TweakTown has put together a graph that compares the gaming performance between XP SP3/ SP2 and Vista vs Vista SP1. The two Operating systems do not show much of a difference in any game application, but they do show a little improvement. It seams as though the retail Vista is slightly faster the the new Vista SP1
VR-Zone has learned the the new 9900GTS is going to be 10.5" long and a dual slot cooler. This is not bigger the the 8800GTS or 9800GTX as they were all the same length. If they went any bigger, you would here a lot of complains the they are too big and do not fit in peoples cases!
Well I just got finished trying out the new 3DMark Vantage for DX10. I was actually a little disappointed with my score being that my computer plays DX10 games fairly simple and fast. It stared out very slow and taking a long time to load. The tests for the graphics did not look all that good, but my card, 8800GTS 512, was struggling and maybe averaging only 15-25 fps for both of the tests!
The testing for the new GDDR5 chips are going very well. GDDR5 is very capable of hitting well over 4GHZ, but ATI said that they will slim it down to save power and heat. ATI has pumped out even more RV770 cores so they can put them on the market very soon. The Cards should soon be out to the testers so it should not be long until I get my hands on one of these new cards!
The newest version of the 3DMark series is here. 3DMark Vantage is the first true DX10 benchmark. THis means that it will be exclusively for Windows Vista. There is four parts to this test, two cpu and 2 graphics, plus six individual parts. This benchmark is going to take some serious hardware to run and get reasonable scores that were in 3DMark06(ex. in the 10,000's)
The lineup for Q3 for high end cards will be the 9900GTX and 9900GTS which will be replacing the 9800GX2 and 9800GTX. This means that a single 9900GTX should be about 30% faster the the 9800GX2. For those of you who are going to be able to step-up to the 9900's in early July, I would suggest that you do so. For me this just sucks because my step-up ends late may =(. It also looks as though the 9800GT will be coming out in Q3 also because there are too many mainstream cards that came out in Q2.
The GT200 cards are supposedly going to be out sometime in July according to TweakTown. The 9900GTX will have slightly lower specs than originally thought. Instead of a 512 bit memory, it will have a 448 bit memory interface. There is also rumors that this is the one billion transistor core that everyone has been waiting for.
AMD is planning a Hexa core like Intel. It will have 6 cores at 45nm. The codename for these cores is "Istanbul." AMD is starting to go Intel's direction by adding two dies on the same core and not going "native" like AMD used with there Phenom to try to get more people interested.
Sources say that the RV770Xt will be released this May! The card is going to be GDDR5 memory and 55nm. There are going to be three versions, Rv770XT, RV770PRO GDDR5, and RV770PRO GDDR3. They are also claiming that the HD4870X2 will have 2GB of on board memory. This is all good considering the the estimated price of the RV770XT will be $350. This wil be the card that wins it back for ATI.
The 9800GX2 is supposedly going to get a new core G92-451. This will be a step up from the original G92-450 core and it might be 55nm! This is supposed to be an easy process nowadays with interchangeable cores, and Nvidia might use the 55nm to cut power and price.
The new AMD Tir-Core processors have been tested! This new processor basically preforms on par with the old AMD Phenom X4 processor, which is four cores. The performances is not all that great and still the Q6600 manages to beat it. The socket is still the same for the new Tri-Core, so you do not need to upgrade your motherboard.
The new Foxcon BLACKOPS is here. This motherboard is made solely for the extreme overclocker and comes with a tremendous amount of accessories. Foxcon wanted to step up their game in the motherboard section and really wanted to make a board that was appealing to the customer. To do this Foxcon hired professional overclocker Peter Tan as a technical advisor for the company.
Intel is set to make some big price cuts finally, since the new B3 stepping from AMD were released Intel had to compensate. There are some processors that are going to be cut up to 50%. In total there will be 18 processors with a price cut.
More at
TweakTown.
There has been some news going around that the, still to come, 4870 has already been benched. This is not true says the guys over at
NordicHardware. They have proven this picture to be completely fake, sorry to say.
The new Catalyst 8.4 drivers have come out this month and
TweakTown put a review up to see if there is any difference in the old 8.3 to 8.4. The new drivers have improved the 3870X2 dramatically in 3DMark06 for xp going up almost 6000 points
Today ASUS announced that the have released a new line of cpu cooler. The Triton 85 series claims to be the best preforming and quietest cpu cooler to date. ASUS is trying to increase their reputation in cpu coolers.
