Following our article yesterday about AMD using new high performance liquid cooling technology for their upcoming 7900-series graphic cards, TechPowerUp can now bring you a detailed insight into how this technology works, which has been developed by Vapro Inc. The following slides will help to explain this technology.

By using liquid cooling based heatsinks, the following performance advantages are achieved: improvement of thermal resistance, handling of high heat flux and power and easy to manufacture.

On the 29th of this month, NVIDIA will launch its newest graphics card SKU, the GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 Cores. We got our first sniff of it last month. Today we present to you all the specifications that matter: clock speeds, voltages, device IDs, etc., but first a brief history. NVIDIA launched the original GeForce GTX 560 Ti back in January, based on its spanking new GF114 silicon. It packed 384 CUDA cores, a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, 1 GB of memory, high clock speeds, and fairly decent overclocking potential. AMD's Radeon HD 6870 was "pwned" (NVIDIA's words). But then, AMD managed to work closely with its partners to create a 1 GB version of its Radeon HD 6950 graphics card. Coupled with diligent component cost balancing, AMD was able to neuter GTX 560 Ti to a good extant. With the upcoming winter shopping season, NVIDIA does not want to take any chances with its competitiveness in the $250-ish "sweetspot" segment, and hence it had to redesign the GTX 560 Ti.

The new GeForce GTX 560 Ti will come with "448 Cores" brand extension, and as it suggests, the GPU now has 448 CUDA cores as opposed to 384 cores on the original. The new SKU will use the same silicon on which the GTX 570, GTX 580, and dual-GPU GTX 590 are based: GF110. The chip will carry the marking "GF110-270-A1". Apart from the 448 CUDA cores, the new SKU will have a memory bus width of 320-bit, and standard memory amount of 1280 MB, just like the GTX 570. The GTX 560 Ti Core 448 has clock speeds of 732 MHz core, 1464 MHz CUDA cores or shaders, and 950 MHz actual (1900 MHz DDR, or 3.80 GHz GDDR5 effective) memory clock speed. So the only thing that sets the new GTX 560 Ti 448 Cores from GTX 570 is the CUDA core count (448 vs. 480 on the GTX 570).

HP today announced the HP Slate 2 Tablet PC with expanded touch capabilities, enhanced multitasking performance and embedded security, providing added flexibility to mobile business users. The company also announced a new notebook PC targeting business, education and government customers.

The HP Slate 2 Tablet PC provides instant deployment for business and vertical markets such as education, healthcare, government and retail, where jobs frequently take users away from a traditional desk. With a full-featured Microsoft Windows environment, the 1.5 pound HP Slate 2 Tablet PC provides professionals with the flexibility to create, edit and review content on one highly mobile and lightweight device.

The driver updates for Rage and the upcoming Battlefield 3 are coming thick and fast now, with every full and preview releases - great news for fans of these games. Note that the BF3 improvements are specified for the beta release, but should also apply to the release version and more will of course follow. Other improvements include Eyefinity 5x1 display implementation on Radeon 6000 & 5000 cards, along with CrossfireX interface enhancements. See the full rundown after the jump!

AMD today unleashed the AMD FX family of CPUs, delivering a fully unlocked and customizable experience for desktop PC users. The AMD FX series of desktop CPUs includes the first-ever eight-core desktop processor, enabling extreme multi-display gaming, mega-tasking and HD content creation for PC and digital enthusiasts - all for less than $245 (suggested U.S. retail price). This marks the first retail availability of processors that use AMD's new multi-core architecture (codenamed "Bulldozer"), which is included in AMD's upcoming server CPU (codenamed "Interlagos") and the next-generation of AMD Accelerated Processing Units.

"AMD FX CPUs are back with a vengeance, as validated by the recent feat of setting a Guinness World Records title for 'Highest Frequency of a Computer Processor,'" said Chris Cloran, corporate vice president and general manager, Client Group at AMD. "While overclockers will certainly enjoy the frequencies the AMD FX processors can achieve, PC enthusiasts and HD media aficionados will appreciate the remarkable experience that AMD FX processors can provide as part of a balanced, affordable desktop system."

