NVIDIA today announced the GeForce GTX 690, the world's fastest consumer graphics card -- with a bold industrial design to match. Powered by dual Kepler architecture-based GeForce GPUs, the GTX 690 is meticulously designed -- inside and out -- to deliver the most refined, elegant and smooth PC gaming experience possible.

The surprise announcement was made by NVIDIA CEO and co-founder Jen-Hsun Huang during his keynote address at the NVIDIA Game Festival in Shanghai, which is being attended by more than 6,000 gamers from across China.

Galaxy Microsystems, a leading manufacturer of custom high-performance NVIDIA graphics cards, announced today the GeForce GTX 680 GC 2 GB - the world's first non-reference GTX 680 design to be approved by NVIDIA.

The custom Galaxy build features a fully redesigned PCB, factory overclocked GPU for extra performance, and a high-efficiency dual fan cooling solution.

The Galaxy GTX 680 GC's custom dual fan cooler is built with specially designed fan blades that significantly reduce noise even at high speeds for a quieter card and more enjoyable gaming experience. These fans are encased in a sleek aluminum shroud with LED effects for a cool, high-tech aesthetic.

Here are the first pictures of KFA2 GeForce GTX 680 Hall of Fame (HOF) Edition, an exclusive to markets KFA2, Galaxy's Europe brand, has a presence in. British retailer Overclockers UK listed the card for pre-order, it goes for £529.99, including VAT (US $854). The card features non-reference PCB and cooling assembly, its PCB dons a white color, which sets it apart from every other GTX 680 graphics card. The GeForce GTX 680 GPU is accompanied by 2 GB of GDDR5 memory across a 256-bit wide memory interface. The GPU is overclocked out of the box, with base core speed of 1202 MHz, boost core speed of 1267 MHz, and memory speed of 1502 MHz (6008 MHz GDDR5 effective).

The PCB implements bleeding-edge voltage regulation circuitry, that includes CPL-made single-phase chokes, International Rectifier DirectFET, and tantalum capacitors - stuff that's fit for avionics. The VRM is make up of an 8+2+2 phase circuit. The card draws power from two 8-pin PCIe power connectors. A Galaxy GX31 custom controller governs the VRM, providing software voltage control, voltage monitoring and power draw monitoring over SMBUS. The cooling solution is Galaxy's proven triple-fan cooler, which has been used on older Galaxy/KFA2 graphics cards. The cooler utilizes a long aluminum fin array, to which heat is conveyed by several copper heat pipes. It is then ventilated by three 90 mm LED-lit fans. Display outputs include one standard-sized DisplayPort, and three mini-DisplayPort connectors. According to OCUK, the KFA2 GTX 680 HOF Edition will start shipping on May 11.

Galaxy introduced its Alloy series of entry-level PSUs for gaming PCs. These include two models to begin with, the Alloy PG-400, and Alloy PG-350. The PG-400 offers continuous output of 400W, with maximum output of 450W, while the PG-350 offers 350W continuous and 400W maximum power outputs. Both models offer switching efficiency over 80%, that makes it worthy of 80 Plus (white) rating. Both models feature dual-forward switching topology, with active PFC. The PSUs are also designed with 130 mm YL fans with oil-free nano-bearings that work to reduce noise and increase life. The PSUs pack just enough cabling for single graphics card PCs, they include 6+2 pin PCIe power cables, and 4+4 pin ATX/EPS power cables. More information is awaited.

Galaxy released a picture of a new GeForce GTX 680 graphics card it's working on, a liquid-cooled model that beats EVGA's GTX 680 HydroCopper at being truly single-slot capable. It does this by using the 6-pin and 8-pin PCIe power connectors in the same plane, instead of using an 8+6 pin piggy-backed connector that spans across two expansion slots. Also changed here is the stacked DVI connector cluster, it's replaced by two mini-DisplayPort connectors next to a full-size HDMI and a full-size DisplayPort. The card uses a full-coverage water-block, with its coolant ports protruding outwards on top, so enthusiasts will have plumb out tubing for each card in SLI setups, and can't use conventional multi-port fittings, unless of course, Galaxy has a solution for that. More details are awaited.

