XFX AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition with Vapor Chamber Cooling

AMD’s famous “Tahiti” GPU is now making a comeback in the form of the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition video cards. The company’s 4.3 billion transistors chip has been very overclockable from the start, but now that TSMC has refined its 28nm manufacturing process, AMD is able to simply raise the working frequencies and launch a new product.

XFX’s new Radeon HD 7970 video card comes with the same 3 GB GDDR5 video memory that we can find on any HD 7970 video card, but this time the new GHz Edition BIOS is clocking the memory at 1500 MHz or 6 GHz effective frequency, elchapuzasinformatico.com reported. The cooling system doesn’t seem to have any cooling heatpipes running through it, but has the cooling fins directly welded to the vapor chamber.

There are two cooling fans with 90-millimeter diameter that are placed in a rather standard design that reuses the air inside the computer case without blowing it outside the enclosure. There is no information yet on the pricing of the new model.

XFX AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition Video Card with Vapor Chamber Cooling
Images credits to elchapuzasinformatico

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AMD 1090FX Chipset in 2013 with Steamroller Support

AMD seems to be concentrating on its mobile and server platforms for the moment and the PC desktop domain will only receive the Piledriver enhanced Vishera processors as an upgrade for the AM3+ owners.

We have reported here about Vishera’s complete compatibility with today’s AM3+ platform and we already know that the performance boost should likely be around 20% or more like we reported here. The company and the market is very enthusiastic on the computing performance and battery performance of the Trinity processors and they are working on a tablet platform also.

The tablet market will finally welcome some real competition from AMD in the form of its Jaguar APU. The desktop platform will remain the same until next summer when AMD’s Steamroller architecture will be finalized, WCCFtech reports.

AMD Chipset Marketing Shot
Image credits to AMD

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Colorful iGame GTX 680, World First Fanless GTX 680 Video Card Details

Colorful a Chinese video card manufacturer seems to be determined to make a strong and lasting impact in the video card market. Fortunately for video card enthusiasts, the company is not willing to do this by using lower prices, questionable quality or high sales volumes, but by using innovative designs and powerful configurations.

The company has decided to launch the world’s first fanless Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 graphics adapter and it has been working on the design from some months. Colorful’s innovative design uses a two part cooling system with detachable components that have absolutely no moving parts. The main piece is the principal cooling heatsink that’s directly attached to the video card’s PCB and the GPU. Enthusiasts will be pleased to find out that there is a second cooling part that will attach to the main one in order to provide additional heat dissipation capacity to allow the user to overclock the device or use it in hotter environments that require additional cooling.

The video card will come with double the reference video memory quantity, OverClockers.ua reports. Therefore, Colorful has decided to use 4 GB of GDDR5 video memory on its fanless Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 video card. This will ensure higher frame rates and generally better performance when running 3D applications in very high resolutions. The new card will be called Colorful iGame GTX 680 and will also come with various overclocking features. We’re not quite sure if overclocking features are the best fit for a quiet, fanless video card, but we’re glad Colorful is working hard on building a quality graphics adapter.

The video card comes with a dual 8-pin power connector setup and a dual-VRM design with a special “extra” VRM card that will be user connectable when needed for overclocking. Unfortunately we will have to wait until September to see the card on the store shelf.

Colorful iGame GTX 680 Fanless Video Card
Images credits to Overclokers.ua

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Windows Phone-Based Nokia Phi, Nokia Dogphone, Nokia Lumia 908 Emerge Again

Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia is reportedly gearing up for the release of Windows Phone 8 devices, but no specific info on what these handsets would be all about has emerged so far.

Of course, we already saw a wide range of rumors regarding the company’s plans for the new platform, including info on a possible double launch in early September, but nothing has been officially confirmed on the matter for the time being. However, it appears that some Nokia devices, believed to be en-route to the market with the Windows Phone 8 platform on board, keep making appearances online. Among them, there are the Nokia Phi, Nokia Dogphone, and Nokia Lumia 908, all three spotted once again at Occasional gamer.

These are not the only Nokia models that can be seen on the aforementioned website, as models such as Nokia P4301, Nokia P5198, NOKIA 0000, Nokia Fluid, and NOKIA SGH-i917R are also listed there. Apparently, all these are devices on which games have been loaded and tested, and they might point at upcoming smartphones. But such lists can be easily counterfeited, and we’ll have to take the info with a grain of salt, that’s for sure. On the other hand, since some of these devices keep on appearing on game stats, chances are that they would finally prove to be real, although no official confirmation on their existence has emerged so far. Among them, we can count the Nokia Dogphone, which could be nothing more than a testing device, as its name suggests.

