The GX640 comes standard with the previously mentioned Core i5, an ATI Radeon HD5850 with 1GB of DDR5, and 4GB of system memory. It’s packing a 15.4 inch screen, so it’s relatively portable, and the 9-cell battery should help with battery life. The Gx640 is available now at Amazon.com with an MSRP of $1099.

From the press release:

CITY OF INDUSTRY, CA – April 21, 2010 – MSI Computer Corp., a leading manufacturer of computer hardware products and solutions, is proud to announce the availability of the new 15.4-inch GX640 gaming notebook. The GX640 comes locked and loaded with Intel’s powerful new Core i5 processor and the ATI Radeon HD5850 graphics card with 1 GB DDR5. It is the gaming notebook of choice for Evil Geniuses, the number one ranked professional gaming team in North America.

“When you’re competing at the absolute highest level, your equipment has a huge effect on your performance,” said Alexander Garfield, Executive Director of Evil Geniuses. “Our professional gamers stay on top of the competition with the help of the world’s finest gaming Notebooks from MSI Computer. They give us the edge we need to bring home championship after championship.”

GX640’s new GPU supports DirectX 11 graphics, future-proofing the notebook for the next generation of games and 3D graphics. Its Core i5 processor improves battery life by as much as 15% and features Intel’s new Turbo Boost technology which can increase overall performance by as much as 30%, ensuring smooth gameplay.

The new lightweight notebook is housed in a stylish brushed aluminum case with fire engine red accents The GX640 features a raised chiclet keyboard, for increased accuracy and comfort while typing, and clearly marked W, A, S and D keys for quick response while gaming.

The GX640 ships with a 15.4-inch LCD screen with 1680×1050 resolution, 4 GB of DDR3 memory, a 500GB hard drive 7200 rpm, a 9-cell battery, Bluetooth connectivity and Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit.

The GX640 is priced at $1099.99 and is available now at Amazon and will be available on Newegg later this month.

The ATI Radeon HD 5970 is essentially two 5870s slapped together, but underclocked a little bit so as not to melt a hole through your carpet (but will melt a hole through your bank account~!) Asus saw that and was like, “Pfft, wait till you see what we’ve come up with.” It’s called the Asus Ares 5970, a true-to-life dual 5870 solution that doesn’t downclock nothin’ for nobody. Slight problem: it might not actually come out here in the U.S.

This card keeps the two 5870 GPUs running at full speed, which should improve performance more than a little bit, “easily [surpassing]” 3D Mark scores of a standard 5970.

The extra power literally requires extra power, requiring a third auxilary power connector just to keep the thing plucking along. Asus says it still comes in under the magic 300W mark, so no worries there. (A plain ol’ 5970 “officially” clocks in at under 300W, but Asus says it’s more like 260W—more than enough breathing room for its Ares 5970 to operate in.)

You’d probably need an Extreme Edition Core i7, plus the new Rampage motherboard, to most effectively take advanateg of this kind of power. And to what end, so you can play Fallout 3 again, but with 12 extra frames per second?

Meh, who am I kidding, I’d be all over an extra 12 frames per second. Gotta have a hobby!

Last week at PAX East, Nvidia showed off for the first time its GTX 480. Reviews were kind, but noted that the card runs at approximately 8 million degrees, and that the performance isn’t as crazy as you’d expect for the $500 you’re going to pay—an ATI Radeon 5870 is nearly as good, for $100 cheaper. So, make your own decisions! That’s part of the fun of PC gaming: spending weeks on Newegg worrying over motherboard combinations and the like. Anyhow, ATI has a new card on the block today, the Radeon HD 5870 Eyfinitiy 6 Edition.

You already know what Eyefinity is: it allows you to hook up your PC to several monitors using only one GPU. This edition of the card also adds 1GB of memory, bringing it up to a solid 2GB. I think that’s as much memory as my laptop has!

TomsHardware ran the card through its paces, and the general consensus is this: really good card, but Eyefinity isn’t so great for gaming right now. You’d need monitors with incredibly thin bezels, lest good parts of the action be cut off. Samsung has a new monitor en route that will, indeed, be super thinned bezel’d.