Single-slot advocates [in Asia, and select markets], your prayers are answered. Galaxy is working on a single-slot, air-cooled GeForce GTX 680. With a name that translates to "GeForce GTX 680 Warriors' Edition", Galaxy's card takes advantage of the fact that since very compact GK104 PCBs can be made, if dual-slot coolers are used, and since the TDP of the chip is a manageable 195W, the equation can be turned around to make long single-slot graphics cards.

Pictured below is the graphics card, with its [apparently] long cooler that protrudes beyond the length of the PCB. The cooler follows the same design principle at work in coolers of GeForce 8800 GT and Radeon HD 4850, that of a compact lateral-flow fan guiding air through a dense network of copper channels, where heat is dissipated to the air. These copper channels draw heat from a copper plate (probably vapor-chamber, in Galaxy's case), which makes contact with all hot components on the PCB, including the GPU, memory chips, and VRM. Hot air is guided out, from the top of the card. There is no further information about this card.

Apart from the GeForce GTX 680 4 GB, NVIDIA's major AIC partner Galaxy, is also working on the GTX 680 Hall of Fame (HOF) Edition. Galaxy uses the "HOF" marker to designate its highest-grade custom-design products, with the highest out of the box OC, and headroom. Galaxy unveiled an unfinished prototype of this card, along with a presentation of what it will look like, when finished, at a media event in China. The card will use the same exact cooling assembly as the one used on its GTX 580 Multi-Display graphics card. This cooler uses a complex set of aluminum fin heatsinks to which heat is conveyed by copper heat pipes, and which are ventilated by three 90 mm fans. The cooler shroud is illuminated by blue LEDs.

Under the cooler of GTX 680 HOF, is a milky-white PCB (Galaxy is known for white PCBs on high-end graphics cards). The card uses an 8+2+2 phase VRM, which reportedly makes use of International Rectifier DirectFETs, and high-grade chokes, although still an analog design. The VRM controller will be Galaxy's custom GX31 chip, with software voltage control, voltage monitoring, and power-draw monitoring. The card draws power from two 8-pin PCIe power connectors.

Galaxy is working on a new GeForce GTX 680 graphics card. Pictures below reveal the Galaxy GTX 680 4 GB. As the name suggests, it is a non-reference design that's based on doubling the memory amount. The card features an out-of-the-box core OC of 1.10 GHz (base, boost not mentioned).

It did this, by using sixteen 2 Gbit GDDR5 memory chips. There's more to this card than its memory amount. The PCB is designed from scratch, and uses a strong 5+2 phase VRM, which draws power from 6+8 pin power connectors. The VRM appears to make use of International Rectifier-made DirectFETs. Perhaps Galaxy also went off-spec with the VRM controller, and maybe it supports a software interface. The cooler is an in-house design by Galaxy, too. It consists of a large heat-pipe fed aluminum fin array, ventilated by two 90 mm fans.

Apple seems to have a revolving door for legal actions as of late. Today the Chicago Tribune is reporting Apple has asked a federal court in California to block Samsung from selling its new Galaxy Nexus smartphones, which use Google's newest version of Android, called Ice Cream Sandwich, alleging four patent violations including new features such as a voice-command search function.

Galaxy Nexus, the official debut of which was delayed by Samsung in October to pay respect to Apple's co-founder Steve Jobs, is the first phone running on the newest Android version before the platform is widely adopted by hardware manufacturers such as HTC Corp and Motorola Mobility. HTC and Motorola are also in separate patent disputes with Apple. In a lawsuit filed last week in San Jose, Apple said the Galaxy Nexus infringes on patents underlying features customers expect from Apple products. Those include the ability to unlock phones by sliding an image and to search for information by voice.

Galaxy, better known for its NVIDIA GeForce graphics cards in the western world, sells more than that in its home country China, where it unveiled its Laser GT series consumer SSDs. Built in the common 2.5-inch SATA form-factor these drives use the SATA 6 Gb/s interface, and are driven by SandForce SF-2281 SSD controllers. Pictured below is its 120 GB model. The drive offers maximum sequential transfer speeds of 550 MB/s (read), and 500 MB/s (write), with 4K random performance of 30,000 IOPS reads, and 41,000 IOPS writes. It makes use of MLC NAND flash with 5,000 rewrite cycle life. The 120 GB Laser GT variant is priced at 1,399 RMB, that's about US $221.

