CES 2025 Is Here With AI In Everything!

 CES 2025 has officially kicked off this week with all the biggest names in tech showcasing their newest tech offerings. As expected AI is at the forefront of just about every single major announcement. With NVIDIA, Intel, AMD and Qualcomm all showcasing the latest in AI centric chips. While others such as LG Google, Hisense and TCL show off some of the newest in AI powered TVs and home theater gizmos. Not to take a back seat major auto manufactures have showed in force this year with Toyota, Volvo, BMW and others highlighting new AI integration and manufacturing advancements.  

As many expected AI has found its way into almost every device from the outrageous new personal robots. To the most mundane of children's toys. Just about everywhere you look someone is introducing a new AI powered gadget or gizmo of some sort!

Among the major announcements made was NVIDIA's CES keynote highlighting their newest RTX 50 series flagship GPUs as well as a very interesting new addition dubbed Project Digits. NVIDIA Project DIGITS, a personal AI supercomputer that provides AI researchers, data scientists and students worldwide with access to the power of the NVIDIA Grace Blackwell platform. With Project DIGITS, users can develop and run inference on models using their own desktop system, then seamlessly deploy the models on accelerated cloud or data center infrastructure.

As previously mentioned TV and display manufactures are looking to put AI to use in more ways than one. Google has announced they adding a slew of Gemini features to Google TV. With Gemini Google promises your interaction with your Google TV powered devices will be more natural and intuitive.  Offering things like summarized results, better search, and more total control over your connected devices. Google plans to release these new Gemini capabilities for new and existing Google TV devices toward the end of 2025.

In the auto arena Toyota took the wraps of some very ambitious projects including a move into space travel, autonomous vehicles and a very intriguing idea dubbed Toyota Woven City. This new 'Smart City" project is promised to be a hub for innovation, blending autonomous vehicles, AI and robotics

The concept of Toyota’s radical Woven City – which the Japanese automaker describes as a “test course for mobility” – was initially revealed in 2020. Now, five years later, the company says the first phase of construction is complete and ready for launch later this year.

It wouldn't be CES of course without the addition of tons of other gadgets. And it looks like there are plenty of those to choose from. The folks at ZDNET found everything from smart rings, to door locks. And did we mention the robots? It seems as though there is a robot for just about everything these days!

Are External AI Accelerators Coming Soon?

A couple years ago several companies introduced external GPUs. Portable boxes that held a top end GPU that could run the latest games on your small form factor PC or your otherwise under-equipped none gaming PC. They could be used on just about any PC to add in gaming or graphics  power without the need for a new build or major upgrade. With the need for today's computers to keep up with the draw of AI computing will we soon see add-on or scalable external AI Accelerator Box becoming the new thing?

The fundamentals of on-device AI computing are easy enough to understand. You put an NPU, AI ready GPU ect into a device and you are reasonably set. Most new laptops and desktops will come with these chip integrated. However, the need to add AI computing power to older machines, without a large scale upgrade, might be the next big draw. Much like add-on GPUs having a stand-alone AI Accelerator NPU might be a great solution.

Think of it this way, you own a PC or laptop that is a few years old and instead of buying something brand new you add on an external NPU or even GPU box the size of a standard portable hard drive. You instantly boost your computing power and/or graphics power. Now add to that you could potentially be running them in tandem and multiply your base computing power exponentially based on whatever configurations you have! You become your own distributed computing system running everything from one machine. You can then take those same devices and run the same level of computing from your laptop, work PC or possibly even your phone! 

Unlike a normal PC with an AI Accelerator Box you won't have to continuously upgrade. Rather you scale your computing power based on each new AI Box you add or swap out. Your base footprint would still be less than a single high end desktop, but with exponentially more compute power!

We do have a few solutions similar to what I'm suggesting today. ADLINK Tech has a portable NVIDIA RTX GPU and companies like Zotac still have their external GPUs. However, none of these offer the true scalability and raw AI processing power that I'm talking about. Eventually I believe well see some true standalone Intel or AMD based AI accelerator chips in external boxes setup for running as a daisy chained system.

What Are AI PCs? A Brief Explanation

Before I start with the explanation below I'd like to say that I believe that AI (artificial intelligence) as we are defining it today is not what most people envision as true 'artificial intelligence.' I look at it more as an augmented intelligence, one that uses your own interactions and those of users like you to generate best case answers, images, videos ect. We've been using the same software, same search algorithms, same voice commands, same pretty much everything for several years now. We never called it AI before because of the marketing strategy. Today we are just now seeing the marketing hype behind those same tools that have been learning our habits for years (I won't get started on the privacy issues here).

AI PCs - Intel's New Marketing Term

To put this simply the term AI PC is an Intel derived marketing term that requires specific Intel hardware and standards to apply. This doesn't mean that other PCs or devices can't run AI or that they aren't AI ready or AI chip equipped. So don't be confused here! 

Intel has stated that for a PC to receive the coveted "AI" label, it needs four things: a neural processing unit (NPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), and the ability to handle Vector Neural Network Instructions (VNNI) and DP4a instructions (so that the GPU can handle video processing)  In other words what Intel is saying is that in order for them to call a new computer an AI PC it must be one with their latest CPU.

 

What is AI Ready and AI equipped

When it comes to slapping the AI ready label on things these are the few small things to know. AI apps and tools are currently used in two different ways. The difference between the two and how you are using them is really the difference in hardware requirements and what is needed. Basically any PC, smartphone, tablet or device can access and use cloud based AI.  On device generative tools require much better, more efficient hardware and that is were some of the confusion starts for most people.

