, thus partially showing itself to all technology enthusiasts and anyone else interested in it.
The two graphic processors featured on the card have been built on NVIDIA's new 55nm process technology, which should ultimately provide support for a higher performance level. The card itself is expected to be showcased and launched at the Consumer Electronics Show next year, set to take place between the 8 and 11 of January in LasVegas, Nevada. Specific details regarding the technical specifications of the card aren't available at this time, but a single look at the picture posted on Vr-Zone will offer us some clues as to what to expect.
As with NVIDIA's GeForce 9800GX2, the new GTXX 295 will be featured with two GPUs placed on two separate PCBs, a solution that differs from that of AMD, which builds its dual-GPU card by placing the two graphic processors onto the same PCB. The card displayed in the picture features 2 DVI ports and 1 Display Port, and will boast the same sandwich-like design as the earlier mentioned 9800GX2.
Given its impressive size, and the fact that it will have to power two of NVIDIA's latest GT200 GPUs, the card has been featured with a 8+6 pins power connector combo, which should be more than enough to offer you a general idea of how much power the card needs.
As with all officially unreleased products, pricing details for NVIDIA's GTX 295 are yet to emerge, but things should become clearer as we approach its debut date in January.

If you've been thinking about upgrading to Nvidia's GeForce GTX 260 videocard, you may want to hold off for a few weeks. According to Chinese site Expreview, Nvidia will release a new 55nm-based GTX 260 along with a 55nm GTX 295 (GTX 260 GX2) in January 2009. And if history tells us anything, Nvidia tends to do well with core revisions (G92-based 8800GT, for example). Expreview posted several pics of the revised GTX 260, which it claims were sent in from Zotac.

In addition to a die shrink, the new GTX 260, or at least Zotac's version, looks to be built with a 10-layer PCB design rather than 14 layers as foundon current GTX 260/280 videocards, Expreview says. The new revision also upgrades its 3+2 phase power modules to 4+2 phase.

Other specs look to remain the same, such as the number of stream processors (216) and core and memory frequencies. This means you might not see a leap in stock performance, but in theory, the power consumption, heat output, and overclocking potential should all be improved.

No word yet on projected pricing, which could either sweeten or spoil the whole deal.

When we think about ECS and their product lines, we typically expect a budget-minded approach. Solid products at reasonable prices that don't exactly wow the consumer, but don't hit them hard in the wallet either. The ECS X48T-A motherboard that we looked at a few weeks ago was one of the first steps by ECS to change that image, although a few missteps with the construction as well as some overclocking issues didn't overly sway us to their new way of thinking.

Thus, we were a bit surprised when we first heard about the ECS GeForce 9800 GTX+ Hydra - a twin pack of high-end graphics cards consisting of two GeForce 9800 GTX+ cards combined with liquid-cooling. The 9800 GTX+ is the upper level of the 9xxx series, with the plus denoting an extra bump in the clock speeds to get better peformance in the most demanding applications. Two of these used in an SLI configuration would be a gamer's dream, although the noise and heat output could be an issue. ECS has solved these problems by providing the customized liquid cooling unit from ThermalTake using the BigWater 760is. ECS hopes to make a big splash here with the Hydra pack, possibly the first of its kind to include all three components in one box. First, we'll take a look at the specs of the GeForce 9800 GTX+ and then move onto a closer look at ECS' take on it and finally the BigWater 760is.Processor Cores 128
Graphics Clock (MHz) 738 MHz
Processor Clock (MHz) 1836 MHz
Texture Fill Rate (billion/sec) 47.2

An announcement by GIGABYTE UNITED INC., a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards reveals today the launch of their future generation graphic accelerator, the GIGABYTE GV-N26OC-896H-B. Packed with NVIDIA’s latest GeForce GTX 260 OC graphics processor, the accelerator will assure you the highest quality whether it is games or a movie.

Bundled with 216 processors the GeForce GTX 260 OC definitely overpowers the earlier GeForce GTX 260 with an enhanced performance of nearly 5-10%. Expect a real world gaming experience with 448bit, 896 GB GDDR3 memory along with NVIDIA’s PhysX Technology that will take your 3D gaming capabilities to an altogether new level. The GIGABYTE GV-N26OC-896H-B is an accelerator that offers you much more with a HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) and Full HD to 1,080P. So you not only have great gaming support, but you are also promised one of the finest home theater experiences.Making even your most demanding system tasks effortless is the flexibility of the GIGABYTE GV-N26OC-896H-B with CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) Technology. Over traditional CPUs, this distinct technology ensures you video transcoding for an up to 7x performance enhancement. To get rid of jagged edges, the accelerator is also attributed by 16x Anti-aliasing Technology that gives you real fast and premium quality anti-aliasing up to 16x sample rates. In addition there is also a 128-bit floating point High Dynamic Range (HDR) Lighting that gives you a two-fold precision as against previous generations.

Additional features incorporated include a 3-way NVIDIA SLI Technology that amazingly implements a 3-way AFR (Alternate Frame Rendering), DirectX 10 support and the very recent Unified Shader architecture with full support for Shader Model 4.0 along with the full Aero Interface. The GIGABYTE GV-N26OC-896H-B also comprises of the NVIDIA PureVideo technology with Dual Dual-Link DVI support.

Up for distribution in India by Avnet (India), the GIGABYTE GV-N26OC-896H-B should cost you around Rs. 24,500.

Although this is a time when AMD's graphics subsidiary, ATI, is enjoying great success with its latest Radeon graphics cards, several of NVIDIA's board partners are continuously looking for better ways to improve the graphics chips released by the Santa Clara, California-based chip maker. One such example is Taiwanese manufacturer ASUS, which has stealthily introduced a new GeForce 9800GTX+-based graphics card that comes equipped with a custom cooling technology.

