MSI Radeon 6870 Twin Frozr II OC Graphic Card

MSI announces today the R6870 Twin Frozr II graphics card. It is equipped with the latest 40nm AMD Radeon HD6870 GPU, IGB GDDR5 high-speed graphics memory, and the award-winning Twin Frozr II thermal solution. As a result, the operating temperature and noise of the R6870 Twin Frozr II are reduced by 19°C and 12.8dB respectively (versus the reference design). Also, the overvoltage function from the MSI-exclusive Afterburner software further enhances the OC potential of the Barts GPU, and AMD’s Eyefinity Technology provides optimal multi-display 2D/3D output for gaming, productivity and entertainment. Along with the super reliable Solid CAPs which prolong product life and enhance product stability and quality, the R6870 Twin Frozr II is the best choice ever for power users looking for graphics cards with ultimate performance and low operating temperature.

Exclusive Twin Frozr II thermal solution maintains perfect balance between cooling and noise control
The Twin Frozr II found on the R6870 Twin Frozr II consists of a large-area copper base heat-sink with high density radiation fins, dual 8cm temperature-controlled PWM fans, and five heat-pipes to increase airflow and enhance heat conductivity for the GPU and neighboring components. In addition to the superb cooling effect, it is quiet! Under full load, the Twin Frozr II cooler reduces temperature and noise by 19C and 12.8dB respectively versus the reference design. By design, the R6870 Twin Frozr II is the industry-first graphics card that achieves a perfect balance between thermal solution and noise reduction.

Support for Afterburner overvoltage function to unleash display performance
In terms of software support, the R6870 Twin Frozr II supports the MSI-exclusive Afterburner OC software designed for instantaneous GPU and memory clock adjustments and advanced fan speed control. Users can even save up to 5 OC profiles of their own for gaming, productivity and entertainment. With the Afterburner, users can further adjust the GPU voltage to break through the limit of GPU and thereby unleash the power and performance of graphics cards. The Afterburner can also monitor the GPU temperature and fan speed for power users to totally control their graphics cards.

AMD Eyefinity and 3D Video
The R6870 Twin Frozr II is equipped with the AMD-exclusive Eyefinity Technology for multi-display, supporting up to four screens. DisplayPort 1.2 and HDMI 1.4a (which support 3D video and 7.1-channel lossless TrueHD and DTS-HD audio formats) help provide consumers with the most exciting audio/visual fun.

Cooler Master Introduce HAF X and 690 II Advanced Nvidia Edition

Things are looking upbeat at NVIDIA, and to feed that, Cooler Master is out with its latest NVIDIA-themed case, the HAF-X NVIDIA Edition. The company is known for making a wide range of cases themed after the GPU giant. The HAF-X NVIDIA Edition uses the HAF-X design overall, with a bright green frame, large patches of black, green colored internal parts (such as HDD trays), a green-illuminated front intake fan, and a green-tinted window with an NVIDIA "eye" streak. Measuring 230 x 599 x 550 mm, the case is designed to fit in standard ATX/MATX motherboards, as well as XL-ATX motherboards, such as the Gigabyte X58A-UD9 and the EVGA X58 Classified 4-way SLI.

Drive bays include five internal 3.5", with two of these supporting 2.5" and 1.8" drives, six 5.25" bays, of which one is a SATA 3.5"/2.5" HDD/SSD dock. The motherboard tray features a hole behind the CPU socket area for easy access to coolers with back-plates, the GPU holder rack can reinforce long graphics cards and minimize bending of their PCBs. Ventilation is aplenty. There's a 230 mm front intake fan, a 200 mm side-panel intake fan, a 140 mm rear exhaust fan, and two optional 200 mm top exhaust fans. Its front panel includes USB 3.0 ports, USB 2.0 ports, eSATA, FireWire and audio. The HAF-X NVIDIA Edition from Cooler Master is priced at US $230.

