ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 Launched

As expected AMD today released the dual-GPU Radeon HD 3870 X2 graphics card. This card features two 55nm Radeon HD 3870 GPUs on a single board and is available in retail stores for $449.

The ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 is the first enthusiast graphics processors to use TSMC’s 55nm process technology. The smooth transition to 55nm has allowed for a 2X increase in performance-per-watt over the previous generation. Through an elegant board design, the ATI Radeon 3870 X2 delivers exceptional acoustics that are roughly equivalent to a single ATI Radeon HD 3870. When combined with ATI PowerPlay technology, the ATI Radeon 3870 X2 delivers exceptional idle power efficiency with the ability to dynamically raise or lower GPU power depending on the usage scenario.

AMD also said that CrossFire X drivers have been delayed to late Q1 2008.

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AMD Launches New Series Chipsets For China

While the whole world has gotten the Radeon HD 3400 and 3600 series card, AMD's latest releases, the first chipsets with integrated graphics of the series 7 line-up have only been unveiled in China. The move comes so as to get the new boards powered by the chips on the massive Chinese market and leave everyone else waiting until AMD has Hybrid CrossFire all figured out and ready to work with its new cards.

The launch 'party' introduced three chipsets - the AMD 740G, 780V and 780G, all supporting AM2 and AM2+ processors but boasting quite some different features. The lowest end part, the 740G with the Radeon 2100 IGP will only support DirectX 9 and HyperTransport 1.0 while its bigger brother, will both have DX10 capabilities, HT 3.0 and even PCI-Express 2.0.

The 780V will lack the UVD or Hybrid CrossFire, both being features that only the 780G will be able to brag with. The new chipsets are expected to make their world wide debut before the end of the quarter.

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Barcelona Fixed, 45 nm To Ramp In H2

TG Daily reports AMD quad-core have been fixed and also that AMD's 45nm CPU to roll out in the second half of this year.

AMD chief executive officer Hector Ruiz today told analysts that the company has fixed a bug that severely impacted the launch of the company’s Opteron and Phenom quad-core processors. According to Ruiz, the bug has been fixed and the fixed B3 stepping CPU “has left the fab”.

Production volume of Barcelona and Phenom quad-core will be about double of the “nearly 400,000 units” that were manufactured during Q4, CFO Bob Rivet noted. On the server side, AMD will focus to get “mid-band power, high volume” quad-core Opterons into the market with higher speeds, 2.5 GHz and above, being scheduled for a Q2 introduction. As previously reported, the higher speed Phenoms will also have to wait: AMD will roll out triple-core Phenoms and 65-watt (low power) quad-core CPUs during Q1. “Higher speeds will follow in Q2”, Meyer stated.

There also was some positive news on the company’s 45 nm progress. Ruiz said that AMD that 45 nm Opterons have been produced and he is “pleased” with the initial result. However, he said that the company is targeting a H2 ramp of the 45 nm generation, which indicates that AMD will miss the originally promised mid-2008 launch of the processors. This statement also contradicts Meyer’s statement from the Q3 2007 earnings call that AMD would begin ramping 45 nm CPUs in H1 2008.

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AMD RS780 Chipset Delayed Due to Driver Problem

According to Digitimes we have to wait some time more for the AMD RS780 chipset.Although AMD has already completed the hardware for its next generation IGP chipset, RS780, the company is still waiting on drivers to support its new Hybrid CrossFireX technology. As a result the company has decided to launch the motherboard only in China on January 23, while the launch date in other countries will be set after the driver is complete, according to sources at motherboard makers.

Since Hybrid CorssFireX technology is a major feature of the RS780 chipset, AMD hopes to give the technology the best introduction to the market it can. However, any significant delay in shipments could end up hurting AMD's profits and momentum. Therefore, the company has decided to adopt a strategy of selling the motherboards in certain regions first.

Final Hybrid CrossFireX drivers are expected to be distributed to AMD's partners by the middle of February, with the worldwide launch of the RS780 to take place before the end of February, if all goes well, noted the sources.

