Battlefield 3 (BF3) Beta Performance: Quality Preset and SLI Scaling

Subject: Editorial, General Tech, Graphics Cards | October 1, 2011 - 01:49 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: sli, gtx 570, gtx 460, bf3, battlefield 3

I know, we've been talking a lot about Battlefield 3 this week, but I have yet another set of numbers and results that I think you guys will want to see.  Previously, all of our BF3 benchmarks have been run under the Ultra quality presets but it is obvious that not all GPUs or gamers are going to want to target the highest settings the game can accomplish.  With that in mind I decided to test a couple of cards at Ultra, High, Medium and Low presets in order to guage how well the game scaled based on image quality.

For this round I wanted to use a high end card as well as an older, much more popular (and currently low cost) card; the result is tests on the GeForce GTX 570 1.25GB and the GeForce GTX 460 1GB reference platforms.  We used the Operation Metro map and the initial outdoor section for our testing as it was the most strenuous in the beta thus far.  

As a side note, if you want to see how the image quality actually changes from the Ultra, High, Medium and Low presets, check out this page of my previous performance article that included screenshots and even some animated GIFs as demonstration.

Here are the results:

On the more powerful GTX 570 you can see that BF3 scales pretty well from the Ultra settings through the Low options in even steps.  By moving from Ultra down to High a gamer would see about 34% better performance and 22% better minimum frame rates.  The jump to Medium gains another 41% while the move to Low gets another 25% on top of that.  The gap between Low and Ultra is about ~2.3x.

The GTX 460 sees similar levels of performance grades though the move from Ultra to High only gains you about 28% and averages of 33.8 FPS or so.  I would still consider that on the low side of a good game play experience and thus the move to Medium (which is 82% faster than Ultra) seems like the sweet spot for BF3.  

I know we also had some requests for SLI scaling performance and, in particular, with the GTX 460 1GB cards.  Since this card has been so incredibly popular we thought this would be the perfect candidate for the "SLI Upgrade Path" option and you can pick one up for $150 (or less with rebates).  Let's see how well Battlefield 3 scales with multiple GPUs.

At the Ultra quality settings we saw a 60% scaling capability by adding in a second GTX 460 at stock speeds while at High settings we see that rate increases to 84%!  That is pretty impressive and for the cost investment of a second GPU it looks like you are going to see better than average scaling.  Considering this is with the first driver release and with a beta version of the game, I can only see multi-GPU scaling rates going up as the full retail release hits.

With these results and some others we have done through the week we are ready to put together our Battlefield 3 system build guide.  Stay tuned!

Battlefield 3 Beta: Caspian Border Performance and Screenshots

Subject: Graphics Cards | September 30, 2011 - 08:28 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: caspian, bf3, battlefield 3

Battlefield 3 is all the rage (but when RAGE comes out, maybe it will be) for PC gamers right now as you can tell from our various articles on the subject. They have been very well received but as is usually the case, our readers wanted more. We are still working on our planned system guide but we needed some more data (currently being gathered) and I wanted to pass on some results from the Caspian Border map of the beta.

If you are looking for it today, don't bother - EA removed it.  And even when it was online since the 27th it has been password locked.  Luckily for us we were able to "find" the password online and jump in to do some quick benchmarking though not as much as we wanted thanks to the removal of the map.  All I was able to grab was performance on the ASUS MARS II dual GTX 580 card and the GeForce GTX 580 reference card.

What is interesting is that because that map was for 64 players (rather than the 32 players of the Operation Metro map) and that it included a MUCH larger open space, we were worried that it would require a lot more GPU horsepower or memory than the map everyone is playing on today.  While we can't say for 100% certainty because we haven't tested as many cards, it looks like there is only a minimal impact on performance for the client:

So you can see from those results that the Caspian Border map didn't vary much from the performance on the Operation Metro map with those two graphics cards.  I am still curious if cards with 1GB of memory might see some more noticeable changes but until the map goes live again, I won't be able to check.

Finally, just because the map was seen by so few and is no longer available, I have included a host of screenshots from the map below, all you have to do is click to open up the full news post to access them.  Enjoy!

Here is a video of us playing on the Caspian Border map during our PCPer Live! sessions this week!

PCPer Live! Battlefield 3 Beta Party and Discussion @ 10:30pm EST

Subject: Editorial, General Tech, Graphics Cards | September 29, 2011 - 06:51 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: radeon, pcper live, nvidia, geforce, bf3, battlefield 3, amd

Look, there isn't any football on tonight, so what else are you going to do?  Rather than watch a rerun of Seinfeld, why not stop by here at http://pcper.com/live to hang out and not only watch us play some Battlefield 3 but also participate yourself by calling in on Skype, using Google+ Hangouts or even just chatting on our IRC server (welcome back to 1998, amiright?).

We are going to start the show at 10:30pm EST and plan on running until midnight at least, but it all depends on participation levels from YOU! 

