The details of the highly anticipated next generation Asus EN8800GTX graphics card have appeared online revealing Nvidia's upcoming GeForce 8800 GTX chip spec for the G80. DirectX 10 Shader Model 4.0 support and Nvidia's Quantum Effects Technology are all supported. The card's 8800 GTX chip is clocked to 575MHz and the 768MB of GDDR 3 memory runs at 900MHz  - 1.8GHz effective - confirming previous speculation about the 8800 GTX cards. The memory connects across a 384-bit bus. The board has s-video output and a pair of dual-link DVI ports. There's no HDMI port, but the board is HDCP compliant, the report claims. As expected the 8800 GTX GPU is based on a unified shader archicture. It incorporates what Nvidia will apparently call its GigaThread technology, suggesting numerous pixel processing pipelines.

The Asus EN8800 GTX is a two-slot card that requires a pair of power feeds - two PCI-express connectors, according to information posted on Chinese-language website MyChat. SLI configurations are going to demand a power supply with a total of four pci express connectors and huge wattage requirements. We anticipate anybody going down the SLI router will need at least a 850w PSU and preferably a 1KW solution. The enermax 1KW Galaxy power supply looks a sensible solution for those with more money than sense!

The site suggests the 768MB board will retail for around $540, with a 640MB versio, the EN8800GTS coming in at $410 although information was quickly removed no doubt due to the NDA disclosure agreements in place.

There's no indication of availability, but Nvidia is expected to announce its G80 chip mid-November. We hope to be reviewing the Asus EN8800 GTX very soon, so stay tuned.

With dual-core CPUs, SLI, and CrossFire, it was only a matter of time before there was a physics solution from AGEIA that used multiple PhysX cards in the same system.  I mean, why would anyone buy one PhysX card when you could get two for twice the price?  Plus it's a great way to use up that last bit of empty space you have in your case.

The latest drivers from AGEIA look like they support the use of more than one PhysX card in your system.  The drivers will possibly use the cards by designating certain parts of a three-dimensional environment to a particular PPU, then putting the effects together to make one set of data to send to the graphics card.

ATI is now offering a new mid-range graphics card, the Radeon X1950 Pro.  While it's definitely not the X1950XTX, it claims to offer a 10-35% increase in performance when compared to its NVIDIA counterpart, the GeForce 7900GS (which is its counterpart in terms of pricing).

The X1950 Pro is the first graphics card to implement native CrossFire technology.  What this means is that you don't need a special "CrossFire Edition" card, as long as the motherboard works with a CrossFire configuration.  AMD is really playing catch-up with NVIDIA's SLI, but so far they've been doing a good job of keeping up.

Nvidia is getting ready to demonstrate their latest graphics wonder at the introduction of the "definitive gaming platform" on 8 November in California according to Toms Hardware. The new cards boast 128 pixel pipelines - a whopping 80 pipelines over the highest currently available. A massive performance increase is inspected over the Geforce 7950 series and current ATI flagship models thanks to this increase. Power requirements for the top of the range model, the 8800 GTX, in SLI mode are expected to require a minimum 800w PSU! Considering the 8800GTX has two PCI-Express power connectors, if you plan on running two of these babies you'll probably need to upgrade that PSU.

Of course the real show stopper is the Direct X10 support making it the first card on the market to be ready for Vista and the new API. So far no games are available that require Direct x10 but with plenty in production such as jaw dropping Crysis, it shouldn't be long before we see a new wave in gaming eye candy.

ATI are taking things easy and don't expect to have anything available until late in the first quarter of next year. Good tactics perhaps, as the rush to adopt direct x10 cards will be slow until the software is there.

Sapphire has announced two new ATI-based graphics cards designed with those who like high performance with low noise in mind.  Their new TOXIC X1950XTX and TOXIC X1950 CrossFire Edition cards greatly improve the cooling performance over ATI's stock cards by taking out the standard heatsink and fan and replacing them with a custom version of Thermaltake's Tidewater water-cooling solution.

NVIDIA's new video cards using the G80 core are coming soon.  The first two varieties will be available at launch and are called the GeForce 8800GTX and 8800GTS.  Interesting, it's like NVIDIA refuses to use the same lettering scheme for two different generations of cards.  Now we have a GTS instead of just a GT?  Anyway, both cards will be compatible with the DirectX 10 specification and feature Shader Model 4.0, which should definitely bring some improvements to the gaming experience.

Both cards are HDCP-compliant and can support DVI, VIVO, and HDTV outputs.  They are expected to launch in the second week of November.  Pricing doesn't seem to be available yet, but don't expect them to be cheap.

NVIDIA's first DirectX 10-compatible GPUs, codenamed G80, are expected to be launched in the middle of November.  Graphics card makers have said that GeForce 8800-based cards should show up around this time.  While these cards will be available soon, DirectX 10 will not immediately be available, as it's planned as a Vista-only feature.

The GeForce 8800 utilizes Shader Model 4.0, improving the rendering capabilities of the card.  ATI's competiting R600 GPU, which will also support DirectX 10, will most likely show up sometime next year.  Of course, until DirectX 10 is available, they aren't at much of a disadvantage.

ATI announced a new technology called Stream Computing.  This revolutionary new technology allows your graphics card (currently supporting X1900 GPUs) to accelerate time-consuming computing tasks at the enterprise level.  Applications ranging from security, weather forecasts, financial predictions, database searching, and more will all see performance increases with the use of an idle GPU.

One way this might affect you is physics calculations in video games.  Up until recently, no one cared about non-essential physics in a game engine, but now it's really in the spotlight as a way to increase the visual appeal of a game.  When things look like they could actually happen, you'd probably enjoy watching them (imagine a game where the tires of a car DIDN'T sink into the ground randomly).  We can hope that gaming physics and other similar applications appear soon, to take advantage of hardware we already have.

If you are looking for a real cheap graphics solution, Albratron have a neat 6600 solution. Okay the technology is a bit long in the tooth now but if you don't have the salary of a premier division footballer, this might just be your ticket.

The Albatron PC6600Q2 is not for everybody, but if you are looking for a budget card under $100 that will be compatible with newer games, the 6600 GPU is a great solution. If you are looking to play HL2 or games of the like at higher resolutions, you may want to consider a 6800 or higher solution. For all around work related activities, this card performs like a champ and with dual monitors, the PC6600Q2 makes it a pleasure.

Specifications include nVidia GeForce 6600 GPU at 350mhz Memory, 256mb DDR2 at 400mhz, Max Resolution 2048x1536 @ 85Hz Slot, PCI-Express Interface, VGA, DVI, Video Out (S-Video and Component).

What more could you ask for?

MSI has just released its NX7900GT-VT256E-HD which is HDCP compatible - this is the first HDCP-enabled PCI Express x16 videocard from that company. HDCP is a content protection specification to protect digital entertainment content across the DVI/HDMI interface. The HDCP provides a robust, cost-effective and transparent method for transmitting and receiving digital entertainment similar to DVI/HDMI-compliant digital displays. HDCP encrypts the data transmitted between the DVI/HDMI connector on the graphics adapter and the display. To provide this support, both the graphics adapter and the display need to have an HDCP transmitter and receiver respectively.

The MSI NX7900GT-VT2D256E-HD videocard is backed up by 256MB of high speed GDDR3 memory. The videocard supports a whole host of TV output options including S-Video, Composite, Component output (Y, Pb, Pr) and the NX7900GT-VT2D256E-HD is also HDMI compatible if a DVI-to-HDMI cable is used. The videocard supports video input as well, which truely makes the MSI NX7900GT-VT256E-HD one of the best multimedia cards around on paper.