MSI and BFG 8600 GTS
The product(s) that Nvidia and its partners are launching today is designed to bring DirectX 10 features to the mainstream market, in addition to this – this range introduce some quite astounding new video features which are not present on even the top end 8800 series. Top all this with an updated driver which features over 400 bug fixes since the 98 series driver and we have an interesting review ahead of us. So, furnished with overclocked edition GTS cards from MSI and BFG (with more coming this week from other makers) let’s see if the 8600 can deliver the goods. Not only this but we delve into video acceleration with bluray and HD-DVD media.
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PC gaming and the mainstream
TTGamer have posted an editorial entitled "PC gaming and the mainstream", which touches on the subject of how the PC gaming platform has arguably fallen behind mainstream gaming standards and how it may be able to catch up.
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NVIDIA GeForce 8600 & 8500 Preview
Today NVIDIA announced their latest new graphics processors of the GeForce 8 Series. The new cards are called GeForce 8500 GT, 8600 GT and 8600 GTS. In our preview we examine the differences between the products and how they stack up against the last generation GeForce 7 products.
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Sapphire X1950 Pro Dual
Sapphire's X1950 Pro Dual is the world's first video card that uses two ATI RV570 GPUs on a single PCB. The board comes with 2x 512 MB of GDDR3 memory for a price of $399. In our testing the card shows that it has to potential to narrow the performance gap to NVIDIA's lineup until R600 is released.
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XFX GeForce 8600GTS XXX – nVidia's new mainstream DX10 is here!
"New graphics cards are great, especially when they are in the “affordable for most people” range. nVidia’s GeForce 8600 and 8500 series has been a long waited product. Why? Most importantly it’s the first affordable DirectX 10 capable graphics card from any company and nVidia even have Windows Vista drivers ready for the new range of cards at launch time. This product is so good for the market for two reasons - the first is that consumers who don’t have thousands of dollars to spend on a PC can now buy something that is going to offer support for the next generation of graphics (DX10 / Shader Model 4.0 with games like Crysis, Alan Wake and UT2007 coming). The second is because more people will be able to buy these GeForce 8500 and 8500 cards with it’s much more attractive price tag, game makers will have even more reason to put resources into making DirectX 10 supported games. The latter is something that is seriously lacking at the moment but the games are on their way slowly but surely."
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Thermaltake Bach VX Review
One of Thermaltake's newest models to follow this trend is the Bach VX, an updated version of their original Bach media case. While the Bach was an HTPC case and was horizontally-oriented with a small display on the front, the VX is much more commonplace. The VX has gone vertical and has ditched the display and instead taken on a brushed metal bezel and glossy bay covers. Some of the original styling is still in place, but the VX is a very different case from the first Bach.
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MSI 8600GT
"Nvidia has dominated the high end of the GPU market for the last 5 months with their 8800GTX and GTS offerings. However up to now ATI/AMD has managed to hold their own in the mid range market with their X1950 series, specifically the great "bang for buck" x1950 Pro. Now though, Nvidia are bringing in their mid-range muscle; it's time for the 8600GT."
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Icemat Siberia Headset Review
"We’ve reviewed pretty much the entire SteelSeries line of headsets, and the In:Ears of their subsidiary; Icemat. However, today I have the full Siberia headset which was brought to relative fame by Basshunter with his Dota ditty. Let’s see if they are ready to be endorsed by XSReviews as well…"
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Sparkle NVIDIA 8600 GTS Review
"The new Sparkle NVIDIA 8600 GTS arrived Technic3D. The Graphic Card with DirectX 10 and a small price better than other Graphic Cards? Technic3D will see that in the following Review with 1920x1200 up to 1024x768."
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Razer Death Adder Review
The "Death Adder ”, Razer’s latest corded mouse is on its way to becoming a huge success in the pc gaming industry. At the center of this very nimble mouse is a 3G infrared sensor, that delivers an impressive 1800 dpi resolution, as well as the 1000 Hz “Ultrapolling” technology with hardley a 1ms response time. This mouse is equipped with a smooth rubber-coated topside that includes the two main buttons on either side of the scrolling wheel with perfectly precision lofted dips in the surface to allow for your fingers to reside-in without slipping, and large Teflon feet on the underside that enable it to slide smoothly across your mousing surface. Unlike other traditional Razer mice, the DeathAdder is tailored for the use of right-handed people which should make it a huge success as it fits more comfortably in the palms of right-handed gamers than the ambidextrous versions that have come before, and at a retail price of $59.99 should make Razer's latest addition a must- have amongst the serious gamers in the world.
