Thread: Anandtech News

After a couple of months off due to a very busy fall product season, we’re finally back again with our monthly guide to video cards and video card industry recap. Since our last guide it has been a busy couple of months, so there’s quite a bit to cover.
The big news this fall has of course been the new video card launches from AMD and NVIDIA. While October has been a relatively quiet month, both companies kept September busy by pushing new products out the door and took others off the shelves.
AMD for their part released the first of their GCN 1.2 architecture GPUs: Tonga. Tonga serves as AMD’s replacement for the nearly 3 year old Tahiti GPU, the very first of AMD’s GPUs first launched in 2011. Tonga is an interesting – if still slightly mysterious – GPU, as we suspect we have not seen everything it and GCN 1.2 can offer. From a high level GCN 1.2 is a further refinement on the GCN architecture, bringing with it greatly improved Delta Color Compression for graphics buffers, a faster video decode block (H.264 L5.2 support), and a further optimized geometry frontend that better handles extreme tessellation factors. At the same time we suspect there are some compute/HSA improvements in the design that AMD has not disclosed and are being saved for the rumored Carrizo APU, Kaveri’s successor.

As for AMD’s desktop product stack, Tonga has been used so far in a single product, the Radeon R9 285. Like Tonga to Tahiti, R9 285 is designed to replace the R9 280 and similar second-tier Tahiti designs. Compared to R9 280, R9 285 is an unusual sidegrade that packs the GCN 1.2 features, a narrower 256-bit memory bus, and virtually identical performance to R9 280. Tahiti and R9 280 were in need of an update and R9 285 is a fine replacement, but if it has any weakness it’s that it hasn’t done much to push the overall performance envelope.
Meanwhile not to be left behind, NVIDIA released their own new wave of video cards powered by the Maxwell 2 architecture. The immediate successor to the Maxwell 1 architecture used in the GeForce GTX 750 series, Maxwell 2 brought NVIDIA’s previous power efficiency gains to the high-end with their new GM204 GPU, along with some new architectural features that make Maxwell 2 stand further apart from Maxwell 1. Among these is HDMI 2.0 support, HEVC hardware encoding, NVIDIA’s VXGI voxel rendering technology, and a suite of new graphics features that will be part of the Direct3D 11.3 specification.

GM204 in turn lies at the heart of the GeForce GTX 980 and GTX 970, which had a significant impact on the PC video card market almost overnight. GTX 980 took the top spot as the fastest single-GPU video card, pushing aside AMD’s Radeon R9 290X and even NVIDIA’s own GTX 780 Ti while setting new marks for power efficiency (all the more impressive since this is still TSMC’s 28nm process). Meanwhile the more affordable GTX 970 retained much of GTX 980’s performance at a lower price, which had a significant spoiler effect on the market due to its strong performance – second only to GTX 980 and often tied with R9 290X – coupled with a low $330 price tag.
In fact it’s only now, over a month post-launch that NVIDIA and their partners have finally caught up with demand. For the last month GTX 900 cards have been hard (though not impossible) to come by, reflecting the impact they’ve had on the market. The AMD ecosystem for its part has cut prices in response in order to stay competitive, and while AMD is facing a technological gap they can’t completely close with the R9 290 series, they can still put up a good fight with competitive positioning.
Finally, on a software note, we’re seeing the launch of this fall’s major video games, including games that were designed around the current-generation game consoles. Though the era of AAA action games being cross-platform means that PC video cards don’t always get used to their full potential, the flip side of this is that once there’s a console generation jump, we see a significant increase in the GPU requirements as the PC video card advantage gets reset. Of particular note, games like Shadows of Mordor and Assassin’s Creed: Unity are hitting shelves with high performance requirements and VRAM-hungry assets that can eat into 4GB+ of VRAM, as consoles are now using GPUs and graphical effects in from the same generation as current PC GPUs. For gamers this means upgrades may be in order, something AMD and NVIDIA are itching to provide.
Anyhow, market summaries behind us, let’s look at individual recommendations. As always, we’ve laid out our ideas of price/performance bands and recommendations in our table below, with our full explanations and alternative options to follow. As always, in the case of the sub-$200 market it’s worth pointing out that there’s a video card for roughly every $10, so picking a good video card is as much about budgets as it is finding an especially strong card.

