PNY | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net KitGuru.net - Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards Wed, 15 Nov 2023 12:46:05 +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 PNY | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net 32 32 PNY unveils new CS3150 PCIe Gen5 SSDs with up to 12,000MB/s speeds https://www.kitguru.net/components/ssd-drives/matthew-wilson/pny-unveils-new-cs3150-pcie-gen5-ssds-with-up-to-12000mb-s-speeds/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/ssd-drives/matthew-wilson/pny-unveils-new-cs3150-pcie-gen5-ssds-with-up-to-12000mb-s-speeds/#respond Tue, 14 Nov 2023 16:30:40 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=637565 PNY is revamping its line-up of SSDs with the new CS3150 PCIe Gen5 M.2 NVMe drives, available with up to 2TB of storage and with speeds of up to 12,000MB/s. The CS3150 leverages an NVMe PCIe Gen5 x4 interface to deliver read/write speeds of up to 12,000MB/s and 11,000MB/s respectively, putting it amongst the fastest …

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PNY is revamping its line-up of SSDs with the new CS3150 PCIe Gen5 M.2 NVMe drives, available with up to 2TB of storage and with speeds of up to 12,000MB/s.

The CS3150 leverages an NVMe PCIe Gen5 x4 interface to deliver read/write speeds of up to 12,000MB/s and 11,000MB/s respectively, putting it amongst the fastest PCIe 5.0 drives available.

Running at those speeds increases thermals, so to keep things running cool, PNY ships these SSDs with an integrated heatsink, available in black, white or black with RGB LEDs if you prefer. Suppose you own multiple PNY RGB products, like the CS3150, XLR8 memory or an XLR8 graphics card. In that case, you can synchronise and control the RGB lighting through the VelocityX software, which also doubles as a graphics card overclocking tool.

These SSDs can take full advantage of Microsoft's DirectStorage technology, enabling even faster loading times in supported games. Even without that though, the speed upgrade of PCIe 5 will lead to snappy loading times regardless. For added security, these SSDs use TCG Opal 2.0 hardware encryption.

The 1TB CS3150 with integrated heatsink will be available in December, priced at $179.99. The RGB version will be available for $189.99.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Are you shopping around for a PCIe 5 SSD upgrade? 

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Computex 2023: Cooler Master debuts impressive new cases https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/computex-2023-cooler-master-debuts-impressive-new-cases-diy-liquid-cooling-and-more/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/computex-2023-cooler-master-debuts-impressive-new-cases-diy-liquid-cooling-and-more/#respond Mon, 29 May 2023 20:35:09 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=617194 During our first day at Computex we met up with Cooler Master at their HQ

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During our first day at Computex we took a detour from Nangang to meet up with Cooler Master at their HQ. During our tour, we got to see a ton of upcoming products, as well as a look at some in-development prototypes. 

Watch via YouTube below:

Timestamps:

  • 00:00 Introduction
  • 00:29 Concept cases
  • 03:45 NCORE100 Max
  • 05:40 Power Supplies
  • 07:16 Masterloop Concept Series
  • 10:16 New Mice and Keyboards
  • 12:00 X Framework
  • 13:12 Other goodies

The Cooler Master NCore 100 Max is a new case for vertical, small form-factor builds without compromising on hardware. The case can support 4-slot graphics cards up to 357mm long, so it could house an RTX 4090, it also ships with a V SFX Gold 850W ATX 3.0 power supply, so it is ready for new-gen graphics cards right out of the box.

Speaking of power supplies, Cooler Master is also debuting its new X Silent series PSUs, offering ATX 3.0 support and a native 12VHPWR cable right out of the box. These units are fanless, using a single-piece heat dissipation structure and a vapour chamber in place of a traditional fan.

The new MasterLoop Concept series is a range of DIY liquid cooling components. In the showcase builds here, we can see everything set up in a HAF 700 case, complete with a Core i9-13900K CPU and an RTX 4090 graphics card.

Cooler Master has always made great peripherals and that trend looks to continue in 2023 with the new MK770 Hybrid keyboard and the new MM712 Pro mouse. The MK770 Hybrid gets its name from its dual wireless connectivity options, including Bluetooth and 2.4GHz Wireless. You can also wire it straight in through a USB-C cable. The MM712 Pro mouse is also a dual-wireless gaming peripheral, offering both 2.4GHz and Bluetooth options. The mouse is optimised to prevent pinching and has a centred sensor, all while keeping the weight under 56g.

Cooler Master has also teamed up with Capcom to offer a huge range of Street Fighter 6-themed products, covering everything from mice and keyboards to coolers, cases and power supplies.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: We'll be checking out Cooler Master's booth at Nangang as well later in the week, so stay tuned for part two. 

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PNY £4000 PC giveaway winner announced! https://www.kitguru.net/tech-news/announcements/matthew-wilson/pny-4000-pc-giveaway-winner-announced/ https://www.kitguru.net/tech-news/announcements/matthew-wilson/pny-4000-pc-giveaway-winner-announced/#respond Fri, 04 Nov 2022 16:00:58 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=581301 Last month, we teamed up with PNY to give away a £4000 workstation PC packed with high-end hardware. That competition ended a few days ago, and now, we are pleased to announce the winner.  As a refresher, we are giving away a Scan 3XS Workstation PC powered by a PNY RTX A4500 graphics card. Here …

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Last month, we teamed up with PNY to give away a £4000 workstation PC packed with high-end hardware. That competition ended a few days ago, and now, we are pleased to announce the winner. 

As a refresher, we are giving away a Scan 3XS Workstation PC powered by a PNY RTX A4500 graphics card. Here is the full spec sheet for the system:

COMPONENT DESCRIPTION
Chassis Fractal Design Meshify 2 with 3XS Custom Front Panel
Motherboard ASUS ProArt B660-CREATOR D4
Processor Intel Core i9 12900K, 16C/24T, 3.9GHz – 5.3GHz
CPU Cooler Corsair iCUE H150i RGB Pro XT
Memory XLR8 Gaming DDR4 3600MHz Low Profile Desktop Memory (2 x 32GB Kit)
Graphics Card 20GB NVIDIA RTX A4500
Power Supply Corsair RM750x – 80PLUS GOLD
System Drive PNY – 2x XLR8 Gaming 1TB CS3140 NVMe M.2 SSD
Operating System Microsoft Windows 11 Pro 64bit
Recovery Media Recovery USB drive with system image and diagnostic software
Warranty 3-Year Premium Warranty

This particular competition was run through Gleam with simple entry requirements so as many people could enter as possible. In the end, we had 34,382 total entries.

Now without further ado, our winner this time around is … Wayne Roberts! PNY will be getting in touch with the winner shortly to arrange prize delivery. If you missed out this time, then do keep an eye out as we have more giveaways planned in the very near future.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Congrats to Wayne, the system will be on its way shortly. Stay tuned for more giveaways soon! 

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WIN a £4000 3XS workstation powered by PNY! (closed) https://www.kitguru.net/tech-news/competitions/matthew-wilson/win-a-4000-3xs-workstation-powered-by-pny/ https://www.kitguru.net/tech-news/competitions/matthew-wilson/win-a-4000-3xs-workstation-powered-by-pny/#respond Mon, 24 Oct 2022 07:00:54 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=574965 In this competition, we're giving you the chance to win a powerful Scan 3XS Workstation - powered by a PNY A4500 workstation graphics card with RTX - worth £4,000!

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Update: This competition has closed, you can find our winner announcement post HERE

For years now, NVIDIA RTX products have been used by millions of creative and technical users. Equipped with powerful GPUs, large memory capacities, 8K display outputs, advanced features to drive real-time photorealistic rendering, AI-augmented workflows, VR environments and more, PNY's range of workstation cards has been developed to accelerate a range of professional workflows. In this competition, we're giving you the chance to win a powerful Scan 3XS Workstation – powered by a PNY A4500 workstation graphics card with RTX – worth £4,000!

Scan 3XS professional-grade workstations are built in a state-of-the-art factory, right here in the UK and are soak tested for a minimum of 24 hours before shipping to ensure maximum reliability. They are built and optimised for every workflow, including AEC and BIM, CAD and CAE plus Media and Entertainment.

At the centre of this workstation is the NVIDIA RTX A4500 which comes with 20GB of high speed GDDR6 memory, 7,168 CUDA cores, 224 Tensor cores, 56 RT Cores and it retails for £1,800 on its own. Here is a detailed spec of the 3XS Workstation that's the first prize in this competition:-

COMPONENT DESCRIPTION
Chassis Fractal Design Meshify 2 with 3XS Custom Front Panel
Motherboard ASUS ProArt B660-CREATOR D4
Processor Intel Core i9 12900K, 16C/24T, 3.9GHz – 5.3GHz
CPU Cooler Corsair iCUE H150i RGB Pro XT
Memory XLR8 Gaming DDR4 3600MHz Low Profile Desktop Memory (2 x 32GB Kit)
Graphics Card 20GB NVIDIA RTX A4500
Power Supply Corsair RM750x – 80PLUS GOLD
System Drive PNY – 2x XLR8 Gaming 1TB CS3140 NVMe M.2 SSD
Operating System Microsoft Windows 11 Pro 64bit
Recovery Media Recovery USB drive with system image and diagnostic software
Warranty 3 Year Premium Warranty

HOW TO ENTER?

This competition has been loaded onto the Gleam platform, so you have multiple opportunities to enter!  Simply watch selected videos on PNY's YouTube channel to learn about how NVIDIA RTX can help accelerate applications, follow PNY, Scan and NVIDIA on social media and you will have chances to win this £4,000 workstation.

Watch2Win PNY x Scan Computers

This competition is being hosted via Gleam, so you can get the full details HERE.

KitGuru says: There you have it. Easy to enter (multiple times – using different methods) and you might just win a Scan 3XS workstation – complete with PNY RTX A4500 card – worth a total of £4,000!