Here are the first pictures of Galaxy's GeForce GTX 550 Ti Display4 graphics card, designed exclusively for Asian markets. As its name might suggest, it is a GeForce GTX 550 Ti based graphics card designed to support up to four displays. The card uses an IDT VMM 1403 display output logic chip that lets it effectively make use of the total resolution the GPU supports. The redesigned display logic supports a total resolution of 5760 x 1080. Spread across four displays, you get 1440 x 1080 per display, or spread it across three displays to get 1920 x 1080 per display. Apart from four DVI connectors, its output logic makes room for a mini-HDMI connector.

The GeForce GTX 550 Ti is aided by 1 GB of GDDR5 memory across a 192-bit wide memory interface. It is powered by a 3+1 phase VRM controlled by Galaxy's in-house G-Engine chip. The GTX 550 Ti packs 192 CUDA cores, and clock speeds of 950 MHz core, 1900 MHz CUDA cores, and 1025 MHz (4.10 GHz effective) GDDR5 memory. Galaxy also used its in-house "Glaciator" cooler, which makes use of a heat-pipe fed heatsink ventilated by a large central fan. This can can be partially detached to help clean it, and the portion of the heatsink directly underneath it. Galaxy's GTX 550 Ti Display4 is priced at RMB 999 (converts to US $157).

Here are some of the first pictures of an unreleased custom design GeForce GTX 580 graphics card by Galaxy, given out by the good folks at HardOCP. It may look like yet another GTX 580 graphics card with a beefy cooling solution, but it's a little more than that. To begin with, it has a redone display logic that gives it a total resolution of 5760 x 1080. This means that three 1920 x 1080 displays can be connected to it without needing another card. Its display outputs include three mini-HDMI and a full-size DisplayPort. Display management is backed by Galaxy's in-house EZY display setting software.

NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) reported revenue of $1.07 billion for the third quarter of fiscal 2012 ended Oct. 30, 2011, up 4.9 percent from the prior quarter, and up 26.3 percent from $843.9 million in the same period a year earlier.

On a GAAP basis, the company recorded net income of $178.3 million, or $0.29 per diluted share, for the third quarter of fiscal 2012. That compares with net income of $151.6 million, or $0.25 per diluted share, in the prior quarter and $84.9 million, or $0.15 per diluted share, in the same period a year earlier.

On a non-GAAP basis -- which excludes stock-based compensation, amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets, other acquisition related costs, and the tax impact associated with these items -- net income was $217.0 million, or $0.35 per diluted share. That compares with net income of $193.5 million, or $0.32 per diluted share, in the prior quarter, and net income of $117.4 million, $0.20 per share, in the same period a year earlier.

Galaxy has been working its way around NVIDIA's 4 TMDS/2 display limitation for a while now. In April, the first pictures of two cards emerged, that used multi-monitor controllers made by IDT to multiply the number of displays a single-GPU card can handle. Here's the fruition. Galaxy displayed the GeForce 210 MDT X4 and GeForce GTX 560 Ti MDT X5, the former can drive four displays, and the latter five. Galaxy is using the IDT VMM1400, a chipset commonly found on multi-monitor hub devices. It allows the graphics card MDT graphics cards to give out multiple full-HD (1920 x 1080) display heads. The GeForce 210 MDT X4 gives out four DVI connectors, while the 560 Ti MDT X5 provides four mini HDMI and one each of DisplayPort and DVI.

Multi-display has huge benefits for productivity, gamers are only beginning to see them, but are restricted to higher-end graphics cards to get playable frame-rates. Prior to consumer multi-display ready graphics cards after ATI/AMD Eyefinity and NVIDIA 3DVision Surround, multi-display (>2 displays per graphics card) was restricted to the professional graphics market, where GPU vendors made a killing selling expensive graphics cards that handled over 2 display heads with just about enough graphics processing power to handle Windows Aero UI. One of NVIDIA's biggest AIC partners, Galaxy, took it upon itself to make GeForce-based multi-display graphics cards that make multi-display a lot more affordable. Currently, affordable multi-display graphics card market is dominated by AMD Radeon, where even the entry-level $50-something HD 6450 can handle 3 displays, while the $90-something HD 6670 handles 4.

