Nvidia unveils another budget Fermi based GPU - GeForce GT 440

Nvidia has announced yet another Fermi-based GPU which targets an even lower price segment than the GTS 450, called the GT 440. Based on the same GF106 core as the GTS 450, the GT 440 is aimed at casual/budget gamers. For now, the product is available only to OEMs for desktops, but is expected to be priced at less than $100 while delivering Nvidia PhysX, CUDA, and 3D Vision technologies.

Check out the specifications below:

• 192-bit memory controller (bus)


• 144 stream processors (CUDA cores) @ 1189MHz


• i) 1.5GB GDDR3 @ 1600MHz memory clock


• ii) 3GB GDDR3 @ 1800MHz memory clock


• 594MHz core clock


• DirectX 11 compliant


• DVI, D-Sub, HDMI output


• 56W TDP


• SLI support

Nvidia's Laptop Graphics Cards to Boost Web Browsing

Nvidia on Friday announced seven new GeForce 400M series graphics cards for laptops, which could provide parallel-processing capabilities to accelerate Web browsing and 3D image rendering.



Microsoft's Internet Explorer, Mozilla's Firefox and Google's Chrome have either implemented or will soon include the capability to off-load tasks like rendering of HTML 5 or Flash video content to graphics processors. Nvidia's new GeForce graphics cards will be faster at processing those tasks than CPUs, which should make Web browsing snappier.



The new graphics cards will be around 40 percent faster than the earlier 300M series at execution of tasks, said Ken Brown, an Nvidia spokesman.



While the CPU remains at the center of running tasks, developers are writing applications to harness the parallel-processing capabilities of graphics processors to speed up applications, said Dean McCarron, principal analyst at Mercury Research.



"That's one of the changes with the new browsers, is they support that capability," McCarron said.



Laptops with Intel's latest Core processors already have a graphics processor integrated in one chip next to the CPU. However, discrete GPUs have a faster and wider pipe to run applications, McCarron said.



But graphics processors can draw more power than CPUs or integrated graphics, which can affect battery life of laptops. Nvidia's graphics cards support new switchable technology called Optimus, where specific tasks like video rendering can be seamlessly switched between the CPU and GPU. The GPU kicks in only when needed, saving laptop battery life.



Nvidia declined to comment on the power drawn by the new graphics cards, citing company policy. The company in the past has taken charges for faulty dies and weak packaging material used in its graphics chips that led to laptops overheating. Those issues have been resolved for a while, Brown said.



"Nvidia GPUs are made with a different manufacturing substrate to prevent chips from experiencing thermal issues over time. Our GPUs run in the tolerance level of their specification and the notebook chassis design constraints," Brown said.



More laptops are shipping with discrete GPUs as users look for stronger multimedia capabilities, McCarron said. Nvidia will be trying to extend its presence in the market with the new products, and it will have to compete with rival Advanced Micro Devices, which already offers Radeon HD laptop graphics cards.



Beyond Web browsing, the graphics cards will provide a better gaming experience and bring Blu-ray 3D movie playback to laptops, Nvidia's Brown said. The graphics cards will support DirectX 11, Microsoft's latest graphics technology included in the Windows 7 OS.



The new offerings include the GeForce GT 415M, GT 420M, GT 425M, GT 435M, GT 445M, and the faster GTX 460M and GTX 470M graphics cards. The cards will be available only through the PC makers, and Nvidia did not comment on when the laptops would become available. The graphics cards will be offered through PC makers including Acer, Asus, Dell, Lenovo, Samsung and Toshiba.



Individual pricing for the graphics cards was not disclosed.

AMD decides it will retire ATI brand by 2011

It’s been four years since AMD bought ATI, and almost anyone who had apprehensions about the deal then, have by now resigned themselves to the fact, and for the most part, are happy about the way AMD has maintained ATI’s gamer quotient till this date, and how they saved it from Nvidia’s ruthless market tactics. While many industry experts felt $5.4 billion was simply too much to invest in a graphics company when with a similar amount of money AMD could have built its own, the popularity of the ATI brand was perhaps the number one factor in favour of an acquisition over internal development. Things are different now – ATI is at the top of its game, it has even edged out Nvidia as the market leader in discrete GPU shipments, and AMD is doing really well with its chipsets and integrated graphics. Things will apparently change some more soon, as AMD has revealed it will soon be doing away with the ATI brand.

Surprised? Well, not everyone is, as AMD has certainly been busy this past year, wresting the crown from Nvidia, and, also trying to simplify its brand structure in the form of AMD Vision, which is a logo a PC gets if the CPU and GPU are manufactured by AMD. Vision, Vision Premium, Vision Ultimate, and Vision Black are the price progressions, from entry-level to top-end.

AMD says it has some solid market research (at least as solid market research could ever be) to show why it has made the decision to phase out the ATI brand by Q1 2011, and retain only the Radeon/FirePro brands (thus making it AMD Radeon, or AMD FirePro).

Here is a look at AMD’s internal research:

These points all certainly make sense from a marketing point of view, but what will really connect to gamers’ hearts, is the real question. One thing is for sure though, AMD certainly benefited from ATI’s expertise and brand name, and, for gamers, it was a win-win situation, with AMD-ATI and Nvidia competing head to head to produce some seriously killer architecture. ATI will live on in the mass consciousness, leaving a tangible vacuum as it is going out at its very zenith.

Let us know what you think about AMD’s move, in the below comments section.

