Thread: Anandtech News

Announced late last month and shipping 3 weeks ago, AMD kicked off the 28nm generation with a bang with their Radeon HD 7970. Combining TSMC’s new 28nm HKMG process with AMD’s equally new Graphics Core Next Architecture, AMD finally took back the single-GPU performance crown for the first time since 2010 with an all-around impressive flagship video card.
Of course AMD has always produced multiple video cards from their high-end GPUs, and with Tahiti this was no different. The second Tahiti card has been waiting in the wings for its own launch, and that launch has finally come. Today AMD is launching the Radeon HD 7950, the cooler, quieter, and cheaper sibling of the Radeon HD 7970. Aimed right at NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 580, AMD is looking to sew up the high-end market, and as we’ll see the Radeon HD 7950 is exactly the card to accomplish that.

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Apart from a few screenshots leaked early last year, not much was known about the next major release of Microsoft Office codenamed “Office 15”. However, as of yesterday, Microsoft has announced that "Office 15" has entered into Technical Preview, with the public beta slated for a summer release.
The technical preview is currently open only to a select few outside Microsoft under a non-disclosure agreement. Last time around, prior to the launch of Office 2010, people had a chance to sign up for the technical preview. However, this time, Microsoft seems to have taken a less public approach for choosing potential candidates for the technical preview.
In any case, the technical preview means the suite should most-likely be feature complete and relatively stable to let end-users try it out. Details on what’s new are scarce right now, but it could be fair game to expect some Metro-esque updates to the UI, aligning the user experience with other products such as the Xbox Dashoard and Windows 8.
Microsoft is calling "Office 15" as one of the most ambitious undertakings for the Office division, promising a simultaneous update to all its Office products and services across all platforms for the first time ever.
Either way, it should be interesting to see what new features and enhancements make their way into Office 15. Personally, I would like to see deeper integration with Microsoft’s cloud services such as Office 365 and Skydrive, allowing for easier sharing and collaboration.
Office 2010 brought to the table several new features such as the controversial Backstage View, a consistent Ribbon UI across the suite, and lots of minor enhancements in every app. However, it was by no means a must have upgrade. I guess we’ll have to wait for the public beta to see if "Office 15" fits that bill.
Source: MS Office Blog



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Software Blu-ray / DVD players are bundled with almost all OEM PCs and a necessity for consumers who want to enjoy their commercial optical media in the most legal manner possible. At AnandTech, we regularly use the offerings from ArcSoft (Total Media Theatre), Corel (WinDVD Pro) and Cyberlink (PowerDVD) in our reviews. Each of them has its own pros and cons. While WinDVD Pro is the leanest and most responsive of the lot, it is also pretty barebones. Total Media Theatre, on the other hand, has a very good user interface and integrates services like YouTube in a seamless and enjoyable manner. PowerDVD has historically been a leader in the features department, but the user interface and bloat used to be a turn off for most users.

Today, CyberLink is introducing PowerDVD 12 along with an updated Android / iOS app. With the Blu-ray functionality not needing any updates, most of the attention has been focused on the mobile apps and streamlining the user experience with the PC player. How good are the changes? Are they enough to make us change our opinion of PowerDVD? Read on for our review.


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Firefox 10 is due to release today, continuing Mozilla's commitment to the six-week release cycle it switched to last year. As usual with these rapid-release browsers, Firefox 10 brings a couple of features you'll probably notice and a few more that you probably won't. The browser is available for Windows XP, Vista, and 7, Intel versions of Mac OS X 10.5, 10.6, and 10.7, and most flavors of Linux.
Firefox 10's banner feature is a tweak designed to fix add-on compatibility - most add-ons compatible with Firefox version 4 and later will now automatically be marked as compatible by the browser without any additional updates from the add-on's developer. This is true both of add-ons downloaded from Mozilla's repository, or add-ons installed from elsewhere on the Internet. This was done to ease the pain of upgrading for heavy add-on users, and to make way for Mozilla's silent Firefox updater, which is tentatively scheduled to land in June with the release of Firefox 13.
Mozilla has also hidden the browser's forward button unless it can actually be used, implemented anti-aliasing for WebGL, added support for CSS3 3D transforms, added full-screen APIs to allow for full-screen web apps (though still no official support for Lion's Full Screen mode), and a few other small feature and bug changes.
FF10 is also the first release of the browser to be offered as an "Extended Support Release" or ESR, which will be offered as a separate download - as we reported earlier this month, the ESRs will be good for a year, and will keep the same major version number and rendering engine while being kept current with security and bug fixes. The ESR is intended to replace Firefox 3.6, which has been patched continuously as Firefoxes 4 through 9 have been end-of-lifed, and is meant to placate enterprise administrators and others upset by the new rapid release cycle. Firefox 3.6 is tentatively scheduled to be discontinued on April 24, so if you've stuck by it for the last year you should begin testing the new version soon.
Source: Mozilla



