PC Hardware Reviews: Graphics & Video Cards
It is clear what NVIDIA’s message is to the enthusiast community, they are willing to be competitive. To further confirm this claims, the release price of the GeForce GTX 960 is just $199 for the basic models, a bit more for the feature packed ones like the Asus Strix sample that we will be reviewing today. In comparison to it’s predecessor, the GeForce GTX 960 comes in at around 20% cheaper than it’s predecessor, the GeForce GTX 760.
Codenamed NVIDIA Maxwell, GM204 GPUs debut the company’s 10th-generation graphics processing architecture. Maxwell improves upon all previously released processor designs, and delivers greater performance while reducing energy consumption. Anticipated as the replacement for GTX 680, the new GeForce GTX 980 yields up to 200% performance increase (per watt) while requiring less power. Voxel Global Illumination and VR Direct technologies have been added to improve upon picture quality and virtual reality immersion. In this article, Benchmark Reviews tests the GeForce GTX 980 graphics card against today’s best gaming solutions.
In this article Benchmark Reviews tests the XFX Radeon R9 285 Black Edition Double Dissipation graphics card, model R9-285A-CDBC, which sells online for $249.99 (Amazon | Newegg). This XFX Double Dissipation Edition Radeon R9 285 is an UltraHD 4K resolution-ready graphics card with 2560 Stream processors operating at 975 MHz with support for the upcoming DirectX 12 API. Equipped with twin 90mm cooling fans paired with long-life capacitors, the XFX Radeon R9 285 represents a solid value for mainstream gamers looking for top-end performance.
Since AMD announced their GPU 14 R9 series video cards, AIB partners have been tweaking and tuning their own aftermarket designs. In this article, Benchmark Reviews tests the HIS Radeon R9 290 iPower IceQ X2 OC 4GB video card (Model# H290QMC4GD). As the name suggests, this particular model features the high end IceQ X2 cooler from the HIS labs and slightly faster Core and Memory speeds. I have seen the evolution of this cooler first hand and I know it to be fully capable. Two 89mm dual axial fans and five heatpipes ensure that your temperatures will stay well within safe limits with the minimum amount of noise, even during overclocking.
In this next installment of AMD’s GPU 14 R9 line-up, Benchmark Reviews will be testing the HIS Radeon R9 280 IceQ X² OC 3GB Video Card (Model# H280QMC3G2M). As the name suggests, this particular model features the high end IceQ X2 cooler from the HIS labs and faster Core and Memory speeds. I have seen the evolution of this cooler first hand and I know it to be fully capable. Two 89mm dual axial fans and five heatpipes ensure that your temperatures will stay well within safe limits.
Titanfall has been one of the most-anticipated games of 2014, and for a very good reason. Combining the best first-person shooter aspects of Call of Duty and Battlefield into a mech-themed FPS video game isn’t easy to pull off, but Respawn Entertainment and Electronic Arts do so with great success. Available for console and PC, gamers who want ultimate immersion and control will likely gravitate towards the desktop gaming platform. For good reason then, NVIDIA has focused a significant amount of its resources towards optimizing performance so that players can enable the best graphical quality settings possible.
The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti graphics card is designed for mainstream 1080p gaming with moderate settings. GeForce GTX 750 Ti utilizes first-generation NVIDIA Maxwell GM107 GPU architecture with 640 CUDA Cores. The memory subsystem of GeForce GTX 750 Ti consists of two 64-bit memory controllers (128-bit total bandwidth) and 2GB of 5.4Gbps GDDR5 memory. GeForce GTX 750 Ti’s base clock speed is 1020MHz, and features a typical Boost Clock speed reaching 1085MHz. In this article, Benchmark Reviews tests the GeForce GTX 750 Ti graphics card using several highly-demanding DX11 video games, such as Metro: Last Light, Batman: Arkham City, and Battlefield 3.
When the AMD Radeon R9 290X video card debuted, it first appeared to be a solid competitor to NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 780 series… until heat and noise were taken into consideration. The Curacao XT-based video card offered plenty of graphics power, but the cooling system was forced to work hard and loud. When the Radeon R9 290 series arrived, this gave brands such as XFX the opportunity to further improve upon the AMD reference design by incorporating a much better cooling solution paired with long-life capacitors. In this article Benchmark Reviews tests the XFX Radeon R9 290 Double D, model R9-290A-EDFD, which sells online for $499.99 (Amazon). This Black Edition Double Dissipation Radeon R9 290 features a 947 MHz UltraHD 4K resolution-ready graphics card with 2560 Stream processors and support for the upcoming DirectX 11.2 API.
