Among other reasons like support for DDR4 memory modules and being invulnerable to water, the ability to break new records constantly is why ASRock's OC Series motherboards are awesome for overclocking. A couple of weeks ago, Nick Shih overclocked an Intel Core i7 5960X (Haswell-E) on ASRock X99 OC Formula to 6620.73 MHz, and now the skilled overclocker John Lam has set another new record by running Intel Extreme Tuning Utility (XTU) on the same winning combination to achieve a mind exploding 2950 marks! Moreover, overclocker 8 Pack also broke two more new records on an ASRock's Z97 OC Formula and GeForce GTX 980 - 3DMark06 57742 marks and 3DMark05 75123 marks!

AMD today announced its collaboration with Microsoft Corp. for more than 125 Windows 8-based PC designs from leading OEMs including ASUS, Dell, Fujitsu, HP, Lenovo, Samsung, Sony, Toshiba and more. With a hardware accelerated user interface, Microsoft and AMD have collaborated to design Windows 8 to unlock the high performance graphics capabilities found in AMD accelerated processing units (APUs) and discrete AMD Radeon graphics processing units (GPUs) to deliver the best HD video, gaming and app experience consumers want with the always on, always connected, touch-driven interface with great battery life they need.

"There is a lot of exciting innovation happening in the marketplace today -- from the new Windows 8 graphics-accelerated user interface and apps, to ultraportable and sleek hardware designs -- and AMD's CPU, GPU and APU technology designed for Windows 8 helps enable a no-compromise solution," said Stefan Kinnestrand, director of Product Management, Windows Division at Microsoft.

MSI's upcoming GeForce GTX 660 Ti HAWK 3 GB graphics card, installed in 3-way SLI configuration was pictured. One of the three was put through 3DMark03 and 3DMark 11. The picture reveals a card that looks similar to the company's GeForce GTX 670 Power Edition. MSI used double the memory amount, by populating the GPU's 192-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface with 3 GB of memory (2 Gbit x 12). The card is cooled by MSI's Twin Frozr IV cooling solution. It is clocked at 1020 MHz GPU core, 1098 MHz GPU Boost, and 6.00 GHz (GDDR5-effective) memory. The GPU-Z screenshot reveals more details.

While three of these cards were pictured in 3-way SLI configuration, only one of the three were put through tests. The cards were driven by a yet-unannounced GeForce 304.87 beta driver. In 3DMark03, the MSI GeForce GTX 660 Ti HAWK scored 18,731 points, and in 3DMark 11 Extreme Preset, it scored X2,862 points. Both these figures are similar to those of a reference NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670.

Following the release of its new extreme DDR3 lineup, TridentX, G.SKILL is thrilled to host an extreme overclocking contest at HWBOT, the widely recognized authority in the field of overclocking. The G.SKILL CUP OC competition will start May 1st and run until May 30th and consists of three different stages with 14 G.SKILL Memory kits offered to the winners. For more detail, please refer to the event page.

In its 25th anniversary year, Antec, Inc., the global leader in high-performance computer components and accessories for the gaming, PC upgrade and Do-It-Yourself markets, today announced it has set two new world records on 3DMark06 and 3DMark03, using Antec's renowned High Current Pro series HCP-1200 power supply to simultaneously power four high-end intensive graphics cards with a power consumption up to 1700 watts.

The world record scores of 48,096 marks on 3DMark06 with four Radeon HD 5870 graphic cards in 4-way Crossfire, and a 3DMark03 score of 233,433 marks in 4-way SLI-configuration with GeForce GTX 580 cards were achieved by Nick Shih, current world-wide leading overclocker. Both scores represent the unrivaled overclocking capabilities of Antec's HCP-1200 PSU and how the unparalleled performance of Antec's HCP-1200 is engineered to satisfy the needs of PC enthusiasts and overclockers for high-performance, compatibility and stability.