What all do we have on the agenda?  Well, it is going to be pretty informal as we are still getting our feet wet with this whole "live" thing but here is what we are planning:

• Watch Ryan and Ken get destroyed over and over in Battlefield 3 and watch as we attempt to sneak our way into the password protected Caspian levels with vehicles, 64 players and a new game type (oh my!).
• Skype call ins from readers and gamers that want to talk about BF3 and their experiences with the game so far.  How does it run on your hardware?  Discussion like this will help others that might not have the beta figure out what they might want to upgrade in the near future.  (Be prepared to give us your Skype handle in the chat so we can call you!)
• Trying some group games via our PC Perspective Platoon, the Fragging Frogs!  (Head over and apply to join or become a fan!)  You can also find me on EA Origin or in the Battlelog system as "ryanshrout".
• We will discuss our brainstorming sessions for what hardware we will recommend for certain gaming resolutions and specific image quality settings in a future article...all live!
• Maybe some surprise guests from the PC Perspective staff and beyond...??  

We will be streaming the festivities live on our Justin.tv channel (embedded below) and will have a chat widget here as well for those of you that would rather use IRC than the integrated Justin.tv chat.

In short, we are planning on having a good time playing some games and talking hardware so if you are into that, then I think you should be sure to stop by and say hello!!  Let us know in the comments if you have anything else you want to see or any more ideas for our live show.  Thanks!!!

More Battlefield 3 Beta Performance Results: GTX 460, Radeon HD 5850 and 9800 GT!

Subject: Graphics Cards | September 29, 2011 - 05:54 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: bf3, battlefield 3, nvidia, amd, geforce, radeon, gtx 460, hd 5850, 9800 gt

I just wanted to drop a quick note here on the home page to let you know that we haven't been just playing around on Battlefield 3 all day - instead we have been playing around on BF3 all day in order to bring you some more information about performance in the game!  Earlier this afternoon I updated my Battlefield 3 Beta Performance article with a new page that focuses on results from the GeForce GTX 460 1GB, the AMD Radeon HD 5850 1GB and the GeForce 9800 GT 512MB card for those of you that are really behind the curve in the upgrade cycle.  

What's this?  The Caspian map?  Performance results soon!

I would recommend you check out that new content to see where you hardware might fall and hopefully over the weekend we are going to be putitng together a system guide similar to our own Hardware Leaderboard but targetted at the BF3 gaming experience.  Stay tuned!!

The Alphenfohn Peter can cool almost any GPU

Subject: Graphics Cards | September 28, 2011 - 05:09 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: Alpenföhn Peter, vga cooler

The Alpenföhn Peter VGA cooler has a long list of modern graphics cards which it is compatible with, the only missing suspects are the GTX560 and 570.  If you have any other modern GPU then chances are that this VGA cooler will work for you.  It is a large cooler, the 253.5mm(10") x 100mm(4")  x 44mm(4.7") can accommodate four 120mm fans or three 140mm fans.  The cooler is also rather heavy, around 650g without fans which you should keep in mind.  Mad Shrimps attached it to an older GTX480 and it beat the Arctic Cooling Plus II by a cool 10C and did it more quietly as well.  They leave you with two warnings, some configurations do not cool the VRMs very well and the massive size of the cooler makes SLI/Crossfire difficult, if not impossible, to set up.

"Modern high end videocards can be small nuclear graphical powerplants. Putting out a lot of heat when working full load to render smooth frames per second in your favourite game. Sometimes the boxed aka reference cooler is up to the task and keeps everything at reasonable operating temperatures. Though many maxed out their cooling capacity or are just too darn loud. This is where companies alike Arctic Cooling, Thermalright,... and Alpenföhn come to your rescue. Todays Alpenföhn Peter VGA cooler will try to cool our Fermi based GTX480 graphics card in stock and overclocked configuration."

Here are some more Graphics Card articles from around the web:

Graphics Cards

• Alpenföhn Peter GPU Cooler @ XSReviews
• MSI R6950 Twin Frozr III 1GD5 Power Edition/OC @ Bjorn3D
• MSI R6950 Twin Frozr III Power Edition @ kitguru
• Sapphire Radeon HD 6870 Dirt 3 Edition OC @ Tweaktown
• Sapphire HD6870 Dual Fan Overclock Edition @ kitguru
• PowerColor Radeon HD 6770 PCS+ Vortex II Graphics Card Review @ eTeknix
• PowerColor PCS+ HD6770 1GB GDDR5 Vortex II @ X-bit Labs
• AMD Catalyst 11.8 Driver Analysis @ eTeknix
• Desktop Graphics Card Comparison Guide @ TechARP
• Mobile GPU Comparison Guide @ TechARP
• Sparkle Calibre X560DF Video Card Review @ Madshrimps

ZOTAC Expands Value GeForce GT 520 lineup

Subject: Graphics Cards | September 27, 2011 - 12:30 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: zotac, nvidia, low power, GT 520

HONG KONG – Sept. 27, 2011 – ZOTAC International, a leading innovator and channel manufacturer, today expands the value GeForce GT 520 lineup with new PCI and PCI Express x1 form factors for users with pre-built systems that have limited expansion capabilities. The new ZOTAC GeForce GT 520 PCI and PCI Express x1 graphics cards breathe new life into older systems by delivering a performance punch and new video capabilities.