Cooler Master backed up the HAF-X NVIDIA Edition with another NVIDIA-themed case launch, this time a modified version of the CM 690 II Advanced. The NVIDIA Edition variant of this popular case uses a more restrained use of the gaudy shade of green used on the HAF-X NVIDIA Edition, and uses just subtle lines of metallic green instead of the two chrome lines on the original design. The blue-illuminated front intake fan is replaced by a green one, and the side panel uses a window shaped after the NVIDIA "eye" logo, using green tinted acrylic. Internally, all features of the original CM 690 II Advanced are retained, except the green colored HDD trays, which look arguably less gaudy when seen through the window.

The CM 690 II Advanced can accommodate ATX and MATX cases, it uses an all-black interior, with several cable management and tool-free features. It measures 214.5 x 511.8 x 528.8 mm. The case uses perforated metal that runs through the front and top, with the front fan intake, four 5.25" drive bays, and front-panel that holds USB, eSATA, audio, and a SATA drive dock along the way; ending with two 140 mm top exhaust fan vents. Fans included are a 140 mm green-illuminated front intake, a 140 mm top exhaust, and a 120 mm rear exhaust. The CM 690 II Advanced NVIDIA Edition is priced at €110.

AMD Released Catalyst 10.11 WHQL Driver Suite

AMD is teasing us with its latest Catalyst driver suite. Catalyst 10.11 WHQL from AMD has come after no less than five hotfix updates to the previous version Catalyst 10.10. The new version of Catalyst is reported by many to have been added to Windows Update late yesterday (11/16), but wasn't backed by any release notes document then. The driver is now uploaded on AMD's Game website. AMD Catalyst software suite includes drivers for all current ATI/AMD Radeon GPUs, AMD integrated graphics, and other ATI multimedia products. This version of AMD Catalyst brings a small number of game-specific performance enhancements, as well as fixes a few bugs. To begin with, performance is expected to go up by 3% for Battleforge, on Radeon HD 5800 series GPUs, both single and CrossFire, with AA disabled. Up to 5% performance increase can be expected for STALKER: Call of Pripyat benchmark.


DOWNLOAD: AMD Catalyst 10.11 WHQL for Windows 7/Vista 64-bit, Windows 7/Vista 32-bit, Windows XP 32-bit, Windows XP 64-bit

Highlights of changes follows.

Performance Highlights of the AMD Catalyst 10.11 release include:

Battleforge

• Performance increases up to 3% on ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series single and CrossFire configurations with anti-aliasing disabled.
  

STALKER – Call of Pripyat benchmark:

• Performance increases up to 5% on ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series single and CrossFire configurations.
  

Resolved issue highlights:

• Enabling Overdrive through the Catalyst Control Center for single display systems no longer results in GPU clocks running at high levels in non-GPU intensive scenarios
  
• Mouse cursor no longer flickers and disappears in World of Warcraft when hardware cursor is enabled when playing in Stereo 3D mode
  
• Primary display no longer blanks out when playing World in Conflict Soviet Assault DX10 with Dual Monitor enabled in CrossFire mode
  
• CrossFire no longer becomes disabled in Battlefield Bad Company 2 after performing a task switch
  
• The "Contrast" value for the display is no longer set to zero after CrossFire is disabled for the first time
  
• Alien blood is now rendered properly in Aliens vs Predator with Anti-Aliasing enabled

A Simple Review on the XFX GTS250 1GB DDR3

Here is my short and simple review on the XFX GTS250 1GB DDR3 Core Edition graphic card.

