Even if it isn’t extremely powerful, the MSRP of $75 could be really interesting especially thanks to the pretty similar memory frequency (-11%) and the possibilities of core overclocking. Now, we will have to find out whether if the number of units will be identical to the higher end version. FYI, the price of the Radeon X1650XT is around 135€. | |
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Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Radeon X1650GT: a bargain?
ATI releases more GPUs using 80 nm fabrication process. The manufacturer will announce soon the Radeon X1650GT based on RV560. The product will be right between the Radeon X1650Pro and X1650XT. Compared to the latter, the Core/memory duo is clocked at 575MHz/675MHz instead of 450MHz/600MHz.
Quadro FX 4600 and FX 5600
Today, Nvidia announced the release of professional Quadro FX 4600 and Quadro FX 5600 cards based on G80 (already equipping the GeForce 8800).
The Quadro FX 5600 is clocked at 600/800 MHz, instead of 575/900 MHz for the 8800 GTX. Memory is notably slower and the bandwidth is reduced to 76.8 GB/s. The counterpart is that the memory is two times bigger (1.5GB)!
The Quadro FX4600 is the workstation equivalent of the GeForce 8800 GTS but unlike the latter the memory interface is 384 bit instead of 320 bits. Memory bandwidth will be comparable at 57.6 GB /s (instead of 59.6 GB /s). Memory and core frequencies will be respectively 600 MHz and 500 MHz.
As usual, the cards will have specific drivers for 3D pro software and this explains the price of $2999 and $1995. They will be integrated and distributed in Europe and in the US by the usual partners: HP, Dell, IBM, Sun and PNY Technologies. NVIDIA also published a couple of benchmarks with Viewperf in this page.
The Quadro FX 5600 is clocked at 600/800 MHz, instead of 575/900 MHz for the 8800 GTX. Memory is notably slower and the bandwidth is reduced to 76.8 GB/s. The counterpart is that the memory is two times bigger (1.5GB)!
The Quadro FX4600 is the workstation equivalent of the GeForce 8800 GTS but unlike the latter the memory interface is 384 bit instead of 320 bits. Memory bandwidth will be comparable at 57.6 GB /s (instead of 59.6 GB /s). Memory and core frequencies will be respectively 600 MHz and 500 MHz.
As usual, the cards will have specific drivers for 3D pro software and this explains the price of $2999 and $1995. They will be integrated and distributed in Europe and in the US by the usual partners: HP, Dell, IBM, Sun and PNY Technologies. NVIDIA also published a couple of benchmarks with Viewperf in this page.
Monday, March 5, 2007
Fujitsu Announces World's First 160GB 7200RPM SATA Notebook HDD
Fujitsu has unveiled the world's first 160GB 7200RPM SATA hard disk drive (HDD) for notebook computers. The new MHW2160BJ notebook HDD will be available for high-performance notebooks beginning in May of this year.
The 2.5" HDD features a SATA 3.0Gb/s interface and has best-in-class acoustic levels of 2.5 bels at idle. The drive also sips power and only consumes 2.3 watts or less when reading/writing data.
2.5" notebook HDDs currently max out at 200GB and are only available with a spindle speed 4200RPM. Likewise, 7200RPM hard drives until now have topped out at 100GB. Fujitsu's new 160GB 7200RPM HDD strikes a nice balance between both extremes. Pricing, which is sure to be extravagant, has not yet been announced.
Acer : 22'', 2 ms to be released soon
End of March, Acer will release the AL2251WA, the first 22" of the Gamer line. The manufacturer announced that it will feature a TN 2ms CrystalBright panel. This means that the panel will be glossy, have vivid colors and will reflect light sources in the room.
Acer's current MSRP will be a little over 400€ but it isn’t definitive. If the monitor is released at this price, it will probably have some difficulties to compete with the Samsung SyncMaster 226BW. This newly released LCD display has a mat panel and is priced below 400 euros.
Asus, Samsung and Acer have all released 22" monitors with response time of 2ms. 22" are getting faster and this will motivate those who haven't yet fallen for this new diagonal because of the afterglow risk. We can also reasonably hope that the two monitors will have better color adjustments than the Asus which rendering was particularly terrible.