Intel is on its way to creating a graphics card that will be sold directly by Intel. The codename "Larrabee" chips probably will not hit stocks until 2009. Intel wants to start off small on the graphics card business like AMD.
The graphics card cooler company Aquagrafx claims that they have a 100% copper water block. It is not only going to cool the core, but everything around the video card. I weighs about 600grams.
Everybody knows that the Intel processors do 3GHX pretty easy, but what about AMD. They have finally got the new codename "Deneb" steadily past 3GHz. It is said to overclock about 20-25% more that the Phenom
Sources from
NordicHardware are saying that AMD wants to make a debut with the RV770 memory at 4GHZ! That is insane. AMD/ATI would like to process of the GDDR5 chip to come along faster, but they can not. This means that the RV770XT will come out after the PRO, probably 1-2 months after, so July?
There is word going around the the new AMD R700 will be out just before or during ComputeX 2008. The R700 will be based of of the 55nm processing and have 480 stream processors. IT will also have a 256 bit memory controller and might end up using GDDR-5(still in production). There is also going to be a dual core card like the 3870X2 in the 4000 series lineup.
VR-zone is speculating that the upcoming 9800GT is going to move to the first 55
nm core. The 9800GT was to be nor more that just an 8800GT with a new
label and some different clocks.
Nvidia said this because it would cut down on costs and temperature.
The Rv770 is supposed to be out in June to July, but today I heard from
NordicHardware that a GDDR3 memory card will be coming out. This means that the RV770 will be a very good price when they first come out with the GDDR3 memory.
Today I went out and bought the new PC game Assassin's Creed. This game is Crazy and so much fun. You can basically do anything you want! I thought I would share some of the FPS I was getting with my 8800
GTS 512!
Specs
Nvidia 680I SLI TR
EVGA 8800GTS 512
2gb Patriot memory(4-4-4-12)
Windows Xp SP2
Assassin;s Creed 1440X900 all settings high 4AA 16AF
The performance was not all great, but it still ran fine.
Today
Zotac has announced that they are going to be
releasing the new 9800
GTX AMP edition. The AMP edition will be a
factory overclocked from the stock 9800
GTX. There will be nothing different than the old 9800
GTX except for the clocks. The core clock is going to be set at 750
mhz memory at 2300
DDRmhz and a 1890
mhz. The core clock is a
substantial increase of 75
mhz. Get more at
TweakTown.
I know this card has been out for a while now, but I thought this would be a good time to start my own reviewing section. There were only two games that I could really test, Call of Duty 4 and Crysis. This is only my first review so bare with me on this.
Test System
Processor: Core 2 Duo E6600@3.0GHz
Motherboard: EVGA 680I SLI TR
Memory: 2X1gb Partriot DDR2 800 low latency(4-4-4-12)
Hard Drive: Western Digital 200gb 7200rpm IDE
Operating System: Windows XP Pro SP2 32bit
Drivers: Forceware 169.21
Lets get right in to the game tests.
Call of Duty 4- Everything Max 16XAF 4XAA-
I don't have any other card to test this against, but still this card does exceptional performance and It's only on dual core.
Crysis 1.21- High DX9 0AF, 0AA
Overall I am so glad I bought this card. It preforms just a little worse that the 9800GTX at stock speeds, and I still have the step-up.
Today ASUS has showed us the first real pictures of the new HD 3850X2. This card is going to be just like its big brother the 3870X2, but with lower clocks. This card should be a very good alternative for running in crossfire.
Today Nvidia has released their new chip set, the 780a SLI. This chip set is one of a kind for nvidia because along with supporting the new AMD AM2+ tri-cores and the Phenom quad cores it also come with tri-sli and on board graphics processor. This makes the transition for getting a high quality motherboard with good on-board graphics. The motherboard also comes with Hybrid-SLI for a great boost in SLI performance. To go on top of that you also get Company of Heroes Opposing Fronts. Check out more at:
The video card company Diamond are preparing to release there new Diamond HD3870 with 1GB and a 512 bit memory bus. Those specs have come up from the original HD3870 with 512MB and a 256 bit memory bus. You can check out more and a review over at
NordicHardware
So on April fools day the new card has arrived. The 9800GTX is now the fastest single core card on the market. It does not make a large jump up from the 8800GTS 512. The major differences are the this card is cooler, overclocks higher, and scales better in SLI. For a price tag of $330 this is a pretty good card. You can buy it at,
Newegg and check out some official reviews at:
