AMD's newly released HD 7790 provides great price/performance in the sub-$200 segment and supports CrossFire. So we wondered: Can you build a powerful and cost-efficient gaming rig with two HD 7790 cards in CrossFire configuration?
Sapphire's new Radeon HD 7790 Dual-X improves on the reference design with a dual-fan cooler and large overclock out of the box. The highlight of our review is certainly the large overclocking potential of the card.
Today, AMD released their new Radeon HD 7790 to provide a competitively priced option to gamers. The ASUS HD 7790 DC II comes overclocked out of the box for an even smoother experience. In our testing, we also see amazing noise levels.
We compare one, two, and three GeForce TITAN cards in our multi-GPU comparison on X79. The cards will have to fight against three HD 7970 GHz Editions, two GTX 690s, and three GTX 680s to settle the argument: what is the fastest graphics solution you can buy today?
Announced earlier this week, NVIDIA's $1000 GeForce GTX TITAN set out to claim the single-GPU performance throne. The new card offers not only performance improvements but also comes with a new GPU Boost 2.0 algorithm that helps keep temperature and noise levels down.
Today we have on our testbench the EVGA GTX 650 Ti SSC with 2 GB of GDDR5 memory. The card runs at 1072 MHz GPU clock, which is higher than any other GTX 650 Ti available at this time. Using manual overclocking we could even increase memory clocks by 40%!
ASUS releases their ARES II dual-GPU HD 7990 today. Using two full Tahiti GPUs with clock speeds beyond the HD 7970 GHz Edition, it provides plenty of performance for even the most demanding titles at their highest settings. But does it provide enough to warrant a price of $1599?
EVGA's new GeForce GTX 670 FTW Signature 2 comes with a brand-new dual-fan cooler providing a very quiet experience. Performance is also great thanks to an overclock out of the box that matches GTX 680 clock frequencies.
The VTX3D HD 7870 Black is based on AMD's recent Tahiti LE GPU. It comes with 1536 shaders and very decent clock speeds. As a result, the card is 8% faster than the HD 7870 and almost as fast as the HD 7950 that costs significantly more.
Club3D is the first one to release a Tahiti LE based HD 7870. Their jokerCard runs 1536 shaders with very decent clock speeds, which results in an 8% performance improvement over HD 7870 - just 2% shy of matching HD 7950. This performance increase does come at the cost of increased power draw, though.
The HIS Radeon HD 7950 IceQ X² Boost comes with a large overclock, which increases its out of the box performance to GTX 670 levels. Thanks to a large dual fan cooler we also see great temperature and massive overclocking potential: +20% real life performance from overclocking.
The HIS HD 7970 X Turbo is the company's entry into the super high-end HD 7970 market. It comes with a massively overclocked GPU which provides a 6% performance boost over the GHz Edition. Also included are six monitor outputs that can be used at the same time without breaking dual-link DVI functionality.
The HIS HD 7750 IceQ X Turbo is a custom design, overclocked HD 7750. A separate 6-pin PCI-Express power connector has been added to the card, which improves power delivery and might have an effect on overclocking potential. In our testing, we saw over 25% real-life performance gain from overclocking.
MSI's new GeForce GTX 660 HAWK is a fully customized, overclocked GTX 660. It comes with the company's signature TwinFrozr cooler and includes goodlies like dual BIOS and voltage measurements points.
Today AMD announced a new game bundle for their Radeon graphics cards and the new Catalyst 12.11 driver which brings performance improvements across the board. We test each card of the HD 7000 lineup in 20 games and benchmarks to verify what the new driver offers.
The ASUS HD 7970 Matrix Platinum is the company's new card geared towards enthusiasts and hardware overclockers. It comes with many features for the extreme crowd, but also caters to more normal users. One unique feature is buttons on the card that let you adjust voltage on the fly.
The ZOTAC GeForce GTX 650 Ti AMP! Edition comes with a large overclock on both GPU and memory. Having 2 GB GDDR5, it also features twice the memory capacity than most other GTX 650 Ti cards. Will these improvements provide enough performance and is pricing low enough to make the card competitive?
The new ASUS GeForce GTX 650 Ti DirectCu II TOP comes with a 100 MHz clock increase out of the box, which gives the card an extra performance boost. It also features a DC II thermal solution that is ultra-quiet, despite its two fans.
