Tech News
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Funky Kit Article: Voltmodding an old GPU to increase performance
Published: Friday, March 25, 2011 | By: DennisAs overclockers we are often limited by the tools provided to us by the mfg. While many of these limitations have gone away in recent years we are still often plagued by not having enough voltage to make our overclocks "stick".
Volt modding is a way around that but requires skill with a soldering iron and the steady hand of a surgeon.
In the video card end of things, the benchmarks involve rendering specific scenes either as fast as possible, or with the largest number of frames per second possible. The higher you can overclock, the more frames you can render and the higher your score will be. Overclocking to the extreme limit requires very good cooling, and rather more voltage then the manufacturers want you putting through the cards, that means it's time to bust out the soldering iron and have some fun!
Personally I stil have yet to take on the voltmodding challenge myself but that doesn't mean you shouldn't.
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti Review @ Techgage
Published: Friday, March 25, 2011 | By: DennisPicking a midrange video card for your gaming rig can be a difficult task but with the help of good reviews you can make an informed decision or reaffirm what you already know.
Catering to those who demand great GPU performance for a modest price, NVIDIA has launched its $130 GeForce GTX 550 Ti. Compared to the GTS 450 which it replaces, the GTX 550 Ti delivers faster performance, a beefier memory bus and what NVIDIA touts as being one of the best performance per watt ratios around.
We have looked at two different versions of the GTX 550 Ti, one reference design and another GTX 550 Ti from EVGA. While we often look at much faster cards for our systems you cannot ignore the efficiency of these lower end products.
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nVidia GTX 590 Introduction - The Worlds Fastest Single Card System
Published: Thursday, March 24, 2011 | By: DennisWhen dealing with competitive benchmarking you are always lusting after the super high-end hardware since that is the gear to get you real performance points. That's not to say you can't get points using cheaper and more common components, however the points are simply not the same.
This is where having the fastest GPU on the planet can really help your points position and the GTX 590 is the new speed king. Check out our introduction article for more information on this new dual GPU video card based on the awesome GTX 580.
As we mentioned before the GTX 590 is the world's fastest GPU, but what makes it the fastest GPU?? Is it a mystery chip discovered in the basement graphics lab? Or is it an innovative product that leverages the best that nVidia has to offer in a compact package? Actually, it's a little of both.
The card looks awesome, however the card architecture is designed for raw speed and not so much for overclocking. Yes there is a 10 phase PWM on board, but 5 phases pre GPU seems a little low considering some of the enthusiast friendly GTX 580s you can buy.Then again overclocking the primary driver behind what makes the GTX 590 so cool.
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nVidia GTX 590 Launch Day - Need Speed?
Published: Thursday, March 24, 2011 | By: DennisWould you like to have the fastest GPU on the planet?? Of course you would. Not only could you rule HWBot but you could also run triple displays and 3D Vision Sourround from a single PCB.
Here are some reviews from around the web
- ASUS GeForce GTX 590 @ PureOverclock
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590: Dual GF110s, One PCB @ HotHardware
- Nvidia's GeForce GTX 590 graphics card @ TR
- ASUS GeForce GTX 590 3GB Video Card Review @ Legit Reviews
- Nvidia GeForce GTX 590: The Dual-GF110 Beast @ Bjorn3D
- NVIDIA GTX 590 Dual GF110 Review @ ocaholic
- ASUS GeForce GTX 590 3 GB @ techPowerUp
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590 3GB Review @ Hardware CanucksBe sure to read the reviews carefully, I have seen at least one instance today where the review was nothing but a rehash of stock photos and estimated performance numbers.
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Is DirectX Holding Back PC Game Development?
Published: Tuesday, March 22, 2011 | By: DennisI found this interesting article over at Tested today that discusses the impact of development APIs on game development. In the early days of computer games you had 2 basic directions you could go when building a new game, either OpenGL/Glide or MS DirectX. After the fall of 3DFx and rise of "good" DirectX code it was only a matter of time before we saw games actually depend on DirectX version and performance.
Since the rise of DirectX we see games being released to all platforms at once. This for the lack of another term indicates they all are almost direct console ports with very little time spent to actually show off what PC hardware is capable of.In many ways, though, the benefits of APIs outweigh the disadvantages. Without APIs, devs would have to write all the low-level hardware code themselves, making sure their games worked on an enormous range of PC hardware. Additionally, saying PC games "don't look ten times as good" as console games seems to be bordering on a logical fallacy. Ten times the raw processing power doesn't necessarily indicate that the game should look ten times as amazing. As we draw closer to photorealistic graphics, generational improvements will become more subtle than ever.
