With the release of AMD’s Radeon HD 7970 it’s clear that AMD has once again regained the single-GPU performance crown. But while the 7970’s place in the current GPU hierarchy is well established, we’re still trying to better understand the ins and outs of AMD’s new Graphics Core Next Architecture. What does it perform well at and what is it weak at? How might GCN scale with future GPUs? Etc.

Next week we’ll be taking a look at CrossFire performance and the performance of AMD’s first driver update. But in the meantime we wanted to examine a few other facets of the 7970: the impact of PCIe bandwidth on performance, overclocking our reference 7970 (and the performance impact thereof), and what AMD is doing for anti-aliasing with the surprise addition of SSAA for DX10+ along with an interesting technical demo implementing MSAA and complex lighting side-by-side. So let’s get started.

The basic building block of Bulldozer is the dual-core module, pictured below. AMD wanted better performance than simple SMT (ala Hyper Threading) would allow but without resorting to full duplication of resources we get in a traditional dual core CPU. The result is a duplication of integer execution resources and L1 caches, but a sharing of the front end and FPU. AMD still refers to this module as being dual-core, although it's a departure from the more traditional definition of the word. In the early days of multi-core x86 processors, dual-core designs were simply two single core processors stuck on the same package. Today we still see simple duplication of identical cores in a single processor, but moving forward it's likely that we'll see more heterogenous multi-core systems. AMD's Bulldozer architecture may be unusual, but it challenges the conventional definition of a core in a way that we're probably going to face one way or another in the not too distant future.

A four-module, eight-core Bulldozer

The bigger issue with Bulldozer isn't one of core semantics, but rather how threads get scheduled on those cores. Ideally, threads with shared data sets would get scheduled on the same module, while threads that share no data would be scheduled on separate modules. The former allows more efficient use of a module's L2 cache, while the latter guarantees each thread has access to all of a module's resources when there's no tangible benefit to sharing.

This ideal scenario isn't how threads are scheduled on Bulldozer today. Instead of intelligent core/module scheduling based on the memory addresses touched by a thread, Windows 7 currently just schedules threads on Bulldozer in order. Starting from core 0 and going up to core 7 in an eight-core FX-8150, Windows 7 will schedule two threads on the first module, then move to the next module, etc... If the threads happen to be working on the same data, then Windows 7's scheduling approach makes sense. If the threads scheduled are working on different data sets however, Windows 7's current treatment of Bulldozer is suboptimal.

AMD and Microsoft have been working on a patch to Windows 7 that improves scheduling behavior on Bulldozer. The result are two hotfixes that should both be installed on Bulldozer systems. Read on for our take on what these hotfixes do to Bulldozer's Windows 7 performance.

NZXT is a well known provider of "eye-catching" cases and peripherals, but like many other brands they offer power supplies as well. These include the HALE90 series, their first 80 Plus Gold product to hit the market. While the HALE90 targets the high-end audience, NZXT also wants to cater to midrange users, and for that market they have their new HALE82 series that covers wattages from 650W to 850W. The rated output makes these models good for high-end single GPUs as well as moderate SLI and CrossFire systems. Features such as 80 Plus Bronze certification and modular cables are common these days, but such features say little about how good a PSU really is. Today, we're testing the 650W and 750W models, with our usual results on the following pages.

As enthusiasts and professionals we spend a lot of time checking out what's under the hood of the computers and devices we use, but thankfully more and more we're paying attention to how we actually interact with hardware, what the user experience is like. User experience has been a major selling point of Apple's products, but there's one place where even Apple has been a bit neglectful: the keyboard. On notebooks your options are limited, but on the desktop you have access to mechanical keyboards. Today we'll take a quick look at Rosewill's RK-9000 mechanical keyboard and see if it's worth the price premium.

Pulse-Eight is one of the commercial vendors tracing their roots to XBMC. Boxee is another company with XBMC roots, but, unlike Boxee, Pulse-Eight concentrates more on the hardware aspects.  The PulseBox, a Brazos based HTPC, is one of their products, but they also have a number of other HTPC accessories like Bluetooth mini-keyboards and RF remotes in their catalog. However, their most interesting product is the USB CEC Adapter. Almost none of the GPUs in the market have CEC functionality embedded, and this makes them quite unfriendly for integration in a home theater with a single remote control.

The USB CEC adapter from Pulse-Eight aims at solving this issue. As long as you have a TV or receiver compatible with HDMI CEC, you can use that remote to control XBMC on your HTPC, or, with software support, also be able to control other applications. What exactly is CEC and how does it work? What is inside the Pulse-Eight's USB CEC adapter, and how does one get it up and running with XBMC Eden? Can the USB CEC adapter be built into future HTPCs? Read on to find out the answers.

