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February 22, 2006 Upgrading OPAMPS on the X-Mystique - Josh One of the primary features of the X-Mystique and now X- Plosion sound cards is that they have upgradeable OPAMPS for those that use the analog outputs/inputs of the sound card. While upgrading OPAMPS on cards that are only connected to speakers and receivers by a digital cable is pointless, there are users that still want to utilize the analog outputs of these cards. I took 6 of the Burr Brown/Texas Instruments OPA2134PA and upgraded my X-Mystique sound card and discovered if this procedure would in fact improve the sound coming out of the analog outputs. Here is a quote:
You can read the entire article here. February 21, 2006 Some Words on AMD's AM-2 - Josh Quite a bit of news has sprung up about AMD's latest generation of sockets and processors. Apparently the AM-2 processors (which feature the Rev. F cores) will be released on June 6, during Computex. There are quite a few rumors swirling about the reasons behind this, and one that has popped up is that the memory controller was not so hot. I am somewhat ambivalent to such claims, as I have never heard anything official (or off the record for that matter) about memory controller issues. It could very well be the case, but my gut feeling on this is that AMD found no real need to push things to get these products out in March. Seeing that we are in a DDR-2 memory shortage situation, as well as the relative weakness in Q1 and Q2, AMD has no real compelling reason to push out this product. They probably feel that as long as they get the Rev. F's out at least a month before Intel releases Conroe onto the world, they will be in a good position to compete, as well as give their current lineup some extra selling time. This also does give the engineers and extra few months for another respin before the product gets sent off for mass production. Production is probably another reason for this situation. As you know, Fab 36 is starting to churn out final products for distribution, and Fab 30 has been running at capacity since the Athlon 64 was released. So, instead of turning over space in Fab 30 to produce these new Rev. F parts, AMD can wait until Fab 36 is indeed fully up to speed and use that to produce the new parts while Fab 30 can keep producing the current Athlon 64 cores to keep up with demand. The opposite could also be true in that AMD will have Fab 36 produce the old cores (because those designs are well known and easier to produce) while the more mature Fab 30 lines can produce the new Rev. F cores. There is no good reason for AMD to chop production on their current lineup when they are selling every good die coming off the line. When you add in other rumors like the eventual Dell adoption, things take on a cloak and dagger feel. Dell has always fallen back onto the reason of AMD not being able to fill demand, and that is a valid reason. Especially considering that AMD has been at full capacity for two years now. Now that Fab 36 is coming online and ramping up, there will be a lot of spare capacity. Also consider that Dell pretty much only buys DDR-2 anymore. Why would they want to buy more DDR-1 enabled products when they have phased out pretty much every lineup featuring that memory technology. So, the stage is set for Dell to announce a DDR-2 enabled product based on AMD processors. Dell likes to be the first to announce these things as well, so it is easy to imagine that AMD would also be willing to hold off on introducing their AM-2 part until Dell does so in a joint announcement. One rumor that does stick out in my mind is that C|Net is reporting that Intel claims the Conroe series of processors will outperform the AMD product at that time by at least 20%. This is a huge claim, and one I just can't see happening. Unless of course AMD totally falls down with the AM-2 based Rev. F processors. I can see a 5% improvement per clock on the Intel Conroe, but as I had mentioned in my Exuberant Enthusiasm article, there are many things holding the architecture back that will not allow it to reach its full potential. Now, if Intel is able to release a high end Conroe that hits 3.0 GHz+, then we can expect to see Intel take the performance crown back. AMD again is not standing still, and I have heard many positive things about the Rev. F core. Apparently this core is 20% larger than the previous Venice/San Diego/Manchester cores, and not all of that extra space is taken up by the new memory controller (as Mirage in the forums posted, the Pacifica-Virtualization portion also will take up die space). Still, that is a lot of extra transistors in there, and I do expect a nice bump in IPC as well as clockspeed from these new cores come June. So, we are set for a real fistfight this summer