Intel Core i3 Ivy Bridge CPU Specs Leaked, Lack PCI Express 3.0

Quite a lot of details about Intel’s Core i5 and Core i7 processors based on the Ivy Bridge architecture have reached the web so far, but until recently the specs of the company’s third generation Core i3 CPUs have pretty much remained a mystery.

However, this changed just a couple of hours ago, when a Chinese website entered into the possession of a list detailing most of Intel’s upcoming Ivy Bridge desktop parts, including the Core i3 series.

According to the info provided by this leak, Intel’s 2012 entry-level processors lineup will include five chips, all featuring a dual-core design and Hyper-Threading support.

Much like their Sandy Bridge counterparts, all the 22nm Core i3 parts lack support for Turbo Boost, as well as for a series of other Intel technologies including AES-NI, VT-d and TXT.

Furthermore, the leaked specs also show that their integrated PCI Express controller won’t support PCIe Gen 3.0 add-on cards.

When such cards will be installed, they will work in PCI Express 2.0 mode, which cuts in half the bandwidth available to them.

Depending on their thermal envelope, Intel will split the five Core i3 CPUs into two different ranges.

The first one includes the Core i3-3420, i3-3225 and i3-3220 processors which have a 55 Watt TDP, while the second group comprises the Core i3-3240T and i3-3220T, both featuring 35W TDPs. The full specs of the chips are available in the tables included in this article.

The release date of any of these Core i3 processors is not yet known. From the leaks that have been circulating around the web so far, we know that Intel’s first batch of Ivy Bridge CPUs will arrive on April 8.

However, this will include only Core i7 and Core i5 desktop CPUs, while the lower-end parts will arrive at a later date, probably in May this year.

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Gigabyte GSmart G1355 Dual-SIM Android Phone Unveiled Ahead of MWC Launch

Gigabyte is about to launch another entry-level Android phone, the GSmart G1355. Although the name of the device is a bit awkward, the device comes with pretty neat features that recommend it as an interesting budget-friendly smartphone.

The selling point of the smartphone is dual-SIM capability. Other than that, this is just a mid-end Android device. The phone is powered by Gingerbread platform and packs 512 MB of RAM and an Adreno 200 graphics processing unit.

There’s also a microSD card slot for memory expansion (up to 32GB) and a large 4.3-inch WVGA capacitive touchscreen display. 

The folks at GSMArena mention that Gigabyte GSmart G1355 might be officially introduced at the end of the month, at the Mobile World Congress 2012, in Barcelona. 

Obviously, there are no details regarding the phone’s pricing options yet, but Gigabyte might debut this phone only in emerging and developing markets.

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Samsung Readies 10.1 Tablet Version of the Galaxy Note, Tipped for MWC 2012 Debut

Samsung has mistakenly revealed the name of one of its upcoming tablets, the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1.

This slate has been mentioned on the company's invitation to a Samsung Developer Day at MWC, together with the original Galaxy Note and a couple of Bada smartphones.

Little is known about the tablet at this time, but since this will be released into the Note series, it goes without saying that it will arrive sporting a Samsung-branded inductive stylus (which will actually be manufactured by Wacom).

Digging for further info about the Galaxy Note 10.1, The Verge found further evidence to support the existence of this tablet.

This takes the form of a casting call for a Samsung commercial, inviting a "teen student" to audition for the role of a Galaxy Note 10.1 user.

The commercial listing is no longer active, but it called for an early February shoot, which seems to go pretty well with the idea of a Galaxy Note 10.1 launching at MWC.

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Sapphire Edge-HD3 AMD Brazos-Powered SFF Desktop Visits FCC’s Offices

Sapphire is getting ready to launch a new mini-PC in the company Edge-HD series which will swap the traditional Intel Atom and Nvidia ION graphics combo used in the previous versions of these systems for an AMD Brazos APU.

The new Edge HD model was showcased during the recent CES fair and back then Sapphire promised that the SFF desktop would reach retail this February.

While we have our doubts that Sapphire will actually manage to achieve this, the Edge-HD3 was recently spotted in FCC’s offices by Liliputing, so its US release should get near sporting an E-450 APU.

This is the fastest Brazos chip available so far and it sports dual Bobcat x86 processing cores clocked at 1.65GHz and Radeon HD 6320 integrated graphics, featuring some impressive multimedia capabilities.

What this means is that the little 18W chip installed in the Edge HD3 is fully capable of decoding Blu-ray video, as well as other Full HD movie formats, no matter the bitrate used for their encoding.

These can be stored on the included 500GB hard disk drive, which is housed inside the case together with 4GB of DDR3 system memory.

As far as the available connectors are concerned, the system features two USB 2.0 ports, an audio-in and one line-out jack, an Ethernet port, as well as VGA and HDMI video outputs. 

