GeForce GTX 295

You know, it's built for gamers ...

A couple of weeks ago we had the honor of bringing you guys a review on the GeForce GTX 295. And that article proved one thing, it's going to be welcomed into the high-end arena with open arms. It's impressive, it's fast, and heck it even looks good too.

Today however we are re-writing the preview, and will make a fully fledged review of it. For this full review we'll grab a BFG GeForce GTX 295. Everything we could not talk about will be covered and obviously, some additional benchmarks are now included, making this a new review on the GeForce GTX 295 final product.


It does not end there though because today we'll bring you yet another article, GeForce GTX 295 Quad-SLI, heck we just had to give that a try for the sake of it as well. So we took the fastest Core i7 platform money could buy us, made sure we had a 1200 Watt PSU in there and started testing Quad SLI. But again, that's covered in another article though. This one will be all about one single, yet dual-gpu based, GeForce GTX 295 versus it's competition.

And you know what guys? I'm excited as I love the high-end gear and the gaming that goes along with it. Also for this this review, we have received a new final driver, GeForce Forceware 181.20, and I'm happy to report that in several scenarios... it made the games roughly 10% faster than the preview we have shown you. Now though 10% might not sound like a lot, trust me... in the high-end game... it's pretty frickin significant.

Anyway, enough of the introduction, let's have a technical look at the product, look at power consumption, noise levels, temperatures, photos and obviously the performance it'll poop out on your monitor. And sure, we'll overclock it a little as well... You guys ready?

source : www.guru3d.com

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GeForce GTX 295

Today another review on that rather outstanding release based on the recently unleashed NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295. I say outstanding here, as besides the Radeon HD 4870 X2, not once has a dual-GPU product been launched and was received with such great enthusiasm. See, NVIDIA has got the driver right, the performance right and obviously... the price is right as the GTX 295 series is selling at less than 499 USD. And for a product with 480 Shader cores, that is just an awful lot of performance.

Many manufacturers and AIBs therefore are now selling the product, and even in times of financial difficulty, these babies sell like cute little puppies in a pet store. One of the biggest names in the tech industry is ASUSTek computers (ASUS), and they figured... well frock it... and jumped onto that GTX 295 band wagon as well. Armed with nearly 1800 MB of graphics memory and a lot of raw performance, we'll have a look at their offering today. And though the product is 100% reference based, we just had to review this version as well. Heck, we just like to talk about high-end graphics cards you know.


In this review we'll give you the grand overview on what the GeForce GTX 295 entails, we'll look at power consumption, heat, do a nice photo-shoot and obviously dig deep into game performance with the hottest titles currently available anno January 2009.

So without further ado, let me introduce you to the ASUS GeForce GTX 295 (ENGTX295) after which you should head on over to the next page. Come on... you can do it.

source : www.guru3d.com

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GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB

It certainly has been a long time since we reviewed a product or two from that NVIDIA AIB called Galaxy Technology. Certainly a somewhat smaller company, but each and every time we review one of their products, there's some sort of revelation going on.

Galaxy is good in brand recognition and most of all they are very stringent in product differentiation. Sure, they hog out standard products into the market as well, but their R&D is always working on something special, something a little out of the ordinary... and I know I've stated that many times, but it's the fun stuff we seek out in graphics cards so much.


Face it, most AIB's purchase their graphics cards, slap a sticker on it, insert a game and sell it. That's the reality for 90% of the current VGA graphics business. And that makes it a little bit of a dull business the past year or two. I feel a nicely designed graphics card is like good cuisine, tickling the senses and getting us excited. So this is where Galaxy technology comes in. Recently they refreshed their products a little and they asked If we'd be interested in reviewing some of them. The first being their new GeForce 9800 GTX+, released months ago, and in the mid-range segment, still one of my favorite cards. The 9800 GTX+ update was released back in July 2008 if memory serves me right, and entailed a newly created SKU with some higher clocks, note the GPU die-size has been shrunk to 55nm (which was 65nm). You guys can probably all remember the standard design right? The big black cooler, 11" PCB... a long but great value card.

Now then... have a look and see what Galaxy technology did with the card... that's something else isn't it? Custom PCB, custom cooling, custom bracket, HDMI output, black DVI+backplate... I sometimes wonder why a small company can consistently push out striking products like that and the bigger AIBs mainly focus on the reference design.

Most certainly this is a product we want to review, this is Guru3D stuff for sure. Over the next few pages we'll have a little chat about their 98000 GTX+ architecture, then dive into a photo-shoot, technology briefing and obviously a gaming test with the hottest gaming titles on the globe, next page please.

source : www.guru3d.com

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GeForce GTX 260 SP216 Sonic

One of the most interesting graphics your money can buy you right now is the GeForce GTX 260 series. These cards are virtually in the high-end segment, yet performance for money wise they are just astounding.

NVIDIA knows this, and as such ever since the release of the original GTX 260, there have been numerous internal updates to this product, to make it faster, more efficient and most of all cheaper. See, the GTX 260 opens up a truckload of performance and features. A couple of weeks ago NVIDIA launched another SKU based off that GTX 260; it was the Core 216 version, carrying an additional 24 shader processors, to give the card a little more bite.


* 192 cores on the GeForce GTX 260
* 216 cores on the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216
* 240 of them on the GeForce GTX 280.

Weeks after that GTX 206 Core 216 release (in December 2008) NVIDIA again changed this SKU a little bit, introducing a cheaper to manufacture 55nm version of the GTX 260 chip.

As a result you can purchase GTX 260 Core 216 version card now for 249 - 299 USD, and if you do a little research, there are often rebates going on, allowing prices of anywhere in-between 229 to 269 USD. Granted, it's still a lot of money to just play games, but I guarantee you the GTX 260 series offers incredible performance and features (next to the Radeon 4870) for the money, especially when you realize these cards were introduced with a 399 USD price tag in the summer of 2008.

After all of these changes in the product roadmap, we really didn't expect NVIDIA's board partners to change a lot about these boards, as they are already great, silent, efficient, and definitely fast. So, two weeks ago a press-release from Palit arrived in my inbox. They are releasing the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Sonic edition graphics cards .. and after reading the specification I was like .. OMG could this product get any better?

With the Palit GeForce GTX 260 Sonic SP216 edition, we believe a GTX 260 graphics card can't get any better. Why? Get this; custom board design, 896MB GDDR3 memory, 216 Shader processor version, custom dual-fan cooler, custom higher clock frequencies and due to that cooler, immense overclocking capabilities.

