G92 8800 GTS 128 SP is almost here!

(source of picture: VR-Zone)

I can say that this is already out of the rumour mills and can be pretty accurate at the time of printing. The G92 version of 8800 GTS has already becoming the talk of town in various forums and tech news. Once again NVIDIA is going to bomb the graphics card community with another possibly 'GTX killer' (when 8800 GT just behind it) and to be a lil' far fetched, an Ultra killer. Okay, I made that up but hey, there are many of us who like to see that happens.

So, basically, this is what G92 8800 GTS is supposed to be:

• 512MB and 1024MB flavors.
  
• Based on g92 chipset with 65nm process.
  
• 256-bit memory interface.
  
• 128 shader units.
  
• 650MHz core clock.
  
• 1940MHz memory clock.
  
• 1625Mhz shader clock.
  
• Supported release date as December 3rd.

( credit goes to ZeroTM from AnandTech forum)

And that all for only USD$300 to USD$350. Surprise!

I'm not sure whether this will trigger another mass 'WTS: 8800 GTS, 8800 GT used' threads in various forums, just like what I saw when 8800 GT came out to the market. Gamers, undoubtedly are fragile to this syndrome. Me? I'm gonna stick with my newly acquired Zotac 8800 GT.

Finally, I got myself an 8800 GT!

It has been almost two years of gaming using AOpen 7800 GT, and I have endured many games together with this card. Now, it's time to move on to the next generation of graphics card. I think I've waited patiently for this, I've waited for the right time and price and when the opportunity comes, I grab it without any more doubt and hesitation.

It was almost midday today when I suddenly called my favourite PC shop in KL, asking if there's a new stock on any 8800 GT card. Luckily there was and to my surprise, there was only 2 more pieces left. With a price tag of RM899 (approx. $260), this is a bargain I cannot let go. Off to the shop then.

Behold, Zotac 8800 GT! Finally, I managed to grab one of the last 2 units. I was also surprised to know that the card is already pre-overclock from the factory, running at 660 MHz core (standard clock is 600 MHz).

I managed to get some snapshots of the card and the rest of the contents:







As you can see, Zotac 8800 GT holds nothing special in terms of box contents and card appearance: it follows NVIDIA reference card and cooler design. There is no bundle games and the accessories are very basic, but still serve the purposes. What really attracts me is that the price is very attractive for factory-overclocked graphics card.

I have yet to replace this card into my rig, but if you're interested to know its performance, the closest review are the ones at TechPowerUp and DriverHeaven as they both reviewed Zotac 8800 GT AMP! Edition, which is pre-overclocked at 700 Mhz core. Just lower the score a little bit and you got some ideas how Zotac 8800 GT regular version performs.

I hope that this is a good investment for me in PC gaming. There's a slight chance that my gaming era is about to slow down as I'm getting older day by day. However, I value every graphics card that I bought and having been a PC gamer since the last 10 years, each card I have means something to me.

The story continues....

HD 3870 & HD 3850 reviewed!

Holy graphics card, Batman! The wait is finally over that the official reviews of the latest offerings from AMD/ATi start to appear in the net now. HD 3870 and HD 3850 are targeted at the midrange level of graphics card and directly competing with 8800 GT from NVIDIA.

I personally hope that these two cards would bring the competition right on NVIDIA's face as we have witnessed almost no price reduction from NVIDIA since last year, I mean for the upper range video cards (as I was targeting GTS 320MB all the time. No more, baby!).

So, head over to these reviews and you can be sure they'll pit these new cards with 8800 GT. The results, well...I'm gonna reserve my judgment later, when the right time comes.

VR-Zone
HotHardware
TweakTown

edited: I have to take away Legion Hardware review on RV670 due to the suspicion of it being a fake review, as highlighted by a forum here. Therefore, its credibility is currently still being questioned.

Shockingly RV670!

I was strolling (not trolling) some tech websites and forums regarding graphics card and found out that there are already several leaks on AMD's latest RV670, or HD 3870. VR-Zone's preliminary tests and IAX Tech benchmarks seems to indicate that RV670 is in fact a very strong contender to NVIDIA's 8800 GT.

Also revealed is the card's appearance which is a dual-slot type and also sports single 6-pin power connector.

While it's true that 3DMark benchies are not the real performance indicator, it is still a good starter for AMD to gather attention toward its new graphics card this time around. Price is said to be cheaper than 8800 GT, if not equal. 15th November is said to be the day the official benchmark for RV670 is released.

Head over to VR-Zone and IAX Tech for further details regarding early RV670 bechmarks.

Enabling 'Very High' Setting in Crysis Demo..under XP!

I know some of you (maybe all of you gamers...) are fiddling around with Crysis demo at this time. What you're witnessing is how our system are being torn apart by the game..it's just ridiculous.

So, I've been wondering around graphics cards and games forums here and there, and I noticed a thread about a way to enable the 'Very High' setting in Crysis demo, for those running Windows XP (hence DX9 version of Crysis).

It is known the 'Very High' setting is only enable when you're running Vista, which allows you to get all DX10 goodies out of Crysis. However, when applying the trick (which by modifying some .cfg files in Crysis demo folder), it is very difficult to differentiate which shots are taken with 'tweaked' DX9 Crysis, and the one with DX10 Crysis. What really happened under the hood is still a mystery.

Or course, all this is achieved with a huge performance impact. However, those with high end graphics cards and CPUs reported having contented with 25-30 FPS average. LOL.

IMO, this is a must try to all XP runners running Crysis, and those who're still pimpin' their DX9.0c GPUs. If you're interested, head over to Crysis-Online forum.

NFS Pro Street Demo screenshots!

For the graphics settings above, my system can only achieve around 32 fps average! I'm not even maximizing all of them yet!

Currently, I have a mixed feeling on the overall menu interface: it somehow feels bare and to simple (trying to stay away from much 'bling from the past' perhaps?). Even the notification, warning sign, achievements announcement looks rather basic and unattractive.

However, the physics are better, the damaged are close to real, although there are some points need to be highlighted (the wheels still round even after rolling 10 times before crash).

More to come. Stay tuned.

NFS Pro Street Demo is OUT!

OMG! OMG! OMG!

I just missed it by a day..I didn't realize it was just released.

Head over to NFS-Planet for complete mirrors for downloading the demo!

I'm downloading it right now!