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Written by Jon Sutton on 09 February 2014 at 13:00
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It sounds like the stuff of absolute nightmares. Just when you thought your computer was safe, along come graphics cards viruses to lay waste to your precious silicon.
Okay, I might be going slightly overboard here but upon encountering that these strange beasts it of course set me off like a hardware hypochondriac. As far as I was aware both GPUs and RAM were pretty much untouchable by viruses, thanks to the use of volatile memory that flushes any information out. Well. Think again…
Don't Worry, Your GPU Won't Be Ending Up In A Fiery Grave
This dangerous new type of computer virus is capable of lurking on graphics and network cards and is totally immune to any current antivirus software’s detection techniques. Known as the DAGGER virus, it is capable of directly accessing a computer’s memory independently of the CPU, regardless of permissions.
The DAGGER graphics card virus is undoubtedly a complex beast. Rather than directly infecting a GPU it uses the graphics card as a base of operations from which to infect the rest of a PC. As we know, graphics cards have both local RAM and a processor capable of running executable code. The RAM is able to communicate directly with a PC’s memory using Direct Memory Access (DMA). This allows processes to be written to the system RAM without the processor ever knowing it’s occurring. This overcomes CPU permissions and gives the graphics card RAM free reign to communicate with the system RAM.
So far the DAGGER virus is known to have been used on both Linux and Windows systems, with Apple Macs also vulnerable to the attacks. These DMA-based attacks are capable of compromising a host PC without having to exploit and vulnerabilities or weak points of an OS. They are a highly dangerous threat to system security as they are almost totally undetectable; to date no OS has any security mechanics in place to prevent such an attack and antivirus software isn’t capable of scanning the memory on a GPU.
The DAGGER virus was created by researchers and is the only known virus of its type. Once the exploit has found the Windows or Linux lookup tables it is capable of booting up every time your PC starts. Once running, it is theoretically capable of doing whatever it wants.
For now this danger is purely theoretical, with the DAGGER virus the only known one of its type in existence. Still, it’s just enough instil a tingling sense of doubt isn’t it?
Okay, I might be going slightly overboard here but upon encountering that these strange beasts it of course set me off like a hardware hypochondriac. As far as I was aware both GPUs and RAM were pretty much untouchable by viruses, thanks to the use of volatile memory that flushes any information out. Well. Think again…
Don't Worry, Your GPU Won't Be Ending Up In A Fiery GraveThe DAGGER graphics card virus is undoubtedly a complex beast. Rather than directly infecting a GPU it uses the graphics card as a base of operations from which to infect the rest of a PC. As we know, graphics cards have both local RAM and a processor capable of running executable code. The RAM is able to communicate directly with a PC’s memory using Direct Memory Access (DMA). This allows processes to be written to the system RAM without the processor ever knowing it’s occurring. This overcomes CPU permissions and gives the graphics card RAM free reign to communicate with the system RAM.
So far the DAGGER virus is known to have been used on both Linux and Windows systems, with Apple Macs also vulnerable to the attacks. These DMA-based attacks are capable of compromising a host PC without having to exploit and vulnerabilities or weak points of an OS. They are a highly dangerous threat to system security as they are almost totally undetectable; to date no OS has any security mechanics in place to prevent such an attack and antivirus software isn’t capable of scanning the memory on a GPU.
The DAGGER virus was created by researchers and is the only known virus of its type. Once the exploit has found the Windows or Linux lookup tables it is capable of booting up every time your PC starts. Once running, it is theoretically capable of doing whatever it wants.
For now this danger is purely theoretical, with the DAGGER virus the only known one of its type in existence. Still, it’s just enough instil a tingling sense of doubt isn’t it?
Written by Stuart Thomas on 10 February 2014 at 16:00
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AMD’s R-series branding for Radeon Graphics card received another addition to its line up over the weekend as AMD announced its Radeon R7 250X card.
The card is designed to fill a gap in both price and performance between the Oland-based R7 250 and the more expensive, powerful R7 260.
The Radeon R7 250X Specifications
It’s not exactly revolutionary in design; the card is a Cape Verde GPU used in the 7700 series, and in fact is pretty much a direct reskin of the Radeon HD 7770, which held the $99 spot in the AMD line up previously. The specifications are, as far as we can tell, identical.
In spite of the R7 250X inducing a little deja vu, AMD is no doubt hoping it will boost the lower end of its market after it saw little uptake for the R7 260. The R7 250X is a significant step up performance-wise from the R7 250 at just $10 more expensive. It’s a little more power-hungry than the 250; requiring 95W and an external PCie connector whilst the 250 is a sub-75W card, but since the performance increase is likely to be around 30% for the 250X, this power difference will not matter to many looking to buy a new card for under $100.
As Cape Verde is a GCN 1.0 GPU, it is fairly up to date, with support for DirectX 11.1 and AMD's own Mantle API. However, in terms of features the 250X will show a slight disadvantage when pitched against the GCN 1.1 based 260 series. Cape Verde lacks TrueAudio support among other things, which may give people a reason to pay a little more for the Bonaire 260 series.
What do you think of the Radeon R7 250X filling the $99 AMD spot? How do you feel about AMD's practise of rebranding older cards?
The card is designed to fill a gap in both price and performance between the Oland-based R7 250 and the more expensive, powerful R7 260.
The Radeon R7 250X SpecificationsIn spite of the R7 250X inducing a little deja vu, AMD is no doubt hoping it will boost the lower end of its market after it saw little uptake for the R7 260. The R7 250X is a significant step up performance-wise from the R7 250 at just $10 more expensive. It’s a little more power-hungry than the 250; requiring 95W and an external PCie connector whilst the 250 is a sub-75W card, but since the performance increase is likely to be around 30% for the 250X, this power difference will not matter to many looking to buy a new card for under $100.
As Cape Verde is a GCN 1.0 GPU, it is fairly up to date, with support for DirectX 11.1 and AMD's own Mantle API. However, in terms of features the 250X will show a slight disadvantage when pitched against the GCN 1.1 based 260 series. Cape Verde lacks TrueAudio support among other things, which may give people a reason to pay a little more for the Bonaire 260 series.
What do you think of the Radeon R7 250X filling the $99 AMD spot? How do you feel about AMD's practise of rebranding older cards?
Written by Stuart Thomas on 13 February 2014 at 12:30
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Nvidia’s GeForce GTX Titan Black is nearly here, and with first images leaked online the big surprise in the mix is that … it’s not actually black. It looks exactly the same as the regular Titan card, only the logo has been changed to black.
It’s a styling that brings the new card in line with the 780 Ti card…
The Titan Black Logo Is Similar To The GTX 780 Ti
Details of the card are not yet confirmed, but it will be powered by the 28nm Gk110 GPU, with 2880 CUDA cores and 6GB of Video RAM. In terms of pricing, it’s likely the card will take the $1000 spot held by the original Titan. This means that, although the card is designed to overtake the GTX 780 Ti, it will be an eyewatering $300 more expensive than that card.
Check out the advert below, alongside a picture of the GTX 780 Ti for comparison. It’s a break from previously rumoured designs for Nvidia’s high-end board; older renders showed an black and green design that was a more obvious reference to Nvidia’s own colour scheme.
What do you think of the Titan Black's design?
It’s a styling that brings the new card in line with the 780 Ti card…
The Titan Black Logo Is Similar To The GTX 780 TiCheck out the advert below, alongside a picture of the GTX 780 Ti for comparison. It’s a break from previously rumoured designs for Nvidia’s high-end board; older renders showed an black and green design that was a more obvious reference to Nvidia’s own colour scheme.
What do you think of the Titan Black's design?
