Graphics chipset maker Nvidia has just released its first graphics cards based on the Fermi chipset, highlighted by the top-end GeForce GTX 480 that the company labeled as the “fastest GPU in the world.” Along with the GTX 470, the two new cards are Nvidia’s first GPUs to fully support Microsoft’s DirectX 11 and OpenGL 4.0 (once 4.0 comes out), but the spotlight is on the GTX 480, which claims to comfortably beat “the closest competitive product” (read: ATI’s Radeon HD 5800 series) in DirectX 11 gaming performance.

The new cards are primed to support DirectX 11 tessellation performance. Minus the geek-speak? That means it can process realistic 3D water effects and flowing hair in real-time.

The GTX 480 currently sits on top of Nvidia’s performance ladder, armed with 480 visual processing cores clocked at 700MHz, 16 geometry units, and four raster units, plus a new PolyMorph Engine for DirectX 11 tessellation that enables incredibly detailed game characters and terrain with high-speed 32x anti-aliasing and smoother edges. Taking out the geek-speak, that means that this card can handle pretty high-end gaming eye-candy, like realistic water effects and lifelike flowing hair strands.

That’s what you’ve always wanted, right? Realistic hair in games? No? Well,  the new GTX 400 cards is also listed to be the first consumer-class GPUs to enable interactive ray tracing for photo-realistic scenes. That means the next crop of games might not look like games anymore, which means that the next crop of Need for Speed-type games should look awesome with realistic cars and tracks, but photo-realistic violence on the next crop of WWII-type shooters (or a DX11-based sequel to Left4Dead) might take some getting used to.

The new GPUs are also designed to support Nvidia’s 3D Vision Surround technology, which will let you link up to three monitors in full stereoscopic 3D—as long as you have the right stuff. That means three 3D-worthy, 120Hz displays, and Nvidia’s 3D Vision active shutter glasses if you want to pull it off. That’s on top of the GTX 480 GPU’s starting price of $500.

$500 sounds a little too crazy for you? The GTX 470 is a little toned down, with 448 cores clocked at 607MHz and slightly slower memory configurations. It’ll also support 3D Vision Surround and comes with the same tech, but with a price that starts out at $350.

Nvidia has just come out with the new GeForce 310 graphics card, an entry-level graphics solution that supports 64-bit systems, HD movies, and Windows 7’s graphics-heavy interface.

It effectively replaces the 210 along Nvidia’s budget line of graphics cards, and features 16 CUDA cores, a 589MHz graphics clock, and a 1402MHz processor clock. The GeForce 310 also comes with 512MBs of 500MHz GDDR2 memory and a 64-bit interface. Despite the entry-level niche, it should be a decent graphics solution for all-around PC use, with support Direct X 10.1 and OpenGL 3.1 for 3D gaming and apps, as well as Nvidia’s PureVideo and CUDA technology. DVI, VGA, and DisplayPort connections are present, and it’ll also connect to HD displays via HDMI (with an adapter).

AMD has officially unveiled the ATI Radeon HD 5970 graphics card, which currently sits on top of the company’s performance scale. The graphics card runs dual GPU chips for a total of 4.3 billion 40nm transistors and GDDR5 memory for the highest-end of high-end performance, and features 3200 stream processing units and 160 texture units, as well as support for DirectX 11 and OpenGL 3.2.

All the specs make for graphics performance that should be equal to a pair of HD 5850 GPUs linked in a Crossfire configuration, although the HD 5970 can be further boosted by another 5970 (via CrossfireX) for a total of 4 GPUs. The new GPU also supports AMD/ATI’s technologies such as Stream technology, Avivo HD, and Eyefinity for multi-display setups.

The HD 5970 is available now through ATI’s partners for around $599.

Maingear has just released new desktop gaming PC configurations that come equipped with ATI’s Radeon 5870 series graphics cards. Just released last week, the Radeon HD 5870 offers full support for DirectX 11, enhanced 3D visual effects, ATI Stream parallel processing, and ATI’s Eyefinity tech that allows for multi-display setups (for linking up to three monitors).

Four gaming desktop systems are currently being offered with the HD 5870 option: The ePhex, F131, Prelude, and X-Cube. Based on Intel’s X58 chipset and Core i7 processors, the ePhex is Maingear’s flagship system with options for fitting up to 12GBs of triple-channel DDR3 memory, up to 3 Radeon HD 5870 graphics cards (linked through ATI’s CrossFire multi-GPU tech), and dual hard drives in a raid configuration for storage. ePhex systems starts out at $1,935.

The F131 offers an option for building either an AMD (790FX chipset) or Intel (X58)-based system with either AMD Phenom II or Intel’s Core i7 processors. Starting at $1,299, it fits up to 12GBs of DDR3 memory (for Intel-based kit) or 8GBs of DDR2 memory (for AMD), up to three HD 5870 graphics cards, and dual raid hard drives.

The Prelude is a bit more flexible, with config options that range from Intel Core 2 Duos and AMD Athlon 64s to high-end Core i7s and Phenom II processors. Starting at $984, it can fit a pair of graphics cards, dual raid hard drives, and up to 8GB/12GBs worth of memory.

The X-Cube is a compact small form factor system with build options that also range from Intel Core 2 Duo/Quad and AMD Athlon 64 processors to Core i7 and Phenom IIs on either an AMD 790GX or Intel P45 chipset. Like the F131 and Prelude, memory maxes out at 8GB or 12GBs (depending on AMD or Intel build) and dual raid hard drives, plus enough space for fitting a pair of AMD’s 5870 graphics cards. The X-Cube’s price starts at $907.