Acer's current MSRP will be a little over 400€ but it isn’t definitive. If the monitor is released at this price, it will probably have some difficulties to compete with the Samsung SyncMaster 226BW. This newly released LCD display has a mat panel and is priced below 400 euros.
Asus, Samsung and Acer have all released 22" monitors with response time of 2ms. 22" are getting faster and this will motivate those who haven't yet fallen for this new diagonal because of the afterglow risk. We can also reasonably hope that the two monitors will have better color adjustments than the Asus which rendering was particularly terrible.
Forceware 101.41 for Vista : SLI
More than one month after the release of Windows Vista, Nvidia finally releases official drivers (which are still in a beta version) supporting SLI with GeForce 7 (they also makes it possible for the GeForce 7950 GX2 to provide correct performances). The list of issues corrected is quite long and some of the options, such as SLI antialiasing, aren’t yet implemented. In other words, even if drivers are improved, there is still a lot of work to do. To download the 32 bit version, go to this page and for the 64 bit, go to this one. | |
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Sunday, March 4, 2007
HP printers : WiFi for everyone
HP releases two new middle range inkjet printers: the Deskjet 6940, 129 € and the Deskjet 6980, 179€.
The two of them have USB, network interfaces and the D6980 is WiFi compliant (802.11g/b). Print rates announced are very high: 36 pages per minute (ppm) in black and white and 27 ppm in color.
The two models print photos at the standard 4"x6" and panoramic format (up to 215 x 615 mm) with or without white border.
They are Windows, 98 SE, Me, 2000 Professional, XP and Macintosh Mac OS X v10.2, 10.3 and ulterior versions compatible.
The two of them have USB, network interfaces and the D6980 is WiFi compliant (802.11g/b). Print rates announced are very high: 36 pages per minute (ppm) in black and white and 27 ppm in color.
The two models print photos at the standard 4"x6" and panoramic format (up to 215 x 615 mm) with or without white border.
They are Windows, 98 SE, Me, 2000 Professional, XP and Macintosh Mac OS X v10.2, 10.3 and ulterior versions compatible.
Seagate: 16 million PMR hard drives sold
If Maxtor started demonstrating PMR technology ((Perpendicular Magnetic Recording) three years and a half ago (news in French), the technology only became massively available in our computers in 2006. Seagate (who in the meantime acquired Maxtor) announced to have sold 16 million PMR hard drives since the introduction of the Momentus 5400.3 2.5", first hard drive of the company using this technology, in December 2005.
Since that date, the market leader made PRM available for entire product line. According to an Analyst of iSuppli, it will represent 75% of the production by the end of the year.
PMR reduces the surface occupied by each byte present on the platters by positioning them vertically instead of horizontally. This increases the number of bits per platter. Beside the density increase, it also leads to higher performances.
Since that date, the market leader made PRM available for entire product line. According to an Analyst of iSuppli, it will represent 75% of the production by the end of the year.
PMR reduces the surface occupied by each byte present on the platters by positioning them vertically instead of horizontally. This increases the number of bits per platter. Beside the density increase, it also leads to higher performances.
Athlon 64 EE 65nm: 45 Watts yes, but...
Additionally to the Athlon 64 X2 6000+ announcement, AMD unveiled two new low power consumption processors: the Athlon 64 3500+ EE and 3800+ EE. Respectively clocked at 2.2 GHz and 2.4 GHz, they use 65 nm fabrications process, have a TDP of 45 watts but only one core and 512KB of L2 cache. Prices for 1000 units will be of $88 for the 3500+ EE and $93 for the 3800+ EE. An important point to note is that AMD’s product line already includes an Athlon 64 X2 3800+ and an Athlon 64 3500+ with a TDP of 35 Watts. However, their fabrication process is 90 nm, they are only available in very small quantities and despite the smaller fabrication process AMD couldn’t reach the same level of dissipation. | |
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Saturday, March 3, 2007
Four 45 nm factories for Intel in 2008
Today, Intel announced that it will invest $1 billion to $1.5 billion in its Rio Rancho site to retool Fab 11X for production on Intel's next generation 45 nanometer (nm) manufacturing process. Once the transition will be completed, Fab 11X will be the company's fourth factory scheduled to use the 45nm process.