between AMD and Intel, and I for one cannot say that one side or the other will be the winner. What I can say is that things look very competitive from both sides, and in the end the consumer will be the winner here. February 16, 2006 Where to Start? - Josh As we are hitting the middle of February things are starting to heat up yet again in the computer world. Usually Q1 is a fairly slow time, but so far we have seen the FX-60 release from AMD, the 955EE from Intel, and the X1900 series from ATI. It seems that folks took a breather here in the first part of February, but it appears as if things will start heating up again. The beginning of March will bring CeBIT, which goes from March 9 through 16. Apparently, through quite a few rumors and even a little hint by NVIDIA, the replacement for the 7800 GTX 512 will be released. This will be the first large 90 nm part from NVIDIA (as the 6100 series and 7300/7400 are all smaller 90 nm parts) and quite a few folks around seem pretty confident that this part will be very fast, and have some new features to boot to keep it competitive with the ATI X1900. As I had mentioned in the forums as well, spy shots of the 7600 series of cards were also leaked. I am guessing that the top end (7900?) and 7600 parts will be released about the same time. If I were a guessing man, I would say that the 7600 high end part will probably land in performance between a standard 6800 and a 6800 GT, all of this using a 128 bit memory bus running high speed GDDR-3 (probably between 650 MHz and 700 MHz- giving it 1300 MHz to 1400 MHz effective performance). 22.4 GB/sec max of effective memory bandwidth is not bad at all (think 9700 Pro/9800 Pro memory performance). Hopefully these two series of cards will feature improved filtering techniques, not to mention the ability to handle AA and FP16 HDR at the same time. We probably have less than a month to find out. NVIDIA currently has the market covered in products stretching from the budget to the high end, and the midrange is well represented by the 6600 GT, 6800 GS, and the 7800 GT (not to mention leftover 6800, 6800 GT, and the new 7800 GS). The low end has the 6200 TC, 7300 GS (now out in good numbers), and the 6600 DDR-2 (still an excellent buy for the budget enthusiast). Currently things look a little weak at the top end with the 7800 GTX, which is nearing 9 months of age and looking a little expensive as compared to the X1900 XT and X1800 XT. The 7800 GTX 512 is still selling out whenever product is available, and NVIDIA has committed to shipping as many of those as humanly possible. Of course with the new GPU's coming out in a likely March timeframe, this situation will change dramatically. The 7800 GT is already hitting the $279 price point, and we can expect to see the 7800 GTX 256 version to start ticking away below $399. I highly doubt the 7800 GTX 512 SKU will survive after March though On the ATI side there are now rumors of the X1900 GTO, which will feature a new chip (R590- info courtesy of The Inq.). I find this bit of info quite likely, as ATI has a glaring hole in their SM 3.0 lineup between the $199 and $400 mark. While the X1800 XL is supposed to take up position there, this card is becoming increasingly rare, and when it is available they are often selling for above $400. I had mentioned this hole for ATI in my Feb. 9 post, and its pretty obvious that ATI could not continue to let this situation simmer, especially in such an important market section (good sales and good margins). The X1900 GTO looks to be a part that will shave off portions of the R580, probably making it a 12 ROP/36 shader/6 vertex/12 texture unit (did you follow that?). It looks to come out in 256 MB size, and we will probably see some AIB's put 512 MB in certain versions. Needless to say, this part will fill that void between $249 and $400 with a couple of different SKU's. Again, I am quite pleased by the amount of X1900 product on the market, and I am very curious to see how it is selling so far. Unfortunately, I can't really get any concrete sell through numbers from anyone, so I guess I will have to wait for the Peddie report on high end sales to come out next quarter. On the CPU side it looks as if AMD is going to push back their AM-2 launch to June (Computex). This could be due to a variety of reasons, but I think the biggest one is that they probably feel that Intel still will not have anything to compete with at that point, as the Conroe release will be about a month after that. AMD is probably staging this release so that it will still be fresh in the mind of the journalists and readers when Conroe does hit, and by then there should be plenty of AM-2 product out for consumers to buy if they wish. Of course one of the big points that will probably be stressed by AMD at that time will be "Yeah, Conroe is nice, but why get that when AM-2 processors and motherboards are out in force?" Conroe will definitely be something good, but as with any new Intel processor these days current motherboards will not support these chips. New chipsets and VRM specs are required, so Intel will have to have its partners roll out new product lines for these new chips. If we look at AMD and then Intel, we can see which IHV the motherboard guys probably appreciate more. Any socket 939 motherboard will run any socket 939 chip, from the first 3200+ released to the latest FX-60. Usually just a BIOS update is needed to correctly identify the chip, but the power and heat characteristics have not changed dramatically enough to force motherboard manufacturers to put out new product lines every time a new CPU comes out. You know a lot of Intel enthusiasts are just fuming that their new i975 based motherboard will not be compatible with Conroe and its kin. Apparently we will hear and see more about AM-2 at CeBIT though, and hopefully then we can get a better idea how it will potentially match up with the Intel products to be released this summer. Finally we get to a part that is becoming quite close to my heart. PC audio. I recently received the new Auzentech X-Plosion sound card, and I have been pleasantly surprised by this little number. Is it perfect? Of course not, but it is a competitive product with some very interesting features. As I had mentioned earlier, the relationship between BlueGears and HDA (the actual makers of the X-Mystique and X-Plosion) has broken down and HDA changed their name to Auzentech, Ltd. and they have established a new distributorship in the US under the Auzentech, Inc. name. The X-Mystique and X-Plosion are both good products, but unfortunately they have to rely on C-Media to provide new and improved drivers for these products... and apparently C-Media is not good at that. BlueGears did not shrivel up and die though, and they are looking to release their own branded sound card based on the C-Media Oxygen HD CMI-8788 chip. This is a very high end chip with some pretty interesting specifications. It encompasses a variety of Dolby and DTS technologies as well as featuring 32 bit/192 kHz analog playback and 24 bit/192 kHz digital playback. Apparently what is holding this product back from being released in a timely manner (or perhaps maybe even released at all) is the inability of C-Media to produce solid and working drivers for this high end chip. There are so many advanced features to this chip, if BlueGears releases a product around it that has drivers that don't work fully or cause other issues, they are sinking their own ship. BlueGears knows this very well and they are treating this product as a day to day affair. If C-Media can come through with some solid reference drivers, then we will see this product in March. If C-Media drops the ball, then BlueGears will look elsewhere for a chip partner. February 9, 2006 Availability of Video Cards - Josh With ATI and NVIDIA both releasing new products in the past couple of weeks, I thought I would take a look around and see what was available. The 7800 GS AGP is now out in very good numbers, and you can find a very good selection from a variety of manufacturers from $299 to less than $349. EVGA has one of the more interesting ones with a green LED light in the fan, and a core clock of 460 MHz with memory running at 1350 MHz. That is one seriously clocked card for the AGP enthusiast, and at $319 to $329, it is a nice deal as well. It doesn't look like we can unlock all those disabled pipes and ROPS, but it should still give a good gaming experience. ATI has done a great job in getting the latest X1900 series of products out the door. We are now seeing some of the X1900 XTs hitting $499, which is $50 lower than MSRP. We are also seeing X1900 XTXs for around $589, a full $60 under MSRP. Quantities look really good, and I think ATI is going to be pretty popular with these products. They are delivering in quantity, and the performance is really outstanding for these products. I just wish they could get a better cooling design! Catalyst Control Center issues are still a bit annoying, but in playing with WinXP 64 those problems seem a bit smaller and the system more responsive vs. WinXP 32 bit. Strange, yet odd. We are also seeing prices on the X1800 XT hitting $429, which makes it another good buy (especially comparing it to slightly higher priced 7800 GTX 256 MB versions). Currently ATI has some of the best values on the market when it comes to features/price/performance. I would happily run a X1800 XT if given the chance, especially if I can pick one up for well under $450. The final card covered for the high end is the 7800 GTX 512. This beast continues to be produced in small numbers, but we