IT-Code-News: IT News Head Lines (TweakTown) 26/04/2013

Thursday, April 25, 2013

IT News Head Lines (TweakTown) 26/04/2013

TweakTown

Sony pushes out update 4.41 to the PS3, designed to "improve system stability"
PlayStation 3 owner? You might want to check for any new system updates on your console, as Sony have confirmed that update 4.41 is hitting the PS3 today.

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Update 4.41 is designed to "improve system stability", but it's currently not known if this is a mandatory update or not. Sony took to the PlayStation Twitter account stating that it's just a minor update.

NASA goes low-budget, launches three smartphones into orbit
NASA have just launched three Nexus One smartphones into orbit as part of a low-budget, experimental satellite program that uses off-the-shelf components.

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The three Android-powered devices are now circling high above the Earth, encased in 4-inch metal cubes, at an altitude of around 150 miles and will burn up on re-entry within the next two weeks. NASA's mission of each PhoneSat is easy, they just have to take photos of the Earth and send back periodic radio messages.
The mission is to see if the smartphones are capable of supplying the "brains" of future satellites, which would make satellites much cheaper in the future. NASA launched the smartphones into orbit on Sunday when Orbital Science Corp.'s Antares rocket lifted off from Virginia. Amateur radio operators had begun notifying NASA that they could pick up radio signals from the satellites within hours of the launch.
One of the goals of the program is to build a satellite that costs less than $10,000 using off-the-shelf components.

Google Glass and its competitors' devices to be big sellers by 2016 - more than 9 million devices expected to ship by 2016
Google Glass, and their sure to be following competitors, are definitely set to be the new smartphone craze. Research firm IHS knows this, and has predicted that shipments of smart glasses could hit 9.4 million units between 2012 and 2016.

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The first shipments will be small, with expectations of around 124,000 units this year as Google Glass becomes available to developers. Adoption is set to really ramp up going into 2014, expected to push up by 250% as Glass becomes available to you and me, the general public. Google will of course push Glass in the market, which will have competitors' devices gain market share too, with combined sales reaching 6.6 million units per year by 2016.
If smart glasses are too expensive to the general public, these numbers could be much lower with IHS estimating shipments could be as low as a million units through 2016.

Netflix says they spend $2 billion per year on content, most goes to licensing old shows and movies
In the wake of releasing its financial earnings statement, Netflix posted up a new mission statement document for investors. The document details various metrics about the company and what it is doing to plan for the future. The most interesting fact to take away from the document is that the company is spending roughly $2 billion per year on content.

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Most of that $2 billion expenditure goes towards licensing old TV shows and movies, but some of it is used to pay for its original content. Netflix has also noticed that quality is more important than quantity:

As we've gained experience, we've realized that the 20th documentary about the financial crisis will mostly just take away viewing from the other 19 such docs, and instead of trying to have everything, we should strive to have the best in each category. As such, we are actively curating our service rather than carrying as many titles as we can.

There's plenty more to read about in the 11-page document, but I won't bore you with the details.

Qualcomm reports stellar earnings, revenue of $6.12bn, profit of $2.07bn
The growing market for mobile devices is helping boost Qualcomm's earnings. Like most companies, Qualcomm has just reported their quarterly earnings and they are quite good. Unlike desktop chip manufacturers, Qualcomm is producing chips used in tablets and smartphones, the industry that is quickly taking over desktop products.

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Qualcomm reported revenues of $6.12 billion, which is up 24 percent year-over-year. Profit came in at $2.07 billion, which is also up, though only by 17 percent. Qualcomm is looking to return $431 million to shareholders and expects third-quarter revenues and profits to be up 25 percent and 14 percent, respectively.

AMD releases WHQL-certified Catalyst 13.4 drivers
Coinciding with the launch of the Radeon HD 7990, AMD has released updated Catalyst drivers, bringing the count up to 13.4. These are the first WHQL-certified drivers released by the CPU and GPU manufacturer in three months. Our resident GPU Editor and author of the driver analyses pieces will hopefully have a piece up on them soon.