The Fusion-powered Edge-HD3 was also designed to provide users with USB 3.0 connectivity. 

Built-in WiFi rounds up the features list, while the power consumption of the Sapphire nettop is estimated at a low 30 Watts.

The current EDGE HD2 nettop is powered by a dual-core Intel Atom D525 processor which runs at 1.8GHz, has 2GB of system memory, a 250GB hard drive and Nvidia second-generation ION graphics.

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PowerColor Delivers Single-Slot Radeon HD 7750 Graphics Card

PowerColor has just announced the expansion of its graphics card line with a new model based on AMD’s recently introduced Radeon HD 7750 design that relies on a single-slot cooler to keep the card’s temperatures in check.

The redesigned PCB appears to be just slightly longer than that of the reference HD 7750 and it uses a single slot cooler which is covered by a long, black plastic shroud with PowerColor's logo on it.

The cooling system comprises a large aluminum heatsink with tightly-packed fins and the heat is drawn from the core via a copper plate.

Air is flown through the aluminum channels by a large diameter blower type fan which sits at the back of the graphics card.

While PowerColor hasn't provided us with any pictures showing the base of the cooling assembly, it is pretty safe to assume that the card sports some kind of VRM and memory chip cooling. 

Despite its thin profile, PowerColor’s single-slot Radeon HD 7750 is equipped with an almost full set of display connectors, which includes a dual-link DVI port, a full-size HDMI 1.4a port and a DisplayPort 1.2 output.

No details regarding the pricing or availability of this graphics card were unveiled by PowerColor, but we do know that AMD’s MSRP for the Radeon HD 7750 is set at $109 US (about 83 EUR).

The Cape Verde Pro GPU utilized for the Radeon HD 7750 includes 512 stream processors and 32 texture units, which are paired together with 16 ROP units and a 128-bit wide memory bus.

The card’s stock operating clocks are set at 800MHz for the GPU, while the 1GB of GDDR5 memory is working at 1,125MHz (4.5GHz data rate).

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Samsung Galaxy Mini 2 Spotted at FCC En-Route to AT&T and/or T-Mobile USA

Samsung Galaxy mini 2 (S6500) leaked several days ago, along with a few specs. Rumor has it that the budget-friendly smartphone will be officially introduced at the Mobile World Congress 2012, which is set to kick off on February 27.

Even though the phone will make its debut in Europe, it appears that Samsung plans to release this one in North America as well. 

The guys over at Engadget have just spotted the smartphone at FCC (Federal Communications Commission), which indicates that Samsung wants to release this one as fast as possible.

The phone has been approved with 850 and 1900 GSM/GPRS/EDGE bands, which makes it perfectly suitable for both AT&T and T-Mobile USA carriers.

Other specs that have been revealed in the FCC documents include Bluetooth and Wi-Fi support, along with NFC (Near Field Communications) functionality, though this has yet to be confirmed by the manufacturer as well.

The first photo of the smartphone clearly shows that this is the Galaxy mini successor, though the improvements are not that impressive as expected.

Instead of the low-performance 600 Mhz processor that powers the original Galaxy mini, the upcoming Galaxy mini 2 is equipped with a slightly better 800 MHz, but that won’t make such a big difference.

As expected, the handset runs Google’s Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system and probably an updated version of TouchWiz user interface. Another important improvement is the slightly larger 3.3-inch touchscreen display, which is apparently based on Samsung’s Super AMOLED technology.

Unlike the Galaxy mini which only offers 160MB of internal memory, the Galaxy mini 2 packs 3GB storage, as well as microSD card slot for memory expansion. The same 3-megapixel rear camera has been embedded as well, along with built-in GPS receiver.

Samsung Galaxy mini 2 will be available in two colors: Black and Orange. The smartphone is expected to be priced for under 200 USD (150 EUR) outright.

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Quad-Core HTC Endeavor Coming to MWC as One X

Rumors on the upcoming HTC Endeavor smartphone continue to surface, though nothing has been confirmed for the moment. Initially leaked as HTC Edge, the smartphone was renamed to Endeavor last week.

There was also a leaked RUU for the HTC Endeavor, which confirmed the phone would be delivered with Sense 4.0. Several specs have been spotted as well, but the device may be subject to last minute changes.

Today, the folks over at Pocketnow have come up with new details  regarding the HTC Endeavor. It 

appears that once again, HTC decided to change the name of the smartphone, which is now expected to be launched at MWC 2012 as HTC One X.

Moreover, the “X” letter will be placed as a superscript after the name “One” due to branding purposes. Pocketnow, also says that a Danish HTC subcontractor reserved the htc-one-x.dk domain, possibly in order to use it for the smartphone’s retail.