Today MSI launches their new GeForce GTX 650 Ti Power Edition. This card comes overclocked out of the box, runs extremely quiet and has one of the lowest power consumptions we've ever seen. Especially Blu-ray power is ultra-low which might make it a candidate for a media PC.
The PowerColor HD 7870 PCS+ Vortex II is one of the highest clocked HD 7870 cards available today, in our testing we see it match HD 7950 performance. PowerColor also engineered a special feature that lets you adjust the fan's distance from the card, promising improved cooling performance.
The MSI GeForce GTX 650 Power Edition OC is a fully customized, overclocked, GTX 650 design which comes with a unique cooler. Depending on your cooling requirements you can add a second fan in two possible configurations to reduce temperatures.
The KFA² GTX 650 EX OC uses NVIDIA's new GK107 graphics processor. Despite its reference design pricing it comes with a small overclock out of the box with gives the card a 5% performance advantage over the normal GeForce GTX 650.
MSI has equipped their latest GeForce graphics card with its signature Twin Frozr III dual-fan cooler. Despite having two fans the card is quiet in both idle and load and also comes with a nice performance boost thanks to the overclock out of the box.
Zotac's new GTX 660 comes with just a small overclock out of the box, but is offered at reference design pricing. Unlike the other cards tested today it uses a very compact form factor thanks to a shorter cooler, which makes it an attractive choice for a powerful small form factor gaming rig.
The ASUS GTX 660 Direct CU II uses the cooling solution which we love most for its low noise in both idle and load. ASUS has also overclocked their board, which provides enough extra performance to match the AMD Radeon HD 7870.
Today NVIDIA launched their new GTX 660. Gigabyte has sent us their overclocked GTX 660 Windforce OC which also comes with a large dual-fan cooler that provides extremely low temperatures in both idle and load. The overclock out of the box helps to gain some performance on the HD 7870.
Sapphire's new HD 7950 Vapor-X comes overclocked out of the box. Thanks to clever use of the dual BIOS feature you can also activate a second "Lethal Boost" BIOS which runs even higher clocks. Cooling is provided by a large dual fan vapor chamber cooler which keeps the card cool and provides low noise operation.
PowerColor's HD 7990 Devil 13 is the first dual-GPU HD 7990 that reaches our labs. This huge triple slot, triple fan card comes with fully enabled Tahiti XT GPUs, running in an internal CrossFire configuration. As a result the Devil 13 is the fastest AMD-based graphics card we ever tested.
Club3D has just released the fastest single-slot low-profile graphics card, based on the HD 7750. This means that full HD gaming on your compact media PC might just be a possibility. In our review we will take a close look at gaming capabilities, but also look at power consumption and noise.
Sapphire's HD 7970 Toxic comes with 6 GB GDDR5 memory, a large clock speed increase out of the box, a "Lethal Boost" button to increase performance even further, and a large dual-fan cooler. In our testing this monster delivered the highest single-GPU performance we've ever seen, overclocking worked well, too.
Microsoft's latest operating system is ready! We took a closer look at gaming performance using NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 680 and AMD's Radeon HD 7970 in 19 games at resolutions from 1280x800 to 2560x1600.
Palit's GeForce GTX 660 Ti JetStream comes with a large dual-fan triple slot cooler which promises better cooling performance than other GTX 660 Ti cards. We also see great FPS numbers thanks to the factory overclock.
The ASUS GTX 660 Ti Direct CU II TOP uses the same wonderful cooler we've seen first on the company's GTX 670, which means it is by far the quietest high-performance card you can find on the market - in both idle and load. The card is also overclocked out of the box, which gives it a 5% performance advantage.
MSI's GTX 660 Ti Power Edition is one of the fastest GTX 660 Ti cards we tested today because it comes with some secret BIOS sauce that enables it to run faster than other cards at lower clocks. This is also confirmed by our overclocking tests where it reaches the highest overclocked performance of all GTX 660 Ti cards.
ZOTAC's GeForce GTX 660 Ti AMP! Edition comes with a compact footprint, that enables high-performance gaming for smaller cases. Thanks to an overclock out of the box, the card runs around 5% faster than the NVIDIA GTX 660 Ti reference design.