In the wake of impending competition from NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560Ti, AMD is busy fine-tuning its performance-segment offer. It is lowering prices of Radeon HD 6950 with the introduction of a new 1 GB variant, and reportedly working on Radeon HD 6870 "Turbo" models. Combined with the two, AMD is also planning a new driver which is out and out focussed on performance enhancements for Radeon HD 6000 series GPUs.

Catalyst 11.1a Hotfix introduces performance improvements specific to Radeon HD 6800 and HD 6900 series, in turn specific to games. One can expect performance improvements of up to 35% with Anti-Aliasing in some games. Catalyst 11.1a is also going to give users full control over the way the driver handles tessellation, allowing users to override applications' tessellation settings (much like AA and AF). In the future, there's also scope for an AMD-optimised tessellation setting that adjusts tessellation detail to give the best details with minimal performance impact.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Catalyst 11.1a Hotfix Update

A list of changes follows.

Following a recent exposé of pictures and performance figures of the Radeon HD 5750, another one covering that of the ASUS Radeon HD 5770 has surfaced. Using a test bed powered by an AMD Phenom II X4 945, 4 GB of DDR3-1333 memory, and Windows 7 64-bit, a member of the Chinese PC enthusiast portal community MyMyPC.com put an ASUS Radeon HD 5770 accelerator through 3DMark Vantage Performance preset (to yield its GPU score), 3DMark06, and FurMark (to check temperatures). It was compared to other popular graphics accelerators in (or around) the sub-$200 league, including Radeon HD 4890, GeForce GTX 260, and GeForce GTX 275. While in the 3DMark06 test the Radeon HD 5770 edges past the GeForce GTX 260, with 3DMark Vantage (GPU score), it lags behind the rest of the league, by at least around 1000 points. This gives an indication that as far as performance goes, the Radeon HD 5770 could be comparable to the Radeon HD 4870, at least in these applications.

A Chinese tech community MyMyPC.com member pictured, and tested a Radeon HD 5750 graphics accelerator, which is intended to be AMD's flagship product in the sub $150 market segment. Unlike the Radeon HD 5770, which is pictured with a different cooler that resembles that of the Radeon HD 4770 (AMD reference), and Radeon HD 3870, this card makes do with a GPU cooler essentially similar to that of the more common Radeon HD 4770 cooler design, except for a few changes with the fan and the cooler shroud. Under the black, egg-shaped shroud is a heatsink with radially-projecting fins, in which is nested a red 80 mm fan. Everything else on the card, relies on its air-flow.

During an overclocking competition help by ASUS and Dutch tech website Tweakers.net, a participant named Neil Breems managed to achieve some stellar results on the ASUS GeForce GTX 285 Matrix. Cooled using a liquid nitrogen evaporator, the graphics card was able to reach 1100 MHz (core), 2452 MHz (shader) and 2800 MHz (memory), way up from the reference speeds of 648/1476/2484 MHz (core/shader/memory). The overclocked settings were set using a tweaked version of RivaTuner. Breems put the card to test using 3DMark06.

Since the rest of the bench was made of an Intel P55 based motherboard running an unreleased 2.66 GHz Core i5 750, Tweakers.net couldn't publish the final score and CPU score, but went ahead with its GPU-related scores that included GT1: 58.863 fps, GT2 57.762 fps, HDR1 112.6 fps, and 73.84 fps for HDR2. The memory to drive the system Corsair Dominator GT DDR3-2000, and the system powered by Corsair HX850W.

AMD's upcoming chipset with integrated graphics, codenamed RS880 is said to feature a significantly faster integrated graphics processor (IGP), which is about 15 percent faster than the current RS780. While technically it is derived from the AMD RV610 core with some tweaked clock-speeds, it will get the brand name ATI Radeon HD 4200. With 1800 points in 3DMark06, this IGP is as powerful as GeForce 6800 GT a high-end graphics accelerator from the DirectX 9 generation. In today's setting the score isn't exactly spectacular, but makes it highly competitive with IGPs from rival NVIDIA. The chipset will make a formal debut this August.