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ATI Catalyst 8.1 Leaked

That time of the month is again closing in and AMD is preparing a brand new Catalyst driver for its Radeon graphics card series. But, at least Vista users, don't have to wait much as a beta version of the new Catalyst 8.1 has found its way online.

Featuring the 8.452 display driver, the Catalyst 8.1 for both the 32 and 64bit version of Windows Vista comes with support for almost everything released since the days of the Radeon 9550 plus a few cards and IGPs that haven't been released - the Radeon HD 3200, 3450, 3470, 3650 and the dual-RV670 Radeon HD 3870 X2.

To give the new Catalyst 8.1 a try simply download it from here.

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AMD Working On New Phenom

Fudzilla reports that AMD is working on a 1.8GHz clocked quad-core 65-watt energy efficient Phenom and we can expect it shortly.

Said to be called the 9100E, the new energy efficient Phenom will feature both 2MB of L2 cache, 2MB of L3 cache and it will be based on the B-2 stepping, according to our sources. The 9100E is expected to be available late in the first quarter of 2008.

Requests from AMD to comment on the upcoming existence of the 65-watt Energy Efficient Phenom were met with a firm, “No comment” from AMD's PR.

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Expect More Surprises From Intel On 45nm Based CPU

By the end of this quarter Intel should have over 30 processors built on the 45nm process released but the Silverthorne-maker is not stopping there. More 45nm goodies are now rumored to be arriving as soon as Q2 with the plan being to offer cheaper 45nm parts to better compete against AMD which already has the bulk of its offer priced at $200 and below.

The new arrivals will be named Core 2 Duo E7000 series and will only be Wolfdales with lower specs compared to the soon to be introduced E8000s. The E7000 CPUs will feature a 1066 MHz FSB (front side bus) and 'only' 3 MB of L2 cache but the rest of them will be identical to the new Wolfdales. The CPU series will debut with the release of the E7200, a dual-core processor with a TDP of 65W, clocked at 2.53 GHz and priced at $133. More E7000s are expected in Q3 and Q4 but the details are blurry at best. But it's enough to worry AMD and its forthcoming K10 dual and even tri-core CPUs.

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CES 2008:NVIDIA Talks About MCP 8200 IGP

Nvidia mentioned these two chipsets in its financial call a while ago and the time has come to reveil them to the world.

The AMD 790a is an AMD chipset with integrated graphics and the Nforce 200 chip that gives the motherboard additional SLI lanes. It will support Hybrid SLI and Nvidia wants to make some noise about it and the specs looks very similar to the Nforce 780i.

The MCP 8200 IGP is Nvidia first DirectX 10 IGP chipset that supports DVI, HDMI or VGA and it's a single chip chipset. At the same time it fits microATX and we will let you know more about it soon.

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Averatec 2500 : A 12.1-inch Notebook

Engadget displays the Averatec 2500 which is just 12.1 inch notebook.


Unless you've got a thing for interestingly designed lids, Averatec's latest portable isn't likely to impress. Sure, it's sporting a modest 2GHz AMD Turion 64 processor, 160GB hard drive, a dual-layer DVD burner, 2GB of RAM, ATI's Radeon X1270 graphics set, a 1.3-megapixel webcam and Windows Vista, but chances are you've already dozed off after reading that, haven't you?

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AMD May Lead NVIDIA In The Next IGP Battle

AMD's RS780 and Nvidia's MCP 78 IGP chipsets are scheduled to go head-to-head in the first quarter of 2008, however, performance of the MCP 78S is reportedly below that of the RS780, while the higher-end MCP 78U is causing issues due to its higher thermal dissipation giving AMD the advantage over the chipset battle, according to sources at motherboard makers.

The RS780 is reported to have 15-20% better performance than the MCP 78S in 3DMark 05 and 06 tests, while the higher-end MCP 78U cannot function normally with the original passive northbridge heatpipe due to the higher core frequencies of the graphics engine. Adopting a larger heatpipe or fan will cause costs to rise significantly, pointed out the sources. Nvidia is still struggling with the problem, they added.