Intel’s current production of 45nm products is done at the Oregon development Fab D1D but the company is currently building two other factories, the Fab 32 in Chandler, Arizona and the Fab 28 in Kiryat Gat, Israel. Investments are respectively of $3 and $3.5 billion and they will begin production end of 2007 and during the first quarter 2008.
Intel will release Core 2 processors using 45 nm process in the end of the year, but mass availability will be logically in the beginning of 2008.
Intel’s current production of 45nm products is done at the Oregon development Fab D1D but the company is currently building two other factories, the Fab 32 in Chandler, Arizona and the Fab 28 in Kiryat Gat, Israel. Investments are respectively of $3 and $3.5 billion and they will begin production end of 2007 and during the first quarter 2008.
Intel will release Core 2 processors using 45 nm process in the end of the year, but mass availability will be logically in the beginning of 2008.
Radeon X1950 Pro Silence Edition
PowerColor will release soon a Radeon X1950 Pro Silence Edition. For this new version, the subsidiary of TUL has replaced the radiator/fan duo by a passive and rather impressive Artic Cooling Accelero S2 dissipation system based on four heat pipes. An interesting fact, is that Artic Cooling doesn’t speak of the Accelero S2 / X1950 combination on their website and is limited to the X1650. PowerColor has chosen standard frequencies, 575 MHz GPU and 690 MHz GDDR3 memory (256MB). Temperature reached will be a reasonable 63°C and of course a correctly ventilated tower will be required .
Samsung to present GDDR4 at 2 GHz
At ICSS, Samsung presented a GDDR4 memory chip which I/O run at 2 GHz with 2V. Thanks to these characteristics, the external DDR bus speed reaches 4 Gbits per second and per pins. Memory cells are clocked at 500 MHz as GDDR4 is of 8n bit type like the DDR3.
Knowing that these chips have 32 pins for data transfers, the total is 16 GB/s. This is two times better than the GDDR4 of the X1950 XT, and 42% better than the faster current GDDR4 of Samsung.
Knowing that these chips have 32 pins for data transfers, the total is 16 GB/s. This is two times better than the GDDR4 of the X1950 XT, and 42% better than the faster current GDDR4 of Samsung.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
ATI Catalyst 7.2
ATI released the Catalyst 7.2 drivers for Windows XP, Vista and Linux. In terms of performances, ATI insisted on the following combination: Vista / OpenGL / X1x00. According to ATI, performance improvements with Doom3, Quake 4 and Prey will reach respectively up to 25%, 48% and 21%.
The improvements brought to the Control Center integrated to the 7.1 version for Vista are now available for XP. Load and response time are reduced and it requires less resources. The manufacturer has also improved the preview of several 3D options and, of course, corrected several issues for both OS.
To download the drivers, go to this page!
The improvements brought to the Control Center integrated to the 7.1 version for Vista are now available for XP. Load and response time are reduced and it requires less resources. The manufacturer has also improved the preview of several 3D options and, of course, corrected several issues for both OS.
To download the drivers, go to this page!
HD video quality for PC
Anandtech has tested the videos quality of NVIDIA and ATI's graphic cards with a beta version of PowerDVD HD 6.5 and the HD HQV benchmark of Silicon Optix (manufacturer of high end video chips). This program mainly assesses the quality of deinterlacing and noise reduction in HD video with 5 tests.
The least we can say is that results aren't brilliant since the two manufacturers scored 0 out of 105 with current drivers. It might sound extreme, but the arguments exposed in the article are credible and we don't see why a serious colleague would shoot GPU manufacturers in flames unless if there is a serious motive.
Results for 1080p videos are much better, but stand alone players provide higher quality deinterlacing and noise reduction than computers for 1080i.
The least we can say is that results aren't brilliant since the two manufacturers scored 0 out of 105 with current drivers. It might sound extreme, but the arguments exposed in the article are credible and we don't see why a serious colleague would shoot GPU manufacturers in flames unless if there is a serious motive.