Yea, we just caught your attention didn't we? Have a quick peak at the product, and then head on over to the next page, where we'll startup this in-depth review.

source : www.guru3d.com

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Radeon™ HD 4800

-- GIGABYTE Unveils the Power of HD with Radeon™ HD 4800 Series Graphics Accelerators --The next generation GDDR 5 memory inside for cinematic gaming experience



Taipei, Taiwan, June 25, 2008 –GIGABYTE UNITED INC., a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards today is pleased to announce their latest GV-R4800 series graphics cards. The GV-R487-512H-B and GV-R485-512H-B are built on the highly anticipated ATI Radeon™ HD 4800 Series GPU ─ which utilizes second generation 55nm manufacturing process and GDDR 5 video memory architecture. It delivers best-in-class performance with new clock speed and break-through efficiency power management for tomorrow’s demanding applications. Additionally, the GIGABYTE GV-R487-512H-B and GV-R485-512H-B feature a wide range of the latest graphics technologies, including TeraScale graphics engine, CrossFireX™, UVD 2 and PowerPlay™, to prepare gamers for bandwidth-hungry games, incredible HD fidelity and 3D applications.


GIGABYTE GV-R487-512H-B and GV-R485-512H-B come equipped with ATI's latest TeraScale graphics engine, combining 1 teraFLOPS of GPU compute power, 800 stream processors and next generation GDDR5 memory to increase the physical gaming interaction for a more dynamic and realistic experience. In addition, with enhanced anti-aliasing (AA) and anisotropic filtering, the GV-R475-512H-B and GV-R485-512H-B create striking graphics with unparalleled realism so you can max out the settings of the most demanding next generation games or revitalize your favorite titles. Also, the GIGABYTE GV-R4800 series are provided with DirectX 10.1 graphics capabilities to support Shader Model 4.1 for life-like realism 3D gaming effects.

Benefiting from Avivo™ HD video and display technology, the GV-R487-512H-B and GV-R485-512H-B fully support even most processing-intensive content for HDTV and HD video enthusiasts, universal connectivity to TVs and displays, and HDMI with 7.1 digital surround audio. Take full advantage of Blu-ray functionality with dual-stream, picture in picture (PIP) capabilities and one-cable HDMI™ connectivity solution to high definition home theaters.

For more details of GIGABYTE GV-R487-512H-B and GV-R485-512H-B, please visit the GIGABYTE VGA website: http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/VGA/Default.aspx

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Radeon™ HD 4870 X2 Graphics Card

-- GIGABYTE Presents the Power of Graphics Supercomputing with Radeon™ HD 4870 X2 Graphics Card --
-- Redefining HD Gaming for Extreme Gamers --

Taipei, Taiwan, August 12, 2008 – GIGABYTE UNITED INC., a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards today is pleased to launch their latest GV-R4870 X2 graphics card. The GV-R487X2-2GH-B is built on the highly anticipated ATI RadeonTM HD 4870 X2 GPU ─ which utilizes second generation 55nm manufacturing process and GDDR5 with dual 256-bit video memory architecture. It delivers blazing frame rates with supercomputing graphics power for tomorrow's demanding applications. In addition, the GIGABYTE GV-R487X2-2GH-B features a wide range of the latest graphics technologies, including Dual TeraScale graphics engine, dual mode ATI CrossFireX™, UVD 2 and PowerPlay™, to offer supreme scalability so gamers can take their games to new heights.

The GIGABYTE GV-R487X2-2GH-B features ATI's latest Dual TeraScale graphics engine, boasting its 2.4 teraFLOPS of GPU computing power with 1600 stream processors and nearly two billion transistors. With incredible 2GB GDDR5 memory, the GV-R487X2-2GH-B is equipped with nearly two times the memory bandwidth of the previous generation, delivering true physics gaming interaction for a more dynamic and realistic experience. In combination with 24x custom filter anti-aliasing (CFAA) and high performance anisotropic filtering, the GV-R487X2-2GH-B is able to create true-to-life graphics for everything from grass to facial features so you can max out the settings of the most demanding next generation games or revitalize your favorite titles. Also, the GIGABYTE GV-R487X2-2GH-B graphics card provides DirectX 10.1 graphics capabilities to support Shader Model 4.1 for life-like realism and stunning 3D gaming effects.

Benefiting from Avivo™ HD video and display technology, the GV-R487X2-2GH-B fully supports UVD 2 for decoding processing-intensive content for 1080p HDTV and HD video with additional support for dynamic contrast and enhanced DVD upscaling. The GIGABYTE GV-R487X2-2GH-B also provides advanced connectivity to TVs and displays with HDMI with 7.1 digital surround audio support. Delivering the ultimate solution for high definition home theaters, the GV-R487X2-2GH-B is able to take full advantage of Blu-ray functionality with dual-stream, picture in picture (PIP) capabilities and one-cable HDMI™ connectivity.

To help reduce PC power consumption, the GIGABYTE GV-R487X2-2GH-B is equipped with ATI PowerPlay™ technology, maximizing performance per watt by delivering the highest level high performance when needed and conserving power when the demand on the GPU is low. GIGABYTE graphics products are also 100% RoHS compliant, from manufacturing to on the store shelves, GIGABYTE provides greener computing solutions with better power efficiency.

For more details of the GIGABYTE GV-R487X2-2GH-B, please visit the GIGABYTE VGA website at:
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/VGA/Default.aspx

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Radeon™ HD 4600

-- GIGABYTE Unleashes Next-Gen Mainstream GPU Powered by Radeon™ HD 4600 Series Graphics Accelerators --
-- Featuring native HDMI port for incredible visual fidelity --



Taipei, Taiwan, September 10, 2008 – GIGABYTE UNITED INC., a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards today is pleased to launch their latest mainstream Radeon™ HD 4600 series graphics cards. The GIGABYTE GV-R467D3-512I and GV-R465OC-512I are built on the highly anticipated ATI Radeon™ HD 4670 and 4650 GPUs ─ respectively utilizing GDDR3 and GDDR2 video memory architecture and are able to deliver best-in-class performance with new clock speeds and provide break-through power efficiency management for tomorrow’s demanding applications. In addition to supporting a wide range of the latest graphics technologies including dual mode CrossFireX™, Microsoft® DirectX® 10.1, PCI Express 2.0 and UVD 2, the GIGABYTE GV-R4600 series are also equipped with the industry-leading GIGABYTE unique features including Ultra Durable 2 technology, GamerHUD™ Lite performance tuner and native HDMI port for HD gaming and Blu-ray movie playback


The Radeon™ HD 4600 series GPUs feature the same engine architecture as the award-winning ATI Radeon™ HD 4800 series, allowing the GV-R467D3-512I and GV-R465OC-512I to reach up to 3 times the performance of previous generation GPUs. Additionally, the powerful Radeon™ HD 4600 GPUs incorporate 320 stream processing units, delivering enough processing power to tackle the most demanding HD games and providing the highest levels of sophisticated anisotropic filtering (AF) and anti-aliasing (AA) to truly bring HD games to life. The GIGABYTE GV-R4600 series also feature DirectX® 10.1 graphics capabilities with support for Shader Model 4.1, delivering the most life-like 3D gaming effects.

