Graphics card overclocking record broken -- rig looks like a sci-fi movie set

Indonesian PC wizard Hazzan has broken the world record for overclocking PC graphics cards. But how do you even measure such a thing?

The scene uses the scores handed out by benchmark tool 3DMark 11, and Hazzan's 4-way SLI GTX 680 setup registered a score of P33190, which beat the previous mark by 39 points.

To reach the score, as you can see in the pics, Hazzan had to do what a lot of these serious guys have to do: namely, stand over his PC with an open bottle of liquid nitrogen and keep pouring some in every few minutes so the entire rig doesn't burst into flames. According to EXP, his entire rig reads as follows:

The platform included Core i7-3930K processor (oc'ed to 5784MHz), 8GB quad-channel GSkill DDR3 memory (oc'ed to 2480MHz), Antec High Current Pro 1200W power supply, ASUS Rampage IV Extreme mobo and ASUS GTX 680 DirectCU II graphics card，the CPU and graphics adopted liquid nitrogen cooling.

Hazzan broke the record over the weekend at the ROG Absolute Zero Extreme OC event, where some of the most insane pictures of personal computers I have ever seen were taken.

Nvidia's GeForce 304.48 beta offers up to 18% more performance

Nvidia has released new beta drivers offering GeForce 400, 500 and 600 series owners up to 18% more performance depending on the title and settings. In a blog post, Nvidia published some of its own tests in which the GTX 680 saw a 17.6% boost over last month's 301.42 WHQL release in Batman: Arkham City, 12.4% in Dragon Age 2, 9.8% in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat and 4% in Lost Planet 2 when running the games on high or max settings. A 5.8% to 15% bump was recorded with a second GTX 680 in SLI.

As a second example, Nvidia shared the GTX 560's results when shifting to the beta drivers, including 14% more performance in Arkham City, 6.7% in Lost Plane 2 and 5.5% in Dragon Age 2. When paired with another GTX 560, the combo delivers 11.9% more frames in Arkham City, 5.2% in Battlefield 3, 6.1% in Dragon Age 2, 4% in Lost Planet 2, 5.3% in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat and 7.9% in The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. Nvidia's article provides more information about how each game was configured.

The beta release also fixes a bug in Shogun 2: Total War that reduced frame rates by up to 60%, another that caused intermittent vsync stuttering with GTX 600 series cards as well as a bug that prevented some overclocked cards from running at their higher clocks. Nvidia has also added or improved a handful of new SLI and 3D Vision profiles for games including Torchlight II, Tribes: Ascend, F1 2011, Planetside 2, Borderlands 2, Mass Effect 3, Max Payne 3, Street Fighter X Tekken, and The Walking Dead.

Download GeForce 304.48 Beta (release notes -- read the download pages, no PDF available)

Desktop: Windows Vista/7 32-bit | Windows Vista/7 64-bit

Mobile: Windows Vista/7 32-bit | Windows Vista/7 64-bit

Download GeForce 302.80 WHQL (release notes)

Desktop: Windows 8 32-bit | Windows 8 64-bit

Mobile: Windows 8 32-bit | Windows 8 64-bit

Download GeForce 301.42 WHQL (release notes)

Desktop: Windows XP 32-bit | Windows XP 64-bit | Windows Vista/7 32-bit | Windows Vista/7 64-bit

Mobile: Windows Vista/7 32-bit | Windows Vista/7 64-bit

Meanwhile, Diablo III, L.A. Noire, Rayman Origins, and The Secret World have gained antialiasing support in the Nvidia Control Panel, and Star Wars: The Old Republic's ambient occlusion can be set in the Nvidia Control Panel. FXAA, Nvidia's antialiasing solution, has been disabled in Windows programs like Media Player and Movie Maker. Although FXAA has been well-received, its effects were being applied to Windows applications when set to run globally, making text difficult or impossible to read.

AMD releases Catalyst 11.12 WHQL, 12.1 preview drivers

AMD has graced Radeon owners with two driver updates today: one with Microsoft's blessings and another for the venturesome among us. The WHQL-certified Catalyst 11.12 drivers introduce a bevy of changes, including OpenGL 4.2 support, the ability to enable AMD HD3D when using a 3x1 Landscape Eyefinity configuration, and improved Dual Graphics controls in the Vision Engine Control Center.

Judging by the release notes, 11.12 doesn't contain the speed boosts found in the 11.11c preview driver. There are a ton of bug fixes, however. Graphical anomalies and other hiccups are resolved in Dirt 2, Dirt 3, Portal 2, Shogun 2: Total War, Lost Planet 2, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky, Tom Clancy's EndWar, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, Doom 3, Crysis 2, Far Cry 2, Dragon Age 2, Homefront, Metro 2033, BioShock 2 and more.

