It seems that Zotac is working on a dual-GPU version of the GeForce GTX 460.

Now history has proven that these photo’s accidentally leak out, create some hype and then you never hear from the actual product again (very cheap advertising). Still we’ll see … the card has two GeForce GTX 460 1 GB GPUs in SLI configuration, much like every other dual-GPU NVIDIA card.

The card uses an NVIDIA nForce 200 chip to transfer data between the two GPUs, a dual 3+1+1 phase VRM that draws power from two 8-pin PCI-E power connectors, and display connectivity is relayed to the rear-panel from both the GPUs, that’s four dual-link DVI, and one mini-HDMI.

This way you could also manage 3D Vision in Stereo, although admittedly with this setup, that solution would be massively underpowered. Here’s some photo’s, courtesy of the owner.

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This is a new driver release for the 260 family of drivers. This driver package supports GeForce 6, 7, 8, 9, 100, 200, 300, and 400-series desktop GPUs as well as ION desktop GPUs.

New in Release 260.89

Performance

* Increases performance for GeForce GTX 400 Series GPUs in several PC games vs. v258.96 WHQL drivers. The following are examples of some of the most significant improvements measured on Windows 7. Results will vary depending on your GPU and system configuration:

GeForce GTX 480:
+ Up to 10% in StarCraft II (2560×1600 4xAA/16xAF Ultra)
+ Up to 14% in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat (1920×1200 4xAA/16xAF)
+ Up to 16% in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat (SLI – 2560×1600 4xAA/16xAF)
+ Up to 6% in Aliens vs. Predator (SLI – 1920×1200 noAA – Tessellation on)

GeForce GTX 460:
+ Up to 19% in StarCraft II (SLI – 1920×1200 4xAA/16xAF Ultra)
+ Up to 15% in Battlefield Bad Company 2 (SLI – 2560×1600 4xAA/16xAF)
+ Up to 12% in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat (2560×1600 noAA)
+ Up to 9% in Aliens vs. Predator (1680×1050 4xAA/16xAF – Tessellation on)
+ Up to 7% in Metro 2033 (1680×1050 noAA – Tessellation on)
+ Up to 11% in Dirt 2 (SLI – 2560×1600 4xAA/16xAF)
+ Up to 12% in Crysis:Warhead (SLI – 1920×1200 4xAA/16xAF Gamer)
+ Up to 13% in Far Cry 2 (2560×1600 4xAA/16xAF)
+ Up to 12% in H.A.W.X (SLI – 1920×1200 4xAA/16xAF SSAO Very High)
+ Up to 5% in Just Cause 2 (1920×1200 4xAA/16xAF)
+ Up to 22% in Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena (1920×1200 noAA)
+ Up to 5% in 3DMark Vantage (Extreme Preset)

NVIDIA 3D Vision

* With Release 260 drivers, the installation process for 3D Vision has changed.
* Adds NVIDIA 3D Vision streaming support for Firefox 4 and Google Chrome web browsers.
* Adds support for Sony’s 3D Sweep Panorama picture format added to NVIDIA 3D Photo Viewer (Sony digital cameras that can capture 3D Sweep Panorama pictures include NEX-5/NEX-3, Alpha a560/a580 and Cyber-shot DSC-WX5/DSC-TX9/DSC-T99 models).
* Adds support for new 3D Vision Desktop LCD monitors: BenQ X2410 and NEC F23W2A
* Adds support for new 3D Vision projectors: Sanyo PDG-DWL2500 and ViewSonic PJD6251
* Added the following 3D Vision game profiles:

o Arcania: Gothic 4
o Fallout: New Vegas
o FIFA 11
o Formula 1 Racing
o Final Fantasy XIV Benchmark
o Guild Wars 2
o Kane & Lynch 2 – Dog Days
o Lead and Gold
o Lego Harry Potter
o Live For Speed
o Lost Planet 2
o Moonbase Alpha
o Serious Sam HD – The Second Encounter
o Shrek Forever After
o Singularity
o Vitua Tennis 2009
o Virtua Tennis 3

* Update the following 3D Vision game profiles

o Drakensang: The Dark Eye – updated in-game compatibility text
o Mafia II – updated profile to properly for 3D Vision-Rating
o StarCraft II – fixed profile to properly recognize the retail game executable name and match the 3D Vision rating of “Good”
o Super Commander – fixed HUD elements
o TRINE – new profiles fixes that allow the game to be rated “3D Vision-Ready” when used with the TRINE patch v1.08, available via Steam.

