ATI's new driver supports the X1800XL & XT

Subject: Graphics Cards | November 11, 2005 - 05:10 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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TweakTown analyses the new ATI Catalyst 5.11, and checks the difference in performance between the sample drivers for the 1800's and this first official release.

"We did mention in our regular Catalyst performance analysis earlier in the day

that one of the most important additions to the Catalyst 5.11 drivers was the

inclusion of the X1800XL and X1800XT.

7800 reasons to get silent cooling

Subject: Graphics Cards | November 10, 2005 - 04:09 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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nVidia's 7800 series stock cooling solutions can often be loud, and in some cases limit your overclocking abilty.  InsaneTek looks at the Arctic Cooling NV Silencer 5 Rev3, built for cooling 7800's, and doing it very quietly.  If you have one of these cards, you owe it to your ears to read the review.

"Arctic Cooling has done it again. The NV Silencer 5 Rev3 made for the Geforce 7800 series is an

excellent cooler that performs in dead silence.

Faster! Faster! You fool! You Fool!

Subject: Graphics Cards | November 8, 2005 - 06:33 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Tweaktown isn't happy with the speed of ATI's X1800XT and X1600XT.  They spent hours figuring out how to overclock them, and today they share their findings with everyone.

"Today we will be using that very tool and overclocking both the new Radeon X1800XT and X1600XT.

We would have liked to also include the X1800XL but unfortunately it has left our hands for the

time being.

240 graphics cards compared, and counting

Subject: Graphics Cards | November 7, 2005 - 04:00 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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If you aren't familiar with Adrian's Rojak Pot's gigantic video card comparision, now is a good time to check it out.  If you are familiar, it's been updated with the new ATI cards, as well as some additions and corrections.

"Covering over 240 desktop graphics cards, this comprehensive comparison allows you to easily

compare 15 different specifications for each and every card!

Harmless Overclocking, or MADNESS!!!!

Subject: Graphics Cards | November 4, 2005 - 12:00 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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It's all fun and games until someone looses dry ice, then it's a sport.  Hardware Asylum has done some insane things with the clock speeds of whatever they can get their hands on.  While it may well have inspired their name, it has also inspired their members to take the top spot in 3DMarks 2001SE, 2003 and 2005.  Take a peek at what a GPU at - 171 C looks like.

Team Hardware Asylum has broken all three Futuremark 3DMark world records.

nVidia's Vanishing Mid-line

Subject: Graphics Cards | November 3, 2005 - 11:57 AM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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nVidia's mid-level 6800 cards seem to be disappearing, and as The Inquirer points out, this seems a dead giveaway that there is a new mid level card on it's way, likely a 7600.

"STRANGE THINGS are afoot in retail circles. The nVidia 6800 in its PCIe variety has all but

disappeared. This leaves nVidia with a huge gap in its mid range wide open for the new 7600.

The reason this is strange is how little fuss has been made.

S3 Graphics Announces ChromeS20 Series PCIe GPUs

Subject: Graphics Cards | November 3, 2005 - 11:05 AM | Ryan Shrout
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Today VIA/S3 announced a new candidate in the mid-market graphics world with the release of a new ChromeS20 series of PCI Express GPUs.  These cards are going to be made by Fujitsu's 90nm technology and offer a significant performance/watt advantage over current NVIDIA and ATI offerings.  I should have some contact with these parts soon so I'll be able to get a more in-depth product analysis up later in the week.

Features on the chip include improved HDTV output, 700 MHz core clock, DDR3 memory and support for an SLI-l

This card is begging to be overclocked

Subject: Graphics Cards | November 1, 2005 - 06:26 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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PimpRig has a look at the Sapphire X800 GTO2 Limited Edition 256MB PCIe Video Card.  It's a slightly faster X800, with great overclocking potential, and more.  It has 12 pipelines, as you'd expect, but with a flash, you can mod it into a 16 pipleine card, like the 850's, at about half the price.  Then you overclock that, and end up with an X800 than outperforms a vanilla X850.  You really want to read the whole article!

"The Sapphire X800 GTO2 was modestly launched recently

The Guru Delivers - nVHardPage SE version 3.2

Subject: Graphics Cards | October 31, 2005 - 11:54 AM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Guru of 3D's nVHardPage SE lets you tweak settings on your video card, through an easy to use software program, and they've updated it to version 3.2.  If you use it, update it ... if you've never tried it, maybe you should give it a try and see if you can breed a bit more life into your old nVidia card.

