ASUS will be designing its DirectCU 3 cooling solution in different sizes. We've seen the super-tall, almost-triple slot version, strapped to a GeForce GTX 980 Ti, at Computex. Here is its more tame, two-slot, normal-height sibling, which ASUS could feature on several of its performance segment products, such as the GTX 960, GTX 970, GTX 980, and perhaps even the upcoming Radeon R7 370 and R9 380. The card pictured below is a GTX 960.

The DirectCU 3 cooler appears to feature three heat dissipating components, a central heatsink that draws heat from the GPU, with two aluminium fin stacks on either sides, suspended along three 8 mm-thick copper heat pipes, which make direct contact with the GPU. A trio of temperature-activated 80 mm spinners ventilate it. This particular card offers factory-overclocked speeds of 1228 MHz core, 1291 MHz GPU Boost, and 7.00 GHz memory (vs. 1127 MHz core and 1178 MHz GPU Boost reference). The card started selling in China, there's no word on a wider launch. The cooler itself, though, will feature on a boat-load of upcoming products from ASUS.

As the leading brand in enthusiastic graphics market, Gainward proudly presents the brand-new GeForce GTX graphics - base on the next generation MAXWELL architecture, GeForce GTX 980 Ti Phoenix "Golden Sample". Gainward GeForce GTX 980 Ti Phoenix "Golden Sample" is the most advanced graphics cards, is accelerated by the groundbreaking NVIDIA Maxwell architecture to deliver an unbeatable 4K and virtual reality experience. With 2816 NVIDIA CUDA cores running at 1.152GHz base clock (1.241GHz boost clock) and 6 GB 384 bits memory with 3500MHz memory clock speed, it has the horsepower to drive whatever comes next. It offers Gainward GeForce GTX 980 Ti Phoenix "Golden Sample" up to 11%+ more performance than reference board.

A brand new cooler design for Gainward GeForce GTX 980 Ti Phoenix "Golden Sample" is to offer hard core gamers an excellent thermal solution for high end graphics. Its triple fans and very low thermal resistance for GPU and PWM components provides that Gainward GeForce GTX 980 Ti Phoenix "Golden Sample" can run very stable under heavy loading environment and still have room for extra over-clocking. With "Zero RPM fan design", all three fans can be stop until the GPU temperature raises to 60°C or above. It doesn't introduce any noise while light loading operation.

Palit Microsystems Ltd, the leading graphics card manufacturer, releases the latest GTX 900 series in Palit GeForce product line-up, GeForce GTX 980 Ti Super JetStream. The revolutionary Palit JetStream series of graphics cards features advanced innovative cooling and an optimized product design to deliver gamers the ultimate gaming experience. As the latest and the next generation NVIDIA Maxwell architecture, the Palit GeForce GTX 980 Ti Super JetStream guarantees gamers cutting-edge performance and an explosive new gaming experience.

Palit GeForce GTX 980 Ti Super JetStream has 2816 Maxwell cores clocked at 1152MHz (base clock) and 6144MB with 384 bits 7GHz memory, making it much faster than the stock1000MHz of NVIDIA's reference design. Equipped with the modified JetStream cooler and optimized product design, Palit GeForce GTX980 Ti Super JetStream provides gaming benchmark up to 11%+ compare with GTX 980 Ti reference board. With the new JetStream thermal design for the factory over-clocked board, the GPU temperature is 12°C cooler and the noise level is 8dB quieter under the heavy game loading. With the new 0-dB Tech features, there is zero noise while you are at general workload, such as internet or multi-media application. Stay Quiet, Stay Cool and Enjoy the High gaming performance with Palit JetStream.

Galaxy is done whitewashing the GeForce GTX 980 Ti, with the development of its HOF (hall of fame) LCE graphics card. The card features an all-white custom PCB, with a 16-phase VRM that draws power from three 8-pin PCIe power connectors, which interestingly, are located along the back of the card, rather than the top of it. The star attraction here is a full-coverage water block designed by Bitspower. The block features an opaque white top, and a white metal back-plate. This card will be sold through Galaxy's various sub-brands (such as Galax and KFA2), when it hits the shelves later this month. The company did not disclose clock speeds or pricing.

Colorful unveiled its top of the line air-cooled GeForce GTX 980 Ti graphics card, the iGame-Ymir TOP. The card features a massive 2+ slot cooling solution, which consists of two aluminium fin-stack heatsinks that meet at the GPU base, where their 8 mm thick nickel-plated copper heat pipes draw heat directly from the GPU die; ventilated by three 100 mm spinners. The card sticks to the standard height for add-on cards, and draws power from a pair of 8-pin PCIe power connectors. It is expected to feature a 20-ish percent factory-overclock, and a failsafe BIOS (dual-BIOS).

