AMD is allegedly preparing to introduce several new graphics cards that will fit into the Radeon HD 6000 series, unnamed sources have told DigiTimes. The series is said to be expanding with three new model numbers: 6670, 6570 and 6450. As the numbering suggests, the cards will serve to bolster the entry-level and midrange side of the series.
NVIDIA appears to be handling the production process for some of its own graphics cards, which have been spotted at Best Buy locations. The new offerings mark a changing strategy for the company, as previous cards were assembled by partner companies using NVIDIA chips.
At the Complex 2008 show yesterday, ASUS revealed its Xonar HDAV1.3 HDMI-ready sound card. ASUS says the HDMI1.3a-compliant card is the first of its kind in the industry to offer advanced audio and HD video capabilities for PCs. The card will give desktop PC users without high-end CPUs or graphics cards the option to watch Blu-ray movies in their full 1080p DTV or UXGA (1600x1200) PC resolution, as it features a PCI Express x1 interface. The company's own AV200 codec chip featuring 24-bit digital-to-analog and analog-to-digital converters is responsible for the high resolution levels.
NVIDIA plans on refreshing its GPU line-up next month with two new graphics card that will feature its next-generation CUDA-enabled graphics core, codenamed D10U. The company is expected to deliver both the GeForce GTX 260 (D10U-20) and GeForce GTX 280 (D10U-30) on June 18th as part of its summer refresh, according to DailyTech. The report claims that the GTX 260 will be a "significantly" scaled down version of the GTX 280, which will enable all 240 unified stream processors designed into the processor. These second-generation unified shaders perform 50 percent better than the shaders than its previous-generation offering, the company claims in its documentation; however, the new NVIDIA cards will only support GDDR3 memory and DirectX 10, while AMD focuses on faster GDDR5-based cards due early this summer.