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The drivers bring official support for the newly released HD 7790 and HD 7990. They fix or bring support for the following:

Full stack of performance optimizations for Crysis 3, bringing the many enhancements we've developed for our beta drivers into the certified driver tree.

Full stack of performance optimizations for BioShock Infinite, bringing the many enhancements we've developed for our beta drivers into the certified driver tree.

Full stack of performance optimizations for Tomb Raiderâ„¢, bringing the many enhancements we've developed for our beta drivers into the certified driver tree.

Windows Hardware Certification for AMD Radeonâ„¢ HD 7990 and HD 7790 GPUs

Up to 5% improved performance in Batman: Arkham City

Up to 10% improved performance in Borderlands 2

Up to 14% improved performance in Enemy Territory: Quake Wars with MSAA

Up to 11% improved performance for Hitman Absolutionâ„¢

Up to 11% improved performance in Return to Castle Wolfenstein MP

Up to 5% improved performance in Sid Meier's Civilization V

Performance optimizations for the 2013 release of SimCity

Resolves rare image corruption seen in Tomb Raiderâ„¢ with TressFX Hair enabled

Implements the frame latency fixes for Tomb Raiderâ„¢ and Hitman Absolutionâ„¢ that were tested in our beta drivers

Implements the DirectX 9.0c texture flickering fixes developed and tested in our beta drivers

Adds support for the following OpenGL 4.3 extensions:

GL_ARB_compute_shader

GL_ARB_multi_draw_indirect

GL_ARB_shader_storage_buffer_object

GL_ARB_arrays_of_arrays

GL_ARB_clear_buffer_object

GL_ARB_ES3_compatibility

GL_ARB_explicit_uniform_location

GL_ARB_fragment_layer_viewport

GL_ARB_invalidate_subdata

GL_ARB_program_interface_query

GL_ARB_shader_image_size

GL_ARB_stencil_texturing

GL_ARB_texture_buffer_range

GL_ARB_texture_query_levels

GL_ARB_texture_storage_multisample

To download the newest drivers, you can head over to AMD's driver support site.

Volkswagen debuts iBeetle with iPhone integration at Shanghai Motor Show
Volkswagen has debuted a new vehicle, known as the iBeetle, at the Shanghai Motor Show. This new vehicle was built in conjunction with Apple, meaning that the iBeetle's big selling point is the iPhone integration present. Volkswagen is hoping to boost the popularity of the vehicle more than Apple is hoping to boost the popularity of the iPhone.

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The car features a built-in iPhone 5 cradle and offers numerous different functionalities. The Beetle app allows the iPhone to display various gauges, such as a G-meter or compass. The new iBeetle and iBeetle Cabriolet will be put on sale in 2014, likely in the first part of the year.

Twitter said to be testing two-factor authentication after numerous high-profile hacks
It seems like everyone is rolling out two-factor authentication. Just a few days ago, Microsoft enabled two-step authentication for Microsoft accounts and now reports are surfacing that Twitter is working on a similar system. Google and others have already employed two-factor authentication to much success.

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Now is the perfect time for Twitter to enable extra security. There have been many high-profile hacks of Twitter handles, including one of the AP's account yesterday, which resulted in a massive drop in the Dow Jones. Wired reports that Twitter has a two-factor solution built and is putting it under internal testing before releasing it to the public.

Australian authorities arrest 'self-proclaimed leader' of LulzSec hacking group
Australian authorities have announced that they have arrested the "self-proclaimed lead" of the LulzSec hacking group. Authorities have not yet named the suspect, but say the 24-year-old was employed in a position that gave him "access to sensitive information." He was discovered after an investigation into a compromised government website.

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"[This] man's knowledge and skills presented a significant risk to the clients of the company for which he was employed," authorities wrote in a statement. He faces up to twelve years in jail.
LulzSec is the hacking group responsible for the 2011 Sony PlayStation network hack. Cody Kretsigner, another implicated in the Sony attack was senteced to one year in jail by the American justice system.

Apple announces Worldwide Developer Conference to start June 10, tickets on sale tomorrow
Apple has scheduled its Worldwide Developers Conference to start June 10, 2013. The conference will run from June 10 tto June 14 and take place at San Francisco's Moscone West. It's widely expected that Apple will announce iOS 7 at this year's WWDC and many expect iOS 7 to feature massive changes from iOS 6.

