amd radeon | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net KitGuru.net - Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards Thu, 30 Mar 2023 08:41:35 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cropped-KITGURU-Light-Background-SQUARE2-32x32.png amd radeon | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net 32 32 Acer could soon launch their own AMD Radeon custom graphics cards https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/joao-silva/acer-could-soon-launch-their-own-amd-radeon-custom-graphics-cards/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/joao-silva/acer-could-soon-launch-their-own-amd-radeon-custom-graphics-cards/#respond Wed, 01 Feb 2023 12:00:10 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=592022 Acer took its first steps into the desktop graphics card market last year as an AIB partner for Intel. Now, the company looks to expand and may soon offer AMD Radeon graphics cards too.  According to ITHome (via Wccftech), Acer will join the ranks of AMD AIB partners this year. Unfortunately, the Chinese media outlet …

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Acer took its first steps into the desktop graphics card market last year as an AIB partner for Intel. Now, the company looks to expand and may soon offer AMD Radeon graphics cards too. 

According to ITHome (via Wccftech), Acer will join the ranks of AMD AIB partners this year. Unfortunately, the Chinese media outlet didn't share a specific timeframe, leaving us wondering if Acer will wait for AMD to release more GPUs, such as the mid-range Radeon RX 7800/7700/7600.

As of now, Acer has launched the Intel Arc-based A770 16GB Predator BiFrost and A380 Predator. There don't seem to be plans to introduce Acer-branded Nvidia graphics cards in the near future.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru says: When do you expect to see the first Acer Radeon graphics card? Do you think the company will eventually expand its operations as an AIB partner by collaborating with Nvidia?

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AMD RX 6X50XT graphics cards could hit the market in Q2 2022 https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/joao-silva/amd-rx-6x50xt-graphics-cards-could-hit-the-market-in-q2-2022/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/joao-silva/amd-rx-6x50xt-graphics-cards-could-hit-the-market-in-q2-2022/#respond Wed, 19 Jan 2022 10:50:31 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=546819 New rumours regarding AMD's upcoming Radeon RX 6X50XT graphics cards have emerged, giving us more details about the alleged specifications of these cards, as well as their release window...

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New rumours regarding AMD's upcoming Radeon RX 6X50XT graphics cards have emerged, giving us more details about the alleged specifications of these cards, as well as their release window.

According to Chiphell forum user Wjm47196  (via VideoCardz), an AMD leaker with a decent record claims the AMD Radeon RX 6X50XT graphics cards are indeed real. These cards will be powered by Navi 21 (RX 6900XT and 6800 series) and Navi 22 (RX 6700XT) GPUs and are expected to release during Q2 2022. Availability will last for about one or two quarters, until RDNA3 graphics cards come out.

The Navi 21/22 dies on these graphics cards are expected to be built using TSMC's 6nm node, an upgrade over the TSMC N7 node used on the older Radeon RX 6000 series cards. However, we may also see a memory upgrade. As previously rumoured, instead of using 16Gbps GDDR6 memory, the refreshed GPUs may instead come with GDDR6 memory clocked at 18Gbps.

These new Radeon RX 6X50XT graphics cards look like an answer to the refreshed RTX 30 series cards, including the RTX 3080 12GB, the RTX 3090 Ti and possibly the RTX 3070 Ti 16GB. It's certainly plausible that both manufacturers are bolstering their product stacks ahead of Intel's Arc Alchemist GPU launch.

Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.

KitGuru says: Would you consider getting a refreshed Radeon RX 6x50XT card? If they indeed use TSMC's N6 node and ship ith 18Gbps GDDR6 memory, how much faster will they be over the original RX 6000 series?

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AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT and RX 6400 rumoured for Q1 2022 https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/joao-silva/amd-radeon-rx-6500-xt-and-rx-6400-rumoured-for-q1-2022/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/joao-silva/amd-radeon-rx-6500-xt-and-rx-6400-rumoured-for-q1-2022/#respond Sat, 04 Dec 2021 13:03:19 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=542491 It seems we won't have to wait much longer to see AMD's entry-level graphics cards hit the shelves. According to reports this week, the AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT will launch in mid-January, while the RX 6400 is set for March. The report comes from a Bilibili user (via El Chapuzas Informatico), claiming that both cards will …

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It seems we won't have to wait much longer to see AMD's entry-level graphics cards hit the shelves. According to reports this week, the AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT will launch in mid-January, while the RX 6400 is set for March.

The report comes from a Bilibili user (via El Chapuzas Informatico), claiming that both cards will have 4GB of VRAM. Based on these claims, Ethereum miners should not be drawn into buying these cards, as they aren't able to build the DAG file necessary to mine. However, there are plenty of other cryptocurrencies to mine that aren't limited by the amount of VRAM.

Besides the release dates, the leaker also claims that the Radeon RX 6400 is powered solely through the PCIe interface, so expect a TDP below 75W.

Both cards are rumoured to be based on the Navi 24 GPU and feature 16MB of Infinity Cache and a 64-bit memory bus. The RX 6500 XT is expected to feature a fully enabled die carrying 1024 streaming processors and 16x RT accelerators. The RX 6400 should come with a cut-down version of the same die with 768 streaming processors and 12x ray accelerators.

KitGuru says: Building a PC has been more expensive than ever in recent months, so it’s nice to see some entry-level options finally coming to market, just as long as supply and demand struggles don’t drive prices up too high. 

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AMD may have a more powerful RX 6900 GPU up its sleeve https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/joao-silva/amd-may-have-a-more-powerful-rx-6900-gpu-up-its-sleeve/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/joao-silva/amd-may-have-a-more-powerful-rx-6900-gpu-up-its-sleeve/#respond Sat, 24 Apr 2021 09:31:16 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=512957 AMD may have a more powerful version of the RX 6900 graphics card up its sleeve. According to newly leaked images, there is a Radeon RX 6900 XTX floating around, equipped with an all-in-one liquid cooling solution.  The pictures of the alleged AMD Radeon RX 6900 XTX graphics card were shared on the Chinese forum …

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AMD may have a more powerful version of the RX 6900 graphics card up its sleeve. According to newly leaked images, there is a Radeon RX 6900 XTX floating around, equipped with an all-in-one liquid cooling solution. 

