(12/07) AMD PROCESSOR CHART HAS BEEN UPDATED AT ULTIMATE HARDWARE - "The processor chart now includes information about the AMD Phenom Quad Core processors."
(12/07) ZOTAC GEFORCE 8800GT AMP EDITION TWEAKTOWN - "ZOTAC are back again and this time it’s with the 8800GT. This isn’t just any boring 8800GT though, as we have the “AMP! Edition” with us this time around. The good news is that the 8800GT stock seems to be picking up a bit more so hopefully you won’t have too much trouble getting a card. The particularly good thing about the AMP! Edition is that it’s more than just an overclocked card. We won’t go into too much detail just yet though, let’s first move onto the packaging side of things before moving onto a closer look at the card itself to see what ZOTAC have done different."
(12/07) XFX GEFORCE 8800 GTS 512 XXX ALPHA DOG REVIEW AT BJORN - "It has been a great year to be an enthusiast. With the flurry of 'A list' games that have been released and the new hardware deigned to run them, it is an exciting time. Nvidia and XFX want to make sure you have the best possible gaming experience and they have just released a new card to bring you closer to that goal. The 8800GTS 512 Alpha Dog from XFX is that card. Built on top of the smaller, more efficient G92 core and sporting the same amount of stream processors as the 8800GTX, this card is ready for almost anything you can throw at it. Throw in a free game and XFX's legendary double-lifetime warranty and you have the recipe for greatness. But enough chit-chat and marketing hype, lets get to the heart of the matter; performance!"
(12/07) ASUS EAH3850 TOP OC RADEON HD 3850 REVIEW AT BIG BRUIN - "In November of 2007 ATI launched the Radeon HD3800 series (based on the RV670 core) which brings improved capabilities in high definition games and videos to the mid-range PCI Express graphics card market. Additionally, support for key features such as PCI Express 2.0, DirectX 10.1, 320 Stream processors, PowerPlay power saving technology, and CrossFireX multi-GPU capabilities were also included. The initial offerings in this series of cards are the HD3850 and the HD3870, which carry approximate price tags of under $200 and under $250, respectively. This review is going to take a look at a card from ASUS, model number EAH3850/G/HTDI/256M, which is an overclocked HD3850 card with some interesting features that still manages to come in under $200."
(12/07) AMD PHENOM VS ATHLON CORE SHOOTOUT AT THG - "In fact, AMD has a pretty significant advantage over Intel when it comes to upgrading existing systems with a quad core processor. While Intel has been quick with launching new platforms for each and every new processor generation due to modified requirements, AMD has not changed the specifications for Socket AM2 at all. As a consequence, it is technically possible to deploy a quad core Phenom processor into a Socket AM2 motherboard that has been running an Athlon 64 or Athlon 64 X2 - all you need is a BIOS update. This doesn't work in every case - some motherboards may not be able to handle the Phenoms' power requirements of 95 or 125 W - but most enthusiast motherboards can be upgraded from a single or dual core to a quad core processor easily."
(12/07) ASUS EN8800GT TOP 512MB REVIEW AT BJORN3D - "Every now and again a product comes along that seems to defy reason. Either it offers performance at levels far greater than similar products in its class or it is offered at a price lower than you would expect. Never have I seen a time where both of these circumstances happened at the same time to the same product. Yet here I am describing to you a video card that seemingly breaks all the rules; immune to the economic forces that keep the world moving forward. So what do you do when you have a video card as powerful as the big boys but costs only half as much? You overclock the heck out of it and sell it to the masses, that's what! Introducing the EN8800GT TOP from Asus. An uncompromising, take no prisoners, deal of the year video card that changes the rules. No longer will you have to choose between cost or performance."
(12/07) NVIDIA SLI VS ATI CROSSFIRE REVIEW AT HARDWARE SECRETS - "With the recent release of CrossFireX by AMD/ATI and 3-way SLI by nVidia we think it is a good time to make a technical comparison between all incarnations of these two technologies, which have the same goal: to allow video cards to be connected in parallel in order to increase gaming performance."
(12/07) ATI RADEON HD 2600 XT GDDR3 ROUND-UP AT ELITE - "With this in mind, and with so many new and exciting titles having made their way to the PC platform in recent months, now seems like an ideal time to revisit this particular section of ATI's line-up. Thus, that's exactly what we've done, for today we examine not one, not two, not even three, but four Radeon HD 2600 XT GDDR3 graphics boards, all with varying specifications, configurations and bundles, to see what's on offer if you're after a cheap DirectX 10 graphics board to draw the year to a close."
