Video cards from Sapphire will no longer come with a "fixed" set of games. Sapphire is lauching Sapphire Select, a DVD bundled with their video cards where the user can try and choose the games they want. Each game is playable for up one hour. Then, the user chooses the games he/she wants and an activation code is sent to the user. Sapphire Select also gives the user the opportunity to buy the games that were not not chosen from the bundle for a discounted price.
Sapphire has just released a Radeon X800 XL model with a different kind of fan that produces very low noise. Part of the Ultimate series, this VGA is based on the new PCI Express bus, has 256 MB GDDR3 memory, runs at 400 MHz (core) and 980 MHz (memory) and comes with RedLine overclocking utility from Sapphire. The board also comes with PowerDVD 5.0 and two full games: Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow and Price of Persia.
Crucial, division of Micron memory, has recently entered the video card market and has just released its Radeon X850 XT VGA, based on the PCI Express bus. With 256 MB of GDDR3 video memory and a list price of US$ 599.99, its specs include 256-bit memory access, core clock of 520 MHz, memory clock of 1.12 GHz, 37.76 GB/s memory bandwidth and 16 pixel processing pipelines.
Tul has just released its PowerColor Radeon X300 SE video card using the HyperMemory technology, that uses part of the system RAM memory as video memory. The X300 SE is the simplest (and cheapest) PCI Express chip from ATI, accessing memory using only 64 bits. The HyperMemory model has only 32 MB of video memory, but it "steals" the rest (96 MB) from the PC main RAM the same way happens with on-board video motherboards. This chip runs at 325 MHz and its target to entry level PCs.
Dutch company Point of View will lauch during CeBit next week its new heatsink called Ice Chameleon. Fully made of copper, it will be added to the PCI Express GeForce 6600 and GeForce 6800 series from this company. Accordingly to the manufacturer, this heatsink has low noise level because it runs at 5 V instead of 12 V, so the fan rotates at a lower speed. Also, the copper has a better thermal dissipation then alloy and the manufacturer promises that the graphic chip can run up to 10 degrees cooler using its new heatsink. Models with the new heatsink will be available starting March 17th.
ATI has officially launched Radeon X800 XL and X850 XT GPUs with AGP 8x interface aimed at gamers looking to upgrade their systems without having to adopt a new platform. The first uses a PCI Express to AGP bridge chip while the others are native AGP. The specifications are basically the same as those of the PCI-E versions. The X800 XL is clocked at 400 MHz and features 16 pixel pipelines, 256-bit interface and 256 MB of GDDR3 memory cloked at 1.1 GHz. The X850 XT GPUs are clocked at 520/540 MHz with GDDR3 memory at 1.12/1.18 GHz.
ATI showcased during last weekend's Texas Gaming Festival a Radeon X850 XT prototype with 512 MB of GDDR3 memory using dual-rank design. The company plans to offer 512 MB cards commercially soon. The prototype presented during the festival was set with the same frequencies as standard X850 XT cards: core at 520 MHz and memory at 1.08 GHz. A statement from the company assured that the 512 MB piece ensures higher perfomance even in current games and outperforms higher-end X850 XT Platinum Edition cards.
European VGA company Point of View has announced a new bundle sporting two of its own GeForce 6800 GT PCI-E card and a ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe motherboard. The GT Gaming Deluxe Bundle takes advantage of Nvidia´s SLI technology which allows simultaneous use of multiple video cards. The GeForce 6800 GT is clocked at 350 MHz and features 16 pixel pipelines, 256-bit interface and 256 MB of 2.0 ns GDDR3 memory clocked at 1 GHz. The A8N-SLI Deluxe is a nForce4 board aimed at socket 939 Athlon 64 chips. It brings features such as Serial ATA II, NV firewall and dual Gigabit LAN as well as ASUS´ proprietary overclocking technologies. The pack, set to be available in the beginning of March, includes three games: Hitman Contracts, Shellshock and Thief.
ATI began shipping a mobile version of its Radeon Xpress 200 chipset. The company claims that it is the first PCI Express integrated DirectX 9 chipset for notebooks with AMD processors. Based on the Radeon X300, the Xpress 200M offers PowerPlay 5.0 power management and HyperMemory, which shares the capacity and bandwidth of dedicated video memory and dynamically available system memory. The chipset supports AMD processors with 800 MHz or 1 GHz HyperTransport bus, up to four PCI-E x1 lanes, four Serial ATA ports (RAID 0, 1), eight USB 2.0 ports and AC´97 audio. According to ATI, design wins include HP, Sharp, Medion, Acer, Targa, Gateway, NEC, Mitac, Arima, MSI, Compal, Quanta Sharp and Wistron.
