JEDEC Solid State Technology Association, the global leader in the development of standards for the microelectronics industry, today announced the publication of JESD232 Graphics Double Data Rate (GDDR5X) SGRAM. Available for free download from the JEDEC website, the new memory standard is designed to satisfy the increasing need for more memory bandwidth in graphics, gaming, compute, and networking applications.

Derived from the widely adopted GDDR5 SGRAM JEDEC standard, GDDR5X specifies key elements related to the design and operability of memory chips for applications requiring very high memory bandwidth. With the intent to address the needs of high-performance applications demanding ever higher data rates, GDDR5X is targeting data rates of 10 to 14 Gb/s, a 2X increase over GDDR5. In order to allow a smooth transition from GDDR5, GDDR5X utilizes the same, proven pseudo open drain (POD) signaling as GDDR5.

"GDDR5X represents a significant leap forward for high end GPU design," said Mian Quddus, JEDEC Board of Directors Chairman. "Its performance improvements over the prior standard will help enable the next generation of graphics and other high-performance applications."

MSI proudly presents the upgraded Gaming All-in-One PC: MSI Gaming 24. Equipped with more powerful hardware than its predecessor, this system is capable and ready to run the newest PC games in full glory. The large 24" Full HD display offers an outstanding gaming experience with fast response times for improved gaming performance. By using the HDMI input, the display can also be used to connect a game console. The display also comes with MSI Anti-flicker technology, to prevent screen flickering and blue light emission through a smartly stabilized power current, thereby reducing eyestrain and fatigue.

The MSI Gaming 24 utilizes Intel's new Skylake-H platform enabling a better CPU performance with reduced power consumption. It supports up to 32 GB dual-channel DDR4 memory to take care of the most demanding tasks. To run the newest games, the system is equipped with a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M or 960M graphics chip. This time with 4GB GDDR5 memory, which is twice as much as its predecessor. The Gaming 24 features the next generation Intel Wireless-AC 3165 Wi-Fi adapter and Killer E2400 Ethernet. Ensuring faster network speeds and prioritization of network traffic for online games.

Today at Autodesk University 2015, AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) unveiled the AMD FirePro W4300 for the best Computer-Aided Design (CAD) performance that fits both small form factor (SFF) and tower workstations. The AMD FirePro W4300 card expertly integrates a powerful GPU and 4GB of GDDR5 memory within a low-profile design for installation in SFF as well as full-sized systems. Organizations can now confidently simplify their IT management by standardizing on a single, capable professional graphics solution throughout their workstation deployment.

The AMD FirePro W4300 professional graphics card is optimized for the latest CAD applications including Autodesk AutoCAD, Inventor as well as Revit, Dassault Systèmes SOLIDWORKS and CATIA, PTC Creo, Siemens NX, and many more. Engineering professionals can efficiently work with large geometry-intense models and apply GPU-accelerated features in their projects, such as the new Order Independent Transparency (OIT) mode supported in SOLIDWORKS. Users can help increase productivity by visualizing their workflows across up to six displays, and up to 4K and 5K resolution.

Here are the first pictures of three AIB-branded Radeon R9 380X graphics cards, including one each from ASUS, XFX, and GIGABYTE. The ASUS branded Radeon R9 380X graphics card, the R9 380X STRIX, features the company's dual-slot, dual-fan DirectCU II cooling solution. ASUS is also giving it a slick back-plate, and offering it in two variants based on factory-overclock (or lack of it).

The XFX branded R9 380X features a similar product size to the ASUS card, featuring a moderately long PCB, and a dual-slot, dual-fan "Double Dissipation" cooler. XFX will sell variants of this card in reference and factory-overclocked speeds. Lastly, there's GIGABYTE. Like the others, this card features a medium-size PCB, with the company's dual-slot WindForce 2X cooling solution. Based on the 28 nm "Tonga" aka "Antigua" silicon, the R9 380X reportedly features 2,048 GCN 1.2 stream processors, 128 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding 4 GB of memory. It's expected to launch later this week.Souces: VideoCardz, HardwareInfo, WCCFTech

There's still a little bit of fight left in the GDDR5 ecosystem against the faster and more energy-efficient HBM standard, which has a vast and unexplored performance growth curve. The new GDDR5X standard offers double the bandwidth per-pin compared to current generation GDDR5, without any major design or electrical changes, letting GPU makers make a seamless and cost-effective transition to it.

