Asus is shipping the fastest and possibly sexiest PC graphics card around, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 690, and Techgoondu understands it has already sold out the first batch of pre-orders in Singapore. …

Want that beast of a graphics card for your PC but not the noise that comes with it? There are now two versions of Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 680 from Asus that promise to run more quietly while enhancing performance.

Unveiled late last week, the new cards come after a slew of GeForce GTX 680s released last month, which as expected, all sported identical reference designs from Nvidia. In other words, little differentiated brand A from brand B, except for the decal on each card. …

For extreme PC gamers who will only settle for the fastest graphics card, and those with three monitors running in a surround gaming mode, the first top-end cards sporting Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 680 GPU are going on sale now.

Indeed, some GTX 680 cards had appeared to already gone on sale on e-retailer Newegg earlier today, perhaps to catch the early demand for these cards.

Nvidia’s answer to AMD dominance for most of 2011, the GTX 680 is based on the much-touted “Kepler” architecture and is expected to uplift DirectX 11 gameplay performance for the most hardcore PC gamers. By this, usually you mean folks with more than one monitor, because even the most demanding games often run fine on 30-inchers now.

Cards like the Asus version (pictured above) will come with 2GB RAM and be clocked at a base 1,006MHz and a “sped-up” 1,058MHz when the performance is needed. The GPU is also expected to keep to a comparatively modest 195W TDP, which should prevent the fan from sounding like a vacuum cleaner all the time, like many top-end cards can.

[UPDATE: Asus has said their GTX 680 card will retail for S$869 in Singapore]

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Toshiba today showed off what it called the world’s first laptop capable of displaying 3D games and videos without the need for users to wear those dorky glasses.

Current laptops and monitors in the market already let users play stereoscopic 3D games, but they require users to put on glasses, which are uncomfortable if you are staring at the screen for hours. …

The anticipated price wars have begun! Reports everywhere are suggesting that Nvidia are finally lowering ther crazy S$999 prices for their GTX 280s. If you go to Newegg.com, you’ see that you can now get a MSI GTX 280 for US$459.99, which works out to be about S$620.10.

Now that’s a mch improved deal, if you consider that the cheapest GTX 280 you can get now in Singapore costs about S$899 at Potterhouse. Sure, the new $600 price is still higher than two ATI HD4850s (S$500+), but hey, there’s no worry about Crossfire scaling since the GTX 280 is a one-card solution.

Now, there’s only the wait for the price drops to come to SG, which will be swift, I assume. If you have been looking for the next best thing in a while, the GTX 280 suddenly looks great again… unless of course you want later versions with smaller die and things like DX10.1.

Now, this BFG-Dangerden GTX 280 monster would be a great replacement for my water-cooled 8800GTX now. (It costs more than stock GTX 280 of coz, but you can always buy the Danger Den waterblock separately).

According to local distributors, it will be in end of this month (July), when these power-packed graphics cards will make their way to shops here.

What we have now are these single-chip 512MB versions, which are selling for S$435 (e.g. MSI version) in Sim Lim Square shops.

What’s the big deal with these cards, you ask? If you are a hardcore PC geek, you’d already know that they herald ATI’s long-awaited comeback to bring some competition to the market.

PC gamers have seen Nvidia update/refresh their existing chips to the max, but never seen real next-gen improvements until recently – but that’s with the overpriced 280 GTX and 260GTX in recent weeks.

Now, the ATI’s HD4870s and HD4850s are giving them a run for the money. Two HD4850s (at 2 x S$279=S$558) in Crossfire can shoot along with a S$900+ 280GTX. Two HD4870s – preferably on the same card in x2 format – will do really well if they scale properly in Crossfire.

So if you are in the mood to upgrade your PC graphics for games like Age of Conan and Crysis, there’s never been a better time to plonk it for two cheap monsters from ATI.

(spy pix of the 4870×2 here)