The pictures of the alleged AMD Radeon RX 6900 XTX graphics card were shared on the Chinese forum Weibo. The pictures show the card has a similar design to other RX 6000 series reference cards, featuring a black and grey shroud with a big ‘R' logo at the centre. We can also see the AIO cooler in the pictures, which comes with a single fan to cool the radiator.

Image credit: Weibo

Recently, three graphics cards using pre-binned Navi 21 GPUs have appeared, from ASRock, Sapphire and PowerColor. These GPUs use a Navi 21 XTXH GPU with greater overclocking capabilities, in fact, recently a GPU overclocking world record was broken using this chip.

Considering the naming and cooling solution, we wonder if this is AMD's reference solution for these more powerful Navi 21 chips. After all, AMD is no stranger to water-cooled graphics cards, having equipped the R9 Fury X, Radeon Vega Frontier Edition and RX Vega 64 with similar AIO solutions.

Whether or not AMD releases this SKU officially still remains to be seen. AMD may have opted to just supply Navi 21 XTXH chips to selected board partners instead.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru says: It's quite a shame that the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XTX might never be mass-produced. If AMD ever releases the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XTX graphics card, would you consider buying it?

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MSI RX 6900 XT Gaming X Trio Review https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/dominic-moass/msi-rx-6900-xt-gaming-x-trio-review/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/dominic-moass/msi-rx-6900-xt-gaming-x-trio-review/#respond Mon, 29 Mar 2021 10:14:00 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=504680 Would you buy a graphics card with hot spot temperatures over 100C?

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Launched last month, today we take a look at MSI's flagship RX 6900 XT graphics card – the Gaming X Trio. Unlike the company's graphics cards from the RX 5700-series, MSI has opted for a unified design approach between its AMD and Nvidia GPUs this generation, meaning the RX 6900 XT Gaming X Trio looks almost identical to the RTX 3080 Gaming X Trio, with a beefy triple-slot and triple-fan cooler. Let's take a closer look and see if this could be a card to consider.

The MSI RX 6900 XT Gaming X Trio is the third air-cooled RX 6900 XT we have reviewed, coming after AMD's reference design and also Gigabyte's Gaming OC. It is the highest clocked of the three, with a rated boost speed of 2340MHz, which is 90MHz faster than the reference card. It's also got the largest cooler, plenty of RGB lighting as well as a metal backplate.

 RX 6900 XT  RX 6800 XT RX 6800  RX 5700 XT   RX 5700
Architecture RDNA 2 RDNA 2 RDNA 2 RDNA  RDNA
Manufacturing Process 7nm 7nm 7nm 7nm  7nm
Transistor Count 26.8 billion 26.8 billion 26.8 billion 10.3 billion 10.3 billion
Die Size  519 mm² 519 mm² 519 mm² 251 mm² 251mm²
Ray Accelerators 80 72 60 n/a n/a
Compute Units  80 72 60 40 36
Stream Processors  5120 4608 3840 2560 2304
Game GPU Clock Up to 2015MHz Up to 2015MHz Up to 1815MHz Up to 1755MHz Up to 1625MHz
Boost GPU Clock Up to 2250MHz Up to 2250MHz Up to 2105MHz Up to 1905MHz Up to 1725MHz
Peak SP Performance Up to 23.04 TFLOPS Up to 20.74 TFLOPS Up to 16.17 TFLOPS Up to 9.75 TFLOPS Up to 7.95 TFLOPS
Peak Half Precision Performance Up to 46.08 TFLOPS Up to 41.47 TFLOPS Up to 32.33 TFLOPS Up to 19.5 TFLOPS Up to 15.9 TFLOPS
Peak Texture Fill-Rate Up to 720 GT/s Up to 648.0 GT/s Up to 505.2 GT/s Up to 304.8 GT/s Up to 248.4 GT/s
ROPs 128 128 96 64 64
Peak Pixel Fill-Rate Up to 288.0 GP/s Up to 288.0 GP/s Up to 202.1 GP/s Up to 121.9 GP/s Up to 110.4 GP/s
AMD Infinity Cache 128MB 128MB 128MB n/a n/a
Memory 16GB GDDR6 16GB GDDR6 16GB GDDR6 8GB GDDR6 8GB GDDR6
Memory Bandwidth 512 GB/s 512 GB/s 512 GB/s 448 GB/s 448 GB/s
Memory Interface  256-bit 256-bit 256-bit 256-bit 256-bit
Board Power  300W 300W 250W 225W 185W

The make-up of the RX 6900 XT GPU has many similarities to the RX 6800 XT. Still fabricated on TSMC’s 7nm process node, it uses the same Navi 21 GPU, measuring 519 mm². The key difference is that the RX 6900 XT silicon is fully populated, with 80 Compute Units (CUs) compared to 72 for the 6800 XT. This means the flagship chip has an extra 512 Stream Processors, giving a grand total of 5120 shaders.

Rated clock speed is also identical between these two RDNA 2 GPUs. Reference RX 6900 XT has a rated game clock of 2015MHz and a rated boost clock of up to 2250MHz, but MSI has pushed the rated boost clock up to 2340MHz for the Gaming X Trio.

AMD has also increased the memory capacity, with 16GB of GDDR6 memory found on the RX 6800, RX 6800 XT and RX 6900 XT, while the RX 6700 XT has 12GB GDDR6. Here, the memory is clocked at 16Gbps and operates over a 256-bit memory interface for total bandwidth of 512 GB/s. However, AMD has also implemented a 128MB Infinity Cache on the Navi 21 GPU, to significantly increase effective memory bandwidth without excess power draw.