In a presentation by a DRAM maker leaked to the web, GDDR5X is touted as offering double the data-rate per memory access, at 64 byte/access, compared to 32 byte/access by today's fastest GDDR5 standard, which is currently saturating its clock/voltage curve at 7 Gbps. GDDR5X breathes a new lease of live to the ageing DRAM standard, offering 10-12 Gbps initially, with a goal of 16 Gbps in the long term. GDDR5X chips will have identical pin layouts to their predecessors, and hence it should cost GPU makers barely any R&D to implement them.

As the leading gaming hardware brand, MSI is excited to launch a new generation of gaming desktop PC's: the MSI Nightblade X2 and MI2. The Nightblade series embody what every gamer craves for: victory. The MSI Nightblade PCs stand out - or better said; do not stand out - because of their size. The Nightblade X2 has a volume of only 16 liters and its smaller brother, the Nightblade MI, comes in an astonishing 10 liter sized shell. Despite their nifty dimensions, the Nightblade X2 & MI2 both house a full sized MSI graphics card. Coupled with Intel Core technology and smart cooling solutions, the MSI Nightblade series are an excellent choice for gaming enthusiasts around the world.

With a full sized graphics card, the Nightblade X2 & MI2 both bring grand graphics for gamers in a small case. While the MI2 equips a GTX 970 with 4GB GDDR5 memory the X2 even comes with the powerful GeForce GTX 980 TI. These graphics cards provide plenty of FPS while playing games in Full HD and in high settings. To top it off, the Nightblade series come with more features such as Intel Core i5 or i7 CPU, the latest Nahimic Sound Technology, M.2 SSD and Super RAID compatibility and MSI Gaming Center software. The next generation MSI Nightblade series are complete and ready-to-go gaming systems and will be available worldwide from the middle of October.

AMD today announced multiple new discrete AMD Embedded Radeon graphics options suitable for multiple form factors. The suite of products is specifically designed to advance the visual and parallel processing capabilities of embedded applications. The graphics cards represent continued AMD commitment to embedded market innovation, providing engineers with more choices to achieve their design goals, from leading performance to energy efficiency.

The new offerings cover a broad range of needs, from 192 GFLOPS to 3 TFLOPS of single precision performance, and from 20 to less than 95 watts of thermal design power. The products are offered as a Multi-Chip Module (MCM), Mobile PCI Express Module (MXM) and PCIe options, with AMD offering the only MCM solutions. All of these products offer extended support and longevity. The new discrete graphics cards offer the right balance of performance, power and graphics memory size, to meet the needs of most customers.

"The demand for rich, vibrant graphics in embedded systems is greater than ever before, and that demand is growing," said Scott Aylor, corporate vice president and general manager, AMD Embedded Solutions. "Our latest additions to the embedded product lineup help designers build mesmerizing user experiences with 4K multi-screen installations and 3-D and interactive displays. In addition, the powerful capabilities of our GPUs can address the toughest parallel compute challenges."

TUL Corporation, a leading and innovative manufacturer of AMD graphic cards since 1997, has proudly announced a new and most powerful graphics card in the world among AMD Radeon R9 390 series. The PowerColor Devil 13 Dual Core R9 390 is packed with dual GRENADA core, designed to tackle the most demanding high end gaming titles on the market. It utilizes 16 GB of GDDR5 memory with a core clock speed at 1000 MHz, and 1350 MHz for memory clock speed which is connected via a new high speed 1024-bit (512-bit x2) memory interface.

PowerColor Devil 13 Dual Core R9 390 is built with carefully-designed Platinum Power Kit and ultra-efficient thermal design. It consists of massive 15-phase power delivery, PowerIRstage, Super Cap and Ferrite Core Choke that provides the stability and reliability for such high-end graphics solution. To support maximum performance and to qualify for the Devil 13 cooling system, 3 Double Blades Fans are attached on top of the enormous surface of aluminum fins heatsink connected with total of 10 pieces of heat pipes and 2 pieces of large die-cast panels. This superb cooling solution achieves a perfect balance between thermal solution and noise reduction. The PowerColor Devil 13 Dual Core R9 390 has the LED backlighting that glows a bright red color, pulsating slowly on the Devil 13 logo.

