The lineup of Asus Strix graphics cards, in addition to GeForce GTX 780 model, has been replenished with one more representative – the Radeon R9 280 Strix OC Edition (codename: Strix-R9280-OC-3GD5). The heart of the card is AMD Radeon R9 280 GPU (Tahiti PRO) with overclocked clock frequencies. Hence, the GPU index has been increased from etalon 933 MHz (overclocked) to 980 MHz. This provides for even more striking performance on gaming and overclocking cessions.



The graphics card is equipped with 3 GB of GDDR5 memory featuring 384-bit rail. Its frequency has also been increased, demonstrating 1300 MHz at the start and reaching 5200 MHz at the toughest loading. The model boasts a rich set of video interfaces, including one HDMI, one DisplayPort, and a pair of DVI ports. This ensures the creation of multi-screen configurations.


The integrated PCB employs an improved Super Alloy Power hardware base, as well as a 10-phase Digi+ VRM system. Cooling is ascribed to DirectCU II …

During the CES 2018 event Kingston demonstrated the Kingston A1000 SSDs of the 22 × 80 mm size. The devices may seem rather massive at first sight, however, they may be installed into most systems with the M.2 Key M interface.

 

A1000 is not expected to be very cheap, though it will be affordable for a major part of customers. Kingston developers tried to save on A1000 components for their products to be sold well. The novelties feature the PCI Express 3.0 x2 interface, the 3D TLC NAND flash memory and a controller unnamed. Besides, the NVMe 1.3 support is declared.

 

According to the Iometer app testing, IOPS equals 190 286 (read) and 202 151 (write). The A1000 Sequential read/write speeds overcome analogous SATA SSD rates: the top 960 GB drive has the 1,623 MBps read speed and the 1,040 MBps write speed. The best SSDs, equipped with the SATA 6 Gbps interface, show lower velocities, not coming up to 600 MBps.

 

The Kingston …

Power Color has just unveiled a pair of video cards which belong to Radeon RX Vega Red Devil family. The Radeon RX Vega 64 Red Devil & the Radeon RX Vega 56 Red Devil models are based on custom PCBs and enforced by 1.5-mm metallic amplified plates on the reverse.



Both new-comers are differentiated by industrial overclocking of graphics cores. The first unit offers 1417/1607 MHz frequency, having in store 4096 stream processors, whereas the second unit employs 3584 stream processors, running at 1526 MHz frequency during overclocking. The couple is equipped with 8 GB HBM2 video memory (2048-bit) that operates at 1890 MHz and 1600 MHz frequency respectively.


The Red Devil graphics cards feature a pair of 8-pin connectors; the recommended by the manufacturer compatible power supply unit must be of 750 W efficiency at the least. Cooling is entitled to a voluminous heatsink with a pair of 8-mm and four 6-mm heat pipes; the construction is replenished by three 90-mm fans, …