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.
With most of the fuss revolving around video cards such as Nvidia's 7900 series and ATI's X1900 series these days, it's easy to overlook entry-level offerings like the GeForce 7300. That is unless you don't have a ton of coin to throw down for a high end card. As great as it is using high resolutions with anti-aliasing...
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**Update: Sapphire re-branded this product the Toxic Radon X1900 XTX after our review was published. Sapphire has been one of ATI's premier board partners for quite some time now. Their products tend to be very similar to those available directly from ATI themselves, but Sapphire does take additional steps to differentiate their offerings...
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Silent computing and overclocking are two topics that tend to be mutually exclusive. Typically, when you overclock something, like a graphics card for example, it needs more cooling, which in turn means higher fan speeds and more noise. Luckily though, there are some companies...
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When LCD screens were first introduced they were plagued by many problems, but they also had some advantages over CRT monitors. LCD's were lighter, thinner, and used less power. And so they caught on and the technology incrementally improved. Early generations were limited to lower resolutions, tight viewing angles, really slow response...
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In 2002, AGEIA's founders broke into the gaming industry with the intention of revolutionizing the way PC games would be played. Focusing their attention on the notion of in-game physics, the ultimate goal was to bring a new level of realism to the latest and greatest titles on the horizon. In short, the company has developed the world's first...
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Product refreshes in the Graphics world have tended to become rather casual, commonplace occurrences. A little tweak here, a clock speed bump there and presto, there's a new SKU to fill the store shelves and something new to look at...
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Just a few short years ago, the graphics card industry was largely driven strictly by the innovations and technological developments made at the flagship GPU level. For the majority of users who cannot either afford or justify the cost of a top of the line graphics card, the industry was painfully boring, as the latest and greatest features...
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ATI's All-In-Wonder series has been popular with the multimedia enthusiast for quite some time now, delivering all the features of a TV Tuner, along with the performance of a dedicated graphics card. ATI has recently released their X1900 AIW series, which is a perfect card to get if you're a gamer and have the cash to spend. But what about...
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ATI has been coming on very strong these past few months, bolstering their GPU line-up with a slew of new products, ranging from the entry level Radeon X1300 all the way on up to the flagship Radeon X1900 XTX. The company's well documented...
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Over the course of the last few years, the PC industry has witnessed a major transition away from the world of traditional CRT monitors, towards products based on LCD displays. With the inception of LCD's, there was no denying the handful of advantages LCD's had over their CRT counterparts. Less eye-strain, significantly thinner depth and...
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Over the past few months, we've posted a multitude of graphics related articles here at HotHardware.com. Since September, we've covered no less than seven product launches from ATI, five from rival NVIDIA, and even S3 chimed in with one of their own. Some of these products were mid-range or entry-level offerings, but a couple of them redefined...
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With all the praise that has been heaped upon NVIDIA for their 7800 series of graphic cards, it was bound to cause a bit of dismay for rival ATi. For nearly two years ATi had been riding high on the success of their 9700 and 9800 series of cards, while NVIDIA had been trying to save face after a few mishaps of their own. ...
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If you're familiar with the computer hardware industry, Asus should be a company that needs no introduction. Whether referring to their motherboards, notebooks, or video cards, Asus' products have consistently ranked amongst the best in their respective classes. We've had a ton of experience here at HotHardware.Com working with products from...
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AGP was supposed to fade away after the insurgence of PCI Express, wasn't it? Well yes, it was and it will in time, but as we're showing you today you can still breathe some new life into an aging AGP based system, thanks to NVIDIA. While PCI Express is the current interface of choice for new...
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When ATI launched the Radeon X1900 last week, the company didn't simply unveil a single new high-end sku. Instead, they announced a total of four new X1900-based products; the high-end Radeon X1900 XTX, the slightly lower clocked Radeon X1900 XT, the X1900 CrossFire Edition, and the product we'll be evaluating here, the All-In-Wonder...
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Every once in a while a product comes along that really garners the attention of the enthusiast crowd. There can be a number of factors for this, including overclocking performance, easy modding potential or just an overall great value for the money. One such piece of hardware that encompasses a lot of these qualities is the Sapphire...
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The old crowd of PCI TV Tuners may need to step aside soon, as their PCIe cousins head into the market. Sure, there are still plenty of people without motherboards equipped with PCI Express expansion slots, but the old PCI bus is eventually on it's way out. Today we're going to take a look at PowerColor's PCI Express based Theatre 550 Pro...
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Without question, there is seemingly an endless number of music fans with a massive collection of songs and albums. Unfortunately, managing these impressive collections can be tedious at the very least, to downright appalling for larger compilations of music. Traditionally, music fans were forced to stockpile their collection of CD's in racks...
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In October of '05 ATI officially unveiled a new family of graphics cards based on the company's R520 GPU core and its derivatives. With the R520 ATI introduced a new "Ultra-Threaded" architecture, along with their new Ring Bus memory controller, and a more powerful video engine...
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The onslaught of ATI announcements this quarter continues today, with the official unveiling of the Radeon X1800 XT Master Edition graphics card -- the "missing link" necessary to run a pair of X1800 cards in a dual-GPU CrossFire configuration. From the end of September '05 through to today, ATI has announced and released a top-to-bottom...
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ATI has been on tear the past few months, releasing a number of new and interesting products. Since late September / early October of this year, we've been presented with Radeon X850 CrossFire and requisite CrossFire capable dual-PEG slot motherboards to go along with it, a whole series of products based on the new X1K family of GPUs, and...
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Although they were once a dominant market leader, S3 is now a company that almost exclusively focuses on the budget / business-class graphics market. For years, S3 has been marketing budget / business-class video cards, managing to offer competitive solutions in a segment that is dominated by "the big boys" - ATI and NVIDIA. ...
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