While flagship enclosures are certainly interesting and there are some great deals to be had even just north of $100, competition south of that border is mighty fierce and only becomes more so as manufacturers refresh their lineups with the latest trends and advances in chassis design. We've seen a lot of great options for end users looking to save some scratch, but we haven't had a chance to see what Antec can do in this market...until now. Antec is launching their new Three Hundred Two chassis, and if you're an enthusiast on a budget looking for the best cooling you can get without spending up for it, this may be the case for you.

When you pay more for a product, you expect a better level of everything - performance, features, support.  In a motherboard, I'd want all the upgrades - top line audio, overclockability, superior software, better USB 3.0 / SATA 6 Gbps controllers, and so on.  The ASRock X79 Extreme9's party piece is the bundled 'Game Blaster' - a PCIe x1 card with Creative Sound Core3D Audio powered by a quad core audio processor and an additional Broadcom Gigabit LAN port.  All in at $360 MSRP, today we review the Extreme9 to see if it fits into the enthusiast of enthusiast price segments.  Read on for the full review.

The Cooler Master Cosmos is more or less legendary among top-of-the-line enclosures. It's not hard to see why, either: it's big, it has loads of expansion, and it looks like a giant refrigerator...for your computer. That said, some time has passed since the Cosmos originally landed with very little in the way of updates. Today, Cooler Master brings us the long-awaited update, the Cosmos II. With a $349 MSRP and a shipping weight of nearly fifty pounds, this enclosure is oversized in every way. Will it retain the cachet of its predecessors, though, or have advances in the computing market since the era of the original Cosmos left the Cosmos II a shiny relic of a bygone era?

Llano is still selling strong for AMD, as shown by the relatively recent reports of representing a major aspect of their CPU profit margins. Building on our Llano and A75 review base, ASUS gave us the opportunity to look at their F1A75-M Pro motherboard - e-tailing at the time of writing for around $110.  Here at AnandTech we have reviewed other offerings from ASUS in A75, in full ATX from the F1A75-V Pro, and the mini-ITX F1A75-I Deluxe.  This time, it's the turn of micro-ATX.  Read on for the full review!

Recently Taiwanese vendor GeChic got in touch with us about a new product set to appear on American shores, the On-Lap 1301 laptop monitor. The concept? A portable 13" screen that affixes to the back of your notebook lid and swings out, extending your desktop space and powered by a USB 2.0 cable. The first inclination is to expect another DisplayLink peripheral, but the On-Lap 1301 actually uses the HDMI or VGA out of your notebook and thus dodges all of the pitfalls of using a USB-driven screen. So how effective is the On-Lap 1301? We took it for a test drive to find out if GeChic's screen is the productivity enhancer you were looking for.

The evolution of Google’s Nexus line is an interesting one. Each year, Google chooses both a silicon partner and an OEM to make a unique hardware archetype which it caters a specific build of Android to. We've been playing with the latest Nexus - Android 4.0 on both the GSM/UMTS and CDMA/LTE Galaxy Nexus - for a while now and have put together a comprehensive review of all three. First, our thoughts on Ice Cream Sandwich and Android 4.0, and after that, a review of both devices. 

Read on for the full review. 

CES is all wrapped up and everyone is back home, and one of the questions I’ve been asked repeatedly by friends and family is, “What was the coolest thing you saw at CES this year?” Now, keep in mind that I am only one person and I didn’t even see a fraction of the show floor, as there were plenty of meetings set up around Vegas, so this is just my perspective on the coolest technology trends at the show. You’ll also notice that there’s a common thread in what really impressed me, but this is a highly subjective topic so take it for what it’s worth: one man’s opinion. What three things impressed me most at CES this year? Read on to find out.

Over the past 12 months I have covered a number of ECS boards, from the Sandy Bridge and Fusion range, including one with a Hydra chip.  Looking back on those, there was a distinct running theme – a willingness to offer the consumer perhaps something different. My tour of the ECS headquarters back in June, and a Q&A session with an ECS VP, gave credence to ECS pushing more into the consumer market rather than their roots in OEM.  X79 was a focus for this, and today we are seeing the fruits of that perseverance, in the X79R-AX (Black Extreme) motherboard.  Read on for the full review!

