What's New
GeForce 7900GS Round Up
The mainstream or performance sector of the graphics card pie got a little jolt this month with the introduction of the GeForce 7900GS. For the first time, you can now get GeForce 7800GTX level of performance for a little over USD 200. To add fire to the mix, manufacturers have also started selling slightly higher clocked versions of the GeForce 7900GS. Are they worth it? We're taking a look at three flavors of GeForce 7900GS today: the ASUS EN7900GS, Gigabyte GeForce 7900GS TurboForce and Leadtek PX7900GS TDH Extreme.Read the article here.
GeForce 7950GT and 7900GS
If you're going to buy a new graphics card, one of the alternatives on the market is the new updates from NVIDIA - the GeForce 7950GT and 7900GS. Replacement parts for the GeForce 7900GT, the GeForce 7950 adds more performance and features such as HDCP support built in. The GeForce 7900GS lacks those qualities but is the first GeForce 7900 series to go near the USD 200 price point. No doubt you'll be interested with the two and in this article we take a closer look at what the two have to offer.Read the article here.
Hitachi Deskstar 7K160
The acquisition of Maxtor by Seagate means there are only three major players in the hard drive market - Seagate / Quantum / Maxtor, Western Digital and Hitachi GST. Sure, there are smaller manufacturers like Samsung and Fujitsu but chances are your PC is using a hard drive from one of the big three. We're pretty content with Maxtor DiamondMax drives, but we think it's time to try different solutions - mostly to use SATA II capabilities and advantages. Today, we'll be looking at the Hitachi Deskstar 7K160 drive.Read the article here.
News from the Web
NVNews sent word they recently completed a review of the Inno GeForce 7900GS. Looks like the card has some overclocking potential. Here's what they're saying:."The overclocking results were so spectacular that I had to make them the focus of this review. Starting with the stock speed of 450MHz core/1320MHz memory, an optimal speed of 557MHz/1568MHz was achieved with the overclocking applet in the new ForceWare control panel! With RivaTuner, I was able to push the memory up to 1600MHz for a 24% increase on the core and 21% increase in the memory clock speeds!"
Read NVNews review, here.
Still on the GeForce 7900GS, Madshrimps manage to snag a XFX GeForce 7900GS for testing. GeForce 7900GS is certainly drawing everyone's interest by offering high end performance and mainstream prices.
"There are people on this planet that will spend over $1000 dollar on a graphics subsystem. But there are far more people around that just want to spend about $200-250 on an excellent, allround graphics card. If you fit in the last category, The XFX 7900GS might very well be the card you're looking for..."
Read Madshrimps' review, here.
If you need higher performance, then the GeForce 7950GT M570 Extreme is worth looking at. This time TweakPC spent some quality time with XFX's GeForce 7950GT - passively cooled so you. We don['t know how XFX did it, but it's certainly peaked our interest. Our experience with the GeForce 7950GT indicate this card is hotter than a GeForce 7900GT.
Read TweakPC's review, here.
Rant of the Day
Sorry for the lack of updates this past month, we've been quite busy somewhere else (obviously!!!). If we're succesfuly, there should be some changes on the website this month. We'll keep you all posted!!!News from the Web
Madshrimps recently took a look at several power supplies from different manufacturers. Power supplies are becoming more important these days, with Crossfire and SLI gaining mainstream momentum."Today's computers desire more and more power, and that power has to be clean and stable. For those that want to push their computers a little above their specifications, these devices have become a deciding factor for reaching maximum performance. We have models from Silverstone, OCZ and Sharkoon on our testbed."
Read Madshrimp's review, here.
The great guys at NVNews have been quite busy this past month. They have the time to test both the MSI K9N nForce 570 SLI Platinum motherboard and two GeForce 7900GS cards, from EVGA and XFX. Mike Chambers have this to say about the MSI K9N SLI Platinum nForce 570.
"On the whole, I am very pleased with the MSI K9N SLI Platinum nForce 570. The board has a plethora of features, and considering that it can be found for less than $130, the deal is quite awesome; it brings nForce 5, socket AM2, DDR2 memory and SLI to the masses for a very affordable price."