Terms: This competition is open to residents of the UK and Europe (excluding Turkey, Greece, Russia and Ukraine). It runs until the 31st October 2022. A winner will be picked on 2nd November and announced shortly after that date. We will inform the winner following the closing of the competition. In compliance with GDPR, your emails will be deleted from our inbox after the competition is closed and we will not share your personal details as we respect your privacy.

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Nvidia’s RTX 4090 is now available, custom cards range from near MSRP to well over £2000 https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/nvidias-rtx-4090-is-now-available-custom-cards-range-from-msrp-to-well-over-2000/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/nvidias-rtx-4090-is-now-available-custom-cards-range-from-msrp-to-well-over-2000/#respond Wed, 12 Oct 2022 13:11:31 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=578352 The reviews are in and the wider verdict seems to be that the RTX 4090 is one hell of a graphics card, delivering significant gains compared to the previous flagship, the RTX 3090 Ti. As of today, the RTX 4090 is officially available for purchase, so we've had a browse around to see what prices …

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The reviews are in and the wider verdict seems to be that the RTX 4090 is one hell of a graphics card, delivering significant gains compared to the previous flagship, the RTX 3090 Ti. As of today, the RTX 4090 is officially available for purchase, so we've had a browse around to see what prices are looking like for board partner cards. 

A lot of board partner cards with custom coolers are going to come in more expensive than Nvidia's Founders Edition, as is often the case. Some cards will be much higher, breaking well over the £2000 mark, while others will sit closer to Nvidia's MSRP price, like Inno3D's RTX 4090 X3 OC, which we reviewed HERE.

For reference, here is the spec sheet for the RTX 4090 compared to previous-gen RTX 30 series GPUs:

RTX 4090 RTX 3090 Ti RTX 3090 RTX 3080 Ti RTX 3080
Process TSMC 4N Samsung 8N Samsung 8N Samsung 8N Samsung 8N
SMs 128 84 82 80 68
CUDA Cores 16384 10752 10496 10240 8704
Tensor Cores 512 336 328 320 272
RT Cores 128 84 82 80 68
Texture Units 512 336 328 320 272
ROPs 176 112 112 112 96
GPU Boost Clock 2520 MHz 1860 MHz 1695 MHz 1665 MHz 1710 MHz
Memory Data Rate 21 Gbps 21 Gbps 19.5 Gbps 19 Gbps 19 Gbps
L2 Cache 73729 KB 6144 KB 6144 KB 6144 KB 5120 KB
Total Video Memory 24GB GDDR6X 24GB GDDR6X 24GB GDDR6X 12GB GDDR6X 10GB GDDR6X
Memory Interface 384-bit 384-bit 384-bit 384-bit 320-bit
Memory Bandwidth 1008 GB/Sec 1008 GB/Sec 936 GB/Sec 912 GB/Sec 760 GB/Sec
TGP 450W 450W 350W 350W 320W

While the RTX 4090 Founders Edition comes in at £1,699 here in the UK, partner cards range from slightly above this price, all the way up to well over £2000. The MSI RTX 4090 SUPRIM Liquid X is the most expensive we've seen so far, packing an AIO liquid cooler for the GPU for £2,399.99. The air-cooled version of the MSI RTX 4090 SUPRIM X comes in at £2,129.99 and the Gaming Trio X version costs £2,099.99.

Gigabyte's Aorus RTX 4090 Master is hitting the market at £2,369.99, but the Gigabyte RTX 4090 WindForce comes in at a much more palatable £1,829.99. If you're looking to go with Asus ROG, you're going to be shelling out £2,399.99 for the Strix model. The Asus TUF Gaming RTX 4090 is priced a little better at £2,129.99, but it still carries a hefty margin.

Partners like KFA2, Palit, PNY, Inno3D and Zotac all have GPUs under the £2000 mark, including the KFA2 RTX 4090 SG OC (£1,879.99), the Palit RTX 4090 GameRock (£1,949.99) and the PNY RTX 4090 VERTO EPIC-X (£1,879.99), the Inno3D RTX 4090 X3 (£1,759.99) and the Zotac RTX 4090 Trinity OC (£1,889.99).

The RTX 4090 is just the beginning. Next month, we'll see the first RTX 4080 graphics cards hitting the market, so we'll be back to check out their UK pricing when the time comes.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: The RTX 4090 was always going to be an expensive card, but if you were hoping to see prices remain under the £2000 mark, you will be disappointed. 

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Board partners reveal custom-cooled RTX 4090 and RTX 4080 graphics cards https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/joao-silva/board-partners-reveal-custom-cooled-rtx-4090-and-rtx-4080-graphics-cards/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/joao-silva/board-partners-reveal-custom-cooled-rtx-4090-and-rtx-4080-graphics-cards/#respond Wed, 21 Sep 2022 09:38:04 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=575167 Last night, Nvidia officially announced the first RTX 40 series GPUs - the RTX 4090 and a 16GB and 12GB version of the RTX 4080. Like most GPU launches, these announcements are accompanied by a range of custom-cooled cards being announced by board partners. Here, we round-up the custom cards announced so far. 

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Last night, Nvidia officially announced the first RTX 40 series GPUs – the RTX 4090 and a 16GB and 12GB version of the RTX 4080. Like most GPU launches, these announcements are accompanied by a range of custom-cooled cards being announced by board partners. Here, we round-up the custom cards announced so far. 

Almost every AIB partner has shared at least one RTX 4090/4080 graphics card. That includes MSI, Asus, Gigabyte, Zotac, Inno3D, Gainward, PNY, Palit, Galax, and Colorful. The most noticeable absence is EVGA, which ended its partnership with Nvidia a few days ago.

Starting with MSI, the company is sticking with the Ventus 3X, Gaming Trio and Suprim cooler line-up. However, the latter has now been expanded with Suprim Liquid cards, featuring a 240mm AIO cooler. The three air-cooled models will continue using a 3-fan solution, with the thickest cards using up to 3.75 expansion slots. The Suprim, Suprim Liquid, and Gaming Trio cards will feature RGB lighting, Torx 5.0 fans (Suprim Liquid only has one), and Dual BIOS. As for Ventus, the more modest series will be slimmer than the other air-cooled cards and will use Torx 4.0 fans.

Asus has only introduced two models: the TUF Gaming and the ROG Strix. The TUF Gaming cards will retain a similar design to previous generations, right down to the colour scheme, RGB lighting and pass-through cooling. However, the cards are now much thicker, going up to 3.65 slots thick, and you'll find larger fans to improve airflow.

The ROG Strix series had a significant redesign, now with a blue, red, and grey colour scheme. Unlike the new TUF Gaming cards with varying sizes depending on the GPU, the new Strix models are all 3.5-slot thick and 357mm long. According to Asus, the cooling solution of the ROG Strix models should be pretty unique, as it combines the big GPU heatsinks with a vapour chamber with milled channels underneath the seven heat pipes that sink into it.

Gigabyte has also prepared a whole collection of new graphics cards for the RTX 40 series. Besides the usual Windforce and Gaming OC models, the company is also launching the Aorus Master and the Aorus Xtreme Waterforce. The first two are pretty standard, featuring a three-fan cooling solution with a redesigned shroud. The air-cooled Aorus model was heavily modified, now featuring an LCD that users can customise with text, images, gifs or system monitoring. Lastly, the Xtreme Waterforce should have a built-in water block, making it custom loop-ready out-of-the-box.

Zotac has also redesigned all of its coolers. The Trinity and AMP Extreme Airo models are now more rounded. All models feature nine heat pipes and a 3-fan cooling solution, but the AMP Extreme Airo cards have the middle fan counter-rotating for even better cooling performance. Similar to the new ROG Strix card, the new Zotac cards also feature a vapour chamber on the heatsink. Alongside the new cards, Zotac will also launch the new Gaming FireStorm Utility monitoring/OC tool, where users can create OC profiles, configure the RGB lighting and change BIOS with a push of a button.

Inno3D also has a decently sized launch line-up, including iChill X3 and X3 OC air-cooled cards, the hybrid-cooled iChill Black and the water-cooled iChill Frostbite. Starting from the bottom, the X3 OC cards will be the most standard, packing a 3-fan cooling solution (3x98mm), nine heat pipes, and a large vapour chamber to cool the GPU. Then we have the iChill X3, which looks like a minor upgrade over the X3 OC, featuring counter-rotating fans (three with 98mm) and RGB lighting.

Then, we have the iChill Black, which comes with an undisclosed AIO cooler and a fan under the shroud for additional cooling. Design-wise, the iChill Black seems to be the most minimalistic out of all new RTX 40 cards, which might be enough to convince some. The last Inno3D card is the iChill Frostbite, the company's flagship. With ARGB LEDs, patented sealing screws, and a mix of copper and nickel-plated parts, this water loop-oriented GPU comes in compact packaging that fits inside most cases.

Besides the Phoenix cards, Gainward will also have the Phantom and Phantom Reunion series. As the name suggests, the Phantom cards will have a darker colour scheme. However, the standard Phantom will still have two lighting strips and an ARGB side logo to give it some colour. On the other hand, the Phantom Reunion series (middle card) seems to be the lower-end model, as it will only be available as an RTX 4080 12GB card.

The Phoenix models will be the more colourful alternative to the Phantom cards, packing a large ARGB LED array across the whole card that can easily be synchronised with any ARGB system thanks to the Auto Sync RGB technology. Like the standard Phantom GPUs, it uses the new Cyclone fans, diffuser fins, and Hyper Conductive heat pipes to cool the GPU.

PNY is also redesigning its series for the RTX 40 GPUs. The new XLR8 and Verto models have been modified to meet the demands of the new RTX 40 series GPUs, using 3-fan cooling solutions, up to eight heat pipes and support kits to prevent them from sagging or bending. Additionally, they feature EPIC-X RGB lighting that can be customised via PNY's VelocityX control software.

