Blog Archives
Windows 7- System Ratings Index – How Is Yours?
Revisions:
1-25-14: Initial release.
Above is my picture of my current Windows 7 system rating index. In the very near future, I will be upgrading my current desktop PC from a dual core AMD 3800+ at 2.0GHZ to the newer AMD FX-8320 processor (8 core).
I’m going to be getting a new motherboard, and new RAM. For now, I will re-use my existing video card, but I expect to upgrade that as well soon in the future.
I will post the new system rating index results once I have fully upgraded my computer, but how about you? How does your system rating compare to mine?
Which item is the bottleneck in your system? Take a screenshot, share, and let’s compare!
Underground Inspiration – Apparently, “We” Do Change Lives
Foreword: This is a runner-up to one of my favorite posts for 2010. I just know it. It is a bit long, but for good reason. Please read on and be inspired. – Versatile
Revisions:
2-18-10: Initial release.
There is so much I want to write about that it was difficult to write on this topic today, but I just had to. Within the last 24 hours, I have witnessed great feats of inspiration.
Last night during the Olympics, Skier Lindsey Vonn and Snowboarder Shaun White just DOMINATED their events. It was clear they were in the zone and the best at the sport. Starcraft 2 Beta officially started yesterday, and gamers around the world are waiting excitedly for their chance of obtaining a beta key for Starcraft 2. I just came back from my 5 day Atlanta trip and there were some insights on life I wanted to write about. However, all of this I have to stop thinking about it because something else has been eating away at my mind the whole afternoon and into the night.
Today, I have what is possibly the best story of inspiration ever and I want to share with you what I know so far. Of course, it wouldn’t do me justice if I told this story alone, so Chyea (or Mark) when you see this, please write your own personal article or leave a comment and I will add it to this article.
Tech Update: The Land Of Graphics
NVIDIA
The latest news from NVIDIA involves the release of their latest graphics card and the soon-to-be-released new core.
NVIDIA has just released the GeForce GTX 275, which is like a trimmed down GTX 285 and is the equivalent of a single GPU concealed in the Dual-GPU Card, the GTX 295. NVIDIA released this to battle and counter ATI’s card, the Radeon 4890. This card fills the gap between the GTX 260+ and the 285. It has 240 stream processors and a 448-bit memory bus width; its core is clocked at 633MHz; its memory clocked at 2268 MHz DDR and its shaders at 1404MHz. It contains a GT200 core, like all currently released modern-day cards.
The 275 and the 4890 are very similar in performance but the 275 is a bit more expensive than the 4890 currently.
Leaked information says that NVIDIA is releasing a new core: the GT300. I’m not completely confident about the current specifics, but it’s probably similar to what it will be.
The GT300’s structure will be completely different unlike the GT200’s, whose architecture was similar to the GT100 but just updated and a bit better. It also moves from the SIMD to the MIMDstructure.
SIMD stands for Single Instruction Multiple Data and is currently used by both ATI and NVIDIA companies. MMID stands for Multiple Instruction Multiple Data (as you may have probably guessed) and is completely different to the GT200, making it quite revolutionary. The major difference is that it makes your GPU being able to perform tasks which previously had to be performed by your CPU, making it more versatile.
No one really knows the core frequency yet, and probably won’t until NVIDIA actually releases news on the GT300, but tech experts believe that it should nearly double performance (which is pretty spectacular). It’ll probably have up to 512 shader cores in groups of 32 and be built on a 40nm process. It’s also said that it’s going to supporty DirectX 11. I’m really excited about this new core!
ATI/AMD
AMD has just released the RV740, which only comes with their latest card: the Radeon 4770. It is to counter the 9800 GT. It has 60 shader cores running at 850MHz, 512MB of GDDR5 RAM at 3200MHz but has a skinny memory bus of 128-bit, but the 4770 is still a monster. It has a 6-pin power connector and its core is a 40nm process.
Other than its new core size, the 4770 is most easily compared to the Radeon 4830. They both have the same number of stream processors but the 4770 runs it at a higher frequency. However, the 4770’s slim 128-bit memory bus can be countered by its super fast GDDR5 RAM. The 4770 is only a bit more expensive than the 9800 GT, maybe $15 more.
The 4770 still performs very well, and it beats the 4830 in tests for frame rates and is only about slower than the 4850. It also outperforms the 9800 GT just slightly.
Upgrade Your PC – The Right Way.
Is your PC having difficulty keeping up with the latest games and applications? An upgrade may be in order. Many people feel that in order to “properly” upgrade their PC, they need every component to be replaced, and the newest, most expensive parts to get the best performance. Nothing is farther than the truth. An extremely respectable gaming rig can be built for less than $500, and I’m here to show you how.