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We've been covering the changes in Windows 8 fairly closely since Microsoft started talking about the upcoming operating system, and while most of these changes will probably land in the final version, Microsoft is already making some tweaks based on user feedback. Microsoft's Ilana Smith has written about some of the tweaks made to file copy operations and Windows Explorer since those features were last discussed.
File copy operations get a couple of GUI tweaks and a few useful under-the-hood enhancements. First, when two files in a copy operation have conflicting names, Windows will give you the (opt-in) option to skip files that also have the same timestamp and file size while copying over files that just have the same name as files in the target folder. File copy interrupts, which in past versions of Windows have stopped the copy operation until the user clicks through them, will now queue and display after Windows has copied everything it can.
Under the hood, improvements to the SMB protocol mean that a computer can now dynamically switch to the fastest available network connection in mid-operation, for those cases when you begin a file copy to another computer over wi-fi and then decide it would be faster to plug the computer into the network with a cable. Because it relies on these SMB improvements, this functionality can only kick in for a file transfer between two Windows 8 computers.
Copy operations will also pause when a computer goes to sleep or hibernates, and can be manually resumed when the computer wakes back up. This feature won't kick in unless the user prompts it to, since a sleeping computer can often wake back up on another network where it can't continue the file copy.

On the Windows Explorer side, the new Ribbon interface is still present, but it is minimized by default - power users who need it can pop it back out, and casual users who don't use it much can retain the screen real estate granted by the minimized ribbon. Customizations you make to the Windows Explorer view settings will also now sync between your Windows 8 systems if you're syncing settings using your Windows Live ID.
Other Explorer changes include: the addition of an "Open PowerShell" option in the File menu to complement the "Open Command Prompt" option, automatic rotation of images based on EXIF data, the removal of a navigation pane scrolling bug, the removal of icon overlays (like a padlock icon for private files) in exchange for a new "Sharing status" column that offers more information while (very slightly) increasing performance, the addition of hotkey information to button tooltips, and the ability to add folders and executables to the new Metro-style Start menu.
All of these changes will all be available in the Windows 8 beta when it releases late next month. We'll continue covering them as Microsoft talks about them.
Source: Building Windows 8 blog



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Apple has today issued an update for their professional video editing suite, Final Cut Pro X (FCPX). The update carries version number 10.0.3 and re-introduces some crucial elements, such as multicam editing. Multicam filming is widely used by video professionals as many scenes require multiple video angles, and it's obvious that you also need editing software that supports multicam editing in order to achieve the best outcome. Other new features include advanced chroma keying that allows color, edge and light adjustments; media relink that allows content to be modified with third party software and then be relinked to your project; import Photoshop graphics; and broadcast monitoring that allows video to be output to an external monitor using PCIe or Thunderbolt devices.
FCPX was strongly criticized by professional users when it was launched in June 2011 due to the lack of major features such as import of projects made on earlier versions of FCP, multicam support, and usage of 3rd party I/O devices for capture and output—all which were present in the earlier version of Final Cut Pro. Apple released the 10.0.1 update in September, which brought support for XML format, allowing FCP 7 and many other apps projects to be imported into FCPX. However, it took Apple more than half a year to support multicam editing, which is finally bringing FCPX more or less on-par with FCP 7 in terms of features.
FCP 7 was outdated in various areas, for example it was single-threaded, so it's evident that professionals with high-end Macs were craving for a new version but ended up being dissapointed due to the lack of several essential features. This update is free for all users who have already bought Final Cut Pro X. For users who haven't, Apple offers a 30-day trial on Final Cut Pro X and the full version is priced at $299—both are available in the Mac App Store. Apple also offers Motion, an effects editor, and Compressor, a tool for project export, as complement applications and they are both priced at $49.