Galax decided to start with a single series of graphics cards, probably expanding in the future. The Serious Gaming series will include RTX 4090, 4080 16GB, and 4080 12GB cards, all with ARGB LEDs, up to nine heat pipes, and up to 102mm dual-bearing fans in three-fan configurations. The RTX 4090 cooling features are one step above the others, as it features a vapour chamber cooling base. The three models feature 1-Clip Booster 2.0, enabling the factory OC profile with a single click.

Palit will release GameRock and GamingPro series cards powered by RTX 40 series GPUs. The GameRock models look similar to their predecessors, but this time there's an alternative darker model called OmniBlack. The ARGB lighting on the crystal-like surface remains intact, but the black crystals give it an interesting new look. Both GameRock and GamingPro cards sue Gale Hunter fans, Y Formula fins and Composite heat pipes. However, GameRock cards stand above the rest in terms of cooling thanks to the built-in vapour chamber. Moreover, you can count on the Anti-Gravity plate and Exquisite Metal backplate to prevent the card from bending.

Finally, we have Colorful, which will be releasing RTX 40 series cards under the BattleAx, Vulcan, and Neptune series. The BattleAx will be the lower-end of the three, featuring an attractive black and red design and three 98mm fans. Moving on to the Vulcan cards, one of its highlights is the new Hurricane Scythe fan blades that produce more airflow at a lower noise level. Moreover, the Vulcan cards feature a dock station where you choose to mount RGB strips or a customisable iGame Smart LCD. Alternatively, you can use the display dock to place the LCD elsewhere.

Colorful's flagship is the Neptune series, sporting a silver and white design with RGB strips and three RGB fans on the 360mm AIO cooler. The AIO cooler paired with the full-cover copper water block covering the GPU and VRAM will be responsible for ensuring the GPU uses its maximum performance at all times, regardless of the load. Another advantage is the 2-slot design, making it comparatively slimmer than most RTX 40 series cards above.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru says: Are you planning on upgrading to an RTX 40 GPU? Will you be going for an AiB card over the Founders Edition? 

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KitGuru Advent Calendar Day 32 – Win a PNY bundle including an RTX 2080, a 500GB SSD and DDR4 memory! (closed) https://www.kitguru.net/tech-news/competitions/matthew-wilson/kitguru-advent-calendar-day-32-pny-bundle/ https://www.kitguru.net/tech-news/competitions/matthew-wilson/kitguru-advent-calendar-day-32-pny-bundle/#respond Sat, 01 Jan 2022 10:11:49 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=545279 For day 32 on the KitGuru Advent Calendar, we have teamed up with PNY  to give away a great PC upgrade bundle, including an RTX 2080 graphics card, a 500GB SSD and a set of DDR4 memory! 

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Update: This competition is now CLOSED. Our winner today is Gareth Williams! If you missed out this time then keep an eye out as we still have a few more giveaways left in the calendar. Today's competition can be found HERE

For day 32 on the KitGuru Advent Calendar, we have teamed up with PNY  to give away a great PC upgrade bundle, including an RTX 2080 graphics card, a 500GB SSD and a set of DDR4 memory! 

Inside of a Cooler Master chassis (also included with the prize), you'll find a PNY GeForce RTXC 2080 XLR8 Gaming graphics card with a dual-fan cooler. You will also find one of PNY's CS900 SATA 3 500GB SSDs, and a set of PNY XLR8 EPIC-X RGB DDR4 memory, running in 2x8GB configuration and with speeds up to 3600MHz.

Entering this giveaway is simple, all you need to do is head over to THIS POST on our Facebook page and leave a comment. We plan to have a new discussion topic each day, today we are asking you guys – what graphics card are you currently gaming with? This competition is open in the UK and EU.

The winner will be picked at random by 10am GMT January 2nd, and a new competition will also be announced for Day 33. The chosen winner has 48 hours to respond, if we do not hear from them, then the prize will be revoked and a new winner will be picked.

Terms and Conditions: This competition is open in the UK and EU, starting at 10AM GMT on January 1st and ending at 9:59AM GMT on January 2nd. Due to the busy Christmas season, prize deliveries could take longer than usual and some prizes may not ship until sometime in January 2022. In compliance with GDPR, we will not collect or store any personal information as part of this competition. Once the winner has been contacted and their prize received, personal details will be deleted from our email servers. Your details will not be shared, we respect your privacy.

KitGuru Says: Good luck to everyone entering today’s competition! We’ll be back to announce the winner tomorrow morning and open the door for Advent Calendar Day 33!

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PNY details specs for Performance and Gaming series DDR5 memory https://www.kitguru.net/components/memory/matthew-wilson/pny-details-specs-for-performance-and-gaming-series-ddr5-memory/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/memory/matthew-wilson/pny-details-specs-for-performance-and-gaming-series-ddr5-memory/#respond Fri, 05 Nov 2021 07:37:46 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=538678 Back in August, PNY unveiled its first DDR5 memory modules, promising 4800MHz speeds. Now a few months later, the first DDR5-supported platform is available, with Intel 12th Gen Core processors and Z690 motherboards beginning to roll out. In the months ahead of launch, PNY was able to improve its DDR5 modules, delivering new kits with …

The post PNY details specs for Performance and Gaming series DDR5 memory first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
Back in August, PNY unveiled its first DDR5 memory modules, promising 4800MHz speeds. Now a few months later, the first DDR5-supported platform is available, with Intel 12th Gen Core processors and Z690 motherboards beginning to roll out. In the months ahead of launch, PNY was able to improve its DDR5 modules, delivering new kits with up to 5600MHz speeds. 

There are three lines of PNY DDR5 memory, the XLR8 Gaming MAKO RGB, the XLR8 Gaming MAKO and the PNY Performance DDR5 series. These memory modules have already been tested and validated with motherboard partners, including ASRock, ASUS, Gigabyte and MSI to ensure compatibility. All three models are also compatible with Intel XMP 3.0, enabling breakthrough speeds well above what was possible on DDR4.

Below you can see the specifications for all three PNY DDR5 memory modules:

XLR8 Gaming MAKO RGB:

  • Frequency: 5600MHz (PC5-44800)
  • Voltage: 1.25V
  • CAS Latency: 36
  • Integrated aluminium heat spreader
  • Integrated RGB illumination
  • Warranty: Limited Lifetime

XLR8 Gaming MAKO:

  • Frequency: 5600MHz (PC5-44800)
  • Voltage: 1.25V
  • CAS Latency:36
  • Integrated aluminium heat spreader
  • Warranty: Limited Lifetime

PNY Performance DDR5:

  • Frequency: 4800MHz (PC5-38400)
  • Voltage: 1.1V
  • CAS Latency: 40

PNY Performance DDR5 memory will be available first, starting in mid-November, followed by MAKO and MAKO RGB models in late Q4 2021.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Now that reviews are out, are you planning on making the jump to Intel 12th Gen and DDR5 memory? 

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DDR4 Round-Up: Corsair, G.SKILL, Kingston, PNY, Predator Tested https://www.kitguru.net/components/memory/luke-hill/ddr4-round-up-review-corsair-g-skill-kingston-pny-predator-tested/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/memory/luke-hill/ddr4-round-up-review-corsair-g-skill-kingston-pny-predator-tested/#respond Thu, 21 Oct 2021 10:28:25 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=536253 Luke takes a look at six different DDR4 memory kits

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With DDR5 just around the corner and ready to steal the limelight, we thought it would be a good opportunity for us to look at a few different DDR4 kits with a variety of different operating specifications. We have mainstream, flashy bling, and uber-high-frequency kits from Corsair, G.SKILL, Kingston, PNY, and Predator.

As is clear, the majority of our samples run at 3600MHz. This has emerged as the new go-to option for DDR4 memory, especially with the beneficial tie-in frequencies on the AMD platform.

We will be testing these sets on our usual go-to AMD Ryzen 9 5950X test system, but also with a keen eye on which kits may perform well as partners for DDR4-equipped Intel 12th Gen Alder Lake motherboards.

Let’s take a closer look…

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PNY announces its first DDR5 memory modules https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/matthew-wilson/pny-announces-its-first-ddr5-memory-modules/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/matthew-wilson/pny-announces-its-first-ddr5-memory-modules/#respond Thu, 19 Aug 2021 08:15:24 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=528148 We've seen a number of memory makers begin to announce their own DDR5 memory modules in recent months and today, PNY is joining them. The new PNY Performance DDR5 memory series is launching this year, offering 4800MHz speeds. With the jump to DDR5, we'll be getting higher-density modules and faster frequency speeds compared to DDR4. …

The post PNY announces its first DDR5 memory modules first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
We've seen a number of memory makers begin to announce their own DDR5 memory modules in recent months and today, PNY is joining them. The new PNY Performance DDR5 memory series is launching this year, offering 4800MHz speeds.

With the jump to DDR5, we'll be getting higher-density modules and faster frequency speeds compared to DDR4. For instance, the JEDEC standard speed for DDR4 is 3200MHz, while on DDR5 speeds start at 4800MHz. PNY's Performance DDR5 Memory series will start at 16GB per module, running at 4800MHz.

DDR5 memory will be more efficient, operating at 1.1v and featuring on-die ECC support. This means motherboards will no longer have to handle voltage conversion, as it can be handled on the memory module itself, resulting in lower voltage wear and less noise generation. DDR5 memory also includes an on-module Power Management IC, which should lead to better overclocking headroom.

PNY's DDR5 desktop memory will be entering mass production on Q4 2021, just in time for the launch of Intel Alder Lake, which will be the first platform to support the new memory standard.

KitGuru Says: Are any of you planning on upgrading when Alder Lake and DDR5 memory launch later this year?