HIS released its latest mainstream graphics card, the HIS HD 6670 iSilence4. As the name suggests, this is a silent (fanless) graphics card based on the Radeon HD 6670 graphics processor. The card's design is based around Zalman's VNF100 GPU heatsink that provides passive cooling to the GPU, the DDR3 memory and simple FET configuration VRM fend for themselves. VNF100 features a variable fin profile design, that works to improve heat dissipation efficiency.

On the obverse side of the PCB, there is just the base of the heatsink, from here, heat is conveyed to the main portion of the heatsink that's over the reverse side of the PCB, using three heat pipes. The Radeon HD 6670 GPU is built on the 40 nm process, is DirectX 11 compliant, packs 480 stream processors, and features a 128-bit wide memory interface. On this card, 1 GB of AMD-branded DDR3 memory is used. The GPU is clocked at 800 MHz, and the memory at 1600 MHz DDR (25.6 GB/s bandwidth). Display outputs include one each of DVI, D-Sub, and HDMI. The card relies entirely on the PCI-Express slot for power. HIS did not give out pricing details.

Good news for hardcore gamers: AMD has just released their 11.10 v2 preview driver and it's heavy on performance and stability improvements for Battlefield 3 beta and Rage. Click the link for the full list.

TUL Corporation, a leading manufacturer of AMD graphic cards, today reveals the ultimate edition of the HD 6970: Devil 13 HD 6970. Designed to fulfill the most demanding HD titles, the Devil 13 HD 6970 has default clock settings at 880 MHz core speed and 1375MHz memory speed. An OC switch means gamers can easily increase 10% frequencies to 960 MHz core and 1425 MHz memory, boosting up gaming performance to the next level.

HIS unveiled a new Radeon HD 6970 graphics card that makes use of its IceQ cooler design, which features what the company calls Eyefinity RTS (ready to see). Simply put, this card lets you set up 3-display Eyefinity without needing to connect any of the displays to the mini-DisplayPort connectors. The third display can be connected to the HDMI 1.4 port, instead.

The feature weeds out the need for hard-to-find mini-DP active dongles. An increasing number of full HD monitors support the HDMI interface, they naturally support DVI, and hence this card makes setting up a 3-display Eyefinity a lot easier, in essence, "ready" out of the box. That aside, the card sticks to AMD reference clock speeds of 880 MHz core and 5.50 GHz memory, and features 2 GB of GDDR5 memory. Pricing and availability information is not known.

Just hours after NVIDIA released its Battlefield 3 optimised GeForce driver suite, AMD is ready with a similar piece of software of its own, the AMD Catalyst 11.10 Preview. Preview drivers are essentially BETA hotfix drivers. The new Catalyst software suite makes your ATI/AMD Radeon graphics card (that meets minimum/recommended requirements) optimized for Battlefield3. Its changelog follows:

• Improves performance in Battlefield 3 Open Beta release for both non-Anti-Aliasing, and application enabled Anti-Aliasing cases on the AMD Radeon HD 6000 and AMD Radeon HD 5000 Series for single GPU configurations
• Enables support for Eyefinity 5x1 display (portrait and landscape) configurations using the AMD Radeon HD 6000 and AMD Radeon HD 5000 Series
• Vision Engine Control Center: User Interface enhancements have been implemented for the CrossfireX, GPU Overdrive, and Information Center pages.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Catalyst 11.10 Preview Driver Suite

AMD announced today that it has created drivers to enable support for the upcoming Windows 8 operating system on AMD-based tablets, netbooks, PCs and servers. Continuing a long history of collaboration, AMD is working closely with Microsoft to empower a new generation of innovative PCs and small form factor computing devices.

Currently available Windows 7-based PCs powered by AMD VISION technology deliver multi-core processing for amazing performance, discrete-level graphics for brilliant HD experiences, and AMD AllDay Power for entertainment on the go. Furthermore, AMD VISION Engine Software is uniquely tailored to unlock visual computing with AMD Radeon Cores and video accelerators that enable vivid HD, AMD Steady Video software and accelerated applications like blazing fast Internet browsing.

In a major embarrassment to the people behind the AMD Radeon Dirt 3 promotion, as many as 3 million Steam product redeem codes of Dirt 3, the new rally simulator game, were leaked to the internet, according to a post on Steam forums by a Bohemia Interactive representative. AMD is running a promotion where select models of Radeon graphics cards across various AIB partners and AMD's own A-Series APUs, come with free Dirt 3 keys that can be redeemed in Steam for a copy of the game.

