TechPowerUp today released the latest version of GPU-Z, the popular graphics subsystem information and diagnostic utility. GPU-Z briefs you on the graphics hardware installed in the system, and lets you monitor clock speeds, voltages, temperatures, fan-speeds, and other information in real-time. The new version adds full-support for AMD's Radeon HD 7700 series "Cape Verde" GPUs (HD 7770 and HD 7750) that are bound for launch a little later this month. The new version also has an updated ASIC Quality calculation formula that makes reading on NVIDIA GPUs more reliable.

Other important updates include voltage monitoring support for Radeon HD 7970 and HD 7950; support for some rare GeForce GT 520 variants that are based on GF108, GeForce GTX 555 (OEM), GeForce 305M, and GeForce 610M; and more reliable memory size reading for AMD Radeon graphics cards with large memory sizes. Sensors now refresh in the background by default (and not just when the Sensors tab is in the foreground). The board ID is now displayed along with the BIOS version string.DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z 0.5.9 | TechPowerUp GPU-Z 0.5.9 ASUS ROG-Themed

The complete change-log detailing even more updates follows.

AMD is pushing on with a desktop product lineup that's leveraging its Piledriver CPU and Graphics CoreNext GPU architectures in 2012. Apparently, the company will have a faster product development cycle to catch up with Intel's "Tick-Tock", as revealed in a roadmap slide scored by DonanimHaber. The current product lineup will remain unchanged in the first quarter of 2012. Then in the second quarter, AMD will launch a few more socket AM3+ FX-8000, FX-6000, and FX-4000 series eight, six, and four-core processors; along with the much talked about "Trinity" accelerated processing unit.

The fastest "Trinity" APUs will get a new brand identifier, the A10-5000 series. These APUs will pack next-generation "Piledriver" modular cores and Radeon HD 7600D series graphics. Around this time, AMD will also launch the Brazos 2.0 low-power APU for netbooks, nettops, and embedded computing devices. Brazos 2.0 will get the E2-1000 series branding. The big change is reserved for the third quarter of 2012, when AMD launches the successor of its less-than-lucky AMD FX "Bulldozer" processor family.

Reviewers who have probably received their AMD Radeon HD 7700 series samples by now, were taken aback when they found a prescription medication bottle in their packages. No NVIDIA-styled Press Deck booklet, or even former-ATI styled Ruby doll, but a medicine bottle, which reads "Verdetrol". The label directed them to insert the blue capsules inside it to the heat vents of the graphics card, when benchmarking, so it "acts as a performance enhancement".

The point in all this? Apparently AMD's Radeon HD 7770 features 1 GHz core clock speed out of the box, making it the first GPU ever to do so, and AMD wants to make a song and dance about it. What's more, AMD will use a special branding called "GHz Edition" to mark all its future SKUs that come with 1 GHz (or more) GPU core clock speed, indicating that AMD has more SKUs in the pipeline with ≥1 GHz core clock speed. It doesn't stop with this hysterical medicine bottle thingie, no sir, AMD even set up a teaser site dedicated to "Verdetrol".

In the coming week, AMD will release its Radeon HD 7700 series, which aims to increase its competitiveness in the sub-$200 market. The latest specifications exposé reveals AMD's new design strategy: Instead of increasing components such as stream processors and ROPs, which would increase transistor counts, and unnecessarily increase power draw, AMD is counting on a lesser number of better-configured Graphics CoreNext stream processors. While the previous-generation HD 5770/6770 "Juniper" GPU featured VLIW5 stream processors, the new "Cape Verde" GPU, which will go into making up Radeon HD 7770 and 7750, will feature GCN stream processors. Apart from architectural performance improvements, AMD is counting on increased clock speeds to do the trick. The specifications are listed below.