(12/07) SAPPHIRE RADEON HD 3870 512MB GDDR4 REVIEW AT TRUSTED REVIEWS - "It's into this rather hostile market that ATI is pitching its new RV670. Can it make an impact? Well, once again ATI hasn't gone for the jugular, as the card still isn't aimed at toppling nVidia's 8800 GTX, but is instead intended just to replace it's own the 2900 series, delivering round about the same performance but at lower cost and drawing less power. Instead of playing fast, it's trying to play it smart and on that basis RV670 is again a contender. There are two cards available in the series - the Radeon HD 3850 and the Radeon HD 3870. The standard 3870 has a core clock of 775MHz and 512MB of 2.25GHz GDDR4 memory."
(12/07) GIGABYTE HD 3870 ULTRA DURABLE 2 REVIEW AT TWEAKTOWN - "While the card we have here today seems like nothing more than a HD 3870 with a Zalman cooler on it, we’re told it’s more than meets the eye. GIGABYTE have taken quality components from their motherboards and decided to work them into the HD 3870. When we say components from their motherboards, we don’t mean that the HD 3870 now carries support for a socket 775 processor, rather the “Ultra Durable” technology behind GIGABYTE motherboards which makes them such a stable product."
(12/07) AMD PREPARES 3870 DX10.1 PART FOR AGP COMPUTERS AT THE INQUIRER - "We haven't seen the final AGP design yet, but the list of parts inside the box reveals the truth. Radeon HD 3850 AGP will come to market bundled with following parts: ATI Radeon HD 3850 AGP graphics card, 6-pin PEG to Dual 4-pin Molex adapter, DVI to HDMI Adapter, DVI to VGA adapter and HDTV adapter."
(12/07) SAPPHIRE RADEON HD 3870 512MB REVIEW AT BIT-TECH - "Just the other week, we had a rather in-depth look at AMD’s ATI Radeon HD 3870 graphics card. We found that—although it’s not quite as fast as Nvidia’s GeForce 8800 GT—AMD’s partners have priced it pretty attractively so that it’s actually very tempting to pocket the difference between the 3870 and the 8800 GT."
(12/07) 6 BUDGET GRAPHICS CARDS AT THE INQUIRER - "IF YOU ARE contemplating what to buy for Christmas and have 100-150 USD/EUR to spend, on a graphics card, should you really take the plunge and buy anything less than than a Radeon HD3850 or 8800GT 256MB? We took six graphics cards from this low-end of the spectrum and put them up against the new mainstream king, the ATI Radeon HD 3850."
(12/07) POWERCOLOR RADEON HD 3850 XTREME 512MB REVIEW AT TECHPOWERUP - "The RV670 GPU is based on the RV610 and RV630 architecture, but features much better performance. It is built on a 55nm process with 666 million transistors with a 256 bit memory interface. All features like UVD and HDMI+Audio are included as well. As a novelty this chip brings DirectX 10.1 support and can benefit from the improved features of PCI-Express 2.0. While both features are not important today they are a clear commitment from AMD that they are looking at future technologies and will make use of them as soon as possible. The engineers at Powercolor have redesigned parts of the PCB to fit their requirements, but the basic design circuit design remained the same. What is more important is that the memory size has been doubled to 512 MB instead of 256 MB on the reference design."
(12/07) XFX GEFORCE 8800GT 256MB XXX REVIEW AT LEGIT REVIEWS - "The GeForce 8800 GT 512MB video card series fills the $199-$259 price points, but what about those that want to spend less and still have all the same features? NVIDIA didn't forget about you guys and has just recently released the GeForce 8800 GT 256MB video card that is aimed at the $179-$199 price points. The GeForce 8800 GT 512MB has been in such high demand the price has remained above $269.99, so the need for a more budget friendly card is a welcomed addition to the GeForce 8 lineup. Basically, all NVIDIA did was reduce the amount of GDDR3 memory from 512MB to 256MB and that's it. Our friends over at XFX sent out their new XFX GeForce 8800 GT 256MB Alpha Dog XXX Edition graphics card and it is identical on the outside compared to the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB."
(12/07) ATI RADEON HD 3870 CROSSFIRE REVIEW AT LEGIT REVIEWS - "Last month, Legit Reviews benchmarked a pair of Radeon HD 3850's on the day they were launched, but didn't have a pair of Radeon HD 3870's to include in the article. The Radeon HD 3850 video cards were impressive for what they could do at their price point and we were excited to see what the faster Radeon HD 3870 was capable of doing on the latest game titles. We have now received a pair of ATI Radeon 3870 graphics cards to test and compare to all the other cards we have on the test bench. Since we covered much of the new Radeon HS 3800 series architecture in our previous article, please reference it for the technical background on the cards features."
(12/07) GECUBE RADEON HD 3850 X-TURBO III 512 MB REVIEW AT TECHPOWERUP - "GeCube has taken the Radeon HD 3850 reference design and improved it for additional overclocking. Instead of a one-slot cooling solution a more powerful dual slot cooler is used. The improved cooling performance allows the card to run at higher clocks, in our case 700 MHz core and 850 MHz memory. Compared to the AMD reference design this is a nice overclock which yields some extra free performance. Also it should be noted that the board comes with 512 MB of GDDR3 instead of 256 MB GDDR3 on the reference design."