I don’t know, speaking as an average gamer, it seems like Nvidia and ATI are grasping at straws trying to come up with ways to make their cards unique. Nvidia has 3D Vision, which I personally don’t think is all that and a bag of chips. Maybe my eyes are broken, I don’t know, but the 3D never seems “real,” you know? And Eyefinity—I barely have enough room on my desk for the one 24-inch monitor I have on it now—six monitors is totally out of the question.

Again, as an average gamer, I’m more than happy to see Nvidia and ATI continue to fight over raw power rather than all these little side things.

As long as both companies are healthy, then I think PC gamers will be fine. The last thing we need is for one company to dominate in such a way that it makes the other guy nothing more than an also-ran.

And now I head back to Newegg, looking to upgrade a few components! The Intel Core i7 930 looks pretty great, but then I’d need a new motherboard! Woo!

We don’t know a whole lot about the HD 5970 yet, but if the buzz is true it’ll be the fastest single GPU card available on the market. NVidia holds the current title for the fastest GPU solution. Hopefully the brains at ATI will come up with something to challenge NVidia on that front as well. Of course, the new cards aren’t available for sale yet, but you can pretty much assume they’re going to run about $100 more then the “standard” HD 5970 cards.

[via Tom's Hardware]

Man alive, how great would it be to be rich? You could afford crazy things like, I don’t know, new shoes, healthy food, and six 20-inch monitors to play Modern Warfare 2 with. That’s the dream.

So as you can see, the game scales quite well across all six screens—the only “glitch” occurs when text gets cut off at the bezel of the TV.

ATI’s Eyefinity technology makes this magic possible. The 5800 series of cards (and up, presumably) allow you to span compatible games across several screens. It’s not something you’re going to find at a Best Buy demo area or whatever, so people were freaking out while they passed by.

Pretty neat, I thought.

Man alive, how great would it be to be rich? You could afford crazy things like, I don’t know, new shoes, healthy food, and six 20-inch monitors to play Modern Warfare 2 with. That’s the dream.

So as you can see, the game scales quite well across all six screens—the only “glitch” occurs when text gets cut off at the bezel of the TV.

ATI’s Eyefinity technology makes this magic possible. The 5800 series of cards (and up, presumably) allow you to span compatible games across several screens. It’s not something you’re going to find at a Best Buy demo area or whatever, so people were freaking out while they passed by.

Pretty neat, I thought.

AMD is finally looking to get into the netbook game for real. Forget about the thin-and-light NEO chipset that’s been out for a while—we’re talking about an honest, netbook-specific chipset based on the company’s Fusion initiative that’ll blend power-sipping CPUs with ATI graphics. The platform will draw between 10 and 15 watts of power and will be designed for screens 12 inches and smaller.

With all these netbooks coming out now that are powered by Intel Atom CPUs paired with either Broadcom HD graphics accelerators or NVIDIA ION GPUs, it appears that AMD must finally be thinking to itself, “These guys from all these different companies have to pair this CPU with that GPU or add this accelerator because Intel’s GPUs stink. We have our own CPUs and our own powerful ATI GPUs. We could do this much more easily and cheaply.”

AMD’s Nigel Dessau told InternetNews.com the following:

“It will have a good processor integrated with graphics, so you won’t need the Ion graphics to give it half-decent performance… If we’d had a part, we’d have been in this space. We didn’t have a part so we went and worked on a part for the thin and light space. The plan is to come to market next year with a Fusion part that fits it nicely in a netbook type thing.”

With the impending confusion that’ll be caused (or is already being caused) by all the pairings between Intel, NVIDIA, and others, AMD is in a prime position to come in with a few netbook chipsets comprised of its own AMD CPUs and respectable ATI GPUs, price them $50 less than comparable Intel offerings, and watch the sales roll in. Unfortunately by 2011, who knows what state the netbook market will be in? AMD can’t just show up and say, “Look! We have a new platform that’s better than the Intel + ION pairings from last summer!”