“Upgrading your graphics card is the easiest way to boost your system performance and gain new capabilities. The new ZOTAC GeForce GT 520 PCI and PCI Express x1 graphics cards shows that you can experience good graphics without upgrading the rest of your system,” said Carsten Berger, marketing director, ZOTAC International.

The ZOTAC GeForce GT 520 PCI and PCI Express x1 graphics cards provide DVI, HDMI and VGA outputs with dual simultaneous independent display support for an instant dual-monitor upgrade. The low-profile form factor enables the ZOTAC GeForce GT 520 PCI and PCI express x1 graphics card to easily fit in compact pre-built systems with height limitations in addition to expansion limitations.

It’s time to play with the ZOTAC GeForce GT 520 PCI and PCI Express x1 graphics card.

General details

• New ZOTAC GeForce GT 520 PCI and PCI Express x1 graphics cards
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 520 GPU
• Engine clock: 810 MHz
• 48 unified shaders 
• Shader clock: 1620 MHz
• 512MB DDR3 memory
• Memory clock: 1333 MHz
• 64-bit memory interface
• DVI, HDMI & VGA outputs
• DirectX 11 technology & Shader Model 5.0
• OpenGL 4.1 compatible
• NVIDIA CUDA technology
• Full HD video playback

PC Gaming to Surpass Console Gaming in Revenue by 2015

Subject: Editorial, General Tech, Graphics Cards | September 22, 2011 - 02:26 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: skyrim, rage, pc gaming, diablo iii, consoles, battlefield 3, batman

During a conference call with NVIDIA this week some interesting information from DFC Intelligence, "a strategic market research and consulting firm focused on interactive entertainment and the emerging video game, online game, interactive entertainment and portable game markets" according to their webiste, was revealed that paints the world of PC gaming in a much more positive light than previously expected.  By anyone's account, the coming fall and winter release schedules are going to be packed with fantastic releases:

Courtesy NVIDIA

Several of these games, including DOTA 2, Diablo III and The Old Republic are going to be PC-only titles with others (like Battlefield 3, RAGE and Skyrim) that will without question look better and play better on the PC.  This sets up a great time for hardware companies like NVIDIA and AMD to sell system upgrades in order to maximize user experience in these titles.  

And while most gaming pundits have been telling us for years that PC gaming is dying, the report from DFC tells a different story:

Courtesy NVIDIA

Based on revenue alone, estimates show PC gaming to surpass the sales of console games by 2014 with steady growth.  How can this be?  Have you stopped by your local Gamestop or Best Buy and seen the shelf space devoted to PC games compared to that devoted to the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Wii?

Courtesy NVIDIA

Here is the key and it is something we have always suspected but haven't really been able to nail down: packaged sales are dying while digital distribution methods and new monetary game mechanics are increasing.  Because the industry's most prolific digital sales platform is notoriously tight with sales numbers (Valve's Steam), we have to depend on third party reports from DFC and others.  According to this chart, the digital sales of gaming on the PC are skyrocketing and will take PC revenues past consoles in just a few years time.  

One note here: this does NOT just include downloaded games in the traditional sense.  Instead, new pay models like the monthly subscriptions of World of Warcraft and "free to play" models that charge for upgrades and additional features are really going to be pushing the industry forward.  Looking at titles like League of Legends that claims 15 million PC gamers worldwide and others like World of Tanks and World of Planes, this trend is growing and though it differs from the "traditional" PC gaming mentality, it appears to be dominating our future.

Courtesy NVIDIA

Many a PC gamer has lamented about the "console port" generation of games and this graph demonstrates how the power of the PC and the power of the current generation of consoles have diverged over the years.  By NVIDIA's estimates we are now about 8-9x the performance level of the Xbox 360 when compared to the GTX 580 that currently sells for about $450.  But if you look at the quality difference between something like Deus Ex: Human Revolution on the PC and the consoles, you do NOT see anything close to that kind of improvement.  Game developers have always had their hands tied by having to develop for the lowest common platform and while the PC market (when dominant) meant an upgrade cycle of 2-3 years we are now hitting a 6th year of static console gaming power.

Unreal Engine

If we want to see games that look like THIS, a screenshot from the Unreal Engine Samaritan demo, then we need to boost the baseline and soon. 

But the numbers that DFC Intelligence provided give hope to those die-hards in the enthusiast and PC gaming community that with the expanding reach and positive growth of the PC market as a whole, developers will see this as their chance to move the medium forward beyond the status quo. 

Silent CrossFire?

Subject: Graphics Cards | September 19, 2011 - 02:00 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: gigabyte, HD6770 Silent Cell, crossfire, hd6770

The GIGABYTE HD6770 Silent Cell is a different take on your normal HD6770, it has no fans but does sport a double wide heatsink.  Sporting all of GIGABYTE's Ultra Durable components you can pick up this card for a hair under $140; or more importantly for [H]ard|OCP's review you can pick up two for about the same price as an HD6950 or a GTX 570 if you can find one on sale.  Their testing showed that at a resolution of 1920x1200 the two HD6770's could hold their own but they quickly fell behind the competition when resolution was raised beyond that point, which would include EyeFinity.  If your case has the space for the coolers and you have an overwhelming urge to play games at a 1080p resolution on a silent machine, then these cards are for you.  Apart from that goal, you are better served with a single higher power GPU.