are seeing new deliveries nearly every week. Demand still appears to be high, as these products sell out rather quickly. Of course, we have no idea how many cards are being delivered a week, as NVIDIA and its partners are pretty tight lipped about it. Of course, with the X1900 XT and XTX out in force, I think buying a 7800 GTX 512 is not the smartest decision a user can make. Call me crazy. The only area where the GTX 512 really has an edge over the X1900 series is when using it in SLI vs. CrossFire. While CF certainly has come a long ways since its introduction, it is still not nearly as robust as SLI. Still, I believe neither CF or SLI is perfect, but it is an option for buyers and in some applications there are some serious performance improvements. On the lower midrange and budget areas both ATI and NVIDIA have plenty of product out there. We are seeing the 7300 GS come out in force for the US market, and I will be testing one of these this weekend to see how it holds up. There are so many 6600 SKU's out there, it is hard to compare one to another. ATI has plenty of X1300 and X1600 cards out and about, but there is a huge hole in ATI's lineup from the $199 to $300 market (which is a pretty significant area). Currently ATI uses the older X800 series of cards to fill that gap, but with more SM 3.0 and HDR enabled content being delivered, these are starting to look far less attractive than NVIDIA's lineup in that price range (6800 series, and the 7800 GT which is hitting below $299). ATI does have the X1800 XL cards, but they are starting to become a lot more rare and are still well above $360 at most shops (not counting refurbished). S3 is making an interesting comeback with their Chrome S27 card in 128 MB and 256 MB form. These are modestly priced, and actually look very interesting. These are meant to compete with the X1300 and 7300/6600 products from ATI and NVIDIA respectively. These chips appear to be fairly robust and have good performance for their class and price. The S27 has 4 ROPS, 8 shader pipelines, and 4 vertex shaders. It is a SM 2.0 part, and does not have the FP16 framebuffer for most HDR effects (not counting Valve's form of HDR which doesn't require FP16). It also does not appear to have as good AA qualities as the competition, but it still looks to be a very fascinating product. The chip itself is made on Fujitsu's 90 nm process and it runs at a blistering 700 MHz. It also utilizes GDDR-3 memory running at 700 MHz (1400 MHz effective). Not only that, but it also appears to run fairly cool even at those speeds. I think that S3 could get a good foothold in this area, and hopefully they will eventually come back with some higher end products so we can have a three horse race at the top end. Time will tell, but for now they have a pretty compelling part with the S27. Currently Newegg is selling these products in the US. Q1 is typically a slow quarter for the computer industry, and as such you can typically find some good deals on products and systems. So, if that IRS check gets to you soon, there are plenty of things to spend it on. February 8, 2006 Answers about "The Focus Group" - Josh The big issue that surrounds AEG and NVIDIA seems to have finally been aired out. I was not aware of these Focus Groups that NVIDIA had set up through AEG before the information leaked from the Beyond3D post Geo set up (and handled it quite well, I might add), but essentially it is comprised of people who attend forums and seem to have a good working knowledge (as well as a good standing in that particular forum) of the video card business. NVIDIA gives these people products for testing, as well as unreleased drivers and information. In return NVIDIA and AEG ask that feedback be given on these products and issues, and they are also asked to help resolve issues (such as technical issues: SLI stuff, driver errors, problems with games, etc.) on the forums they usually write to. These people are not paid money to do this, but rather take the initiative to actually work on problems, test out hardware, and provide valuable feedback and services. Several people from different forums have stepped up and identified themselves as being in the group, and for quite a few of those guys I would say that NVIDIA should be proud of the job that they do. It is unfortunate that NVIDIA did not disclose this information beforehand, much like ATI does with its Beta Tester group. It would have probably led to a much less explosive situation, but hindsight is 20/20. When I first started to get interested in 3D graphics, I had just bought a Orchid Righteous 3D Voodoo Graphics card. I was so excited about this technology that I wrote Orchid asking that I be put into a pre-release group who could test and troubleshoot current and upcoming products. They of course turned me