AMD recently released the R9 285 with the 28nm Tonga Pro GPU, destined to serve as its mid-range enthusiast offering.
Anatomy of a Deal: What Went Wrong Between Apple and GT Advanced Technologies
The sapphire screen of the iPhone 6 was a no-show because its supplier couldn’t deliver at the eleventh hour. But was the deal Apple had with GT Advanced Technologies set up to see the company fail?
GT Advanced Technologies Bankruptcy Crashes Stock 90%
GT Advanced Technologies shares dipped 90% after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection due to a multitude of unknown factors, which may include the loss or non-existence of an Apple sapphire display contract.
UPDATED: Nvidia’s “deadly” flaw and how to fix it – no more squealing!
It is no secret that I am huge fan of Folding@Home project, or that I love to play computer games (when I find time :-(. Both of these activities put high amounts of strain on components inside the computer, and any weakness in product design can be easily discovered. This tale speaks of a company that makes great chips, but also has a serious design flaw: PCB design. As long as story about “Built by Nvidia” components was told, there were isolated cases of “squealing”. This squealing is caused by vibration of copper coils, and is not present on products designed by people that take
Sapphire’s 4850X2 shows some promise…
Time for custom-designed X2 boards has come. Sapphire Technologies is getting close to release of its own 4850X2, featuring no less than four DVI ports for connection to four possible displays. My colleagues from VR-Zone got a hand on a review sample and published first scores. The board scored a index of P12741 and X5728 in 3DMark Vantage, but bear in mind that the test system was Intel Core i7, so naturally the scores are a bit higher than current Core 2 setups. All in all, another interesting product arrives. But unlike Sapphire Atlantis 2600X2, which featured quite similar layout, this time AMD/ATI is standing
Nvidia’s $50 card destroys ATI’s $500 one or “Why ATI sucks in Folding?”
As you might already know, I am a bit enthusiastic when it comes to distributed computing. I’ve been looking for aliens through SETI@home, later with BOINC… but then, Folding@Home showed up and I became an enthusiast for this valuable project from Stanford University. My family had some share of dealings with Alzheimer’s (aka AD) and Parkinson’s diseases (aka PD) and I won’t go here into what psychological and ultimately financial stress that families around the world, including my own – have to endure. Folding@Home is also a project that pioneered the use of GPUs for distributed computing (if I am wrong on this one, feel
AMD and Celsia sign agreement for next-gen GPU cooling
I’ve just read a piece on X-Bit Labs about agreement between AMD GPG and Celsia Technologies. The two companies are developing new generation of coolers for future ATI Radeon graphics cards. After Sapphire successfully used vapor chamber cooling on their Atomic 3870 card (with a certain glitch, described here), ATI took a limited risk and introduced vapor chamber on Radeon 4870X2. As you can see on picture above, GPU0 on 4870X2 is cooled by vapor-chamber cooler, while GPU1 is cooled by the same copper cooler present on 3870X2. Now, Celsia Technologies is developing new coolers that will send conventional heat-pipe technology into oblivion. On paper,
AMD releasing professional cards to partners – Sapphire first
Ever since AMD/ATI took over FireGL, the company was the only manufacturer of professional graphics cards. FireGL, FireStream, and now FirePro – they were all coming out with ATI logo on the box. But not anymore – AMD is going the Nvidia route and starting to introduce partners who will manufacture and sell the cards in a higher-standard program than is the case with consumer cards. As logic dictates, Sapphire Technologies was the first company to release a non-AMD manufactured professional card – FireStream 9250. We expect that more companies follow suit – I remember that Diamond introduced their FireGL cards in the Radeon 2900
Single slot cooling is a dream…or a nightmare?
In the world of graphics cards, one of most debated arguments is just how the fat cooler is. In almost every debate I saw, single-slot was touted as “the” cooling to go for. In arguments between X800 and 6800, X1800/1900 vs. 7800/7900, 3870 vs. 8800GT – every time I saw discussions about how great the single-slot cooling is, how that means that the chip is cooler etc. However, there is also a question of maintenance. Single slot boards are more prone to accidental deaths (overheating “accidents”), thus those boards have to be kept clean, or spew or RMAs is ahead (GeForce 7800GTX, 8800GT). Fast forward