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Vizo Propeller Graphics Card Cooler Review
The Vizo Propeller is primarily a video card cooler but can be used to cool any internal computer card. Of the many video card cooling products on the market today, most are designed to increase the air flow through the case and between card and potentially out the back of the PC case. The heat that is generated by your video card's graphics processing unit can itself cause a strain on its' own components. Newer generation GPU's such as the 7900, 8800, and ATI R600 based cards will expel more heat than ever before. Think Intel Northwood and old AMD Thunderbirds here guys. Other methods of heat elimination range from purchasing additional case fans (which in the end makes your case sound like a small Learjet), to higher priced water blocks.
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Cooler Master April Contest
Spring is in the air and Overclockers Online wants to set you up right for some spring time overclocking! With the temperatures on the rise, the only way to cool down your hot processor without breaking the bank is with some serious air cooling. This month we are giving away one Cooler Master Real GeminII.
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ATi RADEON X1900XTX Video Card Review
"To get a feel for where the X1900XTX stands on the market, it was created shortly after the X1800 series to compete with nVidia's 7800 series. Specifically, the X1900XTX would compete with the 7800GTX. The X1900XTX, however, blew the 7800GTX out of the water and is more aptly compared to nVidia's 7900GTX. The difference between the two is solely based on opinion. ATi has since come out with the X1950 series, of which only one card exceeds the X1900XTX in speed, and nVidia has come out with the 8800 family: the fastest cards out there today."
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Sytrin KuFormula VF1 Plus GPU Cooler
Everyone would like their graphics card to run cooler for different reasons and the stock GPU coolers do a decent job, but we always want something better. Sytrin's newest cooler, the KuFormula VF1 Plus, cools extremely well. The KuFormula VF1 Plus might take up a little more space than most coolers, but the cooling difference more than makes up for the additional space.
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NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS & GT
Today is the day NVIDIA chose to officially announce the new DX10-class GeForce 8600 GTS, 8600 GT, and the rest of the mainstream GeForce 8 family of products. We pulled together a few GeForce 8600 GTS and GT cards, tested them with some popular games and benchmark tools, and have posted our thoughts for all too see. Head on over to the site and take look.
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XFX 8600 GTS XXX Review
"One of the most exciting feature of the new 8600 and 8500 is a completely new video processing engine (VP2 + BSP + AES128 Engine) which offloads 100% of Blu-Ray and HD-DVD processing from the CPU. While the previous G80 core did come equipped with PureVideo HD functionality, the new core architecture has changed the way it works. Before the GeForce 8800 cards would off-load some of the cycles from CPU to GPU when decoding HD-DVD or BLU-RAY movies. Now with the 8600 and 8500 cards, the video processing load will be completely handled by the GPU, allowing the CPU to handle other computations and avoid framerate drops during video playback."
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Fight Night Round 3 (Playstation 3) review
"Most fighting games look and play very similarly. Two fighters move around a semi 3d arena, doing their best to hit the opponents. The moves are usually limited to high and low punches of various styles and it's near impossible to find a game where you can't block in some way or another. At first glance someone might think Fight Night Round 3 is the same "old thing". That someone couldn't be more wrong though!"
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Hitachi DZ-HS300A Hybrid HDD/DVD Camcorder Review
"Everyone loves hybrids - no matter if it's the Toyota Prius or Hitachi's newest camcorders. One can easily see the benefit of a hybrid car that gets high mileage by using gas and electric motors. The pluses of a DVD camcorder combined with a hard disc drive (HDD) are not quite as obvious or Earth-friendly. Still, the idea of recording for 110 minutes in XTRA mode on an 8GB HDD and then burning that footage onto blank, 3-inch DVDs in the same device is pretty enticing. That last step - taking video off the hard drive - is one of the biggest issues facing HDD-based camcorders. So, did Hitachi create the magic bullet or did it fire a dud? Let's check it out."
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Logitech Harmony 1000 Remote
"The Logitech Harmony 1000 universal remote will control all your home theater components with it's 3.5-inch touchscreen."
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XFX 7950GT Review
"When buying a gaming card, two names spring to mind: nVidia and ATi. One of the higher end cards from nVidia is the 7950GT. Not the most expensive card on the market today, but certainly more than capable of dealing with the most demanding games out there, we’ll get to this later. But it manages to slaughter the CS Source stress test at max settings with full AA and AF at 1280x1024. It scores an average FPS of a /measly/ 146.77. How will it fare in more rigorous tests?"
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