October 2014 GPU Performance Guide
Performance Band	Price Range	Recommendation
1080p (Low)	$99-$149	AMD Radeon R7 260X
1080p (Med)	$149-$189	AMD Radeon R7 265
1080p (High)	$189-$279	AMD Radeon R9 280
1440p (Med)	$279-$349	AMD Radeon R9 290
1440p (High)	$349	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970
1440p (Max)	$579+	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980
4K/Multi-Monitor (High)	$560+	2x AMD Radeon R9 290 AMD Radeon R9 295X2 2x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980

As a general recommendation for gaming, we suggest starting at $99. There are cards below this price, but the amount of performance you have to give up below $99 far outweighs the cost. Even then, performance gains will generally exceed the price increases up to $150 or so.
Meanwhile for gamers looking for high quality 1080p gaming or better, that will start at around $199. Going above that will find cards that are good for 1440p, 4K, and multi-monitor, while going below that will find cards that will require some quality sacrifices to stay at 1080p.
Finally, this guide is by its very nature weighted towards price/performance, based on the passionate feedback we've received from our readers. For these purposes we consider AMD and NVIDIA to be equal from a functionality and compatibility perspective, but it should be said that both parties have been building out their ecosystem in the past year, and this will only continue to grow as the two companies try to differentiate themselves. So if you need or want functionality beyond the core functionality a video card offers, it may be worthwhile to familiarize yourself with the NVIDIA and AMD ecosystems, including Gameworks, Eyefinity, G-Sync, Mantle, GeForce Experience, and more.
[h=3]Budget (

Somehow, October has already come and gone. Some of you may be wondering what to wear for All Hallows' Eve, or if you need to run out for some last minute treats. But the folks at Xbox are lining up the free games as part of Xbox Live Gold membership. November does not look to be the strongest lineup ever for the program though, with only a single game (again) on the Xbox One, and two Xbox 360 games that date back to several years ago. The Xbox One in particular needs to raise the bar with the program, especially now that the console has been out for a year and the catalog of games is actually OK. But enough complaining for now – let us see the games.
Xbox One

Volgarr the Viking

For several months now, there has only been a single game made available at no cost for the Xbox One. Last month, it was Chariot, and the saving grace for that game was that it was brand new to the store, and this month it is the same. Volgarr the Viking is a 2D side scrolling action game, which harkens back to the days of Contra and the like. Crazy Viking Studios developed this game which was originally launched on the PC just over a year ago. The side scroller is unapologetically difficult, and was brought to life with the help of a kickstarter campaign. This is another of the latest round of retro looking games with an 8-bit graphical feel to it, but it does include a soundtrack from Kochun Hu. The PC version scored a 76 Metascore and 7.7 user score on metacritic, and while Xbox pricing has not been announced, the PC version is currently selling for $12.
“Volgarr the Viking, the newest ID@Xbox game, will debut on Xbox One as a free download. For Xbox One gamers, this is a journey back to the days of yore, when times were tougher, and you really only needed a couple buttons to play a game.”
Xbox 360

Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise

On Saturday, November 1^st, Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise will be the first Xbox 360 game available for the month. This is the sequel to the original Viva Piñata, from Microsoft Game Studios and Rare. This life simulation game was originally released in September 2008, so it is far from a new title, but it still has some appeal especially to a younger audience. It scored an 82 Metascore and 7.7 user score on metacritic, and normally sells for $14.99.
“Welcome back to Piñata Island where Prof. Pester's latest scheme has lead to disaster. Visit the scorching desert or icy wastes to trap new species. Train them, dress them, then send them to a party! We’ve new Piñatas, new activities, new features and new secrets, so come visit and find out why people never want to leave. There are no refunds for this item. For more information, see www.xbox.com/live/accounts.”
Red Faction: Guerilla