The information somewhat comes as a confirmation, as HTC already trademarked this One name last year, but no other details regarding this branding emerged afterwards.

For the time being, HTC One X aka HTC Endeavor aka HTC Edge will be the company’s first quad-core smartphone. Rumor has it that this one will be equipped with an Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core chipset, as well as a large 4.7-inch capacitive touchscreen display with 720p resolution.

LTE-support is another strong point of the smartphone, along with its 8-megapixel rear camera, which features autofocus, LED flash and full HD (1080p) video recording. There’s also a secondary 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera for self-portraits and video calls.

Obviously, it will come with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support, as well as microSD card slot for memory expansion and built-in GPS receiver.

In the same news, recent speculations point to a possible release in the UK via Orange and Vodafone carriers, but this has yet to be confirmed by HTC.

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Nokia Unveils MWC 2012 Agenda

Nokia is coming to the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this year, and is expected to bring along a wide range of new devices. 

The company has been long rumored to plan the launch of a new high-end Windows Phone device at the event, and also to aim at releasing a successor for the flagship N8 Symbian device. 

Nothing has been officially confirmed on the matter for the time being, but the Finnish handset vendor has already published on its website the agenda for the upcoming event. 

No hints at what devices the company might be set to bring at the event have been published there. There are only details on the meetings it invites people to participate at. 

The company will be present at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona with info on the development of applications for its devices, among others. 

It will hold three meetings with the MWC attendees, including a Nokia Developer Day on February 27th, followed by two Mobile OS & Applications keynotes, one from Thom Brenner, VP Applications, Nokia, on February 28th, and another one from Stephen Elop, chief executive officer, Nokia, on February 29th. 

“The Nokia Developer Day at MWC 2012 will be bigger than ever! We'll be showing developers how to take the next steps with the Nokia Lumia and Asha device ranges; designing and developing apps for widest reach and monetizing the unique dual opportunity,” the company notes. 

The first of the two keynotes will be focused on social media. Users are increasingly active on social networking sites these days, and many of them use their handsets for that. 

Stephen Elop will keynote on the important role that applications have in today’s mobile world, as well as on the services that these apps are connected to. He and other CEOs from across the mobile ecosystem will discuss the way in which vendors are fighting to meet the changing needs of today’s mobile user base. 

You can have a look at the said web page to learn some more info on the matter. Don’t forget to keep an eye on this space for additional details on Nokia’s presence at the MWC.

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MSI Radeon Outs Custom Built HD 7770 and HD 7750 Graphics Cards

MSI has just announced that it added to its product portfolio two new graphics cards based on the recently announced Radeon HD 7770 and HD 7750 GPUs, both of these solutions featuring support for the company's own Afterburner overclocking software.

Compared to AMD’s reference design, MSI's R7700 graphics cards are equipped with an in-house developed cooling assembly which makes use of two fans to dissipate the heat produced by the card while running.

Spec wise, MSI's Radeon HD 7770 features the same 640 stream processors, 40 texture units, 16 ROPs, and 128-bit memory interface as the rest of the HD 7770 solution available out there, but its core is factory overclocked to reach 1020MHz.

The memory speed was however left unaltered, which means that the 1GB of GDDR5 video buffer installed works at 1,125MHz (4.5GHz data rate).

Moving to the Radeon HD 7750 graphics cards, this also follows AMD's specifications to the letter when it comes to the GDDR5 memory speed, but the Cape Verde Pro core was once again overclocked to reach 830MHz.

Compared to its older brother, this GPU packs 512 stream processors and 32 texture units, but the ROP count and the memory bus width have remained unchanged.

As far as the available video outputs are concerned, MSI’s creations sport dual-link DVI, a DisplayPort connector and an HDMI 1.4a output.

So far, MSI hasn’t made official any information regarding the price of its Radeon HD 7770 and HD 7750 graphics cards, but AMD’s MSRPs are set at $159 (about 121 EUR) and $109 (83 EUR), respectively. 

Both of the Cape Verde GPUs that stand at the heart of these two MSI solutions have been released by AMD earlier today and use the company’s Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture introduced with the Radeon HD 7900-series.

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iPad 3 Weeks Away, Apple Still Selling 1st-Gen Tablets

Less than one month to go until the third generation of iPads is unveiled, and Apple is still selling first-generation tablets on its Special Deals site.

Considering that the latest reports citing inside sources are accurate, Apple is weeks away from unveiling its next-generation of iPads. The third, to be precise, which reportedly features a Retina display, a blazing fast processor and GPU, new cameras, and more.

But that’s not keeping Apple from selling refurbished first-generation versions of the iPad through its Special Deals site.