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PNY is giving away an XLR8 RTX 3060 and other hardware this month https://www.kitguru.net/tech-news/competitions/matthew-wilson/pny-is-giving-away-an-xlr8-rtx-3060-and-other-hardware-this-month/ https://www.kitguru.net/tech-news/competitions/matthew-wilson/pny-is-giving-away-an-xlr8-rtx-3060-and-other-hardware-this-month/#respond Tue, 06 Jul 2021 16:21:10 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=522579 Many of our regular readers will know that we love running our own competitions, but once in a while we'll spot a giveaway happening elsewhere that we think you'd be interested in. This week, PNY has launched its own giveaway, offering up three prizes, including an RTX 30 series graphics card.  As part of PNY's …

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Many of our regular readers will know that we love running our own competitions, but once in a while we'll spot a giveaway happening elsewhere that we think you'd be interested in. This week, PNY has launched its own giveaway, offering up three prizes, including an RTX 30 series graphics card. 

As part of PNY's ‘XLR8 Your Gaming' campaign, the company is running a giveaway through Gleam with three main prizes – an XLR8 Gaming RTX 3060 graphics card, an XLR8 Gaming CS3040 NVMe M.2 SSD and an XLR8 Gaming 32GB kit of RGB memory. There will be three winners in total, so one prize for each.

All you have to do to be in for a chance of winning is head over to this page, HERE. At the bottom, you'll find the Gleam competition, giving you 13 different ways to enter, most of which involve checking out the XLR8 social media pages.

The competition ends in 25 days, so you've got plenty of time left to get an entry in. Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: There are three great prizes involved in this competition. Good luck to any of our readers choosing to enter. 

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PNY XLR8 CS3040 1TB SSD Review https://www.kitguru.net/components/ssd-drives/simon-crisp/pny-xlr8-cs3040-1tb-ssd-review/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/ssd-drives/simon-crisp/pny-xlr8-cs3040-1tb-ssd-review/#respond Fri, 25 Jun 2021 11:00:33 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=519472 How good is PNY's mainstream PCIe 4.0 SSD?

The post PNY XLR8 CS3040 1TB SSD Review first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
We recently reviewed PNY's latest M.2 NVMe drive aimed at the high-end section of the market, the Gen 4 XLR8 CS3140. Now it's the turn of a Gen 4 drive a little lower down on the XLR8 food chain – today we're looking at PNY's XLR8 CS3040, aimed at the mainstream market segment.

Just like the XLR8 CS3140, there are two versions of the drive; one with a large extruded aluminium heatsink aimed towards desktop users and one without, just with a product label better suited to compact PCs, notebooks or if you want to make use of any integrated drive cooling your motherboard may have. The XLR8 CS3040 has one more capacity option than its faster sibling in the shape of a 500GB entry-level model. The drive uses a combination of a Phison PS5016-E16 controller and 96-layer 3D TLC NAND.

All four drives in the range have the same 5,600MB/s Sequential read rating. The 2TB and 1TB (the drive we are reviewing here) have an official Sequential write speed of up to 4,300MB/s with the entry 500GB drive rated at up to 2,600MB/s and the 4TB flagship drive up to 3,900MB/s. There are no 4K random performance figures given on the specification sheet for the drive.

PNY quotes an 1800TBW endurance figure for the 1TB XLR8 CS3040 and PNY backs the drive with a 5-year warranty.

Physical Specifications:

  • Usable Capacities: 1TB.
  • NAND Components: 96-layer TLC NAND.
  • NAND Controller: Phison PS5016-E16.
  • Cache: 1GB DDR4-2666.
  • Interface: PCIe Gen 4 x4, NVMe 1.3.
  • Form Factor: M.2, 2280.
  • Dimensions: 80 x 22 x 20mm.
  • Drive Weight: 47g

Firmware Version: CS304130.

Be sure to check out our sponsors store EKWB here

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PNY XLR8 CS3140 1TB SSD Review https://www.kitguru.net/components/ssd-drives/simon-crisp/pny-xlr8-cs3140-1tb-ssd-review/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/ssd-drives/simon-crisp/pny-xlr8-cs3140-1tb-ssd-review/#respond Tue, 25 May 2021 07:08:18 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=514256 We check out PNY's latest XLR8 PCIe 4.0 SSD, also using the Phison E18 controller

The post PNY XLR8 CS3140 1TB SSD Review first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
The CS3140 is PNY's latest flagship model in the company's XLR8 gaming line-up of high-performance SSDs. The new NVMe Gen4 x4 drive is rated for up to 7,500MB/s and 6,850MB/s sequential read and writes, respectively. We put it through its paces to see how it stacks up to the competition.

Those headline speeds refer to the 2TB drive with the only other drive in the range, the 1TB model (the one we are reviewing here) having the same 7,500MB/s sequential read speed but a lower write speed – 5,650MB/s. Somewhat surprisingly there are no 4K random performance figures given on the specification sheet for the drive.

The drive uses a combination of a Phison PS5018-E18 controller and 96-layer 3D TLC NAND and is offered in two versions. One has a chunky extruded aluminium heatsink aimed at desktop use while the other has just a product label making it ideal for use in notebooks, very compact PCs or if you want to use the integrated M.2 cooling features of a motherboard.

As with the random performance figures, there are no details of the drive's endurance on the specification sheet for the drive, but PNY backs the drive with a 5-year warranty.

Physical Specifications:

  • Usable Capacities: 1TB.
  • NAND Components: 96-layer 3D TLC NAND.
  • NAND Controller: Phison PS5018-E18-41.
  • Cache: 1GB DDR4-2666.
  • Interface: PCIe Gen4 x4. NVMe 1.4
  • Form Factor: M.2, 2280.
  • Dimensions: 80 x 22 x 20mm.
  • Drive Weight: 47g

Firmware Version: CS314210.

Be sure to check out our sponsors store EKWB here

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PNY RTX 3060 XLR8 Gaming Review https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/dominic-moass/pny-rtx-3060-xlr8-gaming-review/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/dominic-moass/pny-rtx-3060-xlr8-gaming-review/#respond Fri, 14 May 2021 07:10:43 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=514791 We test our first PNY GPU since 2019 - the RTX 3060 XLR8 Gaming

The post PNY RTX 3060 XLR8 Gaming Review first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
It has been some time since we last looked at a graphics card from PNY, but that changes today. Here we review the RTX 3060 XLR8 Gaming, a dual-fan card that ships with a bling-tastic RGB implementation and, interestingly, no factory overclock. Can this card compete with the likes of the MSI Gaming X Trio and Gigabyte Gaming OC?

American-based manufacturer PNY may be better known for its Quadro series of GPUs, but it does also manufacture GeForce consumer cards – the last of which we reviewed being the RTX 2080 Ti XLR8 in 2019. The RTX 3060 XLR8 Gaming we are looking at today is more modest, with a plastic construction and dual-fan cooler.

Having already reviewed three very capable RTX 3060 cards from Gigabyte, MSI and Palit, PNY certainly has its work cut out with the XLR8 Gaming – but can it impress?

GPU RTX 3090 RTX 3080 RTX 3070 RTX 3060 Ti RTX 3060
SMs 82 68 46 38 28
CUDA Cores 10496 8704 5888 4864 3584
Tensor Cores 328 272 184 152 112
RT Cores 82 68 46 38 28
Texture Units 328 272 184 152 112
ROPs 112 96 96 80 48
GPU Boost Clock 1695 MHz 1710 MHz 1725 MHz 1665 MHz 1777 MHz
Memory Data Rate 19.5 Gbps 19 Gbps 14 Gbps 14 Gbps 15 Gbps
Total Video Memory 24GB GDDR6X 10GB GDDR6X 8GB GDDR6 8GB GDDR6 12GB GDDR6
Memory Interface 384-bit 320-bit 256-bit 256-bit 192-bit
Memory Bandwidth 936 GB/Sec 760 GB/Sec 448 GB/Sec 448 GB/Sec 360 GB/sec
TGP 350W 320W 220W 200W 170W

Despite utilising GA106 silicon, RTX 3060 isn’t actually a full implementation of the GPU, as it has 28 streaming multiprocessors (SMs) instead of 30. Currently only RTX 3060 for laptops uses the full GPU. For the desktop chip, 28 SMs means a total of 3584 CUDA Cores, as thanks to Ampere’s new SM structure with its two FP32 datapaths, each SM houses 128 CUDA cores.

Ampere also places one RT core, and four Tensor cores, in each SM, giving a total of 28 RT cores and 112 Tensor cores. This is accompanied by 112 texture units, and 48 ROPs which are now housed directly within each graphics processing cluster (GPC), with 16 ROPs per GPC, and 3 GPCs in total for RTX 3060.

Interestingly, rated clock speed is the highest it has been for an Ampere GPU, coming in at 1777MHz for the reference spec. This PNY XLR8 Gaming card is not factory overclocked, retaining the 1777MHz boost clock rating.

There’s been a lot of talk about Nvidia’s decision to use 12GB GDDR6 memory for the RTX 3060. This is more than the RTX 3060 Ti, RTX 3070 and even RTX 3080, but crucially the memory interface is much narrower at 192-bit. With memory clocked at 15Gbps, total memory bandwidth comes in at 360GB/s, about 20% lower than the RTX 3060 Ti.

Lastly, for total graphics power, Nvidia rates the RTX 3060 for 170W, which is 30W less than the RTX 3060 Ti. The XLR8 Gaming also shares this TGP rating.

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GeForce RTX 3060 AiB graphics cards announcement roundup https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/joao-silva/geforce-rtx-3060-aib-graphics-cards-announcement-roundup/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/joao-silva/geforce-rtx-3060-aib-graphics-cards-announcement-roundup/#respond Wed, 13 Jan 2021 08:00:50 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=500819 After Nvidia officially unveiled RTX 3060 yesterday, many AIB partners have since announced their custom-cooled GeForce RTX 3060 graphics cards. While we can expect more models to trickle through over the next few days, we've already seen quite a variety of RTX 3060 cards announced from the likes of MSI, Zotac, Gigabyte, and more that …

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After Nvidia officially unveiled RTX 3060 yesterday, many AIB partners have since announced their custom-cooled GeForce RTX 3060 graphics cards. While we can expect more models to trickle through over the next few days, we've already seen quite a variety of RTX 3060 cards announced from the likes of MSI, Zotac, Gigabyte, and more that we will cover here.

