Gigabyte has come up with a way to make its UEFI BIOS interface even easier to navigate while simultaneously jumping on the 3D bandwagon, but not in the way you think. In reality, Gigabyte's 3D BIOS technology is a fancy way of navigating your motherboard's BIOS with an isometric graphical view of the board and all of its parts, and it's actually pretty cool.

It's impossible to outrun technology, though updated drivers, software, and firmware can keep your gear current for as long as possible. That typically means you have to rely on hardware manufacturers to play ball, and Gigabyte 6 Series motherboard owners will be happy to know Gigabyte is keeping them in the game with significant BIOS updates for its entire 6 Series mobo line.

With few exceptions, our advice has always been to purchase the fastest hardware you can afford right now rather than wait for something faster to come along when you're in need of an upgrade. Why? As any PC hobbyist will tell you, there's always something bigger, faster, and just plain better on the horizon, and once you get stuck playing the 'waiting game,' it's hard to ever pull the trigger.

We bring this up because EVGA has done something unique with its GeForce GTX 460 line. The graphics card maker recently released a new BIOS, which in and of itself isn't anything new, but this updated BIOS pushes the core/shader clockspeeds to 720MHz/1440MHz, up from 675MHz/1350MHz.

That's a generous 7 percent "Free Performance Boost," as EVGA calls its BIOS update, which only further sweetens the pot (EVGA cards are backed by a lifetime warranty, provided you register your card online within 30 days of purchase). Pessimists will point out that the clockspeed increases aren't going to make a huge difference in gaming performance, but hey, videocards boasting a 7 percent boost over reference clocks typically carry a pricing premium, and here EVGA is giving away performance bumps to existing owners. That's just rad.

You can snag the update here, being extra careful to follow EVGA's directions to a T.