First of all, we shall look at the box and the accessories,

Front view of the box

Back view of the box

There is another box within the box

Within the box there are 2 compartments

These are the accessories

This version it bundle with an original game called as Assassin Creed. The accessories included are :

• 6 pins -to- Molex converter
• A driver installer DVD
• A door knob notice hanger
• Manual books
• Assassin Creed Original Game Installer DVD

Now we will have a closer view on the graphic card,

This version is using the latest heatsink cooler


It has HDMI port, DVI port, and VGA port

Next we will be testing it on gaming performance. Before that this is the pc specifications and the software version for the benchmarking,

Processor: Intel Core i7 950 3.06GHz 8MB (Stock speed)
Motherboard: Asus P6X58D-E

RAM: Corsair 6GB DDR3 1333MHz (3x2GB) Triple Channel
Power Supply: Corsair GS600 600W
Graphic Cards: XFX GTS250 1GB DDR3 (WHQL 260.99)
: Sapphire 4770 512MB DDR5 (WHQL 10.10e)

Games: Call of Duty : Modern Warfare II, Fallout 3, Far Cry 2, and Grand Theft Auto IV
Other: 3D Mark Vantage

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The end of review. I am still learning on how to write reviews on pc hardware, so if there's any mistakes, I apologize for all the mistakes or errors. Thanks :)

AMD Released Catalyst 10.10e Hotfix Driver Update

AMD released the fifth hotfix update for Catalyst 10.10 WHQL. Catalyst 10.10e, like Catalyst 10.10c Hotfix, packs a number of game-specific performance improvements, and extends MLAA (morphological anti-aliasing) support introduced by Catalyst 10.10d Hotfix, to all Radeon HD 5000 series GPUs. The new Catalyst AI controls in control center are extended to Radeon HD 5000 GPUs, these were previously available only to users of Radeon HD 6800 series. Support for new stereoscopic 3D capable hardware was also added.

A detailed list of changes follows.

• The AMD Catalyst Control Center now features the new AMD Catalyst AI user interface options on the ATI Radeon HD 5000 Series (the new AMD Catalyst AI options were previously only available for the AMD Radeon 6800 Series)”
• Fixed cases where Morphological Anti-Aliasing (MLAA) was not being correctly applied to games (very intermittently)
• OpenGL 4.1 beta support
• Support for the new Morphological Anti-Aliasing feature
• Dead Rising 2 – Crossfire profile (Resolves negative scaling)
• Crossfire Performance Improvement for:
o Metro 2033
o F1 2011 - (Direct X9 version)
o Fallout New Vegas

• Performance optimizations for systems with an AMD Radeon HD 6870 and AMD Radeon HD 6850 series of graphics products installed
o Aliens versus Predator performance enhancements
o Star Craft 2 performance enhancements
o OpenGL performance enhancements – gains can be seen in Prey, Quake Wars: Enemy Territories, and Heaven v2

• Support for additional Stereo 3D-capable displays:
o Viewsonic V3D241wm-LED
o 3D Projectors

Nvidia Delivers World's Fastest DX11 Graphic Card !

NVIDIA today announced the latest consumer GPU based on the NVIDIA Fermi architecture, the GeForce GTX 580, which has been reengineered from the transistor-level up to deliver increased power efficiency and performance over previous generation products.

The GeForce GTX 580 GPU delivers the world's fastest performance for DirectX 11 (DX11) games, and support for NVIDIA 3D Vision, Surround, PhysX, SLI and CUDA technologies, further entrenching GeForce-based PCs as the most robust gaming platforms in the world. The combination of an innovative vapor chamber thermal solution and new architectural enhancements make the GTX 580 the fastest and quietest GPU in its class, delivering an increase of up to 35 percent in performance per watti, and performance that is up to 30 percent faster than the original GeForce GTX 480.

For the most recent games that feature tessellation -- the key feature of DX11 -- the 512-core GeForce GTX 580 is up to 160 percent fasteriii than the closest competitive product. Even in previous-generation DX9 and DX10 games, the GeForce GTX 580 is faster by up to 62 percentiv, including in the blockbuster PC title StarCraft II.