Zotac Twin Edge (OC) and AMP White Edition series

The Zotac RTX 3060 AMP White Edition features RGB lighting and an all-white theme, including the fans, shroud, and backplate. Being 232mm long, the Zotac RTX 3060 AMP White Edition should fit in most systems of today. Featuring Freeze Fan Stop and Active Fan control, this card is equipped with a 90mm fan and a 100mm fan (11 blades each), 5x 6mm heat pipes, and a “wide aluminium fin-stack array heatsink” to handle the cooling process of the GPU. The GPU core comes factory overclocked, boosting up to 1837MHz.

The Zotac Twin Edge (OC) is slightly shorter than the AMP White Edition, measuring 224mm long. The cooling solution is also cut back slightly, featuring 3x 6mm heat pipes and 2x 90mm fans. The non-OC variant comes with stock clocks (boosting up to 1777MHz), but the OC version comes slightly overclocked, featuring a boost clock of 1807MHz.

MSI Gaming, Ventus, and Aero ITX series

MSI seems to be the manufacturer presenting the most RTX 3060 SKUs, including the single-fan Aero ITX card, dual-fan Ventus and Gaming cards, and triple-fan Ventus and Gaming cards. All Gaming cards feature RGB lighting and are equipped with Torx 4.0 fans, but while Trio cards feature Tri Frozr 2 cooling solution, the non-Trio feature the Twin Frozr 8 cooling system. While core clocks haven't been detailed yet, the “X” models should come with higher clocks than the “non-X” SKUs.

The Ventus cards are equipped with Torx 3.0 fans, a brushed finish backplate, and feature solid aesthetics that will fit within most builds. Both dual-fan and triple-fan Ventus cards will feature a factory overclocked (OC) version and a non-OC version running at stock speeds.

Being the smallest of the bunch thanks to its single-fan cooling solution, the Aero ITX card is perfect for SFF systems. It's not clear if there will be an OC version, but we expect that the non-OC will run at stock clocks.

Inno3D Twin 2x (OC) and iChill X3 Red series

Inno3D's initial RTX 3060 lineup includes the Twin 2x (OC) series, featuring a backplate for added protection and dual-fan design (90mm fans) that cools the heatsink connected to the GPU by 4x heat pipes. The non-OC Twin 2x card is stock clocked, but the OC variant boosts up to 1792MHz.

Inno3D is also launching the iChill X3 Red series, equipped with a triple-fan cooling solution (90mm fans) and a shroud highlighted by red LEDs. The heatsink is connected to the GPU by 6x copper heat pipes for increased heat dissipation, especially useful for this card given its factory overclock of up to 1837MHz.

Colorful Ultra W OC, Advanced OC, and NB series

The Colorful iGame RTX 3060 Ultra W OC comes with a white triple-fan cooling solution and a white backplate that will fit into any white-themed build. The Ultra W OC's heatsink has 2x 6mm heat pipes and 2x 8mm heat pipes “connected to the fins using integrated reflow soldering”, combined with 2x 90mm fans and an 80mm fan at the centre.

The Colorful iGame RTX 3060 Advanced OC also features a triple-fan cooling solution, but with a black, dark grey, and red theme. The premium shroud comes with a metallic finish that highlights the “Light Frozen” lighting effect coming from the “Energy Core” lighting around the middle fan. The heatsink features 4x 8mm heat pipes.

The last Colorful card is the RTX 3060 NB, which features a similar cooling solution to the Ultra W OC, with 2x 6mm heat pipes, 2x 8mm heat pipes, 2x 90mm fans, and an 80mm fan at the centre, but with a half black/half red shroud. The metal backplate gives extra protection to the card while also increasing the card's passive cooling capabilities.

Gigabyte Gaming, Eagle, and Vision series

Featuring the triple-fan Windforce 3x cooling solution with alternate fan spinning to optimise airflow, the Gigabyte Gaming cards use composite copper heat pipes, backplate, and screen cooling to keep the GPU temperatures controlled.  With RGB Fusion 2.0 support, users can synchronise the card's RGB lighting with other compatible devices.

The Gigabyte Eagle uses a two-fan design, each fan measuring 100mm. There will be an OC and a non-OC variant of this card, meaning that the OC variant will come factory overclocked to offer better performance out-of-the-box. The Gigabyte Eagle cards feature RGB lighting that users can configure with RGB Fusion 2.0 or synchronise with other compatible devices.

Gigabyte RTX 3060 Vision cards come with a unique “elegant silver and white” theme, staying away from the most common black and grey coloured graphics cards. Suitable for white-themed PCs, the Vision cards feature a triple-fan design similar to the one used on the Gaming cards, ensuring stable operation and high-performance of the GPU.

ASUS Strix, TUF, and Dual series

ASUS' top of the line RTX 3060 is the Strix model, available in OC and non-OC models. This uses a triple-fan cooler, with a stylish-looking shroud, and 2.7-slot cooler. It also sports dual-BIOS capabilities, as well as a metal backplate.

As for the TUF card, this is also a triple-fan cooler and appears to use the same all-aluminium shroud as other TUF cards we have reviewed this generation.

Lastly, there's the smaller Dual card, which is a simpler design with two fans, and it also appears to be ‘just' a dual-slot thickness. ASUS is yet to release confirmed clock speeds for its RTX 3060 SKUs.

PNY XLR8 Gaming Revel and Uprising series

Both the PNY RTX 3060 XLR8 Gaming Revel and Uprising features dual-fan, dual-slot design with a relatively small footprint. The Uprising card is rather simple with a black shroud and black metal pass-through backplate, while the XLR8 Gaming card features PNY's Epic-X RGB lighting system around the card. According to PNY, both cards boost up to an impressive 1852MHz core clock, but the memory appears to be clocked below stock settings, at 14Gbps.

EVGA XC and XC Black series

Featuring a dual-fan cooling solution and a dual-slot design, the EVGA XC and XC Black are compact graphics cards with short PCBs and 0db fan mode preventing the fan from spinning when the GPU is at low temperatures. Thanks to their reduced size, these cards can easily fit in any build, including SFF PCs. The all-metal backplate gives additional protection and passive cooling to the card, preventing it from bending while also providing some extra heat dissipation.

Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.

KitGuru says: What do you think about the Nvidia RTX 3060 GPU? Which custom-cooled AiB seems the most interesting to you?

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PNY Power Pack Power Delivery 10000 Review https://www.kitguru.net/peripherals/andrew-munro/pny-power-pack-power-delivery-10000-review/ https://www.kitguru.net/peripherals/andrew-munro/pny-power-pack-power-delivery-10000-review/#respond Mon, 13 Jan 2020 12:46:48 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=437952 Are your devices draining too quickly? This PNY power bank could be the perfect solution

The post PNY Power Pack Power Delivery 10000 Review first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
In this day and age everybody has multiple devices that travel with them on a daily basis, but what’s everyone’s worst nightmare? Losing power! That worry ends here with the Power Pack Power Delivery 10000 by PNY. This power bank is the perfect everyday safety net when it comes to charging your electronic devices. Equipped with a 10,000mAh capacity, two 12W USB 3.0 ports and a certified 18W output USB-C Power Delivery 3.0 port for fast charging, your devices are sure to survive.

Specifications/features:

  • 2 USB-A at 5V / 2.4A
  • 1 USB-C Power Delivery 3.0 18W at 5V/3A, 9V/2A, 12V/1.5A
  • Weight: 209g (my tests show 220g)
  • Dimensions: 123.69x70x22mm
  • 10050mAh capacity to fully charge your device multiple times (depending on device)
  • Charge compatible devices up to 2.5 times faster than standard charging
  • 3 ports allowing to charge 3 different devices simultaneously
  • Charge 50% of your phone in 30mins via USB-C PD with a capacity up to 3000mAh
  • Works with Smartphones, Tablets, Nintendo Switch and USB-C Laptops

Purchase the PNY Power Pack Power Delivery 10,000, from Amazon UK for £45.29 HERE!

Pros:

  • USB-C Power Delivery.
  • Auto power-on when device is connected.
  • 4 LED indicators are simple but effective.
  • 10,000mAh is perfect for light travelling/everyday use.
  • Comes pre-charged and ready to use.
  • Fast charging via 5v 3amp wall plug supported.

Cons:

  • No carry-case.
  • Takes a long time to charge via standard USB wall plugs.

KitGuru says: in today’s world we think everybody should own a power bank, especially one capable of USB-C Power Delivery technology as more and more devices support fast charging. The 10,000mAh capacity is an excellent size for day to day use and it also reduces the size/weight compared to some larger models available.

Be sure to check out our sponsors store EKWB here

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PNY Pro Elite 1TB External SSD Drive Review https://www.kitguru.net/components/ssd-drives/simon-crisp/pny-pro-elite-1tb-external-ssd-drive-review/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/ssd-drives/simon-crisp/pny-pro-elite-1tb-external-ssd-drive-review/#respond Tue, 15 Oct 2019 12:09:30 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=427607 It's a very light and compact external SSD drive, priced at £135

The post PNY Pro Elite 1TB External SSD Drive Review first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
Probably better known for their range of Nvidia based graphics cards – be it consumer or Quadro – than anything else, PNY has added a small range of fast external SSDs to their product portfolio. Dubbed the Pro Elite, these external drives use a USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C interface and come priced around the £135 mark.

 

The Pro Elite product line is made up of three capacities; 250GB, 500GB and the top of the range 1TB drive that we are looking at here. PNY doesn’t state what controller or which NAND the drive uses in the specification sheet but hazarding a guess for the NAND, we would say its 3D TLC NAND.