People with access to an XFX Radeon R9 390X graphics card, took it apart to take a peek at its PCB. What they uncovered comes as no surprise - the underlying PCB is identical in design to AMD reference PCB for the Radeon R9 290X, down the location of every tiny SMT component. At best, the brands on the chokes and bigger conductive polymer caps differ; and 512 Gbit GDDR5 chips under the heatspreader, making up 8 GB of the standard memory amount. The GPU itself, codenamed "Grenada," looks identical to the "Hawaii" silicon which drove the R9 290 series. It's highly unlikely that it features updated Graphics CoreNext 1.2 stream processors, as older rumors suggested.

Back in 2008, when it looked like NVIDIA owned the GPU market, and AMD seemed lagging behind on the performance and efficiency game, the company sprung a surprise. The company's RV770 silicon, the first GPU to implement GDDR5 memory, trounced NVIDIA's big and inefficient GeForce GTX 200 series, and threw AMD back in the game. GDDR5 helped the company double the memory bandwidth, with lower pin- and memory-chip counts, letting the company and its partners build graphics cards with fewer components, and earn great margins, which the company invested in development of its even better HD 5000 series, that pushed NVIDIA with its comical GeForce GTX 480, to hit its lowest ever in market-share. Could AMD be looking at a similar turnaround this summer?

Since the introduction of its Graphics CoreNext architecture in 2012, AMD has been rather laxed in its product development cycle. The company has come out with a new high-end silicon every 18-24 months, and adopted a strategy of cascading re-branding. The introduction of each new high-end silicon would relegate the existing high-end silicon to the performance segment re-branded, and the existing performance-segment silicon to mid-range, re-branded. While the company could lay out its upcoming Radeon R9 series much in the same way, with the introduction of essentially just one new silicon, "Fiji," it could just prove enough for the company. Much like RV770, "Fiji" is about to bring something that could prove to be a very big feature to the consumer graphics market, stacked high-bandwidth memory (HBM).

At its ongoing Investor Day presentation, AMD announced that will continue to make GPUs for every segment of the market. The company is planning to leverage improvements to its Graphics CoreNext architecture for the foreseeable future, but is betting on a huge performance/Watt increase with its 2016 GPUs. The secret sauce here will be the shift to 14 nm FinFET process. It's important to note here, that AMD refrained from mentioning "14 nm," but the mention of FinFET is a reliable giveaway. AMD is expecting a 2x (100%) gain in performance/Watt over its current generation of GPUs, with the shift.

AMD's future GPUs will focus on several market inflection points, such as the arrival of CPU-efficient graphics APIs such as DirectX 12 and Vulkan, Windows 10 pulling users from Windows 7, 4K Ultra HD displays getting more affordable (perhaps even mainstream), which it believes will help it sell enough GPUs to return to profitability. The company also announced an unnamed major design win, which will take shape in this quarter, and which will hit the markets in 2016.

Earlier this day, HP announced its newest line of desktop PCs, one of which comes with a curious-sounding Radeon R9 380 graphics card. HP's product pages for its new desktops aren't active, yet, leaving us to only speculate on what the R9 380 could be. One theory making rounds says that the R9 380 could either be a re-branded R9 285, or be based on its "Tonga" silicon, which physically features 2,048 stream processors based on Graphics CoreNext (GCN) 1.2 architecture, and a 384-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface. Another theory states that the R9 380 could be an OEM-only re-brand of the R9 280 or R9 280X, based on the 3+ year old "Tahiti" silicon.