Results for 1080p videos are much better, but stand alone players provide higher quality deinterlacing and noise reduction than computers for 1080i.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
2006: a very good year for NVIDIA
Nvidia has reported great financial results for fourth quarter ended January 28 and Fiscal Year 2007.
The last three months were really good with sales of $878.9 million almost up 39% compared to the same quarter last year. Even better, profits for the same period increased from $97.4 million to $163.5 million (+68%).
For the fiscal year, sales jumped 29% to $3.07 billion from $2.38 billion last year. Net profits reached $448.8 and increased 49% Year-Over-Year.
Nvidia explains these good performances by the improvement of gross margins but also and mostly by conjoint sales of laptop computers (+120% over a year!) and the leadership for this market (58% shares). Two other product lines have also contributed to this success, the nForce chipsets with 89% revenue improvement year-over-year and the Quadro (high profit professional graphic cards) with 24% sales improvements for the same period.
These figures confirm published by Jon Peddie Research regarding market shares in terms of units sold. With such results and the technological advances in DirectX 10 GPUs, Nvidia’s current position is very comfortable. On the longer term, however, the company will have to face the considerable economies of scale that ATI could beneficiate if the acquisition by AMD creates substantial R&D synergies.
The last three months were really good with sales of $878.9 million almost up 39% compared to the same quarter last year. Even better, profits for the same period increased from $97.4 million to $163.5 million (+68%).
For the fiscal year, sales jumped 29% to $3.07 billion from $2.38 billion last year. Net profits reached $448.8 and increased 49% Year-Over-Year.
Nvidia explains these good performances by the improvement of gross margins but also and mostly by conjoint sales of laptop computers (+120% over a year!) and the leadership for this market (58% shares). Two other product lines have also contributed to this success, the nForce chipsets with 89% revenue improvement year-over-year and the Quadro (high profit professional graphic cards) with 24% sales improvements for the same period.
These figures confirm published by Jon Peddie Research regarding market shares in terms of units sold. With such results and the technological advances in DirectX 10 GPUs, Nvidia’s current position is very comfortable. On the longer term, however, the company will have to face the considerable economies of scale that ATI could beneficiate if the acquisition by AMD creates substantial R&D synergies.
AMD to cut prices
As planned, AMD has cut prices for the second time in two months (the last time was January 22). Here is the table, slightly modified compared to our news published a few days ago.
As you may have noticed, our source was wrong for the price of the 3600+ which won't finally plunge under $100. For the other processors, our analyse is still up to date and we appreciate that AMD has finally realised, 6 months after the release of the Core 2, that their price policy for middle and high end dual core was far from being competitive. Better late than never!
As you may have noticed, our source was wrong for the price of the 3600+ which won't finally plunge under $100. For the other processors, our analyse is still up to date and we appreciate that AMD has finally realised, 6 months after the release of the Core 2, that their price policy for middle and high end dual core was far from being competitive. Better late than never!
Intel Core 2 Duo E4300
Do you think that the Core 2 Duo is too expensive? Aware of this fact, but not too eager to cut prices, Intel has decided to release less efficient models in 2007. The first one of this series is the Core 2 Duo E4300.
As you may have noticed, in addition to slightly lower frequencies than a E6300, the main difference is the utilisation of FSB800, or 200 MHz in practice. Knowing that the bus is capable of transferring 4 instructions of 64 bit per clock cycle, the bandwidth between the chipset and the processor is reduced to 6,4 GB/s, from 8,5 GB/s for other models.
In practice, the Core 2 Duo E4300 is also distinguished because of the exclusive use of a new core. If the Core 2 Duo uses the stepping level B2 and the Core 2 Quad, B3, this one uses L2.
What difference does it make? B2 and B3 include 4 MB of L2 cache and half of it is deactivated with the E6300 and E6400. With L2 stepping, introduced with the E4300 and with E6300 and soon the E6400, the cache is immediately 2 MB. Knowing that 4 MB of cache required 40% of the Core 2’s die, dividing it by two makes it possible to noticeably increase the number of die per wafer and production costs. Also, this stepping is supposed to noticeably diminish power consumption in stand by despite a similar voltage at 1.325V.