down, as there was no such group. Switching back to today, if I was not working as a reporter, and NVIDIA came up to me and asked me if I wanted to be in a focus group such as this, I would have gladly accepted. Hell, if ATI/AMD/Intel had done the same I would have been just as excited. The people that NVIDIA and AEG have chosen are true enthusiasts who have an overriding passion for 3D hardware. So, I commend those guys who have come out and exposed themselves to the criticism that is sure to follow. For guys like ChrisRay, Ailuros, and Chalnoth at the B3D forums, they take their job very seriously and I feel they are pretty even keeled when it comes to praising/criticizing hardware from both sides of the fence. In the end this is looking to be more of a tempest in a teapot than anything really groundbreaking. In any year most journalists covering this area receive thousands of dollars worth of product from NVIDIA/ATI/whoever as well as fully paid trips to locations around their respective hemispheres (Spain, Germany, France, San Jose, San Francisco, and apparently Cancun- I want to know why I wasn't invited there?!?!?!). These Focus Group members don't get paid, and while they do receive video cards (usually up to three different types in a single year, possibly a motherboard and CPU as well) that does not add up to the amount of money that NVIDIA spends on the journalists covering this area. The same goes for ATI. They send out a lot of hardware, as well as fly these journalists to Canada and wherever so they can be briefed on the latest and greatest. I do agree that there should have been more transparency here, but I can honestly see why NVIDIA would not want that. It isn't so much that NVIDIA was worried about any threats of maliciousness or collusion, but I think it honestly stems from the PR team not wanting to be barraged by unwanted emails from thousands of people wanting to be in this group. I already know the amounts and types of emails these PR people get, as well as other folks calling them constantly (when they somehow get their numbers) not just during the workday, but after work and on the weekends. So now that this is broken, I expect Derek, Brian, and the rest of the gang to have to sift through even more emails of people wishing to become part of this Focus Group. Hopefully NVIDIA sets up a way where people can write, yet not overflow the inbox of the PR folks. February 6, 2006 Assorted Tidbits - Josh First off it appears that good quantities of the 7800 GS AGP have hit the market. While it may not be possible to unlock the disabled units on this chip, it can certainly be clocked up to 500 MHz fairly often, which makes it pretty much the fastest AGP card yet. Something that I would be interested to find out is if the decreased ROPS from a regular 7800 GT or GT (16) cause a big decrease in performance when using anti-aliasing? From my understanding, the multi-sampling AA routine is done in the ROP's, so it would stand to reason that we would in fact see decreased AA performance with only half the ROPS? Most likely I am wrong, but it is something to think about. Anyway, quite a few online stores are now selling a good selection of these cards, and Best Buy and CompUSA brick and mortar stores are selling them already (C-USA accidentally put them on the shelves last week, while Best Buy waiting til Sunday to show their stock). MSRP is set at $299 for the basic version, but guys like BFG, EVGA, and XFX have tweaked theirs out a bit and are charging a bit more (depending on the exact model). The 7800 GS has received a lot of very positive press for being a nice product upgrade for those still working with an AGP system. Newegg, Mwave, Tiger Direct, Zip Zoom Fly, and NCIX all show these products to be in stock online. Speaking of NVIDIA, it seems the topic of AEG and NVIDIA has come up again, and has been refreshed by the folks at The Consumerist as well as the original thread at Beyond3D. I honestly have to sit back and laugh, as I feel that marketing knows no bounds. If you look back in history, the things that have been foisted off on people are just amazing. Not just snake tonics, but things like tapeworms as a "dietary aid". While today's examples aren't nearly as egregious, I believe we still live in a "buyer beware" economy, and if you are honestly looking around for a product to buy and you ask people on forums and online, should you trust everything you hear? Of course not. Part of being a good consumer is having a skeptical mind, and assuming that there are two types of people out there who either a) know what they are talking about or b) has some ulterior motive for having you buy a certain product (eg. the person wants to convert someone to their thinking, join the club, hired by a PR firm, or whatever excuse... or sometimes