Reviews
If you've followed the tech sector for any appreciable amount of time, you've no doubt heard the tale of Dell Inc. - one of those stories where a guy with a dream founded a company and eventually built it into a corporate giant. Right from the beginning, Michael Dell believed that the future of PC sales...
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A few short weeks ago, AMD unleashed the dual-GPU powered ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2, which marked the company’s re-entry into the ultra high-end desktop graphics card space that had been dominated by NVIDIA since the introduction of the GeForce 8800 series. As we mentioned in our launch coverage, the Radeon HD 3870 X2 utilizes a pair...
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If the blockbuster successes of games like World of Warcraft and Counterstrike, compared to the lack-luster reception of ultra-high-end titles like Crysis, have taught us anything, it is that the vast majority of PC gamers are not running games which are incredibly graphics intensive. As...
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A few months ago, we rounded up some of the fastest DDR3 memory kits that were available and came away impressed by how well frequencies and performance had scaled in the short time since DDR3 had been introduced on the desktop. Since that article was published, however, not much has...
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As gamers and hardware enthusiasts, it’s easy to get jaded by Extreme Edition processors and multi-card CrossFire configurations. They push performance full-bore. And although you’ll never hear AMD, Intel, or NVIDIA recommending against using their enthusiast offerings in higher-end configurations, there’s no denying that Xeons, Opterons,...
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Intel started slowly leaking information about an ultra high-end enthusiast platform dubbed Skulltrail at right about the same time that AMD’s now defunct QuadFX platform was set to be released. Over time we learned that Skulltrail, like QuadFX, would be a dual-socket platform...
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For many of you, Maingear Computer may not be a household name and that would probably be just fine with the folks out at the shop in Union New Jersey. Loosely classified as a specialty high performance system builder and retailer, Maingear's mission statement on style...
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If you're the type who wants to make a statement with your notebook, names like Apple, VAIO, and Alienware may come to mind. But what about ASUS? While you may know them best for their motherboards and video cards, ASUS is a seasoned veteran when it comes to manufacturing notebooks, and they definitely make more than just EeePCs. Besides...
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By now, we assume just about everyone knows the GeForce 8800 GT's story. NVIDIA launched the 512MB 8800 GT in late October of last year and touted a price range of $200-250. But retail prices initially ended up being over $300 due to supply issues. You can bet that ATI was smiling a couple weeks later when the company launched...
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Just a few weeks ago, we took a look at the two fastest workstation class graphics cards currently on the market, the FireGL V8650 from ATI/AMD and the QuadroFX 5600 from Nvidia. We found both products to be quite powerful and...
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Late last year, NVIDIA released a pair of new 8800-series graphics cards based on their G92 GPU. The new cards were designed to keep NVIDIA's products at the top of the food chain at their respective price points, while also being a bit more affordable. The...
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In mid-Q4 2007, AMD released their 790FX, 790X and 770 chipsets, the final pieces required to complete their Spider platform. As the backbone of the new platform, the 700 series chipsets were designed with new feature sets to take full advantage of the Phenom processor's capabilities. With up to 42 PCI Express lanes,...
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With all the buzz around VIA's recent announcement of their next generation low power Isaiah mobile processor and the parade of online coverage of the recent press event VIA held at their Centaur design center in Texas, we felt rather than regurgitating the usual marketing fluff and press...
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When AMD released the Radeon HD 2900 XT in May of last year, we were left with a bitter taste in our mouths. Not because the product was all that bad, but because it seemed AMD was content to leave NVIDIA uncontested at the high-end of the 3D graphics card market. If you remember, when the Radeon HD 2900 XT launched AMD had targeted...
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It seems like a new year always evokes the feeling of renewed hope and high expectations. And for AMD / ATI at least, 2008 appears to have reinvigorated their graphics division, which appears to be firing on all cylinders at the moment. After a year or so...
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When AMD launched the RV670 GPU at the heart of the ATI Radeon HD 3870 and 3850 series of products, they received quite a bit of fanfare due to the product's competitive prices, strong performance, and more manageable power profiles. One of the main reasons AMD was able to...
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While high-end workstation graphics cards may be based on roughly the same core architectures as gaming-targeted graphics cards, their purposes in life are very different. While they both accomplish the same task, processing commands and...
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Many of us have fond memories of playing video games in the arcade of a local bowling alley, popping 25 cents into the machine on a regular basis to keep the fun going. Back then, that was the main way to get your game on, displaying your skills for all to see. If you can...
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Like giant, transformable robots, once a year a contingent of editors from HotHardware change form and morph from our typical, reserved, hardware-loving selves into fast walking, fast talking scoop hunters throwing hip-checks and stiff-arms on the insanely busy show floor at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. As many of you...
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Back in November 2007, AMD launched the 55nm ATI RV670 GPU. With this launch, we were introduced to two new ATI video cards, the Radeon HD 3870 and 3850. If you read our launch article, then you already know that the RV670 is a derivative of the R600, which powers the Radeon HD 2900 XT. Our initial experience with AMD's new cards was...
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NVIDIA is the sort of company that can and will capitalize on opportunities quickly, whether it be market or product related, or something as simple as logistics. As such, in traditional fashion, with the huge insurgence of press and media swooping down on the never-ending sensory...
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Like high-end graphics cards setup in multi-GPU configurations, terabyte desktop drives, and 3GHz quad-core processors, 30-inch wide screen LCDs cater to what we like to call the "enthusiast" niche. And though this niche obviously drives lower volume demand versus the...
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