There are small differences between the drives when it comes Sequential performance. The entry 250GB drive is rated at up to 880MB/s for reads and 900MB/s for writes. The 500GB drive is slower with reads at 865MB/s reads and 875MB/s writes while the 1TB drive has the fastest read rating at 890MB/s with writes at 880MB/s.

PNY back the Pro Elite with a 3-year warranty.

Physical Specifications:

  • Usable Capacities: 1TB.
  • NAND Components: n/s.
  • Interface: USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C.
  • Form Factor: External.
  • NAND Controller: n/s.
  • Dimensions: 63.5 x 57.2 x 10mm.
  • Drive Weight: 45g.

Firmware Version: CS20663

Be sure to check out our sponsors store EKWB here

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PNY XLR8 CS3030 1TB SSD Review https://www.kitguru.net/components/ssd-drives/simon-crisp/pny-xlr8-cs3030-1tb-ssd-review/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/ssd-drives/simon-crisp/pny-xlr8-cs3030-1tb-ssd-review/#respond Wed, 05 Jun 2019 14:10:54 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=413812 It's a 1TB SSD from PNY, priced at around the £130 mark - worth picking up?

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PNY's latest SSD addition to the ranks of their XLR8 gaming arm is the CS3030, an NVMe M.2 drive using a combination of a Phison controller and 3D TLC Flash NAND. Priced at around the £130 mark, is this worth buying?

 

The CS3030 is available in four capacities; 250GB, 500GB, 1TB (the drive we are reviewing here) and a flagship 2TB model. Sequential read speed is 3,500MB/s for all four drives while the write performance varies with size. The 250GB drive is rated at up to 1,050MB/s, the 500GB drive 2,000MB/s and the 1TB and 2TB drives at 3,000MB/s. Oddly PNY don't state any official random performance figures.

The drive uses the popular combination of a Phison PS5012-E12 8-channel controller and Toshiba 64-layer BiCS3 3D TLC NAND.

PNY rate the drives endurance as 380TBW for the 250GB drive, 800TBW for the 500GB, 1665TBW for the 1TB and 3115TBW for the 2GB model.

PNY back the drive with a 5-year warranty.

Physical Specifications:
Usable Capacities: 1TB
NAND Components: Toshiba 64-layer 3D TLC NAND
NAND Controller: Phison PS5012-E12
Cache: DDR4
Interface: PCIe x4 NVMe
Form Factor:M.2
Dimensions: 22 x 80 x 2mm
Drive Weight: 6.6g

Firmware Version: CS3003121

Be sure to check out our sponsors store EKWB here

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PNY has revealed the world’s first 512GB MicroSD card https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/ryan-burgess/pny-has-revealed-the-worlds-first-512gb-microsd-card/ https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/ryan-burgess/pny-has-revealed-the-worlds-first-512gb-microsd-card/#respond Thu, 31 May 2018 14:39:30 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=374889 MicroSD cards are somewhat of a marvel when it comes to how much storage you can cram into the tiny fingernail-sized card. PNY is taking portable storage to a new level with the world’s first 512GB MicroSD card- the PNY Elite. Back in February, SanDisk took the crown for the world’s highest capacity MicroSD card, …

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MicroSD cards are somewhat of a marvel when it comes to how much storage you can cram into the tiny fingernail-sized card. PNY is taking portable storage to a new level with the world’s first 512GB MicroSD card- the PNY Elite.

Back in February, SanDisk took the crown for the world’s highest capacity MicroSD card, with an impressive 400GB.  Just three months later, PNY has topped that with 512GB. This amount of storage equates to around 80 hours of Full HD videos or 100,000 pictures, 18MP in size. Speed wise, it meets the Class 10 and U1 classifications but doesn’t measure up to A1 certification.

PNY says the Elite can handle 90MB/s, which is poor when compared to the SanDisk 400GB MicroSD card that can perform at 160MB/s. This means you must trade off storage for speed, perhaps gearing it more towards use in cameras.

The PNY Elite 512GB doesn’t have a release date yet, but it will be $350 when it launches. Expect to hear more next week when Computex kicks off.

KitGuru Says: The increasing size of MicroSD cards never ceases to amaze me, but I can’t help but feel that performance should be more of a focus for the cards right now. What do you think?  

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PNY GTX 1080 Ti XLR8 OC Gaming 11GB Review https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/ryan-martin/pny-gtx-1080-ti-xlr8-oc-gaming-11gb-review/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/ryan-martin/pny-gtx-1080-ti-xlr8-oc-gaming-11gb-review/#comments Mon, 07 Aug 2017 07:59:56 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=342779 PNY goes "back to basics" with the XLR8 OC Gaming GTX 1080 Ti.

The post PNY GTX 1080 Ti XLR8 OC Gaming 11GB Review first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
The latest rumours surrounding AMD's upcoming Vega GPUs point towards GTX 1070- or 1080-class performance. This means the GTX 1080 Ti will likely remain the best choice in the upper echelons of the consumer graphics card market. KitGuru has already assessed a wide range of GTX 1080 Tis and the PNY XLR8 OC Gaming is another overclocked and custom-cooled solution for the serious gamer to ponder.

PNY's interpretation of Nvidia's GTX 1080 Ti GPU is pure and simple, casting aside many of the advanced or unnecessary features, depending on your perspective, that have become common place on top-tier GPUs. The XLR8 OC Gaming's strategy is a dual slot and triple-fan cooling solution, a full-cover aluminium backplate and factory overclock.

That means, to clarify, there's no RGB lighting, no passive fan mode, no onboard fan headers, no BIOS switches, no customisable decals…you get the idea. This simplistic approach may find appeal among certain audiences, particularly those unimpressed by the RGB lighting “fad” or those not wanting to overload their motherboard with a monstrous triple-slot and air-cooled graphics card.

PNY's factory overclocks aren't particularly adventurous either; a boost clock of 1645 MHz is meagre for an overclocked SKU and the stock memory reflects PNY's conservative strategy with this product.

GPU  Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti Founders Edition  PNY GTX 1080 Ti Blower Edition  PNY GTX 1080 Ti XLR8 OC Gaming
Base Clock
 1480 MHz  1480 MHz  1531 MHz
GPU Boost Clock  1582 MHz  1582 MHz 1645 MHz
Memory Clock Effective
 11008MHz  11008MHz   11008MHz
Memory Bandwidth  484 GB/s  484 GB/s   484 GB/s
Price (£)  £689 / $699  £TBC / $740 £TBC / $735

It's certainly not a graphics card to excite the senses or push the boundaries so PNY has to impress with cooling, noise and, most importantly, pricing.

Be sure to check out our sponsors store EKWB here

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PNY CS2030 240GB PCIe NVMe M.2 drive Review https://www.kitguru.net/components/ssd-drives/simon-crisp/pny-cs2030-240gb-pcie-nvme-m-2-drive-review/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/ssd-drives/simon-crisp/pny-cs2030-240gb-pcie-nvme-m-2-drive-review/#respond Sat, 18 Mar 2017 09:22:08 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=322446 Built on an M.2 2280 form factor with a PCIe Gen3.0 x4 interface, the NVMe CS2030 uses a combination of a Phison E7 controller and Toshiba 15mn MLC NAND.

The post PNY CS2030 240GB PCIe NVMe M.2 drive Review first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
Many people missed the release of the new PNY CS2030. PNY seemed almost to avoid marketing the drive with tech media which is surprising considering it is their first consumer PCIe NVMe M.2 drive. We find out today how it handles and if it is worth considering for a new system build.

Built on an M.2 2280 form factor with a PCIe Gen3.0 x4 interface, the PNY NVMe CS2030 uses a combination of a Phison E7 controller and Toshiba 15mn MLC NAND. At the time of writing, there are just two capacities available, 240GB and 480GB.

Quoted Sequential performance figures for the 240GB drive are 2,750MB/s for reads and 1,500MB/s for writes. 4K random read/write figures are 201,000 IOPS and 215,000 IOPS respectively.  The 480GB model is a little faster at 2,800MB/s and 1,550MB/s respectively for Sequential read/writes while random read/writes come in at 300,000 IOPS and 215,000 IOPS respectively.

Although there's is no mention of encryption support in the specification sheet for the drive, AES-256 encryption is part of the Phison controllers feature list.  Similarly, there's no mention as to what the endurance rating of the drive is, but PNY back the drive with a 3 year warranty.

Physical Specifications:
Usable Capacities: 240GB, 480GB
NAND Components: Toshiba 15mn MLC
Interface: PCIe Gen3.0 x4 NVMe
Form Factor: M.2 2280
NAND Controller: PS5007-E7
Dimensions: 80 x 22 x 3.8mm
Drive Weight: 8g

Firmware Version: CS20302O

Be sure to check out our sponsors store EKWB here

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PNY GTX 1070 XLR8 OC 8GB Review https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/luke-hill/pny-gtx-1070-xlr8-oc-8gb-review/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/luke-hill/pny-gtx-1070-xlr8-oc-8gb-review/#comments Wed, 01 Feb 2017 12:42:10 +0000 http://dev.kitguru.net/?p=319921 We examine PNY’s ~£450 GTX 1070 XLR8 OC to see if it can compete with market leaders

The post PNY GTX 1070 XLR8 OC 8GB Review first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
Nvidia’s GTX 1070 graphics card remains the go-to option for 1440p gaming enthusiast due to a (current) lack of modern competition from AMD and the sheer expense of the GTX 1080 and Titan X Pascal chips. More than half-a-year after its launch and the GTX 1070 is still managing to hold its price in the UK, aided by the political events of 2016. We examine PNY’s ~£450 GTX 1070 XLR8 OC to see how the company’s triple-fan cooler and aggressive core overclock tackle modern games.

 

Going with a gamer-orientated style from yesteryear, PNY colours the GTX 1070 XLR8 OC’s triple fan cooler in a red and black style. Red LEDs are also fitted to the board and activate continuously when one’s system is powered on. If you like red in your system, PNY has made a good start on this card.

