Leading graphics card and motherboard manufacturer, MSI, is launching today R5570-MD1G graphics card in low-profile design to meet the demands of home theatre personal computer (HTPC) users. Powered by ATI Radeon HD 5570 GPU supporting DirectX 11 and Dolby 7.1 channels loss-less surround stereo and equipped with HDMI output for Full HD movie playback, MSI R5570-MD1G is featured with the compact size benefited from the low-profile design, making the product the best-ever choice for building any HTPC.

The brand new MSI R5570-MD1G features as low-profile design to fit the HTPC conventionally with limited space, especially for smaller or slim cases. On the other hand, the low-profile design is good for thermal dissipation to facilitate interior air ventilation. Ultimately, the mini size of R5570-MD1G makes installation much easier and more convenient.

Club 3D unveiled a 'custom-designed' graphics card based on the ATI Radeon HD 5850 GPU, being sold as the Overclocked Edition. The design of this accelerator resembles that of PowerColor's PCS+ series HD 5800 series accelerators, pointing back at its source. The card features a custom PCB and cooling solution which makes some smart cost-cutting in return for out of the box higher clock speeds. The GPU and memory are clocked at 760 MHz and 1050 MHz (4200 MHz effective), respectively, against reference speeds of 725/1000 MHz.

The cooling system involves a large heatsink with aluminum fins, to which heat is conveyed by four heat pipes. A centrally-located fan blows air on to it. The Radeon HD 5850 GPU is DirectX 11 compliant, features 1440 stream processors, and connects to 1 GB of memory on this card, across a 256-bit GDDR5 memory interface. The display connectivity, we presume, resembles that of the reference design, with two DVI-D, and one each of HDMI and DisplayPort connectors. Club 3D is yet to announce its price.

The XFX ATI Radeon HD 5450 graphics card offers everything you need for gaming and HD home entertainment in one package. Available in multiple low profile configuration options, including DisplayPort or HDMI, and passive or active cooling. Choose the model that's right for you. Enjoy the array of features the XFX ATI Radeon HD 5450 Graphics Card offers.

Do more on your PC with ATI stream technology, which accelerates even the most demanding applications. See more with ATI Eyefinity technology, providing the ultimate gaming experience by allowing up to three displays from a single graphics board.

AMD today announced the introduction of the ATI Radeon HD 5450 graphics card, the latest addition to the award-winning line-up of ATI Radeon HD 5000 Series graphics cards. The ATI Radeon HD 5450 graphics card delivers a state-of-the-art HD multimedia and game experience at a value price. Sharing the same leading edge features found in the critically-acclaimed ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series - support for DirectX 11, ATI Eyefinity multi-display technology and ATI Stream technology - the ATI Radeon HD 5450 provides an uncompromising Microsoft Windows 7 experience.

Sapphire is ready with its entry-level DirectX 11 compliant graphics card based on the new ATI Radeon HD 5450. The design is a low-profile capable single-slot accelerator, with passive cooling for silent operation. This gives us a rough idea of how the move to 40 nm process helped AMD's lowest-end GPUs. This particular card has 1 GB of DDR2 memory across a 64-bit wide memory interface. As a first sighting, you can see ATI-branded memory chips on this card. Display connectivity includes DVI-D, HDMI (with 7.1ch audio), and D-Sub which protrudes out. A set of low-profile brackets is also bundled. The Cedar GPU bundles 80 stream processors and a 64-bit wide memory interface. Expect the card to be released soon, at a price targeting the sub-$50 segment.

MSI is readying a new ATI Radeon HD 5770 based graphics card with its new "HAWK" branding. Its design will involve overclocking headroom, and a cooler superior to the reference design in terms of cooling performance. The MSI R5770 HAWK is said to feature "Military Grade" components, and a cooler which looks like a shrunk version of the Twin Frozr II found on many of MSI's Lightning series graphics cards. Another interesting feature is its voltage measure points that pop out by two wires. These let you measure vGPU and vMem voltages. The PCB features just one CrossFire finger. Display connectivity includes one each of DVI-D, HDMI, and DisplayPort. The AMD Juniper GPU powering it is DirectX 11 compliant, features 800 stream processors, and 128-bit GDDR5 memory interface, with which it connects to 1 GB of memory. There's no word on the release date or price yet, but we expect it to be out very soon.