According to the representative, those millions of keys were stored in an SQL database that could have been easily accessed by a simple missing .htaccess exploit. Steam might blacklist all those keys, and ask users with valid codes to re-register their products with AIB partners for fresh keys. Steam users reported a "Steam Key Giveaway" running on an infamous imageboard, to which the Bohemia Interactive representative responded.Update 09/06

In its latest presentation to industry partners, AMD detailed its upcoming Deccan low-power computing platform, targeting the market Intel's Atom and VIA's Nano processors do. AMD is currently behind the "Zacate" and "Ontario" processors, which deliver high performance/watt x86 computing at low power draw and costs. The company's future platform will be called "Deccan," consisting of processors codenamed "Wichita" and "Krishna," targeting the ULV desktop and netbook markets, respectively. With the next generation, AMD is looking to take advantage of the 28 nanometer manufacturing process to put four x86-64 cores based on the Bobcat architecture on a single piece of silicon, with an integrated memory controller and AMD Radeon discrete-class graphics.

The biggest change here isn't the fact that there are four cores, or that it's built on 28 nm, but that Wichita and Krishna are completely single-chip. The FCH or Fusion Controller Hub has been completely fused into the APU silicon. Motherboards and notebook logic boards will have just one big chip, with no "chipset" of any form. This makes AMD's Wichita and Krishna the industry's very first true x86-based consumer SoC (system on chip). The integrated memory controller now supports DDR3-1600 MHz memory. The integrated AMD Radeon graphics is set to get a performance and SIMD boost, as well, including a Secure Asset Management Unit (SAMU). AMD's next generation APUs are slated for 2012.

AMD today released the second hotfix update to Catalyst 11.6, which provides immediate fixes to bugs found with the previous hotfix. Catalyst 11.6b Hotfix update fixes a BSOD error noted when connecting a HDMI and DisplayPort based display to an AMD Radeon HD graphics card running on Catalyst 11.6. It also fixes random screen flickering noted when idling, as well as a mouse pointer corruption issue found with older Catalyst releases. Apart from this, it packs the key feature of Caralyst 11.6a Hotfix, support for AMD A8-3800 and A6-3600 series accelerated processing units.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Catalyst 11.6b Hotfix Update

It was discovered that an early version Catalyst 11.7 contains entries for new GPUs, spelling out the possible codenames of upcoming AMD Southern Islands GPUs. Southern Islands is the next generation of AMD Radeon GPUs, which will possibly see propagation of VLIW4 SIMD design to GPUs in all market segments, and possible adoption of 28 nm manufacturing process. Moving on to codenames, 3D Center observes that the top of the line GPU is codenamed "Tahiti", there is a possibility of two single-GPU variants.

A graphics card that makes use of two Tahiti chips is codenamed "New Zealand". "Thames" is the codenamed of a possible low cost mobile chip, it could also be a performance chip. There's some uncertainty here. Not much is known about another chip codenamed "Lombok", either. Perhaps it's a performance desktop chip.

ASRock gave its premium LGA1155 motherboard lineup a boost with the new Z68 Fatal1ty. Apart from being a Z68 chipset based motherboard modeled along the lines of its predecessor, the ASRock P67 Fatal1ty, the new motherboard features PCI-Express 3.0 graphics slots, that work on Sandy Bridge and future Ivy Bridge processors. The new third generation PCI-E interconnect can drive 1 GB/s of data per link, per direction. You'll need PCI-E 3.0 compliant add-on cards to make use of that bandwidth, current graphics cards will run at Gen. 2 speeds. One advantage here could be that AMD Radeon HD 5000 and HD 6000 series single-GPU graphics cards will run on Gen 2.1 mode, which has slightly higher bandwidth at its disposal thanks to its lower-overhead data coding scheme.

