Home
Build a PC

Build a PC Featured Content

Build a PC: Blueprints (November 2012)

Build a PC: Recommended Builds (May 2013)

CES 2013: AMD Talks Up Surround Computing Strategy

Operation Upgrade: How We Rebuilt Three Old PCs, Part By Part

Build It: How to Build a Kick-Ass Ivy Bridge Gaming PC, Step by Step

All Build a PC Articles
Windows
Windows RSS
Windows Featured Content

Windows 8 Review

Microsoft Announces Xbox One Console

20 Awesome Screensavers

Best Windows 8 Apps

Windows 8 Home Server Guide

All Windows Articles
Best of the Best
Hardware
- Hardware Home
- CPU
- Memory
- Video Cards
- Cases
- Cooling
- Displays
- Motherboards
- Reviews
Hardware RSS
Hardware Featured Content

Windows 8 Hardware Reviews

Microsoft Announces Xbox One Console

Build a PC: Recommended Builds (May 2013)

7 Unsung Heroes of the PC Universe

Getting Loco with Video Cards

All Hardware Articles
Software
Software RSS
Software Featured Content

Software Worth Paying For

Virus Protection Guide

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 Beta Impressions

Spotify vs. Xbox Music

XBMC vs. Plex

All Software Articles
Gaming
- Gaming Home
- Reviews
- Hardware
- Software
- Gaming PCs
- Bioshock
Gaming RSS
Gaming Featured Content

Razer Edge Unboxing (Video)

CES 2013: Nvidia Shield and Grid Impressions [Video]

Nvidia at CES 2013: Project Shield Console, Tegra 4, and Onlive Style Cloud Gaming

Transformers: Fall of Cybertron Review

The 10 Best PC Game Trailers from E3 2012

All Gaming Articles

graphics cards

Radeon HD 5670 Performance Review: DX11 Goes Mainstream

Posted 01/19/2010 at 5:00pm | by Loyd Case

11

Comments

As Nvidia struggles to get its first Fermi based graphics card, code-named GF100, AMD just keeps rolling out new versions. With the Radeon HD 5670, AMD pushes into $100 territory.

Classically, cards in this price range offered capable 2D graphics, high quality video and very limited 3D gaming performance. Let’s start by comparing the feature sets of the various AMD DX11 cards, which should give us some idea as to capabilities.

» Read More

Fast Forward: Rethinking Graphics

Posted 12/18/2009 at 11:15am | by Tom Halfhill

20

Comments

I’ve had fun shopping for graphics cards, especially when a power user is within earshot. I’ll innocently ask the salesperson, “What’s your slowest graphics card?” The reaction is precious.

As I’ve confessed before, I’m not a gamer. Years ago I edited a videogame magazine and didn’t realize how weary I had become of games until the magazine unexpectedly folded. I stopped playing that day and haven’t resumed since. That’s why I don’t need fast graphics. Playing a YouTube clip is the most taxing graphics workload demanded of my computer.

Often, I won’t even buy a graphics card. I’ll scrounge a hand-me-down from a friend or cannibalize a junked PC. My oldest computer in regular use contains a discarded engineering sample of an Nvidia GeForce4 Ti-4200 from 2002.

Are you cringing yet? Mock me no more, power users. I’m reconsidering my wayward ways.

Continue reading after the jump.

» Read More

GPU Shortage Expected to Last Through Holidays

Posted 10/05/2009 at 9:05am | by Paul Lilly

2

Comments

Not everyone considers themselves an early adopter of new technology, and one of the advantages in timing your next upgrade to coincide with new releases is that current parts tend to plummet in price. But if you're looking to score a deal on a GT200 series GPU once Nvidia launches its next-gen parts, you may find the opposite to be true.

According to sources in the retail channel, a shortage of 55nm-made graphics cards is expected to last through the holidays and into the first quarter of 2010. This will affect both AMD and Nvidia, as the two companies divert their attention toward DirectX 11-based 40nm GPUs, DigiTimes reports.

The sources went on to specifically point out Nvidia's GT200 series GPU, saying the graphics chip maker does not plan to increase supply following the launch of Windows 7.

» Read More

AMD Ahead of the Curve in GPU Shipments for Second Quarter of 2009

Posted 07/28/2009 at 3:58pm | by Andy Salisbury

4

Comments

According to Jon Peddie Research, a firm that specializes in tracking the graphics market, AMD is on the up and up when it comes to graphics card shipments, beating out both Intel and Nvidia.

According to their latest report, many graphics vendors stopped ordering new cards and made sure that their inventories were depleted for the first quarter of this year. But, during that same first quarter, improvement was shown for the sales of Intel, Nvidia and most notably, AMD, who had a growth of 41.5 percent.

