It's pretty obvious that nowadays, gamers want more than just pretty graphics in their games. The likes of Crysis, Half Life 2, Call of Duty 4 and BioShock all show that gamers really crave and enjoy realistic physics in their games. To make rendering physics easier, and to compete with Ageia's PhysX, both AMD and NVIDIA planned out physics rendering via the graphics card. Unfortunately for both of their plans, Havok is soon going to release the Havok FX engine. The Havok FX engine is responsible for calculating physics without any GPU support whatsoever, regardless of brands. If Havok FX is adopted across the board, then the prospect of GPU physics is off-limits until at least DirectX11. This is great news for Ageia, which would leave physics to physics processing units, and very bad news for AMD and NVIDIA, who have likely been perfecting their physics engines for the past two years.

While the HD 3800 series is already available at a relatively low price (the 3850 has an MSRP of $180USD, while the 3870 has an MSRP of $220USD), AMD is considering cutting the price down to even lower amounts. There is no word as to how low AMD will go, but cheap, high power graphics cards just in time for Christmas may be exactly what AMD needs to re-claim market share from NVIDIA and their $300 8800GT. AMD increased their market share with a similar maneuver last year, by releasing value-oriented and powerful X1950 and X1650 graphics cards. This move increased AMD's market share by 2.1%, giving them 23% market share this time last year. NVIDIA has their own plans to get holiday sales, and hopes to churn out enough G92 chips to meet demand.

When AMD released the HD 3800 series of graphics cards, most people were expecting some lower end parts for those who could not afford the $170-$230 it would cost to get an HD 3800 on Newegg. AMD's response to this is the RV635 and RV620. As stated previously there will be an RV635 XT and an RV635 PRO. The RV635 XT will be officially named the HD 3670, and the RV635 PRO will be officially named the HD 3650. Much like the current HD 2600 series, the HD 3600 series will have 24 stream processors, 120 stream processing units, 16 Texture Address Units, 8 Texture Filter Units, 4 ROPs and a 128-bit memory interface. The current revision, A11, shows that the HD 3670 will run at clocks of 800MHz core and 1.6GHz memory. The HD 3650 will have core/memory clocks of 600/1000MHz, respectively. You can expect these cards to be sampled in December, and released in January, or early February at the latest. The main thing separating the HD 3600 series from the HD 2600 series is CrossFire X support, as well as all the main perks of an HD 3800: Avivo HD, DirectX10.1, UVD, and ATI PowerPlay.

Issues with AMD's new 65nm processors are not only dampening the launch schedule of the highest frequency version Phenom CPU, but may now also affect the 2.4GHz 9700 model as well, according to DigiTimes. Phenom 9500 and 9600 CPUs launched on November 19 at US$251 and US$283, respectively, and AMD was earlier reported to be planning to launch a 9700 model in mid December. However, this schedule is now likely to be pushed back to early 2008. The delay of the higher-end CPUs is not the only disappointment expressed by the industry players as the thermal design power (TDP) of the upcoming 9700 is also drawing concern. Motherboard makers revealed that the 9700 will have a TDP of 125W while the the 2.6GHz 9900 model will have its TDP hit as much as 140W. AMD was unavailable for comment at the time of publication.

When Intel announced plans to buy out Havok back in September, AMD began talking to Havok themselves to try and get the physics company in their hands. Talks faltered when Intel offered Havok $100 Million USD, and Intel acquired Havok and a lot of Intellectual Property. Not one to be left in the dust, AMD is currently in talks with Ageia. If Ageia offers AMD a reasonable price, they will be more than happy to acquire it. After all, according to AMD's head of developer relations, "I would say that they [Ageia] would probably grind themselves out of business in a year or so, but now they have an opportunity to sell themselves for a lot of money instead". If AMD does end up acquiring Ageia, they will get quite a lot of Intellectual Property, a new market segment, and an advantage for AMD developers. If talks falter, though, Ageia would more likely than not receive offers from the likes of NVIDIA, Sony, and several other hardware/software developers.