Read NVNews.net's MSI K9N nForce 570 SLI Platinum review, here.
SLI is definitely getting cheaper. If you're interested in some multi rendering action, the GeForce 7900GS will definitely be very interesting - GeForce 7800GTX performance at GeForce 7600GT prices.
"NVIDIA is announcing two new Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) based on the GeForce 7900 Series architecture today - the GeForce 7900 GS and GeForce 7950 GT. Graphics cards based on the GeForce 7900 GS will be available immediately at prices ranging from $199 to $249, while GeForce 7950 GT based graphics cards will be available on September 14 and range in price from $299 to $349."
Read NVNews.net's EVGA and XFX 7900GS preview, here.
Viperlair also spent time with the MSI K9N SLI Platinum motherboard. Here's their take on it.
"Despite not being based on NVIDIA's flagship chipset, the MSI K9N SLI Platinum has shown to be a very impressive board. The build quality and design is very good. Minor items, such as SATA connection placement, was well thought out by MSI. We liked the CMOS reset button, as it makes recovering from unbootable system changes very easy. The heatsinks scattered about do help in controlling the heat, though some active cooling is recommended if you're using a water cooler. The flat chipset cooler as well as the wide space between PEG slots leave more options for the user as well."
Read Viperlair's MSI K9N SLI Platinum review, here.
Finally, TechARP, known previously as Adrian Rojak's Pot, have some DDR2 memory from OCZ in house. Whether you're going to use Intel Core 2 Duo or the new AM2 Athlon X2 64 processors, you're going to need some DDR2 memory modules.
"Overclockers looking for a good memory kit to play with should take a look at the OCZ PC2-8000 Titanium Alpha VX2. Thanks to its Micron D9 chips, and its ability to support up to 2.52V, it's fast, loaded with capacity and will give you plenty of room to play in."
Take a look at TechARP's pictorial review, here.
Benchmarking on Trial - Part 2
A graphics benchmark is only good if it can show the performance a graphics card in graphically limited situations. But a relevant graphics benchmark achieves that goal and still have more than enough relevance to gameplay - particularly at the parts of the game where frame rates are at their lowest. In our last article, we've picked levels that is well suited for gameplay testing sessions. Now, we're going to see where in these levels (or the entire game for that matter) frame rates are lowest and whether or not a more powerful graphics card can helpRead the article here.
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.Read the article here.
News from the Web
"The Corsair TWIN2X-8500 is a strong performer at both high frequency and low latencies. Basically, depending on your needs, the ram can easily switch between the two options. To be truthful, the main market for this memory is going to be users with 1066MHz CPUs so that they can run their memory 1:1. That said, I think overall you'll see better numbers if you can tighten the timings at the expense of a slightly lower clock speed."Read Viperlair's review, here.
"DDR is on its last legs with both AMD and Intel now supporting the newer DDR2 modules for their latest platforms. We present you with our most likely last DDR module review; two 2Gb high end memory kits from A-DATA and Team Group strive to help you get the most out of your Athlon 64 setup."
Read Madshrimp's review, here.
GeForce 7900GT Round Up
NVIDIA's strongest SKUs in the market today is undoubtedly the GeForce 7900GT and 7600GT. We already saw what the GeForce 7600GT, both reference and higher clocked SKUs can do in our last round up. The performance difference, while present, is minimal at best. So could a higher clocked GeForce 7900GT offer more punch than a reference clocked GeForce 7900GT? We put four cards to the test: the ASUS EN7900GT TOP, Gigabyte GeForce 7900GT TurboForce (GV-NX79T256DP-RH), Leadtek PX7900GT Extreme and the reference clocked MSI NX7900GT (VT2D256E) to the test.Read the article here.
