ZOTAC and Gigabyte GeForce GTX 950 Custom Models Leaked – 768 CUDA Cores Confirmed

NVIDIA is soon going to unveil their GeForce GTX 950 graphics card for the sub-$200 market and we are already looking at couple of custom models that have leaked out, courtesy of Videocardz. The Maxwell based graphics card will launch on 20th August and will be aiming at budget gamers who want entry-level gaming setups that can run titles on 1080P panels with a decent amount of visual quality.

ZOTAC and Gigabyte GeForce GTX 950 Graphics Cards Unveiled

With AMD launching more and more GCN based graphics cards in the sub-$200 market, NVIDIA had to come up with a solution of their own. Currently, there are two cards which NVIDIA has to worry about which include the Pitcairn based Radeon R7 370 and Radeon R9 370X (Launching Soon). The Radeon R7 370 has a $149 US price while the Radeon R9 370X will have an expected price of $179 US.

With reference and custom GeForce GTX 950 models, NVIDIA might just be able to tackle the aging Pitcairn based cards at once in terms of performance, efficiency and features optimized for new gaming APIs. Speaking about the technical specifications, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 is going to feature the GM206 GPU (GM206-250-A1) that features six SMM units that house 768 CUDA Cores, 48 texture mapping units and will retain the 32 ROPs. Based on the Maxwell GPU architecture that is a superb clocker, the GPU will presumably come with clocks of 1089 MHz base and up to 1266 MHz boost clock speeds. On the memory side, the card will feature 2 GB of GDDR5 VRAM that operates along a 128-bit bus, running at 6.6 GHz and a maximum bandwidth output of 106.7 GB/s. The card is going to feature a 90W TDP which will be 10W lower than AMD’s entry level card (R7 360) but overall, the GTX 950 will be the faster out of the two. Based on the same GM206, the GeForce GTX 950 will showcase a 30W drop in TDP numbers compared to the 120W, GeForce GTX 960. Display ports on the card will include Dual-Link DVI-D/DVI-I, HDMI 2.0 and a Display Port 1.2 connector on the reference variants.

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 950 WindForce 2X and 1X Fan Cards:

Gigabyte is preparing two compact models of the GeForce GTX 950. Their top model feature their own WindForce 2X cooler with dual 90mm fans. The other model features a similar compact PCB but comes with just one 90mm fan. Both cards incorporate a single 6-Pin connector to power the graphics card and total display outputs include Dual-DVI, HDMI and a single Display Port.

ZOTAC GeForce GTX 950 AMP! and OC Graphics Cards:

Three models from ZOTAC were also leaked by Videocardz which show the reference model that has a single cooling fan and clocked at reference speeds. The ZOTAC GeForce GTX 950 OC that is a factory tuned version has speeds of 1102 MHz base and 1279 MHz boost while the memory is clocked at reference 6 GHz. Finally we have the GeForce GTX 950 AMP! which is the fastest model that ZOTAC will be offering with speeds of 1203 MHz base, 1403 MHz boost and memory overclocked to 7 GHz. These are insane GPU clocks and memory overclock will obviously deliver extra boost in performance. The card comes with dual fan AMP! cooling and is powered by a single 6-Pin connector. Surprisingly, the card this compact also will come with a backplate which sounds nice.

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 will be one of the last graphics cards based on the Maxwell GPU architecture along with a possible Dual-Chip card that launches close to the Fury X2. After that, NVIDIA is going to make a full transition to HBM2 powered Pascal cards with over 1 TB/s bandwidth and up to 32 GB of VRAM which will make these cards ideal for next generation high-res and VR gaming.