AMD today released the ATI Catalyst 10.1 driver suite, this year's first. The suite provides drivers and system software for ATI Radeon products (including Radeon HD 5900, 5800, 5700, 5600, HD 4000 series), AMD 7-series chipsets, All-in-Wonder, and Theater multimedia products. The new set of drives brings in application-specific performance improvements, OS and application bug-fixes, and new features. Notable ones are listed below:

• Left 4 Dead 2 - Overall performance improves as much as 3% on ATI Radeon HD 5700 series products and ATI Radeon HD 5800 series products
• Crysis - Performance improves as much as 3% on ATI Radeon HD 5700 series products and as much as 4% on ATI Radeon HD 5800 series products

DOWNLOAD: ATI Catalyst 10.1 WHQL for Windows 7/Vista 32-bit | Windows 7/Vista 64-bit | Windows XP 32-bit | Windows XP 64-bit

For a complete list of changes specific to your OS, refer to the Release Notes document.

Renowned overclocker Chew* set a speed record for AMD's new value dual-core processor, the Athlon II X2 255. Based on the Regor core, the X2 255 is a monolithic dual-core chip, with just two physical cores on die, and additional L2 cache, with no L3 cache. This cuts the TDP of the chip to 65W. On the bench built by Chew*, the X2 255 reached 4800.1 MHz, with a BClk of 320.01 MHz, multiplied by 15.0. The chip's natural multiplier value is 15.5x, its stock speed is 3.10 GHz. A VCore of 1.696 Volts was set.

The processor was cooled using a Mach 1 phase cooler. The bench consisted of an Athlon II X2 255, Gigabyte GA-MA785GPMT-UD2H motherboard - another mainstream component which proved its mettle, OCZ DDR3 1600 MHz Black Edition certified memory, PC Power & Cooling 1200W PSU, and ATI Radeon HD 4890 graphics. The CPU-Z validation for this feat can be found here. In the same occasion, Chew* could overclock the chip to 4050 MHz using a reference AMD CPU cooler (which comes bundled with higher-end AMD chips). More pictures at the source.

AMD is just about complete with its top-to-bottom lineup of DirectX 11 compliant GPUs, whose series is codenamed Evergreen. Under this, the company has a GPU and its derivative targeted at almost every price point, from the entry-level Radeon HD 5450, to the fastest graphics card - Radeon HD 5970. With the onset of NVIDIA's first current-generation GPU codenamed Fermi, NVIDIA might attempt to reclaim the performance crown, and infuse competition in the higher-end segment. Currently there's no news of lower-end derivatives of Fermi.

Probably in response to Fermi, AMD is readying a new GPU architecture slated for release within this calendar year, in the second half. "We are ramping the ATI Radeon HD 5000 series now and look forward to refreshing the entire lineup in the second half of next year," said Dirk Meyer, chief executive officer of AMD, during quarterly conference call with financial analysts. His reference to "next year" was of next fiscal year (FY 2010), in context of him speaking at a quarterly conference call with financial analysts for FY 2009. The new series of GPUs is codenamed "Northern Islands". At this point in time, nothing much is known about the new GPU series. TSMC, AMD's main foundry partner for GPUs and motherboard chipsets, earlier claimed that it will be ready with a 28 nm production node by the end of this year. Whether the new GPU series makes use of the new fab technology is anybody's guess.

As we previously reported, MSI is working on a Lightning Edition of the ATI Radeon HD 5870. The card will be designed with overclockers in mind and comes with two 8-pin PCI-Express power connectors for maximum power delivery. It also has easily accessible measuring points for the GPU voltages - a voltmodder's dream. Today we received several new pictures from an anonymous source in Taiwan that shows the card in all its glory.More pictures below the fold.

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co., Ltd., a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards today is pleased to announce their latest GV-R5600 series graphics cards. GIGABYTE's GV-R567OC-1GI and GV-R567D5-512I are built on the highly anticipated ATI Radeon HD 5600 Series GPUs ─which utilizes the latest 627 million transistors on 40nm fabrication process and GDDR5 memory. GIGABYTE GV-R567OC-1GI and GV-R567D5-512I provide Microsoft DirectX 11, ATI Stream technology, ATI CrossFireX multi-GPU support, UVD 2 and PowerPlay. GIGABYTE GV-R5600 series are also equipped with GIGABYTE unique features including Ultra Durable 2 technology, and native HDMI port for HD gaming and Blue-ray movie playback.