Cape Verde Physical

• Built on TSMC 28 nm process, ~1.5 billion transistors
• 10 Graphics CoreNext Compute Units (CUs)
• 640 stream processors
• 40 TMUs, 16 ROPs
• 128-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface

AMD released its latest Catalyst Application Profile update for AMD Catalyst, version 12.1 CAP 2, as it's called, adds application-specific CrossfireX optimizations to the driver, which lets the driver effectively use two or more AMD Radeon GPUs working in tandem optimally. It also fixes any bugs that exist with current optimizations. 12.1 CAP 2 includes profiles for the following applications:

• Star Wars: The old republic : Improves CrossFire performance and resolves flickering seen on Map
• Unigine Tropics - Resolves flashing shadow reflections with CrossFire enabled
• Wargame: European Escalation: Improves CrossFire performance

DOWNLOAD: AMD Catalyst Application Profiles 12.1 CAP 2

Japanese built-to-order gaming PC maker Ark PC unveiled an AMD-powered variant of its Tathlum Gaming PC desktop (model: CY-AF8A99A-C2). The machine is built into a Cooler Master HAF 912 Advanced chassis, and is accompanied by a 23-inch full-HD monitor. In the driver's seat is AMD FX-8150 processor, seated on an ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX motherboard, with 8 GB dual-channel DDR3-1333 MHz memory, and AMD Radeon HD 7970 3 GB graphics. The processor is cooled by a Zalman CNPS9900MAX Red. Other components of interest include a Hitachi DeskStar 1 TB 7200 RPM SATA 6 Gb/s hard drive, onboard HD audio, and gigabit Ethernet. A SilverStone ST75F-SST-P 750W 80 Plus Silver PSU powers it all. Windows 7 Home Premium x64 is the OS of choice. The Tanthum CY-AF8A99A-C2 is priced at 167,800 JPY (US $2,175).

While Intel and AMD are making efforts to come up with low-power x86 processor platforms to compete with the plethora of ARM processor vendors, manufacturers of the target devices of these low-power x86 processors - tablets, netbooks, and smartphones; note that the architecture simply isn't competitive due to its prices. ARM processors are manufactured by a variety of companies, in a variety of different SoC configurations, and as such the tough competition among these companies ensure ARM processor platforms are comparatively cheaper to low-power x86 ones.

Intel recently debuted its 32 nm "Medfield" Atom processors, with power consumption as low as 11W for the platform. In the second half of 2012, it will launch another line of processors with under 10W power consumption, for high-end smartphones. AMD, on the other hand, will unveil "Hondo", which combines its x86 architecture with Radeon graphics IP, and a power consumption target of less than 5W. In 2013, it plans to launch the "Temash" APU, with power consumption under 2W, and built on the 28 nm process.

AMD may be busy building up hype for its Trinity-generation APUs (accelerated processing units) but it's still churning out new chips, the latest releases being the rather low-profile Athlon II X4 641 and X4 638. Both of these models are made on 32 nm technology, have an FM1 packaging, and boast four 'Stars' x86 cores just like those found in Llano APUs (but unlike Llano, these Athlons don't have integrated graphics).

The Athlon II X4 641 comes with a core clock of 2.8 GHz, 4 MB of L2 cache, and a 100 W TDP, while the Athlon II X4 638 features a 2.7 GHz clock, 4 MB of L2 cache, and a TDP of 65 W. Both CPUs are priced at $81 (pricing is for 1000-unit tray quantities).

AMD today announced the departure of Emilio Ghilardi as senior vice president and chief sales officer, effective immediately. Rory Read, AMD president and chief executive officer, will serve as interim chief sales officer while the company actively seeks a replacement.

"I'd like to thank Emilio for his contributions to the business and wish him well in his future endeavors," said Read. "Developing relationships with our customers that are grounded in a foundation of trust through consistently delivering on our commitments is critical, and we are making progress toward that goal. AMD enters 2012 with significant momentum, and we are building upon that momentum by embracing the shifts occurring in the industry and marrying market needs with innovative technologies to become a consistent growth engine."

Mr. Ghilardi joined AMD from Hewlett Packard in 2008.

Back in the 1990's, when the software industry knew the 32-bit x86 address-space limitation was closing in, they geared up for transition to another machine architecture, then came AMD64 and EM64T, which allowed an x86 processor to perform in both 64-bit and 32-bit modes. Microsoft didn't want users of its 64-bit Windows to be deprived of using software coded for 32-bit Windows, which was infinitely more in number than 64-bit software. Hence it developed what is known as Windows-on-Windows 64 (WOW64), a translation layer that interfaces 32-bit software and drivers to the 64-bit OS and drivers. With its next major Windows version, Windows 8, Microsoft wants to give the ARM architecture a big push, with a Windows 8 version for ARM computing devices (such as tablets and netbooks). Guess what?