The final Xbox 360 game for the month is Red Faction: Guerilla, which will become available on November 16^th. This open world third-person shooter is from developer Volition, Inc, and was originally launched on the Xbox 360 in June 2009. This is the third installment of the Red Faction series, and was released to positive reviews. Red Faction: Guerilla scored a pretty high 85 Metascore and 8.1 User Score on metacritic, and normally sells for $19.99.
“Lured by the rich veins of Martian ore, miner Alec Mason arrives on Mars hungry for a new life. But the promise of a brighter future for Mason quickly fades. The Earth Defense Force, once protectors of Martian colonists, have adopted heavy-handed checkpoints and omnipresent armed patrols. As violence escalates, an underground resistance known as the Red Faction is swiftly gathering strength to combat the EDF. Mason’s quest for a new life has become a battle for survival, and the fate of the planet now rests with him and the Red Faction. There are no refunds for this item. For more information, see”
I can’t say I am particularly thrilled with the November lineup of games. The Xbox One selection is ok as a new release, but we have had a steady stream of indie game titles with GWG on the Xbox One and it is time to see some of the launch titles become available. The Xbox 360 games have historically had the better lineup due to the larger back catalog of games, and that is the case here again, even though they went way back in the catalog. Hopefully December brings a better lineup.
Source: Major Nelson Blog

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The flagship ASUS gaming motherboards are designed to offer the best ASUS’ R&D have to offer and are often the lynchpin in a number of enthusiast builds. These feature a number of components and software elements that the channel motherboard range does not have, such as GameFirst, SupremeFX or Sonic Radar. ASUS has brought some of these features down their ROG product line to the Maximus VII Gene, Hero and Ranger for more budget oriented builds, however when it comes to pairing a $70 CPU like the overclockable Pentium G3258 with an ROG board, the ROG board might still be 2-2.5x the cost. As a result, ASUS is today announcing a semi-ROG board combining elements from the channel range and the ROG range in order to offer something more cost effective for budget users interested in a bit of overclocking and gaming. This is the Z97-Pro Gamer.

The Z97-Pro Gamer is almost a cut down version of the Z97-Pro, but with ROG gaming features added. From the channel side of the equation we have M.2 x2 and SATA Express support along with ASMedia controllers for extra USB 3.0 ports and PCIe to PCI connectors. From ROG it borrows some of the aesthetic qualities (red/black heatsinks), SupremeFX audio, ROG oriented DIGI+ control of the power delivery, extended BIOS options and the ROG software package.

The PCIe layout focuses on an x8/x8 split for SLI and Crossfire, with a final PCIe 2.0 x4 from the chipset for additional cards rather than an x8/x4/x4 split overall for tri-AMD gaming which might not scale appropriately with a Pentium CPU. The USB and Ethernet ports are protected individually against electrostatic discharge, with that Ethernet port being an Intel (I218-V I would assume) to be used alongside the GameFirst II packet prioritization software. The SupremeFX audio hides an ALC1150 codec with PCB separation, EM shields and auto-detecting headphone amplifiers.

As this announcement was made via the ROG website, the North American official announcement might not be far away. At the point in time where the board is officially released, we should learn more about pricing and availability.
Source: ROG
Gallery: ASUS Announces Z97 Pro Gamer: Semi-ROG for Pentium-AE Gaming

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Over the last couple of years, mini-PCs in the ultra-compact form factor (UCFF) have emerged as one of the bright spots in the troubled PC market. Zotac is no stranger to this segment. In fact, their nano xs units came to the market before the Intel NUC, even though the NUC is credited with kickstarting the UCFF trend. Starting with Ivy Bridge, Intel also began to experiment with Y series CPUs to bring the Core family to the fanless tablet market. Unfortunately, the impact of these SKUs in the tablet market has been minimal. However, Zotac has repurposed the Y series CPUs for the 'ZBOX C Passive Cooling Series' of mini-PCs. The ZBOX CI540 nano, equipped with a Core i5-4210Y, is currently the most powerful unit in the lineup. Read on to identify what Intel's Y series brings to the table for the mini-PC market.