One of the easiest ways to explain the hardware is to say the modern CPU as most people know it has become extremely outdated. New software changes take advantage of and use the GPU and a new NPU (secondary chip) to do the heavy work. These are both considered AI accelerators, deep learning processor, or neural processing units (NPUs). They have been specifically designed to accelerate artificial intelligence and machine learning applications and algorithms. (More on the differences here)

Tools like ChatGPT, Google image generator Gemini, or Microsoft CoPilot are all cloud based and do all their work in a cloud based system. This allows EVERY device to utilize AI because all the work is done by other, much more powerful systems, that then send the results to your PC or phone. This will soon change however as Intel has confirmed CoPilot and other applications will soon run locally on PCs and require better hardware to do so. 

PCs meeting those requirements are already shipping and other devices like the Apple iPhone, Google Pixel 8 and Samsung Galaxy phones are already using secondary more AI specific NPU chips for on-device AI.

In conclusion - don't be confused or fooled!
I'm writing this post I'm really hoping to take some confusion out of buying or upgrading your systems and hope that people aren't fooled into think they have to run out and search only for an AI PC to run their newly hyped apps. Yes newer hardware will eventually be required, and yes it only makes sense to adopt that hardware if you are already upgrading. No, that doesn't mean you will be left out if you don't!

Get Free Games This Holiday Season With AMD's 'Never Settle' Game Bundles

It seems like the holiday shopping is starting a bit early this year with companies already kicking off some promotion. For you gamers out there that are planning to add a little more graphics power to that gaming machine AMD has a new promotion just for you!

As part of the Never Settle Game Bundle, AMD is offering customers to three free games, plus get a coupon for 20 percent off Medal of Honor Warfighter with the purchase of select graphics cards. The best part? This is a direct from AMD promotion meaning it isn't tied to any specific GPU partner.

That means you can head over to Newegg or Amazon and buy one of the AMD card specified to qualify for the promotion. In addition to the 20 percent voucher, games up for grabs include Far Cry 3, Hitman Absolution, and Sleeping Dogs, all of which are free with the purchase of an AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series either the AMD Radeon HD 7970, AMD Radeon HD 7950 or the AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition Graphics Cards.

To obtain copies of the Games, each Participant must purchase an eligible AMD product (see "Eligible AMD Products") from a participating retailer and obtain from the participating retailer an AMD Unique ID. The AMD Unique ID is submitted on the www.amd.com/neversettlepromo site to obtain a Steam Game Key for Hitman: Absolution, a Steam Game Key for Sleeping Dogs, an UBIShop Game Key for FARCRY 3, and an EA Origin Discount Game Key for 20% off Medal of Honor Warfighter Deluxe Edition when purchased through EA Origin Store. Game Keys and Discount Game Keys are redeemed at www.steampowered.com/getsteam, http://shop.ubi.com/amdfarcry, and www.store.origin.com.

The promotion begins October 22, 2012 and ends on March 31, 2013. Medal of Honor Warfighter Digital Deluxe 20% discount expires December 31, 2012. Game Keys must be used to obtain Free Game downloads by April 30, 2013 and Discount Game Keys must be used to obtain discounted purchase of discount Game on or before December 31, 2012, after which the Game Keys and discount game keys are void, except that FARCRY 3 game keys are valid for a period of 1 year starting October 22, 2012 and will expire on October 22, 2013.

For more details on the promotion head over to the AMD Never Settle Page or visit this link for the full terms and conditions.

AMD Bulldozer Benchmarks And Reviews

One of this seasons most hotly-anticipated CPU launches is AMD’s new Bulldozer architecture. Geeks everywhere have waited to see if company’s new FX processor line-up has what it takes to face off against Intel’s Sandy Bridge and put AMD back in the fight.

“Bulldozer” is considered AMD’s first true redesign of a chip since the original Athlon 64. AMD will initially launch four FX chips (two eight cores, one six core and a quad core) ranging from $115 to $245 with three more chips (an additional eight core and two quad cores) coming sometime down the road.

• FX-8150: Eight cores, 3.6 GHz CPU base (3.9 GHz Turbo Core, 4.2 GHz Max Turbo), $245 suggested retail price (U.S.)
• FX-8120: Eight cores, 3.1 GHz CPU base (3.4 GHz Turbo Core, 4.0 GHz Max Turbo), $205 suggested retail price (U.S.)
• FX-6100: Six cores, 3.3 GHz CPU base (3.6 GHz Turbo Core, 3.9 GHz Max Turbo), $165 suggested retail price (U.S.)
• FX-4100: Four cores, 3.6 GHz CPU base (3.7 GHz Turbo Core, 3.8 GHz Max Turbo), $115 suggested retail price (U.S.)

The company’s top end chip is the FX-8150 which is made up of four dual-core modules on a single die. Modules are a new tech term coined by AMD to explain the use of two monolithic “cores” each with its own set of integer schedulers, pipelines and L1 data cache. Each of the chips in the FX line will feature these new modules, 2 for quad cores, 3 for six core chips and 4 for the eight core chips. All of the chips in the FX line-up will also be unlocked meaning they should be highly overclockable, not a big deal to the masses but great news for you overclockers out there.

Motherboard Compatibility
This is one question I'm sure everyone will have. So here it is in a nut shell. AMD is certifying its FX processors for use on Socket-AM3+ motherboards only. Owners of standard AM3 motherboards will have to rely on the motherboard manufacturers to certify their boards for use with the new chips. This means that the socket AM3 boards may indeed work (they are physically the same) however you may need a bios update. From AMD's perspective only AM3+ motherboards with BIOS/UEFI support for Bulldozer are officially supported. This doesn't mean other boards won't work AMD is just saying they can't guarantee that they will. You'll want to check with your motherboard manufacture before buying a new FX chip!

So the reviews are in, what is the verdict?

Well the early reviews are in and I hate to say AMD has failed to impress most reviewers. In most of the test the high end AMD FX-8150 shows performance results that falls in between Intel's Core i5-2500K and Core i7-2600K —which isn't really what most of us would expect. Speaking as an AMD fan I'm sure most of us had hoped the chip would out perform the more expensive Core i7-2600K and totally spank the Core i5-2500K. In some tests it did, in most it was really a toss up.