While I am all for new technology it takes years before these new features make it into PC games and in an age where computer hardware is refreshing every 6-8 months by the time games come out to support the latest technologies the hardware it was built for is often obsolete.
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PCMark 7 Coming soon
Published: Tuesday, March 22, 2011 | By: JimDesigned for Windows 7, PCMark 7 includes more than 20 individual workloads covering storage, computation, image and video manipulation, web browsing and gaming. These workloads are combined into a range of convenient suites each giving a different view of your system’s performance.
Will be nice to see what improvements this has over PCMark Vantage. No date given yet, but I suspect it will be out soon. -
Crysis 2 Available in North America - Will it be the new benchmark?
Published: Tuesday, March 22, 2011 | By: DennisCrysis 2 has officially launched in North America and promises to be the next great shooter in the Crysis franchise. There are rumors floating around that this game will not support DX11 which would indicate that the game will suffer from consolitis and be nothing more than a new story applied to the original Crysis game engine.
We can hope this isn't the case, but only time will tell.
It's 2023, terrifying alien invaders stalk the New York City streets. Only you can prevail, wielding the supersoldier enhancements of Nanosuit 2.
I'll be picking up Crysis 2 this afternoon, wish me luck.
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Crysis 2 Quick Performance Preview using Timedemo
Published: Tuesday, March 22, 2011 | By: DennisI got this little bit of news a day before the game was launched and it doesn't really tell us anything about Crysis 2 performance. Dare I say this post is purely for SEO and an attempt to take advantage of people looking for performance numbers??
The most anticipated game of the year has finally arrived! We do a quick performance runthrough and use the built-in timedemo facilities.
Yep, Google food for sure, click at your own risk.
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NL: Review Block for March 22th 2011 - Cooling for Crysis
Published: Tuesday, March 22, 2011 | By: DennisReviews from around the web. some new some old, all fun.
Cases
- NZXT Classic Series H2 Silent PC Case Review @ Legit Reviews
- NZXT H2 Classic System Enclosure reviewed in Metku
Video Cards
- XFX HD 6950 XXX Graphics Card Review @ Tweaknews
- HIS Radeon HD 6990 4GB Overclocked Video Card Review
- ASUS GTX 570 DirectCU II Review @ ocaholic
Motherboards
- TechwareLabs Review: Gigabyte E350N-USB3 Motherboard
- MSI 890FXA-GD65 Socket AM3 Motherboard @ Pro-Clockers
- MSI P67A-GD65 @ PureOverclock
Cooling
- Funky Kit Review: Arctic Cooling Freezer 11 LP CPU cooler
- Prolimatech Genesis heatsink @ Hardwareoverclock
- Antec Kuhler H2O 620 Liquid CPU Cooler Review @ ThinkComputers
- Deepcool Ice Blade Pro Review at Overclockers Online
- Zalman CNPS5X-SZ Heatsink Review @ FrostyTech
Interface Stuff
- Tt eSports Shock Gaming Headset Review on Technic3D
- Mionix Propus 380 Mousepad @ Rbmods
- Tt eSports Black Element Gaming Mouse Review @ HardwareHeavenNot sure if this will be the new format for all reviews that come in, but it sure cleans ot the news box quick. If you have any suggestions on what you like in a news post let me know.
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AT&T Surges on $39 Billion T-Mobile Bid
Published: Monday, March 21, 2011 | By: DennisIt would seem the entire web is ablaze over the news that AT&T wants to buy T-Mobile. Personally I think it is a good move but as with any high profile buy-out you will have haters. The most vocal of these are "the beautiful people" on Facebook who no doubt are upset by change, or have some deep rooted hatred with AT&T.
The deal would allow AT&T, now the second-largest U.S. wireless operator, to add about 34 million customers and surpass Verizon Wireless. The acquisition may face government scrutiny because it combines the second- and fourth-largest wireless providers, reducing consumer choice. Though regulatory approval may take a year, cost savings and revenue gains could total $3 billion a year, Dallas-based AT&T said.
One thing is certain. If this deal goes thru AT&T will be one of the largest wireless providers based on subscriber stats. Will that improve quality? Not likely. Will it stop people from complaining about their wireless service provider like everything is their fault? Nope, people love to complain about everything. In fact, the only thing this will do is increase coverage for T-Mobile customers and make operations cheaper for AT&T.