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Today Samsung announced two new smartphones that fit into their portfolio of mid-range devices. They are the Galaxy A3 and A5. Normally there's not a lot to get excited about when it comes to the launch of mid-range phones, but there's something very unique about these two new phones from Samsung. Samsung has long been criticized for their primarily plastic construction on their phones and tablets. This was improved with the designs of the Galaxy Alpha and the Note 4 which sported a metal band that went around the edges of the device. The Galaxy A3 and A5 take this even further with full metal unibody designs, much like what HTC has been doing for quite some time now. Before getting into the design, I've laid out the specifications that Samsung has revealed in a chart below. Some of their listed specs like the CPU are unfortunately very vague.

	Galaxy A5	Galaxy A3
SoC	1.2GHz Quad Core	1.2GHz Quad Core
RAM/NAND	2 GB RAM, 16GB NAND + MicroSDHC	1GB RAM, 16GB NAND + MicroSDHC
Display	5.0" HD Super AMOLED	4.5” qHD Super AMOLED
Network	2G / 3G / 4G LTE (Category 4)	2G / 3G / 4G LTE (Category 4)
Dimensions	139.3 x 69.7 x 6.7mm, 123g	130.1 x 65.5 x 6.9mm, 110.3g
Camera	13MP Rear Camera, 5MP Front Camera	8MP Rear Camera, 5MP Front Camera
Battery	2300 mAh	1900 mAh
OS	Android 4.4 KitKat	Android 4.4 KitKat
Connectivity	802.11a/b/g/n + BT 4.0, USB2.0, GPS/GNSS, NFC	802.11b/g/n/ac + BT 4.0, USB2.0, GPS/GNSS, DLNA, NFC
SIM Size	NanoSIM	NanoSIM

As you can see, there's nothing too extraordinary with regards to the specifications. There's really no concrete way to determine if they use something like a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 part, or one of Samsung's own Exynos SoCs. Samsung has also not specified the exact resolution for the Galaxy A5, but based on its position in their lineup, and their past distinction between HD and Full HD Super AMOLED displays, it would make sense that the Galaxy A5 has a resolution of 1280x720. For connectivity both devices omit 802.11ac support, which is not surprising for devices in this segment of the market. Samsung is advertising their support for Cat4 LTE and Bluetooth 4.0.

The appeal of these phones is the design and materials. Both devices look similar to the Galaxy Alpha, with chamfered edges, flat sides, and a textured bezel surrounding the display. They both come in five colors, Champagne Gold, Light Blue, Pearl White, Midnight Black, Platinum Silver, and Soft Pink. Despite being budget devices, both the Galaxy A3 and A5 sport a metal unibody construction which is a major shift in Samsung's design for smartphones, and a shift that I never expected to see first made in Samsung's mid-range smartphones. It will definitely be interesting to see how this is extended to future flagship smartphones from Samsung.
Samsung hasn't stated the expected price for the Galaxy A3 and A5, and have only stated that it will be coming to select markets including China in November of this year.
Source: Samsung via Android Police

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Yesterday MSI announced their latest notebook addition, the GT80 Titan. I'm a bit unsure what to think of the notebook, but it's obviously unique in that it offers a SteelSeries keyboard with Cherry MX Brown switches. It also has a tweaked keyboard/palm rest area, somewhat reminiscent of the Acer R7 in that the keyboard is at the front…only now you have to throw in shades of Razer's Switchblade touchpad/UI as there's apparently a configurable touchpad/screen on the right of the keyboard.

I get the idea of doing a notebook with a mechanical keyboard, though obviously that will result in a thicker chassis. I'm not so sure about shifting the keyboard forward and turning the 10-key into a touchpad and getting rid of the palm rest. For actual gaming, most users will still use a dedicated mouse, but I for one like having a place to rest my palms when gaming (or just staring at the screen trying to think of what to type next), and with a notebook that will likely be a couple inches thick that's a bit of a problem.
As far as the remaining specifications go, MSI is not officially announcing the supported CPUs or GPUs, and the GT80 Titan isn't actually available for purchase yet. My bet is the GT80 Titan will support at least the GTX 980M, and given it's an 18-inch chassis it could very well include support for SLI 980M. Given the name, it's also possible the GT80 will support desktop components (e.g. GTX Titan GPUs), but that's less likely; a desktop CPU on the other hand is certainly a possibility. Hopefully the screen and other elements can keep pace with the high-end mechanical keyboard. You can follow MSI from the GT80 Titan's page to receive updates if you're interested in hearing more.

