Tech News
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GPU benchmarking is moving past frames per second - kinda
Published: Thursday, April 25, 2013 | By: DennisHere is a pretty good article talking about how video cards are measured.
In gaming, frame rate — measured in frames per second, or fps– is king. That’s been true for the 12 years I’ve been reviewing computer hardware and then some. Frames per second has ruled the roost, virtually unchallenged. Some sites now incorporate minimum frame rates or display the frame rate at each second to give gamers a better sense of what the range is — but the metric hasn’t really changed. We’re still talking about the number of frames produced in one second.
The interesting thing about this article is how granular our testing methods have become. Traditionally we have measured video card performance based on FPS (Frames Per Second) and it has worked well since its inception back in the days of 3DFX. Now that systems have become overpowered it is hard to determine if card A is better than card B unless you start really digging down into the raw performance numbers and the performance at the sub-second timeframe.
The new metric brings up a number of questions/comments
- Speed is determined at the sub-second level so at what point does that time no longer matter?
- Video cards at a higher teir will not have the same performance profile so their metrics may not matter
- Personally, I see "inside the second" only applying to ultra low-end cards where price-per-performance matter more and at this price point you have less educated consumers who may not understand what they are looking at, much less read a lengthy review trying to explain why milliseconds matter
I still review video cards using FRAPs and rely on the FPS metric, FRAPs does has a frametime metric that could be included however from what i have seen that number rarely changes and given that zealots will likely complain that the numbers don't match sites using FCAT I figured it wasn't worth the trouble.
Of course things may change in the future and as they say, its better to have too much data than not enough.
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GIGABYTE 8 Series Preview – New Heatsink Photo
Published: Wednesday, April 24, 2013 | By: DennisI can't wait for this!!
The only thing that concerns me is not so much that it support air AND watercooling but the fact its a cooler for the PWM. Isn't the new Ultra Power PWM design supposed to run cooler?
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Malta Radeon HD 7990 Launch Day
Published: Wednesday, April 24, 2013 | By: DennisThere is a new AMD Radeon video card on the market today called the HD 7990. The card is based on two Tahiti based GPUs (read: HD 7970) on a single PCB for lighting fast graphics performance leveraging Crossfire technology. Of course we have seen a card like this before and even heard me talk about it on the Ninjalane Podcast. Back then the GPU was called the Devil 13 and was only available in limited numbers direct from Powercolor. In the end we suspect more reviewers got the card than end users but, that is beside the point.
It would seem we finally have an official launch making it a real product that real people can buy.
For a grand.
Web News and Reviews
- AMD Radeon HD 7990 Video Card Announcement @ Redaktion ocinside
- AMD Radeon HD 7990 review @ Some video card review site
- AMD Radeon HD 7990 review: fastest graphics card in the world?
- AMD Radeon HD 7990 Graphics Card Review @ HardwareHeaven
- AMD Radeon HD 7990 6GB Malta Video Card Review @ Legit Reviews
- AMD Radeon HD 7990 Review: The Quiet Beast @ HotHardware
- AMD HD 7990 Review; Malta Arrives @ Hardware CanucksWIth any luck you can overclock this beast.
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Funky Kit Review: OCZ Vertex 3.20 240GB SSD w/20nm Flash
Published: Tuesday, April 23, 2013 | By: DennisNew SSD Alert! - Now with smaller chips!
I'm very happy to see OCZ bringing new 20nm flash to the excellent Vertex3 platform, it's a logical and intelligent move in my opinion.
There are a few innovations with SSD technology and the ones that do exist are usually centered on the following.
- Larger capacities
- Faster access
Since these are also the driving force behind SSD selection it only seems fitting that companies do what they can to make those better, by any means necessary.
Kunky Kit takes a look at the new Vertex 3.20 with 20nm Flash chips and 240GB of raw data storage.
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Asus Cube with Google TV - The Tablet Got Bigger
Published: Tuesday, April 23, 2013 | By: DennisGot an email this morning from Asus announcing a new product specifically designed for watching TV called the. (wait for it...)
Asus Cube
Just when you thought watching movies on your Wii couldn't get any better there is a new product from Asus that brings with it a full wireless keyboard and the ability to watch Google TV.
With the ASUS CUBE with Google TV, you can now expand the horizons of your entertainment sources from the comfort of your couch. Quickly search for what you want to watch with Voice Search, whether it’s a show or movie title, channel name, or genre or even finding your favorite app or website. Even when you don’t know what to watch get recommendations from Prime Time. With Chrome, YouTube, Google Play, Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, and many more accessing and finding something entertaining on your big screen have never been easier.
The Cube appears to be running Android and allows you to consume media on the big screen that would otherwise be limited to your tablet. Assuming, of course, your tablet is lacking an HDMI interface.
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MSI Z77 GD65 Gaming motherboard review @ Guru3D
Published: Friday, April 19, 2013 | By: DennisMSI Gaming motherboards, can't wait to see one in person.
