IT-Code-News: IT News Head Lines (AnandTech) 20/02/2014

AMD Announces "AMD Rewards" Program for the Gaming Evolved Application

We normally don’t cover contests and giveaways, but this one is just a bit different than the others and sheds some light on the inner workings of AMD, so we’ll take a quick look at it.
AMD is announcing today that they’re starting up a rewards program for users of their Gaming Evolved Application. The rewards program, dubbed AMD Rewards (not to be confused with Radeon Rewards) is a point based system that will see AMD rewarding users for using the Gaming Evolved application. The points in turn will be redeemable for a number of items, including games and some 3^rd party hardware items, but most notably Sapphire Radeon R9 cards. All told, AMD is apparently putting up $5 million USD in merchandise, which would be a significant expense for a single promotion.
What makes this notable is the actions that will earn points in the program. AMD’s press release doesn’t have a complete list, but using the GEA game optimization service and playing supported games are specifically mentioned as activities that earn points. As we covered back in November when the GEA launched, the ad-hoc nature of data collection being used by Raptr and AMD meant that the service started with a very limited data set for optimization recommendations, due to a lack of data to bootstrap the service. Without a dedicated group to provide at least the initial data, the service would be slow to ramp up as AMD needs users playing games and running the GEA first, and only then would they be able to generate recommendations.

This latest promotion looks to be an effort at finally solving the data problem by providing an additional incentive for Radeon owners to use the GEA. If AMD can get enough data collected to make the service widely useful, then it would be able to achieve the critical mass of users needed to make the GEA game optimization service self-sustaining. We'll have to continue to keep an eye on the service and see what this does for AMD's data set. The idea behind the optimization service is very cool, so hopefully this promotion can give AMD the additional data the service needs to really shine.

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti and GTX 750 Review: Maxwell Makes Its Move
As the GPU company who’s arguably more transparent about their long-term product plans, NVIDIA still manages to surprise us time and time again. Case in point, we have known since 2012 that NVIDIA’s follow-up architecture to Kepler would be Maxwell, but it’s only more recently that we’ve begun to understand the complete significance of Maxwell to the company’s plans. Each and every generation of GPUs brings with it an important mix of improvements, new features, and enhanced performance; but fundamental shifts are fewer and far between. So when we found out Maxwell would be one of those fundamental shifts, it changed our perspective and expectations significantly.
Read on for our review of Maxwell, NVIDIA's next major GPU technology and the first card it'll be found in: the GeForce GTX 750.

NVIDIA's GeForce GTX Titan Black: No Compromises for Gaming & Compute

NVIDIA's GeForce GTX Titan was an absolute beast when it launched. With 7.1 billion transistors and an architecture that separated itself from high-end consumer GPUs, the Titan was worthy of its name. It took 9 months for NVIDIA to make a gaming focused version: the GeForce GTX 780 Ti. Although the 780 Ti gave up double precision floating point performance (FP64) and 3GB of GDDR5, it made up for the deficit by enabling all 15 SMXs and running its memory at a 16% higher frequency. The result was that Titan was a better compute card, while the 780 Ti was better for gamers. You couldn't have both, you had to choose one or the other.
Today NVIDIA is letting its compute-at-home customers have their cake and eat it too with the GeForce GTX Titan Black. The Titan Black is a full GK110 implementation, just like the GTX 780 Ti, with all of the compute focused-ness of the old GTX Titan. That means you get FP64 performance that's only 1/3 of the card's FP32 performance (compared to 1/24 with the 780 Ti). It also means that there's a full 6GB of GDDR5 on the card, up from 3GB on the 780 Ti.

	GTX Titan Black	GTX 780 Ti	GTX Titan	GTX 780
Stream Processors	2880	2880	2688	2304
Texture Units	240	240	224	192
ROPs	48	48	48	48
Core Clock	889MHz	875MHz	837MHz	863MHz
Boost Clock	980MHz	928MHz	876MHz	900MHz
Memory Clock	7GHz GDDR5	7GHz GDDR5	6GHz GDDR5	6GHz GDDR5
Memory Bus Width	384-bit	384-bit	384-bit	384-bit
VRAM	6GB	3GB	6GB	3GB
FP64	1/3 FP32	1/24 FP32	1/3 FP32	1/24 FP32
TDP	250W	250W	250W	250W
Transistor Count	7.1B	7.1B	7.1B	7.1B
Manufacturing Process	TSMC 28nm	TSMC 28nm	TSMC 28nm	TSMC 28nm
Launch Date	2/18/14	11/07/13	02/21/13	05/23/13
Launch Price	$999	$699	$999	$649