NVIDIA SLI

* Adds or enhances SLI profiles for the following PC games:

o City of Heroes: Going Rogue
o Alien Swarm
o Dead Rising 2
o Front Mission Evolved
o Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days
o LEGO: Harry Potter

Other Improvements

* Adds support for OpenGL 4.1 for GeForce 400 series GPUs.
* Upgrades PhysX System Software to version 9.10.0514.
* Improves compatibility for older PC games (DirectX 7 to DirectX 9) running on Windows 7 (examples: Gothic, Gothic II, Falcon 4.0: Allied Force, Links 2003, Independence War II – Edge of Chaos, and X2: Wolverine\\\’s Revenge).
* Adds drag and drop display arrangement support to the “Set up multiple displays” page.
* Includes numerous bug fixes. Refer to the release notes on the documentation tab for information about the key bug fixes in this release.
* Users without US English operating systems can select their language and download the International driver.

Additional Information

* Supports the new GPU-accelerated features in Adobe CS5.
* Supports GPU-acceleration for smoother online HD videos with Adobe Flash 10.1. Learn more here.
* Supports the new version of MotionDSP’s video enhancement software, vReveal, which adds support for HD output. NVIDIA customers can download a free version of vReveal that supports up to SD output here.
* Supports DirectCompute with Windows 7 and GeForce 8-series and later GPUs.
* Supports OpenCL 1.0 (Open Computing Language) for all GeForce 8-series and later GPUs.
* Supports OpenGL 3.3 for GeForce 8-series and later GPUs.
* Supports single GPU and NVIDIA SLI technology on DirectX 9, DirectX 10, DirectX 11, and OpenGL, including 3-way SLI, Quad SLI, and SLI support on SLI-certified Intel X58-based motherboards.
* Supports GPU overclocking and temperature monitoring by installing NVIDIA System Tools software.

Download

GeForce Forceware 260.89 Windows XP 32-bit
GeForce Forceware 260.89 Win 7 | Vista 32-bit
GeForce Forceware 260.89 Win 7 | Vista 64-bit

Jen-Hsun Huang stated over at the GPU Technology Conference that CUDA (the general-purpose computing language for NVIDIA GPUs) will be ported directly to x86 chips. The approach developed with the Portland Group will let systems without NVIDIA cards handle the code. It will work best with multi-core processors and is seen as ideal for servers.

A timetable isn’t yet available for when CUDA will be ready to make the switch or which platforms will have direct access to x86. Both Mac OS X and Windows have native CUDA support and may get the added support relatively soon.

The move is potentially a hedge against universal standards. Both Microsoft’s DirectCompute and the more universal OpenCL don’t require a graphics chipset to run. Concepts of general-purpose computing languages came about to help calculate physics and other advanced math in parallel rather than depend solely on a single stream of code.

If you don’t have a GPU cluster handy, you can run your CUDA code directly on the CPU for testing and debugging, and even deploy it to users who don’t have suitable GPU’s. Of course, you’ll need the GPU for optimum performance, but it makes CUDA not just an NVidia technology, but a technology that runs on any computer.

Mind you that it was confirmed that this will not be a free offering, but rather a commercial product marketed and sold by PGI.

Well, the idea is refreshing alright. A liquid-cooled gaming PC that also houses a liquid-cooled Xbox 360 console.

ORIGIN PC is proud to unveil The Big O, their latest creation designed for dominance and destined to make high performance computing enthusiasts and gamers to drool uncontrollably. The Big O fuses the capabilities of the fastest computing hardware on the market, ORIGIN’s expert overclocking, and a built in Xbox 360 to create the ultimate gaming weapon.

The Big O is featured in CPU Magazine’s annual Dream Machine review roundup, an epic competition between system builders. “If you want the ultimate PC, the Big O is it” said CPU Magazine. “By integrating an Xbox 360, the Big O offers everything and the kitchen sink.”