they just think that it is cool that someone bought the same thing they have just to feel like they themselves made a good and popular choice). If you really think about it, back some 6 years ago some 3rd party people put up a fan website dedicated to the S3 Savage 2000!!! S3 certainly didn't pay them to do it, and these folks definitely did it on their own because they were fans of the company and the products (for what reason I am still unsure of). So, instead of listening primarily to people on forums and whatnot, readers and consumers should take their time to get many different opinions on products, and use their own head and really make the decision to buy a product on the merits that they feel it has. There is a lot of concrete information out there from a lot of different sources, and with enough reading the average consumer can get a very good idea where they should spend their money. This NVIDIA/AEG thing will blow over, and companies will still use such viral methods to evangelize their products and technology. The thing that we should all learn is that skepticism is a good thing, and we should find out as much as possible about a product before we spend our hard earned scratch on it. Have a great Monday! February 2, 2006 NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GS AGP - Josh In a not so surprise move (as the news had been leaked some time ago) NVIDIA is releasing the GeForce 7800 GS AGP today. This is a welcome product for the many thousands of people with AGP systems not quite willing to give them up yet. Previously only the 6800 series from NVIDIA, and the ATI X8x0 series provided good performance in the AGP market. NVIDIA is now offering this market another high end card that should retail for around $299 to $349, depending on the manufacturer. The 7800 GS is still based on the G70 chip, but with parts of it disabled. It uses 16 of the possible 24 pixel pipelines, 6 of the possible 8 vertex shaders, and 8 of the 16 ROPS. It is a pretty cut down product, and it is hard to say whether it looks this way due to the market the card is designed to address, or if NVIDIA is using partially defective chips. Either way, the 7800 GS is still one of the fastest AGP cards out there. Clocked at 375 MHz core and 256 MB of 600 MHz GDDR-3 (1200 MHz effective), the card still gives products like the 6800 Ultra and the X850 XT/PE a good run for their money. In most tests I have seen, the 7800 GS in stock form just edges the X850 XT/PE in most applications, and it gives a slightly better performance when overclocked. Because the G70 used on the 7800 GS has so many areas disabled, it has a much cooler core with a larger area for heat dissipation. Most of these cards are hitting 500 MHz or so when overclocked, which gives a nice little performance bump for the AGP crowd. What is very surprising is that the memory speeds are much higher than the regular 7800 GT, and in fact match the standard 7800 GTX. With so many disabled parts on the chip, it seems that it would have made more sense to just use 500 MHz GDDR-3 (1000 MHz effective), which is quite common and cheap these days. Perhaps this is a nod to the enthusiasts out there still using AGP systems? The card uses NVIDIA's HSI chip to communicate from the PCI-E native chip to the AGP controller on the motherboard. This chip has been around for 2 years now, and it still is seeing a lot of use. Probably one of the better chips that NVIDIA has ever made in its time, as its functionality and speed make it nearly invisible for pretty much every product it is used with. Overall the 7800 GS is a nice upgrade for those still using their beloved AGP motherboards. I know quite a few folks that would love to purchase such a card, as they have not wanted to part with their Athlon 64 3400+ to 3700+ parts, not to mention those Intel folks still thriving on their Northwood CPU's and i865/i875 motherboards. This does cost more than a 6800 GT for AGP, but there are some good performance gains, and using the G7x technology also has some benefits. The people who really are going to love these parts are those still using Radeon 9800 series and GeForce 6600 cards. This will be a significant upgrade for them. It is good to see NVIDIA responding to what looks like a pretty decent demand for such a product. Seeing as many of my family and friends are still using AGP systems, the option to upgrade to such a part gives these systems a serious new lead on life, and will last the user for another year or two. Here are a few reviews for your reading enjoyment: BFG Shipping 7800 GS and Immediate Availability While the launch was today, NVIDIA initially did not expect these cards to hit stores until Sunday at the earliest. Not only that, but the brick and mortar places would be the first to get them while online stores will