Those interested in nabbing a $399 iPad with 3G wireless and 16 gigs of storage space can order it here via Apple’s online store.

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Gigabyte Debuts 1.1GHz Overclocked Radeon HD 7770 Graphics Card

Over the years, Gigabyte has accustomed us with its non-reference graphics cards and the company's recent Radeon HD 7770 based solution is no exception to this rule, as it comes with a beefier cooling solution and a slightly overclocked GPU.

The card is officially named the GV-R777OC-1GD and Gigabyte states that it improves the AMD reference design to deliver better cooling, higher overclocking headroom and a longer lifespan.

In order to do so, Gigabyte installed on top of the Cape Verde XT GPU a large aluminum heatsink topped by a 100mm diameter fan, specially designed to increase the airflow provided to the card, without increasing the noise generated while running.

In addition, this design also ensures that some of the resulting airflow is pushed towards the card's PCB where it should reach its VRMs and memory chips.

Speaking of memory, Gigabyte has decided to pair the GV-R777OC-1GD with 1GB of DDR5 video buffer, which operates at 1,125MHz (5,500MHz data rate). The GPU is run at 1100MHz, 100MHz higher than AMD's reference clock.

Going to the back of Gigabyte's creation, we get to see that the Taiwanese company has decided to go with its standard video output arrangement for midrange GPUS, which comprises a DVI, a D-Sub, and a gold-plated HDMI port.

The Gigabyte GV-R777OC-1GD should be available right as we speak, but so far the company hasn’t released any info detailing the price of this graphics card.

The Radeon HD 7770 is AMD's latest mainstream card and is based on the Cape Verde XT core, which includes 640 streaming units, 40 texturing units, 16 ROP units and a 128-bit memory bus. 

The load TDP is estimated at 80W, so it can be powered using a single PCI Express 6-pin connector.

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Samsung to Showcase Galaxy Note 10.1 at MWC 2012

Samsung might bring to the upcoming Mobile World Congress in Barcelona a new device in the Galaxy Note family, one that could sport a much larger screen than the original.

The handset vendor is aiming at showcasing a multitude of devices to developers at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, including the Galaxy Note, a Galaxy Note 10.1, Wave 3 and Wave Y. 

This is the first time we learn of a Galaxy Note 10.1 device being prepared over at Samsung, and it remains to be seen whether this is a typo or not. 

Apparently, Samsung will pack the upcoming device with the same support for S-Pen stylus input as the original 5.3-inch Galaxy Note was made available with. 

Samsung will also bring its new bada SDK 2.0 at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, hence the inclusion of Wave 3 and Wave Y in the demonstration.

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2013-Bound Intel Lynx Point Chipset Detailed

The Lynx Point chipset, the one that Intel intends to launch in 2013 alongside the Haswell central processing units, is a sort of technological paradox according to the latest leaks. 

Info has been pouring forth about a chipset that will follow another chipset that has yet to be launched, but this is only one reason for calling Lynx Point a paradox. 

Indeed, it is not unheard of for a company's mid to long-term plans to be exposed prematurely. 

What truly makes the Lynx Point qualify as odd is how it will actually be less advanced, in a way, than the one at the hearts of the upcoming 7-Series motherboards. 

Indeed, even though the manufacturing technologies and everything else have taken a leap forward, the chipset will have fewer features than Panther Point. 

This is owed to how the digital display outputs are going to be communicating straight with the CPU instead of being incorporated in the chipset proper. Out of all the display interfaces, only VGA will continue to be wired through the motherboard. 

That said, the Santa Clara, California-based company is not going to neglect the parts of the chipset that do get retained. 

According to some leaked roadmap slides, there is full SATA 6.0 Gbps support (SATA III) on all six SATA links. 

It was about time too, considering how AMD beat Intel in total SATA III support by about three years. 

Moving on, the CPU socket will be different from the Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge one, but no name exists for it yet, beyond a speculative LGA 1150 nickname. 

Furthermore, Lynx Point supports six USB 3.0 ports in total, two more compared to 7-series, though the so-called I/O port flexibility feature may hint at the possibility of switching between USB 2.0 and 3.0 types. 

Finally, the slides reveal a new Rapid Storage driver, quad-read SPI flash memory for the UEFI BIOS and PCI Express 2.0 support (no native 3.0 here either, apparently). 

All the above, along with a faster DMI interface, come in a small package size of 22 x 23mm. June, 2013 is the currently scheduled time of arrival.

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PowerColor Radeon HD 7770 Graphics Card Now Official

PowerColor, one of AMD’s closest add-in board (AIB) partners, has announced recently the introduction of its own graphics card based on the Radeon HD 7770 design which works at AMD’s recommended 1GHz GPU clock rate.

