vpu posts

Brought on by yet another product refresh by the Big Green Eyeball Gang, BI wants to take a moment to crawl under the hood to discuss what this sort of evolution means in practical terms. Specifically, the architectural changes that occur at the manufacturing level for the chips themselves -- using smaller and smaller integrated circuit etchings, and making minor tweaks to the layout of the circuitry itself. The former is typically called the "manufacturing process," which refers to the photolithography that etches the actual circuitry onto the silicon wafers -- the creation of the chip itself. The latter, where minor tweaks are made to the circuit layout from batch to batch, is referred to as the "chip stepping," and is most commonly discussed when referring to CPUs within a single generation.

The easiest way to think about the signals traveling on the circuits inside of any chip is as though they're commuters. They have to do the speed limit (okay, so they're obviously not from New Jersey; unlike what the NHTSA dictates, 186,000 miles per second; it's not just a good idea, it's The Law); anything that improves how they get from point A to point B results in improved performance. Shortening the commute or offering a more efficient route to travel both serve this greater purpose.

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.

We here at Big Download naturally assume you like free stuff. That's why we've got that enticing heap of files up there, batting its eyelashes seductively at you (or maybe I need to switch to decaf that isn't laced with wormwood). But, chances are, free (as in beer) stuff is lurking on or under your desk right this moment. No, not the cans with the five cent deposit. No, not that copy of Daikatana you forgot to take to the pawn shop, either.

Unless you're already at the bleeding edge, got exceedingly unlucky, or are highly risk-averse, there's extra performance to be had out of the components you've already got by running them faster than their rated, factory-set speed. This practice is known as overclocking, and has grown from a lunatic fringe cottage industry into big business, frequently with the tacit approval of component manufacturers, and occasionally engaged in by some brands themselves.

In a nutshell, overclocking allows you to get the performance of a more-expensive part -- CPU, video card, or RAM module -- out of a less-expensive one by the strategic application of brains, willpower, voltage, cooling, and luck.