Speaking of power, the reference RX 6900 XT has a rated total board power (TBP) of 300W. MSI has increased this for the Gaming X Trio to 350W based on our testing, but we look at power draw in more detail later on in the review.

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AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT custom models are a possibility https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/joao-silva/amd-radeon-rx-6900-xt-custom-models-are-a-possibility/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/joao-silva/amd-radeon-rx-6900-xt-custom-models-are-a-possibility/#respond Sat, 31 Oct 2020 16:56:26 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=492270 When AMD first announced the Radeon RX 6900 XT graphics card earlier this week, it only announced a reference version and not any custom partner cards. We could see some custom-cooled solutions soon though, as AMD is reportedly in talks with partners to allow custom versions of its latest flagship GPU.  Some AIB partners have …

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When AMD first announced the Radeon RX 6900 XT graphics card earlier this week, it only announced a reference version and not any custom partner cards. We could see some custom-cooled solutions soon though, as AMD is reportedly in talks with partners to allow custom versions of its latest flagship GPU. 

Some AIB partners have already started to share their custom cooling designs of the Radeon RX 6000 cards, and none included a Radeon RX 6900 XT. Given this, it's somewhat safe to assume that AMD hasn't allowed its partners to work with the Radeon RX 6900 XT. It's not clear if this also means that partners can't resell the reference cards.

Fortunately, as per Andreas Schilling, “AMD is in talks with partners about custom models of the Radeon RX 6900 XT”. While the reference and custom Radeon RX 6800 and RX 6800 XT are scheduled to release on November 18th, the Radeon RX 6900 XT has been pushed for December 8th. This could be so AIB's have the time to prepare their custom solutions.

If AIB partners are allowed to design custom solutions for the Radeon RX 6900 XT, then the turnaround could end up being fairly quick. The Radeon RX 6800 XT shares plenty of similarities to the 6900 XT, with both featuring the same 16GB GDDR6 across a 256-bit bus memory configuration, 2015MHz game frequency and 2250MHz boost frequency, and 300W TDP. The only noticeable difference is the amount of CUs enabled in the GPU (72 vs 80).

KitGuru says: Are you interested in buying the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT? Would you rather buy a custom cooled RX 6900 XT instead of the reference model?

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AMD releases the Radeon Pro VII workstation graphics card https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/joao-silva/amd-releases-the-radeon-pro-vii-workstation-graphics-card/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/joao-silva/amd-releases-the-radeon-pro-vii-workstation-graphics-card/#respond Thu, 14 May 2020 07:18:33 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=466776 AMD has unveiled its latest workstation graphics, the Radeon Pro VII. Designed for broadcast and engineering professionals, the Radeon Pro VII is capable of “delivering exceptional graphics and computational performance” while offering a number of unique features. The Radeon Pro VII was created to power broadcast and media projects, computer-aided engineering (CAE) simulations and high-performance computing …

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AMD has unveiled its latest workstation graphics, the Radeon Pro VII. Designed for broadcast and engineering professionals, the Radeon Pro VII is capable of “delivering exceptional graphics and computational performance” while offering a number of unique features.

The Radeon Pro VII was created to power broadcast and media projects, computer-aided engineering (CAE) simulations and high-performance computing (HPC) applications. The 16GB of HBM2 video memory with ECC support, 3840 stream processors, 4096-bit memory interface and 1TB/s of memory bandwidth results in 26% faster 8K image processing performance in DaVinci Resolve than an Nvidia Quadro RTX 5000, and almost 6 times the FP64 performance-per-dollar ratio compared with an Nvidia Quadro GP100, when using Altair's EDEM “Screw Auger” viewset.

Other notable specs include 6.5TFlops of double-precision (FP64) performance and 13.1TFlops of single-precision performance (FP32).

The new AMD Infinity Fabric Link is AMD's latest graphics card bridging technology, which is being introduced to the market with the Radeon Pro VII. This technology allows you to bridge two Radeon Pro VII graphics card to further boost your system by speeding up “application data throughput by enabling high-speed GPU-to-GPU communications”, achieving a “communication speed” of up to 168GB/s between GPUs.

There are 6x Mini DP 1.4 ports available, allowing the Radeon Pro VII to synchronise up to 6 displays with full HDR. It also supports 8K resolution on a single display.

In other news, the AMD Radeon Pro Software for Enterprise driver is available now and delivers up to 14% “year-over-year performance improvement” for the current-gen Radeon Pro workstation graphics cards. AMD has also updated the AMD Radeon ProRender, a physically-based rendering engine, with new and updated plugins for Autodesk Mya, Blender, Unreal Engine, and SideFx Houdini.

The AMD Radeon Pro VII will be available in mid-June, priced at $1899. Workstations equipped with this graphics card are expected in H2 2020. The bridge connection will be available for $199. You can learn more about AMD's graphics card HERE.

Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.

KitGuru says: Do you use a workstation graphics card? What do you think about the AMD Radeon Pro VII?

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ASUS RX 5700 TUF Gaming X3 OC Edition Review https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/dominic-moass/asus-rx-5700-tuf-gaming-x3-oc-edition-review/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/dominic-moass/asus-rx-5700-tuf-gaming-x3-oc-edition-review/#respond Tue, 22 Oct 2019 08:22:46 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=430039 It's an expensive RX 5700, but what has ASUS done with the memory cooling?

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Since AMD launched its new Navi graphics cards back in July, a lot of focus has been given to the RX 5700 XT, with the baby brother RX 5700 receiving less attention. We are trying to change that today, however, with a look at ASUS' TUF Gaming X3 RX 5700 card. Featuring a smart black shroud, triple-fan cooler and factory overclocked core, is this the card to go for under £400?