Good news for tinkerers who may be toying with the prospect of watercooling in the future, PNY uses the same reference GTX 1070 PCB for its XLR8 OC card. You get the same 4+1 phase power delivery system and single 8-pin PCIe power connector feeding the GP104 GPU and 8GB of GDDR5 memory.

Despite the included backplate, there are no flashy RGBs or 0dB fan operating modes for the GTX 1070 XLR8 OC so PNY is clearly relying upon build quality and straight-up performance to win over buyers.

PNY overclocks the core to 1607MHz (1797MHz Boost) which is an aggressive increase from the 1506MHz/1683MHz reference GTX 1070 FE frequencies. Memory is left unchanged at 8Gbps effective.

As shown in the MSI Afterburner screenshot above, PNY’s GTX 1070 XLR8 OC will happily hover around and just above the 1900MHz GPU Core clock mark under gaming conditions. The higher the resolution, the lower the boost speed, but even at 4K the card would sit around 1911MHz.

Be sure to check out our sponsors store EKWB here

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PNY Riot 01 gaming mouse review https://www.kitguru.net/peripherals/mouse/jon-martindale/pny-riot-01-gaming-mouse-review/ https://www.kitguru.net/peripherals/mouse/jon-martindale/pny-riot-01-gaming-mouse-review/#comments Fri, 23 Dec 2016 09:04:49 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=314411 PNY might be a new comer to the world of peripheral making, but it is gunning hard for the competitive market of gaming mice with its first effort: the Riot 01. It has an eye catching colour scheme, an ergonomic shape and some neat lighting options that are rather impressive for such a budget mouse. …

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PNY might be a new comer to the world of peripheral making, but it is gunning hard for the competitive market of gaming mice with its first effort: the Riot 01. It has an eye catching colour scheme, an ergonomic shape and some neat lighting options that are rather impressive for such a budget mouse.

Priced under £30, the Riot 01 is looking to undercut a lot of the competition, but it will need to stand up to our vigorous gaming and general usage testing to get the thumbs up.

pnyriot01

While we will not be expecting ground breaking performance from the Riot 01, we will need it to do the basics very well. You cannot get by on your looks alone in the economy peripheral game.

Interface: Full Speed USB.
Cable: 1.8 m Braided.
Design: Ergonomic, Right-handed.
Sensor type: High Speed Optical.
Sensor model: AVAGO ADNS-3050.
Sensitivity: 1000/2000/3000/4000 dpi.
Polling speed: 250/500/1000 Hz.
Buttons: Six fully customisable buttons through PNY RIOT software.
Dimensions: 133 x 78 x 44 mm.
Weight: 165 gr.
Warranty: 2 Years.

Be sure to check out our sponsors store EKWB here

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PNY GTX 950 2GB and GTX 960 4GB XLR8 OC Gaming Review https://www.kitguru.net/components/ryan-martin/pny-gtx-950-2gb-and-gtx-960-4gb-xlr8-oc-gaming-review/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/ryan-martin/pny-gtx-950-2gb-and-gtx-960-4gb-xlr8-oc-gaming-review/#comments Thu, 07 Jul 2016 08:47:52 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=298520 If the persistent rumours are anything to go by, Nvidia will imminently extend Pascal to its mid-range with the launch of a GTX 1060. This means that, on paper at least, the GTX 960 will be superseded, though there is yet no inclination as to the fate of the GTX 950. Even with the imminent …

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If the persistent rumours are anything to go by, Nvidia will imminently extend Pascal to its mid-range with the launch of a GTX 1060. This means that, on paper at least, the GTX 960 will be superseded, though there is yet no inclination as to the fate of the GTX 950.

PNY_950_960_XLR8 (2)

Even with the imminent arrival of the GTX 1060 the GTX 960 has significant shelf-life remaining. If rumours are anywhere close to accurate, a price of around £250/$250 for the GTX 1060 means the GTX 960 is still an attractive and viable option starting at £160/$180, this price will likely only become cheaper as retailers seek to clear existing stock.

The GTX 950, at £120/$140, will likely remain current for a longer period of time as a GTX 950 successor has yet to emerge.

*UK readers should note there could be continuing fluctuation with GPU prices due to the volatility of the British Pound Sterling in the currency market, following to result of the UK EU referendum.*

The continuing relevance of the GTX 950 and 960 at the budget price point are the reason we are today reviewing a pair of PNY XLR8 OC Gaming graphics cards based on those GPUs. PNY's XLR8 line is its premier overclocking segmentation for graphics cards – one notch above PNY's normal non-reference product line.

Both PNY cards look like well-built options sharing the same dual fan multi-heat pipe cooling solution, reasonable factory overclocks and competitive 3 year warranties. Specifications compared to the stock Nvidia GPUs change in terms of increase boost and memory clocks, though it is fairly apparent PNY has been much more aggressive with the GTX 950 than the GTX 960. There are both 2GB and 4GB variants of the PNY XLR8 OC GTX 960 available, the GTX 950 comes only in a 2GB flavour.

The GTX 950 and 960 go head-to-head with AMD's R7 370 and R9 380 GPUs, both of which we'll be testing in this review, and make ideal candidates for PC gamers using 1080p or 1440p panels.

GPU Geforce GTX950 PNY GTX 950 XLR8 OC Gaming
Geforce GTX 960 PNY GTX 960 XLR8 OC Gaming
Streaming Multiprocessors 6 6 8 8
CUDA Cores 768 768  1024 1024
Base Clock 1024 MHz 1152 MHz  1126 MHz  1203 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 1188 MHz 1342 MHz  1178 MHz  1266 MHz
Total Video memory 2GB 2GB  2GB or 4GB (2GB or) 4GB
Texture Units 48 48  64  64
Memory Clock 6,600 MHz 7,200MHz 7,000MHz 7,200MHz
Bus Width 128-bit  128-bit  128-bit 128-bit 
ROPs 32 32   32  32 
Manufacturing Process 28nm 28nm  28nm  28nm 
TDP 90 W  90 W  120 W 120 W

Be sure to check out our sponsors store EKWB here

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PNY GTX 950 2GB Review https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/luke-hill/pny-gtx-950-2gb-review/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/luke-hill/pny-gtx-950-2gb-review/#respond Fri, 02 Oct 2015 07:50:35 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=269430 So far we have looked at GTX950 partner cards from Gigabyte and ASUS and today we continue our coverage with an analysis of the new PNY GTX950. While other GTX950 solutions so far have incorporated dual fans inside the cooling shroud, PNY have opted for just a single fan. The big question we need to …

The post PNY GTX 950 2GB Review first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
So far we have looked at GTX950 partner cards from Gigabyte and ASUS and today we continue our coverage with an analysis of the new PNY GTX950. While other GTX950 solutions so far have incorporated dual fans inside the cooling shroud, PNY have opted for just a single fan. The big question we need to answer – can it possibly compete?

650-image-2

Nvidia's GTX950 has been released to target AMD's R7 370. As we stated in previous reviews many of the GTX950 partner cards seem to be hitting retail at £150 inc vat. This is putting them directly head to head against a handful of inexpensive GTX960 solutions.

The PNY GTX950 seems to have a distinct value for money edge over Gigabyte and ASUS cards as it is being offered by Scan for £131.94 inc vat. £20 might not seem like a whole lot, but in this specific market, it is critical.

GPU GeForce
GTX 750 Ti (Maxwell)
GeForce
GTX 950
(Maxwell)
GeForce
GTX 960 (Maxwell)
GeForce
GTX 970 (Maxwell)
GeForce
GTX 980 (Maxwell)
GPU Codename GM107 GM206 GM206 GM204 GM204
Streaming Multiprocessors 5 6 8 13 16
CUDA Cores 640 768 1024 1664 2048
Base Clock 1020 MHz 1024 MHz 1126 MHz 1050 MHz 1126 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 1085 MHz 1188 MHz 1178 MHz 1178 MHz 1216 MHz
Total Video memory 2GB 2GB 2GB 4GB 4GB
Texture Units 40 48 64 104 128
Texture fill-rate 40.8 Gigatexels/sec 49.2 Gigatexels/sec 72.1 Gigatexels/sec 109.2 Gigatexels/sec 144.1 Gigatexels/sec
Memory Clock 5400 MHz 6600 MHz 7010 MHz 7000 MHz 7000 MHz
Memory Bandwidth 86.4 GB/sec 105.6 GB/sec 112.16 GB/sec 224 GB/s 224 GB/sec
Bus Width 128bit 128bit 128bit 256bit 256bit
ROPs 16 32 32 56
(following correction)
64
Manufacturing Process 28nm 28nm 28nm 28nm 28nm
TDP 60 Watts 90 Watts 120 Watts 145 Watts 165 Watts

On a technical level, the cut-down iteration of the GM206 GPU is, in many areas, effectively 75% of the core used on a GTX 960. The GTX 950 version of the GM206 GPU ships with 768 CUDA cores and 48 texture units. Those numbers are more closely aligned with the GTX 750 Ti version of Nvidia’s first-gen Maxwell GM107 core, however specifically focusing on the number of ROPs puts clear daylight between the GTX 950 and its lower-end sibling.

The same 128bit memory interface found on the GTX 960 is present, however that may be less of a potential choking point given the reduced raw horsepower of the GTX 950’s cut-down GPU. As was the case with the GTX 960, the same argument for more efficient utilisation of the GM206’s 128bit memory interface, in comparison to Kepler, is made by Nvidia.

Clock speeds for the GTX 950 are sliced by comparison to GTX 960 frequencies. The reference core clock is rated at 1024MHz, with a maximum boost speed of 1188MHz. The 2GB of GDDR5 memory is rated to run at 1650MHz (6.6Gbps effective) to produce a bandwidth level of 105.6GB/sec.