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Google's applications like Gmail, Camera, and Chrome are likely applications that came on your Android phone when you first purchased it. But unlike iOS where Apple has to ship an entire operating system update to update an application, Google's apps for Android can be updated right from Google Play. Google has been steadily updating their applications to take advantage of their new "Material Design" design principles that were shown off at Google I/O. With Android 5.0 Lollipop on the horizon, Google has to get the remaining applications up to date, and the latest application to recieve the new visual style is Gmail with its major update to version 5.0.

As you can see above, there's a lot of changes that come with the new Material Design interface. The most striking change is the the removal of the grey that was prevalent throughout the application. In the previous version, the color of an email preview changed to grey to indicate that the email had been read, while unread messages remained white. In the new design, the change between bolded or unbolded preview text indicates whether a message has been read. I personally find this to be much more aesthetically pleasing.
The header and status bar are now a nice moderately saturated red color that doesn't feel gaudy but brings more color into the interface. The circular button for composing a new email at the bottom also uses this red color. On the topic of circles, Google has begun to use circular contact photos throughout their applications, although in my case they just display the sender's first initial. If I had put in the effort to assign contact photos the new circles would display them where the squares previously did.

Google has also redesigned the navigation drawer that houses your different inbox labels, and settings. The grey has been changed to white, and the top displays your cover photo from Google+ which seems to be a message from Google that you're supposed to change it from the default rainbow thing.
The sliding drawer is a topic of debate right now because many applications implement it incorrectly, including many that are made by Google like the Hangouts application. Google's official guidelines state that the drawer is to slide in overtop of every other part of the interface except for the status bar. The new Gmail application implements this correctly, and I'm hopeful that every other Google application will be updated to adopt the proper design before Android Lollipop ships. It's very difficult to get developers to follow design guidelines when you don't set a good example with your own first party applications, and the navigation drawer in Hangouts has multiple issues with its design when compared to Google's guidelines.
The last big change in the application is the support for adding email accounts from other providers like Yahoo, iCloud Mail, Outlook, etc. Any email account that supports IMAP/POP or Exchange can be added. This is a great feature as it eliminates the need to have to add every non-Google email account to the standard Email application which isn't given as much attention as Google's own Gmail app.
Gmail 5.0 for Android is rolling out now, but like always there's a staggered rollout and it may take some time before your device notifies you that you can update the application from Google Play.

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Since Computex, there has been a lot of talk around Intel’s Broadwell-Y / Core-M CPU line. In August Intel treated us to a breakdown of the 14nm process and the Broadwell architecture including all the improvements therein, followed by a more succinct breakdown of the CPUs we should expect. These initial CPUs should be properly available to the public in Q4 in devices such as the Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro using the Core M-5Y70.
The news this week revolves around more Core M CPUs being pushed through the system. This is most likely as a result of Intel binning the CPUs in sufficient quantities to satisfy customers. The specifications are available at ark.intel.com, but the Core M line now stands at seven different SKUs:
[TR]
[TD="class: contentwhite, colspan: 8"]Intel Core M Specifications[/TD]
[/TR]
[TD] [/TD]
[TD="width: 10%"]5Y71

(New)

[/TD]
[TD="width: 10%"]5Y70[/TD]
[TD="width: 10%"]

5Y51

(New)

[/TD]