As part of the ASUS TUF Gaming series, the company has made a few claims regarding the ‘tuf' nature of this new RX 5700. These include an 144-hour validation program, Auto-Extreme Technology which ‘uses automation to enhance reliability', and even ‘space-grade lubricant‘ for the dual ball bearing fans.

Pricing is also something to be aware of, with this card coming in at £379.99. That's £50 above the reference MSRP for RX 5700, putting close to RX 5700 XT territory.

   RX 5700 RX 5700 XT   RX Vega 56 RX Vega 64   Radeon VII
 Architecture  Navi Navi Vega 10 Vega 10  Vega 20
 Manufacturing Process  7nm 7nm 14nm 14nm  7nm
 Transistor Count 10.3 billion 10.3 billion 12.5 billion 12.5 billion 13.2 billion
Die Size  251mm² 251mm² 486mm² 495mm² 331mm²
Compute Units  36 40 56 64  60
Stream Processors  2304 2560 3584 4096  3840
Base GPU Clock Up to 1465MHz Up to 1605MHz 1156 MHz 1274 MHz 1400 MHz
Game GPU Clock Up to 1625MHz Up to 1755MHz n/a n/a n/a
 Boost GPU Clock Up to 1725MHz Up to 1905MHz 1471 MHz 1546 MHz  1750 MHz
 Peak Engine Clock n/a n/a 1590 MHz  1630 MHz  1800 MHz
 Peak SP Performance Up to 7.95 TFLOPS Up to 9.75 TFLOPS Up to 10.5 TFLOPS Up to 12.7 TFLOPS Up to 14.2 TFLOPS
 Peak Half Precision Performance Up to 15.9 TFLOPS Up to 19.5 TFLOPS Up to 21.0 TFLOPS Up to 25.3 TFLOPS  Up to 28.1 TFLOPS
 Peak Texture Fill-Rate Up to 248.4 GT/s Up to 304.8 GT/s  Up to 330.0 GT/s  Up to 395.8 GT/s  432.24 GT/s
 ROPs 64 64 64 64  64
 Peak Pixel Fill-Rate Up to 110.4 GP/s Up to 121.9 GP/s Up to 94.0 GP/s Up to 98.9 GP/s 115.26 GP/s
 Memory 8GB GDDR6 8GB GDDR6 8GB HBM 8GB HBM 16GB HBM2
 Memory Bandwidth 448 GB/s 448 GB/s 410 GB/s 483.8 GB/s  1 TB/s
Memory Interface  256-bit 256-bit 2048-bit 2048-bit  4096-bit
Board Power  185W 225W 210W 295W  300W

ASUS has also pushed the clock speed of the RX 5700 a little further, with a rated ‘game clock' of 1720MHz, which is 95MHz faster than the reference card. There is the option to download ASUS GPU Tweak II and enable an ‘OC mode', but this only adds an extra 5MHz to the game clock and is an extra step required from the end-user.

Elsewhere, core spec of the RX 5700 means we have 36 Compute Units (CUs), with each CU housing 64 Stream Processors for a total of 2304. There's also 8GB of GDDR6 memory, clocked at 14Gbps, operating across a 256-bit bus, for 448GB/s total memory bandwidth.

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AMD has had Microsoft ray tracing code in its drivers since July https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/james-dawson/amd-has-had-microsoft-ray-tracing-code-in-its-drivers-since-july/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/james-dawson/amd-has-had-microsoft-ray-tracing-code-in-its-drivers-since-july/#respond Fri, 11 Oct 2019 14:31:20 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=429611 Even though none of AMD's current generation of graphics cards officially support Microsoft’s DirectX Raytracing (DXR), according to recent reports, it seems AMD has been putting code in its GPU drivers since July this year. As reported by PCGamesN, recent images from AMD’s China partner summit event, which were shared online, suggest attendees of the …

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Even though none of AMD's current generation of graphics cards officially support Microsoft’s DirectX Raytracing (DXR), according to recent reports, it seems AMD has been putting code in its GPU drivers since July this year.

As reported by PCGamesN, recent images from AMD’s China partner summit event, which were shared online, suggest attendees of the event may have heard details that the Radeon driver release due in December, will have new features coming that could include support for ray tracing.

It appears that AMD has had ray tracing code in its Radeon drivers since the Adrenalin 19.7.2 release back in July. While the code is thought to have been in the drivers since then, it has never been activated. Currently, none of the GPUs in AMD's current crop officially support ray tracing, while Nvidia have had hardware-level ray tracing since last year when its generation of RTX cards were released.

 

Given that Nvidia has had ray tracing enabled products on the market for over a year now, AMD has some catching up to do, it would make sense that AMD is working on support to incorporate ray tracing into its GPUs soon. However, that may not mean the current Navi generation, but possibly a rumoured selection of RDNA 2 cards which we could see as early as 2020, support ray tracing.

According to PCGamesN, Twitter tech analyst, Komachi spotted a reference to Microsoft’s DXR in AMD Adrenalin drivers in July but found it wasn’t actually active. However, Komachi is expecting DXR to be one of the new features in the Radeon Adrenalin 2019 software coming in December. This may mean the current crop of AMD Navi graphics cards will feature software level ray tracing. After all, there were suggestions in the past that Navi would have ray tracing patched in via software eventually, one way or another.

KitGuru says: Are you an AMD GPU owner looking forward to ray tracing support? would you like to see Navi support software level ray tracing or would you prefer to wait for hardware-level support in future generations?

