Adoption of solid-state drives has been growing rapidly in the recent years and will continue to do so this year, according to the chairman of Transcend. One of the main reasons behind growing popularity of SSDs is their declining prices, which will drop further in 2014. Peter Shu, the chairman …
Read More »Microsoft unwraps DirectX 12 for PCs, tablets, smartphones and Xbox
Microsoft Corp. on Thursday unveiled DirectX 12, the latest incarnation of one of the world’s most popular application programming interfaces. The new API can not only greatly improve rendering performance, but to also bring top-notch quality graphics to all Microsoft platforms, including personal computers, tablets/smartphones and even Xbox One. One …
Read More »Intel remains committed to 450mm wafers, but there will be a delay
Early last year Intel Corp. demonstrated the world’s first fully-patterned 450mm wafers and in mid-2013 started to construct D1X module 2 fab, which is supposed to act as a primary development facility for virtually all of Intel’s 450mm initiatives. It was expected that commercial production of chips on 450mm wafers …
Read More »Crytek to adopt AMD Mantle API for CryEngine
Advanced Micro Devices has announced that Crytek, a leading developer of video games and game engines, will adopt the company’s proprietary Mantle application programming interface for CryEngine. Once the latter gains support for Mantle, games based on CryEngine may get a performance boost on systems featuring AMD Radeon graphics based …
Read More »Exclusive Interview with Richard Huddy from Intel at GDC
When Lisa Graff, Intel VP for the Desktop Client Platforms Group, recently told KitGuru about her plans for 2014/2015, the focus was clearly on reinventing the desktop. As KitGuru reported a while back, there will be a resurgence on desktop for Intel going forward, which we believe will peak around …
Read More »How Intel plans to reinvent the desktop
The desktop is dead, that's something you'd think was pretty much cemented. Not for everyone of course, like those in corporate offices and certainly not for gamers – they need the space for those monstrous GPUs – but for the average consumer? Definitely. Just look at the climate we're in …
Read More »Toshiba’s adapter converts HDDs into wireless storage devices
Wireless hard disk drives are extremely convenient and easy to use. But their major problem is a rather high price which prevents many people from buying large wireless storage devices. Fortunately, it looks like Toshiba Corp. has found a solution for the problem. A U.S. division of Toshiba on Wednesday …
Read More »Seagate quietly starts to sell 5TB hard disk drives
Seagate announced earlier this year that it would start shipments of its first enterprise-class hard disk drive with 6TB of storage space sometimes in April. While the firm is getting ready to release its highest-capacity hard drive ever, it has already started to ship a HDD that combines performance with …
Read More »ImgTec debuts PowerVR Wizard: ray-tracing GPUs for mobile devices
Imagination Technologies, a leading-designer of graphics processing technologies for mobile devices, has introduced its brand-new family of graphics IP cores that are designed to render graphics using real-time ray-tracing method. The latter allows to significantly increase realism of graphics on all types of devices. Moreover, Imagination claims that despite of …
Read More »Nvidia GTX Titan Black v Palit GTX780 Ti Jetstream OC (1080p, 1600p and 4K)
Even though the Nvidia Titan was never truly designed as a gamers card, the high end enthusiast audience have been buying them en masse since they released. A muted launch in February this year saw the new Nvidia GTX Titan Black hit retail shelves. Nvidia didn't sample the new card, …
Read More »Biostar introduces mainboards with Bitcoin mining ASICs
Biostar, a second-tier maker of mainboards that specializes on various niche and unique solutions, this week introduced BTC-24GH, a special mainboard designed for Bitcoin mining and featuring 64 special-purpose ASICs [application-specific integrated circuits] which were specifically designed for mining of the virtual currency. In the world of crypto currencies, a …
Read More »Crucial’s M550 SSDs offer up to 1TB capacity, up to 550MB/s read speed
Crucial, a division of Micron Technology, on Tuesday introduced a new breed of solid-state drives with increased performance, optimized power consumption and up to 1TB capacities. The new SSDs will power various PCs in different form-factors while offering consistently high performance and energy efficiency. Crucial’s M550 solid-state drives are based …
Read More »Antec GX500 Mid Tower Case Review
Today we are going to take a look at one of Antec’s value cases, the GX500. This is targeted at those users who are looking for a capable chassis on a tight budget. Antec has designed this case from the ground up for gamers, so we are interested to see …
Read More »AMD and OCZ to demo SSD-supercharged systems for professionals
Advanced Micro Devices and OCZ Storage Solutions, a subsidiary of Toshiba Corp., on Monday said that they would showcase personal computers powered by AMD hardware and Vector 150 series solid state drives at the Game Developers Conference later this week. The systems will illustrate how developers can enhance productivity and …
Read More »AMD readies Radeon R9 295 X2 graphics card with two Hawaii GPUs
Advanced Micro Devices is working on a dual-chip graphics card with two code-named Hawaii graphics processing units (GPUs). The new flagship graphics solution will feature a liquid-cooling system and will be widely available from various manufacturers. It took AMD over a year to develop a dual-chip graphics card with two …