Additionally, motherboard makers have not yet taken delivery of MCP 78 chipset supplies, which means that the original launch schedule of motherboards might have to be postponed back to the end of January or beginning of February, noted the sources.

On the other hand, motherboard makers have already finished preparations for their RS780 motherboard launches and will be ready to ship in January 23 next year.

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Nvidia MCP72 Chipset Delayed Till Jan'08

Nvidia originally planned to roll out the new MCP72 chipset in late November or early December but will now postpone shipping to January, along with the planned launch of its MCP78, according to sources at Taiwan motherboard makers.

The sources detailed that Nvidia will introduce the new nForce 700a chipset family for AMD platforms, which includes MCP72XE, MCP72P and MCP78H in January, in attempts to compete with AMD's rival RD790 chipset.

Around the same time as the launch of the MCP72 family, Nvidia will also introduce the new MCP78S which includes a GeForce 8 series-based IGP, the sources added.

Following these launches, Nvidia is expected to introduce two new MCP78 chipsets, the MCP78D and MCP78U (GeForce 9200), in February. The MCP78D will not support hybrid SLI technology and will target the entry-level market with a price tag of about US$55. The chipset is similar to the MCP78S but adds an IGP. The MCP78U is an IGP enabled version of the MCP78H and carries an expected price tag of US$78, the sources detailed.

Nvidia declined the opportunity to respond to this report saying it cannot comment on unannounced products.

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AMD Athlon 64 X2 Processors Will Be Phased Out By 1Q'08

AMD has recently outlined the phase-out schedule for several of its Athlon 64 X2 CPUs, while the Athlon brand name will be re-purposed for upcoming dual-core CPUs based on the K10 core, according to sources at motherboard makers.

AMD will stop taking orders for Athlon 64 X2 6400+ black edition and 89W version Athlon 64 X2 6000+ processors in the first quarter of 2008. Last orders for 125W Athlon 64 X2 6000+ and Athlon 64 X2 5600+ processors will be at the end of the first quarter, the sources detailed.

AMD will also stop taking orders for Athlon 64 X2 4200+ and 4000+ processors by the end of this year and will launch a 65W Athlon 64 X2 4600+ clocked at 2.3GHz and with 1MB L2 cache in second quarter of 2008.

AMD will launch a new series of dual-core products based on its next-generation architecture, Athlon 6000, in the later half of second quarter next year. First to launch will be the Athlon 6250 and 6050, the sources revealed. Although the core frequencies of the two CPUs have not been set yet, they will adopt 1MB L2 cache and 2MB shared L3 cache, the sources added.

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Phenom Compatibility Issues

Tomshardware took a look at Phenom compatibility and tried to test it on ten AM2 motherboards which were supposed to support it.

The results were disappointing. AMD's new quad core only worked with two Asus boards, while the remaining Biostar, Foxconn, Epox, MSI and Gigabyte boards weren't in a mood to cooperate.

Tomshardware concludes that as an upgrade option the Phenom is not yet mature, as the vast majority of motherboard manufacturers haven't done much to make it run on "old" AM2 motherboards. Although upgrading your Athlon 64 X2 system with a 165 euro quad core CPU seems like a tempting prospect it might be wise to wait for the new B3 stepping and motherboard updates.

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AMD Triple-core Phenom CPUs In March 2008

AMD has recently adjusted its triple-core CPU model numbers and launch dates, according to sources at motherboard makers.

AMD will launch two B2 stepping triple-core CPUs, Phenom 8600 and 8400 in March of next year, while in the second quarter, the company will launch three more models, Phenom 8700, 8650 and 8450.

The Phenom 8400 and 8600 will feature core frequencies of 2.1GHz and 2.3GHz, respectively, while the Phenom 8700 will clock at 2.4GHz. Phenom 8650 and 8450 will be based on B3 stepping cores, and will have frequencies of 2.3GHz and 2.1GHz, respectively. All five CPUs will have a 95W TDP.

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First Benchmark Of HD 3650 aka RV635

Expreview published the benchmark of the next era mainstream GPU by AMD i.e RV635 or HD 3650.