"Today we'll find out if two of GIGABYTE's HD6770 Silent Cell cards can match the performance of a Radeon HD 6950. We were impressed with how this no-fan silent configuration CrossFireX setup performed. However, is it worth $280 against the falling prices of the Radeon HD 6950?"

Here are some more Graphics Card articles from around the web:

Graphics Cards

• The Most Comprehensive AMD Radeon Linux Graphics Comparison @ Phoronix
• Sapphire Radeon HD 6850 Vapor-X Video Card Review @ Hi Tech Legion
• His IceQX Radeon 6770 Videocard @ Rbmods
• MSI R6950 Twin Frozr III Power Edition Review @ Neoseeker
• Gigabyte Radeon HD 6770 Silent-Cell Review @ Neoseeker
• Sapphire HD6850 Vapor-X @ Bjorn3D
• Diamond Multimedia VStream WPCTV1080H @ [H]ard|OCP
• ASUS ROG MARS 2 @ Overclock3D
• EVGA GeForce GTX 570 HD Classified Video Card Review @ Legit Reviews

IDF 2011: Knights Ferry Shown 8-Deep Running Ray Tracing

Subject: Graphics Cards, Processors, Shows and Expos | September 15, 2011 - 06:17 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: ray tracing, knights ferry, idf 2011, idf

Very few things impress like a collection of 256 processor cores in a box.  But that is exactly what we saw on our last visit to the floor at the Intel Developer Forum this year when I stopped by to visit friend-of-the-site Daniel Pohl to discuss updates to the ray tracing research he has been doing for many years now.  This is what he showed us:

What you see there is a dual-Xeon server running a set of 8 (!!) Knights Ferry many-core processor discrete cards.  Each card holds a chip with 32 Intel Architecture cores running at 1.2 GHz on it and each core can handle 4 threads for a total of 1024 threads in flight at any given time!  Keep in mind these are all modified x86 cores with support for 16-bit wide vector processing so they are pumping through a LOT of FLOPS.  Pohl did note that only 31-32 of the cores are actually doing ray tracing at any given time though as they reserve a couple for scheduling tasks, operating system interaction, etc.

Each of the the eight cards in the system is using a pair of 6-pin PCIe power connectors and they are jammed in there pretty tight.  Pohl noted this was the only case they could find that would fit 8 dual-slot add-in cards into it so I'll take a note of that for when I build my own system around them.  Of course there are no display outputs on the Knights Ferry cards as they were never really turned into GPUs in the traditional sense.  They are essentially development and research for exascale computing and HPC workloads for servers though the plan is to bring the power to consumers eventually.

To run the demo the Knights Ferry ray tracing server was communicating over a Gigabit Ethernet connection to this workstation that was running game processing, interaction processing and more and passed off data about the movements of the camera and objects in the ray traced world to the server.  The eight Knights Ferry cards then render the frame, the Xeon CPUs compress the image (8:1 using a standard Direct 3D format) and send the data across the network.  All of this happens in real time with basically no latency issues when compared to direct PC gaming. 

While the ray tracing game engine projects might seem a little less exciting since the demise of Larrabee, Pohl and his team have been spending a lot of time on learning how to take advantage of the x86 cores available.  The Wolfenstein demo we have seen in past events has been improved to add things like HDR lighting, anti-aliasing and more.

Though these features have obviously been around in rasterization based solutions for quite a long time, the demo was meant to showcase the fact that ray tracing doesn't inherently have difficulty performing those kinds of tasks as long as the processing power is there and alotted to it. 

I am glad to see the ray tracing research continuing at Intel as I think that in the long-term future, that is the route that gaming and other graphics-based applications will be rendering.  And I am not alone - id Software founder and Doom/Quake creator John Carmack agreed in a recent interview we held with him. 

IDF 2011: Lucid HyperFormance Technology Improves Game Responsiveness

Subject: General Tech, Graphics Cards, Motherboards | September 14, 2011 - 02:12 AM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: virtu, mvp, lucid, idf 2011, idf, hyperformance, hydra

Lucid has a history of introducing new software and hardware technologies that have the potential to dramatically affect the PC gaming environment.  The first product was Hydra shown in 2008 and promised the ability to use multiple GPUs from different generations and even different vendors on the same rendering task.  Next up was Lucid Virtu, a software solution that allowed Sandy Bridge processor customers to take advantage of the integrated graphics features while also using a discrete graphics card.  Lucid added support for AMD platforms later on and also showcased Virtual Vsync earlier this year in an attempt to improve user gaming experiences. 

That is a nice history lesson, but what is Lucid discussing this time around?  The technology is called "HyperFormance" (yes, like "High-Performance") and is included in a new version of the Virtu software called Virtu MVP.  I'll let the Lucid press release describe the goals of the technology:

HyperFormance, found in the new model Virtu Universal MVP, boosts gaming responsiveness performance by intelligently reducing redundant rendering tasks in the flow between the CPU, GPU and the display. 3D games put the greatest demands on both the CPU and GPU. And as the race for higher performance on the PC and now in notebooks never ends, both CPUs and GPUs keep gaining performance.