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Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing:

We look forward to gathering at WWDC 2013 with the incredible community of iOS and OS X developers. Our developers have had the most prolific and profitable year ever, and we're excited to show them the latest advances in software technologies and developer tools to help them create innovative new apps. We can't wait to get new versions of iOS and OS X into their hands at WWDC.

Tickets for the event will go on sale tomorrow, April 25, at 10am PDT. They will set you back $1,599 and each organization is limited to just five tickets. Apple is also providing scholarships for students. To learn more, head to Apple's WWDC website, specifically the "Students" page.

Zynga meets earnings targets, manages to make a profit for Q1
Today, Zynga reported its first-quarter earnings. Incredibly, Zynga performed better than expected and managed to beat expectations that they experienced a loss. Zynga reported a net income of $4.1 million, much better than the loss of $85 million from this time last year.

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Revenue came in at $263.5 million, down from $320.9 million this time last year. Even decent results by the struggling company has investors selling. In after-hours trading, Zynga's stock has dropped by 11 percent after having increased during today's trading.

We are encouraged by the strong execution from our teams and the breakout hit performance of FarmVille 2, which captures the imagination of nearly 40 million players every month. 2013 will continue to be a transition year as we face the challenging environment on the web and invest in developing the leading franchises and network across web and mobile platforms and offer our 253 million monthly players a connected experience that can follow them from work to school to home and anywhere in between.

RumorTT: Is Amazon planning on releasing a Kindle TV set-top box?
We've heard several rumors about Amazon, with the most frequent one being they are working on a Kindle-branded smartphone. The latest rumor is that Amazon is getting ready to release a Kindle-branded set-top box. This would likely feature Android as the OS and provide access to Amazon's digital content.

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We expect it would operate much like Apple TV. Amazon declined to comment regarding a possible set-top box, though BusinessWeek cites three people familiar with the project. The device is said to be in development in Lab126, based in Cupertino, California. Of course, as with all rumors, take this with a grain of salt.

Samsung chief says it doesn't matter whether GS4 comes with 4-core or 8-core processor
Most of our readers likely know that Samsung has decided to ship two different versions of the Samsung Galaxy S 4. One model comes with a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600, while the other model comes with Samsung's very own Exynos 5, an eight-core processor based upon ARM designs.

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The US and European markets are getting the quad-core Snapdragon-powered model, while other countries will be getting the arguably better Exynos 5-powered model. But why? And does it even matter? According to JK Shin, co-CEO of Samsung and head of Samsung's mobile business, the general public won't be able to tell the difference.
The main reason for using the two different chips, according to Shin, is sourcing. They want to have more than one source for chips going into the Galaxy S 4. "We use multiple different sources. It's a sourcing issue." One thing is clear, the Exynos 5 destroys the Snapdragon 600 in benchmarks.

US Cellular selling Samsung Galaxy S4 on April 30
Despite claimed inventory shortages, US Cellular has announced that they will be getting the latest Samsung smartphone come April 30. The Samsung Galaxy S4, originally announced back in March, will be coming to US Cellular. The 16GB version will be available in either black or white for $199, provided you sign a two-year contract.

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After being one of two U.S. carriers to offer a presale for the Samsung Galaxy S 4, U.S. Cellular is now one of the first to have the device available for purchase online and in stores.
The Samsung Galaxy S 4 will be available for purchase online at uscellular.com on Friday, April 26. Preorders will also begin shipping that same day along with the exclusive, free S View flip covers that were a part of the presale. The device will be available in stores on Tuesday, April 30.
U.S. Cellular is offering the 16GB device in White Frost and Black Mist and it is $199.99 with an instant rebate. Customers who buy the 4G LTE Samsung Galaxy S 4 from U.S. Cellular can enjoy a valuable rewards program that recognizes loyalty. Currently, 61 percent of customers have access to a 4G LTE network, and by the end of the year, 87 percent of customers will be covered.