AMD FX-8150 Benchmarks and Reviews

• Maximum PC - Bulldozer Benchmarked and Analyzed: Is AMD Back in the Game?
• Tom's Hardware - AMD FX-8150 Review: From Bulldozer To Zambezi To FX
• AnandTech - The Bulldozer Review: AMD FX-8150 Tested
• TechSpot - Bulldozer Arrives: AMD FX-8150 Review
• Hexus.Net - AMD Bulldozer FX-8150 Review
• TweakTown - AMD FX-8150 (AM3+) 3.6GHz Bulldozer CPU Review
• HardOCP - AMD Bulldozer / FX-8150 Desktop Performance Review

Read more from AMD:

• AMD FX Unleashed | Three Videos Show Off AMD’s Latest Processors
• Unlock Your Record Setting AMD FX Series Processor Today

AMD Releases New GPUs Fills Out The Radeon HD 6000 Series Line-up

AMD has rounded out the lower end of its Radeon HD 6xxx series video card lineup with the release of three new sub $100 cards the ultra-affordable Radeon HD 6450, the Radeon HD 6570 and Radeon HD 6670 which are priced at $59, $79 and $99 respectively.

According to AMD all three cards are designed to use minimal power; the 6450 has a TDP of 27 watts (and uses only 9 watts when idle) while the 6570 has a TDP of 44 watts (and uses only 10 watts when idle) and the 6670's TDP is 66 watts (and 12 watts while idling).

The cards pack the usual set of features you'd see from a low end card which include support for Microsoft's DirectX 11 (DX11); Eyefinity, for enhanced handling of multiple monitors. Both the 6450 and 6570 can drive up to 3 simultaneous displays(4 with with DisplayPort 1.2 Multi-Stream Transport), the 6670 supports up to 4 simultaneous displays (6 displays supported with DisplayPort 1.2 Multi-Stream Transport); AMD APP, which uses the GPU to accelerate other areas of processing performance; HD3D, for playing and watching stereoscopic 3D games and other content; and AMD CrossFireX multi-GPU technology.

The Radeon HD 6450 is definitely the low end featuring a 625-750 MHz engine clock, 160 stream processors, 8 texturing units and 16 Z/Stencil ROP Units units. The card can be configured with faster GDDR5 memory, AMD is now allowing for up to 1GB of GDDR5 video buffer to be installed that can be clocked between 800MHz and 900MHz.

The Radeon HD 6570 boasts a 650MHz engine clock, 480 stream processors, 24 texture units, 32 Z/Stencil ROP Units, and either 512MB-2GB of DDR3 clocked at 900MHz or 512MB-1GB of GDDR5 clocked at 1000MHz, both on a 128-bit memory bus.

The Radeon HD 6670 features many of the same specs, but comes clocked at 800MHz engine clock and includes 512MB-1GB of GDDR5 clocked at 1000MHz, also on a 128-bit interface.

Reviews:

• Guru3d - Radeon HD 6450 review | Radeon HD 6670 review
• Tom's Hardware - AMD Radeon HD 6450 Review: Caicos Cometh | AMD Radeon HD 6670 And 6570 Review
• HardwareHeaven - AMD Radeon HD 6450 Graphics Card Review
• AnandTech - AMD’s Radeon HD 6670 & Radeon HD 6570: Two’s Company, Sub-$100’s A Crowd
• Hardware Canucks - AMD Radeon HD 6670 1GB & HD 6570 512MB Review

Related Articles:

• Three New AMD HD6000 Graphics Cards Released by MSI
• SAPPHIRE Rounds Out HD 6000 series with new Entry level and Mainstream models
• ASUS Releases HD 6670, HD 6570 and HD 6450 Graphics Cards
• HIS Unleashes HIS 6670/ 6570/ 6450
• PowerColor Unveils New Radeon HD6770, HD6570 and HD6450 GPUs

AMD Releases Mainstream Minded Radeon HD 6790

The GPU wars continue on as AMD has recently released the new $150 Radeon HD 6790 Video Card which at its current price point puts it in direct competition with Nvidia's recently released (and same-priced) GeForce GTX 550 Ti.

The new Radeon HD 6790 currently sits at the low end of AMD's 6000 series positioned somewhere above the HD 5770 and between the OEM only Radeon HD 6770 and the low-end-enthusiast Radeon HD 6850. Pricing and specifications on the card would indicate that AMD has intended the card to be used by gamers running mid-range resolutions of 1680x1050 with low to mid-range detail settings.

The card comes loaded with 1GB of GDDR5 ram has a core clock speed of 840 MHz, memory clock of 1050MHz (4.2GHz data rate), 800 stream processors, 40 texture units, and 16 ROPs and packs 1.34 teraflops of compute power with a Texture Filtering Rate of 33.6 GTex/s.

Most reviewers seem fairly impressed with the card but seem to agree that overall the price point it sits at isn't the best. The card only slightly outperforms the cheaper HD 5770 and is bested by the HD 6850 which can be had AMIR for around (or slightly above) the same price.

Radeon HD 6790 Benchmarks and Reviews

• Tech Report - AMD's Radeon HD 6790 graphics card
• AnandTech - AMD's Radeon HD 6790: Coming Up Short At $150
• Tom's Hardware - AMD Radeon HD 6790 Review: More Mid-Range Might
• PC Perspective - AMD Radeon HD 6790 1GB Review - Barts hits $150
• Guru3d - Radeon HD 6790 review
• Hardware Heaven - Sapphire Radeon HD 6790 Graphics Card Review 
• OCC - PowerColor HD 6790 Review

Related Articles

• SAPPHIRE HD6790 Sets New Standards
• PowerColor new HD 6790 is an affordable full HD gaming graphics solution
• HIS Adds a New Member to Its IceQ X Family: HIS 6790 IceQ X 1GB GDDR5

AMD Challenging NVIDIA's World's Fastest GPU Claims

Laying out bold claims like "world's fastest" is nothing new and by now we should all be use to the marketing schemes that companies use to pry our money out of our hands. Savy consumers should know to wait for reviews, benchmarks and thorough testing before they jump on the band-wagon just because a company claims the top dog title.