"For Crysis 2, we'll take advantage of what NVIDIA's new GeForce GTX 580 GPUs bring," said Cevat Yerli, president and CEO of Crytek. "A supersoldier that needs to save NYC from an alien invasion needs the best tech possible. That's not only his Nanosuit, but also stunning DX11 geometric realism that a GPU like the GeForce GTX 580 can offer for our PC gamers."

"At Epic, we've standardized on NVIDIA GeForce GPUs for Unreal Engine 3 development," said Tim Sweeney, Founder, Epic Games. "The GTX 580 offers even more rendering and compute power than NVIDIA's previous high end GeForce GPU but thanks to its new cooling system it's also much more quiet. Whether you're an engineer working with the Unreal Technology or a gamer who wants the ultimate Bulletstorm experience, the GTX 580 delivers."

With full support for NVIDIA 3D Vision and NVIDIA Surround technologies, the GeForce GTX 580 GPU also provides the graphics horsepower and video bandwidth needed to experience games and high-definition Blu-ray movies in eye-popping stereoscopic 3D on a single display or spanning across three screens for an immersive gaming environment. And with NVIDIA SLI technology, the industry's most scalable multi-GPU platform, gamers will be delighted by the sheer increase in gaming performance by adding a second or third GeForce GTX 580 to their PC.

The GeForce GTX 580 is available starting today from the world's leading add-in card partners, including ASL, ASUS, Colorful, ECS, EVGA, Gainward, Galaxy, Gigabyte, Innovision 3D, Jetway, Leadtek, MSI, Palit, Point of View, PNY, Sparkle, Zotac and others.

Summary Highlights of New GeForce GTX 580 GPU:

• 512 cores and 16 PolyMorph engines deliver massive tessellation and compute firepower for games
• Hard launch with immediate availability at an estimated SEP of $499 USD.
• Up to 35 percent improvement in performance/watt efficiency
• New vapor chamber thermal solution results in the quietest GPU in its class
• New level of geometric realism -- 2 billion triangles/second
• Provides game developers total creative freedom to create cutting-edge DX11 games

Nvidia Designs New GTX 460 SE

NVIDIA is designing a new variant of its GeForce GTX 460 graphics processor, the GeForce GTX 460 SE. Based on the 40 nm GF104 silicon, it's positioned below the GTX 460 768 MB. It has 288 CUDA cores (6/8 streaming multiprocessors enabled, compared to 7/8 on the other GTX 460 variants), but uses the complete 256-bit wide memory interface, with GDDR5 memory. The GPU and memory are clocked at 650/1300 MHz DDR, compared to 670/1350 MHz DDR on the other GTX 460 variants. No information regarding pricing/availability is available.

XFX Issues Fix for HD 6850 High Idle Fan Speed

XFX issues a BIOS fix after some users reported their HD 6850 cards running at 70% idle fan speed.

As HD 6850 cards are flying off the store shelves, more and more users have started reporting that XFX’s version that sports a custom heatsink exhibits extremely high idle fan speeds. This makes what should be a quiet card into a howling banshee in even the best of situations.

Supposedly this issue was only found in the first round of cards sent to retailers and subsequent shipments have it fixed through a modified BIOS. But what happens if you are one of those early adopters?

Naturally, software like MSI’s Afterburner can take care of this through the use of custom fan speed profiles but there is another option. Once you register your card on XFX’s website, there will be an option in the Support section where you can download a modified BIOS file along with instructions for flashing your card. Alternately, you can call XFX’s support team and they will walk you through the process.

We are giving you a third option.

You can CLICK HERE (hosted by Hardware Canucks, scanned for viruses) to download a ZIP file that contains instructions, the BIOS file and a bootable USB thumb drive utility.

Thanks to XFX for providing us with this file.

ONLY use this BIOS if you have an XFX HD 6850 1GB with a product number of HD-685X-ZNFC

Note: Hardware Canucks is hosting this as a courtesy and does not take responsibility for the BIOS file itself. However, we have tested it on our XFX HD 6850 and can confirm it works without an issue as long as the attached instructions are followed.