Benefiting from Avivo™ HD video and display technology, the GV-R467D3-512I and GV-R465OC-512I fully support UVD 2 for decoding processing-intensive content for digital output at all resolutions up to 1080p and integrated AMD Xilleon™ HDTV encoder for high quality analog TV output. The GIGABYTE GV-R4600 Series also provide real one-cable HDMI™ connectivity to TVs and displays with HDMI with up to 2 channel 48 kHz stereo or 7.1 AC3, enabling a plug-and-play cable-less audio solution. With the ability to take full advantage of Blu-ray functionality with dual-stream, picture in picture (PIP) capabilities, dynamic contrast and enhanced DVD upscaling, the GV-R467D3-512I and GV-R465OC-512I provide the ultimate high definition solution for home theater systems.

For more details of GIGABYTE GV-R467D3-512I and GV-R465OC-512I, please visit the GIGABYTE VGA website: http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/VGA/Default.aspx

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Radeon™ HD 4600

-- GIGABYTE Unleashes Next-Gen Mainstream GPU Powered by Radeon™ HD 4600 Series Graphics Accelerators --
-- Featuring native HDMI port for incredible visual fidelity --

Taipei, Taiwan, September 10, 2008 – GIGABYTE UNITED INC., a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards today is pleased to launch their latest mainstream Radeon™ HD 4600 series graphics cards. The GIGABYTE GV-R467D3-512I and GV-R465OC-512I are built on the highly anticipated ATI Radeon™ HD 4670 and 4650 GPUs ─ respectively utilizing GDDR3 and GDDR2 video memory architecture and are able to deliver best-in-class performance with new clock speeds and provide break-through power efficiency management for tomorrow’s demanding applications. In addition to supporting a wide range of the latest graphics technologies including dual mode CrossFireX™, Microsoft® DirectX® 10.1, PCI Express 2.0 and UVD 2, the GIGABYTE GV-R4600 series are also equipped with the industry-leading GIGABYTE unique features including Ultra Durable 2 technology, GamerHUD™ Lite performance tuner and native HDMI port for HD gaming and Blu-ray movie playback.

The Radeon™ HD 4600 series GPUs feature the same engine architecture as the award-winning ATI Radeon™ HD 4800 series, allowing the GV-R467D3-512I and GV-R465OC-512I to reach up to 3 times the performance of previous generation GPUs. Additionally, the powerful Radeon™ HD 4600 GPUs incorporate 320 stream processing units, delivering enough processing power to tackle the most demanding HD games and providing the highest levels of sophisticated anisotropic filtering (AF) and anti-aliasing (AA) to truly bring HD games to life. The GIGABYTE GV-R4600 series also feature DirectX® 10.1 graphics capabilities with support for Shader Model 4.1, delivering the most life-like 3D gaming effects.

Benefiting from Avivo™ HD video and display technology, the GV-R467D3-512I and GV-R465OC-512I fully support UVD 2 for decoding processing-intensive content for digital output at all resolutions up to 1080p and integrated AMD Xilleon™ HDTV encoder for high quality analog TV output. The GIGABYTE GV-R4600 Series also provide real one-cable HDMI™ connectivity to TVs and displays with HDMI with up to 2 channel 48 kHz stereo or 7.1 AC3, enabling a plug-and-play cable-less audio solution. With the ability to take full advantage of Blu-ray functionality with dual-stream, picture in picture (PIP) capabilities, dynamic contrast and enhanced DVD upscaling, the GV-R467D3-512I and GV-R465OC-512I provide the ultimate high definition solution for home theater systems.

For more details of GIGABYTE GV-R467D3-512I and GV-R465OC-512I, please visit the GIGABYTE VGA website: http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/VGA/Default.aspx

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Radeon™ HD 4850 Graphics

-- GIGABYTE Launches 3 Proprietary Designed Radeon™ HD 4850 Graphics Accelerators with Ultra Durable 2 Technology --
-- 3 unique designs delivering the ultimate in HD performance: Fan Cooled, Passive Cooled and OC version --



Taipei, Taiwan, September 11, 2008 – GIGABYTE UNITED INC., a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards today announced their latest in-house designed GIGABYTE GV-R4850 series graphics cards featuring GIGABYTE’s own Ultra Durable 2 Technology.

Built on the highly anticipated ATI Radeon™ HD 4850 GPU which utilizes second generation 55nm manufacturing process and GDDR 5 video memory architecture, the GIGABYTE GV-R4850 series VGA cards deliver best-in-class performance with higher clock speeds and provide break-through power efficiency management for tomorrow’s demanding applications. In addition to featuring a wide range of the latest graphics technologies including TeraScale graphics engine and CrossFireX™, the GIGABYTE GV-R4850 series are also equipped with the industry-leading GIGABYTE unique features including Ultra Durable 2 technology, GamerHUD™ tweaking utility and Multi-Core™ cooling design, setting a new standard for HD gaming performance.

In order to satisfy the individual needs of gamers, power users and home theater enthusiasts alike, the GIGABYTE GV-R4850 series VGA cards offer 3 unique designs: the GV-R485ZL-512H featuring the Zalman VF830 fan, the passive cooled GV-R485MC-1GH featuring GIGABYTE’s Multi-Core™ cooling design with 3 cooling points instead of the traditional single node connecting the heat pipes to the fins for better performance especially during heavy loading and the GV-R485OC-1GH featuring a 12% core overclock to 700MHz (originally clocked at 625MHz) for the ultimate 3D rendering performance. The GIGABYTE GV-R4850 series are also equipped with GIGABYTE’s Ultra Durable 2 technology, featuring the latest high quality, highly efficient components designed to keep temperatures low and maximize total performance.

The GIGABYTE GV-R4850 series come equipped with ATI's latest graphics technologies including the TeraScale graphics engine, combining 1 teraFLOPS of GPU compute power, 800 stream processors to increase physical gaming interaction for a more dynamic and realistic experience. With enhanced anti-aliasing (AA) and anisotropic filtering, the GIGABYTE GV-R4850 series are able to provide striking graphics quality with unparalleled realism, allowing users to max out the settings of the most demanding next generation games or revitalize favorite titles. The GIGABYTE GV-R4850 series also feature DirectX® 10.1 graphics capabilities with support for Shader Model 4.1, delivering the most life-like 3D gaming effects.

