Tech-Hounds.com - Articles

Month 28

Looking at Vista's I/O Performance

Originally, we intended to write an article about various onboard storage controllers fare in Vista. Unexpectedly, we ran into a bit of a snag. Even with the latest Windows Performance and Reliability updates installed, we're seeing very low performance in Vista. Looking around the web, many users are also experiencing the same thing - though there are also others who said that the fix made all the difference to them. We delve deeper to see what is the problem and who are the likely suspects.

Month 27

Looking at Vista: AMD and NVIDIA drivers compared

This article took a long time to finish, but here it is. Here we take a look at what a pair of Radeon X1950 Pro in Crossfire setup have to offer. We were actually pretty excited about the potential of two Radeon X1950 Pro working together, however after testing we found this setup is not up to our expectations. Read on to find out why we chose not to recommend AMD's internal bridge Crossfire as the moment.

Looking at Intel P35 Express chipset

The P35 is a successor of Intel's P965 Express chipset. Many marketing pitch and reviews alike seem conclude that there's three things P35 offer over P965 - official support for 1333 MHz bus, Intel's upcoming 45nm Penryn processor family and DDR3 800 to 1333 MHz support. Of those three, only Penryn support is still up in the air. Hopefully Intel's promise of 'just a BIOS upgrade' is true. Today, we're going to take a look at what the P35 has to offer in comparison to its older sibling, the Intel P965 Express chipset.

Month 23

Internal Bridge Crossfire with Radeon X1950 Pro

Month 21

Experiences with the Core 2 Duo E6300

Like many gamers and hardware enthusiast, we here at Tech-Hounds.com also can't resist the lure of Core 2 Duo processors. Without a doubt, they are one of the best processors designed by Intel. We've spent quite a lot of time with a Core 2 Duo E6300, making it into our primary test setup. On the way, we discover some interesting things about this processor and our chosen platform - the Intel P965 chipset.

Scaling: GeForce 7900GS vs Radeon X1950 Pro

With a new platform comes the decision to choose which processor, memory, chipset and graphics cards to use. Our last article have answered some of the questions related to memory and chipset hardware. Now, we're taking two mainstream products - the GeForce 7900GS and the Radeon X1950 Pro to see which on offer more headroom and performance when paired with a fast processor like the Core 2 Duo E6300 running at 2.8 GHz.

Month 15

Benchmarking on Trial Part 1

Benchmarks - love or hate them, they are the staple of most hardware reviews in existence. While they are not the perfect tool to capture performance a hardware will offer, they do give us an idea of hardware performance. In this article, we took the time to learn the peculiarities of the old, still widely used replay / timedemo runs and gameplay testing sessions.

Benchmarking on Trial Part 2

We think a benchmark should be able show the differences between two similar hardware in the parts of the run where performance is a premium. For graphics benchmarks, that means where frames are at their lowest. Why? Because when we're playing a game, we don't really want to know a card is faster in an empty room. We want to know how a card perform with all the pixel carnage in a firefight.. In this article, we tried to go deeper to find that ideal benchmark.

Month 14

Revisiting SLI

Spurred on by what we saw with Crossfire, we were intrigued to see whether or not NVIDIA have stepped up to the challenge with SLI. In this article, we take a good look at SLI can offer (again) but this time with a pair of GeForce 7600GT. When all the dust have cleared and testing finished, we came away disappointed. Even the addition of new vertex shader units and a higher clocked core is not enough to tip the balance to SLI's favor.

Month 13

Crossfire: ATI's Answer to SLI - Part 1

We had to admit, we were a little skeptical about multi rendering solutions in general. NVIDIA have not been able to fully deliver on their promises with SLI. Will ATI fare any better? We take a look at the second incarnation of Crossfire from the Canadian based manufacturer.

Crossfire: ATI's Answer to SLI - Part 2

ATI have made us a convert with Crossfire. They prove that multi rendering solution can work and work well. However, what makes Crossfire so good is not the platform - it's the card. Clearly ATI have multi rendering in mind when they first design the X1K series. They also know that they need to offer than just pure performance to have an edge on NVIDIA. After some time with two Crossfire setups, we came away very impressed.

Month 11

Looking Past the Present - Part 2

In this second part, we take a look at the performance from both NVIDIA's and ATI's high end offering, the GeForce 7900GTX and Radeon X1900XTX to see just how they fare in current games with next generation graphics in mind. Out of the few games available, we'll be taking a look at Need For Speed: Most Wanted, Call of Duty 2 and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Our conclusion may surprise you: in all honesty, neither are fast enough to run these games with maxed out details.

Month 10

Looking Past the Present

If you quite the avid gamer then you will probably be familiar with this situation: you've scraped enough cash to get that high end card you've been dreaming of and actually buy it. Two months down the line, your supposedly 'high-end' card don't seem to cut it. It ran just fine, but it's just not fast enough for newer games. Well, with high end cards costing around USD 400 to 600 each these days, you don't want to be in that situation. In this article, we try to examine what to look for when buying a card that won't be obsolote in the next 6 months or so.

Month 08

Pushing the Frame Rate Envelope

If you ever want to know what makes graphics cards tick, this article is for you. Here, we will examine the influence of pixel shader quads, core and memory clock on the performance GeForce 7 series. What's the point? Well, we were curios just how far we can push the GeForce 7 series, architecturally. This way, we can hopefully catch a glimpse of what future next generations graphics can offer, both in texture dependent games like Quake 4, or shader heavy games like F.E.A.R.