The company’s got a big opportunity here. Netbooks aren’t going anywhere anytime soon, but people are expecting to be able to do more and more with them—an area where Intel has purposely under delivered in order to try to convince consumers to purchase more expensive CPUs. As it turns out, most consumers don’t really care how fast the CPU is. They just want to watch HD videos and play games. If anyone can deliver that experience in a single, integrated, inexpensive package, it’s AMD.

[HardwareCentral via Liliputing]

For this month, here’s what they have:

Price	NewEgg.com	Amazon.com	Notes
~$50	Radeon HD 4650	Radeon HD 4650	“Great 1280×1024 performance in most games, 1680×1050 with lowered detail”
~$70	Radeon HD 4670	Radeon HD 4670	“Good 1680×1050 performance in most games”
~$80	GeForce 9600 GT	GeForce 9600 GT	“Great 1680×1050 performance in most games, 1920×1200 in most games with lowered detail”
~$100	Radeon HD 4850	Radeon HD 4850	“Exceptional 1680×1050 performance in most games, 1920×1200 in most games with lowered detail”
~$130	Radeon HD 5750	Radeon HD 5750	“Great 1920×1200 performance in most games”
~$160	Radeon HD 5770	Radeon HD 5770	“Great 1920×1200 performance in most games”
~$200	2 x Radeon HD 4850 512MB in CrossFire configuration	2 x Radeon HD 4850 512MB in CrossFire configuration	“Exceptional 1920×1200 performance, 2560×1600 in most games with lowered detail”
~$290	Radeon HD 5850	Radeon HD 5850	“Exceptional 1920×1200 performance, 2560×1600 in most titles”
~$400	2 x Radeon HD 4890 in CrossFire configuration	2 x Radeon HD 4890 in CrossFire configuration	“Good 2560×1600 performance in most games”
~$680 and Above	Radeon HD 5970	Radeon HD 5970	“Great 2560×1600 performance”

Looks like Nvidia had better get their pricing act together; practically all price points are dominated by ATI video cards!

Post from: The Gadget Blog

ATI just released a new, super entry level graphics card that should placate, well, not hardcore gamers, but most regular people. It’s the Radeon 5450. Like other 5000 series cards, it works with Eyefinity, meaning that you can spread the image across several screens, as this image swiped from Tom’s Hardware shows.

The card supports DirectX 11, don’t expect to run Crysis at 1920×1200. (It does run the game at lower resolutions, though.) I don’t even know why I wrote this, since the card isn’t aimed at gamers. You want to game, get yourself a Radeon 5850 or 5970. (I’m unfamiliar with Nvidia’s naming schemes.)

Turns out the card isn’t too shabby at all if you’re looking to build a home theater PC. The 5450 works wonders for that, pushing 1080p video just fine.

I don’t know, it’s an everyday card for everyday people at an everyday price: $50.

Some Notes About Our Recommendations

• This list is for gamers who want to get the most for their money. If you don’t play games, then the cards on this list are more expensive than what you really need. We’ve added a reference page at the end of the column covering integrated graphics processors, which is likely more apropos.
• The criteria to get on this list are strictly price/performance. We acknowledge that recommendations for multiple video cards, such as two Radeon cards in CrossFire mode or two GeForce cards in SLI, typically require a motherboard that supports CrossFire or SLI and a chassis with more space to install multiple graphics cards. They also require a beefier power supply compared to what a single card needs, and will almost certainly produce more heat than a single card. Keep these factors in mind when making your purchasing decision. In most cases, if we have recommended a multiple-card solution, we try to recommend a single-card honorable mention at a comparable price point for those who find multi-card setups undesirable.
• Prices and availability change on a daily basis. We can’t base our decisions on always-changing pricing information, but we can list some good cards that you probably won’t regret buying at the price ranges we suggest, along with real-time prices from our PriceGrabber engine, for your reference.
• The list is based on some of the best U.S. prices from online retailers. In other countries or at retail stores, your mileage will most certainly vary.
• These are new card prices. No used or open-box cards are in the list; they might represent a good deal, but it’s outside the scope of what we’re trying to do.