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I'm going to be honest with you: the Radeon HD 7970 launch recap was pretty boring, with its wall-to-wall stock coolers and stock clocks. Like many high-end GPU launches, AMD's partners were for the most part restricted to reference designs, and didn't get much of a chance to put their own spin on the new GPU.
The same can't be said of the Radeon HD 7950 launch - as Ryan noted in today's review, AMD's partners have been let loose for this card, and as a result we're looking at 11 better-differentiated cards from seven manufacturers in today's roundup. The downside of all of this customization is that none of these cards quite hit AMD's MSRP of $549.99 - the closest cards are $10 or $20 more expensive, though that's arguably a rounding error when you're in the market for a card in this segment.
Read on for detailed specifications and analyses. As usual, for simplicity's sake, the only cards we're looking at are the ones available through Newegg as of this writing. AMD's partners often offer different SKUs through other sites, but most of the time those SKUs are just variations on what's listed below. To help differentiate these cards from one another in the table below, I've bolded some of the more extreme data points, including highest core overclock, best warranty, smallest and largest size, and highest and lowest price. Hopefully this extra visual data will help you tell the cards apart at a glance.

	Gigabyte	HIS	MSI	XFX	XFX Black Edition
Part Number	GV-R795WF3-3GD	H795F3G2M	R7950-2PMD3GD5/OC	FX-795A-TDFC	FX-795A-TDBC
Core Clock	900 MHz	800 MHz	830 MHz	800 MHz	900 MHz
Memory Clock (Effective)	1250 MHz (5 GHz)	1250 MHz (5 GHz)	1250 MHz (5 GHz)	1250 MHz (5 GHz)	1250 MHz (5 GHz)
Dimensions (inches)	11.4 x 5 x 1.5	10.94 x 4.96 x 1.65	11.02 x 4.33 x 1.5	10.5 x 4.4 x 1.5	10.5 x 4.4 x 1.5
Included accessories	Crossfire bridge, 2x 4-pin to 6-pin adapters	Crossfire bridge,DVI to VGA, "weight lifter"	Crossfire bridge, Mini DP to DP, DVI to VGA, 4-pin to 6-pin	Crossfire bridge, Mini DP to DVI	Crossfire bridge, Mini DP to DVI
Warranty	3-year	2-year	3-year part, 2-year labor	Lifetime (with registration)	Lifetime (with registration)
Price (Newegg)	$489.99	$469.99	$469.99	$479.99	$499.99

	ASUS	ASUS Direct CU II	PowerColor	PowerColor PCS+	Sapphire	Sapphire OC Edition
Part Number	HD7950-3GD5	HD7950-DC2T-3GD5	AX7950 3GBD5-2DH	AX7950 3GBD5-2DHPP	11196-00-40G	11196-02-40G
Core Clock	800 MHz	900 MHz	800 MHz	880 MHz	810 MHz	900 MHz
Memory Clock (Effective)	1250 MHz (5 GHz)	1250 MHz (5 GHz)	1250 MHz (5 GHz)	1250 MHz (5 GHz)	1250 MHz (5 GHz)	1250 MHz (5 GHz)
Dimensions (inches)	10.6 x 4.2 x 1.5	11.8 x 5.1 x 2.3	10.83 x 4.38 x 1.50	10.83 x 5.04 x 1.50	10.08 x 3.94 x 1.41	10.83 x 4.53 x 1.65
Included accessories	Crossfire bridge, Mini DP to DVI, 4-pin to 6-pin	Crossfire bridge, Mini DP to DVI, 4-pin to 6-pin, 6-pin extension	Crossfire bridge, Mini DP to DP, HDMI to DVI, DVI to VGA	Crossfire bridge, Mini DP to DP, HDMI to DVI, DVI to VGA	Crossfire bridge, Mini DP to DP, DVI to VGA, HDMI to DVI, HDMI cable, 2x 4-pin to 6-pin	Crossfire bridge, Mini DP to DP, DVI to VGA, HDMI to DVI, HDMI cable, 2x 4-pin to 6-pin
Warranty	3-year	3-year	2-year	2-year	2-year	2-year
Price (Newegg)	$464.99	$499.99	$469.99	$489.99	$459.99	$479.99