I hear they have an OC edition that is completely blacked out with no trace lines, or text.
We review, test and benchmark the MSI Z77 GD65 Gaming series motherboard. The Z77 gaming themed mainboard is intended for Intel's 22nm Ivy Bridge processors on Socket LGA1155. It is the new flagship product amongst the MSI gaming series LOADED with features and overclock potential, it has the latest Killer E2200 chip and SoundBlaster Cinema audio. Oh and of course new gorgeous looks.
According to the flavor text the board comes with SoundBlaster Cinema audio which could simply be software or could include a full SoundBlaster SPU. Which one do you think it will be?
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MSI Z77A-GD65 GAMING Intel LGA 1155 @ techPowerUp
Published: Friday, April 19, 2013 | By: DennisI'm not sure what to think about the new motherboard designs coming from MSI. On one hand we have an excellent gaming platform similar to the G1 Killer line however, given their track record for high-end board offerings I can only hope they release them in significant numbers.
From within MSI's high-tech laboratories, the MSI Z77A-GD65 GAMING motherboard is a dragon unleashed to deliver the best in gaming performance from every angle. Equipped with a KillerNIC E2205 Ethernet Controller and a high-end Realtek Audio CODEC, the board also has the looks and the performance to bring the latest game to its knees.
Black and Red, I do love the color combo.
KillerNIC, Yes!
Realtek Audio? -
Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H-WB Intel Z77 Motherboard Review @ PCSTATS
Published: Friday, April 19, 2013 | By: DennisFull service motherboards like the UD5H are a prized gem for any system builder since they come with most everything you need onboard. Sadly, most end-users are too focused on price and will skimp on their motherboard choice just to save a couple bucks.
The Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H-WB motherboard is a fully featured mainstream-gaming platform based around the Intel Z77 chipset and bundled with a Wireless 802.11bgn + Bluetooth 4.0 PCI Express x1 card, not to mention all the bells and whistles of a highly expandable workstation platform and a good set of overclocking tools.
The key thing when choosing a motherboard is making sure it has what you need with enough expandability to support what you want. Another important thing is to be realistic, don't buy a 4-way motherboard if you only have money for a single video card, instead pick a lower end board and spend more money on a processor/memory.
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Overclocking With Gigabyte Z77X Motherboards @ HotHardware
Published: Friday, April 19, 2013 | By: DennisI think by most of Ninjalane readers know that I'm a bit of an overclocker and have dabbled with just about every cooling method you can imagine including a single stage phase backed waterchiller with some rather surprising results. The one thing my overclocking experence has taught me is that motherboards, despite what anyone tells you, play a very small role in the maximum achievable overclock in a modern PC.
In fact you can look at it this way. CPU is the most important, with a bad processor you'll get a bad overclock regardless of how much voltage or power stability you have. Next would be memory which is quickly followed by your motherboard. BIOS(UEFI) programming helps to tune a link between everything and if you have a solid BIOS you'll have a solid overclock.
It is no surprise that the Hothardware reviewer was limited to 4.6Ghz in his overclocking tests given that was the frequency limit of his processor.
Although on paper the UP7 looked like it would be the toughest board in the bunch, it couldn’t quite push past the 4.6GHz mark, either; however, it did manage to achieve stability at that clock speed at just 1.18V, which was a bit batter than both the UP5 TH and UD4H. Keep in mind, to maintain stability while overclocked, it's not just a higher voltage that helps, but clean, smooth power delivery as well. And the UP7's beefier power array seems to have paid off here.
At the end of the day, then, all three mainboards achieved the same 4.6GHz overclock, but at three different voltages. The UP7 was the winner by a hair.Of course those had he included memory frequency and results under LN2 I think the end result would have been more definable however, under air/water cooling your maximum clock frequency isn't so much determined by the motherboard but rather the quality of the BIOS programming and how good your particular CPU is.
Funny thing about the UP7, it is an amazing motherboard but due to the complexity of the motherboard design you'll find that memory overclocking isn't all that great. Now, if you roll down to a lower end board like the UD4H you'll find that signal integrity is better and just makes memory overclocking that much easier.
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Five Reasons Why PC Sales Are In The Crapper
Published: Thursday, April 18, 2013 | By: DennisThere are several reasons why people are buying fewer PCs. The biggest one I see is speed, as computers have gotten faster there is less need to actually upgrade. So, unless you're a gamer or hardware enthusiast there is little need to upgrade your hardware.
Case in point, one of my network clients is still using old Dell machines with 3.0Ghz P4 processors. Yes they are slow but for what they do they are plenty fast.
Since the numbers have been released, technology experts and pundits have hypothesized about the causes of the ailing personal computer market. IDC, specifically, cited Windows 8, Microsoft's new computer and tablet operating system, as one of the main reasons people turned away from buying computers.
Money is also a factor and when companies aren't making much they can't afford to be spending it on things like a PC upgrade