This week, however, AMD has decided it wants to challenge the claims Nvidia is making about its latest graphics card, the GTX 590. When AMD launched the Radeon HD 6990, the company of course laid claims to the title of the fastest card on the market. The company even showed the card scored highest ever score using 3DMark 11 benchmark. Fast forward to a few days ago, when NVIDIA released the GTX 590, and NVIDIA is now claiming the fastest card title, but has not released any test scores to back that claim up.

Now AMD wants proof, and has challenged NVIDIA to prove its claim as to the title of fastest graphics card on the market. In a recent blog post Dave Erskine the Senior Public Relations Manager for Graphics Desktop at AMD threw out the challenge:

We combed through their announcement to understand how it was that such a claim could be made and why there was no substantiation based on industry-standard benchmarks, similar to what AMD did with industry benchmark 3DMark 11, the latest DirectX® 11 benchmark from FutureMark.  

So now I issue a challenge to our competitor: prove it, don’t just say it. Show us the substantiation. Because as it stands today, leading reviewers agree with us here, here, here, and here that the AMD Radeon HD 6990 sits on the top as the world’s fastest graphics card.

The gauntlet has been thrown down, it'll be interesting to see how (or if) NVIDIA responds. We know this is really just a war of the words between two rivals but I think its going to be fun to see how it plays out.

AMD Releases The New $699 Radeon HD 6990

AMD has launched their new 'king of the hill' powerhouse gaming gpu the Radeon HD 6990, price tag $699. With the new HD 6990 AMD claims the title of 'world's fastest' graphics card!

Featuring a massive 4GB of GDDR5, 3,072 Stream Processors, 64 ROPs, and an 830MHz core clock speed. Add in a dual-BIOS switch setup to allow overclockers to tweak the card with automatic settings that allow you to crank that clock up to 880MHz with a corresponding increase in voltage. To push all that power the HD 6990 requires more power as the power-hungry card has a 375W TDP. In preliminary testing Anandtech reported the card sucked down over 490 watts of power during intense gaming benchmarks and as much as 550 watts when overclocked.

This thing is definitely a monster of a card!

Radeon HD 6990 Specifications

Full specs via AMD

• Default (BIOS1)
  • Up to 830MHz Engine Clock
  • 5.10 TFLOPs Single Precision compute power
  • 1.27 TFLOPs Double Precision Compute Power
• Overclocked (BIOS2)
  • Up to 880MHz Engine Clock
  • 5.40 TFLOPs Single Precision compute power o 1.37 TFLOPs Double Precision Compute Power
• 4GB 2x2 GDDR5 Memory
• 1250MHz Memory Clock (5.0 Gbps GDDR5)
• 320 GB/s memory bandwidth (maximum) 
• TeraScale 3 Unified Processing Architecture
  • 3072 Stream Processors
  • 192 Texture Units
  • 128 Z/Stencil ROP Units
  • 64 Color ROP Units
  • Dual geometry and dual rendering engines
• High Speed 256-bit GDDR5 memory interface
•  Second generation DirectX 11, OpenGL 4.1, Shader Model 5, DirectCompute 11 support

 

Radeon HD 6990 Benchmarks and Reviews

• Maximum PC - AMD Radeon HD 6990 Performance Preview
• Tom's Hadrware - AMD Radeon HD 6990 4 GB Review: Antilles Makes (Too Much) Noise
• PC Perspective - AMD Radeon HD 6990 4GB Dual GPU Cayman Graphics Card
• AnandTech - AMD's Radeon HD 6990: The New Single Card King
• Hot Hardware - AMD Radeon HD 6990 Review: Antilles Has Arrived
• Hexus - AMD Radeon HD 6990 4GB graphics card reviewed and rated
• BenchMark Reviews - PowerColor Radeon HD 6990 Graphics Card CrossFire Review

Related Articles

• MSI announces the world’s most powerful graphics card: Radeon R6990-4PD4GD5
• SAPPHIRE HD 6990 Delivers Top Performance
• ASUS Launches the HD 6990 Graphics Card
• PowerColor Launches the World's Fastest Graphics Card: Radeon HD 6990

AMD 's New Chips May Get New 'Vision' Naming Scheme

According to X-Bit Labs AMD will be restructuring and renaming their entire CPU lineup starting with the upcoming release of the "Bulldozer" platform. The new naming structure is an attempt to emphasize the company's corporate AMD Vision trademark and hopefully make things less complicated for users

Essentially there will be three series separated by performance levels.

1. Enthusiast Chips - the FX-Series - AMD Vision Black and AMD Vision Ultimate labels
2. Mid-range/mainstream Chips - A-Series - AMD Vision Ultimate and AMD Vision Premium platforms
3. Budget/Entry level Chips- E-Series - AMD Vision

The new FX-Series will consist of "Zembezi" processors based on Bulldozer micro-architecture with four, six or eight cores. These will be your high end enthusiast/gamer level chips.The A-Series processors will consist of the "Llano" APUs (accelerated processing units). These will have two or four cores and an ATI Radeon HD 6000-class graphics core. These will consist of the mainstream market mid-range chips. As for the E-Series, this group will serve the low-end market with APU's using one or two cores and a basic Radeon HD 6000-class "Zacate" graphics core.

The new naming scheme is really nothing new to AMD fans as they have been using the AMD Vision name and logos to differentiate platform levels for awhile now.  However if the plans proceed according to the reports  specific brand-names like Athlon, Phenom, Phenom II and Sempron will vanish into oblivion. User can also expect a new set of updated logo's (I've seen these and depending on which they choose they look cool) that will stand out a little more making it easier to differentiate the products.