Galaxy designed two new such GeForce-based graphics cards, the first is an entry-level card based on GeForce 210, which is single-slot, full-height, and silent. It uses two IDT VMM1402 chips to handle up to four full-HD (1920 x 1080) displays using four DVI connectors. The card has two DMS-59 connectors, there are two cables provided, which convert each DMS-59 to two DVI connectors.

PC gaming just got a lot more fun today with the introduction of the GeForce GTX 550 Ti graphics processing unit (GPU) with an estimated e-tail price of £119. The GTX 550 Ti is the latest in NVIDIA's Fermi line of consumer GPUs, designed to deliver stunning DirectX 11 performance. It brings a new level of price/performance to mainstream PC gaming, while maintaining exceptionally quiet acoustics and requiring minimal power.

Like all NVIDIA "DX11 Done Right" GPUs, the GTX 550 Ti delivers the world's fastest performance in its class for DX11 games. Compared with the closest competitive product, the GTX 550 Ti is up to 50 percent faster in today's newest DX11 tessellated games, and 38 percent fasteri in previous-generation DX9 and DX10 games. And with NVIDIA SLI technology, the industry's most scalable multi-GPU platform, gamers will be able to increase their PC's gaming performance by adding a second GeForce GTX 550 Ti.

Just a little later this week, NVIDIA will unveil the GeForce GTX 550 Ti mainstream graphics processor (GPU), successor to GeForce GTS 450. NVIDIA partners seem to be ready with their products based on the new GPU. One of NVIDIA's largest partners, Galaxy, is even ready with a highly overclocked model with its core running at 1 GHz (900 MHz reference), and 1150 MHz (1025 MHz reference) memory speed. Galaxy's card will use the HOF (Hall of Fame) identifier, which is supposed to indicate the company's highest level of factory-overclock speeds.

Based on the 40 nm GF116 silicon, the GeForce GTX 550 Ti packs 192 CUDA cores, and a 192-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding 1 GB of memory, that's right, 1 GB, not 768 MB or 1536 MB. It looks like NVIDIA will be doing a mixed density memory chip setup. We can hypothesize that four of the six chips are 1 Gbit (128 MB), amounting for 512 MB; and two 2 Gbit (256 MB), amounting for the other 512 MB. Galaxy's HOF card will use a 3+1 phase VRM to power the card, and feature a dual-slot cooler. Its display connectivity includes one each of DVI, HDMI, and DisplayPort.

Renowned overclocker Duck set a new record 3DMark Vantage. The record was set at an event apparently conducted by Galaxy Tech. The record now stands at P75324 points. Duck used four Galaxy GeForce GTX 580 graphics cards in 4-way SLI to achieve the feat. It appears as if at least one, if not all, use an ASUS BIOS, perhaps to avail the VoltageTweak feature. Apart from the graphics cards, Duck's bench consisted of two Intel Xeon E5680 Westmere-EP 6-core/12-thread processors clocked at 5368 MHz, EVGA Classified SR-2 dual-LGA1366 motherboard, 6x 2 GB Corsair DDR3-2000 MHz CL7 memory, multiple 1200W PSUs (Corsair AX1200W + SilverStone Strider Gold SST-ST1200G), and Intel X25-M 80 GB SSD. In the cooling department, there are Duck's own JCA Water Bear Pot WB02A and K|ngp|n F1 cooling the two processors, K|ngp|n Tek9 4 and 5.0 cooling the GPUs, a custom heatsink cluster cooling the GPU VRM, and gobs of insulation.

Galaxy's first wave of graphics cards featuring NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti graphics processor includes at least two non-reference designs. The first one, the GC Version, makes use of Galaxy's publicized "Gemini" GPU cooler, which uses two large 90 mm fans to cool a large aluminum heatsink which is fed by four copper heat pipes. The GC Gemini features slightly upped clock speeds of 835/1670/1000 MHz (core/CUDA core/memory actual).

The second card is the Galaxy GTX 560 Ti White Edition, which features a white PCB, possible digital PWM circuitry, a full-coverage single fan cooling assembly, and high overclock speeds of 950 MHz core, and 1100 MHz memory. Both cards feature Galaxy's typical spacecraft-styled cooler shrouds, connectivity that includes two DVI and a mini-HDMI. While the GC Version draws power from two 6-pin connectors, the White Edition requires 6-pin plus 8-pin. Based on the 40 nm GF114 GPU, GeForce GTX 560 Ti features second-generation Fermi architecture, and is powered by 384 CUDA cores, and aided by 1 GB of GDDR5 memory over a 256-bit wide memory interface. The GTX 560 Ti is slated for release on the 25th of this month.

