Monday Hardware Reviews

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Currently the undisputedly best bang for the buck in 3D Rendering appears to be nVdia's n7800 GT series. Slightly scaled down from the more than $100 (on average) more expensive GTX offering, the more plebeian "GT" still offers blistering fast performance, besting essentially everything in the ATI camp - with perhaps the exception of the RADEON X1800. Moreover, the cards are SLI enabled, which in some applications effectively doubles the frame rates. Amongst the various manufacturers that are partnering with nVidia, ASUS carries a slightly modified version of the reference design, using a blue PCB, a chrome side bar and - noteworthy here, Infineon memory instead of the dominant Samsung components. Bundled with a number of proprietary software utilities like video security and game face, plus a few games and the ubiquitous video editing and DVD software, the Extreme n7800GT is something definitely worth looking at.

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The EVGA e-GeForce 7800 GTX BlackPearl 512MB is faster out of the box than the XFX, overclocks further and does it all quieter, cooled by a decent and easy-to-fit watercooling kit. The choice of fittings and tubing diameters means that it should be an easy integration into an existing watercooling setup, too. So what's not to like, from what's current the fastest retail consumer graphics card on the planet?

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once again OCZ is pushing the possibilities and doing it in style. This latest product may fall into the Gamer line of products but it definitely meets my expectation of any kit in the Platinum line. The new XTC heatspreaders effectively kept the modules cool throughout our testing as we pushed this kit past the PC-4000 (DDR500) rating without an increase in voltage.

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The main focus of today's review is EVGA's e-GeForce 6800 GS (P/N: 256-P2-N386-AX), based on NVIDIA's NV42 chipset. The NV42 chipset has 12 pipelines, 5 vertex shaders, and a core/memory clock speed of 425MHz/1000MHz respectively. Thus, this essentially makes the 6800 GS an overclocked GeForce 6800 with a 30% boost in core speed and memory clock 43% higher.

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What we have in our lab this week is a PowerColor X1800 XT video card. Starting from R300, Tul (the owner of PowerColor brand) has been ATi's very active partner. They make top to bottom cards at a competitive price. It's been around two-three weeks since first X1800 boards appeared on the market. Due to the lack of components, Tul got in a bit late into the game with their X1K series (especially XL which we haven't received at the time of the launch). If you look around however, you'll find quite a few PowerColor X1800 cards -- either XT (256/512 version) or XL

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Secret weapons come in all shapes in sizes; some consist of throwing stars to the head while others are simpler more effective alternatives. In the case of the Corsair TwinX2048-4000 we get two times the normal memory, enhanced bandwidth for overclocking and no messy cuts that cause you to bleed profusely. In short the best of both worlds.

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Today I will be reviewing a PC3500 low latency dual channel memory kit from OCZ which is claiming effortless DDR433 speeds while set at the lowest 2-5-2-2 memory latency timings. Let see if this memory does what it claims and whether we can push it further to get even more value for your dollar.

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The GeForce 7800GTX 512MB versions are here, and you'd better believe that 35 FPS from a single videocard in FEAR with 4x AA and 16x AF enabled, at 1600x1200, is a breeze with one of these bad boys! All this performance packed into a videocard that takes up an extra PCI slot, but is also quieter than the original GeForce 7800GTX's. Shocking performance capabilities, and shockingly quiet at that. MSI Computer is once such vendor with a 512MB version Geforce 7800GTX videocard out in time for X-mas, and it has put together a good package that includes a full copy of the game "Colin Mcrae Rally 2005." Luckily for you, PCSTATS has managed to bring this monster 512MB card into the labs so you can see first hand what to expect!

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The EVGA video card is equipped with the same 24 pipelines and 8 vertex shaders found on the standard 7800 GTX, but comes with a significantly faster core/memory clock speed of 550MHz/1700MHz respectively and 512MB of GDDR3 memory. Thus, the 7800 GTX 512MB is basically an insanely faster EVGA GeForce 7800 GTX 256MB with double the memory capacity. The EVGA card's core is clocked 100 MHz higher than stock and the memory went up by whopping 500 MHz DDR. However specification wise, the N545 memory might have a +200 MHz edge over ATI's X1800 XT, but the core is at a -75 MHz disadvantage.

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The Gigabyte GV-3D1-68GT videocard comes packing 512MB of GDDR3 memory (256MB exclusively for each core), and conforms to the PCI Express x16 formfactor. With two GPUs the card is able to support up to four monitors simultaneously; two DVI and two analog! Make no mistake, the Gigabyte GV-3D1-68GT is aimed directly at the hardcore gamer - both in terms of its performance goals and price.