ATI has just released the latest version (4.11) of its Catalyst driver. According to the company, this is a minor update, containing bug fixes and improvements such as a new monitor tab for each display device. The suite updates both the ATI Display Driver (8.071) and the Catalyst Control Center (4.11). The latter is recommended only for Radeon 9500 or higher cards.
Nvidia unveiled this week its first mobile graphics chip based on GeForce 6 series architecture. The GeForce Go 6800 is a PCI Express GPU for desktop replacement notebooks featuring 12 pixel pipelines, 5 vertex pipelines and 256-bit memory interface. Nvidia plans to ship different versions clocked at from 275 MHz to 450 MHz with memory frequencies ranging from 400 MHz to 600 MHz. Additional features include a video decoding acceleration technology called PureVideo and power consumption management tool PowerMizer 5.0.
ABIT has also announced a Radeon X700 XT card as part of its Fatal1ty hardware series. The PCI Express card has eight pixel pipelines, 128-bit memory bus and is clocked at 475 MHz. It uses 256 MB of GDDR3 memory (1.6 ns) running at 1050 MHz. Special features include copper heatsink, copper RAMsinks and OC Strips. The card comes with VGA, DVI and TV-out connectors.
The graphic cards maker Tul has alerted its customers about the existence of forged PowerColor Radeon 9600 Pro graphics cards, found in market earlier this month. Apparently, some cards are being sold as PowerColor Radeon 9600, but use Radeon 9550 graphic chips instead. Tul added that is has already announced the discontinuation of the PowerColor RADEON 9600 PRO 128 MB available in 400/600MHz in June. The company sent out warnings to its partners and posted an announcement on its website.
Gigabyte has just announced its Radeon X700 Pro solutions. Available in two models, GV-RX70P256V and GV-RX70P128D, the Radeon X700 Pro chip runs at 425 MHz with 256 MB or 128 MB of GDDR3 memory running at 860 MHz, 128-bit memory bus and eight pixel pipelines. The 256 MB version from Gigabyte also comes with VIVO (video capture) function. Both models are PCI Express x16.
XGI has just released a new graphics chip, called Volari Z7. It has only a 2D graphics engine and it is target to the specialized market, like thin clients. Using the PCI bus, this chip can use from 8 MB to 128 MB of DDR, DDR2 or GDDR3 memories. It supports up to 1600 x 1200 resolution.
Nvidia announced the GeForce 6200, a new graphics processing unit that promises to deliver high level performance to the value PC segment. The new GPU includes PCI Express connectivity and supports DirectX 9.0 and Shader Model 3.0. The GeForce 6200 contains four rendering pipelines, 128-bit memory interface, but uses common DDR memory and does not support such tecnologies as SLI, that allows multiple GPUs in a single system. Boards based on GeForce 6200 chips will ship in November.
Gigabyte has released three PCI Express VGA cards based on the GeForce 6600/GT, which includes SLI technology to combine multiple GPUs in a single system. GV-NX66T256D (GeForce 6600 GT) comes with eight rendering pipelines, 128-bit memory interface and 256 MB of GDDR3 memory. The game bundle includes the long awaited "Doom 3". The lower-cost GV-NX66T128D has only 128 MB of memory and is bundled with "Thief" and "Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising". The third model, GV-NX66128D, is based on the GeForce 6600 and uses 128 MB of DDR memory.
GeCube, a VGA company owned by Gigabyte, has just released their X700 models, all based on the new PCI Express bus. All models have eight rendering channels, 128-bit interface, GDDR3 memory and VGA, DVI-I and S-Video connectors. The high-end boards are based on the Radeon X700 XT (475 MHz core and 1,050 MHz memory clocks): RX700XTG-C3 128MB, RX700XTG-D3 256MB and RX700XTG-VIVO 256MB (with video capture). Two other models use the mid-range X700 Pro chip (420 MHz core and 864 MHz memory clocks): RX700PROG-C3 128MB and RX700PROG-D3 256MB.
The dutch VGA manufacturer Club3D is betting on the new graphics chips from S3 to power their new products. Today they announced the following products:
Futuremark as just released the new version of their famous 3DMark benchmarking software. The new version is called 3DMark05 and the new features include full support for DirectX 9.0c (Shader model 3.0), three new game tests, two CPU tests, image quality tests and results also given in frames per second, polygon count, vertex count, etc. With a new engine, 3DMark05 is perfect for measuring the 3D performance of your PC for the new games that will reach the market in 2005-6 timeframe.
XGI Technology, manufacturer of the Volari graphic chips, decided entering the VGA market using its own brand. Initially the company will sell boards based on the Volari V8 (high-end), V5 (mid-range), V3XT (mainstream) and V3 (low-end with DirectX 8.1 core) chips. Even tough this company has less than 1% of market share in the graphic chip industry, it goals to reach a 10% market share in the near future.
Tul has lauched today a complete series of Radeon X700 video boards using their PowerColor brand. All models released have eight rendering units, 128-bit interface, VGA, DVI-I and S-Video connectors and are PCI Express. The R41-TD3, based on X700 XT, offers a 475 MHz clock and 256 MB of GDDR3 memory running at 1,050 MHz. The R41-PD3 (X700 Pro) has a 420 MHz clock and 128 MB or 256 MB of DDR, DDR2 or GDDR3 memory running at 864 MHz. And finally the R41-NC3 model comes with a 400 MHz clock and 128 MB or 256 MB DDR memory running at 600 MHz.