AMD released their new lineup of GCN-based video cards back in October and the industry manufacturers have since been adding their own special tweaks and improvements to the initial designs. XFX has recently released their latest version of the Radeon R9 280X card in the form of the XFX Black Edition Double Dissipation Radeon R9 280X. The XFX R9 280X TDBD sports upgraded features like a factory overclock to 1080MHz, high quality DURATEC components, a dual-fan design, and the second generation of XFX proprietary Ghost Thermal technology.
It’s no secret that PC gamers who seek realistic graphics prefer their desktop platform over the 1080p-limited console counterparts. Discrete graphics cards, the hardware added onto motherboards built for high performance, support enthusiast video resolutions as large as 2560×1600. More pixels means more power needed to produce them, so I decided to test some of the most recent graphics cards from NVIDIA and AMD on our massive 30″ monitor. In this article Benchmark Reviews tests frame rate performance for the AMD Radeon R9 290X and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti at their maximum supported resolution.
NVIDIA tends to dominate the field when it comes to graphics processing power, leaving AMD scrambling to remain competitive by reducing prices on their products to add value for an aging technology. Recently the AMD Radeon R9 290X was revealed as the brand’s flagship graphics card, virtually occupying future shelf space for around $580 and expected to compete against NVIDIA’s less-expensive GeForce GTX 780 that has been available since May (2013). Not one to allow competition into their high-end territory, NVIDIA pushes back with the introduction of GeForce GTX 780 Ti. Capable of producing the fastest and most efficient graphics power ever available, GeForce GTX 780 Ti offers 25% more processing cores than GTX 780 while leaving room to deliver record-level 336 GB/sec GDDR5 memory bandwidth so to leave no doubt who controls the top-end of discreet graphics.
In this next installment of AMD’s GPU 14 R9 line-up, Benchmark Reviews will be testing the HIS Radeon R9 270X IceQ X² Turbo Boost 2GB video card. As the name suggests, this particular model features the high end IceQ X2 cooler from the HIS labs and much faster Core and Memory speeds. I have seen the evolution of this cooler first hand and I know it to be fully capable. Two 89mm dual axial fans and five 6mm heatpipes ensure that your temperatures will stay well within safe limits.
The latest AMD Curacao XT-based video cards are poised to supply the market with plenty of graphics power and added value for mainstream gamers – especially as Battlefield 4 readies for launch with realistic DirectX 11 special effects. Sapphire, the leading name in AMD Radeon desktop products, have released their own Radeon R9 270X complete with an exclusive second-generation Vapor-X lightweight vapor-chamber cooling system. Sapphire further improves upon the AMD reference design by incorporating dual UEFI and BIOS firmware support, long-life 5000-hour capacitors, and Black Diamond electronic chokes. In this article Benchmark Reviews tests the Sapphire Radeon R9 270X Vapor-X, which sells online for $219 and features a 1100 MHz factory-overclocked UltraHD 4K resolution-ready graphics card with 1280 Stream processors and support for the upcoming DirectX 11.2 API.
Since AMD announced their GPU 14 R9 series video cards, AIB partners have been tweaking and tuning their own aftermarket designs. In this article, Benchmark Reviews tests the HIS Radeon R9 280X iPower IceQ X2 Turbo Boost 3GB video card. As the name suggests, this particular model features the high end IceQ X2 cooler from the HIS labs and slightly faster Core and Memory speeds. I have seen the evolution of this cooler first hand and I know it to be fully capable. Two 89mm dual axial fans and five heatpipes (2 x 8mm and 3 x 6mm) ensure that your temperatures will stay well within safe limits, even during overclocking.
When AMD unveiled their latest series of graphics cards, MSI was ready to improve upon their design by adding military-grade components cooled by Twin Frozr dual 10cm propeller fans. In this article, Benchmark Reviews tests the MSI Radeon R9 270X GAMING 2GB video card. For $199 gamers get a 1120 MHz factory-overclocked UltraHD 4K resolution-ready graphics card with 1280 Stream processors capable of fast frame rates, and support for the upcoming DirectX 11.2 API.
Very recently Lenovo loaned us their 30-inch ThinkVision LT3053p IPS LED-Backlit LCD Monitor for review. While the AH-IPS display panel was impressive, its size really made us wonder about how much impact it would have on PC video games. Before this behemoth display went back to Lenovo, I decided to test it on some of the most recent graphics cards from NVIDIA and AMD. In this article Benchmark Reviews tests frame rate performance at 2560×1600 for the Radeon HD 7950 against GeForce GTX 770, and Radeon HD 7970 against GeForce GTX 780.
