CrossFire in Overdrive

Subject: Graphics Cards | December 20, 2005 - 12:00 PM | Jonathan Hung
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ATI has unleashed a new Catalyst driver in time for the holidays. The new v5.13 beta posted at Guru3d is showing some remarkable improvements in the video/image quality department according to FiringSquad. This new driver should give NVIDIA some renewed competition in the HTPC market.

Guru3d has also reviewed the Radeon X1800 XT Crossfire card in a massive 19 page piece.

A card as rare as uranium, and just about as heavy

Subject: Graphics Cards | December 15, 2005 - 06:08 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Hardware Asylum managed to get their hands on the extremely rare Gigabyte 3D1-68GT, a dual GPU card whose performance is great, but comes at the cost of severe heat, and a massive size.  Still no word on whether there will be an SLI version released in the future.

"The 3D1-68GT is as good a dual-GPU card as we've ever seen, but that does not exempt it from its

associated faults.

The need for passively cooled speed

Subject: Graphics Cards | December 13, 2005 - 04:23 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Cool and quiet wins out over high powered video cards once again. [H]ard|OCP examines the ASUS' Extreme N6600GT Silencer, a dead silent, GeForce 6600 GT, cooled by a large heatsink, with no fan.  While it may not give you much overhead to overclock, it will certainly give good video performance, and as I may have mentioned, quiet down your system.

"Silence is golden. There are just certain situations where silence is a wonderful thing.

Valve Delivers new Filmic Effects

Subject: Graphics Cards | December 12, 2005 - 02:50 PM | Jonathan Hung
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Ryan has posted tantalizing coverage on Valve's new Filmic Effects. This new technology attempts to tackle some of graphics most complex problems, notably motion blurring and depth of field. Valve has some interesting approaches to implementing these effects which ultimately means more dramatic games in the near future.

Sadly though, there's no such thing as a free lunch...

"...

ATI's Catalysts and how they've changed

Subject: Graphics Cards | December 12, 2005 - 12:10 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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It's been a year of monthly updates for ATI's catalysts, with current rumours of a 13th release close to christmas.  AnandTech examines just what has changed over 2005, and ventures into the performance irregularities we saw earlier in the year.

"We have seen on more than one occasion that our benchmarks have been turned upside down and

inside out, with cases such as ATI's Catalyst 5.11 drivers suddenly giving ATI a decisive win in

OpenGL games, when they were being soundly defeated just a driver version b

XFX puts together a sweet bundle

Subject: Graphics Cards | December 9, 2005 - 12:10 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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The XFX bundle that the Guru of 3D reviews is just great.  Not only do you get a reasonably videocard, it will perform better than most cards in it's class.  Plus good games!  You won't be stuck with aged titles to try out on your new card, and replaying FarCry with all the options turned up to 11 will be much fun.

"XFX did something really extraordinary with this "XXX Edition" product in two fold. First of all

the higher core and memory clocks are just brilliant.

Sure it's fast, but how does it look

Subject: Graphics Cards | December 7, 2005 - 05:13 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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The Firing Squad decided to compare ATI, nVidia and XGI, with an eye for quality.  If you are more concerned with the quality of your frames, as opposed to the quantity, this review is for you.

'Today FiringSquad looks at the deinterlacing performance of the NVIDIA GeForce 6600, the ATI

Radeon X800, and the XGI Volari 8300.

A card to base an HTPC around

Subject: Graphics Cards | December 6, 2005 - 06:52 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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T-break reviews one of those rare non-AIW TV tuner cards, the PowerColor Theatre 550 Pro.  It's a 1x PCIx card, and is worth a look for anyone considering setting up a HTPC for themselves or as a gift.

"The included Cyberlink remote clearly lacks the luster that ATI remotes have and looks ungraceful

and clunky. The remote also lacks a thumbpad for mouse control and includes no programmable

buttons.

Ray Tracing; The future of graphics?

Subject: Graphics Cards | December 5, 2005 - 03:28 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Accelenation has an article up about one possible future of graphics, Parallax Mapping and Ray-Tracing.  Even is it does get a little technical at times, it is well illustrated and you will figure out exactly what they are talking about. 

"Could advanced Parallax Mapping represent the first tentative steps toward a ray-tracing future

for computer graphics?"