Sapphire is number two on the list of “partners to issue a release of ATI’s DirectX 11-compatible HD 5800 series.” The packaging and exterior design is different, but the features for Sapphire’s Radeon HD 5870 and HD 5850 are still similar to ATI’s reference design, with support for ATI’s Eyefinity multi-display tech and ATI Stream technology for parallel GPU-CPU processing. Both also come with 1GB of GDDR5 memory and enough processing power to make us feel a little bad about springing for last season’s batch of graphics cards.

Like XFX’s release, Sapphire’s HD 5800 series cards also come with a coupon for a free download of DiRT2, but also adds a free copy of Interactive Entertainment’s Battlestations Pacific.

As expected, one of ATI’s partners, XFX, has launched their own version of graphics cards based on the HD 5800 series GPUs. The two new graphics cards feature ATI’s reference HD 5870 and HD 5850 designs, although the cooling chamber’s shell has been stylized with the XFX design and logo.

Both graphics cards offer full support for Microsoft’s DirectX 11 as well as 3D effects features that include HDR Tecture Compression, DirectCompute and Tessellation. The XFX versions also features 1GB of DDR5 memory and multi-display support for connecting up to three monitors.

Additionally, XFX also offers a free copy of what’s listed to be the first DirectX 11 game to come out: Colin McRae DiRT2 with a purchase of either card. DiRT2 downloads will be available starting December 11, 2009.

AMD’s graphics brand ATI has just come out with their most technologically advanced and feature-rich GPUs, the Radeon HD 5800 series. The company’s first set of graphics cards to fully support Windows 7’s DirectX 11, the HD 5800 series boasts twice the power over the previous generation of GPUs with up to 2.72 TeraFLOPS of processing power.

Two Radeon models will initially fall under the HD 5800 series–the ATI Radeon HD 5870 and HD 5850—both featuring 1GB of GDDR5 memory, as well as ATI’s Eyefinity technology for supporting multi-display setups and ATI Stream technology that lets the GPU and CPU sync and work together on application processing (and not just graphics).

The higher-end HD 5870 is priced at $380 and features 1,600 cores, an 850MHz core clock, and a 1.2GHz memory clock, while the cheaper HD 5850 is priced at $260 with 1,440 cores, a 750MHz core clock, and 1GHz memory. Another model called the Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity6 Edition will come with 6 Mini DisplayPort connections for adding up to six displays to the setup.

Expect ATI’s various partners should be coming out with their own versions of the HD 5870 and 5850 soon.

Nvidia has just announced that Intel Corporation and other Intel motherboard manufacturers including Asus, EVGA, Gigabyte, and MSI, have all licensed Nvidia’s multi-GPU SLI technology for upcoming motherboards based on Intel’s Core i5 and i7 platforms with an LGA1156 socket. This announcement updates Nvidia’s SLI support to include all consumer PC platforms, including Intel’s Core i7, i5, Core 2 Quad and Core 2 Duo platforms, as well as new AMD systems based on the AMD Phenom II CPU.

Nvidia’s SLI technology allows users to connect up to four identical graphics cards onto a single SLI-supporting board to share the graphics processing load for increased performance and smoother framerates on 3D games and HD movie playback. Aside from SLI support, Nvidia GeForce GPUs also add support for the company’s latest 3D technologies, including PhysX tech and 3D Vision for deeper gaming immersion.

In a way, we’ve seen it all before: high-end graphics card slapped with high-end cooling solution. It’s a bit different this time though; these graphics cards aren’t just fitted with a big fan with lights. Featuring Nvidia’s high-end GeForce GTX 285 and flagship GTX 295 GPUs, BFG’s new graphics cards feature a self-contained water-cooling kit to keep things chilly and quiet.

Designated as the GeForce GTX 285 H2O+ and GeForce GTX 295 H2OC, the two graphics cards are packaged with ThermoIntelligence Advanced Cooling Solutions, a self-contained water-block and pump kit that are maintenance free to spare users from having to regularly refill the kit with coolant. The system works by pushing coolant over the GPU and into a radiator that’s actively cooled by a fan. The fan in turn exhausts the heated air outside the PC chassis to maintain lower temperatures inside the case. The kit also includes a controller with three settings (Auto, Quiet, and Maximum) to give the user options for either low-noise or max cooling performance.

The GTX 285 and 295 graphics chips come at the absolute high end of Nvidia’s product line, offering the best graphics performance for smooth 3D gaming. The GTX 285 sports a core clocked at a slightly faster 691MHz (over the reference 648MHz) and 1GB of GDDR3 dedicated memory, while the top-end GTX 295 runs a dual-core GPU clocked at 675MHz and 1.8GBs of GDDR3 memory. Both models support SLI configurations, and feature a PCI-Express 2.0 interface. Video out ports include a pair of Dual-Link DVI connectors for connecting multiple monitors, and an HDMI port for connecting to an HD display.

The GTX 295 H2OC is now available through Newegg.com for $849.99, while the GTX 285 H2O+ is set to sell starting August 12^th. Pricing information hasn’t been released yet, but it should cost significantly lower than the top-end GTX 295.

AMD has just announced that they’ve released their first WHQL-certified ATI Catalyst graphics drivers for Windows 7. The newest version (Catalyst 9.7) promises better stability and compatibility for AMD platforms running Windows 7 (and Vista), as well as full support for the Win7 desktop interface’s effects. It also promises performance improvements for gamers playing on Win7 compared to Vista in both single card and multi-GPU configurations, and it makes sure that the new OS supports  ATI’s video technologies such as ATI Stream.

Anyone (with an ATI Radeon graphics card, of course) looking to update their drivers for Windows 7, you can download it from here.