Benefiting from Avivo™ HD video and display technology, the GIGABYTE GV-R487-512H-B and GV-R485-512H-B fully support even most processing-intensive content for HDTV and HD video enthusiasts, universal connectivity to TVs and displays and HDMI with 7.1 digital surround audio. The GIGABYTE GV-R4850 series also allows users to take full advantage of Blu-ray functionality with dual-stream, picture in picture (PIP) capabilities and one-cable HDMI™ connectivity for a cinema quality experience at home.

For more details of GIGABYTE GV-R485ZL-512H, GV-R485MC-1GH and GV-R485OC-1GH, please visit the GIGABYTE VGA website: http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/VGA/Default.aspx
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GeForce® GTX 260

-- GIGABYTE Unveils Next Generation GeForce® GTX 260 OC Graphics Accelerator --
-- Setting New Records for Extreme Gaming Performance --



Taipei Taiwan, Sep. 16, 2008 - GIGABYTE UNITED INC., a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, today launched their next generation graphic accelerators, the GIGABYTE GV-N26OC-896H-B, equipped with NVIDIA's latest GeForce® GTX 260 OC graphics processor. Delivering a 5-10% performance boost over the previous GeForce® GTX 260, the GeForce® GTX 260 OC with its 216 stream processors and 448bit, 896 GB GDDR3 memory provides a sophisticated level of 3D game rendering to take your game play to the next level. Supporting HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) and Full HD to 1,080P, the GIGABYTE GV-N26OC-896H-B also provides the highest quality, High-Definition video for the ultimate home theater experience.

Supporting NVIDIA’s PhysX™ Technology, the GIGABYTE GV-N26OC-896H-B enables a totally new class of physical gaming interaction for a more dynamic and realistic experience with the NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 260 OC. In addition to providing a completely unique gaming experience, it also compliant with CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) Technology, unlocking the power of the processor core of the GeForce GTX 260 OC to accelerate the most demanding system tasks such as video transcoding for an up to 7x performance enhancement over traditional CPUs.

The GIGABYTE GV-N26OC-896H-B also feature NVIDIA's latest advanced Lumenex™ Engine Technology, delivering stunning image quality and floating point accuracy at ultra-fast frame rates. The latest 16x Anti-aliasing Technology provides lightning fast, high-quality anti-aliasing up to 16x sample rates, which helps to eliminate jagged edges. 128-bit floating point High Dynamic Range (HDR) Lighting supports twice the precision of prior generations for incredibly realistic lighting effects with support for anti-aliasing.

Integrated with industry leading 3-way NVIDIA SLI Technology, the GV-N26OC-896H-B offers amazing performance scaling by implementing 3-way AFR (Alternate Frame Rendering) for the world's fastest gaming solution under Windows Vista with solid, state-of-the-art drivers. With DirectX® 10 support and adopting the latest Unified Shader architecture with full support for Shader Model 4.0, the GIGABYTE GV-N26OC-896H-B is able to deliver the most realistic gaming effects and lets users take full advantage of all the advanced features Microsoft® Windows Vista Premium, including the full Aero Interface.

The GIGABYTE GV-N26OC-896H-B is equipped with NVIDIA® PureVideo™ technology and supports Dual Dual-Link DVI, transforming your home theater into the latest highest quality, High-Definition cinema. Whether playing your favorite game at max settings, or watching the latest Blu-ray DVD movie, the GIGABYTE GV-N26OC-896H-B has the power to immerse you in the experience.

For more details about the GIGABYTE GV-N26OC-896H-B, please visit the GIGABYTE VGA website at: http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/VGA/Default.aspx
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Gigabyte GTX295-Golden Systems Launches Gigabyte GTX295

Golden Systems Electronics (GSE) today announced the launch of GIGABYTE GV-N295-18I-B in the Middle East region. The new GIGABYTE GV-N295-18I-B supports NVIDIA's latest dual graphics processors-GTX295 and features 896MB GDDR3 memory and 480 stream processors to enable gamers to enjoy unrivaled graphics performance. Additionally, the GV-N295-18I-B is equipped with the latest NVIDIA SLI®, NVIDIA PureVideo® HD, NVIDIA PhysX™, NVIDIA CUDA™ technology and Microsoft DirectX 10. Output interfaces support Dual-Link DVI, D-Sub, and HDMI with HDCP. The GIGABYTE GV-N295-18I-B gives gamers extremely high resolutions.

“The new GIGABYTE GV-N295-18I-B is an absolute delight for gamers offering realistic gaming experience with the very high resolutions. The latest graphics accelerator provides unrivaled graphics performance using NVIDIA’s latest dual graphics processors-GTX295. We are confident the new GIGABYTE GV-N295-18I-B will be well received in the region,” says Iman Mozaffari, Product Manager– Golden Systems Electronics.

High Gaming Resolution
GIGABYTE GV-N295-18I-B with NVIDIA PhysX technology provides a new class of physical gaming interaction for a more realistic gaming experience. Via NVIDIA PhysX technology, gamers are able to experience realistic 3D game effects such as complex characters and explosion. NVIDIA CUDA technology further enables the GPU’s processor cores to accelerate the most demanding system tasks delivering incredible performance improvements over traditional CPUs. Integrated with unique NVIDIA SLI® Technology, GIGABYTE GV-N295-18I-B is able to offer amazing performance scaling for the world’s fastest gaming solution under Windows Vista with solid, state-of-the-art drivers.

Delicate Image
GIGABYTE GV-N295-18I-B integrated with NVIDIA PureVideo® HD technology enables gamers to enjoy ultimate HD Movie experience on a PC with HDCP image protection. GIGABYTE GV-N295-18I-B supports the latest video output interfaces, including Dual Dual-Link DVI and HDMI, for the highest dual 2560X1600 screen resolution. With this design, you do not have to worry about handling tomorrow’s output interface applications.

GIGABYTE GV-N295-18I-B dual GPU processor high-end graphics accelerator is equipped with full functions providing high performance processing speed and delicate 3D images. This card provides you an unrivaled graphics experience and is your best choice

For more details of GIGABYTE GV-N295-18I-B, please visit the GIGABYTE VGA website: http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/VGA/Default.aspx

source : www.tbreak.com
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Palit Launches GeForce GTX285 with NVIDIA PhysX and CUDA

Graphic Cards | Just Announced

Manila, Philippines -- Palit Microsystems announces the Palit GeForce GTX285. Armed with NVIDIA PhysX and NVIDIA CUDA technology, the GeForce GTX285 is ready to enable a total new class of physical gaming interaction!

The Palit GeForce GTX285 features a core speed of 648MHz and 2.5GHz on its 1GB of GDDR3 memory with a 512bit interface. It supports the latest NVIDIA PhysX technology providing real-time physics simulations in leading edge PC and console games. With up to 50% more performance than prior generation GPUs, GeForce GTX 285’s GPUs tear through complex DirectX 10 environments and cinematic effects at blazing frame rates in extreme HD resolution!

Palit’s GeForce GTX285 also supports NVIDIA CUDA technology, unlocking the power of the GPU’s processing cores to accelerate the most demanding system tasks (such as video transcoding) to deliver up to 20x the performance over traditional CPUs.

The Palit GeForce GTX285 graphics card with NVIDIA CUDA technology not only provides a world-class gaming experience, it also delivers Graphics Plus. Experience jaw-dropping NVIDIA PhysX gaming effects, stereoscopic 3D, and lightning fast video and image processing all accelerated by the GPU!

source : www.hardwarezone.com
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GIGABYTE Announces GeForce 7800 GT VGA Card

Graphic Cards | Just Announced

Taipei, Taiwan 11th August 2005 – GIGABYTE launched the GV-NX78T256V-B, yet another high definition next generation GIGABYTE Gaming VGA solution based on the NVIDIA GeForce 7800GT graphics processor. Following close on the heels of several remarkable VGA card innovations from GIGABYTE, such as the proprietary 3D1 series of dual GPU cards, innovative fanless thermal designs that use Silent-pipe cooling technology and the famous GIGABYTE Turbo Force performance tuner, the new GV-NX78T256V-B introduces an incredible 20 pixel pipeline in what is arguably the industry’s powerful and technically advanced graphics accelerator card. The new high-end VGA card from GIGABYTE also supports a host of industry wide technological advancements such as Microsoft DirectX 9.0C and OpenGL 2.0, and is fully compatible with 64-bit operating systems.

The NVIDIA GeForce 7800GT GPU featured on the new GV-NX78T256V-B boasts NVIDIA’s top-three mainstream architectures, the Power of 3, which comprise Shader Model 3.0, HDR (High dynamic-range), and SLI technology. The GeForce 7 series is fitted out a fourth generation graphics engine that streamlines the creation of complex visual effects through features such as the CineFX 4.0 engine that allows developers to create unique 3D game features and effects in both game animation and high-definition video; moreover, the specialized engine possesses full support for Microsoft DirectX 9.0 Shader Model 3.0, that provides infinite program command length creating photorealistic scenes and environments in games. Additionally, the video accelerator card also supports HDR (High dynamic-range) rendering technology, which takes advantage of subtle light, texture, and color intricacies to creative incredibly realistic environments by representing color and intensity values with higher levels of precision. Naturally, NVIDIA SLI technology is featured on the GV-NX78T256V-B, which delivers powerful, elegant and super-rich graphics for games and other graphics-intensive applications. What’s more, for discerning PC gamers, the GV-NX78T256V-B incorporates Intellisample™ 4.0 that delivers Transparency Supersampling technology to improves the quality of finely detailed environments that may otherwise be aliased and blocky when rendered by traditional means.

In addition to NVIDIA’s industry leading 3D gaming technologies, the GV-NX78T256V-B also incorporates PureVideo technology that ensures support for new video formats, while its motion estimation engine (MEE) allows the card to record and play video files simultaneously without interrupting system performance. An added value the GV-NX78T256V-B provides is its high-definition MPEG-2 and WMV HD hardware accelerator that take on much of the heavy lifting during playback of Hi-Def video. Other video playback enhancements include a unique color correction mechanism that will help to create a home theater from a PC.

The GV-NX78T256V-B is equipped with video in and out (VIVO), HDTV, DVI-I, D-SUB output, and comes bundled with an impressive range of software, including Cyberlink PowerDirector 3.0 ME, PowerDVD 6.0, Spell Force, and Xpand Rally. The GV-NX78T256V-B is expected to be available on the shelf in end of June. For more details, please visit the official GIGABYTE VGA website: http://tw.giga-byte.com/VGA.
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Zotac/Sharaf DF GTX 260 Promotion

Published 26 November 2008

ZOTAC today announced that it is holding a special promotion exclusively at Sharaf DG on its GeForce GTX 260 AMP2! edition cards. The leading manufacturer of NVIDIA-based graphics cards and motherboards will offer customers a new premium software bundle featuring Ubisoft’s Far Cry 2 with its award-winning ZOTAC GeForce GTX 260 AMP2! edition cards as an exclusive promotion for Sharaf DG’s weekend customers from November 27-28, 2008. Customers who purchase ZOTAC GeForce GTX 260 AMP2! edition cards will be eligible for a big draw at Sharaf DG where they will have a chance to win ZOTAC NITRO devices.

“To celebrate the upcoming holiday season, ZOTAC is pleased to offer customers Ubisoft’s highly anticipated Far Cry 2 game with our ZOTAC GeForce GTX 260 AMP2! cards. Sharaf DG is the leading power retailer in the UAE, which attracts a number of shoppers and gaming enthusiasts and this promotion will run exclusively for them at Sharaf DG over the weekend. We plan to later extend this promotion through SKY Electronics’ channel partners for a limited period,” says Mr. Mohammed Ibrahim, Regional Manager – Middle East for ZOTAC International.

Gamers buying ZOTAC GeForce GTX 260 AMP2! edition at Sharaf DG’s retail outlets will get Ubisoft’s highly anticipated Far Cry 2 game with the box. Ubisoft’s Far Cry 2 puts gamers in control of a mercenary in a highly detailed central African environment. Far Cry 2 treats gamers to an open, interactive environment with realistic details and weather effects for a highly immersive gaming experience that blurs the line between the game and reality. With Far Cry 2, users can take advantage of the 3D power available with their new ZOTAC GeForce GTX 260 AMP2! edition and experience stunning visuals right out of the box.

This special promotion will run exclusively at all Sharaf DG outlets from November 27-28, 2008 and later through ZOTAC’s Middle East Distributor, SKY Electronics for a limited period.

source : www.tbreak.com
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NVIDIA announces Quadro FX5800 Graphics Card with 4GB RAM

Published 18 November 2008

Professionals searching for oil, diagnosing illness or styling the next high-performance luxury vehicle all have one thing in common, the need for advanced visual computing solutions. NVIDIA Corporation, the world leader in visual computing technologies, today unveiled the most powerful professional graphics card in graphics history —the NVIDIA® Quadro® FX 5800.

“The size and complexity of data is growing at an exponential rate. The challenge for today’s professional is to make sense of the mountain of data by distilling it into a form they can comprehend, analyse and use to make impactful decisions,” said Jeff Brown, general manager, Professional Solutions, NVIDIA. “At stake can be billions of investment dollars, or even people’s lives. The Quadro FX 5800 has advanced features to allow massive datasets to be viewed beyond traditional 3D enabling professionals to make fast and accurate decisions.”