Google gets approval from city council to buy iProvo fiber network for a massive $1
The title doesn't have a typo; The Provo Municipal Council voted Tuesday in a unanimous decision to allow Google to acquire the iProvo fiber network for a total price of $1. Not only is Google getting a steal on the fiber network, the city has agreed to pay approximately $722,000 for equipment to use the gigabit network for government services and $500,000 to determine the exact locations of the buried fiber cables.

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Google will, in exchange, take ownership and control of the existing fiber network. They will provide free 5Mbps/1Mbps connections to all of Provo's residents for at least seven years. Additionally, Google will provide free gigabit connections to 25 different public institutions.
Provo, Utah will be the third Google Fiber city. "It gets back to our origins as a company...our customers cared about speed," said Google's director of community affairs.

Microsoft advertises Xbox event: 'A new generation revealed'
Earlier today, I turned on my Xbox to watch a bit of Netflix and discovered the homepage featured an advertisement for an upcoming Microsoft event. That's right, Microsoft is advertising an event at which the next generation Xbox will be unveiled. Microsoft is trying to get the #XboxReveal hashtag trending, as seen in the picture below.

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We will hopefully be able to feast our eyes on the next-gen Xbox 720 on May 21 at 10am PDT. Interested parties can watch the event on Xbox Live, Xbox.com or Spike TV. We will, of course, have full coverage of the event here in case you miss it. We also figure Microsoft will offer the event for replay.
We've seen a number of rumors about the upcoming Xbox 720. Just which would you like to prove true?

Giada introduces new Android 7-inch tablet, the T720
This morning Giada, a company most often associated with their Android based mini-PCs, unveiled a sleek new tablet based on Android. Dubbed the T720, the new tablet is packed with some powerful features.

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Featuring Android 4.1 Ice Cream Sandwich, the T720 is a lightweight tablet that is powered by dual-core 1.5GHz ARM Cortex A9 processor, 1GB of RAM and a Mali-400 GPU. This equates to smooth and rich graphics on the 7" 1280x800 IPS display.

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The T720 packs in 8GB of onboard storage which can be enlarged by the addition of a microSD card. The tablet features USB 2.0, HDMI and 802.11 B/G/N connectivity as well as Bluetooth 4.0. A 0.3MP front camera and 2MP rear camera are also put to use on the device, while a 4,000mAh battery gives the T720 5-7 hours of continuous use.

Acer announces new Liquid E2 quad-core Android 4.2 smartphone
Acer has been pretty silent on the smartphone front since January when it launched the Liquid E1. This morning Acer announced its next generation smartphone, the Liquid E2.

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The Liquid E2 features a quad-core 1.2GHz ARM Cortex A7 processor, 4.5" qHD IPS display, 1GB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage, which can be augmented by a MicroSD card. Photo capturing task are handled by an 8MP rear camera that can shoot 1080p video at 30FPS. Android 4.2 is the operating system of choice.

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The E2 is HSPA+ compatible and is available with a dual SIM card option. It is expected to release mid-May in Belgium, Netherlands, Ukraine, France, followed by Spain, UK, Italy, Germany and Russia, with a suggested retail price of 229 Euros. Dual SIM version pricing has not yet been announced.

LeakedTT: Next Call of Duty game to be called 'Ghosts', not Modern Warfare 4
The next game in the Call of Duty (COD) series has just been leaked thanks to US retailer Target and UK retailer Tesco. Target let the name slip in an advertisement which offered $10 off any game when you reserve your copy of Call of Duty Ghosts.

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Tesco actually leaked box art on their website, which appears to have now been removed from their website. Thankfully, Joystiq managed to grab a screenshot before it was taken down. Each retailer posted a separate release date in the November and December time frame, which is traditionally on par for the series.

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Judging by the box art above, the game does appear to be developed by Infinity Ward and Activision. YouTuber Drift0r posted a video recently that seems to confirm these leaks, and he has some very interesting information about the game play, time line setting and new features that we can expect.

Sprint sells 1.5 million iPhone's in Q1, loses one million customers and posts a $643 million net loss
The US' third largest carrier has just posted its first quarter financial report and things are not looking very good. The company posted a positive operating revenue of $29 million, but that is about all the good news there is.

