This release of ATI Catalyst delivers support for the latest ATI CrossFireX profiles in a separate executable file ensuring users have access to the absolute latest set of profiles installed on their PC.

Latest profiles added :

• Alan Wake American Nightmare : Improves CrossFire performance
• Windows Media Center
  

More graphics card 'gossip' today. It seems that the GeForce GTX 660 is scheduled to arrive this summer. i've heard gossip about Computex already, but that seems a little too soon to be honest. SweClockers got some info claiming that the card would become available for 2500 Swedish kronors, which is around $350 (including high VAT). Earlier leaks said that it will cost between $299 and $329.

For Kepler it is suggested to be using the GK106 GPU and it would four shader clusters (SMX), considering that the Kepler architecture has 192 shaders per SMX, this card would get 768 shader aka cuda cores, stream processors. It is likely to be paired with 2Gb GDDR5 graphics memory but the discussion on whether that is 128 or 256-bit remains open. We think it'll have to be 256-bit for the product to make real sense.

To recap a GTX 660 could be inbound in-between June and August at roughly 299 USD ex VAT. Now a hint to the board partners, somebody just HAS to do a GeForce GTX 666 edition.
 

Interesting news from TPU today, they noticed via Donim haber that dual-GPU based Radeon HD 7970 X2 cards from board parters might be in the works. That means that the board partners are working on their own dual-GPU solutions based on Tahiti GPUs. 

AMD is expected to release a RadeoN HD 7990, but that one seems to be delayed.Initially we expected that one to be released during Computex 2012, but so far nothing substantial has surfaced. DonanimHaber now reports that manufacturers are tired of waiting for actual Radeon HD 7990 model from AMD, so they will come up with something new.

The specs on these things can go all directions, it would make sense though for two 28 nm "Tahiti" GPUs to be used with even higher clock frequencies to they'll be able to take on the GeForce GTX 690.

As stated, it's all unconfirmed, but yeah .. that would be an interesting development.

We review the MSI Radeon HD 7850 Power Edition OC with that all new TwinFrozr IV cooler. The updated cooler has much better looks and MSI

BenQ has unveiled five new Full HD monitors from its BenQ GW series. Known as the 22-inch BenQ GW2250M, 22-inch BenQ GW2250HM, 24-inch BenQ GW2450M, 24-inch BenQ GW2450HM and 27-inch BenQ GW2750HM, these Full HD monitors provide a 1920

BitFenix is proud to launch its latest creation - Prodigy. The first mini-ITX chassis designed with enthusiasts in mind, Prodigy is set to turn the mini-ITX chassis market on its head. With support for long graphics cards, tower coolers, and even watercooling radiators, Prodigy offers unparalleled flexibility in a compact Mini-ITX form factor.

"The wave of enthusiast class mini-ITX motherboards is upon us, and with Prodigy, users finally have a case to match," says BitFenix Product Manager David Jarlestedt. "No longer will users have to choose between compact size and blazing performance. With Prodigy, mini-ITX users can finally have it all."

Prodigy - Small Case, Big Ideas
Designed by BitFenix from the ground up, Prodigy embodies everything BitFenix - robust functionality, revolutionary new materials, and timeless design. The subtle curves and clean lines on the outside speak the same BitFenix design language that has catapulted BitFenix into the hearts of enthusiasts everywhere. The chassis is suspended by two handles on the top and bottom that are crafted with BitFenix FyberFlex Composite - a revolutionary new material that is very flexible yet offers incredible strength. These handles, coated in our SofTouch Surface Treatment, are not only a convenient way to carry Prodigy, but are also an extra level of shock protection during transport. Two SuperSpeed USB 3.0 ports are provided on the outside for fast file transfers, while the brushed aluminum BitFenix logo on the front ties the entire design together. Available in Midnight Black or Arctic White, Prodigy is not just a PC case, but a work of art.

Sliding off the side panel reveals the Prodigy's true talents. The modular BitFenix FlexCage houses up to five 3.5" HDDs or 2.5" SSDs, making Prodigy an ideal candidate for a home server, HTPC or NAS. Remove the middle portion of the FlexCage, and Prodigy can accommodate long graphics cards up to 320 mm in length, making it ideal for a pint-sized gaming powerhouse. Need even more power? Remove FlexCage and the ODD bay all together to make room for a thick 240 mm water cooling radiator. Prodigy accommodates standard ATX power supplies, and a specially designed side SSD mounting bracket that enables users to install up to five SSDs, even with the FlexCage completely removed! Featuring multiple installation options, Prodigy is the most flexible mini-ITX chassis on the market, bar none.

Of course, no one wants to spend time wrestling with their system, which is why Prodigy comes with a bunch of DIY-friendly features. The uniquely positioned motherboard tray makes it possible to install tall CPU coolers, and filtered fan intakes keep the insides looking as good as the outside. Tool-free drive locking mechanisms make installation a breeze, while rolled-edge cable pass-throughs help protect your cables from damage.

Pricing and Availability
BitFenix Prodigy carries an MSRP of 69

Awkward ... Last year AMD revealed that its Bulldozer processor has 1.2 billion transistors instead of 2 billion, and this week Bright Side of News discovered that the transistor count of the Trinity APU also differs from the number that AMD originally supplied at launch; it's 1.3 billion and not 1.45 billion:

While writing our article about Trinity APU we took the transistor count originally supplied at its launch last year. That number was confirmed in the Llano post-mortem presentation at the Hot Chips 2011 conference, and widely cited in various Llano reviews, including the AnandTech one. Back then the quad-core version of Llano counted no less than 1.45B transistors. Now, if you look at Trinity launch articles at various sites, you will find a different number, such as 1.178B transistors on AnandTech. You will also find sites such as Tom's Hardware and Tech Report state Llano as 1.45 billion transistors, while Trinity packs 1.30 billion. What remains unchanged is the die size, which has remained at the same 228mm

Interesting, it looks like it that Microsoft, despite earlier claims, will keep Flash in IE10. Internet Explorer 10 browser in Windows 8 will include an integrated version of the Adobe Flash plugin. Interestingly, the software giant will allow the use of Flash in Metro, but only for whitelisted websites.

In Windows 8, Microsoft's browser will come in two guises. There will be the traditional desktop browser, with its full support of plug-ins and extensions, and there will be the new Metro-style browser that will be plug-in free. But that's not quite the whole story. The browser will include an integrated and embedded version of Adobe Flash, and because this will be built-in, it won't be treated as a plug-in.

The result? Even the Metro-style browser will be able to use Flash.

Microsoft isn't opening the floodgates entirely. Use of Flash in the Metro-style browser will be limited to those sites included on a whitelist. The list is comprised of a mix of domains: video sites such as Hulu, YouTube, and Vimeo, news sites including CNN, the BBC, and Wired, and a number of entertainment and gaming sites, including Facebook and Zynga. Flash-based interactive content on these sites will work in the Metro-style browser. Flash content on other sites will require the use of the desktop browser.

BIOSTAR, a world famous manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards, industrial computing systems and peripherals, starts sales of the next-generation BIOSTAR TZ77B boards based on the latest Intel Z77 chipset and meant for powerful desktop systems with an excellent price/performance.

The boards are designed for the latest third-gen Intel Core CPUs (Ivy Bridge) manufactured using the 22nm fab process based on the 3D transistors and retain the full backward compatibility with the second-gen Intel Core CPUs (Sandy Bridge). They support all Intel Core i3, i5 and i7 chips for the LGA 1155 socket with the TDP up to 95W including Intel K-Series chips with the unlocked multiplier.

The TZ77B models have four DDR3 DIMM slots and support up to 32GB of dual-channel DDR3 1600/1333/1066Mhz memory and overclocking DDR3 2600/2400/2133/1866Mhz modules. They also support two SATA 3.0 drives with the performance up to 6Gbit/s and four SATA2 drives which can be arranged in RAID 0,1,5 or 10 arrays. Besides, the boards feature the Intel Smart Response Technology (SRT) for fast SSD caching in hardware.

The new-comers support up to 6 USB 2.0 and 3 USB 3.0 ports. The high-speed network connection is provided by the GbE LAN interface based on the Realtek RTL8111E chip. High-quality sound comes from the 8-channel HD Audio codec based on the Realtek ALC892 chip and the Clean Tone 2 Technology which delivers the SNR of 98dB in the Windows 7 systems.

The Intel Core integrated graphics core supports the DirectX 11 and HDMI 3D Visual interface for output of stereo 3D formats. Additional discrete graphics can be connected to the PCI Express 3.0 x16 port which is backward compatible with the PCI-E 2.0 and which supports multi-core accelerators from NVIDIA and AMD. Additional peripherals can be connected to 1 x PCI-E x16 2.0 Slot (x4), 2 x PCI-E x1 2.0 Slots and 2 x PCI Slots.

The TZ77B boards support the new BIOS with the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI BIOS) which delivers flexibility and simplicity of tuning thanks to a clear graphics interface.

The new boards use reliable solid capacitors and a 6-phase regulating system which is critical for stable long-term operation and reliability in experimental system with overclocked components.

The supplied T-overclocker Windows utility, popular among overclockers, combines powerful tools for fine system tuning, tuning of CPU performance, memory subsystem, CPU fan speeds etc. The BIOSTAR G.P.U (Green Power Utility) lowers power consumption at a light CPU load. The boards support the BIO-Remote2 technology for remote control of PC

Bethesda has released a new beta update for the PC version of their acclaimed RPG, Skyrim. This new update comes with the introduction of mounted combat, general stability and memory optimizations, as well as optimizations and crash fixes for data leaks, and improved ranged kill cams.
NEW FEATURES
- Mounted Combat - Skyrim now allows you to do melee and ranged combat while riding a horse

BUG FIXES
- General stability and memory optimizations
- General AI pathfinding optimizations and bug fixes
- Optimizations and crash fixes for data leaks
- Fixed rare crash with lighting
- Fixed crashes related to loading and saving games
- Fixed crash with summoned creatures/NPCs
- Fixed rare issue where saves would be corrupted
- Improved logic for when ranged kill cams are played
- Fixed issue with ranged kill cams while killing a dragon
- Fixed rare issue with certain ranged kill cams not playing properly
- Fixed issue with nirnroot lighting not properly cleaning up
- Fixed issue where bow damage was being calculated incorrectly
- Fixed rare problem with werewolf kill moves would not finish animating properly
- In �The Break of Dawn� fixed rare issue where Meridia�s Beacon would disappear from player�s inventory
- Fixed occasional issue where followers would disappear after player pays off a county after committing a crime
- Fixed issue where certain creatures and NPCs would fail to respawn properly
- Fixed rare issue with dialogue subtitles not displaying properly
- Fixed issue with water appearing blurry when loading a saved game after creating a save underwater
- Fixed issue where map cursor would occasionally disappear after closing a message box with Kinect enabled (Xbox 360)
- Fixed rare issue with shouts only performing the first level and not other unlocked levels with Kinect enabled (Xbox 360)
- Fixed issue where the shout buttons would stop working properly if users mashed LB and RB during cooldown with Kinect enabled (Xbox 360)

We review the MSI Radeon HD 7850 Power Edition OC with that all new TwinFrozr IV cooler. The updated cooler has much better looks and MSIs proprietary TwinFrozr IV cooling system that packs 8mm thick nickel-plated copper heatpipes to convey heat drawn directly from the GPU to a large aluminum fin array, ventilated by two 80 mm fans. These fans are based on the new dust removal technology, which means that the 1st 30- seconds they'll spin backwards in an attempt to remove any residual dust that can build up over time.

Well, why not, there's nothing wrong with SATA II speeds if prices right of course. Here comes a new line of SATA II SSDs from Silicon Power, the T10. Available in 32GB, 64GB, 128GB and 256GB sizes, these 2.5-inch SSDs feature a brushed aluminum metal body, built-in DDR2 DRAM Cache memory, TRIM support, built-in S.M.A.R.T and ECC error correction functions and can deliver a maximum data transfer rate of 278MB/s. Pricing info is still unknown at the moment. [Silicon Power]

Samsung Electronics debuts a brand new, high-grade consumer monitor, the Premium Smart Monitor 970 aka the S27B970.

The 27-inch display features a PLS (Plane to Line Switching) panel with 178/178 degree viewing angles, a native resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels, a 5 ms response time, 300 cd/m2 maximum brightness, DVI, HDMI (with MHL support) and DisplayPort connectors, a 2-port USB hub, plus built-in speakers. The S27B970 comes with a three-year warranty and costs about $1,177 (in South Korea).

An updated chart reflects the evolution of the pricing of hard disk drives since the Thai floods in October. Prices have fallen slightly since the previous chart that was published in early-April, but it appears they're stabilizing at a "new normal".

Prices have fallen slightly since our early-April update. The Deskstar 7K1000.D 1TB has enjoyed the most dramatic drop, and it can now be had for an even hundred bucks. Our favorite mechanical drive, Samsung's Spinpoint F3 1TB, was briefly down to $80 before returning to $110. (If you enter the promo code EMCYTZT1637 before tomorrow, you can nab the drive for $80.) Both of those terabyte drives cost less than WD's Caviar Black, which has at least been discounted by $10 over the past month and a half.

The other drives we've been following are low-RPM "green" models from Samsung and WD. These higher-capacity drives have dropped in price slightly since the beginning of April, but the cuts only amount to $10 per drive. We're still a long way from pre-flooding levels. [via techreport]

Nanoxia reveals the Deep Silence 1, a new mid-tower with some pretty nice features.
Years ago, with the launch of the legendary Nano-Bearing fans, we dedicated ourselves to the development of innovative, high-quality must-have products. With the launch of the Nanoxia Deep Silence 1 PC Case this development now finds its logical evolution.

In accordance with current requirements, this innovative tower - as the foundation for a whole new line of future products - offers the perfect symbiosis of ideal system cooling and sensationally low noise levels

This 'Insane Edition' includes:

• A 12cm Vaas Wahine with bobble head!
• Monkey Business - Discover Hurk, a new memorable character and quest giver, and his four unique missions (1 hour additional gameplay)
• The Lost Expeditions -Two suspenseful action packed missions totaling over 40
  minutes of additional gameplay and an exclusive weapon (The Japanese gun) - The Hunter Pack � The M700 hunting rifle and its three collector�s skins.
• The Warrior Pack - A handcrafted dagger and two exclusive tribal tattoos.
• The Predator Pack - Four exclusive rare predators and a multiplayer bow.
• An 'Insanity Guide' containing hints and tips to help you survive the island

Publisher Take-Two has shipped three million copies of Max Payne 3 to retailers worldwide. CEO Strauss Zelnick said last night: "Fiscal 2013 kicked off with the successful launch of Max Payne 3, which received outstanding reviews and promises to be another hit for Rockstar Games."

The PS3 and Xbox 360 versions launched on May 15 in North America and three days later internationally. The release of the PC version was yesterday delayed by a few days due to "production and logistical" issues.

Blizzard has updated the list of Diablo 3 hotfixes to address various gameplay and service issues affecting the game. Unlike a new patch, hotfixes are updates made on Blizzard's end without requiring players to download a new patch. As a result, some of the hotfixes will go live the moment they are implemented, while others may require the realm to be restarted before going into effect.

Spoiler Warning: If you have not yet completed Diablo III on Normal, some hotfixes described in this list may include spoilers.

When Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang said we might see $199 Tegra 3 tablets this summer, he wasn't speculating idly as the Verge reports: Nvidia has revealed that it's working on just such a tablet: Kai. At the company's annual meeting of investors last week, VP Rob Csonger revealed the idea, and explained Kai isn't just a piece of hardware, but a plan to democratize its quad-core Tegra 3 system-on-chip. Nvidia wants to offer tablets that are more powerful than the Kindle Fire at the same price point, he said:

Our strategy on Android is simply to enable quad-core tablets running Android Ice Cream Sandwich to be developed and brought out to market at the $199 price point, and the way we do that is a platform we've developed called Kai. So this uses a lot of the secret sauce that's inside Tegra 3 to allow you to develop a tablet at a much lower cost, by using a lot of innovation that we've developed to reduce the power that's used by the display and use lower cost components within the tablet.

Does that make Kai a reference design? Probably yes, but we wouldn't be surprised if it's also a consumer product. Nvidia and Asus teamed up at CES 2012 to introduce a quad-core tablet with a then-unheard-of $250 price point, the ME370T, and it's a dead ringer for the Kai in the picture above. We haven't heard a thing about the ME370T since CES, but perhaps it's on the way, and if we're lucky, it's the first of a whole new wave of affordable Tegra 3 slates. Maybe Google's Nexus tablet will be among them.

Point of View the leading European manufacturer of an exclusive range NVIDIA based 3D processor boards, advanced netbooks as well as fancy 7" and 10" Tegra tablet computers and additional enthusiast PC products, announces today that it is first to market with a GeForce GTX 680 3D processor board running at a boost clock of 1176 MHz. The POV/TGT GeForce GTX 680 UltraCharged features POV/TGT's award winning proprietary High-Performance/ Wide-Band-width hardware design, an advanced power management for Auto-Overclocking and triple fan cooling for utmost stability and cooling efficiency.

First independent reviews already published on the net confirm performance and cooling efficiency:

"TGT handpicked only the best chips with low leakage, which should result in top auto-overclocking results. Thermals are also important and GTX 680 Ultra Charged's cooler keeps GPU temperatures below 70

We review the Corsair Vengeance C70 chassis. Priced at $139 Corsair's Vengeance C70 case comes with built-in carry handles to make it easier to haul your system around. It also features a steel front pane, eight PCI-E slots, two USB 3.0 ports, six SSD-ready hard drive bays, and 10 fan mounts, all in a military design and look. Oh and it has the coolest reset button ever !

Read the article right here.

MARSHAL is about to launch a new USB 3.0 cloning docking station namely the MAL-4535SBKU3. This standalone cloning docking station (no computer required) comes with a USB 3.0 connection interface and provides two SATA slots for 2.5-inch & 3.5-inch HDDs/SSDs (can be used simultaneously). The MAL-4535SBKU3 will hit the market from late June for 3,980 Yen (about $50). [Product Page]

VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient computing platforms, today unveiled the $49 APC Android PC system.

Powered by a WonderMedia ARM processor, APC integrates memory, storage, and a full set of consumer I/O features in a small footprint Neo-ITX motherboard that can be connected to a TV or monitor. The system also features a custom build of Android that has been optimized for keyboard and mouse input, and comes with a browser and a selection of preinstalled apps.

"APC brings the familiarity and convenience of Android to the PC at a US$49 price point that will open up exciting new markets and applications," said Richard Brown, VP of Marketing, VIA Technologies, Inc. "Like a bicycle for your mind, APC will enable more people than ever before to explore the vast online universe."

APC is based on the new Neo-ITX form factor measuring just 17 cm x 8.5 cm and can be housed in any standard Mini-ITX or microATX chassis, providing enthusiasts with unrivaled flexibility to create new mods and DIY projects as well as ensuring rapid time to market for system integrators and OEMs utilizing the platform.

APC consumes only 4 watts when operating at idle power and 13.5 watts at maximum load. This is ten times less than a standard PC system and ensures significant power savings in large scale deployments.

APC Features
APC combines an optimized version of Android with a rich hardware package to deliver the best of the internet to users. With the inclusion of hardware acceleration for the most demanding video formats, the APC delivers stunning HD quality multimedia, either streamed from sites such as YouTube or stored locally and delivers a great gaming experience on a large screen monitor or TV.

Key Features:

• Optimized Android OS
• HD TV support
• Hardware acceleration of the most demanding video formats
• VGA and HDMI display ports
• Four USB 2.0 ports
• One microSD slot
• One 10/100 Ethernet port
• Audio-out/ Mic-in 
• VIA WonderMedia ARM 11 SoC
• 2 GB NAND Flash
• 512 DDR3 SDRAM
• 15W power adaptor

For more information about APC please visit: http://apc.io/

Early June will mark the arrival of Cooler Master's Hyper 412 Slim, a new LGA2011 CPU cooler that will be sold for around 39.95EUR.

This new HSF offers four direct-touch 6mm diameter heatpipes, an aluminium fin array and two 120mm long life sleeve bearing PWM fans with an airflow of 17.4 - 58.4CFM and a noise level of 8 - 30dBA. The cooler measures 128mm x 70mm x 160mm (without fan) and weighs 538g.

Mounting brackets are included for Intel

DigiTimes reports AMD is prepping Hondo, a 40nm Bobcat based processor with a TDP of 4-5W. This chip will arrive in Q4 2012 and intends to take on Intel's Clover Trail-W CPUs in the Windows 8 tablet market.
AMD is also set to release Tamesh processors to replace Hondo in 2013 with architecture upgraded from Bobcat to Jaguar. The new CPU's performance and power consumption are both expected to be further enhanced from Hondo.

After recently announcing its Trinity processors for notebooks, AMD is ready to announce models for desktops including A10-5800k, A10-5700, A8-5600k and A8-5500. The company will then release A6-5400K and A4-5300 in the fourth quarter. All the processors are manufactured by Globalfoundries with a 32nm process.

In order to help reduce costs of ultrabooks, Intel is aggressively pushing two new battery solutions for these systems; the 16650 cylindrical battery and a prismatic lithium-ion battery. Full details at DigiTimes. Acer has already started adopting the 16650 battery while Lenovo's IdePad 530 uses the prismatic li-ion, albeit in limited volumes.

However, only a limited supply of the 16650 cylindrical battery is available, so prismatic lithium-ion battery will have a higher chance to success, but due to issues such as capacity and certification, vendors will not have chance to adopt prismatic lithium-ion batteries for their products until 2013.

The 16650 cylindrical battery has a diameter of 16mm and is only available from Japan-based Sanyo and China-based BAK, but due to vendors being concerned that supply is fully controlled by only two players, and BAK is unlikely to pass most vendors' certification process, there are concerns about the solution.

Although prismatic lithium-ion battery is higher in cost compared to the 16650 cylindrical battery, but the solution's size of 60mmx80mm and thickness of 5-6mm is providing a strong advantage, while the battery also has more suppliers available in the market.

Market research firm Jon Peddie Research reports first-quarter graphics chip shipments declined 3.38 percent year-over-year, and 0.8 percent versus the previous quarter. AMD's shipments increased by 0.3 percent, while Intel slipped 1.3 percent and NVIDIA tumbled 4.5 percent. Full details in the PR below:
Jon Peddie Research (JPR), the industry's research and consulting firm for graphics and multimedia, announced estimated graphics chip shipments and suppliers' market share for Q1'12.

The news was not good. AMD was able to grow shipments over last quarter by 0.3%, in a down quarter. Intel slipped 1.3% and Nvidia declined 4.5% from the last quarter.

Although this did not shape up to be a great quarter for the suppliers, it actually wasn't as bad as it could have been. We found that shipments during the first quarter of 2012 behaved according to past years with regard to seasonality, declining from the previous quarter; however, this quarter's decline (of 0.8%) was less than the ten-year average of 3.1%. If we use graphics as an indicator, the industry seems to be recovering from the floods in Thailand.

We have modified our forecast since the last report, and it is less aggressive on both desktops and notebooks - tablets have changed the nature of the PC market. Nonetheless, the CAGR for PC graphics 2011 to 2016 is 9.8%, and we expect the total shipments of graphics chips in 2016 to be 743 million units.

Our findings include discrete and integrated graphics (CPU and chipset) for Desktops, Notebooks (and Netbooks), and PC-based commercial (i.e., POS) and industrial/scientific and embedded. This report does not include handhelds (i.e., mobile phones), x86 Servers or ARM-based Tablets (i.e. iPad and Android-based Tablets), Smartbooks, or ARM-based Servers.

The quarter in general

• AMD had a gigantic increase in shipments of its desktop APUs of 84% and a modest 2.6% decline in notebook APUs.
• This quarter, Intel celebrated its ninth quarter of shipping its Embedded Processor Graphics CPU-EPG, a multi-function design that combines a graphics processor and an x86 CPU in the same package. These devices include the Core i series, and Atom processors in PCs. Intel's desktop EPG shipments had a very strong double digit growth of 18%, and Notebooks showed a more modest 2.1%. Combined with a decrease in overall IGP chipsets shipments, Intel came in for the quarter with a -1.3% drop from Q4.
• Nvidia shipments dropped 4.5% from last quarter, partially due to the phase out of IGPs. The company will no longer report IGP shipments.
• Year to year this quarter AMD shipments declined 1.2%, Intel shipped 4.67% more parts, Nvidia slipped -26.3% in the overall market as company withdraws from the integrated segments, and VIA saw their shipments increase by 51% over last year and 148% over last quarter.
• A little over 123 million graphics chips shipped, down from 124 million units last quarter, and down from 126 million units shipped this quarter a year ago.
• Discrete GPUs increased 2.7 % from the last quarter but were down 11% from last year for the same quarter.
• Ninety three percent of Intel's non server processors have graphics, and over 79% of AMD's non-server processors have integrated graphics

Graphics chips (GPUs) and chips with graphics (IGPs, APUs, and EPGs) are a leading indicator for the PC market. At least one and often two GPUs are present in every PC shipped. It can take the form of a discrete chip, a GPU integrated in the chipset, or embedded in the CPU. The average has grown from 123% in 2001 to almost 133% GPUs per PC.

Market shares shifted for the big three, and put pressure on the smaller two, and most showed a decrease in market share as indicated in Table 1.

AMD's overall graphics market share increased 0.3% from last quarter due mostly to APU shipments. The company had a 4% increase in shipments of discrete GPUs over last quarter, and an 8% gain in notebook discrete GPUs.

Intel continues to be the overall market share leader, elevated by Core i5 EPG CPUs, Sandy Bridge, and Pineview Atom sales for Netbooks. AMD gained market share quarter-to quarter Intel and Nvidia lost share.

Nvidia has exited the integrated graphics chipset segments and it is shifting its focus to discrete GPUs. The company suffered a desktop discrete market share loss (4.3% quarter-to-quarter), and had a 5% gain in notebook discrete GPUs. Nvidia credits strong connect with new Intel Sandy Bridge notebooks for its gains.

Year to year for the quarter the market decreased. Shipments decreased to 123 million units, down 3.3 million units from this quarter last year.

This is the first WHQL-certified unified driver from the R300 family of drivers (versions 300.00 to 301.99).

GeForce R300 drivers are packed with new industry-leading, GeForce-exclusive features as well as some really nice performance increases in top games.

New in R300 Drivers:

New GPU Support:
GeForce GTX 690
GeForce GTX 680
GeForce GTX 670
GeForce GT 600-series GPUs
Performance Boost