AMD Launches Radeon HD 4830 on Cheap

The newly launched ATI Radeon HD 4830 offers excellent performance for gamers on a budget. Priced officially at less than $150, the card is already appearing at online retailers for just $109, after a $20 mail-in rebate, which puts it in direct competition with the Nvidia Geforce 9600GT and 9800GT.
The ATI Radeon HD 4830 is based on RV770LE silicon, which is essentially a crippled version of the RV770 silicon found in the ATI Radeon HD 4850 and 4870. The ATI Radeon HD 4830 features 640 stream processing units, 956 million transistors and a 256-bit GDDR3 memory interface. The clock speed and memory clock are set at 575 MHz and 1800 MHz, respectively, which are only a bit lower than those of the ATI Radeon HD 4850. Texture units total 32, compared to the 40 found in the ATI Radeon HD 4850, but both come with 512 MB of GDDR3 memory and a peak power consumption of about 110 W.
The ATI Radeon HD 4830 comes with support for DirectX 10.1, hardware video acceleration, CrossFireX, two dual-link DVI display ports, HDMI with integrated HD audio controller and DisplayPort. From early reviews online, the ATI Radeon HD 4830 seems to offer good mid-range performance with decent gaming capabilities. The performance of the ATI Radeon HD 4830 is nearly twice that of the ATI Radeon HD 4670 and it gives the Geforce 9800 GT a good run for its money.
For those curious about Far Cry 2 performance, the ATI Radeon HD 4830 can achieve rather playable frame rates with high image quality settings, although only at modest display resolutions. Some gamers may wish to get the ATI Radeon HD 4850 instead, especially those with older computers or larger displays. Overclocking is a risky alternative, but it would seem that the ATI Radeon HD 4830 can be overclocked to be nearly the same performance level as the ATI Radeon HD 4850, saving roughly $30.

BFG Geforce GTX 200 Series Bundled With Far Cry 2

For many consumers, the choice between which new graphics card to purchase often comes down to a few factors; price, performance and the list of software that comes bundled. Sometimes the included software is comprised of unheard of racing car simulation demos or DVD playback software. Other times the included software can actually be pretty good; such is the case when you purchase any new BFG GTX 200 series of graphics card.
With the purchase of any BFG Geforce GTX 200 series of graphics cards from October 22, 2008 and onwards, BFG will ship to the customer a pretty decent software bundle. Included is a free full copy of Far Cry 2 (DVD), a free full copy of 3DMark Vantage Advanced Edition (online download) and a BFG branded mini super bright LED torch light. The total value of this bundle is claimed to be over $70. The graphics card needs to be registered online before the bundle will be shipped and the offer is only available for a limited time and while supplies last. Official details can be found here.
Newegg.com has the BFG Geforce GTX 260 starting at $259.99, after a $30 mail-in rebate, and the BFG Geforce GTX 280 starting at $374.99, after a $30 mail-in rebate. According to the Tom’s Hardware Gaming Graphics Charts Q3/2008, both the Geforce GTX 280 and the Geforce GTX 260 series of graphics cards offered top overall performance. If you were hoping to play Far Cry 2, but were still using an old Geforce 6600 GT, right now may be a great time to upgrade. Far Cry 2 is a first-person shooter, offering visually stunning next-generation graphics and a massive open world for players to explore.

Asus Launches 'Dark Knight' Graphics Cards

All new cards are named under Asus’ new Dark Knight (DK) name. The new Dark Knight cards come with varying specifications, but most notably the Dark Knight Fansink that will apparently deliver "extreme" cooling and "low noise levels." Other features include the EMI shield, DIP Spring Chokes, LF PAK MOS, and Japanese made Solid Capacitors.
The new Dark Knight Fansink is manufacturer from aluminum alloy, has four heatpipes and a larger surface area. From the description and available pictures at this time (see below), it looks pretty slick. Though we find it odd that Asus chose aluminum over copper. The aluminum definitely looks cool color-wise, but based on the target audience — where’s the copper?
Hopefully we’ll get our hands on some of these for a closer look soon. For now we will leave you with some eye candy to look at and the specs of the new cards to go along with them – draw your conclusions in the comments sections!

ATI: Expect DirectX 11 and 40 nm GPUs in 2009

DX11 is expected to bring several substantial advancements over DX10, including the introduction of Shader Model 5.0, as well as GPGPU support and multithreading support, both of which are essential for the graphics industry and the myriad of multi-core graphics cards that exist today. Also, hardware tessellation will be supported by DX11. Hardware tessellation has been supported by ATI cards going back to the 2000 series, but has never been popular with PC game developers. Tessellation, which allows for a low-polygon model to see a real-time increase in polygon density with minimal performance loss, was part of the GPU ATI designed for the Xbox 360, and with DX11, may finally be a feature utilized by PC game developers.
While DX11 is expected to improve visuals over DX10, according to Ars Technica, the bulk of improvement is reserved for "...improving GPU computational capabilities and efficiency in a variety of environments." Now that the software will be in place, we may see the GPGPU become a widespread trend.
While a specific date is not yet clear, we will see a 40nm GPU form ATI sometime in 2009. This means that we will most likely see DX11 cards based on an older manufacturing tech for the time being. While we will wait for 40 nm, ATI did say that GDDR5 will be its dominant memory standard starting next year.
ATI is also looking forward to other advances in the field, including GPGPU support, OpenCL (Open Computer Language), support, and an increase in the number of programs that can utilize GPU computing capabilities effectively. "The push here is to drive the idea of the video card as a computing platform in its own right, out of the supercomputer/HPC arena and into the home," observed Ars Technica.