NVIDIA GeForce 900 Series Graphics Cards:

Graphics Card	GPU Core	Core/TMU/ROP Configuration	Core / Boost Clock	TDP / Power Connectors	VRAM / Memory Bus	Memory Bandwidth	Price

NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan X	GM200	3072/192/96	1000/1089 MHz	250W (8+6 Pin)	12 GB / 384-bit	336.6 GB/s	$999
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti	GM200	2816/176/96	1000/1076 MHz	250W (8+6 Pin)	6 GB / 384-bit	336.6 GB/s	$649
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980	GM204	2048/128/64	1127/1216 MHz	165W (6+6 Pin)	4 GB / 256-bit	224.0 GB/s	$499
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970	GM204	1664/104/64	1051/1178 MHz	149W (6+6 Pin)	4 GB / 256-bit	224.0 GB/s	$329
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960	GM206	1024/64/32	1127/1178 MHz	120W (6+6 Pin)	2 GB / 128-bit	112.2 GB/s	$199
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950	GM206	768/48/32	1089 / 1266 MHz	90W (6-Pin)	2 GB / 128-bit	106.7 GB/s	$129-$149

Need for Speed Gets another 20 Minutes of Hands-on Gameplay, Leaving Great Impressions

Team VVV has made available an awesome new video showcasing their first hands-on with Need for Speed and report that it appears to be coming along nicely. They do mention that this is still an early version and they look forward to more gameplay sessions closer to release.

Need for Speed features five real world automotive icons to guide you in your journey to becoming become the ultimate icon

Five real world automotive icons who live and breathe the lifestyle, will inspire you to play through each of the Five Ways to Play in this thrilling reboot of Need for Speed. Ventura Bay is home to these five icons and by building your reputation and earning their respect you’re one step closer to becoming the ultimate icon.

Need for Speed introduces Five Ways to Play set in a world twice the size of Rivals

Speed, Style, Build, Crew, and Outlaw. Combine all five to create that perfect Need for Speed moment; driving insanely fast, sliding through a corner in your customized ride alongside your friends, whilst being chased by the cops. The roads are there for the taking and every inch of Ventura Bay is yours to own in this urban playground where the streets only come to life at night.

The latest Need for Speed features a world twice the size of Need for Speed Rivals, in which players will discover an open world environment that is full of life. Packed downtown streets, and sweeping valley roads where high-speed and long drifts are the norm.

Need for Speed will be released on November 3rd for Xbox One, PS4 and PC. We will bring you any new information on Need for Speed as soon as it becomes available.

How To – Stream Xbox One Games to Windows 10 Equipped PC’s

Windows 10 has been released for some time now, and it actually has provided quite the improvement over Windows 8.1 in terms of its user interface, user friendliness and general stability. It also brings with an improved repertoire of gaming capabilities. Not only does it have DirectX 12, but for those with an Xbox One, you can now stream any game to any Windows 10 equipped PC.

Streaming from the Xbox One to the PC has never been easier.

So why would you want to do such a thing? Quite frankly it could be useful for those times when only a single television is already in use by others in the household. What if you’re sick, and you have your Windows 10 equipped laptop next to you, but the Xbox One is in another room, and you certainly don’t want to get up, lest you make a terrible mess.

Perhaps it doesn’t look like a feature you’d ever use, but it’s strangely fun to do, and not at all a completely useless feature. It’s not a terribly difficult process to go through, either. The video above will walk you through it, though the few simple steps are listed below as well.

Xbox One Game Streaming Steps

1. Turn on Xbox One
   1. Navigate to settings
   2. Go to ‘preferences’
      1. Turn on ‘Allow game streaming to other devices (beta)’
2. Start the game you want to stream
3. On your Windows 10 PC; Find the Xbox One Smart Glass App
   1. Plug in your Xbox One controller to the PC
4. Sign-In to the same Microsoft Account for your Xbox One
   1. Select ‘Connect’ on the left hand pane, second from the bottom
   2. Select your Xbox you’d like to connect to
5. Hit the ‘Stream’ button

And that’s that! It’s as easy as pie. Just be advised that the quality will differ depending on your network connection and that it probably won’t necessarily play at the native Xbox One resolution. That and you can only stream games, no other content because Microsoft isn’t allowed to do so. So no streaming Netflix or other protected content to your PC.

Some of the Best Examples of VR on PC That You Can Play Right Now, Virtual Reality Done Right

Virtual reality might not necessarily be fully realized as of yet, but it’s certainly a technology that’s here to stay. You might think it just a gimmick, but once you’ve had a chance to try it, you might think otherwise.

