video-cards posts

Big Iron: Hello, 2009

by Rafe Brox Jan 8th 2009 @ 1:00PM

So, it's two thousand and nine. Sure, our digital minions are faster and more capable than ever before, but do you ever feel like you're missing out on the whole Gernsback experience? Where the hell is my flying car? This was supposed to be the future, but it's just.... now. We're still using magnetic media, transistors, and keyboards -- no fancy bubble chips, rod logic, or tactical neural implants (to quote Montgomery Scott, "The keyboard; how quaint").

So, what does 2009 have in store for us?

For one thing, Small Iron, and lots of it. Manufacturers and hardware vendors throughout the industry spectrum are anticipating a boom in the so-called "netbook" segment. Everyone from AMD and Intel to Acer and Asustek are gearing up in expectation of soaring demand for the ultra-portable/mini-notebook niches that were more or less defined by the introduction of Apple's Macbook Air and the subsequent introduction of the Atom and Eee PC. These certainly aren't desktop-replacement level equipment, but for folks who are frequently on the go and need something more robust than an iPhone or Blackberry, there's every expectation in the industry that these are the New BigSmall Thing.

Continue reading Big Iron: Hello, 2009

Filed under: Features, Hardware, Opinion

Big Iron: On Display - Are SLI/Crossfire worth it?

by Rafe Brox Dec 11th 2008 @ 1:00PM

With the impending deployment of a new calendar (why, hello Miss January), a young gamer's fancy turns lightly to thoughts of higher resolutions, better anti-aliasing levels, and new DX10.1 effects. But something is knocking the luster off the lust faster than dropping Aunt Edna's fruitcake in your lap. Jacking up a single setting is dropping your framerate to a crawl, even with the latest drivers hot off ATI or Nvidia's server.

You've got multiple CPU cores and a fistful of dollarsRAM, and things still aren't remaining as smooth and speedy as you'd like? In short, is stuffing another video card in your box the way to achieve Nirvana? Chances are, if you're already sporting a rig with the aforementioned goodies, a multi-GPU setup is about the only way to get a performance bump. The question becomes, is throwing another couple hundred dollars at the problem worth it?

Continue reading Big Iron: On Display - Are SLI/Crossfire worth it?

Filed under: Hardware, Opinion

Big Ideas: Why technology shouldn't drive the games industry

by Akela Talamasca Oct 8th 2008 @ 2:00PM

Each year seems to bring new advances in gaming technology. On the hardware side: video cards that push more pixels and render more geometry, faster. Processors that get smaller and more powerful. Keyboards and mice that offer more ways to interface with the games we play. On the software side: bump mapping, per-pixel shaders, dynamic lighting. The ability to have more enemies on-screen at a time. Clothing deformation systems. Motion capture animation.

Some of these tools are available to all developers. Some are only available to those studios with strong financial backing. In many ways, it's almost better not to have access to these cutting edge technologies because it forces development studios to innovate. Certainly, the two are not mutually exclusive, but perhaps there are hidden costs to choosing the path of incorporating the latest and greatest tech tools to drive the games industry forward.

Continue reading Big Ideas: Why technology shouldn't drive the games industry

Filed under: Culture, Features, Hardware, Opinion, Meta BD

Big Iron: ATI's 4800 series

by Rafe Brox Jul 1st 2008 @ 11:00AM

Hello world, ATI Radeon 4850 and 4870, and not a moment too soon. Not that nVidia's new 260 and 280 aren't wonderful pieces of technology, because they most assuredly are. However, if they had merely arrived at the top of the heap and remained unchallenged, what reason would there have been for the next big thing to come out of the Green Spiral Eyeball?

After all, it seems like just a week or two ago we were complaining about how a lack of innovation and market pressure might cause stagnation in some sector or other the hardware universe, huh? This sort of prompt industry response can make a guy think he's got some sort of cosmic influence or something; BI will endeavor not to let it go to his head.

When the NDA lifted this week, we were treated to an avalanche of release coverage. We have not been able to conduct our own hands-on review of this newest bit of shiny silicon (okay, there's the ego check we so desperately needed), but a lot of other sites dedicated to hardware news and reviews -- a list of them appears after the break -- have had it in their labs. To that end, we'll give you folks a quick performance summary and touch on some of the tech highlights the Radeon 4800 features.

Continue reading Big Iron: ATI's 4800 series

Filed under: Hardware

Age of Conan benchmarks bode ill for single-core processors

by Samuel Axon Jun 24th 2008 @ 9:00PM

Age of Conan is a beast of a game, and it requires a beast of a system. In the open beta test, players faced serious performance problems. There was much gnashing of teeth. Now that the game has hit retail, have things improved? More importantly, can your system run the game?

Gamespot set out to answer those questions in a recent feature. Its staff tested the game with nearly 20 video cards, several processors, and two different RAM configurations. The result: a five page lowdown with all you need to know if you're you're thinking about buying the game, but are afraid to take the plunge because your system isn't quite ideal.

It turns out that the game is playable on most 7, 8 or 9 series Nvidia GPUs or their ATI equivalents, but at least two gigabytes of RAM and a dual core processor are pretty much non-optional. Check out the article for more details.

Filed under: Hardware, MMO, RPG, Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures

Big Iron: On Display - Video card basics

by Rafe Brox Jun 13th 2008 @ 11:00AM

As gamers, unless you're a Minesweeper junkie with an epic Peggle jones and no further aspirations, you're going to have to have a dedicated video card in your rig to get any kind of decent graphic performance.

Wait, what?

The short answer for why that's the case is: "Math is hard; let's go shopping." However, it's not us saying that, it's the CPU.

I know what you're thinking. "BI, the central processing unit... all it does is math!" Or perhaps, "You cheap bastard, you still owe me five bucks for your share of the beer last week." You're right, of course (about the CPU, anyway...). In terms of raw computational horsepower, a modern processor is a potent customer. However, of necessity, it's also a generalist.

In order to obtain truly prodigious performance, we need to bring in a specialist. That specialist is your video card. Think of it like this -- an Olympic decathlon competitor is in phenomenally good shape, and a world-class performer in ten different events, but in any single one of those, their lunch will be summarily eaten by someone who makes that their sole pursuit.

Continue reading Big Iron: On Display - Video card basics

Filed under: Hardware