AMD's Graphics CoreNext (GCN) architecture does not support Direct3D feature-level 12_1 (DirectX 12.1), according to a ComputerBase.de report. The architecture only supports Direct3D up to feature-level 12_0. Feature-level 12_1 adds three features over 12_0, namely Volume-Tiled Resources, Conservative Rasterization and Rasterizer Ordered Views.

Volume Tiled-resources, is an evolution of tiled-resources (analogous to OpenGL mega-texture), in which the GPU seeks and loads only those portions of a large texture that are relevant to the scene it's rendering, rather than loading the entire texture to the memory. Think of it as a virtual memory system for textures. This greatly reduces video memory usage and bandwidth consumption. Volume tiled-resources is a way of seeking portions of a texture not only along X and Y axes, but adds third dimension. Conservative Rasterization is a means of drawing polygons with additional pixels that make it easier for two polygons to interact with each other in dynamic objects. Raster Ordered Views is a means to optimize raster loads in the order in which they appear in an object. Practical applications include improved shadows.

Here are some of the first pictures of EVGA's flagship GeForce GTX 980 Ti based graphics card, the Classified Kingpin Edition. Designed and tuned by the legendary overclocker himself, the card will be the fastest GTX 980 Ti offering out of the box, by EVGA. It begins with a large PCB (though not as tall as the one on ASUS Strix), which draws power from a combination of one 6-pin and two 8-pin PCIe power connectors; conditioning it for the GPU using a 15-phase VRM, capable of an obscene amount of current at 600A, letting you stabilize your overclock.

The cooling solution is a copper mine, with a large all-copper base, from which 8 mm-thick copper heat pipes convey heat to a copper-fin array; which is ventilated by a pair of temperature-activated 100 mm spinners. The company didn't disclose clock speeds, but is hopeful of selling the fastest GTX 980 Ti in the market, which means its clock speeds could be in the same ball park as ZOTAC's GTX 980 Ti AMP Extreme.

ASUS' new generation triple-fan STRIX cooling solution was up on display at Computex. This gargantuan cooler will make its debut with the GeForce GTX 980 Ti STRIX OC, and is designed to tame the 250W TDP chip, by staying completely silent until the chip breaches a 65°C temperature threshold, and staying low-noise beyond that. It features a very large aluminium fin-stack, to which heat drawn directly from the GPU die is conveyed by 10 mm-thick nickel-plated copper heat pipes. The heatsink is ventilated by three 100 mm fans, with independent speed control using ASUS GPU Tweak tool. The GTX 980 Ti STRIX features a huge PCB that's 1.5x the standard add-on card height; and features a back-plate. It will ship with a 15% factory-overclock.

A 25% factory-overclock is something you usually hear with entry-level graphics cards around the $60 mark; and the bigger the silicon, the more conservative VGA makers get with factory-overclocks. ZOTAC thinks otherwise. The company's GTX 980 Ti AMP Extreme graphics card ships with a massive 25% factory-overclock - something unheard of for a chip with 250W TDP, much less an 8 billion-transistor count.

The card comes with 1253 MHz core (vs. 1000 MHz reference), 1335 MHz GPU Boost (vs. 1076 MHz reference), and 7210 MHz memory (vs. 7012 MHz reference). The card is cooled by a meaty triple-slot IceStorm air-based cooler by ZOTAC; and a VRM that draws power from two 8-pin PCIe power connectors keep the card fed. ZOTAC could ask a $100 premium over the base price of $649, offering performance which, we reckon, could be much higher than that of the $999 GTX TITAN X.

Corsair, PC gaming hardware leader, today at Computex unveiled Bulldog, the first DIY PC built exclusively to bring the vivid immersion of 4K gaming to the living room. Composed of a DIY kit with a stylish gaming console-sized chassis, liquid CPU cooler, power supply, and motherboard, and designed with plenty of space for customization and upgrades, Bulldog provides the foundation for users to build the ultimate living room PC. Using its proprietary liquid CPU and GPU cooling technology, Corsair condensed the desktop PC computing performance into Bulldog's compact form factor. An early version of Bulldog is on display at Computex 2015, with availability expected in early Q4.

"Bulldog is designed to take the 4K gaming experience delivered by desktop gaming PCs, and bring it to the big 4K screens in the home," said Andy Paul, CEO of Corsair Components. "We knew we needed to deliver a solution that was elegant, powerful, and compact. By leveraging our leading expertise in PC case design and liquid cooling, we met that goal with Bulldog. We can't wait to unleash it on gamers this fall."