AMD's Phenom II TWKR 42 quad-core CPU was made with only one objective: to deliver record-setting CPUs to more professional overclockers than thought was possible. Having rolled out at least 100 units, AMD opened a door for several world-record attempts. Some of the most important ones took place at the SF3D OC Gathering in Finland. The new world record the group of overclockers put up was 7.00 GHz. The record was attempted on a DFI LANParty 790FXB-M3eH7 motherboard, and involved (from what the validation page shows) a bus speed of 250 MHz, and 28.0x bus multiplier. Its voltage remains a secret-sauce.

Other highlights include a run of 3DMark06 with the CPU clocked at 6.54 GHz, on a different bench. 3DMark06 tests the stability of this clock speed, as the test includes the CPU test score. The bench was aided by two ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 GPUs in CrossFireX mode. The same bench was used for a run of 3DMark05, with the CPU clocked at 6.67 GHz. This time however, the CPU test was not part of the score.

Futuremark Corporation today announced a new competition for PC overclockers everywhere. The contest will see game, DIY, and overclocking enthusiasts from Europe, Asia and the Americas competing for the "Lord of Overclocking" title for their region. With Futuremark anticipating over 200,000 entries the online contest will be the largest overclocking competition ever staged.
Competition Home Page

The contest will run from May 18th to June 14th with prizes on offer for the top weekly and overall winners in each region. Furthermore one overall top winner will also be invited to attend the MSI Master Overclocking Arena 2009 event in Beijing, China in September 2009.

As we head towards the launch of AMD's newest GPU, the ATI Radeon HD 4770, things certainly seem to be looking good from what we have seen of the sub-$100 accelerator so far. After the recent exposé of the HIS HD 4770, it's time now for the one from another AIB.

The card features an identical overall design to the one from HIS, indicating that the cooler is a standard reference design, not what we had seen from the company presentation of HD 4770, showing a rather visually-appealing cooler. The card features 512 MB of GDDR5 memory across a 128-bit interface, 640 stream processors, and DirectX 10.1 compliance. Taiwanese website CoolPC put the card through a round of 3DMark06, 3DMark Vantage, and FurMark. The testbed consisted of an Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 processor and 4 GB of DDR2-800 memory. The card secured 12,042 points at 3DMark06, and P7408 at 3DMark Vantage. After 350 seconds of FurMark stability test, the GPU temperatures were tipping 72 degrees Celsius, with the fan running at 42% speed. Here's one card to look out for.

Taiwan-based English tech website OC Heaven has disclosed some performance figures of the upcoming ATI Radeon HD 4890 1 GB graphics accelerator. The tests run are two of the most popular synthetic benchmarks: 3DMark Vantage and 3DMark06. Also disclosed, rather verified, are the card's clock speeds as read by ATI Catalyst Control Center and GPU-Z. The test bed, from what the 3DMark06 window shows, consists of an Intel Core i7 920 CPU running at 2.66 GHz, coupled with 3 GB of system memory. In 3DMark06, the HD 4890 accelerator secured a score of 16,096 points, with SM 2.0 score of 6155, HDR/SM 3.0 score of 7521, and CPU score of 4836. In 3DMark Vantage, it secured a score of P10996. Catalyst Control Center reveals the card's memory bandwidth to be 124.8 GB/s, up from the 111 GB/s on its predecessor, the HD 4870. The early driver in use makes provides "RV790" as the device string to GPU-Z.

Update (03/19):Ukrainian website Overclockers.com.ua has come up with a more comprehensive 3DMark shootout between cards in this segment. Radeon HD 4890 and HD 4890 CrossFireX are part of the comparison. The testers used an Intel Q6600 CPU running on an X48 motherboard with 4 GB of memory. The article can be read (Google-translated to English) here.

ATI's CrossFire multi-GPU technology started off on the Intel platform with ATI's own brand of chipset before AMD acquired the company. AMD/ATI then allowed CrossFire and the succeeding CrossFireX standards to be supported by Intel chipsets. The only current chipset platform that doesn't support CrossFire is the NVIDIA nForce series, which as ASRock demonstrated during the ongoing CeBIT event, breaks the dogma.