The newly introduced card comes to build on NVIDIA's first 55nm-based GPU, but delivers an optimum cooling level, thanks to its custom, dual-slot cooling solution. Although it is yet to be officially announced, it is known that the card basically delivers the same clock levels as those on the reference model.

However, with the help of the dual slot cooler, featuring four heatpipes, an exposed fan and lots of aluminum fins, it will certainly pass as a real overclocker. It is this overclocking potential that will eventually appeal to those gaming enthusiasts out there, especially to those who will do almost anything to achieve a high level of performance with their desktop gaming rigs.In a more or less obvious attempt at capitalizing on the success of the recently released Batman movie, the “Dark Knight,” ASUS has dubbed the fancy-looking cooler Dark Knight. Aside from that, the card's GPU, memory and Shaders have been clocked to stock frequencies, and can deliver a speed of 738MHz, 2200MHz and 1836MHz, respectively. No word on the exact amount of memory, but chances are it will be equipped with 512MB of GDDR3. It delivers support for PCI Express 2.0, DirectX 10 and Shader Model 4.0, and obviously for NVIDIA's PureVideo HD and SLI technologies.

The card also comes with ASUS Gamer OS and Smart Doctor overclocking utilities and, according to TCMagazine, ASUS will even throw in a leather mouse pad to sweeten the offer. Unfortunately, pricing details are currently unavailable, but the card should soon go on sale at a reseller near you.

Graphics card competition has heated up with the introduction of ATI's HD4800 series -- to offer a more attractive solution to go against the ATI cards, NVIDIA has now introduced the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 graphics card. This particular 260 has slightly more stream processors than the 260 which was originally released: it then had 192 stream processors, whereas the Core 216 variant has 216 stream processors; hence the name. And if you are confused over this entire mess of a naming convention, then you are not alone.

The GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 will sell for a competitive $280 and will go head-to-head with the HD 4870, both in price and performance. The latter sells for anything between $280 and $300. Check out two such 260 offerings from EVGA and Zotac.

Pricing pressure increased on Nvidia's GeForce GTX 260 and GTX 280 when ATI tagged their HD 4800 series cards for $300 only. NVIDIA then slashed the GeForce GTX 260 and GTX 280 prices by a hefty amount in response.Specifications of both cards from EVGA and Zotac are virtually identical. The number of stream processors differs from 192 stream processors in standard GTX 260 card to 216 stream processors as NVIDIA has enabled one more functional block with 24 stream processing units in the existing GT200 GPU. The GT200 GPU can offer a maximum of 240 stream processors -- 24 each in 10 functional blocks. Along with a total of nine such blocks in the GTX 260 Core 216, eight more texture filtering units have also been enabled, bringing the total to 72 texture filtering units.

While the Radeon HD 4870 outpaced the 192-core 260, it will be interesting to see if the 216-core variant can fare better against its arch-rival. Also note that the card still doesn't offer DirectX 10.1 support.

Just over two months after introducing the first Chrome 400-series graphics card, S3 has added a new, faster variant to its lineup. From the outside, the new Chrome 440 GTX doesn't look very different from the Chrome 430 GT, with the same low-profile design and cooler. The two cards' GPUs are both 65nm, DirectX 10.1-capable parts with the ability to decode 1080p Blu-ray video.

However, S3 has outfitted the Chrome 440 GTX with GDDR3 RAM, and it claims the new card offers higher overall performance than the DDR2-powered 430 GT. A chart on its website shows the newcomer yielding a 15% greater score than AMD's Radeon HD 3470 in 3DMark06 onWindows Vista. For reference, S3 claims its Chrome 430 GT outperforms the slower Radeon HD 3450 by 20% or so in the same benchmark.

S3 has opted to price the Chrome 440 GTX at only $69, making it just $10 pricier than the 430 GT. That's also about $10 more expensive than the Radeon HD 3470, a Sapphire-built version of which can be had for $59.99 on Newegg. The 3470 has passive cooling, although it doesn't have a low-profile circuit board design.

OK, I've been doing this since the last century, but I really have no idea how to frame this article. It might be a review of a new graphics card. Nvidia just recently introduced its GeForce 9800 GTX, and this is our first look at that card.

But we didn't really stop there. We threw together two and then three 9800 GTX cards in order to see how they perform in some incredibly powerful and borderline ridiculous configurations. Then we totally crossed in the line into crazy-land by doubling up on GeForce 9800 GX2 cards and testing the new generation of quad SLI, as well. What's more, we tested against the previous generation of three-way SLI—based on the GeForce 8800 Ultra—and against the competing CrossFire X scheme involving three and four Radeons.

Most of you probably care incrementally less about these configurations as the GPU count—and price tag—rises. But boy, do we ever have a hefty amount of info on the latest GPUs compiled in one place, and it's a pretty good snapshot of the current state of things. Keep reading if you're into that stuff.GT to the X
A new video card doesn't come along every day. Seriously. About three Sundays ago, not a single product announcement hit my inbox. Most days, however, it seems that at least one new variant of an already known quantity hits the streets with some kind of tweak in the clock speeds, cooling solutions, product bundles, or what have you.

Such is the case—despite the GeForce 9-series name—with the GeForce 9800 GTX. This card is, ostensibly, the replacement for the older GeForce 8800 GTX, but it's very, very similar to the GeForce 8800 GTS 512 released in December—same G92 GPU, same 128 stream processors, same 256-bit memory path, same PCI Express 2.0 interface, same 512MB of GDDR3 memory. Even the cooler has a similarly angled fan enclosure, as you can see by glancing at our trio of 9800 GTX cards pictured below.