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ASUS’ AREZ branded AMD Radeon graphics cards spotted with an unnecessary premium price tag https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/damien-cox/asus-arez-branded-amd-radeon-graphics-cards-spotted-with-an-unnecessary-premium-price-tag/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/damien-cox/asus-arez-branded-amd-radeon-graphics-cards-spotted-with-an-unnecessary-premium-price-tag/#respond Tue, 17 Jul 2018 11:11:15 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=380018 Despite Nvidia’s confusing and controversial GeForce Partner Program (GPP) coming to an end, ASUS confirmed that it was set to continue using its AREZ branding to distinguish its AMD Radeon range. AREZ GPUs have now been spotted in the wild, initially sporting a $160 premium price above its identical ROG branded counterparts. US retailer Newegg …

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Despite Nvidia’s confusing and controversial GeForce Partner Program (GPP) coming to an end, ASUS confirmed that it was set to continue using its AREZ branding to distinguish its AMD Radeon range. AREZ GPUs have now been spotted in the wild, initially sporting a $160 premium price above its identical ROG branded counterparts.

US retailer Newegg is one of the first to get its hands on AREZ Strix Radeon RX Vega 64 (AREZ RXVEGA64-O8G-GAMING) graphics cards, initially setting the price at a staggering $749.99, significantly above the $589.99 MSRP of the ASUS ROG Strix Radeon RX Vega 64 (STRIX-RXVEGA64-O8G-GAMING) GPUs currently in circulation.

While the term “you get what you pay for” is often true, speaking for the quality of the item, companies often charge extra for the reputation of its branding. In the case of AREZ versus its older ROG counterpart, however, the $160 premium seems to only net customers a different name and different sticker on the centre of each fan. Newegg seems to have responded to the concern expressed in reports, dropping the price of the AREZ card down to $649.99 at the time of writing, however this is still an unnecessary $60 premium for the exact same card.

With few other retailers stocking AREZ graphics cards at this time, it’s difficult to discern whether this is the choice of Newegg or ASUS, however the latter has a lot of cost to make up from its extensive marketing overhaul, thanks to Nvidia.

Although ASUS wasn’t the only company that committed to diversifying its Radeon branding in order to comply with Nvidia’s aborted GPP, we have yet to see this same inconsistency with other manufacturers. The further fragmented these brands make the current selection, the easier it will be for consumers to be duped into paying more for the same however, so be care is urged when shopping for a new GPU.

KitGuru Says: It’s sad that the costs to change up these labels will inevitably fall on the buyer, rather than the company that caused it all. Still, don’t underestimate the power of your wallet, as that is inevitably what manufacturers respond to.  

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AMD’s Vega GPU will feature 8GB of HBM2, DOOM performance leaked https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/amds-vega-gpu-will-feature-8gb-of-hbm2-doom-performance-leaked/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/amds-vega-gpu-will-feature-8gb-of-hbm2-doom-performance-leaked/#comments Mon, 12 Dec 2016 23:12:34 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=314432 We aren't expecting to see AMD's first gaming-focused Vega graphics card until January but it looks like someone attending the Radeon Vega Tech Day was willing to break NDA as footage of a consumer Vega GPU with 8GB of HBM running DOOM at 4K has been posted online. The Vega Tech Day was supposed to …

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We aren't expecting to see AMD's first gaming-focused Vega graphics card until January but it looks like someone attending the Radeon Vega Tech Day was willing to break NDA as footage of a consumer Vega GPU with 8GB of HBM running DOOM at 4K has been posted online.

The Vega Tech Day was supposed to be kept secret from the wider public but we initially heard about it happening last week. The actual GPU was kept inside of a closed case and away from view, so AMD is still being quite secretive about its consumer Vega card but nonetheless, benchmark results have got out, showing the Vega card going up against a GTX 1080 in DOOM's Vulkan mode at 4K and Ultra quality settings.

amd-vega-demo-doom-vulkan-gtx-1080

Image Credit: PCgameshardware.de

A video posted by Tekknological on YouTube shows DOOM holding steady well above 60 frames per second during regular gameplay. Meanwhile, pcgameshardware.de have some additional snaps of DOOM running, holding a 66 frames per second reading. This would put Vega's performance in competition with the GTX 1080.

Aside from the early performance numbers and 8GB of HBM2, the final thing confirmed from the leaks today is that Vega is in fact Device ID 687F:C1, which was leaked last week in a Ashes of the Singularity benchmark. At time it was theorised that perhaps this benchmark was the Polaris-based RX 490, but it appears to be Vega instead.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: It looks like AMD's first gaming-oriented Vega graphics card is shaping up nicely and from the sounds of it, we should see something more official quite soon given that select members of the media are already being briefed. Are any of you looking forward to Vega? Are you happy with the level of performance demonstrated during the short DOOM demo? 

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KitGuru Graphics Driver Survey – Only takes 5 mins! https://www.kitguru.net/tech-news/competitions/brian-smith/kitguru-graphics-driver-survey-only-takes-5-mins/ https://www.kitguru.net/tech-news/competitions/brian-smith/kitguru-graphics-driver-survey-only-takes-5-mins/#comments Tue, 21 Jun 2016 10:25:19 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=296442 Almost nothing in your system is so simple to change, and yet can have such a profound impact on your experience, as the graphic card driver. Poor drivers create issues, while the latest updates can make games run much quicker and provide increased stability all round for your PC. KitGuru wants to know more about …

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Almost nothing in your system is so simple to change, and yet can have such a profound impact on your experience, as the graphic card driver. Poor drivers create issues, while the latest updates can make games run much quicker and provide increased stability all round for your PC. KitGuru wants to know more about your experience of drivers in 2016 and, to that end, we have crafted a survey that encourages you to share your experiences.

Naturally, we have a cool prize to encourage you to spend 5 minutes answering some simple questions about your experience with graphics drivers.

Click here or on the prize image to begin.

KitGuru-Graphics-Driver-Survey

KitGuru says: Whether your main rig uses Intel, nVidia or AMD, we want to know what you think !