Point of View's GeForce GTX 680 TGT Ultra Charged is the first 4 GB GeForce GTX 680 we review, so we took a close look at what the extra memory brings. The card also has an extremely low noise profile thanks to its triple slot cooler.
AMD just released a free BIOS upgrade for the Radeon HD 7950, which provides an extra speed boost by updating the company's PowerTune algorithm. We will thoroughly test this update and not only look at performance but also power consumption and heat.
KFA² has revamped the GTX 680 PCB design, picked a sexy white PCB color and added a large triple fan cooler to their GTX 680 LTD OC. As the name suggests, the card is heavily overclocked, which gives it a real-life performance boost of 8% over the GTX 680 reference design.
Gigabyte's HD 7970 SOC introduces a new cooling concept. Instead of placing the fan(s) on the large surface of the heatsink like on all recent graphics cards, the company chose to position five small fans along the top edge of the card. Our review will investigate whether the card will be too noisy and too big, or if it can truly provide some benefit.
Club3D's HD 7850 RoyalQueen comes with a modest 1 GB of memory, which is half that of a typical HD 7850. Nevertheless we got some interesting results in our testing. The card is just as fast as the 2 GB HD 7850, at full HD resolutions and below. Coming at a more than reasonable $195, the card is also one of the most affordable choices on the market.
Sapphire's HD 7950 Flex adds the capability to run three DVI monitors without active DisplayPort adapter. It also comes with increased clock speeds out of the box, which gives the card a 6% performance advantage over the reference design.
Sapphire's HD 7870 Flex adds comes with the capability to run three HDMI/DVI monitors without active DisplayPort adapter. Something that's not possible on reference design cards. This means that many EyeFinity users will be able to save $30, because they don't have to buy an active DP adapter. But what else does the Flex offer?
ZOTAC's GeForce GT 640 is based on NVIDIA's new Kepler architecture. Thanks to its energy efficient design, ZOTAC managed to release a single-slot graphics card that will be interesting to many media PC builders. It also comes with HDMI and 2x DVI outputs, adding to the card's versatility.
MSI's GTX 670 Power Edition comes with a large overclock out of the box, which enables the card to provide GTX 680 performance out of the box at much lower pricing. Thanks to the large Twin Frozr IV cooler the card keeps its cool, overclocking works well, too.
Today AMD launches the HD 7970 GHz Edition, in a move to take away the performance crown from NVIDIA. The new card boasts clock speeds of 1050 MHz GPU and 1500 MHz memory. Price-wise the card is on the same level as the GTX 680, but is that enough to defeat NVIDIA's single GPU flagship?
MSI's GTX 680 Lightning combines the outstanding performance of the GTX 680 with the unique heritage of MSI's Lightning series. The card brings many features geared toward overclockers and advanced users, but even for gamers it's a good choice thanks to the overclock out of the box.
GIGABYTE's overclocked GTX 670 Windforce OC comes with a large and silent triple fan cooler and a full GTX 680 reference design PCB. This helps the card deliver out of the box performance comparable to the GTX 680, at a much lower price. Actually GIGABYTE is charging no price premium for their improvements, the card comes at reference design pricing of $399.
Sapphire's HD 7770 Vapor-X uses the company's exclusive cooling solution paired with a large overclock out of the box. As result the card is whisper quiet in both idle and load, yet temperatures are comfortably low too. The card also comes at reasonable pricing of $150, an HDMI cable is included, too.
PowerColor's HD 7850 PCS+ is the highest clocked HD 7850 card you can buy at this time. Thanks to its GPU clock speed of 1 GHz it provides excellent performance and the PCS+ cooler keeps everything cool and quiet. With just $20 over the AMD reference design, the price increase is also reasonable.
MSI has taken the powerful TwinFrozr IV cooler from the MSI Lightning and put a shrunk down version on their HD 7850 Power Edition. Thanks to an overclock out of the box the card can match last generation's HD 6950 in performance, without a significant increase in power consumption.
VTX3D's HD 7970 X-Edition uses the proven AMD reference design PCB with a custom dual fan cooler and massively increased clock speeds out of the box. Thanks to a large variety of included adapters that will help getting EyeFinity up and running, the card effectively comes at reference design pricing.