Tomorrow will be our last day at CES but we've still got a lot more to cover. If you haven't been following our extensive coverage on Pipeline, I've grouped our CES coverage below for easy reading:

CPUs & GPUs

- Intel Sort of Demonstrates Ivy Bridge Graphics at CES 2012
- AMD Radeon HD 7970 Launch Recap
- Intel Confirms Working DX11 on Ivy Bridge
- Sapphire Shows Off Vid 2X, Motherboards, etc.
- Gigabyte's 7-Series Ivy Bridge Motherboards at CES
- Intel's DX11 Demo, Now on an Ultrabook
- AMD's Trinity APU at CES, Shipping in Mid-2012
- AMD's Lightning Bolt: Low Cost Thunderbolt Alternative for USB 3.0/DP

Cases & PSUs

- SilverStone Continues to Shake Things Up
- EVGA Plans to Enter the PSU Market with the NEX PSU
- Zalman Updates the CNPS Line, Shows Off Cases
- Checking in with the Boutiques
- Corsair Continues to Expand
- Cooler Master and Thermaltake Continue to Expand

SoCs

- Lenovo At CES: Android TV and First Krait Tablet
- FXI Cotton Candy Demo: More Power than You Can Shake a (Thumb) Stick at
- AppliedMicro's Catalina: Integrated USB 3.0 and 802.11ac Support for NAS Platforms
- Qualcomm Announces Snapdragon S4 Member MPQ8064, new Atheros WiFi and Powerline Chipsets
- Ambarella Shows off iOne SoC Applications, Wireless Camera Development Kit
- TI Shows Off OMAP 5 & ARM Cortex A15 at CES

Smartphones

- Huawei Announces Ascend P1 S with 6.68mm thickness
- Live at the AT&T Developer Conference Keynote
- ION Audio Expands iCade Lineup with iCade Core, iCade Mobile, and iCade Jr.
- Samsung Galaxy Note Joining AT&T's Stables
- AT&T and HTC Announce HTC Titan II with 16 MP Camera
- Motorola Announces Droid 4 with LTE, RAZR MAXX
- Verizon Announces Jetpack - Two new LTE-enabled WiFi Hotspots
- Apple releases iOS 5.1 Beta 3 - Updates Baseband Again, 3G Toggle is Back
- Nokia Announces Lumia 900 with AT&T LTE
- Intel Announces its First Medfield Smartphone Partner at CES 2012 - Lenovo K800
- Intel Announces its Second Smartphone Platform Partner - Motorola
- Hands-on with the Sprint Galaxy Nexus LTE
- Motorola Droid 4 Early Test Data Confirms RAZR Internals and Software
- More Shots of the HTC Titan II & Nokia Lumia 900
- Motorola Droid RAZR MAXX, Droid 4, and Lapdock 500 Pro Impressions

Tablets

- ASUS' Transformer Prime TF700T: Improves Wireless, Adds 1920 x 1200 Panel, Available in Q2
- Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 LTE Headed to Verizon Wireless
- Eee Pad Transformer Prime TF700T: Hands On with ASUS' 1920 x 1200 Tablet running ICS 4.0.3
- CES 2012 Nvidia Press Conference
- Lenovo IdeaTabs Shown Off with Krait, Tegra 3, and Atom
- Hands-on with the Galaxy Tab 7.7 LTE and Galaxy Note
- More Lenovo Krait Tablet Details: $399 Price Target
- Transformer Prime Gets 4.0.3 (ICS) Update
- NVIDIA Tegra 3: Games Plus SplashTop Streaming of Skyrim
- Sneak Peek at Future Toshiba Tablets
- TI Wireless Charging - New Chipsets and 10W charging for Tablets
- Updated: ASUS Eee Pad MeMO ME370T Shipping in Q2 2012

Ultrabooks, Notebooks & Netbooks

- Acer Unveils the Thinnest Ultrabook, a 15" Ultrabook, a 1080p Tablet and AcerCloud
- Intel's Functional Nikiski Concept PC: Transparent Touchpad Doubles as a Screen Window
- ASUS Zenbook UX Series, Now in Pink
- ASUS Eee PC Flare 1205C/1205CE, X101CH, and 1225B
- Lenovo ThinkPads at CES
- Hands-on with the Samsung Series 9
- Dell Launches XPS 13 Ultrabook
- Intel Shows off Thunderbolt, AppUp on Ivy Bridge Ultrabook Reference Design
- Acer’s Upcoming Laptops: S5 Ultrabook with IVB, TB, and a Motor
- HP Announces ENVY 14 Spectre Ultrabook
- Lenovo’s IdeaPad Yoga 13 with Windows 8: This Is the Ultrabook We Want
- Hands on with HP's Envy 14 Spectre, Envy 15, and Folio