Every card here comes with 3GB of GDDR5 on a 384-bit bus and the same array of outputs: one DVI, one HDMI, and a pair of Mini DisplayPorts. While some of the cards have core overclocks from the factory, the memory is all running at the reference speed of 1250 MHz (5 GHz effective). Every card additionally requires a pair of 6-pin power connectors to satisfy their cravings for electricity, and as of this writing Newegg is offering a free voucher for a copy of Dirt3 with every card, the PC version of which is currently going for a bit less than $20 on Amazon.
Gigabyte

Gigabyte's take on the 7950 is right in the middle of the pack - it isn't quite the most expensive or the longest, and it doesn't quite have the longest warranty or the most accessories, but it comes pretty close on all of those counts. It's the only card in the lineup with a three fan cooler, which may help with overclocking - it comes from the factory with a 100 MHz (~11%) overclock, which ties with a few other cards for the fastest stock clock in the lineup.
HIS (Product page)

The HIS card has a cooler that bears a striking resemblance to the 7970 reference cooler, and HIS passes at least some of those savings on to those consumer - at $20 over MSRP, this is one of the cheaper cards in this list. It is otherwise unremarkable - a 2-year warranty ties with some other cards for the shortest on the list, and it comes from the factory with stock clocks. HIS claims that its included "weight lifter" accessory can help alleviate the pressure that gravity exerts on both the card and the PCI slot, making for greater longevity, but that confidence doesn't apparently extend to the warranty.
MSI (Product page)

Like the HIS card, the MSI model uses a single-fan, dual-slot cooler reminiscent of the 7970 reference cooler. It's the same price as the HIS card, but offers a slightly better warranty (3 years parts but only 2 years labor), a slight (~8%) overclock, and a couple of extra display adapters, and it's a bit smaller in width and in height (at least according to MSI's measurements).
XFX and XFX Black Edition (Product page)

Here's where we get to the manufacturers who are offering multiple cards based on the 7950 GPU - generally speaking, partners will offer a low and a high end card, usually differentiated by price, cooler, and overclock - included accessories and warranty length tend to be the same between different cards from the same manufacturer.
In XFX's case, even the cooler is the same between the basic card and the Black Edition card - the only difference between the two is a 100 MHz factory overclock on the core and $20. If you're comfortable doing your own overclock, buying the Black Edition may not be worth it. It should be noted that the XFX Black Edition is one of the few cards on this list that we've actually done some testing on - while its performance is good, its cooler is both a bit louder and a bit less cool-running than that of many of its peers. Registering either card will get you a lifetime warranty, which beats anything else on this list and may sweeten the deal.
ASUS (Product page)

This is ASUS' stock-clocked version of the 7950, and like a few of the other cards in this list it uses a single-fan dual-slot cooler. At just $15 over MSRP it's one of the cheapest cards here, and the 3-year warranty manages to best a few of the more expensive cards with 2-year warranties. If you buy a component for this much money, I think it helps to buy something with a longer warranty, especially since the jumps in performance between GPU generations aren't quite what they used to be.
ASUS Direct CU II (Product page)

This massive card, which ties the XFX Black Edition for the most expensive in our lineup, has a dual-fan triple-slot cooler that makes it the longest card here by almost an inch (with the exception of the Gigabyte, though it's three-fan cooler is still a bit shorter) the widest by about half an inch (though the Gigabyte card and the PowerColor dual-fan card come close), and the tallest by around three-quarters of an inch (no exceptions here). A 100 MHz core overclock and a 3-year warranty are both nice touches, but if space is at a premium in your case (or if you plan on running a couple of these in a Crossfire setup) you may want to get out the tape measure first.
PowerColor (Product page)

PowerColor's take on the stock-clocked, single-fan cooler design isn't much different from anyone else's, but at $20 over MSRP it's one of the less expensive cards in the lineup, and it's also one of the few to come with an HDMI to DVI adapter if you should need such a thing. If price is the most important factor in your purchase (and if the 2-year warranty doesn't bother you), it's worth a look.
PowerColor PCS+ (Product page)

This card's dual-fan cooler is about an inch shorter than that of the ASUS model, and it's also $10 cheaper at $40 over MSRP. The 80 MHz core overclock and 2-year warranty make it slightly less appealing than some of the other models on the list.
Sapphire (Product page)