Read More »Toshiba HG6 256GB SSD Review
Today we look at the latest Solid State Drive product Toshiba – the HG6. The HG6 drives integrate NAND chips which are fabricated on the second generation 19nm process and they are available in capacities ranging from 60GB to 512GB. Shipping is due to start very soon and they sampled …
Read More »Intel to increase focus on desktop computers
For years Intel Corp. has been focused to deliver the best possible chips for various mobile devices, including notebooks and tablets, whereas solutions for desktops computers were put on the back-burner. This happened for many reasons because of the lack of competition on the desktop market as well as because …
Read More »MSI’s next-gen motherboards are all about gaming
MSI has debuted a load of imagery and details about its upcoming line of “Gaming” motherboards, which are focused on exactly that. While we'll have to keep you guessing on what chipset it uses, we can tell and show you a lot about the upcoming range of boards. First off, …
Read More »AMD confirms plans to launch Hawaii-based FirePro this month
Advanced Micro Devices on Thursday confirmed that it would unveil its next-generation FirePro graphics cards aimed at the professional market later this month. While the company did not officially said that it plans to release Hawaii GPU-based FirePro graphics solutions, it did call the new products “groundbreaking”, which means all-new …
Read More »Toshiba sues SK Hynix for ‘wrongful acquisition’ of NAND-related info
Toshiba Corp. on Thursday announced that it has filed a civil suit against SK Hynix in a Japanese court. Toshiba accuses its rival of wrongful acquisition and use of Toshiba’s proprietary technical information related to NAND flash memory. The company demands compensation of its damages. Toshiba filed the suit after …
Read More »Intel pulls-in launch of Core i7 Extreme ‘Haswell-E’ 5000 to Q2
Intel Corp. has decided to speed up introduction of its next-generation microprocessors and platforms designed for enthusiasts who demand maximum performance. The new Core i7 Extreme “Haswell-E” chips along with Intel X99-based mainboards will be introduced at Computex Taipei 2014 in early June, several months before planned originally, according to …
Read More »MSI Nightblade Review (Dual SSD, i7 4770K, R9 290X)
In the last year we have seen a rising demand for smaller chassis such as the excellent Bitfenix Prodigy and Aerocool Dead Silence. With this in mind MSI are launching their MSI Nightblade – a barebones configuration to target the demanding enthusiast audience who feel that ‘smaller is better'. The …
Read More »G.Skill debuts 16GB 2.13GHz DDR3 memory kit for extreme laptops
Why small form-factor should mean slow performance? It clearly should not. G.Skill, a leading producer of high-end memory modules, this week unveiled an extreme DDR3 SO-DIMM memory kit that weds high clock-rate and capacity. Many people dump their desktops in favour of powerful laptops or ultra-small form-factor PCs these days, …
Read More »LaCie unleashes external storage solution with 1.3GB/s read speed
LaCie, a subsidiary of Seagate Technology, this week introduced the world’s fastest consumer-class external storage solution that will allow to edit ultra-high-definition video in the field. The new LaCie Little Big Disk features Thunderbolt 2 interface and read speed of up to whopping 1375MB/s. As usual, the speed comes at …
Read More »OCZ preps Jetstream Express SSD controller with PCIe 3.0, SATA support
While OCZ Storage Solutions will continue to utilise third-party controllers for solid-state drives for some of the upcoming products, the grand plan is to rely exclusively on controllers designed by OCZ and by the parent company, Toshiba Corp. Moreover, it looks like OCZ has a promising controller in the works. …
Read More »Next-gen high-end GPUs: only in the second half of the year, if not later
Virtually all manufacturers of graphics cards these days are unveiling factory-overclocked graphics adapters based on existing AMD Radeon and Nvidia GeForce graphics cards at CeBIT trade-show. The reason why they are refreshing their lineups now is simple: they do not expect any new high-performance graphics chips to emerge in the …
Read More »Nvidia GTX 800M launch
When I sat down at the Nvidia GTX 800M briefing I was confident that I knew what was coming. The Kepler technology in GTX 700M would be superseded by Maxwell which would reduce power draw and increase battery life. No doubt there would be a long list of OEM partners …
Read More »Nvidia launches new game bundles
Nvidia has launched its new GeForce game bundles, starting from today anyone who purchases select Nvidia branded desktop GPU's or GeForce powered notebooks will be able to redeem one of the two new offers. If you're about to purchase a a GTX Titan, 780 Ti, 780, 770, 760, 690, 680, 670, …
Read More »Seagate Kinetic storage is massive and cool
In the business-only section of CeBIT 2014, the folks at Seagate were showing off a massive block of storage that points the way to a very interesting future. KitGuru feels the fabric of Seagate's fibres. Standard desktop systems come with 1TB or 2TB drives. Newer systems come with 3TB or 4TB …
Read More »Valve’s VR specialist moves to Oculus VR
Oculus VR this week revealed that Atman Binstock became the new chief architect at the company. Mr. Binstock is a well-known virtual reality specialist, who will join the already exceptionally strong team of Oculus VR. Atman Binstock was one of the lead engineers and driving forces behind Valve’s VR project, …
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