Do also check out some more research below from AMD that apparently justifies the move, as well as the new logos of AMD’s graphics products:

AMD reveals upcoming ATI Southern Islands GPU codenames in ATI Catalyst 10.8 drivers

AMD released its ATI Catalyst 10.8 drivers recently, and now, some codenames of upcoming GPUs have been found listed in them. What's certainly perplexing is that even though everyone knows the Southern Islands GPUs are the next slated release, these codenames have NI, orNorthern Islands, attached to them, even on some obviously Southern Islands of the West Indies, such as Antilles, Barts, Caicos, Cayman, Seymour, and Turks. Whistler and Blackcomb are the only two actual Northern Islands of the Caribbean on the list .The consensus so far is that the 35 new cards listed in the atiicdxx.da_ file are the codenames of what's coming up next, i.e., 40nm, and we can expect the temporarily shelved 32nm Northern Island GPUs much later.

While a lot of correlation with the naming schemes of the current generation of ATI GPUs has revealed some interesting facts about the revealed graphic cards, no specifications are known yet. Ten Cayman cards are thought to be part of ATI's professional FirePro cards, with their GL prefix. Of the remaining, XT would be the top end of the series (like the HD 5870), PRO the mid-end (like the HD 5850), and LE the low end (like the HD 5830). LP is thought to stand for low power, or, it could simply be a code refresh to the LE tag. Finally, the Gemini prefix is thought to indicate dual GPUs. The GPUs are probably not lmited to just desktop, workstation and notebook graphics, but some may refer to embedded and FireStream products as well. Check out the entire list below:

223,CAYMAN GL XT (6700),NI CAYMAN

224,CAYMAN GL XT (6701),NI CAYMAN

225,CAYMAN GL XT (6702),NI CAYMAN

226,CAYMAN GL XT (6703),NI CAYMAN

227,CAYMAN GL PRO (6704),NI CAYMAN

228,CAYMAN GL PRO (6705),NI CAYMAN

229,CAYMAN GL (6706),NI CAYMAN

230,CAYMAN GL LE (6707),NI CAYMAN

231,CAYMAN GL (6708),NI CAYMAN

232,CAYMAN GL (6709),NI CAYMAN

233,CAYMAN XT (6718),NI CAYMAN

234,CAYMAN PRO (6719),NI CAYMAN

235,ANTILLES PRO (671C),NI CAYMAN

236,ANTILLES XT (671D),NI CAYMAN

237,BLACKCOMB XT/PRO (6720),NI BLACKCOMB

238,BLACKCOMB LP (6721),NI BLACKCOMB

239,BLACKCOMB XT/PRO Gemini (6724),NI BLACKCOMB

240,BLACKCOMB LP Gemini (6725),NI BLACKCOMB

241,BARTS GL XT (6728),NI BARTS

242,BARTS GL PRO (6729),NI BARTS

243,BARTS XT (6738),NI BARTS

244,BARTS PRO (6739),NI BARTS

245,WHISTLER XT (6740),NI WHISTLER

246,WHISTLER PRO/LP (6741),NI WHISTLER

247,WHISTLER XT/PRO Gemini (6744),NI WHISTLER

248,WHISTLER LP Gemini (6745),NI WHISTLER

249,ONEGA (6750),NI TURKS

250,TURKS XT (6758),NI TURKS

251,TURKS PRO (6759),NI TURKS

252,SEYMOUR XT/PRO (6760),NI SEYMOUR

253,SEYMOUR LP (6761),NI SEYMOUR

254,SEYMOUR XT/PRO Gemini (6764),NI SEYMOUR

255,SEYMOUR LP Gemini (6765),NI SEYMOUR

256,CAICOS GL PRO (6768),NI CAICOS

257,CASPIAN PRO (6770),NI CAICOS

258,CAICOS PRO (6779),NI CAICOS

A Turkish website called Donanimhaber has announced its expected release for the schedule for some of the above named ATI Radeon HD 6000 series, which starts of with Radeon HD 6700 series, codenamed Barts, releasing this October. November should be the ATI Radeon HD 6800 series, codenamed Cayman. The flagship chip, replacing the HD 5970, is expected to be the Antilles, a dual-GPU Cayman 6870 (without the lowered clock speeds of the HD 5970), branded as the HD 6970, which is supposedly due out in December. A 6950 card, the Antilles PRO, is also expected at some point.

Turks and Caicos are thought to be the HD 6600 and 6500 cards, and will apparently release in Q1 2011. 

AMD ATI finally edges out Nvidia in discrete GPU shipments

The just concluded quarter ending June 2010 has seen some remarkable numbers from various companies, including Microsoft and Apple. What is perhaps the most interesting turnaround though, is AMD ATI finally edging ahead of Nvidia in terms of discrete GPU shipments. Many unbiased gamers and even Nvidia fanatics have experienced problems with the green giant in recent times, forcing them to switch over to ATI until Nvidia finally decided to do something about it. Do it they did, with the release of the much awaited and first DX11 GPU from Nvidia, based on the Fermi architecture. But having had their place firmly planted in gamers’ hearts for more than a year now, as well as the good 6 month lead in launching DX11 GPUs, ATI has managed to get a 51% share of the discrete GPU market, according to Mercury Research. 



What is perhaps the most revealing fact, is Apple’s choice to put ATI Radeon GPUs in its iMac and Mac Pro lineups. While the iMac is not especially known for its graphics, the Mac Pro lineup has been one of the chief render farm machines for years now, and it really shows how well ATI is doing (or how much Nvidia is pissing people off) when Apple chooses them to power their workstation graphics. To get a good idea of how ATI’s market share has grown, last years figures for the same period were 41% for ATI, and 59% for Nvidia.