Things are indeed looking up for AMD as of late. NVIDIA recently unveiled plans to adapt the AMD MCP78S chipset into their motherboards, which will enable some CrossFire X features on NVIDIA chipsets. The first feature to run on these new hybrid motherboards is Hybrid SLI. Like Hybrid CrossFire, Hybrid SLI will allow for the dynamic switching of onboard and independent graphics. During normal operation, the computer will run off onboard graphics, saving energy. When the user pops in an extreme game, the machine will automatically switch graphics operations over to the much more powerful graphics card. These features will be stuck into select upcoming NVIDIA nForce 780i motherboards, which will support Socket AM2 and AM2+ CPUs over a 2600MT/s HyperTransport 3.0 bus, six 3Gb/s SATA drives, 12 USB ports and Gigabit Ethernet.

The North American personal computer builder MAINGEAR Computers, will be revolutionizing their Dash Friends and Family PC, F131 gaming machines, and EPHEX luxury gaming systems by integrating the latest AMD Spider platform. Equipped with the "standard" Spider accessories like AMD Phenom 9500/9600 CPU, MSI K9A2 Platinum 790FX motherboard and a pair of ATI Radeon HD 3800 series will get you quite a boost from a pre-build configuration. Other parts include Silverstone case, 1kW Silverstone Strider PSU, optional Maingear Arctic 120mm CPU water cooling system (adds 299$ to your bill), 2GB or 4GB Corsair XMS2-8500 DDR2 memory, PhysX acceleration and a lot more. In fact most of the configuration can be customized here.

AMD demonstrated broad ecosystem support for several new components introduced today, including next-generation AMD Phenom quad-core processors, ATI Radeon HD 3800 series graphics processors with ATI CrossFireX, and AMD 7-Series chipsets. These new advancements from AMD are backed by industry leading components from major ecosystem partners such as AsRock, Asus, Biostar, Club 3D, DFI, Diamond Multimedia, ECS, Foxconn, Gigabyte, HIS, Info-Tek, Jetway, J&W, MSI, NVIDIA, Micron Technology, Palit Multimedia, PCPartner, Qimonda, Samsung Semiconductor, Sapphire, Tul, Visiontek and Uabit and can energize the next generation of computing - meeting enthusiasts and gamers' demands for high-quality HD resolution and responsive performance, while at the same time addressing users' energy efficiency needs.

While the current RV670 chips are selling like hotcakes, AMD is working on putting out mid-range and low-end parts for those market segments. The successor to the HD 2600 series, according to graphics card manufacturers, will be called the HD 3600 series (big surprise). The 3600 series will come in two versions, an XT model and a Pro model. The XT will be clocked at 800MHz, and the Pro will be clocked at 600MHz. Both will be attached to 128-bit VRAM, which will run at an unknown clock speed. The Pro will have GDDR2, while the XT will have GDDR3. Both will support DirectX10.1, and the micro-architecture itself is codenamed "RV635". The RV635 should be launched with the RV620, the successor to the HD 2400 series. The RV620 should be dubbed the HD 3400 series.

Rewriting the rules for enthusiast computing, as expected AMD today unveiled its new platform codenamed "Spider", with the first true quad-core processor supporting scalable graphics for The Ultimate Visual Experience. The AMD Spider platform combines the introduction of AMD Phenom quad-core processors, ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series graphics processors with Microsoft DirectX 10.1 support, AMD 7-Series chipsets with CrossFireX and AMD OverDrive software. The AMD Spider platform is a major milestone on the path to Accelerated Computing, AMD's vision for platform-level acceleration through co-processing.