The former theory sounds more plausible, because re-branding a "Tahiti" based product would be suicidal for AMD. Although based on GCN, "Tahiti" lacks a lot of architecture features introduced with "Hawaii" and "Tonga." AMD practically stopped optimizing games for "Tahiti," and some of its new features, such as FreeSync and XDMA CrossFire, can't be implemented on it. "Tonga," on the other hand, supports both these features, and one can create an SKU with all its 2,048 stream processors, and its full 384-bit GDDR5 memory interface unlocked. If the R9 380 is indeed an OEM-only product, then it's likely that the company's retail-channel products could be branded in the succeeding R9 400 series. GPU makers tend to re-brand and bump their SKUs by a series for OEMs to peddle in their "new" products at short notice.

Eurocom has launched and is now shipping the 15.6" Shark 4 Ultraportable laptop with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M graphics with 2 GB GDDR5, Intel Core i7-4720HQ processor and an optical drive, all in a slim 1.1 inch chassis. "The EUROCOM Shark 4 is another impressive addition to our line of thin and light upgradeable, ultraportable laptops designed to offer high levels of performance in addition to sleek and classy designs as well as ultra-portability and ease of use." Mark Bialic, Eurocom President.

The EUROCOM Shark 4 is one of the few new laptops with an optical drive - we recognized this need for many customers so we listened by offering the Shark 4 with an upgradeable optical drive that can be a DVD drive, Blu-Ray drive or an additional storage drive bay. Upgradeability is a core tenet of all Eurocom systems; the Shark 4 is no different with upgradeable memory, storage, display, wireless card and keyboard. The EUROCOM Shark 4 supports two memory modules for up to 16 GB of DDR3-1600 memory and one M.2 SSD SATA PCIe Gen2 x2/x4 and two 9.5 mm HDD/SSD SATA for up to 2.512 TB of storage.

NVIDIA surprised everyone at its GDC 2015 event, by unveiling its flagship graphics card based on the "Maxwell" architecture, the GeForce GTX TITAN-X. Although the unveiling was no formal product launch, and it didn't come with a disclosure of specs, but a look at the card itself, and a claim by no less than NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang, that the card will be faster than the current-gen dual-GPU GTX TITAN-Z, there are some highly plausible rumors about its specs doing the rounds.

The GTX TITAN-X is a single-GPU graphics card, expected to be based on the company's GM200 silicon. This chip is rumored to feature 3,072 CUDA cores based on the "Maxwell" architecture, and a 384-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding 12 GB of memory. NVIDIA is likely taking advantage of new 8 Gb GDDR5 chips. Even otherwise, achieving 12 GB using 4 Gb chips isn't impossible. The card itself looks nearly identical to the GTX TITAN Black, with its nickel alloy cooler shroud, with two differences - the "TITAN" marking towards the front of the card glows white, while the fan is decked with green lights, in addition to green glowing "GeForce GTX" logo on the top. You get to control the lighting via GeForce Experience. NVIDIA plans to run more demos of the card throughout the week.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced memory technology, announced today that it has begun mass producing the industry's first 8 gigabit (Gb) GDDR5 DRAM, based on the company's leading-edge 20-nanometer (nm) process technology. GDDR5 is the most widely used discrete graphics memory in the world.

Designed for use in graphics cards for PCs and supercomputing applications, and on-board graphics memory for game consoles and notebook PCs, discrete graphics DRAM provides an extensive amount of bandwidth to process large high quality graphically-oriented data streams. With the rising popularity of 3-D games and UHD video content soon to be widespread, the need for high-performance, high-bandwidth graphics memory has begun to rapidly increase.

It's been a year since the AMD Hawaii cards hit the market. The Radeon R9 290 and 290X reached a new level of performance and were the first cards aimed at gaming in 4K Ultra High Definition resolution. Club 3D launched PokerSeries versions of the R9 290 and 290X, targeted at gamers who demand the best looks, the highest framerates, the best cooling performance and great value for money. With the recent price adjustments the Club 3D R9 290(X) royalKing and royalAce versions now offer the highest performance ever at their respective price points.

But we have another Ace up our sleeve, a new member of the highly awarded PokerSeries family. Today we are proud to announce the Club 3D R9 290X 8Gb royalAce, the world's first Single GPU Gaming Card featuring 8192Mb GDDR5 memory. It's OverClocked out of the box for the best performance and packs the latest AMD Graphics Core Next technologies like True Audio, Powertune, XDMA and support for AMD's revolutionary Mantle API. The royalAce is beautifully designed and constructed and is fitted with a triple fan CoolStream cooler and a custom backplate which make it stand out in any serious gaming system.