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Sprint says that it sold five million smartphones in Q1, which includes 1.5 million Apple iPhone's. Despite these high sales numbers, the company reported an overall net loss of $643 million, on total revenue of $8.79 billion. The company lost about one million subscribers, part of which were the direct result of Sprint beginning to shut down the Nextel network.
Subscribers to Sprint should not worry too much, though. The company is continuing to invest in infrastructure and has rolled out its LTE network in over 88 cities now, 30 of which were launched in Q1. The company says that it plans to continue that roll-out to another 170+ cities in the coming months.

Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone launch delayed at T-Mobile, sees delivery issues
T-Mobile had high hopes to be the first to market with Samsung's highly anticipated Galaxy S4, but it appears that the company will most likely be the third company to offer retail sales of the device in the US market. Late Tuesday night the company issued a statement that said it has been forced to delay the Galaxy S4 launch due to unexpected inventory deliveries.

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T-Mobile will now begin offering the Galaxy S4 for sale on Monday April 29th, a full two days after rivals Sprint and AT&T begin selling the device. While to some two days is no big deal, T-Mobile was hoping to cash in on the early adopters who wanted the latest and greatest, but wanted to forgo the annual contract that comes with a new phone.
In a statement T-Mobile said:

We know customers are really looking forward to getting their new Samsung Galaxy S 4 soon. However, due to an unexpected delay with inventory deliveries, the Galaxy S 4 will not be available on http://www.T-Mobile.com as planned on Wednesday, April 24. Instead, online availability is expected to begin on Monday, April 29. We apologize for any inconvenience and are working with Samsung to deliver the device to T-Mobile customers as soon as possible.

Nintendo sees operating loss for the second year in a row, poor Wii U sales
Things are looking pretty middle of the road for gaming giant Nintendo as the company just closed out its financial year with an operational loss, but saw gains in net income.

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Nintendo is expected to announce an 18.7 billion dollar loss for the 2012 fiscal year that just ended March 31st. This will be the company's second yearly loss and the red margins can be attributed to weak sales numbers of the Wii U console. Nintendo's CEO Satoru Iwata has predicted the company will post a 100 billion-yen operating profit for the 2013 fiscal year.
"I don't think Nintendo can achieve 100 billion yen," said Yoshikazu Shimada, an analyst at Tachibana Securities Co. "It's hard for Nintendo to meet the target despite the weak yen's tailwind." Hideki Yasuda, a Tokyo-based analyst at Ace Securities Co. also criticized the CEO saying, "Iwata hasn't produced good results in recent years. He can't avoid being criticized."

SimCity gets 2.0 update patch, seems to cause more issues than it fixed
EA and Maxis has released a 2.0 patch for its popular city builder, SimCity. The patch is said to fix a number of issues, but users internet-wide are reporting that the patch causes more issues than it fixes.

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The patch was said to fix things like issues with the transit system, high population building issues, and allowed users to now pump water from nearby rivers. While those things appear to be fixed, a thread on Reddit has popped up that tells a different story.
"This patch has created more bugs than it has fixed", said one Redditor. The list of new issues being reported is quite staggering actually. After the patch, sewage issues seem to run rampant, along with random phantom sounds from objects, buildings get stuck in construction, and even increased random game crashes.

Nokia launches Asha 210, a WhatsApp phone that features a full QWERTY keyboard
While some say that the feature phone is dead, Nokia feels that there is still a strong market for a budget phone with a keyboard. This morning Nokia unveiled the Asha 210, a feature phone based around social media and the popular WhatsApp messenger.

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Sporting full QWERTY keyboard and a dedicated WhatsApp button, the Asha 210 is being billed as "the most social Asha yet." The phone is based around Twitter and Facebook and gives users quick and easy access to WhatsApp. Owners of the device do get WhatsApp free of charge, which ends up saving about $1 per year.

Nokia says that the new Asha 210 will offer about 45 days of battery life on the single SIM version and about half that on the dual SIM model. The company expects to launch the Asha into the retail market in June at a pricing point of just $72.
How do you feel about feature phones? Is there still a demand for semi-smart phones?