First, a warning.  This software might seem simple but the task it tries to accomplish is very complex and I have not had enough time to really dive into it too deeply.  Expect an updated and more invasive evaluation soon.  There are a couple of key phrases to pay attention to though including the idea of boosting "gaming responsiveness performance" by removing "redundant rendering tasks".  The idea of boosting responsiveness pertains to how the game FEELS to the gamer and should be evident with things like mouse movement responsiveness and the stability of the on-screen image (lack of tearing).  Lucid's new software technology attempts to improve the speed at which a game responds to your actions not by increasing the frame rate but rather by decreasing the amount of time between your mouse movement (or keyboard input, etc) and what appears on the screen as a result of that action. 

How they do that is actually very complex and revolves around the Lucid software's ability to detect rendering tasks by intercepting calls between the game engine and DirectX, not around dropping or removing whole frames.  Because Lucid Virtu can detect individual tasks it can attempt to prioritize and learn which are being repeated or mostly repeated from the previous frames and tell GPU to not render that data.  This gives the GPU a "near zero" render time on that current frame and pushes the next frame through the system, to the frame buffer and out to the screen sooner. 

To think of it another way, imagine a monitor running at 60 Hz but playing a game at 120 FPS or so.  With Vsync turned off, at any given time you might have two to four or more frames being rendered and shown on the screen.  The amount of each frame displayed will differ based on the frame rate and the result is usually an image some amount of visual tearing; you might have to top 35% of the screen as Frame1, the middle 10% of the screen as Frame2 and the bottom 55% as Frame3.  The HyperFormance software then decides if the frame that is going to take up 10% of the screen, Frame2, has redundant tasks and if it can be mostly removed from the rendering pipeline.  To replace it, the Lucid engine just uses 65% of Frame3. 

The result is an output that is more "up to date" with your movements and what is going on in the game engine and in "game time".  Like I said, it is a very complex task but one that I personally find very interesting and am looking forward to spending more time visualizing and explaining to readers.

Interestingly, this first implementation of HyperFormance does require the use of a multi-GPU system: the integrated GPU on Sandy Bridge or Llano along with the discrete card.  Lucid is working on a version that can do the same thing on a single GPU but that application is further out.

Frame rate without HyperFormance 

There is a side effect though that I feel could hurt Lucid: the effective frame rate of the games with HyperFormance enabled are much higher than without the software running.  Of course, the GPU isn't actually rendering more data and graphics than it did before; instead, because HyperFormance is looking for frames to report at near zero frame times, benchmarking applications and the games themselves *think* the game is running much faster than it is.  This is a drawback to the current way games are tested.  Many gamers might at first be fooled into thinking their game is running at higher frame rates - it isn't - and some might see the result as Lucid attempting to cheat - it isn't that either.  It is just a result of the process that Lucid is trying to get to work for gamers' benefits.

Frame rate with HyperFormance

Instead, Lucid is attempting to showcase the frame rate "increase" as a responsiveness increase or some kind of metric that indicates how much faster and reactive to the user the game actually feels.  It might be a start, but claiming to have 200% responsiveness likely isn't true and instead I think they need to spend some time with serious gamers and have them find a way to quantify the added benefits that the HyperFormance application offers, if any. 

There is a LOT more to say about this application and what it means to PC gaming but for now, that is where we'll leave it.  Expect more in the coming weeks!

A new trick from an old card, five displays from a single GTX560 Ti

Subject: Graphics Cards | September 12, 2011 - 12:26 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: gtx560 ti, nvidia, nvidia surround, gtx560 ti mdt x5, galaxy

The GTX560Ti MDT X5 (Multi Display Technology) can handle sending signal to 5 displays simultaneously which is something that no NVIDIA card could do before.  AMD had the only GPUs which could handle multiple displays, you needed an SLI setup to manage NVIDIA Surround.  [H]ard|OCP were lucky enough to get to play with this $330 mid-range GPU that knows a new trick and were suitably impressed by its ability to provide good gaming performance on three 1080p monitors.  They also mention a GeForce 210 model that can handle up to four monitors for the non-gamer.

"With the new Galaxy GeForce GTX560Ti MDT X5 video card it is possible to output to 5 displays even though this is a single GPU video card. Enjoy NVIDIA multi-display spanned resolution gaming without the need for two cards! Can this GTX 560 Ti based video card stand up in the latest games when spanned across three displays? We are surprised."