MSI is proud to announce the availability of the new R9 290X GAMING 8G graphics card. Packed with 8 Gigabyte GDDR5 memory operating at 5500MHz and all the extra features stuffed with it, the new 290X GAMING 8G is sure to drive UltraHD gaming resolutions without any problem. The MSI Twin Frozr IV Advanced ensures your card runs cool so you can enjoy maximum performance while AMD's PowerTune technology enables the R9 290X GAMING 8G to run at highest clock speeds.

With support for the latest industry standards and thrilling new technology such as Mantle support in Battlefield 4. Thanks to the bundled MSI GAMING App gamers can quickly switch between three pre-sets including a silent mode optimized for power efficiency and an overclocking and OC Mode to get the most power out of your graphics card, without worrying about learning how to overclock. The R9 290X GAMING 8G has been designed to give you a fluid and silent gaming experience that delivers you true next-gen performance for 4K UHD resolutions and up, without sacrificing on thermals or noise.

MSI, world-renowned manufacturer in gaming hardware today introduces two 27-inch All-in-One Gaming PCs: AG270 2QE and AG270 2QC, the first in the world featuring the all-new NVIDIA GeForce GTX980M and GTX970M discrete graphics cards. Both PCs are equipped with a 4th gen Intel Core i7 quad-core processor and up to 16GB DDR3 memory to get the maximum out of PC games. The 27-inch display is also one of its kind, including Anti-Flicker and Less Blue Light technology applied to its anti-glare implementation, so gamer's eyes are protected better from eyestrain during long gaming sessions.

MSI is the first manufacturer in the world to develop All-in-One PCs designed for e-Sports, packing a high-performance graphics card into the limited space of a highly-integrated All-in-One PC. The AG270 is the first AIO to introduce the latest NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M/970M discrete graphics card with up to 8GB of GDDR5 RAM. The next-generation NVIDIA Maxwell architecture delivers advanced performance, unmatched power efficiency, and cutting edge features for truly unique ways to game. Gamers will be able to enjoy perfect visuals without lag in both singleplayer or online MP modes in the latest or upcoming PC game titles such as Far Cry 4, Assassins Creed: Unity, and EVOLVE.

At the Game24 event held at several locations around the world, and online, NVIDIA launched its next-generation GeForce GTX 900 series high-end graphics cards, led by the GeForce GTX 980, and the GeForce GTX 970. The two are based on the company's new 28 nm GM204 silicon, derived from the "Maxwell" GPU architecture. The GeForce GTX 980 leads the pack, featuring 2,048 CUDA cores, 128 TMUs, 64 ROPs, and a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding 4 GB of memory.

The GeForce GTX 970, on the other hand, features 1,664 CUDA cores, 104 TMUs, 64 ROPs, and the same memory configuration. Both cards feature TDP rating of under 170W, and clock speeds above the 1 GHz mark. The GTX 980 features clock speeds of 1126 MHz core, 1216 MHz GPU Boost, and 7.00 GHz memory. The GTX 970, on the other hand, offers 1050 MHz core, 1178 MHz GPU Boost, and 7.00 GHz memory. Both cards offer 224 GB/s of memory bandwidth, but feature technologies that help them make the most of it, such as 3rd generation Delta-color compression, a lossless texture compression algorithm. The GeForce GTX 980 starts at US $549, while the GTX 970 starts at $329.

The 8 GB variant of Sapphire's Radeon R9 290X Vapor-X graphics card, which made headlines last month, reached European shores, with leading retailers taking orders. Designed for those attempting dual- or triple-display setups using Ultra HD monitors, the card features 8 GB of memory across the GPU's 512-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, double that of the standard memory amount. It also features a factory overclock, of 1060 MHz core, and 5.60 GHz memory. The card looks otherwise identical to Sapphire's R9 290X Vapor-X series graphics cards. For those on the Isles, the card is stocked up at OCUK for £599.99 (incl. VAT), and for those on the old continent, Caseking.de has it priced at 729.90€ (incl. taxes).