Tweakipedia: How to setup and configure AMD Eyefinity multi-display technology
Our Tweakipedia section has a new post.

TweakTown's Tweakipedia

Ever wanted to know how to setup an AMD Eyefinity setup? Now you can read through our guide on how to get it setup. It's not that hard, and once you've done it, it's incredibly easy to disable and re-enable if that's what you require. You can read more on the Tweakipedia article right here!

AMD Radeon HD 7990 6GB Dual GPU Video Card Overclocked

Introduction

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Having already tested the AMD Radeon HD 7990 6GB with its out of the box performance, the next step after that is to check out the overclocking side of things. Performance of the new AMD model is exceptionally strong - with the $999 price tag and the fact it's a dual GPU card, though, we wouldn't expect anything less from it.
There's really not a whole lot that needs to be said from an introduction stand point. We really just finished looking at the HD 7990 6GB and we're going straight into overclocking. What we'll quickly do is talk about the overclocking below before looking at our testbed, the cards that we'll be using in our graphs today before we get into the performance.

Overclocking

Normally we fire up MSI Afterburner to do all our overclocking. Inside we found that we didn't have any voltage adjustment. That was not a huge surprise, though, considering the model has just launched. If we see it in the next few weeks, only time will tell. With that said we went straight into the core clocks to see just what we could get out of the new video card. We pushed the cores up to 1150MHz, but as soon as we started to run 3DMark 11, our system froze.
We rebooted and went back to MSI Afterburner. We then upped the core clocks to 1100MHz. We completed the run with no issue, but the final score was near identical to the default run - it was actually slightly less. Doing a little bit of research I discovered that we weren't the only people to run into this problem.
Moving away from MSI Afterburner we decided to jump into the Catalyst Control Center instead and see if we had any more luck. While we don't have the same kind of range when it comes to clocks, the 1100MHz limitation on the core should be fine, especially when we don't have the ability to adjust the voltage of the core at this stage.

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In the end we had the reference video card running at 1100MHz on the core, up from 1000MHz. The 6GB of GDDR5 was increased from 6000MHz QDR to 6300MHz QDR.
The results were kind of interesting and we'll discuss it in more detail as we go through our graphs. As we mentioned before, though, let's quickly take a moment to look at our testbed and the cards that will be alongside the overclocked HD 7990 6GB here today.
... Read the rest in your browser!

EVGA GeForce GTX TITAN 6GB SuperClocked Video Cards in SLI

Introduction

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Since we finally got ahold of the GTX TITAN we looked at the EVGA GTX TITAN 6GB SuperClocked in a standalone review, along with a look at the overclocking performance. If the performance of the GTX TITAN SuperClocked from EVGA out of the box wasn't enough, then what it was capable of when we overclocked was really amazing.
Probably with no need to throw a second card into the mix due to the mind blowing performance with just a single card, we thought that we should throw a second card into the mix, anyway. Not because we need to, but because we can, and if you know us at TweakTown, you would know that's reason enough for us to do it.
The reason above is the same reason we'll take the time to overclock the two cards in SLI as well. While the GTX TITAN has sat alone at the high-end for the last few months, it's now got some serious competition from AMD in the form of the new dual GPU Radeon HD 7990.
Due to the fact we've of course already looked at the card closer in the standalone review we mentioned previously, we won't be looking at it again today. Instead we'll move from here into our testbed setup. We'll then take a look at the setups you'll see in our graphs here today before we look at GPU-Z to make sure everything looks good.
From there it's straight into the performance to see just what we're able to get out of the EVGA GTX TITAN SuperClocked SLI setup.
... Read the rest in your browser!

ASUS Introduces the Radeon HD 7990 Dual-GPU Graphics Card
ASUS today announced the Radeon HD 7990 graphics card, a dual-GPU offering derived from 28nm AMD Radeon graphics processors. With twin GPUs based on AMD Graphics Core Next technology and 6GB GDDR5 video memory, the ASUS Radeon HD 7990 easily handles the most demanding DirectX 11.1 PC games in ultra settings and resolutions above 1920 x 1080.
It is also ready for ultra HD 4K video, delivering the finest graphics performance and the convenience of a standard 2-slot height. With two GPUs factory-paired on the board, customers only require one free PCI Express 3.0 slot without needing to use AMD CrossFireX multi-GPU bridging.