PowerColor’s graphics card doesn’t seem to differ in any way from AMD’s reference design for the HD 7770, except for the usual company logo placed right on the fan hub. 

That being said, the reference cooler developed by AMD is quite capable, judging by the HD 7770 reviews that have popped up so far, as it manages to chill the card without producing too much noise.

Of course, the 28nm fabrication process used for the Cape Verde GPU also takes some of the credit for this feat, since it enabled AMD to build its core without having to increase the TDP over that of previous generation cards.

Speaking of the Cape Verde GPU, this is based on the same Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture as the much more powerful HD 7900-series graphics cards.

However, this mainstream GPU comes with just 10 Compute Units to deliver a total of 640 stream processors and 40 texture units.

These are packed together with 16 ROP units, one geometry engine/rasterizer and 512KB of L2 cache, as well as with a 128-bit wide memory bus connected to 1GB of GDDR5 video buffer.

In AMD’s reference design, the HD 7700 graphics core is clocked at 1GHz, while the memory runs at 1.125GHz (4.5GHz effective). These are also the frequencies that PowerColor has decided to use for its graphics card. 

PowerColor hasn’t provided us with any details regarding the price of this Cape Verde XT solution, but AMD’s recommended price for the Radeon HD 7770 is set at $159 (about 121 EUR).

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Belle Update Now Available for Nokia 500

The Finnish handset maker rolled out Nokia Belle update on February 8. However, the Nokia 500 has been left out due to its technical specifications. Although the company promised that the Belle update for Nokia 500 would be available within the next few weeks, there was no exact release date available at that time.

Fortunately, it took Nokia only one week to deliver the long-awaited Belle update for the Nokia 500 smartphone. Starting today Nokia 500 owners will, hopefully, be able to upgrade their devices to the latest version of Nokia Belle operating system.

According to Nokia, the update will be released in stages, country by country, which means that not everyone will get it today. It appears that Nokia Belle for the 500 device will be pushed in each country as soon as each relevant version of the latest Symbian software is available.

Obviously, this means that the release date will vary per country, so depending on the location or whether or not the smartphone is carrier-bounded, Nokia 500 owners will get the update sooner or later.

There’s a chance that this version of Belle for Nokia 500 might not feature all the enhancements included in the standard variant which was rolled out last week to Nokia N8, E7, C7, C6-01, X7, E6, and Nokia Oro.

Nokia states that “the majority of Belle enhancements will be available for the Nokia 500 including new features such as HD video recording at 30 frames per second and a visually improved browser enabling high-quality Web video viewing.”

This means that some of Belle’s features have been left out due to Nokia 500’s technical specifications, or it’s just an unfortunate choice of words

Furthermore, the Finnish company says that “this version of Belle has been specifically tailored to match Nokia 500’s hardware performance.” This is another indication that not all Belle features have been packed in this device.

Nokia 500 owners will get Nokia Maps version 3.06, but they are recommended to use Nokia Music, as the smartphone does not support FM transmitter or widget.

The new Belle update for Nokia 500 is available for download via Nokia Suite. To check for availability in a certain country head over to Nokia’s support site.

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LG X3 (P880) Gets Benchmarked, Scores Impressively High

LG’s upcoming quad-core X3 smartphone has made another appearance online, this time in a series of benchmarking results which unveil that it will be one of the most powerful handsets in the world. 

South Korean mobile phone maker LG has been long rumored to plan the release of a quad-core smartphone in the near future, but no specific info on what the device would be capable of has emerged before. 

However, following the recent update that the Quadrant benchmarking tool has seen, we can now get  

a better idea of what the upcoming quad-cores might be capable of. 

As it turns out, LG’s first such device, said to be none other than the LG X3, managed to score 4412 points in the test (higher is better), while Galaxy Nexus, for example, only went up to around 2000, info that emerged over at MoDaCo shows.

Running under Google’s Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system, the new device will certainly manage to impress a lot. 

It will appeal to users courtesy of its hardware specifications as well, which include, among other things, a large 4.7-inch touchscreen display that can deliver an HD 720x1280 pixels resolution. 

The mobile phone will also include a Tegra 3 Quad core processor from Nvidia, clocked in at 1.5GHz on single core and 1.4GHz when on 2-4 cores (and with a SMP Core - core companion – for IDLE tasks). 

The specs list of this mobile phone also includes 16GB of internal memory and a microSD memory card slot with support for additional storage space, and a 2000mAh battery inside. 

Moreover, the new mobile phone will arrive on shelves with an 8-megapixel photo snapper on the back, with an ultra-fast shutter and with support for HD video recording, as well as with a 1.3MP camera on the front, suitable for making video calls. 