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

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Overclock your GPU with Thermalright's help

Subject: Graphics Cards | December 1, 2005 - 06:48 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Thermalright's V1 Ultra graphics cooler will fit almost any modern GeForce or Radeon, and provides full wrap around cooling.  The cooler is much better than the stock cooling solution you probably use, in fact it's almost as good as watercooling.  SystemCooling has the full review, so see if you want to push the limits of your videocard with some new cooling.

"Back in June, we introduced users to Thermalright's maiden voyage in the world of video card

cooling, the Thermalright V1.

You want how much for that video card?

Subject: Graphics Cards | November 30, 2005 - 02:48 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Penstar Systems asks the question that most of us have, how high are graphics card prices going to go?  Right now, a high end video card can be half of the entire cost of a new PC, more if you want to use 2 video cards in SLI, Chrome or Crossfire mode. 

"In the past few years successive cards from both NVIDIA and ATI have pushed that upper price

ceiling higher and higher, and now we are looking at products from both manufacturers that retail

for well above $549.

Good graphics on a budget

Subject: Graphics Cards | November 28, 2005 - 04:13 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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[H]ard|OCP has posted a review of the XFX GeForce 6600 DDR2 (256M).  While the DDR2 certainly gives this card a boost, it doesn't really benefit from the amount of memory, as it just can't process the graphics with a high enough quality setting to make it worth it.  However, as it doesn't really make this card more expensive, you just might want this in your box.

"There have been a lot of new announcements, launches, and evaluations to do in the video card

arena as of late.

Crossfire's got legs!

Subject: Graphics Cards | November 24, 2005 - 06:57 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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VR-Zone has some news about ATI's Crossfire, as it applies to mobility chipsets.   Any guesses how long before Alienware starts putting out new notebooks?

"ATi has something up their sleeves and is going to challenge SLI on mobile front with their

mobility Crossfire.

New ATI card, possible 2006 release

Subject: Graphics Cards | November 24, 2005 - 05:42 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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There is a new ATI GPU coming, hopefully in the first quarter of 2006, and hopefully about the same time as the motherboards, according to DigiTimes.

"ATI Technologies is currently in the final stage of testing its R580 graphics processor units

(GPUs) with customers, sources at Taiwan graphics card makers indicated, adding that the graphics

chip vendor expects to launch the flagship chip in early 2006.

ATI will also be enhancing its entry-level GPU product line on the 80nm production node, with new

My video what adapter?

Subject: Graphics Cards | November 23, 2005 - 05:17 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Giving tech support to people with only a passing familiarity to PC technology can be a huge source of stress.  Software like SiSoft's Sandra, or WCPUID can give you some of the info you need, but a lot of times the question is simply "Can I play this game?", and with the usual limitation being the graphics card, Sandra can be a bit of overkill.  PC Mechanic has found a program called Everest Home Edition, a freeware program that ID's video cards, so drop in for a visit if it sounds like a program that could help.

"A

Same card, different cooling

Subject: Graphics Cards | November 22, 2005 - 07:01 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Beyond 3D has a good run down of what you can expect from Sapphire'sRadeon X800 GTO² and X800 GTO Ultimate Editions.  Both are certainly powerful cards, with the both the GTO² and the and the Ultimate Edition's bandwidth weighing in at 31.4 GB/sec, the Ultimate stands out because of the ginormous heatsink that wraps around the entire card.

'Those of you who are familiar with previous designs from Sapphire's range of Ultimate Edition

boards will find no surprises here - just like these previous eff

You, ATI, and your TV, together again

Subject: Graphics Cards | November 21, 2005 - 03:59 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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ATI's All-In-Wonder series gets an update, and is added to the X1800 series.  It will output to just about any type of TV setup you can imagine. Bjorn3D has one, and they can tell you all about it here.

"With the All-In-Wonder X1800XL ATI has created a card that sits just as confortable in a MediaPC

as a gaming-PC.

CHAINTECH® Releases the Latest Graphics Cards

Subject: Graphics Cards | November 18, 2005 - 11:52 AM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Taipei, Taiwan (November 18, 2005) — Walton Chaintech Corporation today announced its SE68GS, an up-to-date graphics cards, which utilize the newest NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS graphics processing unit.

Focusing on midrange price point, the SE68GS delivers even higher performance. To be powered by NVIDIA 6800 GS processor, the SE68GS provides 425MHz engine clock which beat the 400 MHz engine clock of 6800 Ultra. The Chaintech® SE68GS features 256MB DDR3 SDRAM plus the 6800 GS GPU native 256-bit memory interface; SE68GS delivers 1000MHz memory clock.