ASRock devised a BIOS for its nForce 740i based N7AD-SLI motherboard that enables support for CrossFire. AMD's Catalyst drivers were able to detect the motherboard as a qualified platform and enable CrossFire between two installed ATI Radeon accelerators. The setup was able to show performance increments during a 3DMark06 session. ASRock is reportedly working out similar BIOS firmware for several other motherboards made by it, and wants to enable CrossFire, CrossFireX for all its nForce motherboards.

It is a well-known fact that AMD has been carving out triple-core and dual-core Phenom/Phenom II series processors out of complete Agena/Deneb dice with one or two cores disabled. In a fresh revelation, a Korean enthusiast claims to have discovered that it is rather easy to unlock the disabled core on Phenom II X3 processors, provided the motherboard supports the Advanced Clock Calibration (ACC) feature that is meant to enhance overclocking using AMD's Overdrive software. The enthusiast claims the soft-mod to have worked in his/her case, where a Phenom II X3 710 was paired with a Biostar TA790GX 128M motherboard. The CPU was overclocked to 3.12 GHz, with a vCore setting of 1.37 V.

The method employed: Set the appropriate BIOS setting for the Advanced Clock Calibration feature to "Auto", save settings and restart. The system will be able to deal with the disabled core, and off load some work to it. The processor with the "additional" core was tested to be Prime95 stable and was able to boost 3DMark06 CPU score by as much as 1,000 points. Let the screenshots below speak for themselves:
The method:

In yet another overclocking feat using AMD's Phenom II series processors, Team Finland set a new 3DMark06 world-record score of 35,698 3DMarks. The team consisted of renowned overclockers Petri "SF3D" Korhonen Sampsa Kurri and Sami "macci" Mäkinen. The team used AMD's DDR3-supportive AM3 platform and used high-performance DDR3 memory to demonstrate its overclocking capabilities. The bench consisted of:

• AMD Phenom II X4 6187MHz (4500MHz NB) under Dragon F1EE pot, liquid nitrogen cooling
• ASUS M4A79T Deluxe (790FX chipset)
• Corsair XMS3-2133 2x1GB DDR3-1800 CL7-7-7-1T
• 2x Radeon HD 4870 X2 830/950MHz with stock cooling
• Thermaltake Toughpower 1200W

As NordicHardware notes, for the first time in ages, an AMD-platform topped 3DMark06 Hall of Fame, crossing the previous record holder by 150 3DMarks. Validations of the score can be found here. A video of the feat has been posted on YouTube, and can be viewed here.

BreakTheLimt.net, a Malaysian hardware portal tested the Phenom II X4 940 at its stock speed of 3.00 GHz, and posted a sting of benchmark results of the said chip. It was tested on a platform consisting of a MSI DKA790GX Platinum motherboard, with 2 GB of DDR2 1066 MHz memory and a ASUS Radeon HD 4870 TOP graphics card. All components were set to run at stock speeds. The chip was put through Super Pi 1M and 32M, Cinebench R10, PiFast Multithreaded, WPrime 1.5, Aquamark and 3DMark06.

AMD would be releasing its desktop 45nm CPUs, starting with two models under the Phenom II X4 banner. At this point in time, there is a great deal of uncertainty about when AMD plans to stock retailers with the new CPUs. The company's own roadmaps pointed out to a Q1 2009 launch, with several sources reporting then, that an early January launch was likely, but now it seems unlikely according to sources, who suggest these processors to stock up in March or later.

Meanwhile, a slide showing what looks like the the company's performance projections for the Phenom II X4 940, made its way to Expreview. The Phenom II X4 940 quad-core processor (Black Edition variant) would serve as the company's flagship desktop processor in the months to come, until it gets a proper AM3 refresh, and taken over by Phenom II X4 945. In the slide, the Phenom II X4 940 is pitted against two seemingly mainstream quad-core processors by Intel: Core 2 Quad Q9300 and Core 2 Quad Q9400. A percentage comparison in the gaming performance across some games and 3DMark06 is shown.