For the time being, nothing has been officially confirmed on the upcoming availability of this device, but rumor has it that it will become official at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in late February.

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VTX3D Sells AMD Radeon HD 7770 and 7750 As Well

VTX3D, much like ASUS, has prepared its own Radeon HD 7700 series graphics adapters, though it does not seem to have taken as many liberties as its peers. 

For those who haven't learned yet, Advanced Micro Devices has officially launched its two cards powered by the Cape Verde graphics processing unit (GPU). 

Those boards, the Radeon HD 7770 and HD 7750, bring the GCN architecture to the mainstream. 

“We were first to 40nm, first to 28nm and now we offer the world’s first GPU at 1GHz; this is a milestone for the graphics industry,” said Matt Skynner, corporate vice president and general manager, GPU Division, AMD. 

“AMD continues to deliver superior performance, rich features and world-class power efficiency – we never stop innovating.” 

VTX3D, being one of the Sunnyvale, California-based company's partners, is ready to offer its own boards. 

Unlike ASUS, however, it chose not to go beyond the standard feature set in any way. 

That means that its graphics adapters are mostly identical to the original units, both in design and in performance. 

The VTX3D HD7770 GHz Edition features the Cape Verde GPU clocked at 1GHz, while the 1 GB of GDDR5 VRAM works at 1,125 MHz (4.5 GHz data rate). 

Meanwhile, the VTX3D HD 7750 has a GPU frequency of 800 MHz and the same memory specs as above. 

Both models support advanced DirectX 11.1 graphics and the AMD App Acceleration technology, plus Eyefinity (multi-display scenarios) and, of course, the CrossFire technology. 

It is unknown if VTX3D will, at any point down the line, unveil versions of these video adapters with different PCBs and/or coolers. 

At any rate, these two should soon show up for sale, if they haven't already been listen online, at the price of $159/ 120.71 Euro for the HD 7770 and $109 / 83 EUR for the 7750

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XFX Also Outs Double Dissipation Radeon HD 7750 Graphics Cards

Besides the Radeon HD 7770 SuperOverclocked Edition that have we presented earlier today, XFX’ also introduced four graphics cards based on AMD’s slower Radeon HD 7750 design, some of them featuring the company’s now famous Double Dissipation custom cooler.

The Radeon HD 7750 has been launched by AMD earlier today and is meant to come as a replacement for the company’s previous Juniper GPUs utilized in the HD 5700 and HD 6700 video cards.

Much like Juniper, the HD 7750 also targets the mainstream gaming crowd, but this time is based on an entirely new architecture which was dubbed Graphics Core Next (GCN).

If this name sounds familiar to you is because the architecture was actually introduced by AMD about two months back, at the same time with the high-performance Radeon HD 7970.

Despite being based on the same architecture as the HD 7900 series cards, the HD 7750 features a much smaller core that is dubbed Cape Verde Pro.

Compared to the Cape Verde XT GPU found in the HD 7770, this core comes with two of its Compute Units disabled to offer 512 stream processors and 32 texture units.

These are packed together with 16 ROP units, one geometry engine/rasterizer and 512KB of L2 cache, as well as with a 128-bit wide memory bus connected to 1GB of GDDR5 video buffer.

AMD’s reference HD 7750 design has the GPU core running at 800MHz, while the memory is working at 1,125MHz (4.5GHz data rate). These are also the frequencies used by XFX for two of the HD 7570 graphics cards it has announced today.

Sadly, the operating frequencies of the two other Cape Verde Pro video cards introduced by XFX are not yet known, but since they are Black Edition parts these will definitely come factory overclocked.

Pricing is also unknown, but AMD’s MSRP for the Radeon HD 7750 is set at $109 US, which translates into about 83 EUR.

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Windows 8 Tablets in Second Quarter of 2012, ViewSonic Delivers

Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system will go down in history as the first version of the software to be optimized for tablets, and this may happen sooner than some may think.

According to a new rumor from Digitimes, ViewSonic will have the Windows 8 tablet out as early as the second quarter of this year.

What this means is that a 10-inch product will be launched at some point during the April-June period of 2012.

The tablet will possess a high-resolution display and probably an ARM chip. It will succeed the ViewPad 10, which has both Windows 7 and Android support.

The revelation was attributed to Max Liu, product marketing director of ViewSonic Asia Pacific.

Whether or not this rumor has a grain of truth is unclear, something that will probably last until the product actually launches (or doesn't).

Either way, a Windows 8 device is only one of the gadgets that ViewSonic has in the pipeline.

For example, there is a new version of the ViewPad 10e in the works, equipped with 3G. This is not a Windows 8 product, though, nor is it going to take very long in showing up.

In fact, the formal release is expected to take place next month (March, 2012), rather than two or three months from now.