Here are some more Graphics Card articles from around the web:

Graphics Cards

• ASUS ROG MARS 2 3GB Video Card Review w/ NVIDIA Surround @ Legit Reviews
• ASUS GTX560 Ti DirectCU II TOP Graphics Card Review @ OCIA
• Zotac Geforce GTX 590 @ XSReviews
• KFA2 GTX570 @ OC3D
• MSI N580GTX Lightning Xtreme Edition Review @ t-break
• Thermalright Shaman VGA Cooler @ Tweaktown
• DeepCool V6000 VGA Cooler Review @ eTeknix
• AMD Eyefinity and Nvidia Surround Technologies @ X-bit Labs
• Sapphire Radeon HD 6850 Vapor-X OC @ Tweaktown
• Sapphire Radeon HD 6850 Vapor-X Review @ Neoseeker
• Faster Than Radeon HD 6970: Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 2 GB Toxic Edition @ X-bit Labs
• Gigabyte HD 6770 Silent Cell 1GB GDDR5 DirectX11 Video Card Review @ Hi Tech Legion
• PowerColor Radeon HD6770 video card review @ TechwareLabs
• Powercolor LCS HD 6990 4GB Review @ OCC
• AMD Radeon HD 6450 @ Phoronix

Podcast #169 - SSD Decoder Update, Antec SOLO II, ASUS Eee Pad Transformer, Ultrabook news and a Drobo contest!!

Subject: Editorial, General Tech, Graphics Cards, Processors, Storage, Mobile | September 8, 2011 - 03:23 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: ultrabook, ssd, podcast, eee pad transformer, drobo, decoder, asus, antec

PC Perspective Podcast #169 - 9/08/2011

Join us this week as we discuss the MARS II combo on Newegg, an update to the SSD Decoder, the new Antec SOLO II chassis, our review of the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer tablet, news on Ultrabook development and even announce a new contest partnership with Drobo!

You can subscribe to us through iTunes and you can still access it directly through the RSS page HERE.

The URL for the podcast is: http://pcper.com/podcast - Share with your friends!

• iTunes - Subscribe to the podcast directly through the iTunes Store
• RSS - Subscribe through your regular RSS reader
• MP3 - Direct download link to the MP3 file

Hosts: Ryan Shrout, Josh Walrath, Jeremy Hellstrom, Allyn Malventano

This Podcast is brought to you by MSI Computer, and their all new Sandy Bridge Motherboards!

Program length: 1:23:36

Program Schedule:

1. Introduction
2. 1-888-38-PCPER or podcast@pcper.com
3. http://pcper.com/podcast
4. http://twitter.com/ryanshrout and http://twitter.com/pcper
5. MARS II Combo  for $4000!
6. SSD Decoder Update
7. Kingwin Stryker 500W Fanless Power Supply Review
8. Video Perspective: Antec SOLO II Chassis Review
9. ASUS Eee Pad Transformer TF101 Review: Assemble!
10. This Podcast is brought to you by MSI Computer, and their all new Sandy Bridge Motherboards!
11. Zotac Releases New ZBOX Nano AD10 Series Mini PCs
12. Toshiba Unveils Portege Z830 Ultrabook Series
    1. Acer Unveils Super Thin Aspire S3 Ultrabook at IFA in Berlin
    2. Silly Intel, the high price and limited availability were the parts your Ultrabook was supposed to drop
13. Bulldozer Infused Trinity APU Specifications Confirmed
14. Intel Unveils 16 New 32nm Processors
15. AMD Ships Bulldozer for Revenue- Interlagos though- will write up after the podcast and post on front page.
16. Magma Unveils the First Three-Slot Thunderbolt Expansion Chassis
17. Drobo contest
18. Email from Wes about GPU selection
19. Email from Chris about GPU whine
20. Email from Lee about SSD security
21. Email from a mystery writer about GPU stuttering
22. Finally, a VIDEO QUESTION from David!
23. Hardware / Software Pick of the Week
    1. Ryan: Blackmagic Intensity Pro
    2. Jeremy: Coil gun revolver with laser sty ((sight?) so there)
    3. Josh: Thermaltake eSports Shock Spin Diamond Black
    4. Allyn: Surefire LED flashlights
24. 1-888-38-PCPER or podcast@pcper.com
25. http://pcper.com/podcast   
26. http://twitter.com/ryanshrout and http://twitter.com/pcper
27. Closing

The new Sapphire Toxic HD6950 is [H]ard core

Subject: Graphics Cards | August 30, 2011 - 02:45 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: toxic, sapphire, hd6950

To get the bad news out of the way first, as Josh observed last week the stocks of HD6950 and 6970s are sparse, so you if you see the Sapphire Toxic HD6950 for sale grab it right away!

Why should you grab the card without hesitation?  It has Sapphire's Vapor Chamber cooling and comes with an 80MHz GPU clock and 50MHz GDDR5 overclock right out of the box and [H]ard|OCP hit 978MHz GPU and 1450MHz GDDR5 using Sapphire's TriXX OC Utility to boost the frequency and voltage.  You don't even have to worry about flashing the BIOS to make the card an HD6970, Sapphire did it for you, plus there is also a BIOS available which will set the +20% to PowerTune automatically.  This is the most serious GPU for under $300 right now.

"SAPPHIRE claims to have produced the fastest HD 6950 on the market in the SAPPHIRE HD6950 TOXIC Edition. It competes with a stock Radeon HD 6950 and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570. We also put it to the test against a Radeon HD 6970 and GeForce GTX 580 with results that might shock you. And did we mention you get two free games?"