Introducing the EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti. Accelerated by the groundbreaking NVIDIA Maxwell architecture, GTX 980 Ti delivers an unbeatable 4K and virtual reality experience. With 2816 NVIDIA CUDA Cores and 6GB of GDDR5 memory, it has the horsepower to drive whatever comes next. In fact, the EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti provides 3x the performance and 3x the memory of previous-generation cards*. You can now take on even the most challenging games at high settings for a smooth, ultra high-definition, 4K experience.

These cards also feature EVGA ACX 2.0+ cooling technology. EVGA ACX 2.0+ brings new features to the award winning EVGA ACX 2.0 cooling technology. A memory MOSFET Cooling Plate (MMCP) reduces MOSFET temperatures up to 13%, and optimized Straight Heat Pipes (SHP) additionally reduce GPU temperature by 5C. ACX 2.0+ coolers also feature optimized swept fan blades, double ball bearings and an extreme low power motor, delivering more air flow with less power, unlocking additional power for the GPU.

GIGABYTE displayed its latest WindForce 3X VGA cooler design at Computex, which makes its debut with the GeForce GTX 980 Ti Gaming G1 graphics card. This 3-slot cooler packs enough metal to cool the GeForce GTX 980 Ti with its three fans completely stopped, when the GPU is below a 65°C temperature threshold. The underlying heatsink design consists of two independent aluminium fin stacks, with 8 mm thick copper heat pipes meeting at the GPU base, where they make direct contact with the GPU die. A base-plate cools the memory and VRM. Three 100 mm fans ventilate the heatsink, which are topped off by a two-tone metal shroud. The card features six display outputs including two DVI, three DisplayPort 1.2, and an HDMI 2.0; and supports up to five displays at a time. This card will be formally launched a little later, as the company launched its GTX 980 Ti with a reference-design board.

Ti. The most powerful two letters in the world of GPUs. When paired with our flagship gaming GPU - Palit GeForce GTX 980 - it gives you incredible new levels of performance and capabilities. Palit GTX 980 Ti is accelerated by the groundbreaking NVIDIA Maxwell architecture to deliver an unbeatable 4K and virtual reality experience. With 2816 NVIDIA CUDA cores and 6 GB of memory, it has the horsepower to drive whatever comes next.

Palit GeForce GTX 980 Ti provides 3x the performance and 3x the memory of previous-generation cards*. You can now take on even the most challenging games at high settings for a smooth, ultra high-definition, 4K experience.

ZOTAC International, a global innovator and manufacturer of graphics card and ZBOX mini PCs, sets loose the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 980 Ti series. Engineered to game, ZOTAC has taken the reference GeForce GTX 980 Ti and amped it with more power.

"Graphics technology is shifting quickly jumping from 1080 HD to 4K. As 4K gaming gains ground as the standard, our teams are working harder to engineer higher limits into our products," says Tony Wong, CEO, ZOTAC International. "We are bringing performance and design to the forefront that will help extract more power in each ZOTAC graphics card."

Manli Technology Group Limited, the major Graphics Cards, Mini-PCs and other components manufacturer, today announced the ultimate graphics solution for gamers - Manli GeForce GTX 980Ti.

Powered by GM200 GPU, the Manli GeForce GTX 980Ti provides top tier gaming performance for gaming enthusiast. It built-in 2816 CUDA Cores, with core frequency is at 1000 MHz, base clock that can boost up to 1076 MHz, gamers can enjoy the ultimate gaming experience in HD and 4K UHD resolution, as well as headroom for overclocking via using TurboEngine software. The memory of 6GB GDDR5 ensures gamers can enjoy smooth and detailed gaming experience in DirectX 11 and incoming DirectX 12 new games.

MSI is excited to introduce the new flagship of the MSI GAMING graphics cards lineup: the MSI GTX 980 Ti GAMING 6G. This imposing new model is powered by NVIDIA's Maxwell GM200 GPU, yet running on significantly higher clockspeeds than the reference model. Combined with 6GB of GDDR5 memory, this enables gamers to enjoy a smooth 4K gaming experience. Featuring the award-winning Twin Frozr V thermal design, the MSI GTX 980 Ti GAMING 6G delivers unmatched cooling and acoustic performance. To bolster the premium look & feel, the MSI GTX 980 Ti GAMING 6G comes equipped with a solid metal backplate.