There is also a Nokia Lumia 908, which could indeed be one of the devices that Nokia plans to make commercially available with the next platform release on board. After all, the name falls in line with the rumored Lumia 910 and Lumia 920 smartphones. Additionally, there is the Nokia Phi handset, which has been spotted online before in the benchmarking application WPBench, and which could also prove a real device. Rumor has it that Nokia might unveil two Windows Phone 8 smartphones (or a MeeGo and a Windows Phone 8 device, according to recent reports) as soon as September 5th – 7th. The handset vendor is expected to be the first to begin the new platform release to shelves this fall.

Nokia Lumia 900
Image credits to Nokia

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Need for Speed: Most Wanted Video Details

Electronic Arts and Criterion Games have posted a new version of the E3 2012 gameplay video we saw last month of Need for Speed: Most Wanted, this time with commentary from the developer about the mechanics of the racing game.

NFS: Most Wanted is a reimagining of the cult classic title from the long running franchise, this time coming from the studio behind the Burnout series, Criterion Games. We already got to admire it through a couple of videos that appeared at E3 2012, but now EA and Criterion have posted a new version of the gameplay footage that was released last month. Besides showing off a race and a cop chase through the streets of Fairhaven City, the trailer also has various details from the developer about the game's mechanics.

This new video will certainly alleviate those who fear that the new game won't recreate that same Most Wanted experience from 2005. The new raging game is out on October 30, in North America, and November 2, in Europe, for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.

Get an Insider walkthrough from Criterion of Need for Speed Most Wanted. Check out the open world of Fairhaven City, and the high-octane races and chases that take place within.


Pre-Order Most Wanted now at http://www.needforspeed.com/buy 
Release Date: October 30th, 2012
Video credits to NeedForSpeed

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ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Supports AMP

A little while ago, we brought you the ECS A85F2-A Deluxe motherboard, the first model we saw with support for AMD Memory profile, but ASRock might have just one-upped that company.

We say this because ASRock actually has an AMP-ready motherboard up for sale, whereas ECS has only announced that it would ship one this quarter. The mainboard we are talking about is called Fatal1ty 990FX Professional and has been up for order for quite some time. AMD Memory profile RAM is now supported thanks to a BIOS update. "Asrock's flagship board Fatal1ty 990FX professional is the only on-sale motherboard offering AMD AMP memory overclocking kit in the consumer market, stepping to the future memory overclocking now," a statement by Asrock reads.

AMP memory have serial presence detect (SPD) and can operate at special timings and frequencies when paired with microprocessors designed by Advanced Micro Devices. Clocks of over 2.8 GHz should be attainable with trinity APUs, instead of “just” 2.1 GHz. ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX should be found up for order at $179.99 / 146 Euro.

ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Professional
Image credits to ASRock

ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Professional UEFI Setup screenshot
Image credits to ASRock

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Windows 8 RTM Build 9200 Lock Screen Image

Earlier this week, we had the chance to have a look at what appeared to be the default wallpaper on the upcoming Windows 8 platform, supposedly extracted from a Build 8888.

While that build was expected at the time to become the final RTM flavor of the operating system, it appears that Microsoft has made some changes on the matter. When released, Windows 8 RTM will sport build number 9200, a recent report coming from Win8China suggests, citing some internal issues with the first build number. The final Release to Manufacturing (RTM) flavor of Windows 8 is now said to be build 9200.16384.WIN8_RTM.120725-1247. Apparently, Microsoft has already started to compile the build this week, and should have it ready for prime time as soon as next week, just as previously announced. With Windows 8 RTM, Microsoft will apply the final touches to the platform’s appearance, including, but not limited to, setting the default wallpapers and lock screen images.

Also coming from Win8China, an image of the final default lock screen in the operating system has made an appearance online, and can be seen to the left. All on Windows 8 RTM should be unveiled as soon as next week, though it’s yet uncertain which date Microsoft has set for the move. No explanation on why the final RTM build has been modified has emerged either, but The Verge notes that it is because Microsoft’s complex internal build process.

Following the RTM milestone, Microsoft and its partners will be preparing for the official launch of Windows 8, which has been set for October 26th. On that day, we should see both x86 and ARM devices launched with Windows 8 on board. Microsoft themselves will have an ARM tablet made available on October 26th, the Windows RT-powered Surface tablet. A Windows 8 Pro-based version of the device will land about three months later.

Lock screen image on Windows 8 RTM Build 9200
Image credits to Win8China

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