There will also be a couple or three more slate unveilings during Q2, some of which will be running Android 4.0.

Windows 8 is the latest incarnation of Microsoft's operating system and is different from its predecessors through its support for the ARM processor architecture.

In seeking to become a viable software platform for touch-based slates, the OS began to integrate ARM support, since this is the technology that gained the most recognition in this field, despite Intel's efforts.

The software will be ready for adoption, by everything from PCs to enterprise systems, in the second half of this year.

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HIS Intros Radeon HD 7750 iCooler Tweaked for Silent Running

Much like every other AMD add-in board (AIB) partner out there, HIS has also launched a new graphics card today, based on the Radeon HD 7750 design which, according to the company, was tweaked for silent running.

For this next-gen midrange graphics card, HIS decided to go with a design similar to the one used for some of its Radeon HD 6770 graphics cards.

Dubbed iCooler by the company, this in-house developed solution was built in order to provide both quieter operation (less than 28dB in 2D mode) and better cooling than AMD’s reference HD 7750 design.

The rest of the graphics card's specifications were however left unaltered, meaning that the new Radeon HD 7750 iCooler 1GB GDDR5 has its GPU running at AMD’s recommended 800MHz, while the memory is clocked at 1,125MHz (4,500MHz data rate).

As far as the card’s video output configuration is concerned, we get the usual DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort outputs.

No details regarding the pricing or the availability of the Radeon HD 7750 iCooler have been made public by HIS. A quick Google search also failed to return any info regarding these specs.

AMD’s Radeon HD 7750 graphics cards are based on the company’s Graphics Core Next architecture and use the Cape Verde Pro GPU.

Compared to the Cape Verde XT core found in the HD 7770, this GPU comes with two of its Compute Units disabled, to offer 512 stream processors and 32 texture units.

These are packed together with 16 ROP units, one geometry engine/rasterizer and 512KB of L2 cache, as well as with a 128-bit wide memory bus connected to 1GB of GDDR5 video buffer.

From a performance standpoint, the HD 7750 is about equal to AMD’s HD 5700 series graphics cards, but requires less power to operate. The recommended retail price of the Radeon HD 7750 was set at $109 US, which translates into about 83 EUR.

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1120MHz Overclocked Radeon HD 7770 Announced by XFX

Just moments after the official introduction of the Radeon DH 7700 series, XFX announced a new range of graphics card based on this design, including the SuperOverclock Edition HD 7770 which was built in order to work at a whopping 1120MHz.

It goes without saying that this is XFX’ most powerful solution to be released in the HD 7700 series, which includes no less than 9 graphics cards.

Much like the company’s factory overclocked HD 7900, the HD 7770 SuperClocked utilizes the same “dual dissipation” cooler design that relies on two large diameter fans to push away the heat produced by the card while running.

Thanks to this advanced cooling setup, XFX was able to push AMD’s graphics card over its reference frequencies and clocked the GPU at an impressive 1120MHz, while the memory now works at 1300MHz (5.2GHz data rate). 

To put things in perspective, AMD’s recommended operating frequencies for the Radeon HD 7770 are set at 1000MHz for the GPU and 1.125GHz (4.5GHz effective) for the memory.

Officially introduced earlier today, AMD’s Radeon HD 7770 graphics card is based on the same Graphics Core Next architecture as the HD 7900 series.

At the heart of this new AMD creation stands, however, an entirely new GPU, dubbed Cape Verde, which is made up of 10 Compute Units to deliver a total of 640 stream processors and 40 texture units.

These are packed together with 16 ROP units, one geometry engine/rasterizer and 512KB of L2 cache, as well as with a 128-bit wide memory bus connected to 1GB of GDDR5 video buffer.

AMD’s recommended price for the Radeon HD 7770 is set at $159 (about 121 EUR), while the XFX SuperOverclock Edition retails for $179.99 (136 EUR).

XFX’ Radeon HD 7770 graphics card range includes three other models, two of them featuring the Double Dissipation cooler.

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“Transformers 4” Confirmed for June 2014

Though it can't possibly come as too much of a shock, Paramount and Michael Bay have confirmed that a fourth “Transformers” film will be made – and will hit theaters worldwide in the summer of 2014. 

When Bay put out “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” last year, he made it a point of saying that this would be his third and last installment in the insanely successful franchise. 

Of course, very few actually believed him: no one walks away from such a money-making venture just like that. 

Now, producer Lorenzo DiBonaventura, who worked with Bay before, is telling MTV News that he's on board for the fourth “Transformers” film though it might not be a sequel to the previous three, but more of a reboot.