At NVIDIA's recent Editors Day, NVIDIA tried pretty hard to show just how awesome they think the 8800GT is. To do this, they took two computers, put an 8800GT in one, a 2900XT on the other, paired both to a 30" HP monitor that runs at a native 2560x1600 resolution, and tried to get both to play an HD-DVD. The 2900XT, according to NVIDIA, could not play any HD content, and was limited to 1920x1200. The incriminating slide is below. However, AMD was very prompt in their rebuttal. While the 8800GT can display HD content in a resolution higher than 1920x1200, none of the other 8800 cards can. The 8800GTX and Ultra, which are more powerful than the 8800GT and much more expensive, are limited to single-key HDCP, limiting the resolution and playback to 1920x1200. AMD then put an HD-DVD in the drive of a test system with an HD 3850, plugged it into a monitor capable of displaying a 2560x1600 resolution, and watched the movie in full screen with full hardware acceleration. AMD was also able to achieve full-screen playback on a test system with 2 HD 2900XTs.

This video shows the new AMD Spider platform - the one that's on display for the past week. The platform combines AMD Phenom processors, ATI Radeon HD 3800 series discreet graphics and AMD 7-series chipsets.

AMD Spider Platform

AMD announced today that it has received an investment from a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mubadala Development Company, a strategic investment and development company headquartered in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Mubadala invested approximately $622 million, receiving 49 million newly-issued shares at a price per share of $12.70, the closing price of AMD common stock on November 15, 2007. AMD received approximately $608 million, after reimbursing Mubadala for approximately $14.6 million in expenses. AMD will use the net proceeds from the sale of the shares of common stock for general corporate purposes including accelerating its long-term, customer-focused growth strategy by investing in R&D, product innovations and manufacturing excellence.

The dual-RV670 GPU graphics card coming from AMD/ATI within the next few months is coming along very well. It's slated for a release in early January/February, and will not be any bigger than the current RV670. Instead, to fit the additional GPU, it will be longer. The R680, thanks to a dual-slot cooling solution, will sport massive stock clocks (800MHz!). We'll keep you posted as more R680 rumors arise.

AMDZone has collaborated with AMD to reveal the final box art of AMD's new quad-core Phenom processors. That's what you'd get when you purchase your brand new boxed Phenom.

Today, AMD released the first of what will be two major upgrades to their AMD Core Math Library (ACML) in the coming year. This first includes support for Barcelona's native 128-bit SIMD engine. It works with Windows, Linux and Solaris, and doubles the floating point operations per clock to 8 on Barcelona, up from 4. The major upgrade next year will include direct support for heterogeneous processing using their recently announced FireStream 64-bit stream processor. The refresh brings ACML up to version 4.0. The library is available for free download and includes enhancements to their base math algorithms. These include Level 1, 2 and 3 Basic Linear Alegbra Subroutines (BLAS), Linear Algebra (LAPACK) routines, Fast Fourier Transforms (FFTs) in single, double, single-complex and double-complex data types, scalar, vector, array and transcendental math functions. A pseudo-random number generator is also included with both single and double precision generation. AMD has worked with PathScale, PGI and Sun, as well as Microsoft and the Linux community at large, to include special optimizations and native library support in their products. AMD also has a CodeAnalyst tool, which is similar in function to intel's VTune, though with a lesser set of comprehensive abilities. It is also available for free download.

Well, the charts speak for themselves really. The 3850, which should be less than $200USD when it is released later this month, completely slaughters the intended competition, which includes the HD 2600XT, and the NVIDIA GeForce 8600GTS. The 3850 also holds it's own against the HD 2900XT.

While we frequently hear about Company X suing Company Y over some copyright infringement, rarely do we hear about a lawsuit that actually matters. Maria Ruiz, a former employee of AMD, worked at Fab 14 between 1988 and 2002. When she gave birth to her son, she was horrified to discover multiple birth defects. Now 16, her child (Ryan) was born missing his lower right arm, and suffers brain injury and lifelong cognitive deficits.

In the lawsuit, which was filed in the Travis County District Court in Texas, Maria Ruiz claims that she was frequently exposed to such toxic chemicals as ethylene glycol monethyl ether acetate and 2-ethoxyethyl acetate. Ruiz reported needing to receive prompt medical attention on at least two occasions, after unintentionally inhaling chemical fumes. Overall, the lawsuit claims that AMD "breached its safety warranty and neglected to provide employees with adequate protection against exposure to dangerous chemicals". The lawsuit also includes medical malpractice allegations against the clinic Maria Ruiz was treated at.