The GIGABYTE GV-R567OC-1GI and GV-R567D5-512I feature ATI's latest 2nd Generation TeraScale graphics engine, boasting the power of more than 620 GigaFLOPS with 400 stream processors respectively. With 1GB and 512MB GDDR5 memory, the GV-R567OC-1GI and GV-R567D5-512I provide twice the data per pin of GDDR3 memory at the same clock speeds. Utilizing ATI Stream Technology, end-user can easily unleash the massive parallel processing power of GPU for physics, artificial intelligence, stream computing and ray tracing calculations, and tackle demanding tasks like video transcoding with incredible speed.

All gamers were not created equal - until now. XFX is pleased to introduce the XFX ATI Radeon HD 5670 Graphics Card, offering the latest technology at a price that is transforming not only how the game is played, but who's playing it.

Designed for power users who want an immersive 3D gaming experience, as well as powerful content and entertainment capabilities, the XFX ATI Radeon HD 5670 Graphics Card delivers the ultimate work/play punch. Capable of supporting the latest DirectX 11 games, users enjoy significant gains in gaming potential over DirectX 10.1. And, with Microsoft 7 support, users enjoy fast and easy video playback, editing and content transfer.

AMD today introduced the ATI Radeon HD 5670 graphics card, the latest addition to the award-winning line-up of the world's first and only graphics products to fully support Microsoft DirectX 11 gaming and computing, as well as new innovations such as ATI Eyefinity technology. Priced at less than USD $100, the ATI Radeon HD 5670 graphics card enables a superior HD gaming experience in the latest DirectX 11 titles, employs ATI Stream technology to boost performance in video playback and productivity applications, and helps enable the full Microsoft Windows 7 experience.

HIS released a custom-design graphics card based on the ATI Radeon HD 5770 GPU, part of its generally cost-effective "Fan" series. The HIS HD 5770 Fan 1GB (H577FL1GDG) uses a GPU cooler which uses heat pipes to transfer heat to a circular aluminum fin array surrounding a fan. Unlike with older Fan series models (such as the HD 4850 Fan) which had seemingly skimpy cooling, HIS placed a plastic shroud on top of the cooler. It uses reference AMD clock speeds: 850 MHz (core), 1200 MHz (memory), and sports 1 GB of GDDR5 memory across a 128-bit interface. Connectivity includes one each DVI-D, HDMI, and DisplayPort. It is expected to be priced around $140~$150.

At the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show, AMD today announced the shipment of its two millionth DirectX 11-capable graphics processor to its technology partners, cementing AMD graphics as the standard for DirectX 11 computing. This millions-shipped milestone comes just three months after the launch of the ATI Radeon HD 5800 series, the first DirectX 11-capable graphics products from AMD. The fast pace with which AMD delivered two million next-generation GPUs is a result of an aggressive execution of the AMD "Sweet Spot" graphics strategy which positioned the company to more rapidly bring DirectX 11 products to market across high-volume segments and popular price points, in combination with the positive reception of AMD's DirectX 11-capable graphics technology from PC users worldwide.

"Today's milestone underscores the ingenuity and innovation that AMD poured into the DirectX 11-capable ATI Radeon Premium Graphics products," said Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager, Products Group, AMD. "Fifteen weeks ago we introduced the ATI Radeon HD 5800 series graphics cards to the world, the first to support DirectX 11 and powerful capabilities like ATI Eyefinity multi-display technology, with support for Direct Compute 11. Over the course of the last few months, we've shipped tens of thousands of DirectX 11-capable graphics processors a week to technology partners who in turn put them into consumers' hands. With this week's introduction of the DirectX 11-capable notebook counterparts to our desktop family in the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5000 series, an even larger base of users will enjoy the best visual computing experience available today."

Toshiba's Digital Products Division (DPD), a division of Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., today expanded its line of Satellite T100 Series ultra-thin laptops to include models equipped with processors from AMD, delivering enhanced multimedia processing power to the ultra-thin category.

Satellite T100 Series laptops are designed for those looking for a stylish ultra-thin form factor that delivers a balance of performance, features and affordability needed for everyday mobility. New configurations based on the AMD Neo platform deliver the versatility of dual-core processor performance, plus ATI Radeon graphics that enhance the laptop's multimedia prowess.