Extending to the GTX 950’s features, the card supports the DirectX 12 API at feature level 12.1. A H.265 (HEVC) encoder/decoder engine built into the GPU, along with HDMI 2.0, shout loudly for the GTX 950 to be used inside a gaming HTPC. With the 90W TDP being low enough to comfortably fit inside SFF cases, the ability to output 60Hz video to a 4K TV (most of which do not have DisplayPort connections) is an important feature. HDMI 2.0 is a feature that team red’s competitor card cannot offer.

One of the more notable changes between the GTX 75x cards and the GTX 950 is the TDP differential. While the GTX 750 Ti had a 60W TDP, the GTX 950 ups that number to 90W. Approximating TDP as an indicator of power consumption, the 90W rating narrowly tips the GTX 950 into a region where it requires a 6-pin PCIe power connector. This emphasises that Nvidia is focused on gaming performance with its new card, while the GTX 750 Ti, for example, still remains to cater for those wanting a graphics card to run on a PSU without a 6-pin PCIe cable.

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Image of PNY GeForce GTX 950 hits the web https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/image-of-pny-geforce-gtx-950-hits-the-web/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/image-of-pny-geforce-gtx-950-hits-the-web/#comments Fri, 14 Aug 2015 10:01:01 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=263514 The first photo of an Nvidia GeForce GTX 950 graphics card has hit the web. The new graphics adapter from PNY seems to be based on a custom design, which is compatible with compact personal computers, but not with mini-ITX small form-factor systems. The PNY GeForce GTX 950 sports dual-slot design with one fan, which …

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The first photo of an Nvidia GeForce GTX 950 graphics card has hit the web. The new graphics adapter from PNY seems to be based on a custom design, which is compatible with compact personal computers, but not with mini-ITX small form-factor systems.

The PNY GeForce GTX 950 sports dual-slot design with one fan, which features curved blades to maximize efficiency and lower noise levels, according to the image published by VideoCardz web-site. The radiator seems to be made of aluminium, which indicates that the graphics processing unit does not emit too much heat.

The Nvidia GeForce GTX 950 will use the GM206-250 graphics processing unit with 768 stream processors clocked at 1150MHz – 1250MHz, according to a previous report. Graphics cards based on the GeForce GTX 950 will be equipped with 2GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 6600MHz – 6750MHz, which will be connected to the chip using 128-bit memory interface.

pny_geforce_gtx_950

Maximum compute performance of Nvidia GeForce GTX 950 will be around 1.76TFLOPS, which is quite a lot. The graphics card should deliver higher performance than its predecessors – GeForce GTX 750 and GTX 750 Ti – but do not expect any breakthroughs from the GTX 950 unless it is heavily overclocked.

The GM206 GPU supports all modern graphics and GPU compute technologies, including DirectX 12, OpenGL 4.3, OpenCL 1.1 and others. For GeForce GTX 950, a key feature of the product could be support for hardware H.265 (HEVC) encoding and decoding as well as compatibility with HDCP 2.2 content protection over HDMI 2.0. Both technologies are required to smoothly playback movies in Ultra HD resolution and on Ultra HD Blu-ray discs.

According to media reports, Nvidia decided to postpone the release of the GeForce GTX 950 by several days. The new product will be officially unveiled on the 20th or the 21st of August, 2015.

The exact manufacturer suggested retail price of Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 950 is unknown, but expect something like $150.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: The box of the PNY GeForce GTX 950 seems to be the least informative package ever. The only two things that can be learnt by looking at the box are the name of the GPU as well as information about PNY’s warranty. There is no data about memory, outputs and other essential details.

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Are the Boxing Day sales real? https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/notebook/jules/are-the-boxing-day-sales-real/ https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/notebook/jules/are-the-boxing-day-sales-real/#comments Wed, 26 Dec 2012 13:28:43 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=120257 We all love a bargain, but scouring the high street technology stores on the day after Xmas did not seem to generate any serious surprises. KitGuru is sent some snaps and breaks out ‘Analysis 101' to see just how well the shoppers are doing today. Will records be set? While Christmas Eve is a ‘coming …

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We all love a bargain, but scouring the high street technology stores on the day after Xmas did not seem to generate any serious surprises. KitGuru is sent some snaps and breaks out ‘Analysis 101' to see just how well the shoppers are doing today. Will records be set?

While Christmas Eve is a ‘coming together' and Christmas Day is a day of serious celebration, over indulgence and plenty of snoozing after boozing – the 26th December is different. Research shows that's when old differences really begin to resurface & relatives get right under your skin.

To avoid serous conflict, leave. Head out the door, breathe some of the fresh winter air and head for the stores.

Each country is different, but the UK has a strong tradition of starting sales on Boxing Day.

Fashion retailer Next opened its doors at 6am and, by 10am, it still had restrictions in place on how many people could be in the store and - once in - how much you could buy. Technology stores did OK, but not this well.

.
Alongside the tradition of the kick off date, we Brits also have legislation that says any discount shown MUST be against a price that has been displayed, on the same product, for 28 days in the previous 6 months. In other words, it needs to be a genuine offer. But that doesn't guard against a huge discrepancy in on/off line pricing. It also doesn't help people who struggle to understand the brand is the same – no matter what you pay for it.

Entering into one of London's largest shopping malls, the first store we came to was WH Smiths, a traditional newsagent that's expanded its range to selling almost everything to do with paper and the office – from books and art supplies to ink jet printers. The window was full of its biggest offers and the eye was drawn to a massive 16GB SD card poster.

It's Class 4, so quite slow, but good enough for casual use. But how does the ‘WH Smith's lowest ever price' compare to high street rival Currys and online retailer, Amazon?

Amazon could almost offer '2 for the price of 1' and still be the same price as 'WH Smiths great SD deal ever'

.
Informed readers will, no doubt, realise that Amazon is able to undercut honest British retailers because it took £7 billion in sales revenue over the past 2 trading periods, but managed to pay ZERO corporation tax. A normal UK company, operating in a more straightforward way, would have had to cough up close to £100m in tax for that kind of revenue.

Question: Could the £5.99 be achieved without the ‘clever accountant discount'?

Overall, today, around 10 million Brits will take to the high streets and more will shop online for bargains like the PCY card (simultaneously available at £5.99, £9.99 and £14.99).

Once all of the Xmas fairy dust has settled, the result will be a record breaking £2.6 Billion consumer spend in a single day. That's the highest ever for 26th December.

Based on average store opening times, that's close to £5 million a minute.

Recession? What recession?

While we're on the subject of Amazon, it's worth noting that while the rest of the country slumbers in front of the TV on Christmas Day, Amazon actually takes a huge wad of ‘corporate tax free' cash on 25th December – with sales up more than 250% over the past 5 years – driven by electronics and gadgets. We're thinking that each new iPhone/Galaxy creates an urge for covers, speakers and other accessories. Looks like Amazon is satisfying that urge instantly.

Overall, online retailers will receive more than 125 million visits today. Google Ad Words anyone?

For a while now, KitGuru has been wondering what the hell is going on with mainstream laptop pricing. Two years ago, it was possible to buy a 15" Toshiba with a Core i5 processor, 6GB of memory and large hard drive for £420. That price has hardly been touched since, but was finally beaten at Currys today - with a £150 discount on an HP machine. Roll on more of the same for 2013!

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KitGuru says: Based on the reports we're getting in from high street shoppers across the UK, retailers are trying damn hard to take your money. The sales are real, in the sense that store prices have been slashed – and the sub-£400 HP Core i5 laptops are a welcome addition to customer's selection options. Overall, records have been set at the end of 2012 – we can't wait for more positivity in the New Year.

Comment below or in the KitGuru forums.

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PNY GeForce GTX570 Enthusiast Edition Review https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/steve-ruxton/pny-geforce-gtx570-enthusiast-edition-review/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/steve-ruxton/pny-geforce-gtx570-enthusiast-edition-review/#comments Fri, 08 Apr 2011 09:29:30 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=36600 Today we are looking at the PNY GTX570. This card is a reference NVIDIA design equipped with 1280MB of GDDR5. The PNY GTX 570 offers full DirectX 11 support and ships with the core clock speeds of 732 MHz and the 1280 MB of GDDR5 is clocked to an effective 3800 MHz. Key Features Full …

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Today we are looking at the PNY GTX570. This card is a reference NVIDIA design equipped with 1280MB of GDDR5. The PNY GTX 570 offers full DirectX 11 support and ships with the core clock speeds of 732 MHz and the 1280 MB of GDDR5 is clocked to an effective 3800 MHz.

Key Features

  • Full Microsoft DirectX 11 support
  • NVIDIA CUDA™ technology support
  • DirectCompute 5.0 Support
  • OpenCL Support
  • NVIDIA PhysX™ technology
  • NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround Ready
  • NVIDIA PureVideo HD technology
  • Dual-Link HDCP-Capable
  • OpenGL 4.1 support

Minimum System Requirements

  • PCI Express or PCI Express 2.0-compliant motherboard with one dual-width x16 graphics slot
  • Two 6-pin PCI Express supplementary power connectors
  • A minimum 550W or greater system power supply (with a minimum 12V current rating of 38A)
  • Intel Pentium 4, AMD Athlon XP class processor or higher
  • 200MB of available hard disk space
  • 2GB system memory (4GB recommended)
  • Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, or Windows 7 Operating System (32 or 64-bit)
  • DVD-ROM drive for installation
  • DVI or HDMI or VGA compatible monitor

Product Specifications

Core Clock 732 MHz
Processor Cores 480
Processor Clock 1464 MHz
Texture Fill Rate 43.9 Billion/sec.
Memory Amount 1280MB GDDR5
Memory Data Rate, effective 3800 MHz
Memory Interface 320-bit
Memory Bandwidth 152.0 GB/sec.
On-board Outputs DVI, DVI, and HDMI mini
Bus Type PCI Express® 2.0
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