The Quadro FX 5800 graphics card offers unprecedented performance and scalability to rapidly visualise and interpret massive datasets that until now were unattainable on a workstation graphics board. Offering up to 240 CUDA™ programmable parallel cores and the industries first 4GB of graphics memory, the Quadro FX 5800 graphics card is ideally suited for oil and gas exploration, medical imaging, styling and design, and scientific visualisation. Other advanced features of the Quadro FX 5800 graphics card include:

• Interactive 4D modeling with time lapse capabilities
• Massive memory bandwidth of up to 102 GB per second
• Fill rates that exceed 52 billion texels per second and geometry performance of 300 million triangles per second
• Support for next-generation OpenGL and Microsoft DirectX 10 applications
• Advanced multi-system and multi-device visualisation environments with Quadro G-Sync II

“Landmark’s recently launched GeoProbe® R5000 software empowers geoscientists with an unprecedented ability to visualise large-scale regional datasets at full resolution from a standard Linux® workstation,” said Nicholas Purday, manager of Geophysical Technologies at Landmark. “The NVIDIA Quadro FX 5800 graphics card has a more powerful GPU and superior triangle performance, which make it possible for the GeoProbe application to quickly render large surfaces, and allow us to move many computing-intensive processes to the graphics card, significantly enhancing the overall user experience.” Landmark is an industry leading software and technology services brand of Halliburton, one of the world’s largest providers of products and services to the energy industry.

“The advanced textured graphics capabilities of the Quadro FX 5800 are enabling CyberHeart to provide 3D radiosurgical target visualisation and definition tools for the purpose of treating cardiac arrhythmias,” said Thilaka Sumanaweera, CTO, CyberHeart. “Our applications are processing very large data sets acquired by the state-of-the-art 64-slice CT scanners using respiratory- and cardiac-gating. The Quadro FX cards provide us with the extreme bandwidth necessary to support our cutting-edge technology, and essentially, save lives.” CyberHeart, Inc., is a medical device company developing a non-invasive radiosurgical system for cardiac applications.

The Quadro FX 5800 GPU features true 10-bit color enabling billions rather than millions of color variations for rich, vivid image quality with the broadest dynamic range. Professionals now benefit from viewing their models with higher degrees of precision and realism never before possible.

“Our customers are making important decisions about future products on the basis of RTT-powered 3D real-time models,” said Ludwig Fuchs, cofounder and CEO of RTT. “The new Quadro FX 5800 will be the platform of choice to bring that arena to the next level. Higher levels of realism, physical correctness and large models are now made possible through a double number of cores and a generous frame buffer.” Realtime Technology AG, is a leading supplier of real-time visualisation technology and virtual prototyping solutions to the automotive, aerospace, industrial and consumer goods design industries.

Pricing and Availability
NVIDIA Quadro solutions are widely available through leading PC manufacturers and workstation system integrators and NVIDIA channel partners PNY Technologies (EMEA). For more information about the full lineup of NVIDIA professional solutions please visit www.nvidia.co.uk/quadro.

source : www.tbreak.com
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XFX GeForce GTX260 XXX Edition Video Card

Author: Ben Sun · 07-22-2008
With the recent launch of the ATI HD4870 and HD4850, NVIDIA's strategy for their GTX cards has changed for the better for the consumer, for the worse for NVIDIA at least for the short term. ATI's launches have forced NVIDIA to lower the prices on their cards to match ATI's market price and cut down on their margins. Today, what was a $399 GTX260 is now selling online for $299 amazingly enough. Similarly, what was a $649 GTX280s are selling for $499 meaning the margins on these new cards is down for NVIDIA, hence the good news and bad news of lower prices.
The GT200 chip was launched last month by NVIDIA as their next-generation graphics chip. There are two versions of this chip available, the GTX280 and the GTX260. I've covered the GTX 280 in a couple of reviews already, but today I'm reviewing the GeForce GTX260. The company that manufactures this particular card is XFX a division of Pine Technologies. It will be an interesting look at a card that has dropped in price to be more competitive with the competition. The GeForce GTX260 XXX Edition is an overclocked card from the reference clocks, and should be a good performer. As prices keep dropping this is a good thing for the consumer looking for a high-end card.
The GeForce GTX260 is the “little brother” to the GTX280 card that is NVIDIA's flagship at the moment. The card is built upon TSMC's 65 nanometer process, with 1.4 Billion transistors. This is the largest graphics card in terms of transistor count in the world. The GTX260 has 192 Stream Processors which is less than the 240 SPs the GTX280 sports.
NVIDIA was the first graphics chip maker on the market with DirectX 10.0 support with the GeForce 8800GTX and GeForce 8800GTS cards in 2006. The key features of DX10 include Unified Shader support, support for Pixel and Vertex Shader 4.0 and Windows Vista Aero Glass support (the GUI). Games that support DirectX 10 include: Crysis, Hellgate London, Lost Planet and many others that have hit the market in recent months.

source : www.motherboards.org
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ATI All-In-Wonder HD Video Card

Author: Ben Sun · 08-27-2008
ATI has been at the forefront of multimedia applications for their video cards for years. The first “All-In-Wonder” video card was released way back in 1996 with the ability to play TV on the PC. Since then ATI has released many AIW products until the release of the AIW X1900 their last AIW card in 2006. The gap of two years has seen the release of many video chip families including the HD2xxx, HD3xxx and the HD4xxx families of video cards.
One of the problems with designing their AIW line of VGA cards is that they are generally six months behind the family launch, so that a new chip is released before the AIW would normally be ready to release. This is one of the reasons why ATI has stayed out of the AIW release for the last two years as no less than three different chip families have been released since the X1900 and was four generations ago, if you count the X1950XTX cards. ATI announced the AIW HD on June 26 and today that is the card on the test bench for us to see how well it works and why it’s a viable product.
The ATI/AMD All-In-Wonder HD is based upon ATI’s Radeon HD 3650 mid-range graphics card that was released last year. Based upon TSMC’s 55nm process, with a total of 378 million transistors, the HD 3650 is the middle brother of the HD3xxx family of cards which includes the HD3870, the HD3650 and the HD 3450. Codenamed the RV635, the HD 3650 on the card is clocked at 725MHz for the core, 600MHz for the memory which is GDDR2 and has a 128-bit memory interface.
The total memory bandwidth available on the card is 19.2GB/second which is found by multiplying the memory clock speed by the memory bus interface and dividing it by 8 to change bits into bytes. The internal memory bandwidth of the A-I-W card is doubled due to the memory ring bus which makes the memory bus internally of 256-bit. The A-I-W HD has a fill rate of Key features of the HD 3650 include support for Microsoft’s DirectX 10.1 API which supports improved image quality features and better support for Global Illumination. The HD 3650 supports up to up 8x MSAA (Multi-Sample Anti-Aliasing), Coverage Sample Anti-Aliasing which allows the effective anti-aliasing to go up to 24x, and 16x AF. But the key features of the HD 3650 have been covered in many of my reviews so I’ll cover the new features of the AIW HD card.
ATI has used their Unified Video Decoder to play back and decode DVD movies, Blu-Ray and HD-DVD movies with less stress on the CPU by doing the decoding on the graphics card. UVD2 supports H.264/AVC and VC1 formats meaning that all of the High Definition Content is supported by the UVD2. One benefit of the A-I-W HD is the inclusion of the Theater 650 chip which was introduced with the HDTV Wonder a couple of years ago. One thing that has really hit home recently is the emergence of the Green initiative to save the environment by reducing energy consumption and emissions. The HD 3650 has ATI’s PowerPlay technology which monitors GPU activity and adjusts clock speeds to user needs. In 2D for example, the HD 3650 will have clock throttling, voltage switching and Dynamic clock gating to save energy when not needed.
Digital TV will take over the place of analog TV in February of the year 2009. The transition means that many older TV sets will require a converter box to display television shows after that transition date or may not work at all. The AIW HD card is designed to allow the user to watch the Digital signals from many sources including analog (NTSC), digital/HDTV (ATSC) and unencrypted digital cable (ClearQAM) with time-shifting functionality. Analog TV is disappearing on February of 2009, so everything will be digital. One thing to note is that cable companies like Time Warner Cable encrypt a lot of their channels so that only the basic cable package can be viewed with ClearQAM due to the fact that the cable companies will want to sell their CableCards and packages beyond the basic one. Mileage may vary and some cable companies allow wider access to stations than others. There is still a lot of grey area as to how well the reception will be with your local cable company, and what channels will be available to you to view.