Motherboard, Processor, Memory and Graphics Card. Four components is all most people need to buy when purchasing an upgrade, but this number can vary depending on how old your system is. If your pc is quite old, say 3 years or so (an eternity when it comes to computers!) additional parts may be required to properly support the newer components, such as a new power supply. If your computer is less than a year old, but you still want to play new games without shelling out over $1000 for a new gaming computer, you may only need a new graphics card!
Before upgrading any PC, make sure to triple-check that all the components are compatible. Proper power from your power supply is key. For the example system I will show you, a 500 watt power supply or above is recommended.
Here are some sample components I picked out from Newegg.com
BIOSTAR TA790GX – Motherboard: $99.99
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ – Processor: $112.99
OCZ Platinum Revision 2 2GB DDR2 800 – Memory: $49.49
SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4850 512MB – Graphics: $169.99
TOTAL: $432.46
THIS IS BEFORE REBATES! At the time of this post, there is a $30 rebate on the memory.
I can personally vouch for this system, as I have the same graphics card and memory, my processor is actually slower, and my motherboard specs are nearly identical. At 1650×1080 I get above 70 frames a second with max settings in Call of Duty 4. Six months ago, that probably would have run you over $1000! So there you have it. Proof that you don’t need a crazy amount of cash to get a crazy amount performance.
Skitzo
3-way NVIDIA SLI® Technology
Bring your competition to its knees with NVIDIA SLI gear – the powerful combination of an SLI-Ready NVIDIA nForce® motherboard and multiple GeForce® graphics cards. Now with support for three GeForce 8800 GTX or Ultra GPUs operating in 3-way SLI, you can crank up the image quality settings, maximize your resolution, and tilt the scales in your favor with up to a 2.8X performance hike over a single-card rig.
Users can harness the power of GeForce 8800 Series GPUs working in parallel to deliver 384 stream processors, 110+ Gigatexel per second texture fillrate, and over 2 GB of graphics memory for no-compromise gaming performance. 3-way SLI technology means you no longer have to dial back the image quality settings on the newest PC games enabling 60 frames per second at resolutions as high as 2560×1600 and with 8x antialiasing.
With 3-way SLI technology in your arsenal, you’ll be truly ready to play the latest hyper-realistic DirectX 10 games the way they’re meant to be played.
Components Required for 3-way NVIDIA SLI
3-way NVIDIA SLI-Ready GPUs: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 UltraNVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX3-way NVIDIA SLI-Ready MCPs: NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI for INTELNVIDIA nForce 680i SLI for INTEL3-way NVIDIA SLI-Ready Power Supplies: Please visit the SLI Zone Certified SLI-ready Power Supply website and choose a power supply model from the section For “Three GeForce 8800 Ultra or GeForce 8800 GTX.”3-way NVIDIA SLI Cases: Please visit the Please visit the SLI Zone Certified SLI-ready Cases website and choose a cases from the section For “Three GeForce 8800 Ultra or GeForce 8800 GTX.”3-way NVIDIA SLI Connector: 3-way SLI requires a unique SLI connector in order to operate properly. These connectors may not have been included with your previous purchase of SLI-ready components or PCs. PCs specifically sold as 3-way SLI PCs will have this connector included and preinstalled. NVIDIA has set up the following websites to purchase this connector for 3-way SLI upgrades. These 3-way SLI connectors are compatible with the PCI-E slot spacing found on NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI “Designed by NVIDIA” motherboards only. If you are using a motherboard with different PCI-E slot spacing, please contact the original manufacturer to obtain a 3-way SLI connector for your motherboard.
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Source: http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone_3waysli.html
AMD and its ATI are getting owned by Intel and its nVidia. 🙂
AMD Announces Price Cuts on Desktop CPU’s
Are you looking to build a new computer? Dual core from AMD has just gotten cheaper. Check out these newly released prices:
* Athlon 64 X2 6400+ $220
* Athlon 64 X2 6000+ $167
* Athlon 64 X2 5600+ $146
* Athlon 64 X2 5200+ $125
* Athlon 64 X2 5000+ $136 Black edition
* Athlon 64 X2 5000+ $115
* Athlon 64 X2 4800+ $104
* Athlon 64 X2 4400+ $89
* Athlon 64 X2 4200+ $78
* Athlon 64 X2 4000+ $68
And in case anyone still wants a single core chip:
* Athlon 64 4000+ $58
* Athlon 64 3800+ $50
* Athlon 64 3500+ $45
If I was building another desktop computer, I would definitely get another AMD dual core chip. The best part is, if you are not looking into heavy gaming, you can build a badass dual core machine for less than $500, with 2 gigs of ram and a 160GB hard drive.
Check out more information from digitimes.
Welcome to the Underground. 