Absolute Power – With Intel’s Xeon X5680 processors there is nothing you can throw at The Big O that will slow it down. Each X5680 features six-cores, twelve threads, supports ECC memory-and that’s before we add a second CPU and overclock it to a lighting fast 4.3GHz. Add in up to 24GBs of Corsair GT 2000MHz memory and then dare any computer task to slow down your Big O.

Quad Damage – A strong core with excellent liquid cooling is the key to lasting performance and EVGA’s GeForce® GTX 480 FTW graphics cards delivers the best graphical power money can buy. This power is multiplied in a SLI multi-GPU configuration creating the most immersive visuals imaginable in gaming and beyond. The Big O provides the unmatched graphics performance that will shatter any benchmark thrown at it.

The X-Factor – To empower gamers with the most comprehensive gaming platform on the planet, ORIGIN integrates a liquid-cooled Xbox 360 slim directly into each Big O. Every Big O system is strategically modified so the Xbox ports are easily accessible with liquid cooled processors for extreme performance. You can even game on the Xbox 360 while your computer is busy dominating whatever other task it is assigned.

Liquid Cooled to Perfection – ORIGIN keeps your Big O cool with its state of the art liquid cooling system that maximizes performance from the CPU, motherboard, graphics card and even the integrated Xbox 360 slim. The ORIGIN custom liquid cooling system aggressively dissipates heat and eliminates fan noise ensuring your system remains cool and whisper quiet.

“The Big O will satisfy the demands of even the most power hungry gamer, but when you create the ultimate personal computer system it has to be designed to go above and beyond gaming” said Kevin Wasielewski, CEO and Co-Founder of ORIGIN. “From the hottest games on the market to digital video editing and 3D rendering you will have the power to perform at every level. To have the best you have to build using the latest in computer technology that guarantees unmatched performance and that is exactly what you get with the Big O.”

“Wow, we can honestly say we’ve never seen a system like the Big O before,” said Ujesh Desai, general manager of the GeForce GPU business at NVIDIA. “The components selected by ORIGIN, including up to quad GeForce GTX 480 GPUs will definitely have gamers salivating for the win.”

The Big O features a 1 year free shipping and free part replacement warranty backed with the best in class integration, quality testing and support. ORIGIN offers a free life-time phone and online service guarantee and each customer has a dedicated support team and free life-time labor for upgrade needs.

Pricing for The Big O starts from $7,669 and can be configured here.

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Cooler Master today launches the HAF 912. Cooler Master’s HAF 912 further enriches the HAF series by adding a compact, yet fully featured, mid-tower solution for enthusiasts and budget conscious gamers alike. Its seemingly small exterior supports a plethora of interior features such as twelve devices, high end GPU cards like the ATI Radeon HD 5970 and the NVIDIA GTX 480, large CPU coolers, two 200mm fans, and six 120mm fans.

The HAF 912 embodies the rugged aesthetic and qualities of its brethren while remaining attractively priced. Its traits more closely resemble that of a mid to high-end case than that of other cases in its price range. The HAF 912 pays tribute to the legacy of HAF 932 & HAF 922 in ease of installation, high airflow, and compatibility with water cooling hardware.

1 Supports two 120mm radiator fans.
2. Front I/O for easy access.
3. Top platform for personal belongings.
4. CPU Retaining hole.
5. Water Cooling outlets.
6. Backup screw holder.
7. 7+1 slots for increased expandability.
8. Two 3.5″ or 2.5″ / 1.8″ HDD/SSDs.
9. Supports high-end graphics cards like ATI HD 5970 and nVidia GeForce GTX.
10. Removable dust filters on the bottom and front cover.

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This is a WHQL-certified release from the Release 256 family of drivers (versions 256.xx to 259.xx). This driver package supports GeForce 6, 7, 8, 9, 100, 200, 300, and 400-series desktop GPUs as well as ION desktop GPUs.