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All 27-inch iMacs now come with a 5K display, 4K 21.5 inch model announced https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/apple/matthew-wilson/all-27-inch-imacs-now-come-with-a-5k-display-4k-21-5-inch-model-announced/ https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/apple/matthew-wilson/all-27-inch-imacs-now-come-with-a-5k-display-4k-21-5-inch-model-announced/#comments Tue, 13 Oct 2015 17:04:07 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=271643 Apple is upping the pixels in its latest batch of iMac all-in-one computers, with all 27-inch models now coming equipped with a 5K (5,120 x 2,880) display and there is a new optional 4K (3840×2160) tier for the smaller 21.5-inch iMac. Apple first revealed its 5K iMac last year, initially as a separate model to …

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Apple is upping the pixels in its latest batch of iMac all-in-one computers, with all 27-inch models now coming equipped with a 5K (5,120 x 2,880) display and there is a new optional 4K (3840×2160) tier for the smaller 21.5-inch iMac. Apple first revealed its 5K iMac last year, initially as a separate model to the usual 2560×1440 variants we have seen for a few years.

The 5K iMac now starts at £1449.00, with an Intel Core i5 CPU, 8GB of RAM, a 1TB hard drive and AMD Radeon R9 280 mobile graphics. The highest end 5K iMac will set you back £1849.00, equipped with the same Core i5 CPU, clocked 100MHz higher, the same 8GB of RAM, a 2TB hybrid drive and an AMD R9 M395 graphics chip with just 2GB of VRAM, which seems a little on the low side for such a high resolution.

retina_imac_press-e1428402522106

The 21.5-inch iMacs now start at £899, though that will only get you a 1080p display, a 1.6GHz Core i5 CPU with integrated graphics and a 1TB storage drive. The mid-tier model also comes with a 1080p display, a 3.3GHz Core i5 CPU with integrated graphics and the same RAM and storage drive for £1049.00.

Finally, we have the 4K iMac, which sits at £1199.00. Unfortunately, this model still doesn't feature dedicated graphics, sticking to the Iris Pro 6200 graphics found on the 3.1GHz Intel Core i5 processor. It also comes with 8GB of RAM and a 1TB hard drive.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: It's nice to see Apple upping the ante a little when it comes to displays. However, I do believe that at these high resolutions, a dedicated graphics chip should come as standard. Also, Apple could do with stepping away from hard drives and moving on to SSDs, particularly at these prices. 

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Asus R9 390X STRIX DC3 OC 8GB Review https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/luke-hill/asus-r9-390x-strix-dc3-oc-8gb-review/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/luke-hill/asus-r9-390x-strix-dc3-oc-8gb-review/#respond Wed, 16 Sep 2015 10:24:51 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=267418 AMD released the R9 390X GPU three months ago and the custom-cooled board partner offerings are available in strength. Today we are taking a look at Asus' STRIX DC3 OC version of the R9 390X which utilises the company's triple-fan DirectCU III cooler and an automated production process. Asus' approach to taming the power-hungry R9 …

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AMD released the R9 390X GPU three months ago and the custom-cooled board partner offerings are available in strength. Today we are taking a look at Asus' STRIX DC3 OC version of the R9 390X which utilises the company's triple-fan DirectCU III cooler and an automated production process.

650px1

Asus' approach to taming the power-hungry R9 390X (Grenada XT) GPU is to throw a cooler with five heatpipes, an almost-11 inch fin array, and triple 92mm fans at it. But it's not just high-performance cooling that Asus gives the R9 390X STRIX DC3 OC card – the company also deploys an enhanced 8-phase power delivery system that utilises Super Alloy Power II components.

It will be interesting to see how Asus' out-of-the-box GPU overclock will allow the R9 390X to compete against Nvidia's slightly more expensive GTX 980. And how much of a performance lead will the R9 390X STRIX DC3 OC provide over a GTX 970?

With a smart selection of display outputs and an eye-catching, reinforcing backplate, is Asus' R9 390X STRIX DC3 OC graphics card one that you should have on your radar?

Features:

  • 1070 MHz engine clock for better performance and outstanding gaming experience.
  • DirectCU III with Triple Wing-Blade 0dB Fan Design delivers max air flow with 30% cooler and 3X quieter performance.
  • AUTO-EXTREME Technology with Super Alloy Power II delivers premium delivers premium quality and best reliability.
  • GPU Tweak II with Xsplit Gamecaster provides intuitive performance tweaking and lets you stream your gameplay instantly.
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Aria kicks off massive AMD Never Settle Forever campaign https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/jules/aria-kicks-off-massive-amd-never-settle-forever-campaign/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/jules/aria-kicks-off-massive-amd-never-settle-forever-campaign/#respond Mon, 19 Aug 2013 06:51:07 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=148240 In the coming weeks, we will be speaking with some senior folks from both AMD and nVidia about the benefits of running major campaigns for game giveaways. One thing is for sure, no matter whether you bought a graphic card or not, it would have been hard to miss ‘Never Settle' and ‘Never Settle Reloaded'. …

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In the coming weeks, we will be speaking with some senior folks from both AMD and nVidia about the benefits of running major campaigns for game giveaways. One thing is for sure, no matter whether you bought a graphic card or not, it would have been hard to miss ‘Never Settle' and ‘Never Settle Reloaded'. KitGuru grabs its joystick and prepares for a new wave of excitement.

In preparation for its whole ‘We now touch every game, everywhere, because they all have to speak with the console guys' kick off, AMD has just deployed the 3rd in its successful line of game-packaging promos.

The premise is simple enough: The more you buy of a product, the cheaper it gets, and the game developers need to find new ways to offset the huge costs associated with creating next-gen gaming action.

AMD has money, the developers and publishers want it, so a benefit arrives with the consumer (you) in the form of bundled games.

In store, at launch, these titles are often what is referred to as ‘Triple-A'.   In other words, they are games that will be near the top of the sales charts in most countries. Buy them in your local shop on the day they come out and you could be handing over something like £40 (€45 or $50).