Download Catalyst 11.12
Desktop: Windows XP 32-bit | Windows XP 64-bit | Windows Vista/7 32-bit | Windows Vista/7 64-bit
Mobile: Windows Vista/7 32-bit | Windows Vista/7 64-bit

Download Catalyst 12.1 Preview
Desktop: Windows XP 32/64-bit | Windows Vista/7 32/64-bit

If you want all the performance optimizations, features and bug fixes in Catalyst 11.11c and 11.12, you'll need the 12.1 preview release. In fact, AMD specifically recommends this version for gamers, who would otherwise be missing out. Not only does it contain all of the desired changes, but it offers a few additional perks, including an additional 10-15% speed boost in Skyrim for certain HD 6900-series configurations. Version 12.1 also delivers:

• Support for 1080p@30Hz displays via HD3D over HDMI 1.4 (up from 24Hz)
• Improved UI for adjusting video quality and color settings in the control panel
• A new control panel feature that lets you create application-specific profiles

AMD: DirectX "getting in the way" of PC gaming graphics

AMD believes there is a lack of a great disparity between PC gaming graphics and console gaming graphics, despite the huge advantage the PC has over consoles in terms of hardware. Despite the hardware giant's great relationship with Microsoft, Richard Huddy, AMD's worldwide developer relations manager of the company's GPU division, blames the software giant.

"It's funny," Huddy told bit-tech. "We often have at least ten times as much horsepower as an Xbox 360 or a PS3 in a high-end graphics card, yet it's very clear that the games don't look ten times as good. To a significant extent, that's because, one way or another, for good reasons and bad - mostly good, DirectX is getting in the way.' Huddy says that one of the most common requests he gets from game developers is to "make the API go away."

This quote comes hot on the heels of a related statement from id Software co-founder John Carmack. While Huddy offers one perspective from the hardware side of things, and says that game developers agree with him, Carmack recently gave a different opinion from the game development angle. Despite being an OpenGL house, he stated that DirectX is a better API than OpenGL.

While Huddy said nothing about OpenGL, he clearly has not talked to Carmack. "I certainly hear this in my conversations with games developers, and I guess it was actually the primary appeal of Larrabee to developers – not the hardware, which was hot and slow and unimpressive, but the software – being able to have total control over the machine, which is what the very best games developers want," Huddy said. "By giving you access to the hardware at the very low level, you give games developers a chance to innovate, and that's going to put pressure on Microsoft – no doubt at all. Wrapping it up in a software layer gives you safety and security but it unfortunately tends to rob you of quite a lot of the performance, and most importantly it robs you of the opportunity to innovate."

AMD's 28nm mobile graphics roadmap leaked Radeon HD 7000M

DonanimHaber has published a presentation slide that outlines AMD's mobile GPU roadmap for the next year. The company launched its 40nm Radeon HD 6000M chips (codenamed Seymour, Whistler and Blackcomb) last November, and that lineup will remain in play until later this year and early next year as AMD ramps up production and distribution of its next-gen mobile graphics.

The Radeon HD 7000M will be manufactured on a 28nm process and features four GPUs: Thames, Chelsea, Heathrow and Wimbledon (least to most powerful). Slated for release in November 2011, Thames will have a slightly higher TDP of 15-25W than Seymour (6400M) and it pack twice the performance, which is partially thanks to a 128-bit memory interface (up from 64-bit).

AMD appears to be blurring the lines between its mainstream and performance segments. Chelsea will operate in the 20-30W range and also features a 128-bit bus. Nonetheless, it should bring a 30% speed increase over existing Whistler products (6600M/6700M). It's also due in the last quarter of this year, presumably alongside if not soon after the arrival of Thames-based chips.

AMD is preparing two enthusiast GPUs representing different thermal levels. Heathrow will have a TDP above 35W and will be offered in 128-bit/192-bit variants with 1.5GB/3GB of VRAM. Meanwhile, Wimbledon will represent the series flagship, featuring a 256-bit interface and a 65W TDP. Heathrow should land this year while Wimbledon is coming in the second quarter of 2012.

In other company news, AMD has announced an initiative dubbed "Project Mjölnir" that focuses on "increasing performance and providing improved stability of the AMD Catalyst software." To kick things off, the company released a Catalyst 11.4 preview that brings various enhancements, features and bug fixes. You can download the update here and read the highlights below:

• Delivers performance enhancements for the AMD Radeon HD 6000 Series & Windows 7.
  • Up to 70% performance improvement in Civilization V
  • Up to 49% performance improvement in Call of Duty: Black Ops
  • Up to 23% performance improvement in F1 2010
  • Up to 21% performance improvement in Wolfenstein MP
  • Up to 15% performance improvement in Tom Clancy's HAWX
  • Up to 17% performance improvement in STALKER: Call of Pripyat
  • Up to 28% performance improvement in metro2033
  • Up to 33% performance improvement in Left 4 Dead 2
  • Up to 26% performance improvement in FarCry 2
  • Up to 15% performance improvement in Crysis Warhead
  • Up to 50% performance improvement in Unigine Heaven
  • Up to 22% performance improvement in Batman: Arkham Asylum
  • Up to 19% performance improvement in Aliens Vs. Predator
• Includes enhancements to the AMD Catalyst Control Center
  • New task based Display Management controls
    • Simplifies the configuration of displays and display setting
  • New Eyefinity setup group
    • Setting up an Eyefinity group has never been easier
  • New branding (based on system configuration)
    • AMD based platform – AMD VISION Engine Control Center
    • Discrete AMD GPU with Intel CPU – AMD Catalyst Control Center
  • AMD Catalyst update notification (found within the Information Center)
    • Please note this functionality is not yet enabled, but will be in a future AMD Catalyst release
    • This feature will be used to notify users that new AMD Catalyst software packages are available
• Includes fixes where Dragon Age 2 would hang in DirectX11 on ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series products.
• Includes fixes where MediaEspresso 6.5 and 6.0 may crash while initializing