AMD

AMD's 10 core Piledriver chips revealed

Adam Oxford at

The net is alive today with news that AMD is planning a 10 core CPU sometime next year, based on a revision to their Bulldozer design codenamed Piledriver.

The new processor was revealed in a deck of presentation slides leaked by the Chinese news site Zol.com.nc, and shows that these new processors won't have on board graphics and will require a new motherboard socket, called FM2, which supercedes the current AM3+ board. Just behind these 'up to 10 core' CPUs is confirmation of the Trinity CPU/GPU hybrid that was announced at Computex, which will also use the Piledriver architecture and FM2 socket.

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AMD launches HD6990M notebook graphics

Adam Oxford at

AMD has taken the wraps off of its latest graphics chip for notebooks, the Radeon HD6990M. The Barts-based GPU is its most powerful mobile graphics processor currently available from AMD's line, and will be available in the Alienware M18x and other manufacturers from today.

The AMD announcement comes not long after NVIDIA's launch of the GeForce GTX 580M a couple of weeks ago, and while we haven't seen samples of either in the office yet, it should be a close run battle as to which is better.

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AMD launches Llano: decent hybrid graphics at last?

Adam Oxford at

While AMD is struggling to get its forthcoming flaghship processors out of the door, there is some good news for the company. It's officially launching its new range of CPU/GPU hybrid processors today, codenamed Llano. And the reception for the new chips has been good.

At its heart, Llano is a two or four core Athlon II processor with a low end 5800 series graphics chip bolted onto the side. Manufactured on a new 32nm silicon process, bundling the CPU and GPU together like this brings certain performance and power benefits over using two separate chips, and is more cost effective to manufacture.

Intel, of course, has been producing hybrid chips in the shape of its newer Atom and Core processors for a while now. AMD's first hybrid chips appeared under the Fusion marque earlier in the year in netbooks and tablets, and compared very well to their Atom rivals.

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E3 2011: AMD revives FX name for Bulldozer

Adam Oxford at

We were expecting announcements about AMD's new Bulldozer line of processors at the big hardware trade show, Computex, last week. And we were disappointed. Instead, they've been sort of formally launched at E3 today, where AMD has relaunched its FX brandname for high performance components.

I say 'sort of' because other than confirming that the first Bulldozer CPUs, forthcoming eight core monsters codenamed 'Zambezi', will be branded 'FX' chips, there's actually no new information about them at all to confirm clockspeeds and pricing details. Instead, today's announced is that motherboards with the 900-series chipset and graphics cards from the HD6000 line-up will also be known as 'FX' parts.

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Id Software's John Carmack picks a side in the Nvidia/AMD GPU war

Dan Stapleton at

We sat down with legendary John Carmack and picked his brain on a few of our favorite topics. Along the way, we asked him which graphics card--AMD or Nvidia--he would buy right that second and why. His answer might surprise you.

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Deus Ex: Human Revolution will support DirectX11, 3D and AMD Eyefinity

Tom Senior at

Square Enix have told us more about Deus Ex: Human Revolution's PC specific features. The game will have full DirectX 11 support, and will work with AMD Eyefinity, which will let players hook up an incredible FIVE monitors to play the game in uber-widescreen. It will even run in 3D for those with compatible screens. The development team discuss the advantages of playing Human Revolution with 3D and Eyefinity set ups in a new video, embedded below.

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Steam updates your AMD drivers automatically

Jaz McDougall at

Your Steam client updated today with an important new feature. Valve's digital distribution platform now handles the drivers for AMD graphics cards automatically. We're one step closer to PCs that grow new parts and enslave people with brain-jacks.

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AMD scrap the ATI name

Jaz McDougall at

AMD have scrubbed off the ATI letters on future products (which is a pretty amazing temporal feat). Instead, their brand of graphics cards will just be called Radeon.

The reason: AMD was a stronger, more recognisable name than ATI. I think it's also so they don't have two acronyms on there, because that would be confusing to people. Hardware companies hate confusing people - that's why their products are so easy to understand and compare to each other.

ATI AMD are also moving into "Fusion chips" - hybrid cards that integrate video processing and other specialist functions as well as the general computing power of a CPU. Are you looking forward to the day when your graphics card is also handling AI and game logic? Or does it, frankly, scare you?

[via The Register]

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Ask the Expert: Fixing a broken internet

PC Gamer at

It's Wednesday here on the PC Gamer blog which means that we're late in posting our PC Gaming helpdesk. Our resident tech doctor, Adam Oxford, is in and ready to dispense diagnostic advice. He'll also answer all your hardware related questions. Except, “where do chips come from, Mummy”? You're far too young to know.

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