News from the Web
First day:
Well, like many game tournaments, the opening of WGT is your typical tournament opening. Between presentations, I managed to get a sneak peak at some of the machines on display. Interestingly, some of the machines used the recently launched long awaited Intel's Core 2 Duo processors. Of course, that's not surprising since Intel is co-sponsoring WGT with ASUS and ATI - or should we say AMD. :-)
Didn't get a chance to play around with the PCs, but the officials told me that they were going to do some live game sessions of Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter. They even prepped the machines with some ASUS's PhysX card. Personally, I think Cell Factor would draw more attention not to mention make better use of the PhysX card. Hell, with Core 2 Duo and Radeon X1900 Crossfire, why not go all the way with some F.E.A.R, Quake 4 multiplayer action? Maybe for the second day.
Second day
When we think about tournament, we think about multiplayer shoots out in games like the Untreal Tournament, Counterstrike or even plain old Quake. We're not really into the Warcraft scene, though no doubt many of gamers still like this old classic, particularly Warcraft DOTA. It's just a shame, why built a powerful Core 2 Duo with X1900 Crossfire just to play Warcraft? That's overkill, absurd even. Well WGT today was full of Warcraft DOTA players, not to mention there's also a competition of the online game, Gunbound. Oh yes, we never got the chance to play F.E.A.R or Quake 4. Bummer.
Personally, I don't play online games, not because I hate it. Because i'm afraid i'll get hooked. I swear myself not to play any more persistent world games ever again since Freelancer (remember that game) went gold and took 48 hours of my life (literally) - without any sleep. Even an addict have to know when to stop.
Back to WGT. Since Warcraft didn't interest us, we took a stroll and looked at the various PCs and notebooks ASUS have on display. Some of them look very interesting, though nothing really speaks "Buy Me" to our eyes, but we have to admit, ever since IBM dropped their PC business to Lenovo, we kinda lost interest in notebooks all together. That doesn't mean I wouldn't recommend an ASUS notebook to a friend. In fact, I did bought one for a a girlfriend of mine way back. Think it was a Pentium III model, couldn't remember which one - L series probably.
Third day
Unfortunately, we didn't stay long enough to see the WGT finals. Some friends of ours did entered the competition, but apparently they were 'butt-kicked' on the second day. Don't think any of them made it to the finals. Since it was Sunday the venue was full of people . Since there were no more reason to stay and there was definitely little room to move, we left early. For those of you who are interested in knowing who won, you could check them up on WGT's official website, here.
GeForce 7600GT Round Up
While it is fun to play around with high end cards like the GeForce 7900GTX or Radeon X1900XTX, not everyone can afford these montrous pixel pushers. That's why we have mainstream cards like the GeForce 7600GT. With performance comparable to the GeForce 6800GT, it's the best bang for the buck for a card below USD 250. We'll be taking a look at four different offerings: the ASUS EN7600GT, Gigabyte GeForce 7600GT (GV-NX76T256D-RH), Leadtek PX7600GT Extreme and MSI NX7600GTRead the article here.
News from the Web
ASUS sent a press release concerning their involvement with World GameMaster Tournament (WGT). Here's a snip from the press release:
"Whether you yearn for the Frozen Throne, want to launch a massive Counter Strike or have a shoot out with the stars of DOTA All Stars, the World GamerMaster Tournament (WGT) has something for your game cravings. The WGT will take place in 26 nations in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and North America through out the second half of 2006 to find out who are the elite players in each of these countries.
The WGT, one of the largest gaming competitions in 2006, has selected ASUSTeK Computer Inc. (ASUS), the leading motherboard and graphics card company, as its official PC hardware supplier, and Intel and ATI as computing and video acceleration platform providers, respectively."
Ahem. That reminds me, I never did finidh the Ogre campaign in Warcraft 3. Now where did I put those CDS? Oh well.
More info can be found on WGT official website, here.
Rant of the Day
The biggest news of this month is obviously Intel's Core 2 Duo launch and ATI's acquisition by AMD. It's been a long time coming and now Intel have AMD running for their money. Many of us not already using Core 2 Duo are probably thinking about switching. Personally I still dislike LGA-775 for the unnecessary installation hassle. With the supposed 50% percent price cut from AMD on the horizon, I think it's time to upgrade our test setup. Something that's long overdue, we admit. We really haven't made up my mind - Intel or AMD. I guess we'll have to wait till August to find out.Last months' news.
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