A latest bulletin at MSDN hints at the possibility of Microsoft working on a x86-to-ARM translation layer, which allows you to run desktop windows (Win32) software on Windows 8 ARM, effectively "Windows-on-Windows ARM". Without specifically pointing out the ability to run Win32 software on ARM, the bulletin mentions the ability to run non-metro applications (native Windows) on SoC (system-on-a-chip) architectures. It could also just be a reference to Intel's single-chip SoCs such as Medfield, which are x86-based. If Microsoft pulls off a "WOWARM", it could spell terrible news to Intel, because something such as the hypothetical WOWARM is all that stands between ARM and high-performance desktop PCs. In a market that only has two other competitors (AMD and VIA), dozens more could join in overnight, including NVIDIA's karmic entry after being shunned off an x86 license.

AMD today launched the AMD FirePro V3900, which enables best-in-class workstation experiences at an entry-level price point. By leveraging AMD's latest graphics features, including AMD Eyefinity technology, the AMD FirePro V3900 provides up to 95% better application performance than the competition. The AMD FirePro V3900 will be available in select workstation systems today and will be sold for USD$119 MSRP at select online resellers.

"The AMD FirePro V3900 is the most powerful entry-level professional graphics card on the market today," says Sandeep Gupte, general manager of Professional Graphics, AMD. "Armed with advanced multi-display capability of AMD Eyefinity technology, extensive certifications for professional applications and blazing fast performance, it offers best-in-class value for our technical and business customers."

Gigabyte introduced a new value socket AM3+ motherboard designed for AMD FX processors, the 970A-DS3. Based on the AMD 970 + SB950 chipset, this board is a product of some clever cost-balancing by its designers, which will spice-up both its specs-sheet, and price-tag, compared to the 970A-UD3. To begin with, the 970A-DS3 uses a much lighter component loadout compared to the UD3. The 970A-UD3's Ultra Durable 3 Classic component loadout makes way for Ultra Durable 4 Classic on the 970A-DS3, which includes a better weaved fiberglass PCB that's better resistant to humidity; features high ESD-resistance ICs located in key circuits; anti-surge ICs that prevent installed processors and memory from getting fried if something goes terribly wrong with the VRM; and of course low-RDS (on) MOSFETs and 100% solid-state capacitor design.

The CPU is powered by a simple 5-phase VRM. It is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots supporting up to 32 GB of dual-channel DDR3-1866+ MHz memory. Expansion slots include one PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (wired to the 970), one PCIe 2.0 x16 (electrical 2.0 x4, wired to the SB950), three PCIe x1, and two legacy PCI. Gigabyte didn't cheap-out on the southbridge (by opting for SB710), and so we have a full-fledged SB950, complete with six SATA 6 Gb/s ports supporting RAID5. There are two USB 3.0 ports on the rear-panel, driven by an Etron EJ168 controller. The audio is driven by Realtek ALC887, wired to just a 5.1-channel analog output cluster, apart from the front-panel header. Gigabit Ethernet driven by Realtek 8111E tops it up. Gigabyte included its DualBIOS (AwardBIOS) with the board. Expect this one to be priced around US $100 (or below), making it a nice buy for single-GPU budget gaming-PC builds.

In a significant development, AMD reportedly disclosed at the Financial Analyst Day event that it has begun manufacturing its "Trinity" accelerated processing units (APUs) at IBM's foundries. With the creation of Global Foundries, AMD went fabless, relying on Global Foundries (its former manufacturing division) and the likes of TSMC to manufacture its products. Till date, Global Foundries has handled manufacture of most of AMD's CPU products, and socket FM1 APUs, while BGA APUs and chipset have been manufactured at TSMC.

What makes AMD's partnership with IBM for manufacturing a significant development is the fact that IBM can handle high-volume production, and has a proven track-record with semiconductor manufacturing process R&D, it also holds a wide range of silicon fabrication IP, rivaled only by Intel. Chips manufactured at IBM will only add to the volumes created by Global Foundries, Big Blue won't completely replace it as AMD's foundry partner. The ability to ship in greater volumes plays a significant role in scoring design wins, apart from pure performance of the product. For example, Lenovo would want to be absolutely sure you can ship in large quantities before designing a major product around your chip.