“Michael’s going to direct it, and it’ll be in the summer of 2014. We’ll be releasing it [then]… I think the challenge there is we really are going to do a reboot there, and what that’s going to be we don’t even know yet,” the producer says. 

Because they don't have a story yet, DiBonaventura doesn't even want to consider talking about the possibility of having the old cast return for the old parts. 

This makes sense: given that leading man Shia LaBeouf has already said he's done with the franchise, chances are a new film will tell the story at another point in Sam's life with, of course, another actor. 

Michael Bay has also confirmed the happy news on his official website, saying he has a new deal with Paramount for two films: “Pain and Gain” and “Transformers.”

“To clarify uninformed reports coming out of Toy Fair - Steven Spielberg and I are working on a whole new re imagining of Transformers, the fourth installment. We have been working on the idea for a few months,” Bay writes. 

However, he'll do “Pain and Gain” first, a passion project for Bay, on which he's been working for years. 

It stars Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and will start shooting very soon.

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ASUS Takes Liberties with Its AMD Radeon HD 7770 Card

Since Advanced Micro Devices has finally made the official introduction of the Radeon HD 7770 video controller, its partners, in this case ASUS, are taking their turns as well.

ASUS has prepared both HD 7770 and 7750 cards, but we will focus on the former here and leave the second one for later.

The card went through a transformation, both in terms of design and performance.

This is owed to the fact that AMD did not prohibit its OEMs from coming up with their own custom designs.

Previously, the GPU developer would impose a period of time after launch, during which its partners had to stick to the reference PCB and cooler. Only after several weeks, or months, were they allowed to start taking liberties.

As already mentioned, this is not the case here, so ASUS wasted no time in launching the Radeon HD 7770 DirectCU TOP.

The DirectCU cooler has been used on various other, upper-mid range graphics adapters, so this is not too great a surprise.

For those who need a reminder, the DirectCU has a number of heatpipes that make direct contact with the GPU die and send the heat to an aluminum fin array.

That said, the improved cooling capabilities allowed ASUS to push the clock even higher than they already were.

While the Cape Verde GPU already functioned at 1 GHz, the Radeon HD 7770 DirectCU pushed that clock to 1.125 GHz. On that same note, the 1 GB of GDDR5 memory operates at a frequency of 4.6 GHz instead of 4.5 GHz.

The rest of the specs are unchanged from the stock ones, so interested consumers may as well go here and get better acquainted with everything (connectors, ROPs, memory bandwidth, etc.).

ASUS will probably stick to the same $159/ 120.71 Euro price point as everyone else.

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AMD Officially Releases Radeon HD 7770 1GHz Edition Graphics Card

After weeks of rumors and leaks, and Verdetrol pills, Advanced Micro Devices has finally reached the point where it is ready to formally release its latest graphics card from the Radeon HD 7000 series. 

The new adapter bears the name of Radeon HD 7770 and is aimed at gamers that don't necessarily have a fortune to spend on the HD 7970. 

Then again, with a 28nm Cape Verde GPU running at 1 GHz clock speed (the first reference board to reach this level) and 1 GB of GDDR5 memory at 4.5 GHz, there isn't any real need for something stronger. 

Speaking of which, the memory interface is of 128 bits, while the GCN architecture offers 10 compute units (640 Stream Processors), 40 texture units, 16 Color ROP units, 64 Z/Stencil ROP Units and Dual Asynchronous Compute Engines (ACE). 

All in all, the add-in-board (AIB) can attain a maximum memory bandwidth of 72GB/s and Single Precision compute power of 1.28 TFLOPS. 

Furthermore, DirectX 11 is fully supported, as is OpenGL 4.2 and the PCI Express Gen 3.0 x16 interface. 

Not only that, but the Sunnyvale, California-based company implemented the AMD ZeroCore Power technology, as well as AMD App Acceleration. 

ZeroCore Power is a feature that drastically reduces the energy consumed by the GPU when the PC display is turned off. It also powers down secondary GPUs in AMD CrossFire configurations, when they are idle. 

As for App Acceleration, it provides OpenCL 1.2, DirectCompute 11 & Microsoft C++ AMP support, plus Double Precision Floating Point performance benefits and the AMD HD Media Accelerator (UVD decoder, Video Codec Engine, video quality enhancement). 

Finally, in terms of connectivity, AMD provides two mini DisplayPorts 1.2, HDMI 1.4a and Dual-Link DVI with HDCP. Eyefinity support allows up to six displays to be used at once. 

Advanced Micro Devices has already given the green light for the sale of the Radeon HD 7770. The price is of around $159/ 120.71 Euro. 

Stay tuned for news on the sibling of this card, the Radeon HD 7750, and the versions from HIS, XFX, ASUS, Sapphire, Powercolor, Gigabyte and MSI.

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