So in order to reach 3.2 GHz, required FSB will be 355 MHz instead of 457 MHz for the E6300. On paper, the E4300 is really excellent for overclocking, but now let's found out if it is really the case in practice. To do so, we have progressively increased the frequency and voltage of the processor with a P5B Deluxe. Each overclocking is validated by 15 minutes of two sessions of Prime95.
The voltage reported is the bios and in practice our P5B Deluxe is affected by a Vdrop of 0.05V approximately with a Core 2 Duo. It means that if we ask for 1.5V, the CPU in fact receives 1.45V in use.
With a starting frequency of 1.8 GHz, we have reached 3.06 GHz without changing the voltage. This represents 70% improvement! Then, we have increased the voltage progressively to reach 3,375 GHz (+87.5%), the increase required to reach 3.42 GHz was a bit more abrupt.
n short, this processor seems to be as comfortable for overclocking as the B2 and B3, even if we will have to wait for more test samples made on CPUs sold in shops to be absolutely certain of this information. Now let's find out if performances are equivalent!
For dual core, AMD's only choice is to cut prices. The 4000+s compete with the E4300, but it should rather be the 4800+! But what would AMD do with slower products and what will the manufacturer do when the E4300 price will be reduced to $113? Maybe just pray for the release of the K8L?
As you may have noticed, in addition to slightly lower frequencies than a E6300, the main difference is the utilisation of FSB800, or 200 MHz in practice. Knowing that the bus is capable of transferring 4 instructions of 64 bit per clock cycle, the bandwidth between the chipset and the processor is reduced to 6,4 GB/s, from 8,5 GB/s for other models.
In practice, the Core 2 Duo E4300 is also distinguished because of the exclusive use of a new core. If the Core 2 Duo uses the stepping level B2 and the Core 2 Quad, B3, this one uses L2.
What difference does it make? B2 and B3 include 4 MB of L2 cache and half of it is deactivated with the E6300 and E6400. With L2 stepping, introduced with the E4300 and with E6300 and soon the E6400, the cache is immediately 2 MB. Knowing that 4 MB of cache required 40% of the Core 2’s die, dividing it by two makes it possible to noticeably increase the number of die per wafer and production costs. Also, this stepping is supposed to noticeably diminish power consumption in stand by despite a similar voltage at 1.325V.
OverclockingBecause of the FSB800, the E4300 needs a higher multiplying coefficient than the E6400 and E6300 to reach 1.80 GHz. It’s nine and similar to the E6600. This characteristic is really interesting in terms of overclocking since it is possible to reach high frequencies without using a high FSB, which are sometimes problematic for chipsets. The 975X, for example, is blocked around 400 MHz. This can also be problematic for memory with a chipset that can't be run out of synch like the P965 Express.
So in order to reach 3.2 GHz, required FSB will be 355 MHz instead of 457 MHz for the E6300. On paper, the E4300 is really excellent for overclocking, but now let's found out if it is really the case in practice. To do so, we have progressively increased the frequency and voltage of the processor with a P5B Deluxe. Each overclocking is validated by 15 minutes of two sessions of Prime95.
The voltage reported is the bios and in practice our P5B Deluxe is affected by a Vdrop of 0.05V approximately with a Core 2 Duo. It means that if we ask for 1.5V, the CPU in fact receives 1.45V in use.
With a starting frequency of 1.8 GHz, we have reached 3.06 GHz without changing the voltage. This represents 70% improvement! Then, we have increased the voltage progressively to reach 3,375 GHz (+87.5%), the increase required to reach 3.42 GHz was a bit more abrupt.
n short, this processor seems to be as comfortable for overclocking as the B2 and B3, even if we will have to wait for more test samples made on CPUs sold in shops to be absolutely certain of this information. Now let's find out if performances are equivalent!
For dual core, AMD's only choice is to cut prices. The 4000+s compete with the E4300, but it should rather be the 4800+! But what would AMD do with slower products and what will the manufacturer do when the E4300 price will be reduced to $113? Maybe just pray for the release of the K8L?
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