Here are some more Graphics Card articles from around the web:

Graphics Cards

• Sapphire Radeon HD 6670 Ultimate 1GB Graphics Card Review @ eTeknix
• ASUS GeForce GTX 560 DirectCU II TOP Video Card Review @ Legit Reviews
• AMD Llano Graphics Battle: Gallium3D vs. Catalyst @ Phoronix
• Mobile GPU Comparison Guide @ TechARP
• Surround Vision Examined with ASUS MARS II 3GB Dual GTX 580 @ Tweaktown
• ASUS GTX580 MATRIX Review @ OCC
• Geforce GTX460 SLI configuration @ t-break
• Zotac AMP! GeForce GTX 550 Ti, AMP! GeForce GTX 560, GeForce GTX 590 Graphics Cards @ IXBT Labs
• ASUS Matrix GTX 580 Platinum @ Bjorn3D
• ZOTAC GeForce GTX 550 Ti AMP! Edition Video Card Review @ Legit Reviews
• GIGABYTE GTX 580 SOC @ Bjorn3D

Can two overclocked GTX 550 Ti's beat the competition?

Subject: Graphics Cards | August 23, 2011 - 03:33 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: nvidia, gtx550 ti, msi, sli, N550GTX-Ti Cyclone II

If you put a limit of $300 on your graphics subsystem, you are most likely shopping for an HD6950 or possibly a heavily overclocked GTX 560 Ti or a discounted GTX570.  [H]ard|OCP tested out a different choice, two of MSI's N550GTX-Ti Cyclone II card in SLI, which can also be had for under $300.   The testing did not go so well for NVIDIA's less powerful card, the HD6950 won in almost every test and consumed less energy doing so.  There were certain situations in which they would recommend running the cards in SLI, specifically when you already own a GTX 550 or other lower powered NVIDIA card and don't plan on playing at resolutions above 1920x1200.  Only then would this upgrade make sense.

"Packing a GeForce GTX 550 Ti GPU each, we have a pair of N550GTX-Ti Cyclone II video cards that we are going to evaluate against a Radeon HD 6950, GeForce GTX 570 and even an overclocked GeForce GTX 560 Ti. At a total cost of only $260 we will find out if this dual-GTX 550 Ti action has what it takes to compete. "

Here are some more Graphics Card articles from around the web:

Graphics Cards

• Four Graphics Cards: Inno3D iChill GTX 560 Ti, Leadtek WinFast GTX 560 OC and XFX Radeon HD 6970/HD 6950 Standard Edition @ X-bit Labs
• Zotac GTX 560 Multiview Video Card @ TechwareLabs
• ASUS MARS II 3GB Dual GTX 580 Video Card Overclocked @ Tweaktown
• ASUS Mars II 3 GB Dual GTX 580 @ techPowerUp
• ASUS ROG MARS II 3GB Video Card Preview @ Legit Reviews
• ASUS MARS II 3GB Dual GTX 580 @ Tweaktown
• ASUS ROG Mars II 3GB - A Mini Review @ VR-Zone.
• ASUS ENGTX580 DirectCU II Review @ OCC
• ZEROtherm CoolMaxx 4000 VGA Cooler @ X-bit Labs
• Desktop Graphics Card Comparison Guide @ TechARP
• Catalyst 11.8 Windows 7 Driver Analysis @ Tweaktown
• AC Accelero TwinTurbo Pro on HD6950 @ Hardwareoverclock

A platinum monolith, ASUS' overclocked GTX 580

Subject: Graphics Cards | August 18, 2011 - 11:14 AM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: asus, GTX 580 Platinum, factory overclocked

The ASUS GTX580 Platinum is an overclockers dream, from the hand picked cards and components to the Mod Zone area of the PCB which has solder points that allow you to turn off overcurrent and overheating safeguards and turn up the voltage.  You don't have to be an extreme overclocker to enjoy the card, right out of the box the GPU runs 44MHz above stock at 816MHz and [H]ard|OCP hit 891MHz without changing any settings but the frequency ... they also passed 1GHz with some extra voltage.  At $529 it does cost you quite a bit to purchase but it surpasses even the MSI Lightning Xtreme Edition that so impressed Josh.  As you can see below, it is also larger.

"ASUS has launched the new ROG MATRIX GTX580 Platinum video card that can be described as the pinnacle enthusiast GeForce GTX 580 GPU. Will all of this customization and new features mean you get fast video card? If this overclock doesn't impress you we suggest trading in your computer and finding a new hobby."

Here are some more Graphics Card articles from around the web:

Graphics Cards

• Gelid Icy Vision Rev. 2 VGA Cooler Review @ eTeknix
• x264 HD Benchmark 4.0 @ TechARP
• AMD's Open-Source Radeon Driver After Four Years @ Phoronix
• AMD Radeon 6950 Triple CrossFireX Review @ eTeknix
• sus HD 6870 DirectCU 1GB GDDR5 Video Card @ Hi Tech Legion
• Sapphire HD6950 2GB DiRT3 Toxic Edition Review @ OCC
• ASUS HD6670 1GB GDDR5 with DisplayPort DirectX11 Video Card Review @Hi Tech Legion

New Photo Of EVGA Classified GTX 580 Posted On Google+

Subject: Graphics Cards | August 17, 2011 - 10:33 PM | Tim Verry
Tagged: nvidia, GTX 580, gpu, evga

Jacob Freeman, Product Manager for EVGA recently posted a new photo of the upcoming EVGA Classified GTX 580 graphics card that is said to be taken from the final version of the card. Suffice it to say, this card is a beast in more ways than one. The giant card takes no prisoners in the performance and features department and demands a large chassis with lots of room. A photo of the front of the card is below.