Besides the revered GAMING series, MSI are also introducing two reference models featuring exhaust thermal design. The MSI GTX 980 Ti 6GD5 will be available immediately, shortly followed by the MSI GTX 980 Ti 6GD5 V1, which comes equipped with an all new premium silver shroud and Military Class 4 Components for durable, solid performance.

In the wake of its new high-end GPU launch, the GeForce GTX 980 Ti, NVIDIA released new GeForce 353.06 WHQL drivers. In addition to support for the new GPU, version 353.06 WHQL is Game Ready for "Heroes of the Storm," including an SLI profile and one-click optimization in GeForce Experience.

The R353 drivers bring a few new features to the table, including G-Sync support for windowed applications (could be useful in 'windowed-maximized' display-modes in certain games), a new feature called ULMB (ultra-low motion-blur), which arbitrarily decreases motion-blur drawn by applications (could help with excessive ghosting on LCDs with high response-times), and Dynamic Super Resolution (DSR) for notebook GPUs. The drivers also add a comprehensive game-optimization suite for GPUs based on the "Kepler" architecture, which should increase frame-rates across the board for GeForce GTX 600 and GTX 700 series.DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 353.06 WHQL for Windows 8/7/Vista 64-bit | Windows 8/7/Vista 32-bit | Windows XP 32-bit | Windows XP 64-bit

NVIDIA announced the GeForce GTX 980 Ti, its latest high-end graphics processor. Positioned a notch below the GTX Titan X, and above the GTX 980, it is designed to offer playable frame-rates at 4K Ultra HD resolution, with high-levels of visual details. Based on the same 28 nm GM200 silicon as the GTX Titan X, the chip features 2,816 CUDA cores, carved out by disabling 2 of the 24 streaming multiprocessor units on the silicon; 176 TMUs, 96 ROPs, and a 384-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding 6 GB of memory.

The GeForce GTX 980 Ti features nearly identical clock speeds to the GTX Titan X, with 1000 MHz core, 1076 MHz GPU Boost, and 7012 MHz (GDDR5-effective) memory. The TDP is rated at 250W. The reference design card draws power from a combination of 6-pin and 8-pin PCIe power connectors. Display outputs include three DisplayPort 1.2, and one each of HDMI 2.0 and DVI connectors. The card is capable of 4-way SLI. NVIDIA board partners will launch custom-design variants of this card, with factory-overclocked speeds, and custom air- and liquid-cooled designs. It starts at US $649.99. With this launch, NVIDIA cut prices of the GeForce GTX 980 to $499.99.

Here are some of the first pictures of retail packages of NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce GTX 980 Ti graphics card, sold by ASUS, Gigabyte and MSI. The three are reference-design cards, which stick to reference speeds. A leaked retailer presentation by ASUS confirms the specifications of this SKU, as being based on the GM200 silicon, with 2,816 CUDA cores, and 6 GB of GDDR5 memory across its 384-bit wide memory interface. Reference clock speeds are almost identical to those of the GTX TITAN X, with 1000 MHz core, 1076 MHz GPU Boost, and 7012 MHz (GDDR5-effective) memory. The GTX 980 Ti launches in the first week of June.

TechPowerUp announced the latest version of GPU-Z, the popular graphics system information, monitoring, and diagnostic utility. Version 0.8.3 adds support for new GPUs, updates support for existing ones, adds new features, and addresses some bugs. To begin with, GPU-Z adds a new feature that tells you if the video BIOS embeds a UEFI module or not, letting you use some of the newer OS features such as Secure Boot and Fast Boot.

GPU-Z 0.8.3 comes with support for new and upcoming GPUs, such as NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti, GTX 965M, GTX 950M, NVS315, and GT 750 (GK106). On the AMD front, it adds support for AMD "Fiji" GPU, with its new memory technology; and "Mullins" APU (Radeon R2 and R3 series). It also adds support for the integrated graphics cores inside several Intel Core "Broadwell" CPUs. OpenCL detection code is improved, and a missing PerfCap sensor bug is fixed.DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z 0.8.3 | GPU-Z 0.8.3 ASUS ROG Themed

The complete change-log follows.

NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce GTX 980 Ti graphics card is shaping up to be the "almost Titan-X for two-thirds its price" product the company wants, out in the market. A leaked GPU-Z screenshot of the card by Korean tech-publication HardwareBattle (the same site that broke the card's core config,) reveals its reference clock speeds. All the values displayed by GPU-Z 0.8.2 in the screenshot are pulled from the system, and not an internal lookup table (all the LUT-based values are grayed out, because version 0.8.2 lacks those values for the GTX 980 Ti). The card offers clock speeds that are similar to those of the GTX Titan-X. The core is clocked at 1000 MHz, with a maximum GPU Boost frequency of 1076 MHz (1089 MHz on the GTX Titan-X), while the memory ticks at 7012 MHz (GDDR5-effective).