receive them sometime next week. It now appears as though BFG has shipped their products early and in good numbers. BFG adds value to their offering by overclocking their cards out of the box, and having a true lifetime warranty as well as very good tech support. Their version of the 7800 GS is clocked at 400 MHz core and has 256 MB of 625 MHz GDDR-3 (1250 MHz effective). It comes with standard cooling, and the PCB itself is quite long due to the use of the HSI chip. It has a pretty basic bundle, but most users buy BFG for reasons other than bundles. It has VGA, DVI, and S-Video outputs (no VIVO). It is great to see these out in force before NVIDIA even had the chance to officially introduce the part. Many users were buying these at the beginning of the week, so seeing this release was not much of a surprise for most folks. This will definitely be a significant upgrade for quite a few users. You can read BFG's announcement here, and look at the actual card specifications here. February 1, 2006 The Upcoming Month - Josh January was certainly a busy month, and that is probably the most amount of writing I have done in years. Hopefully I can keep it up! Feb. looks to be just as busy, but not nearly as long. I have several motherboards that are up for review, as well as a video card or two (budget level products) and perhaps some speakers. We shall see how it all shakes out. ATI is shipping their new AIW X1900's as we speak, and there are quite a few reviews popping up on this product. Overall folks seem quite happy with it, and ATI has certainly added a lot of polish to this product throughout the years. ATI has certainly been a roll for the past few months, and while the X1800 XT was a bit late to the party, it was still an excellent performer. There is something of a gaping hole for ATI's products between the $160 to $300 area (and the amount of X1800 XL's are drying up fast in the $300 range). ATI continues to position their older X800 series of products in that area, but their success is somewhat limited by the fact that they are not SM 3.0 parts. Still, sub $200 is well represented by the X1600 and X800 GTR products (and the Sapphire X800 GTR2 is a hot seller by all accounts). Still, this is an area that is sorely lacking for ATI's lineup. I will put in a question to the big folks there to see if it will be addressed anytime soon. Expect to see a new NVIDIA announcement soon, but of course I can't disclose what it is yet (check back tomorrow). This will be a welcome product to a large group of users, and should be pretty exciting to boot. I wouldn't doubt if we will start hearing some more concrete information on NVIDIA's 90 nm high end parts, since I am guessing that they will be released in a March timeframe. In the meantime, here are a few reviews and articles around the web. Tech Report and Hot Hardware tackle the AIW X1900, and both are genuinely impressed by the results. If you are looking for a true multimedia card with good graphics performance, I guess you need look no farther. PC Stats reviews the MSI X1800 XT, and while it is an impressive card on its own, they did have a few issues with overclocking it. Still, a good read, and the prices on these cards will continue to decline until there are no more R520 chips to be sold. HardOCP takes a look at the Asus Extreme N7800 GT Dual, which is actually 2 x 7800 GT's on one board. SLI with only one slot does sound somewhat appealing, and Hard takes it to task with their usual series of realworld game benchmarking. ExtremeTech's Jason Cross does a very good job at comparing video playback performance between ATI and NVIDIA products. Using top-of-the-line parts from both manufacturers, Jason takes a close look at the performance and quality differences between the two manufacturers. Quite a few very interesting conclusions in that one! Finally the gang at Rage3D have posted their X1900 series review/overview, and they have done an excellent job. Before the X1800, the Rage3Der's were starting to go green, but with the latest series of outstanding cards from ATI they are starting to swing back to their old feelings. Still, a very good and balanced review. January 30, 2006 HP L2335 Widescreen LCD Review - Josh I have been putting off this review for so long, and there is no real reason why. Perhaps it is because I am too busy just enjoying the splendor of such a product? I am not, but I finally did have the chance to sit down and collect my thoughts on this very fine monitor that I have been using for the past six months. While the HP is an inch smaller than the competing Dell product, it does bring some very nice aspects to the table and slightly better overall package than the Dell. Here is a quick quote:
You can read the entire review here.
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