Lenovo today unveiled 11 new IdeaPad laptops and IdeaCentre desktops at the 2010 International Consumer Electronics Show that demonstrate the company's re-energized commitment to personal computing design and engineering specifically for consumers. The new IdeaPad laptop PCs - S10-3t, S10-3, Y460, Y560, G460, G560, V460 and V360 and IdeaCentre desktop PCs - A300, C310 and K320 - include industry leading design and technology that will help enhance performance, style and entertainment capabilities across Lenovo's consumer products lineup.

"Our new Idea PCs are the next step in our exciting new worldwide product portfolio designed with the consumer in mind," said Liu Jun, senior vice president, Idea Product Group, Lenovo. "These additions to our Idea portfolio demonstrate Lenovo's commitment to giving our customers the capabilities they expect, at prices they can afford, while showcasing our forward-thinking innovations."

MSI is designing a high-end graphics card based on the ATI Radeon HD 5870, to be featured in its Lightning series of overclocking-friendly graphics cards. A PCB drawing of the same surfaced recently, revealing a taller than usual PCB, with a high-grade VRM to support high-levels of overclocking, among other noticeable features. The PCB seems to have a 12-phase vGPU and 3-phase vMEM, it is fed by two 8-pin PCI-E power connectors, though it remains to be seen if MSI places two actual 8-pin connectors. Some parts of the PCB make use of high-C surface-mount capacitors. The display connectivity cluster seems to be identical to that of the reference design PCB, with two DVI-D, and one each of HDMI and DisplayPort. It is likely that MSI uses a high-end cooler for this card, perhaps similar to the Twin Frozr II design. More information will surface during the upcoming CES event.

AMD's lower-mainstream DirectX 11 compliant graphics card slated for Q1-2010, the ATI Radeon HD 5670 has been pictured and detailed, sourced from a [H]ardOCP HardForum community member. The HD 5600 series is based on a 40 nm GPU codenamed "Redwood". From the specifications the GPU-Z screenshot shows, it has a 50% downscaled SIMD engine, with 400 stream processors, while it retains the 128-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, with 16 ROPs. Assuming the clock speeds shown in the screenshot to be the reference speeds, they are 775 MHz for the core, and 1000 MHz for the 1 GB of memory (resulting in 64 GB/s of memory bandwidth).

An engineering-sample of the card has also been pictured, revealing a red-colored PCB breaking away from the black PCB scheme of the rest of the HD 5000 series. The card draws all its power from the PCI-Express slot. The GPU cooler consists of a simple heatsink with radially-projecting metal fins, in which is nested a fan. Output connectivity includes DVI, HDMI, and D-Sub, though the leads behind the D-Sub connector shows that offering a DisplayPort in its place might be possible.

HIS is readying its second non-reference design Radeon HD 5750 graphics cards with the HD 5750 IceQ+. This model continues in the series of IceQ series graphics cards from the company, which come with superior, quieter cooling, while also being visually appealing and reactive to UV case lighting. The HIS HD 5750 IceQ+ seems to be using the reference design PCB, albeit in blue color.

At the heart of it is the DirectX 11 compliant ATI Radeon HD 5750 GPU with 720 stream processors, aided by 1 GB of memory across a 128-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface. The GPU is clocked at 700 MHz, with the memory at 1150 MHz. Display output connectivity includes DVI-D, HDMI with 7.1 channel audio, and DisplayPort. The card draws power from one 6-pin PCI-Express power connector. It is CrossfireX capable. Bundled in the package are Bumptop 3D desktop environment software, and a coupon for Dirt 2. It is expected to be priced around 130~140 EUR.

MSI is readying a new redesigned ATI Radeon HD 5770 1 GB graphics card. The new R5770-PM2D1G probably replaces the existing one with the same model number, which uses the AMD reference design PCB and cooler. The new design is also looking like a reference design since other board partners are also opting for it, albeit it looks to be simpler. This could also be cheaper to manufacture, and could help bring down prices of the Radeon HD 5770.

The new cooler design consists of the round GPU cooler often spotted on design prototypes from AMD. From its base arise two copper heatpipe that form a circular frame, holding a densely-packed aluminum fin array that projects radially from the center. An 80 mm fan is nested within, blowing air onto these fins, dissipating heat. A plastic shroud sits on top of it, holding the manufacturer graphic. The PCB appears to have remained the same. With this cost cutting, the new MSI HD 5770 1 GB could be had for 130 EUR.