Unlike the original Titan, there are no compromises on frequency. The memory runs at a full 7GHz data rate just like the 780 Ti. The GK110 core and boost clocks are up by 1.6% and 5.6% compared to the 780 Ti, respectively. Compared to the original Titan we're talking about anywhere from a 13.8% to a 19.9% increase in performance on compute bound workloads or a 16.7% increase on memory bandwidth bound workloads.
Gaming performance should be effectively equal to the 780 Ti. NVIDIA doesn't expect a substantial advantage from the core/boost clock gains and thus didn't bother with a sampling program for the Titan Black.

The heatsink looks identical to the original Titan, just in black (like the 780 Ti). We've got dissection shots in the gallery below.
We've heard availability will be limited on the GeForce GTX Titan Black. Cards will retail for $999, just like the original Titan.
The Titan Black should be a no-compromises card that can deliver on both gaming and compute fronts. It's clear that NVIDIA wants to continue to invest in the Titan brand, the only question going forward is what will it replace GK110 with and when.

Gallery: NVIDIA's GeForce GTX Titan Black: No Compromises for Gaming & Compute

HTC Advantage: Free Repairs for Cracked Screens in the First 6 Months of Ownership

Ahead of MWC and hot on the heels of its announcement that the next HTC flagship smartphone will be unveiled on March 25, HTC is introducing a new program: HTC Advantage.
The advantage program is free for HTC customers and includes a number of features designed to build customer loyalty. The first is the inclusion of a 6 month limited warranty to cover any damage to your screen. If you ding, scratch or crack your screen within the first 6 months of ownership, HTC will replace your display free of charge (1 time only). This applies to any HTC One, One mini and One max devices purchases from this day forward (and presumably HTC's next flagship will also fall under this umbrella after it's released).
The limited warranty won't cover additional damage (e.g. water, non-functioning devices) and is limited to issues with your display. HTC will cover ground shipping in both directions for your damaged device, which it expects will take around 8 - 10 days to complete. If you need your device back quicker than that, HTC will offer an overnight option for $29. If you opt to pay the $29, HTC will ship you a refurbished device overnight and you just send your device back the next day. In the overnight exchange case, you'll obviously get a clean device - a tempting option if your device has scuffs/damage beyond the cracked screen. Once again, non-functioning devices won't be accepted under the terms of this warranty.
The other elements of HTC Advantage are things we've already heard from the company. HTC is committing to offering the latest Android updates for two years from the launch of any device. Unfortunately there is no commitment for the time between an Android release and when it'll be available on a HTC device, but the company does promise that it has been working to streamline its software development and deployment processes. The final component is free cloud storage with enough space to help you back up your device. Today that comes in the form of 25 - 50GB of Google Drive storage and HTC's backup tool
The cracked screen replacement is limited to the US for now, and HTC Advantage has a North America only focus at launch. HTC expects both of these things to be rolled out globally at some point in the future though.

Windows 8 Designer: "Metro is the Antithesis of a Power User"
But it is ultimately good for them, he argues

Medium, Heavy-Duty Trucks to Get New Fuel Efficiency Standards by 2016
President Obama is expected to announce it today

HTC Offers Screen Replacement for HTC One, One Mini, One Max
But only once for the first six months of ownership

Top EU Powers Look to Explore New Network to Prevent American Spying
Europe doesn't want the U.S. stealing its economic secrets, manipulating its politics

The End is Near for F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet Production
Boeing thinks the EA-18 Growler is the most likely version to be purchased by the US

Comcast Acquisition Puts Potential Netflix, TWC Deal on Hold
Netflix and TWC were in talks before the acquisition, but nothing solid yet

Sony PS4 Sells Over 5.3M Units Globally Since Launch
Sony PS4 sales remain strong

Available Tags:AMD , Gaming , NVIDIA , GeForce , GTX , GTX , HTC , Windows 8 , Windows , Sony , PS4 ,

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

IT News Head Lines (AnandTech) 20/02/2014

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