Pre-release 3DMark tests show that two Radeon HD 4670 graphics cards in Crossfire multi-GPU mode outperforms a single Radeon HD 4850 card. The HD 4670 cards score just a little above the HD 4850 in three tests that include 3DMark06 in Shader Model 2.0 mode, the same benchmark in SM 3.0 mode and 3DMark Vantage.

The cards scored 54xx 3DMarks in SM2.0 and 65xx 3DMarks in SM3.0 tests, a 4850 on the same test-bed produced 49xx and 57xx respectively. With 3DMark Vantage, the Crossfire setup churned out 7300, with the single HD 4850 just 100 points behind at 7200. These scores can be attributed to the raw texturing power the HD 4670 cards have despite memory bandwidth advantage staying with the single HD 4850. Indications are that the HD 4650 won't scale as well since (at least reference models) lack hardware Crossfire.

Overclockers Kinc and Elmor from NordicHardware, have managed to break the 3DMark06 world record this weekend using two of ATI's latest dual GPU video cards. With Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 (C1 stepping) @ 5.719GHz (439.9x13), ASUS P5E64 WS Pro motherboard, 2x ASUS EAH3870X2 TOP overclocked to 990MHz/1125MHz core/memory and Windows Vista OS they were able to reach 32,601 3DMark. The cooling used for the CPU was liquid nitrogen (LN2) while both graphics cards were air cooled.

Kinc and Crotale, two world-renowned overclockers, decided to put their names to the test recently. They took all their ultra-awesome overclocking equipment, set up camp at Dreamhack 2007, and promised a raging crowd of fans a world record. They lived up to both their names and promise by completely decimating the previous world record. Kinc and Crotale scored 29,325 points in 3DMark06 live at Dreamhack 2007 with the following system:

• Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 (431x13, 5522MHz)
• ASUS P5E3 WS Pro (Intel X38)
• ASUS Radeon HD 2900 XT CrossFire 1200/980MHz
• Corsair Dominator DDR3-1800 @ 1698MHz 6-6-5-15
• SilverStone 1200W
• Liquid nitrogen for cooling both graphics cards and processor

The Inquirer is claiming that they have some benchmark scores to disclose with AMD's K10. They say that it was running on the RD790 chipset, with two HD 2900 XT cards, and some Corsair's Dominator PC2-9136C5D. They clocked it at 3.0 GHz with the video cards clocked at 830 MHz for the GPU and 900MHz for the memory. They ended up with a score of 30,031 in 3DMark06 a new world record if true. They didn't point out what kind of cooling was used, but if it was just your standard heatsink. Expect even higher scores to be reached after their release.

After being robbed during the Games Convention, Kinc and Shamino have returned to their everyday life and started benching again with Mushkin, ATI and ASUS. The result is another broken world record. Kinc and Shamino are back to the top of the 3DMark 06 Hall of Fame with a personal record of 27,039 3D marks achieved with Shamino's QX6850 at 5119MHz(3DMark stable) on an ASUS Blitz Extreme, Mushkin's new DDR3-1333 memories and a pair of ASUS Radeon HD 2900 XT video cards overclocked to 1175/950MHz. The processor and the video cards were cooled by Shamino's Dragonpot, which in other terms mean liquid nitrogen. Here's the Futuremark ORB verification link.

Well it seems that the 3DMark06 wars still rage on since it didnt take long for NVIDIA to take the crown from ATI when a team from GREECE with the known to many hipro5 managed to break Kinc's world record of 25972 by reaching 26008. Small margin but then again that's how kinc managed to surpass the world record made by Shamino a week ago. Hipro5 used a ASUS StrikerEXtreme mainboard an Intel Core 2 Quad 6700 clocked at 4980 MHz, two 1GB Ram modules and 2 x XFX NVIDIA 8800 Ultras clocked at 1008MHz core, 2484MHz Shaders and 1224MHz rams. More info at the Source link.