SSDs & Storage

- OWC Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G 480GB SSD Upgrade for MacBook Air
- OCZ's Indilinx Everest 2 Launching in June 2012, Features Vastly Improved Random Performance
- OCZ's 4TB 3.5" Chiron SSD
- OCZ Z-Drive R4 CloudServ (RM1616) Features Sixteen SandForce Controllers
- OCZ Scores an Ultrabook Design Win for Everest: LG Super Ultrabook Z300
- HighPoint Aggressively Pursuing Consumer Market
- Patriot SSDs, Flash, and Large Memory Applications
- Mushkin's 1.8", mSATA & PCIe SF-2281 SSDs at CES
- Patriot’s Portable Cloud Storage and Media Streamers
- Crucial 50GB Adrenaline SSD Cache, Available in Q1
- CES: Seagate Combines 500GB Portable Drive With Mobile Hotspot in Proof of Concept
- Synology's DSM 4.0 with CloudStation : A Private Dropbox Solution
- QNAP at CES : SMB Lineup Refresh and a 200TB+ SAS Storage Rack
- Dune HD Pro : A Premium Entertainment System using the Sigma Designs SMP8910
- Some Thoughts on SandForce's 3rd Generation SSD Controller
- Super Talent: Demos PCIe-based RAIDDrive upStream and RAIDDrive II SSDs

Thunderbolt

- LaCie at CES: 2big & eSATA Thunderbolt Hubs
- OCZ's Portable Thunderbolt SSD: Lightfoot
- Elgato's Thunderbolt SSD: Bus Powered, 120/240GB, Available in February
- MSI's Z77 Ivy Bridge Motherboards at CES, Now With Thunderbolt Support
- MSI's GUS II: External GPU via Thunderbolt
- Seagate's GoFlex Thunderbolt Adapters
- Belkin Brings Home Automation, TV and Thunderbolt Solutions to CES
- Cactus Ridge: Understanding the New, More Affordable Thunderbolt Controller
- The First Thunderbolt Speed Bump: Likely in 2014

HTPC

- Zotac's Cedar Trail ZBOX ID80 Uses Discrete GPU
- Zotac's ZBOX AD04 Gives HTPC Users an AMD E-450 APU

Networking

- Dropcam HD: Cloud Based Home Surveillance Goes Mainstream in 720p
- D-Link at CES : Cloud-Friendly Routers and IP Cameras
- 802.11ac RF Hands-On with Buffalo AirStation WZR-1750H
- j5Create Wormhole Switch Brings KVM and File Sharing Across Mobile and Desktop

Displays

- ASUS' VA278Q: 27-inch 2560 x 1440 IPS Display Due Out This Year
- Canonical Brings Ubuntu To Televisions

Input Devices

Art Lebedev Studios Expands Optimus Line

It's here. Intel's first smartphone SoC that you'll actually be able to buy in a device before the end of the year. The platform is called Medfield and Paul Otellini just announced its first device partners.

Medfield starts out as a bonafide mobile SoC. Whereas Moorestown was a "two-chip" solution, Medfield is just one - the Penwell SoC:

Read on for our introduction to Intel's first real smartphone SoC.

Traditionally the launch of a next-generation high-end video card has been a staggered process. In the name of getting cards out as soon as possible the first cards are almost always reference cards coming preassembled straight from AMD or NVIDIA, which are then touched up in the livery of their partners before being boxed and sold. Only later on – particularly when there’s a solid supply of GPUs – can partners acquire individual parts and put together their custom designs.

But as it’s turning out the Radeon HD 7970 isn’t going to be a traditional launch. In a rare move AMD has loosened the leash on their partners just a bit, and as a result we’re seeing semi-custom cards planned for launch earlier than usual. XFX looks to be the first partner to take advantage of this more liberal policy, as alongside the reference cards being launched today they’re launching their first semi-custom 7970s

.

Testing computer hardware can be a difficult process. On the one hand there’s a desire for more information and benchmarks, and on the other hand there’s a desire for timely reviews. Our goal at AnandTech has always been to deliver the most comprehensive reviews possible, and while we strive to timeliness there are occasions where additional testing or questions may delay a review. Ultimately, there’s a balancing act that needs to be maintained, and over time we periodically refresh our review suite and testing methodologies.

With 2012 now here, we’re launching a new suite of benchmarks for our laptop reviews. Some of the tests have already been in use for a while and others are brand new. In order to provide a single location with a list of our benchmarks and testing procedures, we have put together this short overview. We plan on using the following test suite throughout 2012, and while it’s possible we will add some benchmarks, we don’t have any plans to stop using any of the following at least for the next year.

Yesterday we took a look at the flagship of Nokia’s Lumia series - the Lumia 800. Today we’re looking at its younger and more entry-level sibling, the Lumia 710. Though the specs are lighter weight and the device isn’t a flagship, Nokia’s expectations for the device are no less high then they were for the Lumia 800, and there’s a lot riding on the 710.

Read on for our full review of the Lumia 710.