EVGA announced a GeForce GTX 750 model with 2 GB of GDDR5 memory, double its standard memory amount of 1 GB. The card is based on an identical board design to EVGA's GTX 750 base model, and sticks to NVIDIA reference clock speeds of 1020 MHz base, 1085 MHz GPU Boost, and 1253 MHz (5012 MHz GDDR5-effective) memory. EVGA is also planning a factory-overclocked SC (SuperClocked) variant of this card, which comes with out of the box speeds of 1215 MHz base, with 1294 MHz GPU Boost frequencies, while leaving the memory clock untouched. The GTX 750 2 GB from EVGA is priced at US $129.99, and its SuperClocked variant at a $10 premium.

A renowned brand of graphics card maker - VTX3D, has released R9 290X/ R9 290 X-Edition with dual fan cooling design. The two very best graphics cards use great quality power design and custom dual fan cooling solution, delivering faster, cooler and quieter performance to all gamers.

New VTX3D R9 290X/ R9 290 X-Edition, both are equipped with 4 GB of the latest high performance GDDR5 memory connected via 512 bit memory interface. R9 290X X-Edition runs core engine at 1030 MHz and 1250 MHz for memory; R9 290 X-Edition runs at 975/1250 MHz for core/memory; both are 30 MHz higher than reference design in engine clock, providing excellent performance and ultimate gaming power to every enthusiastic gamer.

In a move by NVIDIA that could present enthusiasts with deep pockets more options in the high-end GPU segment, the company is planning not one, but two high-end graphics cards for this quarter (January to March). The company is planning to follow up its February launch of the GeForce GTX TITAN Black Edition with a dual-GPU card based on the GK110 silicon, presumably named "GeForce GTX 790." The card will be launched some time in March, and could help NVIDIA hold onto its own until it can make high-end GPUs on the teething next-generation 20 nm silicon fab process.

The GeForce GTX TITAN Black Edition replaces the GTX TITAN with a product that's not too different from the GTX 780 Ti in terms of core-configuration, but one that comes with 6 GB of memory, full double-precision floating point performance, and probably higher clock speeds. It offers the full complement of 2,880 CUDA cores, 240 TMUs, 48 ROPs, and a 384-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface. This card could displace the current GTX TITAN from its $999 price-point.

AMD is rolling out two new Radeon SKUs to bolster its lineup below the $179.99 price-point held by the Radeon R9 270. The names of these SKUs might confuse the heck out of you, the TechPowerUp reader, and our hearts go out to the target buyers of these products, but bear with us - Radeon R9 255 and Radeon R9 260. Not to be confused with similar-sounding Radeon R7 250 and Radeon R7 260, the two SKUs are positioned in the Radeon R9 series, and could offer either higher performance levels than what the R7 260X manages, or it could also be a sly marketing move by AMD to make the lower-mainstream part of its lineup look more appealing to buyers of pre-built mainstream desktops that are "gaming ready."

There are two pieces of evidence to support the existence of the two. First, AMD updated its website to show R9 255 and R9 260 in the Radeon R9 section of its OEM products page. Second, on close inspection of the driver information (.inf) file of Catalyst 13.12 WHQL, we sniffed out three curious looking device IDs, which point at products going by those names. Selling an SKU named "Radeon R9 260" could work well for AMD's "Never Settle for anything less than AMD Radeon R9 Series graphics" marketing campaign.

As if one GTX 780 Lightning wasn't enough, MSI is currently preparing the release of another such card, a 'Lite Edition' with the same features but lower clocks. The LE model comes with 889/941 MHz Base/Boost GPU clocks while the already-released GTX 780 Lightning is set to 980/1033 MHz.

The GTX 780 Lightning LE also has Military Class components, a 10-layer PCB, a GPU Reactor for improved overclocking stability, a TriFrozr cooler, Pure Digital PWM Control, Twin BIOS, a 16+3 phase power design, and the 'usual' - 2304 CUDA Cores, 3 GB of GDDR5 memory set to 6008 MHz, and dual-DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort output. The card's price tag has not been revealed.