To help you decide whether VR really is the wave of the future or just another ploy to trick consumers into spending copious amounts of money, we’ve put together a compilation of what might be the best examples of a proper virtual reality experience that you can try out right now. Should you have access to a VR HMD, then you can see just how immersive the experience really can be.

The best examples of VR done right just might convince you of its utility.

Some of these examples make use of the VorpX 3rd party VR driver that lets you play games that otherwise don’t have native VR support. It actually works very well and is quite the stable solution. The unfortunate thing is that it’s a paid solution, but you do indeed get what you pay for. A lot of titles have been adapted, and many more are on the way. It’s a surprisingly good solution to retroactively play older games in VR.

AMD’s SFF Project Quantum Might Never Hit the Mainstream Market – Will Probably Be A Limited Edition Product with Finite Supply

AMD’s Project Quantum is a one of a kind small form factor pre-built PC with over 17 TFlops of computational power. Rocking a flagship Intel Core i7 and the R9 Fury X2 graphics (dual fiji) it is probably the leader in power density numbers. Unfortunately however,  a recent interview to PCR indicates that the product is only a “concept PC” and will probably never hit the shelves – and even if it does, it will have woefully finite stock.

AMD: Project Quantum is a concept PC – will probably never make it to retail and will be in limited supply if it does

The specifications of Project Quantum are top of the line to say the least. There had previously been quite a lot of commotion about the fact that AMD was using an Intel processor – to which the company had responded by stating that they put the needs of the gamers foremost, and any red team fans would be able to choose AMD processors if they so desired. The backbone of the mini-iTX pc is an AsRock Z97 motherboard with upto 32GB memory support. The current configuration houses a Devils Canyon Core i7 4790K processor and a radical, completely customized cooling system with a separate power brick. The heart of Project Quantum (and the main powerhouse behind the mammoth compute) is AMD’s Dual Fiji GPU with 8GB of HBM1 (memory).  This is probably the first device that is 100% capable of handling anything 4K 60fps. Before we go any further, take a look at the extract of an interview of AMD’s very own Richard Huddy:

“The interest we got immediately after E3 was very high, from journalists and consumers and OEM partners, I don’t know whether we have an OEM who is committed to building something like it. We built it as a concept PC, so like concept cars it’s not usually practical to take it straight to market, that wouldn’t make a great deal of sense. But it’s not far from that. I would think that if we have the right kind of conversations with some of these OEMs, then we might well turn it into a real product. In that case, it will probably be a very small number. Maybe only one or at most a handful of PC manufacturers who would bring that to market, potentially. It’s a custom piece, not a high volume piece, but it is a thing of beauty.” said AMD’s Richard Huddy to PCR

While AMD themselves stated that Project Quantum, whose origin is from their very own innovation labs, uses mostly off the shelf parts, it also does utilize quite a bit of custom made parts. When dealing with solutions that have to be custom tailored, the expense can only be offset by utilizing the well known business theory of economies of scale (mass production in high volumes). With Project Quantum, AMD fears they will not be able to ship large enough quantities of the PC for it to be profitable – and furthermore, they don’t expect any OEM to get onboard with the idea in the first place. This means that contrary to what we were believing since the initial reveal, Project Quantum SFF PC is not a sure fire product – quite the opposite.

Fortunately for AMD, there already exists a precedence for overpriced SFF PCs where they can make quite a killing –STEAM Machines.STEAM Machines are basically over powered consoles running the still infantSTEAM OS. But their main attraction is over powered hardware in a small form factor – something which Project Quantum should have absolutely no competition on. Steam Machine OEMs should (theoretically) approach AMD and even if they do not (in my opinion) I believe AMD’s SFF powerhouse has a niche on its own. The aesthetics are simply stunning and would make a priceless addition to any living lounge of the high end spectrum driving products such as the Oculus Rift or 4K screens at 60 frames per second flat.