This Sapphire card is an interesting one - it's got a 2-year warranty and a measly 10 MHz overclock, but it's also the shortest and slimmest card of the bunch, distinguishing it a bit from the other single-fan cooler cards in the group - it also happens to be the cheapest, coming in at just $10 over MSRP. Both Sapphire cards also come with the best complement of adapters and cables, including two 4-pin to 6-pin power adapters and an honest-to-goodness HDMI cable. Ryan noted in his 7950 review that the Sapphire OC edition (below) includes a BIOS selection switch, which may help enterprising modders to turn that card into a full-on 7970 - this cheaper card should also have that switch, according the OC Edition's product page.
Sapphire OC Edition (Product page)

And, lastly, the Sapphire OC Edition - like most other manufacturers, Sapphire has given this higher-end model a 100 MHz core overclock, but it costs only $30 more than MSRP compared to $40 and $50 for other cards. The 2-year warranty bothers me a little bit, in case you haven't picked up on this by now, but if you don't trust yourself to handle your own overclocks this is the cheapest card available at this speed, and comes with the same array of cables and adapters as its cheaper cousin.



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NZXT recently released the Switch 810, a new high-end full tower model they proudly had on display at CES at the same time they were seeding samples to reviewers. It's a looker to be sure, but NZXT's engineers also played a lot with the insides of the enclosure, and what they've put together is a chassis with a remarkable number of uncommon features designed to appeal to enthusiasts who want to maximize both the utility of their machines along with the control they have over that utility. It looks great on paper and great on display, but how does it work in practice?

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Not to be left in the dust by their big national counterparts, regional carriers are also moving onward to 4G LTE, and US Cellular today announced its initial 4G LTE markets and two devices. US Cellular has made a coverage map tool visible with its initial rollout markets, and noted that additional market announcements will happen later this month. US Cellular also makes note of its intent to deploy 4G LTE onto 700 MHz spectrum licensed to King Street Wireless.
A quick check on the spectrum dashboard indicates that indeed US Cellular will likely deploy 4G LTE into a host of 700 MHz Lower A and B block licenses, both of which are 5 MHz FDD. A quick spot checking of the announced markets didn't turn up any where both lower A and B were held however, so it seems as though 5 MHz FDD will be the name of US Cellular's LTE game.

The two devices US Cellular has in store are the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 LTE, and the Samsung Galaxy S Aviator, the latter of which looks virtually identical to the Droid Charge we've already reviewed. No doubt the Aviator will turn out to be based on the same hardware platform given the similar choice of air interfaces shared between Verizon and US Cellular (CDMA2000 1x/EVDO and 4G LTE).

Source: US Cellular (Devices), (Press Release)

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Apple today released the OS X 10.7.3 update for the client and server versions of Lion - unlike 10.7.2, which introduced a major feature in iCloud, the 10.7.3 update consists mostly of smaller feature and security bugfixes. The updates are currently available both from Apple's download site and from Software Update - its build number is 11D50 and it bumps the OS X kernel version to 11.3.0.
On the client side of things, 10.7.3 adds Catalan, Croatian, Greek, Hebrew, Romanian, Slovak, Thai, and Ukranian language support, and addresses problems logging on using smart cards, with Windows filesharing, and with printing Word documents that use markup. Older iMacs with ATI graphics cards should no longer experience performance issues after waking from sleep, and post-sleep wi-fi connection issues were also addressed. Safari should no longer have trouble opening before the computer has connected to a wireless network. Lastly, Apple has fixed an issue authenticating to distributed SMB shares, and RAW image compatibility with additional cameras has been added.
Enterprise users with Active Directory domains should also note that the 10.7.3 update fixes a number of Directory Services bugs, a full list of which can be found in the client release notes.
OS X Server sees a few more feature updates, both in Server.app and in the services themselves - there are too many of them to list here, but you can check out the server release notes for a full list.
10.7.3 also includes Safari 5.1.3, a minor version bump for which release notes are not currently available (it's also not clear whether 5.1.3 will be released to Snow Leopard users, or whether it addresses issues that are only present in Lion). Snow Leopard users can also grab Security Update 2012-001 to get all of the security fixes present in 10.7.3 that also apply to 10.6.8.




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