Unlock Your Radeon HD 6950 To An HD 6970 Via Firmware Unlock

It has been common practice over the years to release GPUs and CPUs built on the same design only with some of the features disabled in order to lower the cost. A few weeks ago AMD released the Radeon HD 6970 and Radeon HD 6950 both cards where based on the same reference design, same chips and same base configuration. The difference, the HD 6950 was clocked down to an 800mhz GPU clock and 1250mhz memory clock with only 1408 unified shaders versus the HD 6970 which features a 880 GPU clock, 1375 memory clock and 1536 unified shaders.

According to a recent post over at TechPowerUp, with few basic steps and a few pieces of software the new Radeon HD 6950 can be unlocked and transformed to a Radeon HD 6970 by unlocking 128 unified shaders and overclocking your HD 6950.

Full instructions along with links for all the software you'll need are available here. Unlocking the additional shaders is done by flashing the card with an HD 6970 BIOS. Overclocking can be achieved with any of your favorite GPU clocking applications.

There is no guarantee that your card will overclock to the higher speeds or that your card will handle the unlocking correctly. However with AMD's new dual bios option that allows for easy recovery should something go wrong you really can't miss.

AMD Radeon HD 6970 and HD 6950 Have Arrived

AMD today released the company's twp top dawgs the Radeon HD 6970 and Radeon HD 6950. The two new cards are meant to complete AMD’s Radeon HD 6000 single-GPU card family which was introduced back on October 21st. At that time, only the Radeon HD 6870 and Radeon HD 6850 were launched.

The Radeon HD 6970 and Radeon HD 6950 are completely identical in shape and size in fact they are essentially the same cards visually. Specifications aside the only major difference is that the 6970 requires one 8-pin and one 6-pin connector, while the 6950 requires two 6-pin connectors. Both cards support dual-link DVI and HDMI 1.4a natively. There is also support for a two miniDP outputs, version 1.2. Eyefinity is also fully supported.

A new feature added to the Radeon HD 6970 and Radeon HD 6950 is a dual-BIOS on board. AMD has implemented this dual-BIOS is so that people flashing their BIOS’s will not brick their video cards. One BIOS on video card contains the factory default which is protected. The other BIOS is open and allows you to flash to it. If you screw up your BIOS flash, all you have to do is switch the video card back (via an actual switch on the side of the card) to the protected BIOS and re-flash the other BIOS. Saving the user from bricking their pricey add-on.

Based on the early reviews the cards perform pretty much as expected with both the Radeon HD 6970 and HD 6950 showing very fine price-to-performance ratios. The 6970 manages to keep pace with the much pricier NVIDIA GTX 580, but is priced similarly to NVIDIA's GTX 570. The much cheaper HD 6950 seems to have hit the real value price point with a a great price-to-performance ratio making it the new bang-for-the-buck leader.

Radeon HD 6970 Specifications
The AMD Radeon HD 6970 packs 2.64 Billion transistors and 1,536 streaming processors running at 880MHz core clock speed on the 40nm process. There are 96 texture units, 32 ROPs and 128 Z-Stencil. There is 2GB of GDDR5 running at 5.5GHz on a 256-bit memory bus. This provides 176GB/sec of memory bandwidth.

Radeon HD 6950 Specifications
The Radeon HD 6950 is also based on the 40nm process with the same 2.64 Billion transistors. There are 1,408 streaming processors running at 800MHz core clock speed. There are 88 texture units, and the same 32 ROPs and 128 Z-Stencil count. There is also 2GB of 5GHz GDDR5 RAM being used which provides 160GB/sec of bandwidth.

Benchmarks and Reviews

• [H]ardOCP - AMD Radeon HD 6970 and HD 6950 Video Card Review
• AnandTech - AMD's Radeon HD 6970 & Radeon HD 6950: Paving The Future For AMD
• techPowerUp! - HIS Radeon HD 6970 2 GB
• PC Perspective - AMD Radeon HD 6970 and 6950 Review
• Hot Hardware - AMD Radeon HD 6970 & 6950 Debut: Enter Cayman
• Hexus - AMD Radeon HD 6970 and HD 6950 2GB graphics card review
• TechSpot - AMD Radeon HD 6970 Review
• Benchmark Reviews - AMD Radeon HD 6970 Video Card
• HardwareCanucks - AMD Radeon HD 6970 and HD 6950 Review

Related Articles

• MSI's all new extreme performance R6970 and R6950 video cards announced
• PowerColor Announces New Radeon HD 6900 Series Graphics Cards
• SAPPHIRE HD 6900 Delivers Top Performance and Features

AMD's New Six Core Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition CPU

AMD delighted consumers with the addition of three new processors to the compnay's lineup today, the top dog being the new six-core Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition. Along side the new high end Phenom II X6 AMD released two mainstream processors the Athlon II X3 455, and the Phenom II X2 565 Black Edition.

The new flagship of AMD's processor lineup, the Phenom II X6 1100T, is based on the AM3 socket, supporting DDR3 and DDR2 memory on older AM2+ motherboards. It carries a clock speed of 3.30 GHz, features 512 KB of L2 cache per core, and 6 MB of L3 between all six cores. It features the TurboCore technology, which bumps clock speed by a few hundred MHz when it senses high load. As a Black Edition chip, it features an unlocked bus multiplier perfect for all you overclocking enthusiasts out there. Despite its increased clock speed, the 1100T still only has a TDP of 125W.

The AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition will be released with a $265 price tag which forces AMD to bump the price of the AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition down to $235.00.

AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition (HDE00ZFBK6DGR) Specifications:

• Model Number & Core Frequency: X6 1100T / 3.7GHz (Turbo) / 3.3GHz (Base)
• OPN: HDE00ZFBK6DGR
• L1 Cache Sizes: 64K of L1 instruction and 64K of L1 data cache per core (768KB total L1 per processor)
• L2 Cache Sizes: 512KB of L2 data cache per core (3MB total L2 per processor)
• L3 Cache Size: 6MB (shared)
• Total Cache (L2+L3): 9MB
• Memory Controller Type: Integrated 128-bit wide memory controller
• Memory Controller Speed: Up to 2.0GHz with Dual Dynamic Power Management
• Types of Memory Supported: Unregistered DIMMs up to PC2-8500 (DDR2-1066MHz) -AND- PC3-10600 (DDR3-1333MHz)
• HyperTransport 3.0 Specification: One 16-bit/16-bit link @ up to 4.0GHz full duplex (2.0GHz x2)
• Total Processor-to-System Bandwidth: Up to 37.3GB/s total bandwidth [Up to 21.3 GB/s memory bandwidth (DDR3-1333) + 16.0GB/s (HT3)] Up to 33.1GB/s total bandwidth [Up to 17.1 GB/s memory bandwidth (DDR2-1066) + 16.0GB/s (HT3)]
• Packaging: Socket AM3 938-pin organic micro pin grid array (micro-PGA)
• Process Technology: 45-nanometer DSL SOI (silicon-on-insulator) technology
• Approximate Transistor count: ~904 million
• Max TDP: 125 Watts

Phenom II X6 1100T Benchmarks and Reviews

• Legit Reviews AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition 3.3GHz CPU Review
• OCC AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Review
• HotHardware AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition CPU Review
• PureOverclock AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition
• Benchmark Reviews AMD Phenom-II X6-1100T CPU HDE00ZFBK6DGR
• Tweaktown AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition CPU

As mentioned AMD did release two new chips meant for the mainstream. First up is the Phenom II X2 565 Black Edition. Clocked at 3.40 GHz, featuring 512 KB of cache per core, and 6 MB shared L3 cache. This one has a TDP of 80W, and is priced at $115. Next is the new Athlon II X3 455, a triple-core chip based on the "Rana" silicon (which is Propus with one core locked), it lacks an L3 cache, but features 512 KB L2 per core. With a TDP of 95W, this one goes for $87.

AMD Launches Radeon HD 6800 Series

AMD today introduced the companies next generation of PC gaming GPUs, the AMD Radeon HD 6800 series, designed to be the “perfect graphics cards” for gamers by delivering unprecedented game performance. The new AMD Radeon HD 6800 series graphics cards provide more than 30 percent greater game performance than competing products, harnessing AMD’s second-generation Microsoft DirectX 11-capable architecture, best-in-class energy efficiency, and an unmatched feature set, including AMD Eyefinity multi-display technology.

“AMD is the market share leader by a landslide in DirectX 11 graphics,” said Matt Skynner, corporate vice president and general manager, GPU Division, AMD. “Through our sweet spot strategy and our open, industry standards approach, we’ve worked to deliver the best possible experience for gamers. Today, our laser focus on gamers continues with the introduction of what we think is far and away the best graphics card series today, the AMD Radeon HD 6800 series. With exceptional game performance, an unrivaled feature set including breathtaking DirectX 11 gaming, AMD Eyefinity multi-display technology, AMD Accelerated Parallel Processing, and more, the AMD Radeon HD 6800 series will have all gamers wanting to get Radeon in their systems.”


The first two cards released under the 6800 series are the Radeon HD 6870 and Radeon HD 6850. Both cards are built with AMD's 40nm chips with a 255mm die size, 1.7B transistors and feature 1GB of GDDR5 with a 256-bit memory interface and 32 render back-ends. The two cards sport a dual-slot design and provide 2 mini-DisplayPort 1.2 connectors, 1 HDMI 1.4a connector, and 2 DVI ports with HD3D technology, AMD Eyefinity technology and AMD EyeSpeed visual acceleration support.

Pricing is set at an MSRP of $239 for the Radeon HD 6870 and $179 for the Radeon HD 6850.

AMD Radeon HD 6870 and 6850 Benchmarks and Reviews:

• PC Perspective - AMD Radeon HD 6870 and 6850 Review - Barts Architecture Refresh
• Legit Reviews - AMD Radeon HD 6850 and 6870 Video Card Preview | AMD Radeon HD 6850 and 6870 CrossFire Video Card Review
• Benchmark Reviews - AMD Radeon HD 6870 Barts Video Card | AMD Radeon HD 6850 Barts Video Card
• Hot Hardware - AMD Radeon HD 6870 & 6850 Graphics Cards Debut
• TweakTown - AMD Radeon HD 6870 1GB Video Card | Sapphire Radeon HD 6850 1GB Video Card
• PC World - AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series Is the New Midrange Graphics Champ
• TechPowerUp - Review HIS Radeon HD 6850 1 GB | Review HIS Radeon HD 6870

Related News:

• MSI launches R6800-series graphics cards
• ASUS Releases New EAH6800 Series Graphics Cards
• HIS introduces the HIS Radeon HD 6850 & 6870
• AMD And Powercolor Launch The New Generation HD6800 Series

Product page: AMD Radeon HD 6800 series product informationSource: AMD Press Release

AMD Announces New CPUs, Slashes Prices On Older Models

Today AMD unveiled six new speedier CPUs to refresh not only their newer Phenom II lineup but also their aging Athlon II budget line.

For the budget minded AMD introduced three new chips into its budget Athlon II lineup. First up is the new Athlon II X2 265 (3.30 GHz). The X2 265 is based on the 45 nm Regor die, it features 2 MB of L2 cache, rated TDP of 65W, and is priced at US $76. Next is a new triple-core Athlon II X3, the new Athlon II X3 450 (3.20 GHz). The X3 450 is based on the 45 nm Rana die, and is essentially a cut down Propus die with one core disabled. It has TDP rated at 95W and sells for $87. The last addition to the budget lineup is the new quad-core Athlon II X4 645 (3.10 GHz). The X4 645 makes use of the full Propus die, rated TDP at 95W and is priced at $122.