(12/07) XFX GEFORCE 8800 GT ALPHA DOG REVIEW AT XSR - "The 8800GT was codenamed G92 and is the first NVIDIA card to transition to a 65nm manufacturer process; GTX and Ultra cards of the same series are 90nm and 86XX cards are 80nm. It still features the same unified shader architecture as previous 8 series cards, but due to the size reduction, the power needs of the card are reduced, and by proxy its heat output, meaning that a single slot cooler will suffice; and perhaps even a quiet one during loaded operation. It is also the first NVIDIA card to make the jump to PCI-e 2.0 and one of the first to have the PureVideo 2.0 chip which adds a Bitstream processor and enhanced video processor to completely offload AACS-decryption and H.264 decoding."
(12/07) POWERCOLOR ATI RADEON X1550 REVIEW AT OC CLUB - "You would think something like swapping cables over and over would irritate me. Nope, I was happier then ever being able to play all of my favorite games like Tribes, Warcraft 2, and Starcraft at awesome resolutions and amazing graphics. Looking back, this seems laughable as games and graphics cards have come a long way and are leaps and bounds ahead of their meager beginnings. With cards out there like the Geforce 8xxx series and the ATI X2xxx series, gaming has become a truly intimate experience. But what about those who can’t shell out this kind of money for upgrades? Is there anything out there for them? The PowerColor ATI Radeon X1550 may be the answer. At a drastically reduced price in comparison to the high end cards, can it stand up to today's games enough to be an option for the casual gamers with shallow pockets?"
(12/07) XFX GEFORCE 8800 GT 512MB ALPHA DOG REVIEW AT LEGIT REVIEWS - "When we first sat the XFX GeForce 8800 GT 512MB next to the reference NVIDIA card something just didn't look right. XFX implimented a larger fan and also increased the opening in the cover to let more cool air in. The slits on the sides of the cover have also been increased to improve airflow around the capacitors and other heat producing components. The changes to the cooling really paid off as the XFX GeForce 8800 GT was 15C cooler at idle and 8C cooler at load thanks to the increased airflow. Not bad considering the XFX GeForce 8800 GT Alpha Dog is running overclocked! Our review sample have a core clock frequency of 625MHz and the reference cards from NVIDIA run at 600MHz."
(12/07) AMD PHENOM X4 9700 QUAD CORE REVIEW AT GURU3D - "AMD has launched its Phenom desktop processors and "Spider" platform for desktop PCs. The new Phenom chips feature a native quad-core design, a 65-nanometer manufacturing process, and enhanced power management technology. Guru3D reviews the AMD Phenom 9700 Quad Core Processor, a mainstream level native quad-core processor based on a completely new architecture."
(12/07) EVGA E-GEFORCE 8800 GT KO REVIEW AT PC PERSPECTIVE - "Early last month we saw the first in a wave of new graphics cards in the form of the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB. Built around the G80 architecture but using as smaller process technology, the G92-based GPU was a great performer that was made even better because of its price point - around $250 when you could find it. Since then, we have seen AMD response to the 8800 GT: the Radeon HD 3800 series. It also was a die shrink gone right. "
(12/07) AMD ATI RADEON HD 3870 512MB REVIEW AT BIT-TECH - "The last few weeks have been a particularly busy time in the technology industry, with the introduction of Nvidia’s GeForce 8800 GT, Intel’s first 45nm processor and now the announcement of AMD's Spider platform. The platform, which AMD touts as the first of its kind, is comprised of the long-awaited quad-core Phenom processors, the AMD 790FX chipset and of course, lest we forget, the ATI Radeon HD 3800 series graphics cards that launched just a couple of weeks ago."
(12/07) ATI RADEON HD 2900 PRO REVIEW AT XBIT LABS - "The performance difference between ATI Radeon HD 2900 and ATI Radeon HD 2600 is known to be unjustifiably huge. Today we are going to take a look at the attempt to build a bridge between the two undertaken by AMD’s graphics division. Although this solution will only last for a short period of time, it is worth checking out."
(12/07) SAPPHIRE HD 2600 XT ULTIMATE 256MB REVIEW AT SHARKY EXTREME - "ATI has built the Radeon HD 2600 line on the 65nm RV630 core. The RV630 powers both the Radeon HD 2600 Pro and XT models, with the latter offering higher clock speeds and better performance. The Radeon HD 2600 XT is fully DirectX 10 compliant, and it offers a unified shader architecture using 24 shader processors with 120 individual Stream processing units. The number of Stream processors is much more than NVIDIA offers at the mainstream, but keep in mind that it is impossible to equate two differing architectures like this. In addition, the RV630 offers 8 texture mapping units (TMUs) and 4 Raster Operator units (ROPs), and can utilize either GDDR3 or GDDR4 onboard memory."