AMD had this to say about the lawsuit:

We take the health and safety of our employees very seriously. We have a long history of supporting independent research on health and safety in semiconductor manufacturing and are confident in our systems and procedures. Our thoughts go out to Ms. Ruiz and her family, but we do not believe there is any connection between Ms. Ruiz's employment with AMD and her son's medical conditions as alleged in this case.

As monitors get bigger, run at higher resolutions, and video games require ridiculous amounts of graphics memory to run at respectable settings, both AMD and NVIDIA have shoved more and more graphics memory into their cards. However, how much is enough? The folks at YouGamers did some serious tests, and discovered some interesting facts about VRAM. While AMD and NVIDIA both want you to think that humongous amounts of VRAM will magically make your games run at 1920x1200, YouGamers discovered that quantity is not what really matters. If you want to run the most stressful games at the highest resolutions possible, you will see much more benefit from getting faster graphics card memory, or simply a faster graphics card. You can read the full investigative article here.

AM3, the official socket successor to AM2(+), will give AMD users access to DDR3 RAM, 45nm AM3 processors, and all sorts of other goodies. It should come around sometime in 2008, with true AM3 processors coming in the second half of next year. This chart should explain a lot of questions you may have about the AMD platform. And without further ado, enjoy.

While NVIDIA launched the 8800GT to much fanfare, hype, and success, AMD is attempting a different approach to get HD 2900GTs out into the public. AMD created the chips, released the specs, made sure that retailers had a ample stock at a fair price ($170USD on Newegg for the Sapphire version). The Sapphire 2900GT has 700 million transistors, is built around an 80nm micro-architecture, has 256-bit 4-channel GDDR3 memory, unified superscalar shader architecture, 240 stream processing units, and full DirectX10.0 support. The Sapphire card is clocked at 600/1600, core/RAM, respectively.

DigiTimes reports that Taiwan motherboard makers do not expect AMD to roll out the highest frequency 2.6GHz version of its new quad-core Phenom CPU family before 2008. According to sources close to DigiTimes, AMD will only introduce two Phenom CPUs on November 19th, the 2.2GHz 9500 and 2.3GHz 9600 models. A 2.4GHz 9700 model is expected to launch during December, but a 2.6GHz one will not be introduced until 2008. AMD is planning to offer the 9500 and 9600 Phenoms for as low as US$250 and US$270 to OEM channels, while the officially announced prices will be US$280 and US$320. The 9700 processor will be priced at around US$300. AMD declined to comment on the speculation, saying that it cannot reveal details about the upcoming Phenom launch.

Advanced Micro Devices today announced the AMD FireStream 9170 Stream Processor and an accompanying Software Development Kit (SDK) designed to harness the massive parallel processing power of the graphics processing unit (GPU). AMD leveraged its unique collective expertise in both GPUs and CPUs to deliver the first integrated hardware and software development solution that meets the needs of the demanding high-performance computing (HPC) market. AMD plans to deliver the FireStream 9170 and supporting SDK to market in the first quarter of 2008. With this launch AMD expects to achieve another important milestone on the path to Accelerated Computing by delivering the first in a series of next-generation heterogeneous compute architectures.

While AMD is working very hard to ensure the RV670 launch will be a success, we're hearing very little about the alleged "R680" graphics card. According to AMD's partners, R680 is indeed a real AMD graphics card that is currently in development. At this point, it is supposedly a dual-RV670 solution, and we may be seeing it in retail channels before Christmas. We'll keep you posted.

Someone on XtremeSystems recently got their hands on two AMD HD 2900GTs, and proceeded to overclock them, put them in the same system as an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700, cooled everything with a labyrinth of heatsinks and fans, and benchmarked the whole system. Have a look at the scores below: