Looks like AMD has a fighting chance in the high end this generation

Ars sums it up best here:

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/06/amd-fury-x-reviews-show-strong-4k-performance-but-doesnt-beat-980-ti-overall/

As much as I love the top end I've kinda given up on it as it's usually let down by poorly supported drivers and price premiums which don't reflect the experience expected of them. I usually end up going for a midstream card with a good few months on the shelf and release drivers that have been a little more fine-tuned.  I'm running AMD in my main Windows machine at the moment and am pleasantly surprised as I didn't think i'd go back.

NVIDIA Maxwell GM107 GPU pictured and detailed

Worth a read as their table included doesn't give all the details. (and thus not re-posted here). Sounds like its worth skipping this revision and waiting for the 20nm parts, probably in Q3... 

http://videocardz.com/49517/nvidia-maxwell-gm107-gpu-pictured-detailed

Anandtech has detailed info on Nvidia's next mobile graphics family.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6873/nvidias-geforce-700m-family-full-details-and-specs

Shuttle SP35P2 Vs VTX3D HD 7870 Black Edition 2 GB

Time to see if a VTX3D HD 7870 will fit in my Shuttle. It's in the post. It'll be replacing a Nvdia Asus GTX 275. It recommends a 500W power supply and the shuttle has a 450W gold PSU so it'll be an interesting combo. I just hope it fits! 

Replacing my old GTX 275:

Mac Pro News

The Mac Pro is well over due a complete overhaul.

Media & VFX houses demand computational power and Apple has been losing market share for a while now. Yes they have a nice unix based OS vs but Microsoft has come a long way with Windows Server 2012 and software companies really driving their software to do more on PC!

It's good to see some rumours and developments on the Mac Pro front.

The Mac Pro is off the market in the EU at the moment and from the articles below it's going to be a while before we see a new one as Apple wait on Intel's new chips (a good call in my opinion).

I would love to see Apple experiment with some own brand Thunderbolt graphics solutions.

Nvidia with CUDA, SLI and some Thunderbolt arrays would be an interesting mix. Same goes for AMD and crossfire... You could turn a little Mac mini a rather dent little gaming machine and revive an ageing MacBook Pro.

http://www.macrumors.com/2013/03/04/apple-building-2tb-solid-state-drives-for-next-mac-pro-release/

http://translate.google.de/translate?sl=de&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=de&ie=UTF-8&eotf=1&u=http://www.pcgameshardware.de/AMD-Radeon-Hardware-255597/News/Sapphire-zeigt-Radeon-HD-7950-Mac-Edition-auf-der-Cebit-1058864/&authuser=0

Graphics upgrade?

OK so I have some fairly hefty constraints on what I can upgrade my ageing Shuttle PC with.

First and foremost is power constraints with only a 450W PSU in the case ...
Then comes dimensions...With a precarious motherboard power connected in the lower left. I barely got my GTX 275 in there!

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-275,2266-14.html

http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/graphics_cards_buy_now_uk.html

I'm thinking this Zotac will fit the bill in terms of size and power draw.

http://www.ebuyer.com/393783-zotac-gtx-660-ti-2gb-gddr5-dual-dvi-hdmi-displayport-pci-e-graphics-zt-60801-10p

New tech roundup.

God September has been busy. Here is a roundup of some of the major announcements:

Mobiles:
Iphone5:
http://www.apple.com/uk/iphone/
http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/14/3328436/iphone-5-apple-secrecy
http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/12/iphone-5-hands-on-video-details/
http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/14/iphone-5-contract-prices-UK-networks-vodafone-ee-three-orange-tmobile/
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/review/2205420/apple-iphone-5-interactive-guide

Nokia:
http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/nokia-lumia-920-what-you-need-to-know-1095066
http://www.phonearena.com/phones/Nokia-Lumia-920_id7471
http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/47333/nokia-windows-phone-8-devices

Samsung:
http://www.samsung.com/global/ativ/ativ_s.html

Sony:
http://www.t3.com/news/sony-xperia-t-uk-price-announced

Nintendo:
http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/14/nintendo-wii-u-pre-order-amazon-uk/

Nvidia:
http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/13/nvidia-geforce-gtx-660-650/

Steam claim Faster Zombies under Ubuntu linux...

Doesn't really sound like a fair comparisona dn there are way too many variables for a fair test but it's interesting to see they are working with hardware manufactures to improve their drivers overall for the platform. It'll be interesting to see how OpenGL keep up with a AAA grade developer on their back for new feature sets to be included in the API (OpenGL's last release was Aug 2011)... Then again Valve might even end up writing some in!

Blog post here: http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/linux/faster-zombies/

A New Dawn for NVIDIA graphics

Hexus: http://hexus.net/tech/news/graphics/42865-a-new-dawn-nvidia-graphics/

AnandTech - NVIDIA Unveils GeForce GTX 690: Dual GK104 Flagship Launching May 3rd

AnandTech - NVIDIA Unveils GeForce GTX 690: Dual GK104 Flagship Launching May 3rd