The first 2 models from the GeForce 9900 series will be 9900 GTX and 9900 GTS instead of 9900 GT we reported earlier. It seems Nvidia has decided to launch them as early as July to counter RV770 and steal the performance crown away. Nvidia has earlier confirmed GT200 existence and revealed that the GPU has about 1B transistors. Our sources are suggesting a 512-bit memory interface with GDDR3 memories for GeForce 9900 GTX using P651 PCB and a 448-bit memory interface for the GeForce 9900 GTS.

To be able to compete with NVIDIA's GeForce 8600 GTS in price and performance, AMD will launch a new model in the HD 3800 series with a more modest configuration than its two older counterparts.

AMD's Radeon HD 3830 is a spin-off chip based on the RV670 core and will feature a 128-bit memory bus, potentially providing roughly half the memory bandwidth of the HD 3850 and 3870 depending on the type and speed of memory used. All other features of the 55nm RV670 core are still included: DirectX 10.1, PCIe 2.0 and UVD. The GPU still features 320 stream processors like the HD 3850 and HD 3870 revisions.

According to recent reports, the HD 3830 will feature up to 256 MB of memory and come with 320 stream processors as well as 16 texture filtering units and 16 raster operators to match the HD 3850/3870 models. This is compared to the 32 stream processors, 16 texture filtering units and 8 raster operators of the 8600GTS's G84 core.

S3 Graphics today announced the S3 Graphics Chrome 430 GT desktop cards, now available at online retail affiliate GStore. The first of the S3 Graphics Chrome 400 Series to market, the Chrome 430 GT combines advanced 3D graphics and incredible HD multimedia performance with extreme power-efficiency and rigidly low thermal specifications, breaking new ground in the highly competitive graphics industry. Based on the low profile PCI Express Gen 2 graphics card specification, the Chrome 430 GT is ideally suited for small form factor PC designs and energy-conscious PC users who wish to upgrade their PC to provide incredible HD playback and the latest DirectX 10.1 graphics engine.

Some times you'd just wondewr how much money they actually make on graphics cards eh ? At this very moment the Radeon HD 3870 can still can be purchased for little as $189.99, but the 9600 GT has dropped from its $179.99 launch price to just $149.99 in certain scenarios.

In light of those changes, The Inquirer claims AMD is prepping an additional price cut for both of its Radeon HD 3800-series graphics cards. Supposedly, the 3870 will dip to an all-time low of "$159 or less," while the 3850 will sink to $145 or less. Those drops should give the 9600 GT some stiffer competition, especially considering how certain Radeon HD 3850 offerings compare with Nvidia's new budget wonder. Naturally, the price cuts will leave the $200-300 price arena pretty much devoid of any AMD cards once again. Luckily for fans of the red team, recent reports suggest AMD plans to introduce new Radeon HD 4800 series graphics cards some time in the second quarter of this year.

Thse are great prices, I'll sort some stuff out for you deals wise this week.

Inno3D released a new GeForce 9600 GT graphics card with the i-Chill ZeroTherm Hurricane cooler. The card is clocked at 750MHz with 1625MHz shaders and 1940MHz 512MB memory. Not bad.

The i-Chill HC92 cooler is made out of copper and features several large heatpipes. Inno3D says the cooler can be transformed into 3 cooling solutions: passive, standard and overclocking.

What complete waste of framebuffer ... anyway, it seems that MSI is preparing a GeForce 9600 GT with 2GB of DDR3 memory. Next to all that memory the card also will be equipped with a DisplayPort connector. The 2GB-equipped card is likely clocked at the standard (650/1625/1800 MHz GPU/Shaders/memory).

Source: Guru3D 

Now here's a pretty looking Blu-ray player which you can buy in relative peace, considering there is but one commercial physical format left available where high definition content is concerned - Blu-ray. Thanks to the demise of HD DVD, Sony is able to introduce the BDP-S550 Blu-ray player this fall for approximately $500, bringing the following specifications and features right into your living room :- ) Two models are released The BDP-S350 and BDP-S550 models both support BonusView (Picture-in-Picture) featured on some of the new Blu-ray Disc theatrical releases. The BDP-S350 model is BD-Live ready featuring an Ethernet port for an easy firmware update and access to Internet-based interactive content features. The BSP-S550 is BonusView and BD-Live capable when it ships

• 1080/60p and 24p True Cinema output
• Standard DVD playback with 1080p upscaling via HDMI
• 7.1 channel Dolby TrueHD and Dolby Digital Plus decoding
• dts-HD High Resolution Audio and Master Audio bit-stream output
• 7.1 channel analog audio output
• Support for AVCHD discs
• Compatible with D-R/RE (BDMV and BDAV modes), DVD+R/+RW, DVD-R/-RW, CD, CD-R/RW (CD-DA format), and JPEG on DVD/CD

Frankly speaking, if I had the choice between the BDP-S550 and a PS3, I'd gun for the latter. After all, the PS3 wins hands down when it comes to versatility, but if you're a purist and don't find the convergence argument convincing, then be prepared to fork out $500 for the BDP-S550.

Source: Guru3D 

As posted on xbitlabs. Despite of hype, Nvidia Corp.’s Hybrid SLI technology that can reduce power consumption of high-end multi-GPU systems as well as improve 3D graphics performance on entry-level computers with integrated graphics core (IGP) has several serious drawbacks that are likely to prevent the current implementation from going into systems of serious gamers or professionals.