AMD and nVidia Refresh Mainstream Mobile GPUs

AMD and nVidia have both introduced their next-generation mobility GPUs, the Radeon HD 7000M and GeForce 600M, but initially only for mainstream.

AMD refreshes include Radeon HD 7600M, 7500M and 7400M. The HD 7400M series is based on the same Seymour XT chip powering HD 6400M. The same applies for HD 7600M, based on Whistler, which powered HD 6600M/6700M. However, in both cases, the HD 7000M parts should end up faster due to higher clocks. HD 7600M should end up performing more like HD 6700M. HD 7500M is now based on 480SP Whistler, over 400SP Capilano for the HD 6500M, and also introducing GDDR5 memory with a 64-bit memory bus. However, some SKUs in the HD 7500M series will continue to utilize DDR3.

nVidia's new products include GeForce GT 635M, GT 630M and 610M. There are no changes whatsoever and are direct rebrands of GeForce 500M GPUs. The GT 635M replaces all the variants of GT 555M, GT 540M is rebranded as GT 630M and GeForce 520MX is now GeForce 610M.

Those new GPUs are still manufactured with TSMC 40nm fab process. The true next-gen with 28nm will most likely find its way as HD 7700M, 7800M and 7900M, as well as GT 635M to GTX 690M, in 2012.

nVidia poke fun at Intel with cartoons

nVidia has put up a website with a handful of professionally drawn cartoons meant to poke fun at Intel.

The site, entitled "Intel's Insides," bears an nVidia logo at the bottom right as well as the mention, "This website is not provided, sponsored or endorsed by Intel Corporation." A whois lookup shows the "intelsinsides.com" domain is tied to an address in Portugal, but it uses the same DNS servers as nVidia's website.

Acer Aspire 4530 BIOS v3331 Available

The Aspire 4530 is a good laptop from Acer. It's powered by AMD Turion X2 RM-70 (2.0GHz, 1MB L2 cache) and GPU nVidia GeForce 9100M-G.

For a user review, read here...



The new BIOS fix the SATA settings which sometimes back to default AHCI from IDE and causing BSOD on WindowsXP.

Release Note of BIOS version 3331:

Date : 2008/8/1
QCI Ver.: 0.3331
EC Ver. : 0.024
VGA BIOS: z05M77a2.028
AMD CPU code: (agesa 4.1.0.3)
1. Update new "PMU.bin".
2. Fix the some system "CMOS CHECKSUM" will fail after remove AC/Battery and plug.

You may download the new BIOS here:

http://rapidshare.com/files/141834042/3331.zip.html
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=9ADF5S2A
http://upload.ugm.ac.id/download.php?file=68343331.zip

RD790 is now AMD 790FX Chipset, consumes only 8W

AMD decided to brand the RD790 as 790FX. This suggests that 790FX was originally intended for Phenom FX processors. AMD's chipset with integrated graphics, will be named 780G (successor of the 690G).

Summary:
AMD 790FX - Dual PCIe x16 CrossFire support + 3, 4 way CrossFire
AMD 790X - Dual PCIe x8 CrossFire support
AMD 780G - Single channel PCIe x16 + integrated DX10 graphics
AMD 770 - Single channel PCIe x16

The Register has posted some information about MSI's new motherboard based on the AMD 790FX chipset (formerly RD790). The board is designated as the K9A2 Platinum.



The Inquirer reports that AMD's 790FX chipset will only gobble up 8 watts of power. Compared to Nvidia's latest that is 40 watts less. That is pretty amazing if true.

In a battle of high-end chipsets - the Nforce 780 versus 790FX - it will be interesting to see how the MCP+BR04 (48W TDP) battles against the RD790 NorthBridge. This eats only 8W and is a native PCIe 2.0 chip. This is a 40W difference And even when Southbridge chips are calculated, ATI's own RD790+SB600 (later SB700) combination is a winner for low-power systems.



Nvidia's C72 and MCP72 come with king-size coolers, over 5cm in height - it has to dissipate 48W.



This small thing left of CPU cooler, below Digital PWM (Nvidia still uses old analogue 4/8-Phase voltage regulation) is an 8W TDP chip - the RD790 Northbridge.