AMD does a deal for a TON of game codes and then bundles them with Radeon HD graphic cards, through their board partners like Sapphire, Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, VTX3D and do on.

With Never Settle (NS) and the follow up campaign Never Settle Reloaded (NSR), there was a little confusion about who got which game bundle with which card, but the Never Settle Forever (NSF) campaign that Aria is pushing has a neat little Bronze, Silver and Gold graphic to make it all much clearer:-

Cool new games and you can choose which ones and - to an extent - how many you get. What's not to like?
Cool new games and you can choose which ones and – to an extent – how many you get. What's not to like?

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KitGuru says: Buying a new card for £100-400 is going to make you happy. Actually having a fistful of new games to play on it will make you tingling all over. Whatever the specifics of the ‘win' for AMD, there's little doubt that these campaigns make buying a graphic card more fun/useful.

Comment below, in the KitGuru forums or join over 109,000 fellow KitGuru lovers at Facebook.

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AMD Launches Radeon HD 8900M Series – 8970M Set To Take Mobile Performance Crown https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/luke-hill/amd-launches-radeon-hd-8900m-series-8970m-set-to-take-mobile-performance-crown/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/luke-hill/amd-launches-radeon-hd-8900m-series-8970m-set-to-take-mobile-performance-crown/#comments Wed, 15 May 2013 05:01:15 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=134746 With gamers and enthusiasts still a crucial part of AMD's mobile GPU strategy, the California-based semiconductor company has launched HD 8900M – a series of products which it touts to include the “world's fastest notebook GPU”. Powered by AMD's GCN architecture and built on a 28nm process, the HD 8900M series is a direct replacement …

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With gamers and enthusiasts still a crucial part of AMD's mobile GPU strategy, the California-based semiconductor company has launched HD 8900M – a series of products which it touts to include the “world's fastest notebook GPU”.

Powered by AMD's GCN architecture and built on a 28nm process, the HD 8900M series is a direct replacement to the previous generation HD 7900M line-up. Slotting in above the mainstream HD 8500M and 8600M products, as well as the gaming-oriented HD 8700M and 8800M lines, the enthusiast-targeting HD 8900M series of GPUs takes top spot in AMD's product hierarchy.

HD-8900M-series-

Utilising the same ‘Enduro' power-balancing technology as the rest of AMD's HD 8000M products, the HD 8900M series aims to offer a balance between performance and day-to-day usability.

Specifications-wise, the HD 8970M is very similar to the previous generation HD 7970M. Clock speeds remain identical at 1200 MHz for the memory and 850 MHz (or 900 MHz with boost) for the GPU. DirectX 11.1 is supported.

Combining 1280 stream processors with an 850 MHz (900 MHz with boost) core clock speed, AMD was keen to outline the HD 8900M series' flagship GPU's single precision compute power of over 2.3 TerraFLOPS – an increase of around 6% over the HD 7970M.

There's no official word on memory yet, although we expect the GPU to come equipped with 2 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit wide interface.

Specs-table-

Compared to nVidia's GTX 680M, the HD 8970M is 42% and 54% faster in AMD-optimised games, Bioshock Infinite and Tomb Raider, respectively. AMD also reports a 12% performance advantage for HD 8970M in Crysis 3, and a 21% gain in 3DMark FireStrike.

Compute performance is an area where AMD wants to see the HD 8970M flexing its muscle. According to the company's own testing, AMD Radeon HD 8970M offers over four times the performance of GTX 680M in CL Benchmark's Physics: SPH Fluid Simulation test. An improvement of around 30% over the GTX 680M is achievable in ComputeMark 2 using normal settings and a 1024×600 benchmark resolution, according to AMD.

MSI will be using the HD 8970M GPU in its GX70 series of gaming notebooks.

KitGuru says: An impressive mobile GPU which seems to be a sensible addition to AMD's HD 8000M series. Keep an eye out for our coverage of HD 8900M series-equipped systems.

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OcUK Titan 8350a King Cobra MK2 (3.6GHz FX-8120 / 2GB Radeon 7850) https://www.kitguru.net/desktop-pc/gaming-rig/luke-hill/ocuk-titan-8350a-king-cobra-mk2-gaming-system-review-3-6ghz-fx-8120-2gb-radeon-7850/ https://www.kitguru.net/desktop-pc/gaming-rig/luke-hill/ocuk-titan-8350a-king-cobra-mk2-gaming-system-review-3-6ghz-fx-8120-2gb-radeon-7850/#comments Fri, 11 Jan 2013 08:51:54 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=121243 The first system to hit our labs in 2013 is OverclockersUK's Titan 8350a King Cobra MK2. Featuring an overclocked octa-core processor from AMD and a 2GB Radeon HD 7850, can the Titan 8350a King Cobra MK2 plough its way through our set of tests? Based around an AMD backbone, the Titan 8350a King Cobra MK2 …

The post OcUK Titan 8350a King Cobra MK2 (3.6GHz FX-8120 / 2GB Radeon 7850) first appeared on KitGuru.]]>

The first system to hit our labs in 2013 is OverclockersUK's Titan 8350a King Cobra MK2. Featuring an overclocked octa-core processor from AMD and a 2GB Radeon HD 7850, can the Titan 8350a King Cobra MK2 plough its way through our set of tests?

Based around an AMD backbone, the Titan 8350a King Cobra MK2 Gaming System aims to offer solid performance at a very competitive price point. Ensuring that good performance is achieved, OcUK has overclocked the FX-8120 processor to 3.6GHz by pairing it with a high-end 990FX motherboard from ASRock – the 990FX Extreme 3. Add Sapphire's 2GB Radeon HD 7850 Dual-X graphics card, a 60GB OCZ Vertex 2 SSD and Samsung's overclocking-friendly Green 30nm DDR3 memory into the mix, and the Titan 8350a King Cobra MK2 starts to look like a real gaming powerhouse.