It’s expected that Q3 of this year is gearing up to be a very healthy one, thanks to Apple’s Snow Leopard, Windows 7, as well as AMD and Nvidia’s 40nm designs, which should bring better performance and aggressive prices.

» Read More

BFG GeForce GTX 295

Posted 06/29/2009 at 8:00am | by Will Smith

5

Comments

Just in case you missed our review of the new GTX 295 reference board last month, we’ll revisit the high points. To make a GeForce GTX 295, Nvidia sandwiched a fairly large heatsink between a pair of boards—that’s one kick-ass sandwich!

The GTX 295’s GPUs are basically modified GTX 280 GPUs. They’ve got the same shader core configuration as the GTX 280, but Nvidia shrunk the chip’s die from 65nm to 55nm, and lowered the core clock speed to 576MHz (the same as the GTX 260). These two adjustments help keep power requirements and heat generation under control, while the full complement of 240 shader cores keeps the frame rate up in shader-limited benchmarks, such as Crysis and Far Cry 2.

» Read More

Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 X2

Posted 03/19/2009 at 12:00pm | by Will Smith

22

Comments

As a general rule, our belief is that pairing two slow-performing cards using SLI or CrossFire is a bad idea—you’re usually better off running a single faster card. However, the Radeon 4850 X2 delivers astounding performance compared to the single-GPU boards in its price range, spanking the Radeon 4870 and the GeForce GTX 280, with none of the pitfalls that have plagued dual-GPU boards in the past.

At the heart of the board is a pair of ATI’s RV770 GPUs running at 625MHz, just like the single-GPU in the 4850 boards. Each GPU features a full complement of 800 stream processors, which are connected to identical 1GB GDDR3 frame buffers running at 993MHz on a 256-bit bus. Although X2 boards are labeled as featuring 2GB of memory, because the contents of each GPU’s frame buffer must be mirrored, applications can utilize only 1GB of video memory.

Read on for the rest of the review!

» Read More

Featured Content

15 Technology Failures

Microsoft Announces Xbox One Console

An all-in-one home entertainment device

Google I/O 2013: Everything You Need to Know

New music streaming service, Gmail improvements, and S4 becomes next Nexus phone?

How to Download Without Installing Malware

A PSA on how to download

I Won a $3K Gaming Rig from Maximum PC

Five questions with the winner of our Maingear/AMD giveaway

Connect with MaximumPC

This month's issue

Feature

Budget Builds Battle

Feature

Microsoft Surface Pro

How To

Start a Minecraft Server

Build It

We Cram a Titan into a Small-Form-Factor Rig

Most Commented Articles

327Comments

LulzSec Hacker Receives One-Year Sentence for Sony...

184Comments

Windows 8 Review

157Comments

Windows 8 Sales Reach 100 Million Licenses, Should...

155Comments

Nvidia Calls The PS4 “Low End”

136Comments

PlayStation 4 Announced, Packs 8-Core AMD 'Jaguar...

Latest Max PC Tweets

maximumpc: MS pulls the wraps off its next-gen console, the Xbox One, with an AMD APU, 8GB of RAM, 500GB HDD, Blu Ray and more: http://t.co/hPif19wC3J37 min 35 sec ago
maximumpc: Yahoo revamps Flickr with a new user interface, much bigger photos, and 1TB of free storage: http://t.co/ubqZloCTRi1 hour 22 min ago
maximumpc: New Xbox being revealed at 10:00AM PDT. Stream here: http://t.co/fh6yMnU3eX3 hours 27 min ago

MaximumPC on Facebook

Recommendations

Future is AOP and PPA Consumer Digital Publisher of the Year.
MaximumPC is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. We produce content across five core areas:

Technology
- TechRadar
- T3
- Mac|Life
- Gizmodo UK
- More...
Entertainment
- GamesRadar
- CVG
- PC Gamer
- Total Film
- More...
Music
Creative
Sport & Auto
- BikeRadar
- Cyclingnews
- ChopMTB
- TriRadar
- More...

graphics cards

Radeon HD 5670 Performance Review: DX11 Goes Mainstream

Fast Forward: Rethinking Graphics

GPU Shortage Expected to Last Through Holidays

AMD Ahead of the Curve in GPU Shipments for Second Quarter of 2009

BFG GeForce GTX 295

Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 X2

Featured Content

Connect with MaximumPC

This month's issue

Feature

Feature

How To

Build It

Buy Subscription

Most Commented Articles

Latest Max PC Tweets

MaximumPC on Facebook

Technology

Entertainment

Music

Creative

Sport & Auto