AMD’s Upcoming Opteron MCMs will Pack Zeppelin CPUs and Greenland HBM Graphics with Coherent Data Fabric Support

A recent report by Fudzilla has spilled the beans on the codename of a certain Zen based processor from AMD: “Zeppelin” . If you are reading this, then you probably know the drill (notice the rumor tag above). We have already heard alot about coherent fabric but this leak not only reveals the exact speed of the data fabric but the codename of a processor that will eventually use it as well.

AMD Zeppelin CPUs to use Coherent Data Fabric to communicate with the GPU

I’ll admit I was slightly queasy about this particular rumor – mostly because it reveals too much and too little at the same time. While the source’s history can be considered mostly authentic, this particular slide reveals the codename of a future AMD processor; and since we are talking about an MCM and a custom interconnect, I would be willing to wager this is an Opteron variant. The leak also sheds light on just how much faster Coherent Fabric is from the standard PCIe interface.

The report states that AMD is currently working on a Multi Chip Module that will have a Zeppelin CPU and Greenland GPU connected by Coherent Data Fabric. High Bandwidth Memory (probably on a 2.5D interposer) will be involved as well and will be clocked at 500 GB/s. The homegrown interconnect will support data rates of upto 100GB/s which is alot faster than what the PCIe interface sustains (around 15GB/s). Not only that but latency has been reduced from 500ns to an unknown but allegedly smaller number.

The Zeppelin and Greenland based MCM will feature 4 GMIs or Global Memory Interconnects (which constitute the Coherent Data Fabric I suppose) allowing the CPU to converse with the GPU at 100GB/s. The compute of the GPU is rated at 4.0+ TFlops. Unfortunately, they do not mention whether these are single or double precision numbers and we cant really make any assumptions here either (both are plausible). The MCM itself will contain the GPU and CPU side of things and will talk to the RAM at 100 GB/s as well – allowing for a very HSA friendly environment and minimum bottleneck throughout the whole process.

Previous leaks (from the same source I might add) indicated that the processor will be using AMD’s Coherent Fabric. Each Zen core will have access to 512KB of L2 cache and 4 Zen cores will share 8MB of L3 cache in the ‘Exascale Heterogeneous Processor’. That equates to a grand total of 16MB L2 Cache and 64 MB L3 cache. Each Zen core will be capable of running two threads (thanks to the company’s shift to Simultaneous Multi-Threading). The processor is thought to have 4 DDR4 channels with a capacity of 256GB per channel.

Nvidia Readying Geforce Mobility Flagship ‘GTX 990M’ For Launch in Q4 2015 – Allegedly Faster Than A Desktop GTX 980

Nvidia has already revealed the desktop flagships of the Maxwell lineup, but it looks like it still has one more card up its figurative sleeve, atleast as far as Mobility Geforce is concerned. A report originating from NotebookReview forums (via NotebookCheck) reveals that Nvidiai is working on a brand new flagship chip codenamed “N16E-GXX”. The video driver websiteLaptopVideo2Go has also spotted a suspicious entry named “Nvidia E-GXX” in latest Geforce drivers, so this upcoming mobility graphic card is pretty much confirmed. The only question remains as to its exact specifications – which we will take a jab at below.

Not an official Nvidia logo. @WCCFTech @Nvidia 

Nvidia Geforce mobility flagship, dubbed the ‘GTX 990M’, leaked by a CEO and spotted in driver update

The news stems from Wu Haijun, CEO of a Chinese laptop manufacturer, who revealed that Nvidia is planning to reveal a Geforce GTX 990M mobility graphic card sometime in the September to December time-frame ( or Q4 2015 in other words). The chip’s performance, according to the executive, is supposedly as high as the current GTX 980M SLI configuration. The current GTX 980M chips are based on a crippled GM204 die with 1536 CUDA cores (4 out of the 16 SMMs disabled).  The Geforce GTX 980M SLI configuration currently outpaces the desktop Geforce GTX 980 by several tens of percent. The CEO further revealed that the TDP of the chip is going to be upwards of 100 Watts (and could be as high as 180 Watts).