Next up, AMD introduced a new "high-end" six-core model the new Phenom II X6 1075T Black Edition. The new chips is essentially the same as the current Phenom II X6 1090T, except that it's clocked at 3.00 GHz not 3.2GHz like the 1090T. The Phenom II X6 1075T is priced at $245 or about $50 cheaper than the Phenom II X6 1090T. Next up AMD added a new quad-core Phenom II X4 970 Black Edition. This new chip is clocked at 3.50 GHz, the highest AMD default clock speed to date, and is based on the older Deneb die instead of derivation from Thuban. This new chip displaces the X4 965 BE, and is priced at $185.

Lastly, there's the the dual-core Phenom II X2 560 Black Edition. Aimed to compete with Intel Core i3 processors, this model is priced at just $105, but offers a clock speed of 3.30 GHz, 512 KB L2 cache per core, 6 MB L3 cache, and TDP rated at 80W. It's based on the Calisto die, which is Deneb with two cores disabled. So its possible you might get lucky unlocking the disabled cores on any of the motherboards out there that have core unlocking enabled.

Say So Long To ATI, AMD Kills Off The ATI Brand

AMD has decided to dissolved the ATI brand completely, and consolidated ATI brands, such as Radeon and FirePro under the AMD main brand. AMD which purchsed ATI back in 2006 for $5.4 billion point to recent research which the company says indicates that people prefer the AMD name to the ATI name. Under the new branding scheme, all of AMD's new graphics products (such as the upcoming Radeon HD 6000 series), will do away with "ATI" completely from the logo, marketing material, and so on, and the market will, as it already has been doing since the AMD-ATI merger, albeit informally, refer to Radeon/FirePro products as "AMD Radeon" and "AMD FirePro".

THis move really comes as no big surprise. Most of us know the ATI name doesn’t mean a whole bunch these days, in fact most of us interchange the AMD/ATI names when referring to GPU's anyways. For me it’s more of a nostalgia thing. “Oh man, they’re phasing out the ATI name that has been here for ages!" I recently took part of in an AMD insight study where they showed off several new logo designs, some of which were for the new AMD Radeon logos some were new ATI designs. Looking back at the study it doesn’t surprise me that their research pointed to more people liking the new AMD Radeon logos over the new ATI logos they had. Those things were funky and IMO ugly.

AMD's New 6-Core AMD Phenom II X6 CPU's Now Official

When the first true dual core CPU's made their way to the market geeks everywhere were in awe. Follow that by the Quad cores that had most of us geeks salivating and you come to today where we have hexa core, yes that's six cores of CPU goodness packed into one chip.

AMD today made official the new AMD Phenom II X6 processors featuring AMD's new Turbo CORE technology. Looking to take hexa core chips main stream AMD is offering you its flagship top end model Phenom II X6 1090T running at 3.2GHz at a very reasonable $285. Users wanting an even more affordable option can go with the Phenom II X6 1055T running at 2.8GHz priced at $199. Both chips feature 3MB of L2 cache, 6MB of L3 cache, and a relatively low Thermal Design Power (TDP) of only 125W and whats even better the AMD Phenom II X6 processors will work with almost all of the existing AM3 and AM2+ socket motherboards with proper BIOS support, and will function with DDR2 or DDR3 RAM making these processors an easy upgrade.

“With AMD Phenom II X6 processors, discerning customers can build an incredible, immersive entertainment system and content creation powerhouse,” said Bob Grim, director of Client Platform Marketing at AMD. “AMD is answering the call for elite desktop PC performance and features at an affordable price.”

AMD promises that several more six-core variants will be introduced over the next few months. The Phenom II X6 1035T running at 2.6GHz will launch later this quarter, while the Phenom II X6 1075T running at 3.0GHz will launch next quarter. The Phenom II X4 960T, a 3.0GHz quad-core Thuban chip with two cores disabled will launch later this quarter as well.

Given this relatively ow price users might wonder how the chips stack up especially considering Intel's new high end Core i7 980X 6-core chip tips the scale at $999. Well so far the reviews look great. Anyone who already owns an AM2+/AM3 system and is looking for improved multi-threaded performance would be foolish not to consider jumping on the Phenom II X6 bandwagon. The only down side I see is that in many of the reviews these chips were out performed by slightly older Intel Core i7 chips.

Phenom II X6 Reviews

Read - AnandTech
Read - HotHardware
Read - PC Perspective
Read - Hexus
Read - Legit Reviews
Read - TweakTown 

My thoughts:

Tom's Hardware had a great two part write-up awhile back entitled How Many CPU Cores Do You Need? (part 1 | part 2). In the write-up they explored the differences between dual, triple and core quad core chips. Raising the questions how many cores is good enough for the average user?

A few years ago before many programs, games and other apps were written to be multi-core aware a dual core setup would be sufficient for most users. Even today the average net surfer still won't see much improvement from adding a quad core chip to their system. But most users are becoming more technically proficient and are running more apps that show thread-level optimization and can fully utilize the additional cores.

Does this mean that we should all dump our quad core chips for hexa cores. No not at all. Yes there are users out there that can and will benefit from the additional CPU power but that doesn't mean those users are you. These people are doing video encoding, 3D rendering, and using highly optimized productivity titles. They aren't your average everyday user. If you are running a rig with a decent quad core CPU now then there is not enough of a performance increase to warrant and upgrade. If however you are running an AM2/AM3 rig with an older dual core and you are wanting to add more cores then you'd be silly not to look at the hexa core chips.

ASRock Motherboards Get Core Unlocking Feature UCC (Unlock CPU Core)

ASRock joins ASUS as the second top level motherboard manufacturer to add a simplified way of unlocking disable AMD CPU cores.