RV635, the next era mainstream GPU by AMD, have been spotted benched using 3DMark05. Here is the score, 11001.

But source said he was using AMD OverDrive overclock the VGA card to 750/1650. So the score can not show what’s the chip’s real power.

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AMD Phenom CPUs To Be Further Delayed

AMD has recently notified its partners that the launch of higher-end quad-core Phenom processors, including the 9700 and 9900, will be postponed to the second quarter of 2008 from the original schedule of early 2008, according to sources at motherboard makers.

However, whether AMD's triple-core Toliman series CPUs will also see delay will be the key decision for the company, since Toliman offers a high price/performance ratio compared with Intel's quad-core CPUs. A delay for Toliman will hurt AMD the most, noted the sources.

The sources commented that the reason for the delay of 9700 and 9900 is because AMD has not yet been able to solve the translation lookaside buffer (TLB) erratum found in the chips. However, they added in saying that, in the long-term, AMD's decision is correct since pushing products that are not ready will only hurt the company more.

AMD declined to comment on this report. The company pointed out that it has not made any official announcement regarding a delay of the mentioned CPUs.

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AMD Radeon HD 3870 X2 Graphics Card Details

Donanim Haber published some pictures and specifications about AMD's upcoming Radeon HD 3870 X2 dual-GPU graphics card.

This card features over 1 TeraFLOPs of GPU compute power and also features 640(320 x 2)stream processing units.Both GPUs will use a 256-bit memory interface.

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AMD Releases Phenom 9600 Black Edition

AMD unveiled the Phenom 9600 Black Edition CPU, this chip is clocked at 2.3GHz and features an unlocked multiplier. It's priced at $283 - the same price as the regular Phenom 9600.

AMD has released a new AMD Phenom 9600 Black Edition quad-core processor with Clock Multiplier Control and tunable performance. The newest Black Edition processor enables customizable platform performance with AMD OverDrive software - the industry's most comprehensive Windows-based performance tuning utility. Priced the same as the recently launched AMD Phenom 9600 quad-core processor, the new Black Edition quad-core processor provides increased value and expanded customization options to end-users.

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AMD Slashes Phenom Prices

AMD is cutting Phenom prices in an effort to make it more competitive against Intel's quad core CPUs. The cheapest Phenom 9500 clocked at 2.2GHz now sells for €181, down 10 percent from last week's €199 euro. Thanks to the price cut, the new Phenom is now the cheapest quad core on the market, as Intel's Q6600 retails at around €200.

The 9600 price is unchanged, it's still selling for just over €220 and we're expecting a price cut sometime this week. The 9600 Black Edition is coming too, and we'll probably know the exact prices for both 9600 CPUs later today.

This might be the start of limited price war, although you shouldn't expect anything spectacular. Quad core CPUs dropping under €200 is good news for all consumers.

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AMD Confirms Shanghai Quad And Montreal Octal Core

Fudzilla claims that AMD have a new series of Quad Core and also Octal Cores in their line up.

Back in April fudzilla mentioned that Shanghai and Montreal are the K10 successor codenames. Yesterday at analyst day in New York, Mario Rivas has confirmed the existence of these two.

Shanghai is the next quad core that comes to save Barcelona's K10 bottom. This is an improved K10 design that AMD insiders also call K10.5, and this new chipset will have 512KB L2 cache per core. It is a native quad core design, but it will have 6MB L3 cache. Barcelona / Agena K10 has only 2MB.

The new 45nm chipset will use RDDR2 memory, 3x Hypertransport 1, will have IPC enhancements and support for AMD-V. According to AMD's current plan, it expects to ship these chips in 2H 2008.

Montreal is the next generation chip and it will come with octal or quad core design. It will have 1MB L2 memory per core, 6 to 12MB L3. It supports DDR3 memory, 4X Hypertransport 3 and AMD-V. As far as we know, Octal core design will be based on two quad cores stitched together.

AMD plans to have this in the first half of 2008; again, later than Intel, as by this time Intel should have Nehalem quad and even octal cores out.

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