AMD today announced the flagship installment in the award-winning line of graphics cards, the ATI Radeon HD 5970, the fastest card ever created. The new ultra high-end model joins a growing list of the world's first and only graphics cards to fully support Microsoft DirectX 11 technology and ATI Eyefinity multi-display technology.

Designed to support the most demanding PC games at ultra-high resolutions and image quality settings, the ATI Radeon HD 5970 has unlocked overclocking potential, granting access to every bit of power the card has to offer through ATI Overdrive technology. Now shipping from retailers and available in the channel, the ATI Radeon HD 5970 also launches today in new Alienware Area-51, Area-51 ALX and Aurora desktop PCs.

AMD published its near-monthly installment of the ATI Catalyst Software Suite, which provides essential drivers for the company's ATI Radeon graphics processors, AMD 7-series chipset IGPs, ATI multimedia products, and the AMD FireStream GPGPU processors. Version 9.11 announced today, comes with the same hardware support base as the older version, includes two new features, and carries the usual application-specific fixes.

New features include GPU Acceleration of H.264 video content using Adobe Flash Player 10.1 Beta, and High Quality downscaling for video transcoding MSE. The release of ATI Catalyst, according to AMD, supports the new Hardware Acceleration features of Adobe Flash Player 10.1 Beta for video encoded in the H.264 format. Adobe Flash Player 10.1 Beta introduces hardware-based H.264 video decoding to deliver smooth video playback, reduce system resource utilization, and preserve battery life. Hardware acceleration is supported on all existing Radeon HD 5000 and HD 4000 series graphics processors. The release of ATI Catalyst includes an enhancement for the ATI Video converter for users transcoding high quality interlaced content (1920x1080i @60i videos) down to small resolution progressive content (320x240 @30p - iPod videos as an example), by maintaining high visual quality when down-scaling by a significant amount and converting interlaced video content to progressive. For a list of minor issues fixed in the release, refer to the Release Notes document.

DOWNLOAD: ATI Catalyst 9.11 WHQL for Windows 7/Vista 32-bit | Windows 7/Vista 64-bit | Windows XP 32-bit | Windows XP 64-bit

In a few days from now, AMD will unveil its new flagship graphics accelerator, the ATI Radeon HD 5970, which will intends to cement the brand's performance leadership over every product from rival NVIDIA. The HD 5970, codenamed "Hemlock", is a dual-GPU accelerator, with two codenamed "Cypress" GPUs in an internal CrossfireX configuration.

Built on the 40 nm process, these GPUs will feature 1600 stream processors each, and will each have a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface to connect to 2 GB of memory (4 GB total on card). The clock speeds are where the specifications of these GPUs differ from their single-GPU avatar, the Radeon HD 5870. The core is clocked at 725 MHz, while the memory runs at 1000 MHz (4000 MHz effective).

The accelerator will not have a rear panel identical to those of other Radeon HD 5000 series accelerators. It has the usual broad air vent occupying one slot, while the other has two DVI-D and one mini DisplayPort (DP) connector. The mini DP connector can give out DVI output using a dongle, and in this way, support for ATI Eyefinity technology remains intact. The NDA covering this accelerator is said to expire on the 19th of November, not very far away.

AMD released the latest version of its ATI Catalyst software suite. Version 9.10 WHQL brings with it official support for the company's newest ATI Radeon HD 5800 series graphics processors, adds features that enhance usability under Windows 7, along with the usual list of bug fixes. The driver also adds support for Super Sample Anti-Aliasing, for Radeon HD 5800 GPUs. A complete list of changes can be read in the release notes document. The most important of them are listed below:

• ATI Catalyst 9.10 now includes full GPU support for the award winning ATI HD Radeon 5800 series GPUs.
• Provides support for a new Anti-Aliasing method on the ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series. Users can now experience the high level of anti-aliasing image quality using Super Sampling anti-aliasing while maintaining good performance levels
• Adds GPU acceleration for the Windows 7 Drag and Drop video converting application

DOWNLOAD: ATI Catalyst 9.10 WHQL for Windows 7/Vista 32-bit | Windows 7/Vista 64-bit | Windows XP 32-bit | Windows XP 64-bit