source : www.motherboards.org
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ATI Radeon HD 4550 Versus EVGA GeForce 9500GT

Author: Ben Sun · 09-30-2008
ATI has been releasing new video cards on a fast pace recently with the release of the HD 4870, 4850, 4870 X2, 4670, 4650, and now the 4550 each targeting different video card segments from the high-end to the mainstream value segments. The 4870 and 4850 are the king of the hill of their respective price segments with the 4870 x2 being the top of the hill in terms of pure performance. But not every end-user wants to spend $500+ on a video card. 2/3s of the retail video card purchases are made in the under $100 level. The HD 4670 and 4650 cards target the upper level of that but what about the $50 level? That’s where today’s launch of the ATI Radeon HD 4550 comes in. EVGA, an NVIDIA partner has dropped their 9500GT card to match the price of the ATI HD 4550 and it should be an interesting performance comparison between the two cards at this price point in terms of target markets, gaming and features.
The ATI Radeon HD 4550 is based upon ATI’s RV710 chip. It is manufactured at TSMC, ATI’s and NVIDIA’s chip foundry partner on their 55 nanometer process. ATI has now moved to the 55 nanometer process for their entire lineup top to bottom and their experience shows as they have designed chips to draw less power and have high performance for a lower price point.
One of the big selling points of the HD 4550 is as a Home Theater PC card. The reference card has a Display Port, a DVI port, and a VGA port. The card has a port for HDMI audio, meaning that you can get 7.1 sound out of the HDMI port. The HDMI and Display Ports allow the user to have the ultimate in choice as to the type of monitor to use with the card, whether a big screen HDTV or a LCD monitor for gaming.
The Radeon HD 4550 has 80 Stream Processors. By way of comparison the previous generation HD 3450 has 40 SPs, so this should make the HD 4550 performance much higher than the older chip. The RV710 has a 128-bit memory interface which along with the 1.6GHz effective memory clock speed offers a memory bandwidth of 12.8GB/second.
ATI’s version of the Stream Processor is different than NVIDIA’s in significant ways. The RV710 has two SIMD cores and each of the cores has eight stream processors. Each of the Stream Processors is capable of a 5D operation, meaning that there’s a total of 80 Stream Processors on the HD 4550. The 80 SPs allow the HD 4550 to have 48 GigaFLOPs of computing power.
ATI has had a GPGPU client in the works for a while now. As NVIDIA is pushing the PhysX hardware physics software ATI partnered with Intel to promote the Havok Physics software. Note that ATI could probably support PhysX on their hardware but it’s a matter of licensing and NVIDIA allowing it to happen. ATI supports open standards for software and therefore supports Havok. We’ll have to wait and see if they’ll enable PhysX support.
ATI decided to move to a new architecture with the HD 38xx series, being the first video card company to support Microsoft’s DirectX 10.1 in hardware. Key features of DirectX 10.1 include Indexed cube map arrays, independent blend modes per render target, Pixel coverage sample masking, read/write multi-sample surfaces with shaders, and Gather4 texture fetches.
The Radeon HD 4550 has the ability to do a maximum of 4x MSAA. The other members of the HD 4xxx family can do 8x MSAA but the performance of the Radeon HD 4550 and the number of render backends on the card means that the card cannot do 8X MSAA unless two cards are in CrossfireX mode. In any event, 8x MSAA would be totally unplayable on all but the most basic games and shouldn’t be a factor on deciding whether to buy this card.
ATI is really pushing High Definition playback with this card and with all HD 4xxx series cards. THE HD 4550 has ATI’s Unified Video Decoder 2 which has full hardware acceleration for H.264, VC-1 and MPEG-2. The UVD2 also supports Picture-in-picture allowing you to watch a Blu-Ray movie for example and simultaneously watch the cast commentary. The HD 4550 has two independent display controllers, allowing for dual monitor use.
ATI’s multiple GPU solution is called CrossfireX. The HD 4550 is capable of improving gaming performance with more than one graphics card. Of course this means that the HD 4550 would need a second HD 4550 to come close to the performance of the next level of card, the HD 4650 as the HD 4650 has double or more SPs and has the performance to back it up. There is no Crossfire bridge on this card so the reference card can’t do Crossfire but partner cards can.

source : www.motherboards.org
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Gigabyte 9800GT 512MB Video Card