In a footnote of a slide detailing AMD's Trinity A6 APU for Ultrathin notebooks at the company's Financial Analyst Day event, the new chip's 3DMark performance was revealed. The company was talking about the 17W ULV (ultra-low voltage) variant of the "Trinity" APU in the slide, that's designed for compact notebooks. The 3DMark Vantage performance of the APU was measured to be 2,355 points, in the same test, an Intel Core i5-2537M ULV 17W "Sandy Bridge" processor scored 1,158 points. The AMD chip, hence, emerged with a 103% graphics performance lead.

The slide notes that with an assumed performance increase of 30% by the upcoming "Ivy Bridge" architecture, its 3DMark performance is projected to be 1,505 points. The 17W Trinity chip would still end up with a 56% performance lead. Moving on, AMD even revealed the performance of the high-performance A10 "Trinity" APU with 25W TDP, designed for slightly thicker notebooks. This chip scored 3,600 points in 3DMark, which would effectively make it 136% faster than Ivy Bridge at graphics.

Still not officially announced by Dell, the Alienware-branded M18x R2 gaming laptop is rumored to come with some fresh and powerful graphics options from both NVIDIA and AMD. The Santa Clara team (NVIDIA) is said to be supplying two cards for the M18x R2 - the GeForce GTX 660M and GTX 675M (the latter will be available in a SLI configuration), while the Sunnyvale squad (AMD) will deliver the Radeon HD 7970M, in a CrossFireX setup.

Beside the GPU goodies mentioned, the M18x R2 (18.4-inch) laptop is expected to feature an Intel Ivy Bridge CPU, black and red color choices, an optional Wireless HD card, and more. Stay tuned (and save up?).

At its annual Financial Analyst Day, AMD (NYSE: AMD) detailed a new "ambidextrous" strategy that builds on the company's long history of x86 and graphics innovation while embracing other technologies and intellectual property to deliver differentiated products.

AMD is adopting an SoC-centric roadmap designed to speed time-to-market, drive sustained execution, and enable the development of more tailored customer solutions. SoC design methodology is advantageous because it is a modular approach to processor design, leveraging best practice tools and microprocessor design flows with the ability to easily re-use IP and design blocks across a range of products.

Acer has recently rolled out a new Revo series nettop/mini PC, a model called Revo RL70 which measures 209.89 (W) x 209.89 (D) x 35.35 (H) mm and makes use of AMD's E-450 APU boasting two Bobcat cores @ 1.65 GHz and Radeon HD 6320 graphics.

Acer's compact system also has 2 GB of RAM, a 500 GB hard drive, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, a multi-in-one card reader, six USB 2.0 ports, plus D-Sub and HDMI outputs. The Revo RL70(-UR10P) runs Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit and is selling for $329.99.

At the AMD Financial Analyst Day event, Engadget got to take a look at a reference design notebook made by Compal, a high-volume notebook ODM, that's based on AMD's next-generation "Trinity" accelerated processing unit. This reference design is what Compal will send to its downstream OEMs to sample its architecture, features, and performance. The pictures reveal the notebook to be typically-sized, with a thickness of 18 mm, packing a low-voltage variant of the Trinity silicon. It is targeting the $500-600 market, and will be feature-rich, including four "Piledriver" architecture x86-64 cores, Radeon HD 7000M graphics, and the latest-generation connectivity, including USB 3.0, HDMI, and mini-DisplayPort (could this be LightningBolt?).

Today at its annual Financial Analyst Day, AMD has presented an updated roadmap detailing the hardware it plans to bring to the table during 2012 and 2013. For this year, the Sunnyvale-based company is preparing a processor quarter which includes the Trinity, Brazos 2.0 and Hondo APUs (accelerated processing units) and the Vishera CPU.

Set to be the main weapon in AMD's x86 arsenal, the Trinity APU (aka the 2nd gen A Series) is made on 32 nm process technology, and features DirectX 11 graphics, two/four Piledriver cores (Piledrive is said to deliver 25% better performance than the Stars cores found in Llano APUs), and a TDP that can go as low as 17 W on mobile parts. Trinity is expected to debut in Q2 and already has close to 100 design wins (more than Llano had before its release).

Overclocker "Christian Ney" of the HWBOT community claims to have cracked the 6 GHz clock speed mark with an AMD A8-3870K APU, with all four of its cores enabled. The feat consisted of a clock speed of 6067.7 MHz achieved using a base clock of 258.2 MHz and multiplier of 47.0x. The memory was clocked at 3505 MHz, just 95 MHz short of a world-record. The chip was put through a scorching core voltage of 2V. Supporting components included GIGABYTE A75-UD4H motherboard, and GeIL EVO Corsa DDR3 memory. The setup was cooled sub-zero. CPU-Z Validator rejected this submission, probably because like us, it finds 2V vCore and 258.2 MHz base clock unreal for Llano, since it uses a common 100 MHz clock domain for BClk and PCIe.