From our older article, it's known that the GTX 980 Ti will feature a lower CUDA core count, at 2,816 cores, compared to 3,072 on the GTX Titan-X. The TMU count is proportionately lower, at 176. The ROP count is a bigger mystery than Nessie. The card features 6 GB of GDDR5 memory, across a 384-bit wide memory interface. While the reference board design is something that's beginning to look dated, NVIDIA will allow its AIC (add-in card) partners to come up with custom-design boards factory-overclocked to Kingdom come, from day-one. The GeForce GTX 980 Ti is expected to be launched on the sidelines of Computex 2015, in the first week of June.

Here are some of the first pictures of an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti graphics card, in the flesh. As predicted, the reference design board reuses the PCB of the GeForce GTX TITAN-X, and its cooler is a silver version of its older sibling. According to an older report, the GTX 980 Ti will be carved out of the 28 nm GM200 silicon, by disabling 2 of its 24 SMM units, resulting in a CUDA core count of 2,816. The card retains its 384-bit GDDR5 memory bus width, but holds 6 GB of memory, half that of the GTX TITAN-X. The card is expected to launch in early June, 2015. NVIDIA's add-in card (AIC) partners will be free to launch custom-design boards with this SKU, so you could hold out for the MSI Lightnings, the EVGA Classifieds, the ASUS Strixes, the Gigabyte G1s, and the likes.

Johan Andersson, technical director for the Frostbite game engine at DICE, developers of games such as Battlefield, tweeted the first clear picture of AMD's next flagship graphics card, and it looks a lot [better] than this mockup render. We'd be tempted to call it the Radeon R9 390X, but older reports suggest that AMD could give it a fancy name, just as NVIDIA named its top-dog "Titan." That's not all, Andersson commented that "this new island is one seriously impressive and sweet GPU," referring to the card's GPU codename of "Fiji." AMD is expected to launch this card in the third week of June. Either to preempt that, or out of spook (with an effort to siphon off high-end GPU sales), NVIDIA is preparing the GeForce GTX 980 Ti, which will launch in the first week.

It looks like NVIDIA's GTX 980 Ti launch, which is imminent, won't be a repeat of the GTX 780 Ti, in that it won't be faster than the TITAN product at the time of launch. According to Korean tech publication HWBattle, the GTX 980 Ti will feature fewer CUDA cores than the GeForce GTX TITAN-X, at 2,816. NVIDIA gets that count by disabling 2 of the 24 SMM (streaming multiprocessor Maxwell) units on the GM200 silicon. The texture memory unit (TMU) count will be proportionately lower, at 176 (compared to 192 on the GTX TITAN-X). The ASIC bears the model number GM200-310, according to older reports.

We can't take a call on the ROP count and L3 cache amount. Normally we would deduce that it has a full complement of 96 ROPs, but given that Maxwell allows SKU designers to disable components in a way they previously couldn't, it's possible that the GTX 980 Ti could have a different ROP count than the GTX TITAN-X, just as the GTX 970 has a lower "effective" ROP count at 56, compared to the GTX 980, despite the same memory bus width. We know from other reports, that the GTX 980 Ti will feature 6 GB of memory. The TDP is a very arbitrary number, and 250W shouldn't surprise us. What also wouldn't surprise us is NVIDIA reusing the PCB and NVTTM (NVIDIA Time-to-Market) cooler design from the GTX TITAN-X (and several older SKUs). NVIDIA could allow its AIC (add-in- card) partners to come up with custom board designs from day-one.

NVIDIA is ready with a new high-end graphics card that will be slotted between the GeForce GTX 980 and the GeForce GTX TITAN-X, in its product stack. The GeForce GTX 980 Ti, as it's being called, will launch within the next couple of weeks, and will be based on the company's GM200 silicon. The core-configuration of this chip remains unknown, but it is rumored to feature 6 GB of GDDR5 memory, half that of the GTX TITAN-X, across its 384-bit wide memory bus.

Back in March, it was reported that NVIDIA will launch this SKU only after Summer. An early June launch suggests that either NVIDIA is spooked about AMD's Radeon R9 390X and its fancy-named sibling, which are expected to launch in the third week of June, and wants to siphon off high-end GPU sales as gamers and enthusiasts wrap up their Summer builds/upgrades, to settle down for the season's big game launches; or the company is confident of its performance, and really wants the GTX 980 Ti to appear on performance graphs, in reviews of AMD's new products.