Best PCIe Card: Under $85

Best PCI Express (PCIe) Card For ~$50:

Radeon HD 4650 (Check Prices)

Great 1280×1024 performance in most games, 1680×1050 with lowered detail

You will not find a card that packs more punch than ATI’s Radeon HD 4650 under the alluring $50 price point. With solid stock performance and an overclockable GPU, this card is an excellent starting point for our recommendations, and a wholly worthwhile upgrade if you’re currently stuck using a motherboard with integrated graphics.

Best PCI Express (PCIe) Card For ~$65: Tie

Radeon HD 4670 (Check Prices)

Good 1680×1050 performance in most games

With the release of Nvidia’s GeForce GT 240, ATI’s Radeon HD 4670 is no longer the most powerful reference card without a dedicated power connector. However, it remains a compelling solution under the $75 price point, which Nvidia’s solution simply hasn’t hit yet.

Performance is excellent and power usage is very low, making this product an impressive performer all-around. Its accelerated clock rates and modestly-higher price tag are worth considering if you originally had your eye on the Radeon HD 4650.

GeForce 9600 GSO (Check Prices)

Good 1680×1050 performance in most games

The GeForce 9600 GSO is seems to be getting quite hard to find, and is likely being end-of-life’d soon in favor of the new GeForce GT 240. Nevertheless, as long as it is available, the GeForce 9600 GSO remains a powerful competitor compared to the Radeon HD 4670. While the GeForce requires a dedicated PCIe power connector to supply more juice than the Radeon, it does offer better performance in some situations.

Best PCIe Card For ~$85:

GeForce 9600 GT (Check Prices)

Good 1680×1050 performance in most games

The GeForce 9600 GT is a great performer, thanks in part to its high-end 256-bit memory interface and speedy DDR3 memory. It’s a great choice on an $85 budget, even if the architecture on which it centers is showing its age.

Certainly, this card’s continued presence here is a testament to Nvidia’s engineering work dating back almost two years ago. With that said, we’d certainly like to see the company’s latest DirectX 10.1 cards drop in price to compete against ATI’s strong offerings.

Best PCIe Card: ~$90 To $140

Best PCIe Card For ~$95: Tie

GeForce 9800 GT (Check Prices)

Exceptional 1680×1050 performance in most games, 1920×1200 in most games with lowered detail

The GeForce 9800 GT is essentially a rebadged GeForce 8800 GT, and offers the same great performance it has for years now (that sure sounds funny to say in reference to graphics cards).

With the rising price of ATI’s Radeon HD 4850 giving it space to breathe, this legendary card is once again a recommended buy. But once again, we’re looking forward to seeing technological progress put new, faster, and cooler products loaded down with more features in this space rather than revisiting history.

Fortunately, there’s still PhysX and 3D Vision support to like about this aging board.

Radeon HD 4830 512MB (Check Prices)

Exceptional 1680×1050 performance in most games, 1920×1200 in most games with lowered detail

Just as the GeForce 9800 GT can once again be recommended due to the rising price of the Radeon HD 4850, so can the Radeon HD 4830. While availability is low, this Radeon is still a viable option under the $100 price point if you can find it. You’ll discovered that it offers great performance on par with the GeForce 9800 GT, with the added benefit of DirectX 10.1 support.

Best PCIe Card For ~$110:

GeForce GTS 250 512MB (Check Prices)

Good 1920×1200 performance in most games

The dissapearance of the $100 Radeon HD 4850 has not only opened up the GeForce 9800 GT and Radeon HD 4830 for recommended status, but also the GeForce GTS 250.

At $110, the 512MB version of this card offers respectable performance, and nothing else in the price range can compare to it. As fast as the Radeon HD 4850 and new Radeon HD 5750 (and notably cheaper), the GeForce GTS 250 has no real competition from the rest of the sub-$150 market at this time.

Bear in mind that going this route instead of the Radeon HD 5750 will cost you DirectX 11 support and Eyefinity. But in the context of gaming, you’ll need to make other quality sacrifices long before trying to enjoy either value-add in the $110 range.