With tough competition coming from system builders such as Cyberpower and DinoPC as well as Aria's Gladiator range, can the OcUK Titan 8350a King Cobra MK2 Gaming System offer performance good enough to beat down its rivals?

Specifications:

  • Processor: AMD Bulldozer FX-8120 3.10GHz overclocked to 3.60GHz
  • Motherboard: ASRock 990FX Extreme 3
  • Memory: 8GB Samsung Green DDR3 1600MHz 30nm
  • Graphics Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 2GB Dual-X
  • Solid State Drive: 60GB OCZ Vertex 2
  • Hard Disk Drive: 1TB Seagate ST1000DM003 Barracuda 7200.14
  • CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS 14X
  • Case: BitFenix Shinobi USB 3.0 Gaming Case
  • Power Supply: OCZ ZS Series 750W
  • Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224BB 24x DVDRW
  • Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
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PowerColor peppers the market with new, X2 multi-GPU https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/jules/powercolor-peppers-the-market-with-new-multi-gpu/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/jules/powercolor-peppers-the-market-with-new-multi-gpu/#comments Fri, 03 Jun 2011 06:45:49 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=47702 “So what do you call a pair of PowerColor multi-GPU cards stacked end to end?”, sounds like the beginning of a rather geeky joke. To which the punchline must be ‘Bloody long'. But there's a more serious aspect to this comedia intro, as we found out in the graphics giant's private suite at Computex 2011. …

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“So what do you call a pair of PowerColor multi-GPU cards stacked end to end?”, sounds like the beginning of a rather geeky joke. To which the punchline must be ‘Bloody long'. But there's a more serious aspect to this comedia intro, as we found out in the graphics giant's private suite at Computex 2011.

Let's be honest, the Radeon HD 6990 was a bit of an after thought. The mass market is far away from £500 uber-cards and the really big market actually exists under the £150 mark. Creating monster cards takes a huge engineering effort and you're unlikely to sell enough of them to retire on.

But then there's the bragging rights.

The cascade effect of, for example, being THE supplier of tyres or oil or hair care products to Formula One. That kind of thing.

Being fast is, by its very nature, glamorous. So the effort was made, the 6990 born – and a world champion created and the rest is history.

But what about all of the other ‘two chip combos’ that are possible?   Who, if anyone, will be making those?

We, the nice young lady we spoke to in the PowerColor suite said that the company had been given ‘a strong nod from AMD’ that they expected the board partners to step up with new designs of their own.

Enter the new range of PowerColor X2 products. We already posted some pictures on this, but the ‘6870×2' caused enough interest among our readers earlier this week for us to show a few more!

PowerColor has its genetic modification programme in full swing - and its all about twins

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Radeon HD 6970 x2 from Powercolor - stretched out with a naked friend

KitGuru says: We loves a bit of the old dual-head action, so roll on the rest of the X2 range!

Comments below or in the KitGuru forums.

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Cut price GTX470 already appearing on sites https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/faith/cut-price-gtx470-already-appearing-on-sites/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/faith/cut-price-gtx470-already-appearing-on-sites/#comments Fri, 06 Aug 2010 07:29:58 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=11231 As we reported yesterday, nVidia is prepared to pull out all the stops to re-take market share from AMD in the tough graphics market. Information KitGuru heard about the latest round of price cuts was that the GTX470 could be cut by over 21%. Searching the big sites today, we have already found some evidence …

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As we reported yesterday, nVidia is prepared to pull out all the stops to re-take market share from AMD in the tough graphics market. Information KitGuru heard about the latest round of price cuts was that the GTX470 could be cut by over 21%. Searching the big sites today, we have already found some evidence that this is true.

Smaller sites need to sell-through old stock before they can buy new kit. The mega-stores don't suffer from that problem.

To paraphrase a classic 16th century Ye Olde English saying, they have the supplier's nuts in a vice and can squeeze anything they want, whenever they want.

For example, if nVidia insiders reveal that the GTX470 will benefit froma price cut of more than 21%, then the major sites have 2 choices:-

  1. With fast moving product, they can sit back on the reduction and enjoy massive profits – until the smaller resellers sell out old stock and start to undercut them
  2. On slower moving lines, they can stimulate customers immediately by passing the cut along directly

In the States, Newegg is one of the biggest resellers. We've analysed their GTX470 offers this morning and the GTX470 price drops have already come through.

We're already seeing $50 drop from the price of a GTX470

.
Worth bearing in mind that resellers are under no legal obligation to pass over the whole of a cut. They might see $50 as ‘enough bait to make them bite', while at the same time INCREASING margin on the stimulated sales.

Either way, the ongoing push by nVidia to reduce prices in order to gain market share looks set to continue.

KitGuru has been asked by several industry insiders how far we think the price cuts will go.

The answer is simple.

People only need to change price if they are NOT selling out. Production of the Radeon 5000 series still seems to be hampered by issues with TSMC's line. While AMD sells all of the cards it can make, there is no pressure to change price.

To see when nVidia is having an effect on AMD's sales, look for 2 subtle warning signs:-

  1. Solid price drop for one of the existing Radeon 5000 cards (e.g. 5770, 5850 or 5870)
  2. Introduction of one of AMD's next generation cards early (e.g. a ‘6000 series' card in store before the end of September)

Unless you see one or both of these – then you know that there was no effect.

Frankly, KitGuru would like to see some price-stimulation from AMD. It's not natural to push out a range of cards and leave them in the market for more than a year with no sign of price pressure.

Consumers like movement. We demand to be stimulated dammit!

Fingers crossed that with the next one or two price drops from nVidia, we finally see (a) price drops or (b) new product from AMD

KitGuru says: We'd also like to see the high-selling SKUs from nVidia finally hit the market. Especially the promise of a 50w Fermi with the 420 product (as we reported back in May).

Chitter chatter below, but if you want to bellow – head to the KitGuru forums.

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