Author: Ben Sun · 10-03-2008

NVIDIA has been releasing new high-end video cards nearly every six months for nearly 10 years now. The first video card on this release schedule was the Riva 128 card from 1997. This was followed by several generations of video cards including the GeForce FX, the GeForce 6800 Ultra. The latest high-end card from NVIDIA is the GeForce GTX 280 which much has been written about. But as was noted in the HD 4650 review, most sales are in the under $100 price range and not in the $300 range that the HD 4870 or GeForce GTX 260 would require. NVIDIA and ATI have released new cards for the under $200 price point, the GeForce 9800GT and the HD 4850 respectively. The Gigabyte 9800GT 512MB is the card on the review slate today.
The GeForce 9800GT is based upon NVIDIA’s G92a chip. This is the same core chip that is used on the GeForce 9800GTX and 9800GTX+ cards. As NVIDIA transitions their G9x core chips to the 55 nanometer process the GeForce 9800GT will be moved to the new process. The current 9800GT chips are based upon the tried and true 65 nanometer process that NVIDIA has used since the GeForce 8800GT was launched which was the same core as this one and as we’ll see is the same chip.
The 9800GT is a reuse of the same chip used on the 8800GT from early 2008. The key features remain the same with the 9800GT having 112 Stream Processors, 16 less than the 9800GTX and 9800GTX+ cards which have 128 SPs. The number of texturing units and ROPs (Outputted Pixels) are the same between the 9800GT and 8800GT cards as well, being 56 Texture mapping units and 16 pixels outputted per second.
The Gigabyte 9800GT has a core clock speed of 600MHz, which gives a pixel fill rate of 9.6 Gigapixels/second and a texture fill rate of 38.4 Gigatexels/second. 9800GT has a 256-bit memory interface, meaning that the Gigabyte 9800GT which has a memory clock speed of 900MHz/1.8GHz effective has a memory bandwidth of 57.6GB/second.
The 9800GT supports all of the DirectX 10.0 features found on modern games like Age of Conan, STALKER Clear Skies, and other games that have been released. The key features of DirectX 10 include unified shaders, Geometry Shaders, Texture arrays, Geometry instancing and more. The 9800GT has support for up to 4x MSAA and 16x AF in a single clock with 8x MSAA and 16x AF available in a single pass of two clock cycles.
The Gigabyte 9800GT is RoHS compliant. RoHS stands for the Restriction of Hazardous Substances in the manufacturing of electronic and electrical equipment. RoHS restricts the use of Lead, Mercury, Cadmium, Hexavalent chromium, Polybrominated biphenyls and Polybrominated diphenyl ether to 1 part per 1000 or 0.1%.
The one feature on the 9800GT which differentiates it from the 8800GT is support for HybridPower. The Green Initiative, which calls for the lowering of carbon emissions and saving the environment, is something that computer component manufacturers are pushing and HybridPower allows users to use less electricity due to its functionality. The Gigabyte 9800GT can be turned off when in 2D mode, having the integrated graphics of the NVIDIA chipset motherboard take over. In this instance the power savings can be immense as the 9800GT has a TDP of 105W.
Gigabyte has transferred their Ultra Durable 2 technology over to the video card side from the motherboard side of their business. Ultra Durable 2 indicates their products use Low RDS (on) MOSFETs, Ferrite Core Chokes and Lower ESR Solid Capacitors on the 9800GT. The Low RDS (on) MOSFETs provide ultra cooling, the Ferrite Core Choke design provides low power loss, and the all solid capacitors provide a longer life than standard capacitors. Turbo Force combines Gigabyte’s T3 technology with their V-Tuner overclocking utility. T3 stands for Performance Assurance Tuning, Stability Tuning and Power Optimization Tuning. Gigabyte says that the Turbo Force technology enhances performance over 10% over standard tuning.

source : www.motherboards.org
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ATI Radeon HD 4350 versus EVGA GeForce 9400GT

Author: Ben Sun · 10-10-2008

The battle for the video card dollar has never been closer between NVIDIA and ATI. Every card in ATI’s lineup has a similarly performing and priced card in NVIDIA’s lineup. NVIDIA, in fact, has redrawn their price/performance ratio in response to ATI’s launches of the HD 4870 X2, 4870, 4670, 4550 and the recent launch of the ATI HD 4350. One problem with the multiple launches and multiple price drops is the dilution of the video card market where many cards are competing against other cards that were never meant to compete with. This is great for the consumer, with the financial crisis impacting everyone including banks and mortgage companies but bad for the companies who designed their marketing around certain profit margins.
The vast majority of video card purchases are made at the under $100 range in price. This market is marked by competition not only from the two graphics card company’s offerings but also from the integrated graphics available on the market from Intel and AMD solutions as the integrated graphics come with the motherboard and when looking at price/performance one has to ask is it worth spending the sub $30 on a discrete video card or is it better to have integrated graphics as part of the cost of a new system and buy a more expensive discrete card later. On the Intel side of things, a discrete graphics card makes sense as the Intel integrated graphics available to most everyone is a joke. On the AMD side of things where the HD 3300 and NVIDIA GeForce 8300 are solutions the choice is harder.
ATI launched the Radeon HD 4870 and 4850 cards a few short months ago. The 4870 card and the GeForce GTX260 cards have been battling for the under $300 price range, while the 4850 battles with the GeForce 9800GTX for the under $200 price range. ATI has recently announced the HD 4670 and 4550 cards for the under $100 price point. That theoretically leaves a $40 price point open for cards and ATI has recently launched the HD 4350 to fit that price point. NVIDIA has countered by reducing their 9400GT cards to that price point meaning that it should be an interesting battle of sub $40 cards. ATI and EVGA have sent respective cards on the HD 4350 and the 9400GT for review and that is the battle royal today.
In many respects the Radeon HD 4350 is the smaller brother of the HD 4550 that I reviewed less than a month ago. The HD 4350 has 80 Stream Processors, 8 Texture units and 4 ROPS which is the same number as found on the HD 4550 cards. It is built upon TSMC’s 55 nanometer press with 242 million transistors ATI built the HD 4XXX series stressing performance per watt and the HD 4350 design is.
The HD4350 has a 64-bit memory bus. The memory bus on the video card combined with the memory clock speed determines how much memory bandwidth a card has. The HD 4350 has a memory clock speed of 1 GHz effective, meaning that the card has 8GB of memory bandwidth available to it. The card uses DDR2 memory which is very inexpensive memory right now but the card is inexpensive so it’s a good fit.
ATI’s big push on video cards is on DirectX 10.1 features. The DirectX 10.1 feature set is going to be more featured in the near future with big game companies like EA and Sega announcing support for it and DirectX 11 video cards needing to support DirectX 10.1 to be compliant. NVIDIA argues, with some justification that DirectX 10.1 is a minor feature update to DirectX 10.0. In any event cards like the HD 4350 do not have the performance to take full advantage of DirectX 10.1 and it shouldn’t be a major factor either way.
ATI’s Universal Video Decoder is their decode software for HD content like Blu-Ray disks and H.264 video playback software. The HD 4350 is capable of full speed Blu-Ray playback but ATI states that it might not have the horsepower to do picture in a picture dual stream playback that the other HD 4xxx series can do. The HD 4350 reference card is designed to offer HDMI Audio (7.1) through the included HDMI port making it ideal for the Home Theater PC enthusiast

source : www.motherboards.org
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