RivaTuner 2.0 RC 16.1

Subject: Graphics Cards | October 23, 2006 - 12:28 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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The newest release of RivaTuner should be able to cope with all the new video cards that have come out since the last releas.  Also covered is nVIDIA drivers up to 95.97, ATI up to 6.10, and even experimental 32 bit Vista support.  Get over to the Guru of 3D to restore your overclock.

Transparency anti-aliasing, now available on GeForce6's

Subject: Graphics Cards | October 19, 2006 - 03:44 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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The new set of nVIDIA dirvers (91.47) allow Transparency AA on GeForce6's, which was exculsive to the GeForce7's previously.  Elite Bastards explains what exactly this type of AA does, and it's effects on gaming.

The X1950 Pro, a more mature Crossfire

Subject: Graphics Cards | October 17, 2006 - 02:29 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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ATIs newest card sits at a very nice price point, and is incredibly easy to set up in Crossfire.  [H]ard|OCP ran some benchmarks against nVIDIA's 7900 GS OC, which gives about the same frame rate, but they discovered some visual advantages the ATI card has over the competition.

There goes the main reason to buy Windows Vista

Subject: Graphics Cards | October 16, 2006 - 12:43 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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One of the main reasons many gamers planned to go with Windows Vista when it was released is DirectX 10.  According to this story on The Inquirer, the soon to be released DX 9.0 L will be DX10 for Windows XP, and will allow you to play DX 10 games.  Since DX9.0L has not been released yet, nor are any DX10 graphics cards or games available, we don't know how well it will work, or what differences between the two might exist.

Mobile Graphics Power

Subject: Graphics Cards | October 13, 2006 - 02:25 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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HotHardware gives you a sneak peek at the GeForce GO 7950 GTX.  Although still a single core graphics card (like the 7950  GT), you do get a 75MHz increase in core frequency and 100MHz in memory compared to the previous GeForce Go 7900 GTX. 

Sapphire Announces new Water Cooled X1950 Cards

Subject: Graphics Cards | October 12, 2006 - 02:03 PM | Ryan Shrout
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Dailytech has the announcement and some images of the new Sapphire liquid cooled X1950 XTX and CrossFire cards.  Bother use the same design that keeps the water cooling components inside the case.

Sapphire has announced the release of its new TOXIC X1950XTX and TOXIC X1950 CrossFire Edition graphics cards catered towards enthusiasts and silent PC aficionados.

AGEIA PhysX at Digital Life in New York

Subject: Graphics Cards | October 12, 2006 - 01:38 PM | Ryan Shrout
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Digital Life, one of the smaller shows for the tech community, opened today in New York City.  I just got an email that AGEIA is on-site there with some new annoucements and showing off some new technology.  They have some software on display, as well as the first public showing of the PCI Express version of the PhysX card.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — October 12, 2006 — AGEIA™ Technologies, Inc.

RealityMark is available for download

Subject: Graphics Cards | October 10, 2006 - 02:40 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Set to become the 3dMark equivalent for Physics Processing Units, AGEIA has posted their RealityMark benchmarking tool for download.
Here's the system requirements

• AGEIA PhysX Accelerator with latest drivers (2.5.1 or later required)
• Microsoft Windows® XP 32-bit or 64-bit
• 1GB System RAM or higher
• At least 1 GB free hard disk space
• Intel® Pentium® 4 or Celeron Processor, 1.5GHz or higher OR AMD Athon XP™ 2400+ or higher
• DirectX 9.0 graphics adapter with 128MB RAM or higher
  

Is quiet enough for the EAX 1600 XT?

Subject: Graphics Cards | October 10, 2006 - 12:23 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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[H]ard|OCP reviews the ASUS EAX1600 XT Silent, a totally passively cooled graphics card, that costs just under $150.  The problem is that it's direct competitor is the GeForce 7600 GT, which costs even less and has more impressive stats on paper.  Read the review to find out if it can compete.

ATI's TV Wonder knows a few tricks

Subject: Graphics Cards | October 5, 2006 - 05:13 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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After a false start with faulty capacitors, the relaunched ATI TV Wonder 650 is back on the shelves.  Motherboards.org does a full review of this truly multifunctional card, at home in just about any HTPC application.

Quality versus Quantity, The Frames per Second conundrum

Subject: Graphics Cards | October 2, 2006 - 02:42 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Take two of the fastest cards available, the nVIDIA 7950 GX2 and the ATI X1959XTX, and the speed difference at default  levels really isn't that huge in most games.  That isn't what X-bit Labs wants to find out though.   They are far more interested in maxing out AA, FSAA, Anistropic filtering and various other newer graphical improvements, first to look at the effect on FPS, and secondly to determine if it actually improves the look of the game.

Ageia RealityMark

Subject: Graphics Cards | October 2, 2006 - 11:58 AM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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If you want a little more physical reality in your games, Ageia's PPU is what will give it to you.  Short video clips and comparisons of games with and without hardware physics give you some idea what the card can do, but their upcoming benchmarking tool, RealityMark, shows it better than anything has yet. [H]ard|OCP has a clip from that benchmark, that is worth watching twice to catch everything that goes on.

ATI is first to annouce a DX10 card

Subject: Graphics Cards | September 27, 2006 - 03:14 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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A possible 7950 GS release?

Subject: Graphics Cards | September 26, 2006 - 06:07 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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NGOHQ has heard that a possible 7950GS card may be released.  The 7950GT was released very recently, at the $300 mark.   This card would have to be cheaper, as it would not be faster, and could be the cheapest and easiest way to get SLI up and running.

ASUS blows trhe lid on nVIDIA's new PPU

Subject: Graphics Cards | September 22, 2006 - 02:04 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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HEXUS has noticed the answer ASUS gave about the 3rd PCI Express slot on an unrelased (P5N32 SLI) motherboard.  Much like ATI's upcoming PPU, it does more that just process physics in games, it is also meant to be a co-processor for the CPU to dump many mathematical calculations onto.

Passive extremes, the new XFX 7950 GT

Subject: Graphics Cards | September 20, 2006 - 03:56 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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XFX passed on a GeForce 7950 GT 570M Extreme to [H]ard|OCP, who pitted it against the toughest competition they could find.  One of the most noticable things about this card is the passive cooling system, which begs the question as to what you could achieve with a 3rd party cooling solution.  Head over to see what this card can do right out of the box.

Get some PureVideo from nVIDIA

Subject: Graphics Cards | September 18, 2006 - 12:18 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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[H]ard|OCP asks Scott Vouri, the Multimedia GM at nVIDIA 10 questions about HDMI/HDCP and PureVideo.  Then they follow up with their own experimentations with NVIDIA PureVideo HD, an HDMI/HDCP equipped video card, and a HD-DVD player and different types of displays.

7950GT is here, performance for about $300

Subject: Graphics Cards | September 14, 2006 - 11:51 AM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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HotHardware is a perfect starting point to get an idea of how XFXs 7950GT will perform.  For a card that falls just below the performance of a 7950GTX, it is impressive to see a passive cooling solution.

Make sure to make your way back here, Ryan has reviewed the XFX passively cooled version, but we also managed to get a hold of BFG's actively cooled card.