ATI's answer to the Nvidia's current flagship model, the 8800, seems to be ready. This GPU is being called the R600 and 22 January is the rumored release date. Although Nvidia were able to capture the Christmas market with the early release of their 8800 series cards, in the long run, the R600 might take the crown away from Nvidia!

The only details available apart from the release date and a US$650 price tag (retail), are the specifications which are listed below:

• 64 4-Way SIMD Unified Shaders, 128 Shader Operations/Cycle
• 32 TMUs, 16 ROPs
• 512 bit Memory Controller, full 32 bit per chip connection
• GDDR3 at 900 MHz clock speed (January)
• GDDR4 at 1.1 GHz clock speed (March, revised edition)
• Total bandwidth 115 GB/s on GDDR3
• Total bandwidth 140 GB/s on GDDR4
• Consumer memory support 1024 MB
• DX10 full compatibility with draft DX10.1 vendor-specific cap removal (unified programming)
• 32FP internal processing
• Hardware support for GPU clustering (any 2^n number, not limited to Dual or Quad-GPU)
• Hardware DVI-HDCP support (High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection)
• Hardware Quad-DVI output support (Limited to workstation editions)
• 230W

We can conclude from these specs that the R600 is clearly more powerful than the G80 platform. Stay with us, as we update with more info on this next-gen graphics solution, as soon as its available.

The thing that has always annoyed me about graphics cards is how incredibly small the cooling fan is, and how much noise it makes trying to cool a hot GPU.  Sure, there are silent cards out there, but most of them aren't very good, so it's always a compromise between the two.  Now PowerColor is teaming up with Arctic Cooling to release two new completely silent cards powered by ATI's Radeon X1950 Pro and X1950 XT graphics chips.

Both models feature four heatpipes that carry heat from the GPU up to a very large heatsink covering the card.  Small passive heatsinks also cool the memory chips, and the card seems to stay even cooler than the original with its stock ATI cooler.  If you're worried about the extra space the heatsink might take, the card fits into the space of two slots, so you only lose the slot below the PCI-Express slot on your motherboard.

The cards should be available soon, and pricing is expected to be slightly higher than their ATI counterparts.

As the new proud owner of a graphics card designer, AMD is ready to make some changes, starting with a few product names (which all of us were pretty confused with, anyway).  The three graphics cards based on ATI's RV370 core--the Radeon X300, X550, and X600--are all being merged into one single card, the Radeon X1050.  The new card will have the same features as the old ones, with both a core clock and a memory clock of 400MHz.

As for the old products, a BIOS upgrade of your graphics card will magically convert it into an X1050 card.  The new X1050 cards should be arriving soon.

Be warned: XFX has released the first-ever overclocked versions of the powerful new GeForce(r) 8800-series video cards into the general population, in very limited release. Based on the long-running success of XFX's ultra-high-performance XXX series cards, hard-core gaming enthusiasts who crave the finest in performance products will need to move fast to get one of these in-demand video cards. "We are extremely excited to be the first to release these overclocked sets," said Marnie Sutton, Senior Vice President XFX.

"We believe we are the industry leader in overclocking, and it is what XFX is known for. We are always motivated to create something that gamers will really respond to because that is who we strive to please."

The goods at stake: A choice of the top-of-the-line 8800 GTX XXX Edition, overclocked from the standard 575Mhz Core/1.8Mhz Memory Clock speed to a red-lined 630 Mhz Core/2.0 Ghz Memory clock and a super-high-performance 8800 GTS XXX Edition dialed up from a standard 500 Mhz Core/1.6 Memory clock speed to 550 Mhz Core/1.8 Ghz Memory clock speed. Both blistering fast chips, which feature custom bios to, further, optimize gaming performance.

Head over to the FIND A STORE page to find a store near you.

With the NDA from Nvidia lifted, Foxconn are first off the mark with their flagship models based on the G80 next generation graphics processor. The FV-N88XMAD2-OD and FV-N88SMBD2-OD PCI Express^® graphics cards powered by the latest NVIDIA^® GeForce^® 8800GTX and 8800GTS graphics processing unit (GPU) sport unique blue LEDs for the Extreme Gamer and a turbocharged GPU with DirectX® 10 and Shader Model 4.0, for realistic, high-quality graphics.

The flagship 8800 GTX FV-N88XMAD2-OD features:

• 128 independent stream processors with shader clocks reaching 1.35 GHz.
• 768MB GDDR3 memory that interfaces with the GPU on a 384-bit bus and operating core and memory clock timings of 575 MHz and 1.8 GHz respectively.
  

Closely trailing its big brother is the 8800 GTS FV-N88SMBD2-OD model:

• 96 stream processors pitched at 1.2 GHz.
• 640 MB GDDR3 memory in a 320-bit interface, and maximum 500 MHz core and 1.6 GHz memory clocks.

More details, specs and 8800 GTX and GTS eyecandy after the click.

Adam Foat, Nvidia product PR Manager for Northern Europe talked about the sudden recall of Nvidia's flagship 8800 GTX graphics cards in a recent press statement.

"Some GeForce 8800 GTX boards that were built through our contract manufacturer had a simple BOM error - wrong resistor value. GeForce 8800 GTS boards are not effected by this.

These GeForce 8800 GTX boards were shipped to our Add-In-Card partners.

We have been working with them to pull these back and change the resistor to the correct value.

We believe we will still be able to hit our hard launch this week (Nov 8th) with the new GeForce 8800 GTX boards.

This is a testament to our execution as well as the execution of our Add-In-Card partners."

Manufacturers believed to have faulty cards include evga, Asus and BFG. Other early shippers could also be hurrying to fix the faulty cards before the 8th November launch date. Those eager to purchase the next generation card are advised to wait until the dust settles.

ATI has announced the upcoming release of a new graphics card, the Radeon X1650XT.  Built on the RV560 GPU, the card will feature 24 pixel shaders and 8 pixel pipelines.  It's also the second card to feature internal CrossFire connectors, like those on SLI-compatible cards, and supports CrossFire on CrossFire motherboards, along with Intel 975X and P965 motherboards.

In terms of multimedia, the X1650XT will support AVIVO technology and is completely compatible with HDCP content.  It will also work with Windows Vista's Aero Glass interface.

The X1650XT is expected to hit the shelves next week.  It will be priced at around $150, which puts it in direct competition with NVIDIA's GeForce 7600GT.  It will only be available in a PCI-Express version, and ATI has no official intention of making an AGP version of the card.

Daily Tech jump the gun with the first review of the new Geforce lineup from Nvidia. Based on the G80 GPU and sporting 768MB of GDDR3 memory clocked at 900MHz, results show the Geforce 8800GTX blowing away the competition in all benchmarks. Using a Intel Core 2 Extreme processor and Nvidia nForce 650i motherboard, the Geforce 8800 GTX managed a respectable 11200 score in 3dMark 2006 - impressive when you consider the Ati X1950 XTX only managed 7020 in the same system. Results in most games show almost twice the performance over current graphics cards.

The card takes up two expansion slots and requires two PCI Express power connectors. Suprisingly, the card has two SLI bridge connectors to allow a three-card system. With two cards running in SLI requiring a minimum of 850w power supply, the feasability of three cards is questionable. However, the soon to be released 680i chipset and motherboard from Nvidia boasts three PCI-Express sockets and this could well be used for the worlds first triple powered system. Insane? We think so.

Daily Tech recommend a 450-watt power supply but if you are planning on SLI or want to future proof your system to some degree, we recommend a minimum of 600w if you plan to go down the 8800 route.