ATi R520LE Info

ATI will end up with at least four versions of cards based on the X1800-R520 core. This card will be the cheapest version of the R520 core on the market and will be there to fight 6800 LE cards. The Radeon X1800 LE will be twelve pipelines part while its core will work at 450MHz. The card will use memory working at 900MHz.

Asus announces TF300T Jelly Bean update in the making

You might have paid for the pricey keyboard dock, and even a pouch or two, but there’s good news (cause its free). Asus will provide upgrades to Jelly Bean for their Transformer Pad TF300T line.

Prior to the Ice Cream Sandwich update, the Transformer Prime had various booting and lockup issues. Asus addressed that problems with update 9.4.2.13, but it did not completely cure the problem.

Some users may have already abandoned the stock ROM in favor of more stable third party ROMs.

The time frame for the official Jelly Bean update is unknown, but Asus is telling users to hang tight and wait for “further guidance.”

ASUS ZEUS Combines X79 HEDT with Dual-GPU

If there was one product that forced visitors jaws to drop to the floor, it was ASUS ZEUS. A concept X79 motherboard, the ZEUS demonstrates ASUS enormous engineering potential. It is a combination of a Sandy Bridge-E HEDT (LGA2011, X79 Express) motherboard and a dual-GPU graphics card occupying the expansion slot area. The processor, its VRM, all onboard devices, and two "high-grade PCI-Express 3.0" GPU subsystems occupy the same PCB.

The LGA2011 socket is surrounded on all four sides by components that matter. To its north, is the 10-phase Digi+ VRM that powers the processor. To its east and west are a total of eight DDR3 DIMM slots, which can hold up to 128 GB of quad-channel DDR3 memory, beyond the 64 GB limit for unregistered DIMMs of SB-E HEDT platform. To its south are two sets of graphics card VRM areas, which power each of the two GPU systems. The two GPUs are directly wired to the two PCI-Express 3.0 x16 links of the processor, while the third PCI-Express 3.0 x8 link goes into driving other onboard components.

At this point ASUS didnt reveal exactly which GPUs are behind that chunky heatsink, but we have a hunch that its a pair of AMD Radeon HD 7970 (Tahiti XT) GPUs. What makes us doubly sure that these are AMD-made GPUs, is that NVIDIA does not recognize the Sandy Bridge-E HEDT platform as PCI-Express 3.0-compliant, something ASUS is stressing on, on the marketing poster of the ZEUS. Each GPU has its own set of memory, and draws power from a pair of 8-pin and 6-pin PCIe power connectors. The outputs of both the GPUs are given out as a mini-DP + Thunderbolt connector, a 2-port controller is driving the Thunderbolt links, apart from standard DisplayPort and HDMI.

There are as many as 8 SATA 6 Gb/s ports on the ZEUS, two from the X79 PCH, six from additional controllers. Including the four SATA 3 Gb/s ports from the PCH, there are a total of 10 internal, and 2 eSATA ports. There are a total of 12 USB 3.0 ports, 8 on the rear-panel, 4 via headers. To top off the monstrous package, there is one gigabit Ethernet interface, and 8+2 channel HD audio.

ASUS was pretty explicit in stating that the ZEUS is a concept-design. Its not a question of when, but if the motherboard ever makes it to the market. If it does, it will be in very limited quantities, and will cost a fortune.

Source: VR-Zone Chinese

ASUS Unveils Water-Cooled ROG Gaming PC

Another interesting concept from the ASUS ROG press conference is theROG CG8565 Gaming System, a watercooled gaming desktop PC that poses a challenge to the Alienware PCs as well as other customed gaming PCs system builders. It has a stealth fighter-inspired design with its angular, matte black exterior. It is packed with Intel Core i7-2600K processor, Z68 chipset, GeForce GTX 590 graphics card, ASUS Xonar soundcard as well as a slew of OC features such as a one-touch Level Up button that auto-overclocked your gaming PC instantly.

AMD Radeon HD 7990 Debuts as a Very Limited Edition in July

Known under the codename "New Zealand", Radeon HD 7990 represents AMDs highest-end part from the Southern Islands architecture. Consisting out of two Tahiti XT GPUs and 6GB GDDR5 memory (special edition 7990s could reach 12GB), Radeon HD 7990 goes head to head against the GeForce GTX 690.

By default, AMD has the advantage in terms of 50% more video memory (GTX 690 has 4GB), significantly higher memory bandwidth and the new Turbo mode, technology similar to the Turbo mode used on NVIDIA Kepler-based cards with a few major differences.

Our sources are telling us that the boards are starting to be sampled, all in preparation for the product launch in the second half of July. We will release more details as the launch day approaches, as well as the final retail price, which still isn’t decided as we write this story. While we know AMDs press deck, the company has a long tradition of changing the price at the last moment.

At the same time, a lot of AMD partners are running the card in their labs but arent aware of the actual product launch. We will see in just a few weeks time.