According to this earlier EVGA forum posting by the same Jacob Freeman, the card is jam packed, including three PCI-E power connectors (two 8 pin and one 6 pin), a 14x3 phase "state of the art" power management circuitry, dual BIOS support for resetting the card in case of flashing or overclocking too aggressively, an extra large cooler and fan, up to 4 way SLI, physical voltage monitoring headers for the GPU, Frame Buffer, and PCI-Express voltages, and status LEDs for each.  The card has more depth that the traditional cards, thanks to the cooler that sticks out farther from the expansion slot bracket; however, it does maintain the standard double slot width and has a length of 11 inches (hence the need for a rather roomy case).

Head on over to the forum post linked above fore more photos of the EVGA GTX 580 Classified graphics card!

AMD Catalyst 11.8 is now available

Subject: Graphics Cards | August 17, 2011 - 03:14 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: graphics drivers, catalyst, amd

Performance highlights

Description:

• Improves performance up to 10% in Crysis 2 DirectX 11 version for both non-Anti-Aliasing, and application enabled Anti-Aliasing cases on the AMD Radeon™ HD 6000 and AMD Radeon™ HD 5000 Series
• Improves performance up to 8% in Fear 3 DirectX 11 version with application enabled Anti-Aliasing on the AMD Radeon™ HD 6000 and AMD Radeon™ HD 5000 Series
• Improves performance up to 30% when AMD’s Morphological Anti-Aliasing (MLAA) is enabled through the Catalyst™ Control Center on the AMD Radeon™ HD 6000 and AMD Radeon™ HD 5000 Series
• Improves performance up to 20% in Call of Duty Black Operations for single GPU and Multi-GPU configurations on the AMD Radeon™ HD 6000 and AMD Radeon™ HD 5000 Series

For more information on AMD Catalyst™ 11.8 (for Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP), including all of the resolved issues and performance highlights in this release, please see the AMD Catalyst™ 11.8 release notes.

Check out the monthly AMD Catalyst blog
Follow Andrew Dodd on twitter @CatalystCreator
Follow Christopher Bell on twitter @ChrisBellAMD

Download Catalyst Now!

This HD6970 keeps Bad Company

Subject: Graphics Cards | August 10, 2011 - 06:27 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: HD6970 Vietnam Special Edition, HD6970

Where most Radeons come with DiRT 3, Sapphire has gone a very different way with a  Battlefield Bad Company 2 Vietnam Special Edition.  The card sports a very nice graphic celebrating the game and comes in an impressive looking aluminium briefcase, unfortunately the promotion which gives you the game for free had expired in the case that [H]ard|OCP received.  That may be true of all of the cards, which does detract from the value of the package somewhat.  The card is not factory overclocked but don't let that discourage you since it is voltage tweak friendly and comes with Sapphire's TriXX overclocking software, which let them raise the GPU 85MHz to 965MHz and the GDDR5 effectively gained 80MHz to hit 1455MHz total.  That overclock puts the card in almost the exact same performance level as the GTX 580.  [H]ard|OCP loves the look but does mention the "Game Edition" that Sapphire offers has all of the overclocking potential of this on but at a lower price.

"The SAPPHIRE HD6970 BFBC2: Vietnam Special Edition will be competing with NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 570 and NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 580. We overclock the SAPPHIRE HD6970 BFBC2:V Special Edition using SAPPHIRE TriXX Tweak Utility and voltage tweaking to see how it can compare to the more expensive GTX 580."

Here are some more Graphics Card articles from around the web:

Graphics Cards

• ASUS Mars II Sneak Preview & Quick Benchmarks @ VR-Zone
• ASUS Matrix GTX 580 Platinum Review @ Neoseeker
• MSI GTX560 Ti Twin Frozer OC Review @ Madshrimps
• ASUS GeForce GTX 560 Ti DirectCU II 1GB DirectX11 Video Card Review @ Hi Tech Legion
• Zotac AMP! Geforce GTX 560 (1Gb GDDR5) @ Funky Kit
• Gigabyte GeForce GTX 580 SOC @ Techspot
• Zalman VF3000F GTX 570/580 GPU Cooler Review @ Techgage
• Nvidia Forceware 280.26 Driver Analysis @ eTeknix
• Intel Rounds Out Its Ivy Bridge Graphics Driver @ Phoronix
• iXBT Labs Review: i3DSpeed, July 2011
• HIS HD6770 IceQ X Turbo Crossfire @ OC3D
• Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 2GB Dirt 3 Edition Graphics Card Review @ eTeknix
• MSI Radeon HD 6670 1GB Overclocked @ Tweaktown
• Diamond Radeon HD 6770 XOC Video Card Review @ Legit Reviews