AMD have been working to extend their graphics reach into emerging markets, primarily through the use of integrated GPUs. This hasn’t slowed their pursuit in the discrete graphics market, where the AMD Radeon series continues to battle for supremacy in some of the most demanding DirectX 11 video games available on PC. The AMD Radeon HD 7950 is an example of this effort, employing 28 Compute Units (1792 Stream Processors) with 3GB GDDR5 memory. In this article Benchmark Reviews tests the custom-designed XFX Radeon HD 7950 Double-Dissipation Black Edition video card, model FX-795A-TDFC, using several highly-demanding DX11 video games such as Metro: Last Light, Batman: Arkham City, and Battlefield 3.
The latest member of the GeForce GTX 700 series lineup to hit the market is the GTX 760. This GPU is built off the GK104 GPU like quite a few GPUs in the GTX 600 and 700 series. The GTX 760 is built to replace the GTX 660Ti and fill an important price position between about $250 and $300. At Benchmark Reviews, we have MSI N760 TF 2GD5/OC video card on hand and have tested it with some of the most popular and graphically intensive titles currently available. The MSI N760 TF 2GD5/OC takes the stock features of the GTX 760 and adds to them by overclocking the GPU, adding a proven cooling solution, and including a bunch of other extras that you won’t find on the other GTX 760s. So without further ado, let’s get into the details of the MSI N760 TF 2GD5/OC video card.
NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 760 video card is built from the 28nm Kepler GK104 graphics processor, featuring 1152 CUDA cores that are clocked to reach 980 MHz and reach 1033 using NVIDIA Boost 2.0 technology. GeForce GTX 760 also comes with 2GB of GDDR5 video memory, clocked to provide a 1502 MHz graphics frame buffer. In this article, Benchmark Reviews tests and compares the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 graphics card using several highly-demanding DX11 video games, such as Metro: Last Light, Batman: Arkham City, and Battlefield 3.
NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 770 video card is built from the 28nm Kepler GK104 graphics processor, identical to the GTX 680 released back in March 2012. Featuring 1536 CUDA cores that are clocked to reach 1085 MHz using NVIDIA Boost 2.0 technology, GTX 770 also comes with 2GB of GDDR5 video memory that creates the world’s fastest 1753 MHz graphics frame buffer. In this article, Benchmark Reviews tests and compares the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 graphics card using several highly-demanding DX11 video games, such as Metro: Last Light, Batman: Arkham City, and Battlefield 3.
NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX TITAN allowed gamers to challenge any video game they choose with the highest quality settings possible, but in limited supply and high price tag. For many players, their games really only needed half as much power and memory from a video card. Enter NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780: built from GTX TITAN to deliver 3GB of GDDR5 video frame buffer memory, and 2304 CUDA cores from the GK110 GPU that reach 900 MHz using NVIDIA Boost 2.0 technology. In this article, Benchmark Reviews tests and compares the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 graphics card using several highly-demanding DX11 video games, such as Metro: Last Light, Batman: Arkham City, and Battlefield 3.
With the economy on the rebound, gamers are coming out of hibernation with a hunger for modern DirectX11 graphics and realism. Since AMD has all but disappeared from the scene, NVIDIA has timed their affordable mainstream video card launch perfectly. Based on the NVIDIA Kepler GK106 architecture, the GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST delivers 2GB of 1502 MHz GDDR5 memory and 768 CUDA Cores operating at 980 MHz up to 1033+ with NVIDIA GPU Boost technology. In this article, Benchmark Reviews tests the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST graphics card using several highly-demanding DX11 video games.
Back in May (2012) NVIDIA released their $400 GeForce GTX 670 video card, securing the number two position in their single-GPU product stack. Just three short months later, the GeForce GTX 660 Ti graphics card arrived to market and filled store shelves at the $300 price point. With a substantial $100 price difference between these two product, consumers might (incorrectly) presume there’s a significant difference in hardware or performance. To the surprise of many, the GeForce GTX 670 and GTX 660 Ti are nearly the same card. Both feature identical 28nm NVIDIA ‘Kepler’ GK104 graphics processors, complete with 1344 CUDA cores all clocked to identical 915 MHz core and 980 Boost speeds. Additionally, the GTX 670 and GTX 660 Ti also feature the exact same 2GB GDDR5 video memory buffer, clocked to 1502 MHz on both cards. The only physical difference between these two products resides in the memory subsystem: GeForce GTX 670 receives four 64-bit controllers (256-bit total bandwidth) while GeForce GTX 660 Ti is designed with three memory controllers (192-bit bandwidth). So does this amount to any real differences in video game performance?
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