ASRock motherboards will feature what the company is calling UCC (Unlock CPU Core) a bios option that simplifies AMD CPU activation. Just a simple switch of the BIOS option ‘UCC’, and with a little luck you can unlock you CPU's disabled cores to enjoy an instant performance boost. Additionally, some CPU can even increase L3 cache size up to 6MB.

The company has gone a step further than ASUS by not only adding the feature on AMD 8xx series motherboards, they have implemented the UCC feature on entry Nvidia N68 series motherboards as well.

Please be noted that UCC feature is supported with AM2+ / AM3 CPU only, also, not every AM2+ / AM3 CPU can support this function because some CPU's hidden core may be malfunctioned.

AMD Foundation to Sponsor Video Game Design Category for The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards

AMD today announced the AMD Foundation, in support of AMD Changing the Game, has awarded a grant to the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers. The $65,000 grant will be used to help fund the Alliance’s new video game design category for the 2010 and 2011 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.

The Alliance for Young Artists & Writers is a nonprofit organization that runs The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, the most prestigious and longest-running competition in the United States recognizing teenagers’ intellectual creativity, innovation and artistic talent. Through this competition, scholarships and other activities, the Alliance annually reaches more than three million students in seventh through 12^th grades, and 400,000 Art and English teachers. Including the new video game design category in the competition increases the reach of the program to math and science teachers and presents video game production as an art form requiring imagination, technical skill, planning and storytelling.

AMD’s partnership with the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers will help to significantly broaden the reach of the AMD Changing the Game signature education initiative to its target audience. The AMD program is designed to promote the use of youth game development as a tool to inspire learning and improve science, technology, education and math (STEM) skills.

“The Alliance’s addition of a video game design category to its annual competition validates the growth of game design as a creative learning tool for teens,” said Allyson Peerman, President, AMD Foundation. “Digital gaming is the universal language of teens, and teaching them in that language can result in more engaged and better prepared students.”

“The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards have always represented the cutting edge of student creativity,” said Virginia McEnerney, Executive Director of the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers. “That tradition is well-represented with the addition of the video game design category.”

During its 87-year history, The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards has recognized more than nine million creative teenagers, including Andy Warhol, Robert Redford and Sylvia Plath. For the 2011 program year, the Alliance anticipates receiving 700 student submissions for the video game design category. The AMD Foundation grant also will help the Alliance host game design workshops and help fund cash awards and summer program scholarships for students. Each year top video game submissions will be showcased online.

“The ability to design computer and video games taps into a deep-seated passion for today's youth and fosters critical 21st Century skills such as creativity, collaboration and critical thinking,” said Alan Gershenfeld, Chairman, Games4Change. “The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards video game design competition is a phenomenal outlet to spotlight teens’ passion and talent for shaping this powerful new medium. I tip my hat to the AMD Foundation for recognizing that when kids are motivated to learn they can move mountains.”

AMD Changing the Game
 
AMD Changing the Game is designed to take gaming beyond entertainment and inspire youth to learn critical education and life skills by equipping them to create digital games with social content. The program’s purpose is to promote the use of youth game development as a tool to inspire learning and improve science, technology, education and math (STEM) skills. The initiative is rooted in AMD’s commitment to and experience in supporting education, and the company’s passion and expertise in the graphics processor and gaming industries.


Since its launch in June 2008, AMD Changing the Game has:

• Funded 13 organizations that enable youth game development
• Funded the development of a youth game development curriculum with PETLab and the Boys and Girls Clubs of America (BGCA). Earlier in 2010, BGCA chapters in Larimer County, Colorado and Marlborough, Massachusetts kicked off new “Game Tech” programs that teach club members how to understand game design and create their own games.
• Co-sponsored the Malaysian Cybergames Festival 2010, including the “Dare to Create” digital game design and development workshop
• Co-sponsored the 2008 and 2009 Games for Change Festival
• Funded an online toolkit to help nonprofits create games on social issues
• Sponsored a video contest exploring the intersection of education and gaming

 Source: AMD

Asus M4A89GTD PRO Unlocks Disabled Phenom II CPU Cores

Earlier this week ASUS introduced two new AMD 890GX based motherboards the M4A89GTD PRO and the M4A89GTD PRO/USB3, two boards that in and of themselves are seemingly two more great additions to the ASUS line-up. These particular boards however offers a slight advantage over some of the other boards on the market. They come with the ability to "unlock," or enable processor cores that were originally disabled by AMD.

Core unlocking is nothing new, in fact we reported early last year that with the right motherboard you could Turn Your Phenom II X3 Core Into A Quad Core. AMD however pressured motherboard manufactures to block the feature by adding a new microcode in the companies motherboard BIOS updates. With the new updated bios gone was the ability to make your lower prices CPU run like its much more expensive counter part.

The ASUS M4A89GTD PRO and M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 are the first boards to officially offer a "Core Unlocker" switch on the motherboard, turning select processors into triple or quad core CPU. ASUS's Core Unlocker simplifies the activation of a latent AMD CPUs. User can toggle the switch, turn on the disabled cores and enjoy an instant performance boost by simply unlocking the extra cores, without performing complicated BIOS changes. Asus has said, "Not all processors are supported nor will all supported processors operate correctly with unlocked cores." Asus did not say which processors the Core Unlocker feature would support.

ASUS M4A89GTD-PRO Reviews

• Benchkmarks Reviews - ASUS M4A89GTD-PRO/USB3 AMD-890GX Motherboard Review
• Bright Side Of The News - Asus AMD 890GX based M4A89GTD Pro/USB3 put to the test
• Inside Hardware - ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3: A Fast Inheritor
• TechSpot - Asus M4A89GTD Pro/USB3 Motherboard Review: AMD's 890GX Chipset Makes Its Debut
• OCC - ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 890GX Motherboard Review