MSI's GTX 680 Twin Frozr III uses the company's large dual-fan signature cooler, which provides excellent temperatures in both idle and load. Fan noise is reduced too, and the card is overclocked out of the box, which makes it easier for less experienced users to get the maximum out of their card.
Today NVIDIA released their GeForce GTX 670 which caught the enthusiast market by surprise, bringing outstanding performance and decent pricing to this segment. Now we put two of these cards in a dual card SLI configuration on our shiny new Ivy Bridge PCI-Express 3.0 setup to investigate whether it has the potential to be used in ultra-high end killer gaming rigs.
ZOTAC's GTX 670 AMP! Edition is built around an unmodified NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 PCB which provides a great foundation, on top of which ZOTAC is using a large triple slot cooler. GPU clock has been bumped by well over 100 MHz, which lets the card surpass GTX 680 in our testing, with a 3% performance lead.
Palit's GeForce GTX 670 JetStream comes with a decent overclock out of the box and uses the company's dual fan JetStream cooler which provides improved temperatures despite the overclock out of the box. With a price increase of only $20 over the reference design, the card seems a good choice if you want just a bit more.
ASUS has taken the great GTX 670 and improved it by putting their DirectCU II cooler on it, which provides whisper quiet cooling. The card is also overclocked out of the box and uses a custom PCB supporting software voltage control. Overall the card received a perfect ten score!
Today NVIDIA launches their new GeForce GTX 670 which aims to bring incredible performance levels at more affordable pricing. We see the new $399 card cruise past HD 7970 in many of our tests which will put additional pressure on AMD. Even against NVIDIA's own GTX 680 the performance difference is relatively small.
ZOTAC's new GeForce GTX 680 AMP! Edition comes with a huge overclock out of the box, base clock is 1111 MHz. The card uses a large triple slot, dual fan cooler to provide stable gaming at these high clocks, but noise levels are also reduced.
The HIS Radeon HD 7770 iCooler is a close to reference implementation of the HD 7770. Coming at reference design price and clocks, its biggest innovation is its cooler, which is exceedingly quiet. It is actually the quietest HD 7770 we tested so far.
Today's latest graphics cards come with support for PCI-Express 3.0, which promises twice the bandwidth, while still being compatible with older motherboards and graphics cards. In our article we analyze differences in PCIe performance on Intel's Ivy Bridge with GeForce GTX 680 and Radeon HD 7970, using 20 games at five resolutions, each at all three PCIe generations and x4, x8 and x16 link width.
Today NVIDIA releases their new GeForce GTX 690 flagship. The $999 card is based on two GK104 graphics processors that have their full potential enabled. The new card has one of the most extravagant designs, making heavy use of metal which adds to the experience. Performance is outstanding, being neck to neck with a dual GTX 680 SLI setup.
MSI's HD 7870 HAWK is the company's mid-range equivalent of the Lightning Series. The card uses a Twin Frozr dual-fan cooler and features increased clock speeds of 1100 MHz GPU and 1200 MHz. It also includes triple voltage control via MSI Afterburner.
Palit's GeForce GTX 680 JetStream offers several enhancements compared the NVIDIA reference design, like a quiet triple fan cooler, overclock out of the box and reduced power consumption. The best improvement is certainly that it comes at no price increase compared to the reference design.
This week saw the release of Intel's new 22 nanometer Ivy Bridge processors. The new CPUs also feature a beefed up graphics core that is faster and includes support for DirectX 11. In our review we test 18 games to investigate whether HD Graphics 4000 can provide a decent gaming experience.
MSI's Radeon HD 7970 Lightning is a heavily customized implementation of the HD 7970 with focus on performance and overclocking. The card uses a beefed up voltage regulation circuitry and massive dual-fan heatsink to ensure stable operation at MSI's clocks of 1070 MHz core and 1400 MHz memory.
The ASUS GeForce GTX 680 Direct CU II TOP uses the company's famous triple slot cooler to bring low temperatures and low noise to the GeForce GTX 680. ASUS has also increased the clocks of the card significantly, which gives it a healthy performance boost, for a reasonable $20 price premium.
MSI's HD 7870 TwinFrozr III improves on the AMD reference design by adding the company's dual-fan cooling solution to the card. It also comes with increased clock speeds of 1050 MHz core and 1200 MHz memory out of the box. In our testing we saw great additional overclocking potential, well into the 1200 MHz range.
