14430980
submission
Vigile writes
"StarCraft II is the most anticipated PC game in a long time and after waiting over a decade since the release of the first iteration, it's not hard to see why. The new version moves from the world of 2D into 3D even though much of the game play and style remains the same. With the beta nearing completion and the full retail release just a short week or so away, PC Perspective posted a performance review of the game to demonstrate how different graphics cards perform in the new engine. It turns out that only NVIDIA cards will currently work with anti-aliasing and while the performance hit for enabling it is steep, the game is generally running quickly enough even on $200 GPUs for it to not be an issue. There is more good news for PC gamers as the article finds that even the aging Radeon HD 4850 is more than capable of allowing users to play 1080p resolutions."Link to Original Source
14202234
submission
Vigile writes
"While $1200 graphics cards might get a lot of attention from enthusiasts, the majority of PC gamers fall into the sub-$200 world and NVIDIA's latest graphics card fits perfectly into that niche. The GeForce GTX 460 comes in both 1GB and 768MB versions and will sell for $229 and $199 respectively. Based on a new design of the existing GPU, the GF104 chip also goes through a fairly dramatic architecture shift that includes rebalancing CUDA cores (shaders) in relation to the tessellation engines and texture units. In the end though what matters is performance and value and the GTX 460 delivers on both counts handily beating the $199 HD 5830 from AMD."Link to Original Source
14057816
submission
Vigile writes
"Sometimes it is tough to really tell what graphics card is the best for PC gamers with all the various options out there. Not so today with the introduction of the $1200 ASUS ARES that combines a pair of Radeon HD 5870 GPUs running at full speed (850 MHz core, 4.8 GHz memory) onto a single PCB to create the fastest consumer graphics card period. While other dual-GPU Radeon cards exist the ARES offers clock speeds as much as 30% higher and was able to do so with a quieter stock cooling solution. The card does require three separate power connections and uses noticeably more power than AMD designs but the performance is unrivaled for a single graphics card. And yes, I did say $1200."Link to Original Source
13806312
submission
Vigile writes
"The rise of multiple monitor gaming really has gained traction thanks to the release of the AMD Radeon HD 5000-series of graphics cards back in September of last year. The initial options supported three displays per card and could power resolutions as high as 7680x1600 across those monitors but a later Eyefinity 6 Edition GPU could run 6 displays for some really unique gaming! NVIDIA is just now coming to the party with its Surround and 3D Vision Surround features that support a maximum of three displays but require a pair of GPUs in an SLI configuration to run. The requirement for SLI definitely increases the entry price for multi-monitor gaming but it also provides more than enough processing power for super-high-resolutions or even 3D gaming at 5760x1080. PC Perspective has a full review of the new technology in both 2D and 3D mode that includes performance numbers for GTX 480s and impressions of the 3D Vision effects across three panels — is it really worth more than $2200 for the technology though?"Link to Original Source
13711874
submission
Vigile writes
"PCI Express-based solid state drives are not new but getting one at a price a consumer might be willing to pay IS new. OCZ's RevoDrive combines a pair of SandForce 1200 controllers behind a basic RAID controller and eventually terminates at a PCI Express x4 connection with a capacity as high as 240GB. The key to the product is not just its absurdly impressive performance that nearly matches the ioXtreme card from Fusion-io and pushes almost 500 MB/s but also its price. The RevoDrive will cost almost the same as a standard SandForce-based 2.5-in SSD making it the fastest consumer storage option for the price. PC Perspective has a full performance evaluation that compares the RevoDrive to other PCIe SSDs and 2.5-in models to give a balanced view and still comes away truly impressed with the unit."Link to Original Source
13641208
submission
Vigile writes
"Microsoft unveiled a new Xbox 360 S console at E3 this month and without delay the new machine has been dissected and tested. The most dramatic change is the move to a single chip CPU/GPU hybrid processor that is apparently being built on the 45nm process technology from GlobalFoundries, AMD's spun-off production facilities. With the inclusion of the new processor the Xbox 360 S uses much less power (about 30-40%) compared to previous generation machines and also turns out to be much quieter as a result of a single, larger fan. PC Perspective has photographic evidence of the tear down with comparisons between this Valhalla platform and the older Falcon system along with videos of the reconstruction process and noise comparisons."Link to Original Source
12283874
submission
Vigile writes
"After impressing the storage world with raw speed, certain models of Sandforce-based SSDs may be able to get a free upgrade in capacity of about 20%. OCZ has worked with the SSD controller vendor to tweak the firmware in such a way to permit less overprovisioning on the flash memory without incurring a drop in performance. PC Perspective has tested one such prototype drive that has the exact same design but is provisioned at 120GB rather than 100GB all with a firmware update. Even better, OCZ claims that users of their Sandforce-based drives will likely be able to upgrade their own drives soon as well."Link to Original Source
12154562
submission
Vigile writes
"An editorial over at PC Perspective posits that even though the iPad is unquestionably the first successful modern tablet computing device, Apple deserves less of the credit for that success than most are putting on them. As evidence the author points to the applications that ship with a stock iPad including the mail, notes, calendar, contacts and even the iBooks program, all of which are considered poor examples of touch-enabled applications. Instead, when users brag about the iPad they are usually referring to programs like Netflix or the ABC Player or even casual games and PC Perspective believes that there is no technical reason that these couldn't have already existed on other tablets had Microsoft and others recognized the need for a slightly altered user input scheme. Apple may have done a great job with the iPad hardware but it is really third-party developers that deserve all the credit for the iPad's success."Link to Original Source
11836100
submission
Vigile writes
"AMD has been having a difficult time in the last year or so keeping up with Intel on the consumer CPU front. While the Phenom processors have been decent, since the introduction of Intel's Core i5 and Core i7 lineup of parts AMD has never really had a chance in the performance segment. They are hoping to change that with the release of the Phenom II X6 1090T processor, a 6-core CPU that will sell for about $285. Compare that to the 6-core offering from Intel: the Core i7-980X that retails for $999 or above. No, the 1090T won't run as fast in the benchmarks as the i7-980X but it does do well in media encoding tests and is one of the best available CPUs for performance/watt and performance/dollar. Add to that mixture the new Turbo Core Technology that automatically takes the 3.2 GHz part up to 3.6 GHz when three or fewer cores are loaded, and the AMD 1090T is the best competition Intel has seen in some time."Link to Original Source