Best PCIe Card For ~$120:

GeForce GTS 250 1GB (Check Prices)

Good 1920×1200 performance in most games

For $10 more than the 512MB version, an interested gamer can get the benefit of a full gigabyte of memory. At the highest resolutions and levels of anti-aliasing, this extra memory might provide a performance boost, though it’s unlikely the GeForce GTS 250 is powerful enough to run at those detail levels. Still, many buyers might find the slight $10 price increase worthwhile in something like Grand Theft Auto IV.

Best PCIe Card: ~$150 To $290

Best PCIe Card For ~$155: Tie

Radeon HD 5770 (Check Prices)

Great 1920×1200 performance in most games

While the new Radeon HD 5770 isn’t any faster than its older Radeon HD 4870 cousin (we’ve found that it’s even slightly slower in many instances), it does have something the Radeon HD 4870 doesn’t have: full DirectX 11 and Eyefinity support. Indeed, while the Radeon HD 5770 doesn’t run away with any performance crowns in this category, it does look good from a longevity/value standpoint.

Read our full review of ATI’s Radeon HD 5770 for more information on the card and its accompanying architecture.

GeForce GTX 260 (Check Prices)

Great 1920×1200 performance in most games

Like many cards, the GeForce GTX 260 is becoming very hard to find, and may soon be end-of-life’d. In any case, it does offer advantages in titles that run better on Nvidia’s GT200 architecture, and it sports some GeForce-only value-added features like PhysX compatibility and support for GeForce 3D Vision.

Once again, a little diligence is required on the part of the buyer to find out which card is best adapted for his or her favorite titles, and whether or not your motherboard supports SLI, CrossFire, or both multi-card technologies.

Best PCIe Card For ~$200:

Radeon HD 4890 (Check Prices)

Excellent 1920×1200 performance in most games

The Radeon HD 4890 is essentially an overclocked Radeon HD 4870. However, the tweaks that AMD made to the newer RV790 die result in much higher overclocking headroom. At stock speeds, this card is worth the $200. But to get the most out of it, some overclocking is in order. And now that the prices on Radeon HD 5850 cards are through the roof, there’s not much between this board and ATI’s next-fastest solution.

Read our full review of ATI’s Radeon HD 4890 for more information on the card and its accompanying architecture.

Best PCIe Card For ~$240:

2 x GeForce GTS 250 1GB in SLI Configuration (Check Prices)

Exceptional 1920×1200 performance, 2560×1600 in most games with lowered detail

Two GeForce GTS 250 cards in SLI pack a punch and make a strong case for multi-card setups. With the Radeon HD 4850s going up in price and down in availability, these GeForce cards replace them as the weapon of choice for sub-$300 brute force power.

Best PCIe Card: ~$300 To $400

Best PCIe Card For ~$310: None

Honorable Mention: Radeon HD 5850

Exceptional 1920×1200 performance, 2560×1600 in most titles

The new Radeon HD 5850 has some definite advantages over a pair of GeForce GTX 260s in SLI or a pair of Radeon HD 5770s in CrossFire. It doesn’t need a CrossFire-compatible motherboard, it uses a lot less power thanks to its 40nm manufacturing process, and it sports DirectX 11 capabilities (plus Eyefinity).

Unfortunately, scant availability forces us to relegate the Radeon HD 5850 to Honorable Mention status until it can be purchased without having to fight for it.

Read our full review of ATI’s Radeon HD 5850 for more information on the card and its accompanying architecture.

Best PCIe Card For ~$330: Tie

At approximately the same price, these options retain the same advantages of their single-card counterparts: two GeForce GTX 260s offer SLI compatibility, PhysX, and GeForce 3D Vision support, and two Radeon HD 5770s offer DirectX 11, Eyefinity, and high-def audio bitstreaming to CrossFire-compatible motherboard users. A good case can be made for either of these options, and none of them are a poor choice. Just pick your poison.