"Do you seek an easy way to en/disable overclocking options or vsync your ForceWare drivers

without the burden of importing registry entries or the need to go in that registry yourself ?

DDR4 - Coming soon to a GPU near you

Subject: Graphics Cards | October 28, 2005 - 11:57 AM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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The Inquirer reports on Samsung's new GDDR4 chips, which are currently undergoing testing.  If they deliver, they will double the bandwidth of current GDDR3 chips.

"The latency of the shipped modules is set at 0.8 nanoseconds, which limits the highest clockspeed

of the memory to an astonishing 1.25 GHz in DDR mode.

It does not take a braniac to calculate the possible bandwidth on G80/R580 boards: 32-bytes

(256-bit) x 1.25 (GHz) x 2 (DDR) results in 80GB/s of theoretical bandwidth, almost double the

currently

The many faces of the R480

Subject: Graphics Cards | October 27, 2005 - 12:43 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Bjorn3D puts the HIS X800GT and GTO head to head in a review that also incorporates 6 other video cards.  As with many other reviews, most ratings are shown twice, once for pure performance, and once as performance versus price.

"While ATI is busy showing off their new products it is easy to forget that they still have a

pretty nice line-up already out.

Stronger! Faster! Better! Cheaper?!?

Subject: Graphics Cards | October 25, 2005 - 06:41 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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PC Modding Malaysia discovers an interesting fact about the XFX GeForce 7800 GT.  It is a better performing card than the 6800 Ultra, and costs around $100 less.  Keep that in mind if you're upgrading, but aren't looking to spend $500+.

"All in all, the XFX GeForce 7800 GT is a stunning graphics card. The package was impressive and

the bundled games are pretty good. This 7800 GT comes factory overclocked and it runs pretty cool

even at overclocked speeds.

Walk quietly with a big Heat Stick

Subject: Graphics Cards | October 24, 2005 - 12:08 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Legion Hardware reviews ASUS' Extreme X800 Silencer.  As the name implies, this is a new ATI card that runs dead silently.  The heatpipes heatsink may be huge, but with it you can overclock this thing very well.

"This new passive cooling design by ASUS has proven to deliver exceptional performance while

operating with complete silence. The demand for silent cooling methods has become increasingly

popular as volume has become a real concern over the past few years.

Do you have what it takes to play with the Strogg?

Subject: Graphics Cards | October 20, 2005 - 12:03 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Hardware Zone got their hands on Quake 4, and a bunch of high end video cards.  See what you need to be able to enjoy your assault on the Strogg's!

"The latest installment of the legendary Quake series has arrived and we put it through our lab

tests to find out how it fares with various graphics hardware. Though based on the Doom 3 game

engine, we've found that Quake 4 needs much more juice.

Discount X850XT appears, the X800GTO

Subject: Graphics Cards | October 19, 2005 - 01:35 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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With the release of the expensive X850XT, ATI has found it's self with extra R480 cores.  The solution they came up with was to use the same core in their X800GTO, a card that costs roughly half as much.  TweakTown can give you the whole story on what this card can do.

"With all the hype surrounding the new generation ATI graphics cards, there are people who don't

have that kind of money to spend.

Crossfire and SLI got you down? Try SDGE!

Subject: Graphics Cards | October 18, 2005 - 05:33 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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CoolTechZone looks at ECS's SDGE, their answer to ATI and nVidia.  It is incredibly adaptable, running 

mixes like PCIe x16 + PCIe x4, PCIe x8 + PCIe x8, PCIe x16 + PCIe x16.  Also, in the future more combos may be included, like PCIe x16 + AGP Express, AGP 8x + PCIe Express, Integrated Graphics + AGP Express and Integr

7800GT vs x1800xl Review

Subject: Graphics Cards | October 18, 2005 - 03:49 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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AMD Review has a head to head contest up ... it pits ATI's current flagship card against nVidia's.  Check it out to see which gives you more bang for your buck.

"Today we got our hands on both an ATI X1800XL and NVIDIA 7800GT, so we decided to benchmark each of these cards with the same configuration to see what happens and how much bang you get for your buck."

Watercooled 7800 GT

Subject: Graphics Cards | October 18, 2005 - 12:01 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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[H]ard|OCP got their hands on a BFGTech GeForce 7800 GT OC H2O!  It's watercooled right out of the box, although you do need to have an existing watercooled PC to add it to.  See just how far they can push this beast!

"

BFGTech is well known for taking video cards and bringing a guaranteed and warranty approved factory overclock right out of the box for you to enjoy more performance. As we all know, there is only so much you can do with a heat sink and fan unit using air-cooling.