Image courtesy of Notebook Review forums

Now I don’t need to point out how that high a TDP level seems very unlikely for a mobile setting; something that already has over-taxed cooling solutions and plummeting battery levels. Interestingly however, the report also states that the GPU in question will be soldered onto the motherboard – which helps lend a bit of credibility to the report since the MXM platform has a TDP limit of 100 Watts. This would also mean we would not be seeing any MXM based variants and the GTX 990M graphic card will only be present in select luggables and laptops that have been designed from the ground up to support it. While the timeframe given is the fourth quarter of 2015, we could expect the chip to land as early as September (considering it has already started popping up in driver updates). Finally, please keep in mind that the nomenclature “990M” is just an educated guess, the real thing could easily be called something else entirely, like GTX 985M or 995M for example.

Benchmark courtesy of NotebookCheck

Lets come onto the specification estimation now. This portion is mostly educated speculation (based entirely on the assumption that the claim about it being equal to a GTX 980M SLI and ~180 Watts TDP is correct), so if this isn’t your cup of tea, this would be a good place to stop reading. The GTX 980M performs roughly 30% faster than a stock desktop Geforce GTX 980. The desktop GTX 980 has a CUDA core count of 2048 and a max TDP of 165 Watts. The GTX Titan-X on the other hand has a CUDA core count of 3072 and a max TDP of 250 Watts. For the supposed Geforce GTX 990M to perform 30% faster than a stock 980, we are looking at an approximate CUDA core count of 2662.4 cores (at the same clocks). Which, rounding off to a known SMM configuration means we are looking at an SMM count of either 20 or 21 (where the GM200 has an SMM count of 24) with either 2560 or 2688 CUDA cores respectively.

So we are either looking at a low clocked, cut-GM200 die with around ~20 SMMs or we are looking at a fullblown GM204 die with very high clocks. Both variants lie in the same power-performance envelope as the one stated by the CEO and both play well with yield theory. The notebooks that house the ‘N16E-GXX’ GPU or the  Geforce Mobility “GTX 990M” graphic card will have to have some pretty impressive cooling solutions and robust power supply to power this beast. The soldered-to-motherboard design should help ensure a constant stream of juice and should make designing native cooling solutions relatively easily. A chip like this will easily smoke most single card desktop setups and should help Nvidia deliver on their promise of desktop class gaming in laptops.

MSI Confirms The 980 Ti Lightning at Gamescom 2015 Conference

MSI had quite the showing this year at Gamescom. They were anticipated to show some very great hardware, and they didn’t disappoint. The 980 Ti Lightning is now confirmed to be under development, meant to compete against the likes of the EVGA 980 Ti K|NGP|N.

Could we see a similar design to the past?

MSI’s has captured lightning in a bottle again.

It isn’t quite production ready as of yet, and there is no prototype on display, but MSI did confirm that their ultimate edition of the 980 Ti is being developed, just as we had expected to hear. We all wanted to see at the very least a working prototype, but this will have to suffice for now.

Because there was no prototype on display, we’re not entirely sure if they plan on following the same design principles, or if the cooler will break the mold they’ve set for years, albeit a good one. The 980 Ti Lightning will feature a completely custom PCB with more power phases, higher quality and capacity VRM’s and a revamped cooling design to be able to handle the larger overclock we expect it to have. The K|NGP|N already has a 14+3 power phase design combined with a selection of VRM’s that can handle up to 600A of current through three 8-pin power inputs, so it’s not a stretch to think that MSI will try to shoot for much the same, if not better.

Thus far it’s been rumored that the stock clock will run at 1217MHz with a boost of 1342MHz, which is even better than the current king(pin). Pricing is as of yet unannounced, but it will likely be on par with the current custom PCB leaders between $849-$1049.99. More information about the MSI 980 Ti Lightning will be coming out in the coming weeks as per MSI’s statement.

The real question, of course, is what it’ll look like and what color the LED’s will be. Bling counts, sometimes it makes an odd difference.

At MSI’s conference they also revealed a new design to their Nightblade Mini-ITX barebones PC, a new gaming mouse as well as a great looking full sized mechanical keyboard. MSI is looking to expand their Gaming line to include high-quality peripherals in addition to their already burgeoning laptop and PC components.