2 x GeForce GTX 260 in SLI (Check Prices)

Exceptional 1920×1200 performance, good 2560×1600 performance in most titles

Nvidia doesn’t have a DirectX 11-class architecture yet, so if you’re going to sink $300+ into DirectX 10 hardware, do so knowing that there are competing DirectX 11 boards available in the same price range.

A pair of Radeon HD 5770s won’t offer quite the same level of performance as two GeForce GTX 260s in SLI; that’s the trade-off for more modern functionality, though.

2 x Radeon HD 5770 in CrossFire (Check Prices)

Exceptional 1920×1200 performance, good 2560×1600 performance in most titles

The new Radeon HD 5770 sports added benefits over its GeForce GTX 260 competition: DirectX 11, triple display outputs, and the ability to bitstream high-definition audio content from Blu-ray movies contribute significant value to ATI’s newest mainstream graphics cards. For those seeking long-term DirectX 11 compatibility, this might be the more attractive option.

Read our full review of ATI’s Radeon HD 5770 for more information on the card and its accompanying architecture.

Best PCIe Card For ~$400:

Two Radeon HD 4890 cards in CrossFire Configuration (Check Prices)

Good 2560×1600 performance in most games

Two Radeon HD 4890 cards should, on average, perform on par or better than a single GeForce GTX 295, and will definitely beat out a single Radeon HD 5870. Plus, these Radeons cost less than either option. If you have a CrossFire-compatible motherboard and want some serious performance at high resolutions, this route is the way to go.

Read our full review of ATI’s Radeon HD 4890 for more information on the card and its accompanying architecture.

Best PCIe Card: ~$400 And Up

Best PCIe Card For ~$410: None

Honorable Mention: Radeon HD 5870

Good 2560×1600 performance in most games

For $10 less, a couple Radeon HD 4890s will easily beat a single Radeon HD 5870 in the titles that matter today (perhaps this will change when DirectX 11 software becomes more pervasive). From a raw price/performance standpoint, this makes the Radeon HD 5870 a hard sell. But that is not to say this card is underpowered: it sports the fastest single GPU on the planet, relatively low power usage (remarkably low at idle), and DirectX 11 support. For folks without a motherboard that supports CrossFire and a hefty power supply, the new Radeon HD 5870 is definitely a more-than-viable option. Unfortunately, availability is still quite rare.

Read our full review of ATI’s Radeon HD 5870 for more information on the card and its accompanying architecture.

Best PCIe Card For ~$465: None

Honorable Mention: GeForce GTX 295 (Check Prices)

Good 2560×1600 performance in most games

Despite ATI’s new Radeon HD 5970 taking its place as the fastest graphics card on the planet, Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 295 (with SLI-on-a-board) remains an extremely powerful graphics card. Essentially two conjoined GeForce GTX 275s, the GeForce GTX 295 offers very notable gains over a single Radeon HD 5870 in the great majority of game titles, although the Radeon will use far less power doing so. The GeForce GTX 295 does have an advantage in that it it still quite easy to find and purchase. Moreover, ATI’s release has forced prices on these cards down by a significant chunk.

Read our full review of Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 295 for more information on the card and its accompanying architecture.

Best PCIe Card For ~$625: None

Honorable Mention: Radeon HD 5970

Great 2560×1600 performance

3,200 shader processors. There isn’t much more we need to say about the brutal grace of execution that characterizes the world’s fastest graphics card, the Radeon HD 5970. With two Radeon HD 5870 GPUs onboard, the only things we can complain about are scant availability and an extremely high price tag. Availability should improve over time; the price not so much, but if you’re in the market for this card price probably isn’t an issue.

Read our full review of ATI’s Radeon HD 5970 for more information on the card and its accompanying architecture.

There you have it folks; the best cards for the money this month. Now all that’s left to do is to find and purchase them.

Don’t worry too much about which brand you choose, because all of the cards out there are close to Nvidia’s and ATI’s reference designs. Just pay attention to price, warranty, and the manufacturer’s reputation for honoring the warranty if something goes wrong.

Also remember that the stores don’t follow this list. Things will change over the course of the month and you’ll probably have to adapt your buying strategy to deal with fluctuating prices. Good luck!