New in Release 258.96

* Adds support for GeForce GTX 460.
* Adds support for NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround technology.
* Adds additional performance increases for GeForce GTX 400 Series GPUs in several PC games (these improvements are in addition to the previously reported Release 256 improvements). The following are examples of some of the most significant improvements measured with GeForce GTX 480. Results will vary depending on your GPU and system configuration:

• Up to 11% in Aliens vs. Predator (1920×1200 4xAA/16xAF – Tessellation on)
• Up to 7% in Crysis: Warhead (SLI – 1920×1200 4xAA/16xAF – Gamer)
• Up to 4% in H.A.W.X (SLI – 1920×1200 4xAA/16xAF – Very High)
• Up to 10% in Just Cause 2 (SLI – 1920×1200 4xAA/16xAF – Concrete Jungle)
• Up to 6% in Metro 2033 (1920×1200 4xAA/16xAF – Tessellation on)
• Up to 7% in Metro 2033 (SLI – 1920×1200 4xAA/16xAF – Tessellation on)
• Up to 10% in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat (1920×1200 4xAA/16xAF)
• Up to 12% in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat (SLI – 1920×1200 4xAA/16xAF)
• Up to 4% in World in Conflict (SLI – 1920×1200 4xAA/16xAF)

* Upgrades PhysX System Software to version 9.10.0224.
* Upgrades HD Audio driver version 1.0.15.0 (for supported GPUs).
* Includes numerous bug fixes. Refer to the release notes on the documentation tab for information about the key bug fixes in this release.

New in Release 256 Drivers

* Adds support for Blu-ray 3D with NVIDIA 3D Vision technology.
* Increases performance for GeForce GTX 400 Series GPUs in several PC games. The following are examples of some of the most significant improvements measured with GeForce GTX 480. Results will vary depending on your GPU and system configuration:

• Up to 14% in Aliens vs. Predator (1920×1200 noAA/AF – Tessellation on)
• Up to 4% in Batman: Arkham Asylum (1920×1200 4xAA/16xAF PhysX=High)
• Up to 5% in BattleForge (1920×1200 4xAA/16xAF – Very High settings)
• Up to 5% in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (1920×1200 4xAA/16xAF)
• Up to 4% in Crysis: Warhead (1920×1200 4xAA/16xAF – Enthusiast setting)
• Up to 24% in Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (1920×1200 no AA/AF)
• Up to 9% in Far Cry 2 (2560×1600 8xAA/16xAF)
• Up to 25% in Just Cause 2 (2560×1600 no AA/AF – Concrete Jungle)
• Up to 7% in Metro 2033 (1920×1200 no AA/16xAF – Tessellation on)
• Up to 40% in Metro 2033 with SLI ((1920×1200 4xAA/16xAF – Tessellation on)
• Up to 8% in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat (1920×1200 no AA/AF – Day)
• Up to 110% in Stone Giant with SLI (2650×1600 – Tessellation on, DoF on)
• Up to 6% in The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Athena (2560×1600 no AA/AF)
• Up to 9% in Unigine: Tropics (2560×1600 no AA/AF – OpenGL)
• Up to 5% in 3DMark Vantage (Performance and Extreme Presets)
• Up to 19% with Transparency AA (1920×1200 4xTrSS – measured in Crysis)

* Adds support for OpenGL 4.0 for GeForce GTX 400 Series GPUs.
* Adds support for CUDA Toolkit 3.1 which includes significant performance increases for double precision math operations.
* Adds support for new extreme Antialiasing modes for 3-way SLI PCs, including up to SLI48x AA for GeForce 200 series GPUs and up to SLI96x AA for GeForce GTX 400 series GPUs.
* Adds support for a new ‘Quality’ mode for NVIDIA’s Ambient Occlusion control panel feature.
* Adds a new NVIDIA Control Panel setup page for SLI and PhysX for ultimate control over multi-gpu configurations.
* Adds a new NVIDIA Control Panel feature for ultimate control over CUDA GPUs, allowing the user to effectively choose which GPU will power each CUDA application.

Download:

ForceWare 258.96 Win 7 | Vista (64-bit) WHQL
ForceWare 258.96 Win 7 | Vista (32-bit) WHQL
ForceWare 258.96 Windows XP WHQL (32-bit)

There’s a lot of activity among graphics chipset designers for sure lately. Nvidia sets GPU outsourcing to TSMC and UMC for 2Q09, says paper.

Nvidia recently set its outsourcing schedule with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) for the second quarter, according to a Chinese-language Commercial Times report.

In addition to expanding its 55nm GT200b GPU outsourcing, the company will also start mass production of the 40nm entry-level GT218, high-end mobile GT215 and mainstream GT214 and GT216 GPUs in mid to late second quarter, according to the paper.

