Graphics Cards, PC Monitors And Computer Audio Reviews And News
The sights and sounds of the modern computing experience are driven by key user interface technologies like graphics cards, display monitors and various audio solutions. Here you'll find reviews and news on the latest in cutting-technologies for GPUs (Graphics Processing Units), LED and LCD computer display monitors, sound cards, PC and wireless speaker systems and more.
At the end of October '07, NVIDIA's GeForce 8800 GT 512MB hit the scene and garnered near universal praise due to its strong performance and value proposition. With its revamped 65nm GPU and single-slot board design, the GeForce 8800 GT was poised to storm the $200 - $249 graphics card...
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Prior to holding its Financial Analyst Day in New York City, AMD showed off some new CrossFire-related technology to a few select members of the press. What we saw was AMD’s Hybrid CrossFire and its associated hardware, which marries next-generation integrated graphics processors (IGP) and entry-level discreet graphics cards for increased...
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Since this performance preview is targeted to PC Gamers, to start things off we might as well play a game. Riddle us this... What would be the antithesis of a product like a thin and light Notebook PC that is energy efficient, eco-friendly, and performance-per-watt tuned for those of you on the go? ...
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NVIDIA’s G80 GPU has been sitting atop the 3D graphics food chain for well over a year now. It was way back in November of ’06 that the GeForce 8800 GTX and original 640MB GTS arrived – the first two graphics cards based on the G80 GPU. Sometime later, the more affordable 320MB...
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ATI’s FireGL brand of workstation-class graphics cards have played second fiddle to NVIDIA's offerings for some time now. NVIDIA’s rival Quadro lineup has been an incredibly strong competitor, and combined with the fact that the last several FireGL card releases have suffered from late arrival...
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When the R600 GPU hit the scene last May in the form of the Radeon HD 2900 XT, it wasn't very well received by enthusiasts for a few key reasons. For one, the Radeon HD 2900 XT generally consumed more power and generated more heat than NVIDIA’s already well established GeForce 8800 GTS. In addition, the 2900 XT was also...
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Speed. It's the one thing that gets all the attention when most folks consider performance computer hardware. Whether we're referring to the CPU, Memory, Hard Drive or Graphics card, one of the most important characteristics we consider is its raw performance, wanting to know just how fast a component is compared to others in its...
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In the GPU business, like any other semiconductor technology, die size, cost and performance-per-watt are the name of the game. Performance-per-watt from a design and manufacturing perspective is important on multiple levels. Certainly, power efficient products are important...
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Claiming to be the best at anything is bold. From professional athletes to product manufacturers, stating you or your product is the best out there opens things up for closer scrutiny. Being the best at what you do, or what you make, means near flawless execution. ...
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Whether you’re a hardcore power user or a casual tinkerer who knows just enough to get into trouble, Asus is a company that you’re no doubt familiar with. The company is held in high regard in the PC enthusiast community thanks in no small part to their consistent track record and seemingly never-ending flow of innovative products....
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Just about four and a half years ago, a company started by ex-Visiontek executives entered the already crowded graphics card market with the hope of capturing the enthusiast and hardcore gaming audience. The plan was to factory overclock many of their products, offer a life time warranty, and have a dedicated 24/7 technical support staff ready...
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DirectX 10 (DX10) has been one of the hottest topics for discussion and news coverage since the first DX10 compliant hardware appeared in the second half of last year. Touted as the biggest milestone in games development since programmable shaders were introduced with DirectX 8, nearly seven...
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Just prior to the Radeon HD 2000 series' introduction, numerous rumors circulated regarding an ultra-high clocked ATI R600-based video card, that featured a large 1GB frame buffer. Some went so far as to say the GPU would be clocked at or near 1GHz. Spy shots even cropped up on the web showing the card in all its glory. But sometime between...
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If silence is golden, then silence plus overclocking is platinum. Hardware enthusiasts have loved squeezing every last drop of performance out of their hardware for quite some time. Noise levels are not a concern for many of these enthusiasts, but over the last several years, more and more of them have become not only performance enthusiasts...
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Upon its release, it was expected that even the most ardent power users and enthusiasts were going to tread lightly at first with respect to adopting Windows Vista as their primary OS. Though end users in this demographic are classically early adopters, in terms of new hardware technologies coming to market, an operating system change brings with...
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A lot of attention is paid to framerates when discussing graphics hardware, and rightfully so. Some argue that they are an outdated method for assessing a video card's performance, but when assessing a potential purchase, buyers need some...
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Quick! Name that one piece of PC hardware that will automatically garner the most "oohs" and "aahs" from enthusiasts and casual-users alike. No, it's probably not the glow-in-the-dark water cooling system or bright LEDs shining from the multiple fans in your windowed case. The quickest path to glory is buying a brand new, flat, large, widescreen...
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If you have ever been in the market for a graphics card, you are undoubtedly familiar with the constantly changing graphics card market. About every 8-10 months, new GPUs are introduced by NVIDIA and ATI, and after their introduction, dozens of graphics cards built by their add in board partners come to market. Because these add in board partners...
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Although TV tuners have been in the desktop PC space for more than a decade, only in the last couple of years have they started to become integrated and widely used in notebook computers. OEMs started to recognize that many consumers simply didn’t want large desktop systems. But at the same time they wanted the multimedia features offered...
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Over the last few years, a relatively simple PC technology, the TV tuner, has helped to transform the way that millions of people use their personal computers. TV tuners - in conjunction with smaller form factors - have helped to create a new category of PC, the HTPC, that blends the audio and video capabilities of your television with the...
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When we first took a look at the GeForce 8800 Ultra, back in May, we were left with some mixed feelings. On one hand it was, and still is, the undisputed graphics champ. On the other hand, it didn't introduce any new features and it wasn't a whole lot faster than its significantly cheaper sibling, and former graphics champ, the 8800 GTX. The...
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About six weeks ago, after an extended development cycle, AMD launched their latest flagship ATI-GPU based graphics card, the Radeon HD 2900 XT. The Radeon HD 2900 XT is built around the company's unified, DirectX 10-class, R600 GPU and offers a number of key features over an above the older X1000 series of products, like new anti-aliasing...
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