Micron representatives showcased new products at last week's NVIDIA GTC event—one eye-catching DIMM is all set for deployment within next-generation servers. Tom's Hardware spent some time at Micron's booth—they found out that the "Tall Form Factor" 256 GB DDR5-8800 Multiplexer Combined Ranks (MCR) DIMM is being prepared for future enterprise processor platforms, including Intel's Xeon Scalable "Granite Rapids" family. A lone "tall" prototype module was exhibited, but company representatives indicated that standard height MCRDIMMs are in development. Tom's Hardware found out that these will compact enough to fit in 1U-sized server systems. According to their in-person experience: "(Micron's) 256 GB MCRDIMMs are based on monolithic 32 Gb DDR5 ICs, but the tall one places 80 DRAM chips on both sides of the module, whereas the standard one uses 2Hi stacked packages, which means that they run slightly hotter due to less space for thermal dissipation. In any case, the tall module consumes around 20 W, which isn't bad as Micron's 128 GB DDR5-8000 RDIMM consumes 10 W at DDR5-4800."

In a recent earnings call, Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra, commented on his company's latest technology: "we (have) started sampling our 256 GB MCRDIMM module, which further enhances performance and increases DRAM content per server." Next-gen Intel Xeon platforms are expected to support 12 or 24 memory slots per processor socket. Enabled datacenter machines could be specced with total 3 TB or 6 TB (DDR5-8000) memory capacities. AnandTech has summarized the benefits of Micron's new part: "Multiplexer Combined Ranks (MCR) DIMMs are dual-rank memory modules featuring a specialized buffer that allows both ranks to operate simultaneously. This buffer enables the two physical ranks to operate as though they were separate modules working in parallel, which allows for concurrent retrieval of 128 bytes of data from both ranks per clock cycle—compared to 64 bytes per cycle when it comes to regular memory modules—effectively doubling performance of a single module." The added complexity is offset by significant performance boons—ideal for advanced server-side AI-crunching in the future.

During AMD's recent Cinema 2.0 event, TG Daily caught up with representatives of JulesWorld. They are associated with the video production process of an unnamed movie studio and adopted components that are standard in the FX industry (AMD Opteron + Nvidia Quadro). Ray-tracing was an early focus of the company and they were told that JulesWorld started experimenting with a 100% ray-traced pipeline on a GPU with the arrival of ATI's R600 (2900XT) chip. And the results were impressive.

JulesWorld will be releasing OTOY and LightScape, two distinctive technologies that could shape the future of movie and games production. The company developed a ray-tracer that uses elements of the DirectX 9 API as well as its own high-level code that uses Tessellation and anti-aliasing algorithms.

While the G92-based 8800GTS is on track for a December 11th release, and NVIDIA three-way SLI will be released at a similar time, neither will be compatible with the other. It would seem as though NVIDIA is trying to keep three-way SLI an exclusive club for the more expensive offerings from the graphics giant. At this point, only the 8800GTX and 8800Ultra are confirmed to work with three-way SLI, and there is the possibility that the 8800GT will be able to use three-way SLI. While three-way SLI may be possible through software rendering at some later point in time, chances are it will be slow and buggy. The main giveaway for the lack of three-way SLI is the lack of a second SLI bridge connector on the 8800GT.

It would seem as though NVIDIA is celebrating the day that I get my full drivers license, sans passenger restrictions, by releasing the revamped NVIDIA GeForce 8800GTS 512, based on the impressive G92 micro-architecture. The new 8800GTS 512 will only come in one flavor, which, as the name suggests, will sport 512MB of 256-bit VRAM. This is opposed to the previous versions, which ship with either 320MB or 640MB of 320-bit VRAM. The new 8800GTS 512 will come with 128 Stream processors, a welcome improvement from the previous 96 Stream processors. The new 8800GTS also has another welcome surprise: an engine clock of 650MHz, higher than any 8800 series GPU before it. Current rumor has it that the 8800GTS 512's 512MB of VRAM will be clocked at roughly 1.96GHz. The 8800GTS 512 should be available on December 11th for between $299 and $349 USD.

Experience Crysis for free only while supplies last - first come first served. Read the
terms and conditions to see the details on this exclusively featured bundle! The following four graphics cards ship with a free copy of Crysis:

• 640-P2-N828-A3 e-GeForce 8800GTS KO 640MB
• 640-P2-N829-A3 e-GeForce 8800GTS SSC 640MB
• 768-P2-N831-A3 e-GeForce 8800GTX 768MB
• 768-P2-N835-A3 e-GeForce 8800GTX 768MB Superclocked

If you bought an 8800GTX with 768MB of graphics memory, superclocked or not, after November 15th and did not get a free copy of Crysis, you can get one via mail by checking out this page to see if you qualify.

NVIDIA is getting its 3-way SLI ready for its November 12th launch. To run your own 3-Way SLI setup you will need the following three things. First, you will need the upcoming 3-way SLI drivers. Second, you will need a 680i SLI motherboard or a soon to be released 780a/780i SLI motherboard that must include at least 3 PCIe x16 slots. Third, you will need to have three GeForce 8800 GTX or 8800 Ultra graphics cards(It is a necessity to have 2 SLI connectors on each card). Lastly you will need a 3-way SLI bridge card. Interestingly it looks like the upcoming G92 won't support 3-way SLI because it only has one SLI connector per card.

NVIDIA Announces 112 SP 8800 GTS Works w/ Original 8800 GTS In SLI

NVIDIA told their AICs not to market the new Geforce 8800 GTS 640MB as a card that has 112 SPs on board (upgraded from previous 96 SPs) but Partners can label it as a special edition, or OC edition. Also the new 112 SP 8800 GTS will still work with the original 96 SP variants in SLI configurations. Further NVIDIA stressed that they will not offer an upgraded 112 SP 8800 GTS in 320MB configurations.

Named after the famous Stealth fighter bomber because of its angular shapes and black livery, Swiftech's Stealth is a VGA water-block designed exclusively for nVidia's high-end GeForce 8 series graphics cards. At the time of publication, the Stealth is compatible with the 8800 GTS, GTX and Ultra models.

The ultimate GeForce cooling performance:

Using the same core cooling technology as the Apogee GT and GTX CPU water-blocks which are recognized as the best performing water-blocks on the market, the Stealth unique design approach focuses cooling where it is most needed: at the GPU level; with its extended wings covering the memory modules and NVIO chip, the massive aluminum housing also maintains the lowest possible temperature of these surface mount components; this allows in effect for the most advanced overclocking techniques which are necessary to take core and memory frequencies well beyond factory specifications.