The ASUS Radeon HD 7870 Direct CU II is a highly overclocked custom version of the Radeon HD 7870. Coming at clock speeds of 1100 MHz GPU and 1250 MHz memory, it is a good deal faster than the AMD reference design. Thanks to aggressive pricing, the card retails at $360, which means there is no price increase for overclocking.
Yesterday NVIDIA introduced their new groundbreaking GeForce GTX 680, which was very well received. Today we bring you testing of a $1000 dual card SLI setup. We also use the latest WHQL driver to provide up-to-date performance numbers.
Today NVIDIA released their new GeForce GTX 680 which is based on the company's brand-new Kepler architecture. The card comes with massively improved performance per Watt. It also introduces an automatic dynamic overclocking method which gives the card the leading edge, making it the fastest single GPU graphics card in the world.
Gigabyte's HD 7770 OC comes with a massive clock improvement over the AMD reference design. Operating at 1100 MHz ensures that the card has a healthy performance advantage over other boards. Memory clock is also increased at 1250 MHz.
Today AMD released their new Radeon HD 7800 Series, which is based on their new 28 nm Pitcairn graphics processor. The HD 7850 and HD 7870 offer a significant performance increase over the previous generation - up to 40% faster in our testing. Power consumption is also at a new record low, putting these cards in the leading performance per Watt spot.
The ASUS Radeon HD 7750 OC is a custom implementation of the HD 7750 design from ASUS. It comes at reference pricing, yet features slightly increased clock speeds out of the box. We have seen its cooling solution before on other cards from the company so it is a tested design that works well and delivers low temperatures and low noise levels.
The XFX HD 7770 Black Edition Super Overclock is the company's flagship HD 7770. It comes with a massively improved heatsink, dual fan and large overclock out of the box. In our testing we are impressed by the ultra low noise and great performance improvement it delivers.
Today AMD introduces their new Radeon HD 7700 Series. While the spotlight is on the HD 7770, HIS has sent us their HD 7750, which will come at a more attractive pricing than the HD 7770. In our testing the card can claim the title "most power efficient card ever tested" - 3x more power efficient than NVIDIA's GTX 480.
ASUS is using their well-proven DirectCU thermal solution on the new HD 7770 DirectCU. The card also comes with a large overclock out of the box, yet stays cool and runs at super low noise levels. ASUS has chosen to follow the AMD pricing, so no price increase for cooler and overclocking.
Today AMD launched their all new Radeon HD 7770 and HD 7750. In our CrossFire review we take both new cards, put them in a dual GPU CrossFire configuration each, and see where they end up on the performance leaderboard. We will also focus on whether two cards can serve as a replacement for a high-end single GPU card.
MSI's HD 7770 OC Edition is a custom design HD 7770 with improved dual fan cooler and overclock out of the box. Compared to the reference design, the overclock is small, but the price increase is also reasonable.
PowerColor's Radeon HD 7770 is a close-to-reference implementation of the AMD HD 7770. It comes at the reference design price, yet offers excellent overclocking capabilities and low power consumption.
Today AMD launches the new Radeon HD 7770 which is the first affordable card based on AMD's new 28 nm GCN Architecture. AMD's reference design HD 7770 offers amazing performance per Watt and a significant performance improvement over the previous generation.
MSI's new HD 7950 Twin Frozr III is a fully customized implementation of AMD's latest 28 nm card. For cooling the card uses the same large dual-fan TwinFrozr III heatsink that we have seen on many other MSI products before. The card also features an overclock out of the box for a bit of extra performance.
PowerColor's HD 7950 PCS+ is a fully customized version of the HD 7950 with changed PCB and large dual fan cooler. It also comes with an 80 MHz overclock out of the box - at a price premium of $15. Its strongest feat is certainly the greatly reduced noise output when compared to the AMD reference design, making this an excellent low noise high performance solution.
In this review we put two Radeon HD 7950 graphics cards in a dual-GPU CrossFire configuration and test whether this $900 setup is worth its money and how it fares against other alternatives.
Today AMD released their new Radeon HD 7950, the second card to be based on AMD's GCN shader architecture. Compared to its bigger brother, the HD 7970, the card comes with less shaders and reduced clock speeds. Other features have remained the same, like 3 GB memory, improved power consumption and support for EyeFinity.