The ASRock Z68 Fatal1ty is designed for both gamers and overclockers, using high-grade components. The LGA1155 socket is powered by a 18-phase VRM, wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots supporting dual-channel DDR3-2133 MHz (Ivy Bridge IMC's optimal memory speed). Featuring Intel Flexible Display Interface (FDI), the board allows you to use the integrated graphics. With the Lucid Virtu technology, you can switch between the integrated graphics, and discrete graphics cards. Expansion slots include two PCI-Express 3.0 x16 (electrical x8/x8 when both are populated), one PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (electrical x4, wired to Z68 PCH), and two each of PCI-E 2.0 x1 and legacy PCI.

TUL Corporation, a leading manufacturer of AMD graphics cards, today announces the very first dual GPU solution with BART XT graphics engine: the PowerColor HD6870X2. Powered by dual graphics engine, the PowerColor HD6870X2 delivers ground-breaking performance against the competitors and takes the game to the next level, enabling an unprecedented gaming experience you've never felt before.

The PowerColor HD6870X2 has 2240 stream processing units and 4.03 teraFLOP's of computing power, easily accelerating the gaming speed and maximizing the gaming power with 900MHz core speed and 1050MHz memory speed, fully tackling the most demanding game titles and allows the amazing gaming experience.

AMD Catalyst received its monthly major update with version 11.6 WHQL. The driver isn't posted on AMD Game website, but leaked to the media. The new drivers bring support for AMD's new Fusion "Llano" A-series accelerated processing units (APUs), which embed AMD Radeon HD 6000 series GPU components. The new drivers also introduce the new AMD Steady Video Technology, which is an AMD APP-based software that works on AMD Radeon HD 6000 series graphics cards (only on systems that also run AMD processors), AMD E450, AMD E300 APUs, and AMD A8, A6, and A4 series APUs. The technology processes videos for image-stabilization of each frame, giving out a "steady" video output. Videos processed by Steady Video are compatible with any of the popular video players, including Adobe Flash player, Windows Media player, Cyberlink PowerDVD, Corel Win DVD, ArcSoft TotalMedia Theater.

With the new driver, AMD enabled decode acceleration of MPEG-4 part-2 content in Microsoft's video player applications (through MFT support) for all AMD Radeon 6000 Series GPUs. The new driver also packs a number of game-specific performance enhancements, for applications such as Dirt 2, F1 2010, Tom Clancy's HAWX, Crysis Warhead, and Unigine Heaven (OpenGL). For more information, refer to the Release Notes article.

HP today expanded its consumer and business notebook portfolios with 11 new models utilizing AMD's latest VISION Technology for exceptional performance at an affordable price. Powered by AMD's A-series Accelerated Processing Units (APUs) that combine leading-edge CPU cores and powerful discrete-graphics onto a single die of silicon, HP's new notebooks offer solutions for consumers, small and midsize businesses (SMBs) and large corporations.

The HP Pavilion dv-series (Pavilion dv4, dv6 and dv7) provides the ultimate entertainment notebook experience and is equipped with innovative features such as HP CoolSense, HP True Vision HD webcam and HP Beats Audio (Pavilion metal dv6 and dv7). The dv-series also offers more than two times the graphics performance compared with previous-generation integrated graphics.

Armed with a Radeon HD 6550D graphics core that has 400 stream processors, 8 ROPs, and full DirectX 11 support, AMD A-Series "Llano" accelerated processing unit (APU) was tested to be the fastest integrated graphics solution to date. The tests was run by a forum-member of TweakTown community with early access to engineering samples. On the test-bed was AMD A8-3850 APU, which has four x86-64 cores clocked at 2.90 GHz, and the Radeon HD 6550D IGP with engine clock of 600 MHz. Standard dual-channel DDR3-1333 MHz memory was used, even though the APU supports faster DDR3-1866 MHz. To seat the test bed, Gigabyte A75M-UD2H was used. It's important to note here that the CPU cores were overclocked to 3.773 GHz (145.13 MHz x 26.0), with an insane core voltage of 1.52V.

The setup was put though three generations of 3DMark benchmark, covering DirectX 9.0c, DirectX 10, and DirectX 11 performance. In 3DMark 06, the setup scores 10,492 points. In 3DMark Vantage, it scored P6160 (performance preset, validation). In 3DMark 11, it scored P1591 (performance preset, validation). More details can be read in the screenshots.