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GPU Tweak intuitive graphics card tuning
The ASUS Radeon HD 7990 delivers the power of two HD 7970 GPUs, totaling 4096 Stream processors and 256 texture units. Customers can fine-tune its performance with GPU Tweak, a user-friendly utility with a highly approachable interface.
In seconds, customers may adjust GPU core and video memory speeds and voltages, graphics card fan speed, and power consumption targets (or thresholds). Multiple profiles for different games can be created and saved, all with instant ease and no learning curve.
Big 6GB GDDR5 video memory and DirectX 11.1 optimization
For dedicated gamers, the ASUS Radeon HD 7990 presents an ideal power platform. Its fast 6GB GDDR5 memory enables highest-resolution textures and utmost visual fidelity. Customers enjoy more immersive experiences while the full benefit of PC gaming is realized and games run as intended with no compromises.
The ASUS Radeon HD 7990 supports Windows 8-based DirectX 11.1, the newest version of the Microsoft API. The card has the power and compatibility to deliver the latest effects and technologies, including advanced tessellation and shader tracing, resulting in the most realistic games available to date.
The ASUS Radeon HD 7990 ensures full readiness for upcoming standard-setting games, and includes eight hit titles in the box:

Tomb Raider (Crystal Dynamics/Square Enix)
Hitman: Absolution (IO Interactive/Square Enix)
Sleeping Dogs (Square Enix)
Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Eidos/Square Enix)
Crysis 3 (Crytek/EA)
Far Cry 3 (Ubisoft)
Far Cry: Blood Dragon (Ubisoft)
BioShock Infinite (Irrational Games/2K)

The ASUS Radeon HD 7990 graphics card will be available worldwide from late May.

Club 3D Announces its Radeon HD 7990 Graphics Card
Club 3D unveils today the heir of our first Radeon HD 7990. This card already crushed the competition in terms of sheer power, performance and awesomeness. But now we present its successor, the even faster Club 3D Radeon HD 7990. As the world's fastest and most advanced graphics card, it descends from generations of AMD Radeon Graphics cards that wore the same crown. And with a heritage like that, you know what you're getting: an unparalleled experience wherein gaming is everything... but not the only thing. All hail the new king.
Compared to the previous Club 3D Radeon HD 7990, which was already a stellar performer and has a track record for being the fastest graphics card in the world for some months in 2012 and 2013, the new Club 3D Radeon HD 7990 offers even better performance while being quieter, cooler and more energy efficient. It's almost impossible to imagine but even that top of range product left room for the improvement shown in this iteration. It's clear that these improvements enable better performance than any other graphics card available in the market today and at the same time operates with less noise and using less power.

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Performance
You deserve to play the world's most demanding AA game titles like Crysis 3 at the highest resolutions and maximum detail settings, never settle for less! The HD 7990 offers two of the world's fastest GPU's in a single graphics card offering 4096 stream processors of raw power.
This enables smooth game play even in 5760 x 1080p resolution.
Design
The Club 3D Radeon HD 7990 with the dual slot, three variable speed 80mm low noise fan blade design combined with high performance heatpipes allows cooler running temperatures under load, which results in quieter operation, and increases overclocking and performance potential.
The metal back plate significantly improves the pcb strength and reduces electrical noise.
AMD GCN Architecture
Designed to push not only the boundaries of DirectX 11 gaming, the GCN Architecture is also AMD's first design specifically engineered for general computing. Equipped with 64 compute units (4096 stream processors), each containing a scalar coprocessor, AMD's 28nm GPUs are more than capable of handling workloads-and programming languages-traditionally exclusive to the processor. Coupled with the dramatic rise of GPU-aware programming languages like C++ AMP and OpenCL, the GCN Architecture is truly the right architecture for the right time.
AMD Eyefinity Technology
Step beyond the confines of a single monitor and embrace the true potential of PC gaming with the ultra-high resolutions of AMD Eyefinity multi-display technology on the Club 3D Radeon HD 7990.
Supporting multiple independent display outputs simultaneously, AMD Eyefinity technology delivers innovative graphics display capabilities enabling massive desktop workspaces and ultra-immersive visual environments for the ultimate panoramic computing experience.
For more information, visit the product page.