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For a few years now, Google has had a generally consistent tablet strategy. Instead of chasing after the ~10 inch tablet segment and focusing upon the high end, we’ve seen tablets closer to the ~7 inch display size at extremely low cost. While this has been an immensely successful strategy in driving hardware adoption, the formfactor made it possible for the tablet to be closer to a large phone than a small tablet. The flexibility of Android’s scaling system meant that an app designed for a phone worked acceptably well for a small tablet, even if the space efficiency was a bit poor. There’s no question that the Nexus 7 (2013) was and still is a great tablet, but even now it’s obvious that there’s a dearth of applications designed specifically for the larger display. The other issue is that of cost. With the Nexus 7 line, Google managed to integrate an incredible amount of hardware into a tablet priced well below the ~500 USD price point that the original iPad established. This is great for the consumer and no doubt great for Google, but the Nexus 7 line was good enough that there wasn’t much in the way of competition.
This brings us to the Nexus 9, Google’s attempt at changing the Android tablet space. From the start, this device seems to be intent on pushing the Android tablet to a more premium segment. To find out how Google does at this task, read on for our preliminary findings.

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Back in late September, Acer announced a new line of laptops, the V Nitro Black Edition of their popular V series. The V series in many ways is the replacement for the earlier TimelineX models, but with a bit more punch thanks to the higher performance CPUs and GPUs. All of the V Nitro Black Edition laptops currently come with Core i7-4710HQ processors and GTX 860M graphics, which is generally sufficient for gaming (perhaps with a few dials turned down a notch or two) or any other work you might need to do. The Nitro Black Edition is Acer's current "mainstream high performance" laptop brand, and the overall design and build quality looks pretty good.
There are currently two V Nitro Black chassis, the V15 and V17 (15.6" and 17.3" displays, respectively), with pricing ranging from $1090 for the base model V15 (no SSD on that one) up to $1300 for the V15 with a 256GB SSD and 1TB HDD, or $1400 for the V17 with 256GB SSD and 1TB HDD. Right now, prices on Amazon are a bit higher than elsewhere, but that can change at a moment's notice so shop around. Today Acer has added another configuration for the V15, a $1500 model with 256GB SSD like the $1300 model, but now with a 4K UHD (3840x2160) display.
The V15 UHD laptop has an IPS display and is currently up for pre-order on Newegg with shipping slated for the end of the month. All Full HD V Nitro Black Acer laptops also use IPS displays, and they include a complimentary code for Assassin's Creed Unity (scheduled to ship November 11, if you're wondering), so that's a $50 value if you were planning on buying the game. Unfortunately, the new UHD model doesn't appear to include the free game. Full specs for the UHD V15 Nitro Black Edition are below.

Acer V15 Series VN7-591G-70JY Specificaiotns
Display Size	15.6-inch
Display Resolution	Ultra HD (3840 x 2160) IPS
Processor	Intel Core i7-4710HQ (Quad-core 2.5-3.5GHz)
Graphics	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M (2GB GDDR5)
Memory	16GB DDR3 dual channel memory
SSD / HD	256GB solid state drive 1TB hard drive
Optical Drive	n/a
Keyboard	Backlit; full size with dedicated numeric keypad
Audio	Four speakers with Dolby audio enhancements
Interfaces/Ports	3x USB 3.0 1x HDMI w/HDCP support Ethernet (RJ-45) Headphone/speaker/ line-out jack AC adapter Kensington lock slot
Battery	3-cell Li-Ion (4605 mAh); up to 4 hours
Communication	802.11a/b/g/n (dual band 2.4GHz/5GHz) Bluetooth 4.0 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN (RJ-45 port)
Card Reader	Secure Digital (SD)
Webcam	HD (1280 x 720)
O/S	Windows 8.1
Weight	5.29 lbs (2.4kg)
Dimensions	15.34” x 10.14” x .94” (WxDxH) (390mm x 257.5mm x 23.9mm)
MSRP	$1,500

Of course there is one potential problem with using a 4K display in this sort of laptop: there's no way the GTX 860M is going to handle most games at 3840x2160, at least not without turning down most of the quality settings. There are still scaling issues as well (e.g. I've seen at least a couple recent games where things break if Windows isn't set to 100% scaling). My opinion continues to be that while High DPI displays can look great, they're not without caveats.
Gallery: Acer Announces UHD V Nitro Black Edition Laptop

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