AMD's Radeon HD 7970 has quickly established itself as the fastest single GPU graphics card in the world. In our ASUS HD 7970 CrossFire review we take two of these beasts for a spin to see what benefit they offer. One of the highlights is reduced power consumption thanks to AMD's new ZeroCore power technology.
In our CPU scaling article we investigate gaming performance of AMD's latest Radeon HD 7970 flagship. The processors in our test group have been selected to match popular CPUs used by gamers and enthusiasts: AMD FX-8150 Bulldozer, Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge and Intel Core i7-920 Nehalem.
Today AMD launches their new Radeon HD 7970. The card is based on brand-new 28 nanometer silicon which promises reduced power consumption. Another important change is AMD's move to a new shader architecture, enabling increased performance, easier design of future products and more efficient rendering.
ZOTAC's GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 Cores comes with some of the highest overclocks out of the box, compared to other GTX 560 Ti 448 cards released today. The card also uses a more compact form factor, which should help it fit smaller cases or compact media PCs.
The ASUS GTX 560 Ti 448 Cores DCII is the only GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 Cores released today that comes with a massive triple slot cooling solution. It promises less noise, lower temperatures and better overclocking potential.
MSI's GTX 560 Ti 448 Cores Twin Frozr III uses the company's well established TF III cooler which we have seen on other products before. The two fans and the massive heatsink easily keep the card cool. MSI's card is also overclocked out of the box for that little extra performance boost.
Palit's new GeForce GTX 560 Ti Twin Light Turbo is a custom design, dual fan GTX 560 Ti that comes overclocked out of the box and features LED lit fans which add a smooth glow to the card. Despite having two fans, the card is actually one of the quietest GTX 560 Tis that we tested so far - in both idle and load.
PowerColor's HD 6970 Devil 13 is a brand-new premium class Radeon HD 6970 which comes with the highest clocks available on any HD 6970 card. The Devil 13 also includes voltage monitoring points for voltmodders and a high quality power conversion system. But is that enough to justify a price of $549?
The ASUS MARS II is a monster graphics card consisting of two GeForce GTX 580 GPUs on a single PCB using triple slot cooling. Unlike the NVIDIA GTX 590, the MARS II comes with full GTX 580 clock speeds which give the card an almost 20% performance advantage over the GTX 590, making the card the fastest graphics card in the world, but also the most expensive at $1500.
AMD's new A-Series processors promise high performance integrated graphics that works well for productivity and gaming. In our article we take a closer look at 3D performance of the A8-3850 processor, test it in Dual Graphics mode and investigate the effect of memory clock, memory timings, UMA memory size and overclocking.
PowerColor's exclusive HD 6870 X2 unifies two HD 6870 graphics processors on a single card. This approach offers performance that can compete with other high-end cards like GTX 580. In our testing we saw nice results that make this card a worthy alternative in today's high-end graphics card market.
Sapphire's HD 6450 comes with a low-profile design, passive heatsink and native full-size HDMI. Together with AMD's UVD 3 video encode acceleration that provides excellent video decode capabilities this could well be your next HTPC card.
PowerColor's Radeon HD 6850 SCS3 is the first completely passive cooled Radeon HD 6850. This makes it the fastest zero-noise graphics card available today. Instead of the fairly compact heatsink of the reference design, PowerColor is using a massive triple slot cooler which provides the cooling required for the HD 6850 SCS3.
First seen at Computex this year, the ASUS GTX 580 Matrix Platinum is an overclocker's dream. It offers multiple voltage control via both software and hardware, a quiet running, powerful triple slot, dual fan thermal solution and easy to reach voltage measurement points. This card is also the first to be supported by ASUS' new GPU Tweak software.
MSI has upgraded their GTX 580 Lightning and calls it "Xtreme Edition" now. The biggest change is certainly the inclusion of 3 GB of GDDR5 memory. Other new features are a dust removal system and a fan that indicates overheating by color change.
PowerColor's HD 6670 uses a full-height dual-slot thermal solution to deliver outstanding idle and load temperatures. The reference clocked card with 1 GB of GDDR5 memory offers decent performance for the budget oriented gamer at resolutions up to 1680x1050.