SLI: Myth and Reality - Part 2

After looking at what a pair of GeForce 6600 in SLI can do, we wondered if that's all there is to it. So, once again we put SLI to the test but this time we're using two GeForce 7800GTX. This time around, we focus not just on performance but quality as well - that means looking at what SLI antialiasing has to offer. Our conclusion: SLI is better suited for gamers who want the best image quality NVIDIA has to offer, one that's only reachable with SLI antialiasing.

Month 07

The Quest for Lag Free Gaming - Part 1

This is a pretty big article, but of course, the scope is pretty large also. Gamers everywhere have at one time or another cursed under their breath when experiencing lag at least once when they were playing games. Lag and stuttering issues are actually two different things - most of the time, lag can be avoided by using faster processors and / or graphics cards. So what can we do to alleviate not only lag, but stuttering as well? This article looks at the influence of memory capacity and timing influences on lag and stutter.

The Quest for Lag Free Gaming - Part 2

This is a short follow up to the first part. Here, we looked at how RAID affects the gameplay experience. That means, performance, load and save times. After all, with all the major chipsets offering SATA and RAID capabilities, RAID use is going mainstream. Is RAID 0 (stripe) worth it for gamers? Read on to find out why we still recommend upgrading your memory instead of adding a RAID 0 to your PC.

SLI: Myth and Reality

For the most part of last year, the hottest thing to talk about in consumer 3D graphics was without a doubt, SLI. This is actually the second return of multi rendering solutions, the first being 3dfx legendary Voodoo SLI and the second is ATI's Rage Fury MAXX. Like its predecessor, NVIDIA's SLI (Scalable Link Interface) is mostly targeted for those who want more brute force, rendering power. In this second part, we discuss why SLI should always be considered a complementary solution rather than a substitute.

Month 03

Gamer's Audio - Part 2

This time, we want to know if Creative's Live! 24 bit on board is as good as their add on cards. So, we compare the Live! 24 bit to Creative's own Audigy 2 Value and Audigy 2 ZS. The results? There's no denying it, the onboard Live! 24 provides the bang of the buck, but surprisingly with some games its also faster than both Audigy cards

NVIDIA Forceware Revisited

NVIDIA quickly responded to gamers' complaints about bugs in Forceware 77.72 by releasing new drivers. The latest Forceware version is version 78.01. Of course, we're intrigued - partly to see whether or not the bugs we've found are fixed. We even take these drivers for a spin in Battlefield 2. Our conclusion: these drivers some improvements, but still retains the same bugs.

Month 02

Troubleshooting your PC

Once in a while, you most probably have problems with your PC. It could just be an annoying bug or a full blown hardware catastrophe. A bug you could put up with, but what must you do when you're at your wits end and that damn PC just won't boot? Well, stuck no more! Here's a quick troubleshooting guide you can use not just to find the culprit behind those crashes and lost documents, but also what you can do to fix them!

A Primer to 3D Graphics - Part 1

3D Graphics is all the buzz these days. Ever wonder have its all done? Part 1 of this article explains some very basic concepts of 3D graphics on your PC. Don't fret though - no math required! We'll take a look just how we portray a 3D world on a 2D monitor screen, even some of the techniques in 3D graphics such as shading and graphical features common to games available now.

A Primer to 3D Graphics - Part 2

You've taken the first step to understanding what 3D graphic is all about. In this part, we delve deeper into more technical aspects of 3D graphics. Always want to know what's the deal with all those terms like frame buffer, depth buffer etc? This article is for you. Not only will you find an explanation of these terms, but what does it all have to with memory, bandwidth and performance.

Gamer's Audio

Most people have taken for granted the presence of audio peripherals on a PC. Once a luxury, you can find it nowadays in nearly all motherboards in the market. Unfortunately, most onboard / integrated audio solutions don't cater specifically to gamers and only offer rudimentary EAX and 3D sound support. Creative recently made a bold move to enter the onboard audio market with their first offering - the onboard Live! 24 bit audio chip. Read on to find out why we think this is the best move Creative have made in years and why things are looking up for gamers everywhere.

Month 01

Buying a PC

Love them or hate them, people everywhere use a PC at least once in their life: play games, doing work, watch movies and listen to music. Some PCs cost an arm and leg, while some can be had for free. Buying this technological marvel (or nightmare!) is not an easy task. If you're planning to buy one in the near future, this article is a great place to start.

Building Your Own PC - Part 1

Want to know more about your PC? The components and what factors you should consider when choosing them? The first part of the 'Building Your Own PC' tells you what you need to know about PC components and what to pay attention to. Once you've read this article, you'll understand what makes some processors faster than others and what kind of PC should you buy.

Building Your Own PC - Part 2

You have armed yourself with information regarding processors, memory, graphics card, motherboard and hard drives. Now you're ready to take the first step in building your own PC. This second part will take you step by step through the process of building a PC. With care and several precautionary measures, building a PC is actually quite easy.

Building Your Own PC - Part 3

Compared to previous versions of Windows, Windows XP is the easiest Windows yet. Anyone can install Windows. But what makes your PC really shine is an optimally configured Windows XP. In this final part, we'll show you how to do it by yourself, without third party software and utilities.

Keeping Your PC Healthy

PC users everywhere must accept the fact that once in a while, they have to clean up their PC and Windows installation. We can't do it for you, but we can walk you through. Using several free utilities and software bundled with Windows, turn this routine chore to something that runs automatically. Keep your hardware and software healthy, not to mention your data and documents.

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