We already reported that ATI is going to ship DirectX 11 capable graphic cards this year, but German magazine heise revealed today that according to some well-informed internal sources ATI is planning to ship their first cards supporting DirectX 11 as early as late July or early August.

Should this rumor be true, it would put Nvidia under quite some pressure, as they are planning to ship their first GPUs with DirectX 11 support not before October. More than just likely, ATI’s new chips are going to feature 40 nanometer manufacturing which will further reduce heat dissipation, while increasing performance at the same time.

Currently, it is still unclear though whether these new cards will be based on the RV870 chipset, but if so, this would put ATI in a very good position to steal the performance crown from Nvidia – at least until Nvidia’s GT300 series hit the market.

After all the new graphics cards unleashed lateley, this is like going back in time. ECS announced their GTE series of graphics cards, which come with an Artic cooler cooling solution and seem tro have a better TDPs (lower power consumption).

Press-release: ECS announces the latest N9800GTE-1GMU-F/ N9600GTE-1GMU-F graphics card delivering unprecedented gaming pleasure with unique “ECS Enduring Design” providing better durability for hardcore gamers who never turn off their gaming machines.

Leveraging the advancement of energy efficiency comes from the latest NVIDIA® GeForce® 9800 GT / 9600 GT graphics processing units (GPU), ECS N9800GTE-1GMU-F/ N9600GTE-1GMU-F provides great graphics performance with at most 40% less TDP than before. To meet the market demand, the N9800GTE-1GMU-F/ N9600GTE-1GMU-F graphics card is well equipped with specifically designed cooling solution comes from Arctic Cooling which brings ultimate gaming experience without annoying noise.

The N9800GTE-1GMU-F/ N9600GTE-1GMU-F comes with an Anti-bending Metal Bar which helps to prevent the heat issue resulting in PCB bending. It also comes with Anti-dust I/O Covers that keep video connectors and the SLI bridge from dust and static electricity damage. The newly designed bracket for EMI shielding is another amazing breakthrough and innovation in the market. To protect the GPU from any damages resulted from the heat issue, Arctic Cooling MX-2 high performance thermal compound which has much better thermal conductivity than other solutions in the market is adopted to provide better heat dissipation efficiency. With these details well considered, hardcore gamers won’t have to worry about the durability even they never turn off their gaming machines. Moreover, the noise from the fan specifically designed by Arctic Cooling is 19.6dB only which is even unnoticeable that brings gamers ultimate gaming pleasure.

Not one, but two new announcements were made public by Nvidia, today. One reveals a new line to its series of Quadro GPUs, which mainly targets professional users, like designers.

The new Quadro GPU card “line-up also brings the introduction of NVIDIA SLI Multi-OS, a ground-breaking technology that enables, for the first time, 3D workstation virtualization on the Quadro GPU. With SLI Multi-OS, applications and users are able to optimize productivity and costs through the use of multiple Quadro GPU technologies from a single workstation in a virtualized environment. Users can also enable native SLI technology support on key partner platforms to accelerate application performance, scaling and higher image quality.”

The Multi-OS is built into the FX 3800, FX 4800, and FX 5800 Quadro GPUs, which are part of the new series of Quadro GPUs:

* NVIDIA Quadro FX 5800 – the industry’s first and only 4GB, ultra high-end solution delivers the highest visualization performance and capabilities, enabling professionals to work with large-scale models and datasets.

* NVIDIA Quadro FX 4800 – ultra high-end solution provides professionals with the most complete toolset to dramatically push the boundaries of realism, performance, and quality.

* NVIDIA Quadro FX 3800 – single slot solution with a robust feature set and added capabilities such as SLI Multi-OS and SDI support to enable a no-compromise, high-performance, interactive visualization experience.

* NVIDIA Quadro FX 1800 – mid-range solution offers the best price performance for workstation graphics and provides the optimal blend of quality, precision, performance, and programmability.

* NVIDIA Quadro FX 580 – best-in-class entry-level solution boosts productivity for a variety of industry-leading volume CAD and digital content applications.

* NVIDIA Quadro FX 380 – an affordable professional-class graphics solution extends energy efficiency while delivering 50-percent faster performance.

* The Quadro NVS 295 – capable of supporting up to two 30-inch digital displays at maximum resolutions, taking business graphics to a new level visual perfection.