AMD today reintroduced the FX brand for PC processors and platforms at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). FX-branded products will be geared toward enthusiast PCs and HD entertainment aficionados. AMD also announced new members for its "Gaming Evolved" program, driving the PC gaming experience forward with native HD3D support in Eidos Montreal's "Deus Ex: Human Revolution," and new collaborations with Bioware, Creative Assembly and Codemasters.

The FX brand is associated with AMD's fastest processors and most powerful platforms -- those designed for unrestrained PC performance for the ultimate gaming and HD entertainment experiences. In addition, these processors and platforms drive rich visuals for graphics-intensive applications and high-resolution AMD Eyefinity multi-monitor configurations. The first platform to earn the FX title, the "Scorpius" platform, will feature the now-available AMD 9-series chipset motherboards and AMD Radeon HD 6000 Series graphics cards, plus the upcoming "Zambezi" unlocked, native eight-core processor.

AMD today launched its 9-Series chipset line-up today, helping PC builders to develop next generation high performance desktop platforms. The company also unveiled its 2011 HD Tablet Platform, based on the AMD Z-Series Accelerated Processing Unit (APU), enabling vivid media display and content creation capabilities for the fast-growing market of Microsoft Windows-based tablets. These new AMD products are designed to enable more immersive digital experiences for the PC and tablet markets.

"As consumer appetites for more compelling, lifelike visual experiences increase, there is greater need for high performance, smooth, vibrant graphics as well as unparalleled computing power," said John Taylor, product marketing director, AMD. "From tablets to desktops, AMD is making powerful computing accessible to everyone."

AMD was a little too early in May with its monthly Catalyst driver release, with the Catalyst 11.5 WHQL reaching the web as early as 9th May (typically monthly Catalyst updates are released after the 24th). On the same date, AMD also released its first hotfix update for the Catalyst 11.5, the 11.5a Hotfix Update, which packed a number of game-specific performance improvements. Today, the company released its second such update for the month, with Catalyst 11.5b Hotfix.

The update is rushed in to fix a number of issues found with the recently-released game, Brink. It also fixes a number of non-gaming application issues, particularly related to media decoding. In the process, the driver also brings with it a number of game-specific performance improvements, games including Civilization 5, Dead Rising 2, Fallout 3, Mafia 2, NBA 2010, ShenGuiChuanQi, Starcraft 2, Warcraft III, World of Warcraft, and Dirt 3.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Catalyst 11.5b Hotfix Update.

A complete list of changes follows:

What happens when you pit Intel's "Visually Smart" Sandy Bridge processors against Radeon-enriched AMD Fusion A-Series accelerated processing units? They do terribly at gaming on integrated graphics. Surprise! That is notwithstanding the fact that AMD is pitching its A-Series Fusion APUs to be a lot more than CPUs with embedded GPUs, they're pitched to be processors that make lower-mainstream graphics pointless, and to alter the software ecosystem to be more GPGPU intensive, so applications could benefit from the over 500 GFLOPs of computation power the 400 stream processor DirectX 11 GPU brings to the table.

A leaked presentation slide shows AMD's performance projections for the A-Series GPU, tests included GPU-heavy DirectX 10 titles such as Crysis Warhead and Borderlands; as well as DirectX 11 ready titles such as Dirt 2. AMD's quad-core A8-3850, A8-3650 and A8-3450 were included alongside Intel's dual-core Sandy Bridge Core i3-2100, and quad-core Core i5-2300, Core i5-2500K. The Atom-competitive E350 Zacate dual-core was also in the comparision, perhaps to show that it is nearly as good as Intel's much higher segment Core series processors at graphics.

ASUS announced the launch of the new self-designed HD 6770 DirectCU and HD 6750 Formula graphics cards. Both are equipped with the ASUS-exclusive Super Alloy Power technology that delivers a 15% performance boost along with a lifespan that is 2.5 times longer than conventional graphics cards.

The HD 6770 DirectCU features copper pipes that are in direct contact with the GPU to offer a 20% cooler performance than reference graphics cards, while the HD 6750 Formula's integrated aerodynamic cover and micro surface treatment technology achieves a cooling performance 13% better than references. With this combination of ultimate cooling and durability, the HD 6770 DirectCU and HD 6750 Formula graphics cards allow users to enjoy unprecedented levels of realistic PC gaming and multimedia entertainment.