EK Working on a New Water Block for AMD's Radeon HD 7990
EK Water Blocks, premium water cooling gear manufacturer, is working on a new water block for the latest, most powerful gaming pgrahics card in the world - the AMD Radeon HD 7990, codenamed Malta.
The upcoming EK-FC7990 SE water block will directly cool both GPU, RAM as well as VRMs (voltage regulation module) as water will flow directly over these critical areas thus allowing the graphics card and it's VRM to remain stable under high overclocks. EK-FC7990 SE water block will also features a very high flow design therefore it could easily be used in liquid cooling systems using weaker water pumps.

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The water block, which will come in all four versions (Copper Plexi, Copper Acetal, Nickel Plexi, Nickel Acetal) will be available for purchase through EK Webshop & Partner Reseller Network by early May 2013. Exact date of availability will be announced via our social media websites.
In the mean time we are pleased to announce our EK-FCS10000 full-cover water block, originally designed for AMD FirePro S10000 server graphics card, is compatible with the new AMD Radeon HD 7990 Malta graphics card.

PowerColor Announces its Radeon HD 7990 V2 "Malta" Graphics Card
TUL Corporation, a leading manufacturer of AMD graphic cards, today officially announces PowerColor HD7990, codenamed Malta, ready to fulfill all enthusiastic users with critical demand. The new HD7990 is powered by dual GPUs, and features 4096 stream processors and 8.2 TFLOPS compute power, deliveries massively parallel computing power for graphics.

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The PowerColor HD7990 is equipped with 6GB of GDDR5 memory, and clocks at 950MHz and 1500MHz memory speed. By utilizing AMD PowerTune with boost, the HD7990 allows the core frequency dynamically overclocked up to 1GHz, successfully tackles demanding games titles without effort. Together with the combination of three axial fans and massive heatsink, the HD7990 provides ultra-quiet working environment under 37.8 dBA.

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Not only has the mighty card design made PowerColor HD7990 unsurpassable, but also all latest technologies. Users now can run their favorite games in 3840 x 2160 with max settings, also enjoy immersive "wrap around" gaming experience by optimizing AMD Eyefinity Technology. Furthermore, the HD7990 makes a perfect match for AMD Zerocore Power Technology, allowing GPU to consume virtually no power in idle mode, delivering the best power efficiency.

SAPPHIRE Starts Shipping HD 7990
April 24th 2013 - SAPPHIRE Technology has just announced that it will start shipping the HD 7990 - the fastest graphics card available based on the highly acclaimed graphics GCN (Graphics Core Next) architecture from AMD.

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The SAPPHIRE HD 7990 has a dual GPU architecture with a total of 4096 Stream processors and core clock speeds of 1GHz (with Boost enabled), delivering up to 8.2 TeraFlops of compute power. It is equipped with 6GB of the latest DDR5 memory, and its output configuration of Dual-Link DVI plus four DisplayPorts supports up to 5 simultaneous displays in AMD Eyefinity. A large heatpipe assembly cooled by three axial fans ensures that the card runs quietly even under load.
AMD's GCN architecture and driver suite is optimised to display the greatest image quality in gaming and this latest card delivers the highest performance yet - and the fastest frame rates in even the most demanding games. It also provides enhanced performance in a wide range of applications using the stream processing capabilities and specific hardware features of this graphics architecture. Typical examples include Video encoding and decoding, compression and multiplexing for media distribution, and video conferencing as well as accelerating specific supported applications.
The HD 7990 comes with the greatest game bundle ever*. As part of AMD's Never Settle Reloaded campaign, the bundle includes access codes to eight of the latest and most exciting games, including BioShock Infinite, Crysis3, FarCry3, and TombRaider.
The SAPPHIRE HD 7990 starts shipping from April 24th 2013.

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