Tech-it-On

AMD has launched their new 5800 series of graphic cards called the Evergreen series and one of their first two models are out - the HD5850 and HD5870.

All graphic cards starting with the HD5xxx are part of this new evergreen family which is based on the 40 nanometer fabrication technology and has support for the new DirectX 11. The HD5870 is the fastest single-GPU graphics card available, the HD5850 on the other hand is slower but with lesser power consumption, cheaper and yet a powerful graphics. The detailed specifications and review links can be seen below.

HD5850 Specifications:
RAM Size: 1024MB GDDR5
Memory bus size: 256bit
GPU frequency: 725Mhz
Memory frequency: 1000Mhz
Stream Processors: 1440
TDP (Max): 151W
DirectX Support: Version 11
Price: $299

HD5870 Specifications:
RAM Size: 1024MB GDDR5
Memory bus size: 256bit
GPU frequency: 850Mhz
Memory frequency: 1200Mhz
Stream Processors: 1600
TDP (Max): 188W
DirectX Support: Version 11
Price: $399

Links to Review Sites:
Guru3D - Radeon HD 5870 Review
OverClockersClub - Sapphire HD 5870 Review
TechSpot - ATI Radeon HD 5870 Review
HardwareCanucks - Sapphire Radeon HD 5870 1GB GDDR5 Review
AnandTech - AMD’s Radeon HD 5850: The Other Shoe Drops
HardOCP - AMD's ATI Radeon HD 5850 Video Card Review
PCGamesHardware - Radeon HD 5850 reviewed: The DirectX 11 bargain
PCPerspective - AMD Radeon HD 5850 1GB Review - Cyprus gets a bit cheaper

Intel's newest and fastest generation of processors named the Core i7 and the lighter versions named the Core i5 have been released for both the desktop and mobile platforms.

Below is the price list in US$ and links with details specifications:

Desktop Lineup:
Core i7-975 (3.33 GHz) - $999
Core i7-950 (3.06 GHz) - $562
Core i7-920 (2.66 GHz) - $284
Core i7-870 (2.93 GHz) - $562
Core i7-860 (2.93 GHz) - $284
Core i5-750 (2.66 GHz) - $196

Mobile Lineup:
Core i7-920XM (2.00 GHz) - $1054
Core i7-820QM (1.80 GHz) - $546
Core i7-720QM (1.60 GHz) - $364

Last Updated: Sunday, September 20, 2009

The notebook PC market grew past the 38 million-mark in units in the second quarter of this year. According to DisplaySearch Q3-09 quarterly notebook PC shipment and forecast report, the mini-note PC (netbook) market was particularly strong, growing 40 per cent quarter on quarter.

The strong growth of mini-note PCs drove their share of the portable computer market to 22.2 per cent in Q2 2009. Asus, the pioneer in mini-note PCs, has been steadily losing share because tier-one brands such as Acer, HP, Dell, Lenovo and Toshiba have become increasingly aggressive in this segment.

Mini-note penetration in Latin America and Greater China is higher than notebook PC penetration. The low prices of mini-note PCs make these products more affordable for these emerging markets, and these regions have many first-time PC buyers, who are less likely to require all the bells and whistles available on a larger mainstream notebook PC.

In many regions, telecom providers have been offering subsidised mini-notes for several quarters, which helped propel growth. In Western European countries, a number of telecom firms are subsidising 100 per cent of the price of the mini-note when the customer signs a two-year data plan contract.

In North America, telecom providers are aggressively marketing mini-notes with a two-year data plan contract, while some cable providers are offering heavily discounted mini-notes as an incentive to sign a contract for cable TV, internet and phone service. The incentives have been quite successful in Europe. In North America, these promotions were only test-marketed in Q2 2009, so there is insufficient data to determine if they will achieve the same measure of success.

Mini-notes have been a significant contributor to the growth in the portable PC market as their very attractive price points make owning a secondary computer viable for many consumers.

“Mini-note PC screen sizes have increased steadily, from seven inches to 8.9 inches and then to 10.2 inches. However, the higher prices of these larger netbooks diminish their cost advantage. In addition to many key players, Microsoft is planning to increase the asking price of mini-notes. A significant increase to the asking price of mini-notes may deter consumers who are predominantly using mini-notes as secondary PCs,” said John F Jacobs, Director of Notebook Market Research.

[Source: Business24-7.ae]

Nokia the leader in mobile phone market is soon bringing out a netbook called the Nokia Booklet 3G. Nokia calls it a mini-laptop but it is still in the netbook category as it is powered by Intel's low energy Atom processor. It is set to be released on this early September, 2009.

The Booklet 3G is a 10.1 inch netbook which has great connectivity options including 3G broadband, Wifi, A-GPS, Bluetooth. It has a SIM card slot which supports hot-swappable functionality. It is powered by Intel's 1.6 GigaHertz Atom processor and will come with a storage space of 120 GigaBytes.

The mini-laptop weighs 1.25 Kilograms and will cost around US$800 which is quite heavy in terms of the price. And super bulky if you consider using this as a phone.
Detailed specs are listed below:

Nokia Booklet 3G Specifications:
CPU: Intel Atom Z530 1.60GHz
RAM: n/a
HDD: 120GB
Weight: 1.25 Kgs
Screen size: 10.1 inch HD (1366×768)
Battery Life: 12 hours
Other Features:

• 3G/HSPA Broadband
• A-GPS
• Wifi
• Bluetooth

I/O Ports:

• 3 x USB 2.0
• 1 x HDMI
• 1 x line out
• 1 x mic-in
• 1 x SD Card Reader

Price: Approximately US $800