MAINGEAR, an award-winning PC system builder offering custom desktops, notebooks and workstations has just added AMD Radeon HD 7950 graphics card solution to their award winning up desktop offerings.

Similar to the AMD Radeon HD 7970 graphics, the AMD Radeon HD 7950 series graphics takes your game to new levels for the no-compromise gamer at a more affordable price point. With AMD Radeon 7900 series graphics, the gaming experience is perfected with the new GCN Architecture engineered to deliver jaw-dropping performance and unprecedented image quality. For those gamers looking to get an added advantage, they can add up to six displays with AMD Eyefinity technology and enable unrivalled HD video quality to see every move and make the kill. Those who are not so much into gaming will appreciate the astonishing performance in everyday applications with AMD App Acceleration that allows for faster video encoding, transcoding and decoding.

Tens of thousands people across the world are currently celebrating the Chinese new year as they welcome in the "Year of the Dragon" and Club 3D adds another bang with the introduction of the all brand new Club 3D Radeon HD 7950, followed by the earlier introduction of the Award Winning Radeon HD 7970, the world first 28nm GPU.

With 1792 stream processors, a 384 bit GDDR5 memory bus that provides 3.15 TFLOPs of computing performance, the Club 3D Radeon HD 7950 graphics cards are intended for gamers who never settle. Equipped with AMD Graphics Core Next Architecture and the latest power management technology, this card takes a no-compromise approach to gaming.

Gigabyte flagged off its Radeon HD 7950 lineup with a custom-design graphics card. Carrying the model number GV-R795WF3-3GD, the card makes use of Gigabyte's custom-design WindForce 3 cooling solution strapped on to a more familiar-looking AMD reference design PCB that's colored blue. The WindForce 3 cooler consists of a complex aluminum fin array that draws heat from the GPU, memory, and VRM. Heat is supplied by several copper heat pipes, the heatsink is then ventilated by three 80 mm fans that are tilted in way that maximizes hot air to be pushed out of the rear panel and the top. Overclocked out of the box, the GV-R795WF3-3GD comes with clock speeds of 900 MHz core and 1250 MHz (5.00 GHz effective) memory. It is priced at US $489.99

A leading brand of graphics card maker VTX3D today releases HD7950 based on the latest AMD Tahiti GPU, brings the most revolutionary architectural design and powerful features to all demanding users. VTX3D HD7950 includes support for advanced DirectX 11.1, PCI-E Gen 3 and AMD Eyefinity 2.0, takes HD gaming experience to the ultimate.

VTX3D HD7950 is fitted with 3GB of GDDR5 memory, and together with 384-bit memory interface. Clocks at 800MHz core and 1250MHz (5.0Gbps) memory speed, bringing incredible performance and leaving rival behind. VTX3D HD7950 uses an innovative 28nm GCN Architecture which is designed for improving utilization and ensuring the GPU to make optimal use of its resources for maximum performance. VTX3D HD7950 is also designed to be installed in PCI-E Gen 3 that offers double bandwidth than previous generation, also minimizing latency between CPU and GPU.

Today, leading global graphics card and mainboard manufacturer MSI officially announces the R7950 Twin Frozr 3GD5/OC graphics card built on the latest AMD 28nm Radeon HD7950 GPU with PCI Express Gen 3 support. MSI's exclusive Twin Frozr III thermal design features dual 8cm Propeller Blade fans to achieve up to 10℃ lower GPU temperatures and 13.7dB less noise under full load! MSI's exclusive Afterburner overclocking software can be used to unleash the core and memory voltage potential providing up to 37.5% overclockability!

The R7950 Twin Frozr 3GD5/OC uses Military Class III components include Hi-c CAP, Super Ferrite Choke and All Solid capacitors that have passed MIL-STD-810G level testing to deliver the best graphics card performance and quality to gamers. MSI further expands its R7900 with two new products, the R7970-2PMD3GD5/OC and R7950-2PMD3GD5/OC to provide the best choice for gamers.