Graphics card specialist Galaxy Tech is venturing into other kinds of gaming PC hardware. The company is ready with its first line of solid-state drives. The Galaxy SATA line of SSDs come in the 2.5" SATA 3 Gb/s form-factor, in capacities of 32 GB, 64 GB, 128 GB, and 256 GB. The SSD controller supports the TRIM garbage collection feature. Typically, these drives give read/write speeds of 240 MB/s (read) and 210 MB/s (write). The company did not give out any further information, but we hope to hear more at CES.

First reported in October, Galaxy's GeForce GTX 460 HOF (Hall of Fame) edition graphics card seems to have finally taken shape, with the company giving out pictures of the card with its cooling solution installed. The card sports a milky-white colored PCB that makes use of 1 Gigabit memory chips and digital PWM power circuitry that makes use of proadlizers to condition power.

Its cooling solution makes use of an aluminum fin array to which heat is conveyed using four copper heat pipes, cooled by a single 80~90 mm fan. The card makes use of a 6+2 phase digital PWM power circuit that allows software voltage control. Out of the box, the card is clocked at 850/1700/1000 MHz (4 GHz GDDR5 effective), core/CUDA cores/memory. More pictures can be found at the source.

Galaxy Microsystems, a leading manufacturer and worldwide supplier of NVIDIA based graphics solutions, announced today the launch of the Galaxy GeForce GTX 570 graphics card with the world's fastest DirectX 11 GPU.

"Maximum settings! With today's DirectX 11 games, that's what it's all about. But you shouldn't have to sacrifice performance OR pay a small fortune." said Shane Vance, US Sales, Galaxy. "With the new Galaxy GTX 570, you get the performance, the life-like realism, all at a price that you can afford, from the company that's been custom developing graphics cards for more than 10 years."

KFA2, the new European premium brand of Galaxy, announced today its launch of the next generation NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 graphics card. "The KFA2 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 Graphics card is the fastest single GPU graphics card on the market to date. New 512 cores are providing unbeatable processing power for the top graphics modes with extreme tessellation, which allows surface curves to be the smoothest than ever before." Said Graham Brown, European Marketing Manager.

Galaxy is working on a new GeForce GTX 460 graphics card that uses a single-slot cooling solution. The company earlier surprised many, when it unveiled a single-slot GeForce GTX 470. Galaxy's new single-slot GTX 460 bears a long PCB, and a cooling solution that looks to make lavish use of copper. It also doesn't compromise on the clock speeds in any way, with the GPU running at 675 MHz, and memory at 900/3600 MHz effective. There is 1 GB of GDDR5 memory. The 40 nm GF104 core is DirectX 11 compliant, and has 336 CUDA cores enabled on this card. The card draws power from two 6-pin power inputs. It is SLI capable. Galaxy didn't give out details about pricing and availability, importantly if it will be available to the western markets in the first place.

Galaxy debuted a premium custom-design GeForce GTS 450 graphics card belonging to the company's new bleeding-edge factory-OC identifier, the HOF (hall of fame). The GTS 450 HOF from Galaxy uses a core clocked at no less than 1000 MHz, blazing past factory-OC levels set by the likes of Point of View (TGT-Beast @ 920 MHz); Gigabyte (WindForce XOC @ 930 MHz), Colorful (iGame @ 900 MHz), and EVGA (FTW Edition @ 930 MHz), etc.

Galaxy's card makes use of a rather simple 4+1 phase VRM to deliver power, drawing from a single 6-pin power connector, but relies on a powerful cooling solution designed by Arctic Cooling, and very low latency (0.4 ns) GDDR5 memory chips made by Samsung. The memory interface is clocked at 1025 MHz (4100 MHz GDDR5 effective), while the CUDA cores are clocked at 2000 MHz. The card was introduced to the Chinese market a little earlier this month, and is now on its way to western market. For EU, the same exact card KFA2-branded, isn't ruled out. Its pricing isn't known at the moment.