AtiRadeonHd5870
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Mac OS X 10.6.8 benchmark reveals graphic speed improvement
Sure, the (hopefully) last version of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard was released yesterday. Yes, it addressed a laundry list of improvements to both networking and Mac OS X Lion readiness. But did you know that installing Mac OS X 10.6.8 might also improve graphic performance on your Mac? Bill Fox over at MacsOnly.com ran benchmarks on both a Mac Pro and a MacBook Pro. What he found was that the "newer graphics drivers in 10.6.8 not only eliminated any decline in speed from 10.6.5 through 10.6.7 but showed significantly improved OpenGL performance in Xbench and the game Halo for the ATI Radeon HD 5870 card" in the Mac Pro. His benchmarks also showed improved performance, although not as dramatic, with the Nvidia GeForce 320M graphics processor in the MacBook Pro. We'd love to hear from any iMac, MacBook, MacBook Air or Mac mini owners who are able to run the same benchmarks on their favorite computers before and after 10.6.8. Leave your results in the comments for other TUAW readers to see.
ASUS ARES cries havoc, lets slip the GPUs of war: a review roundup of the world's fastest graphics card
When you name your graphics card after the God of War, you'd better hope it brings some heat, but judging by early reviews, that's just what ASUS has done. The three slot monstrosity above is the ARES, a $1200 limited edition, fully custom board, sporting twin Radeon HD 5870 GPUs, four gigabytes of GDDR5 memory and practically enough raw copper to smelt a sword. We're not joking: the thing weighs nearly five pounds and requires a 750 watt power supply with three power connectors (two 8-pin, one 6-pin) to even run. Of course, you're getting a graphical behemoth for that kind of price, steamrolling every other GPU on the planet -- paired with even a 3.8GHz Core i7-930 CPU in 3DMark Vantage (on Extreme settings), Overclock 3D racked up a fairly ludicrous 15,000 score, and the card ripped past 25,000 with a Core i7-980X and a second ARES in CrossFire. The card was less impressive in actual gameplay, merely spanking the (much cheaper) Radeon 5970 and GeForce GTX 480 by a modest amount, and several reviewers complained it was fairly loud... but as the old adage goes, nobody needs a Ferrari to drive the speed limit, but we'll all drool over them anyhow. Bring on the liquid nitrogen, folks. Read - Legit Reviews Read - Overclock3D Read - Guru3D Read - PC Perspective Read - TechPowerUp Read - Hot Hardware
TweakTown slathers four Radeon HD 5870s in liquid nitrogen, crushes some benchmarks (video)
The PC hardware community recently discovered that quad-SLI was a huge waste of cash, so when we heard that TweakTown were stringing together four Radeon HD 5870s in a similar CrossFireX configuration, we figured they were about to throw away their time, too. Boy, were we wrong, because the hardware site never intended to seriously benchmark the rig as a viable gaming PC -- their intent was to make our jaws drop, and right now they're somewhere around our ankles. The contraption brought 3DMark03 to its knees with a soul-shattering score of 200,000 and achieved average framerates approaching a ludicrous four digits in Devil May Cry 4. How? Liquid nitrogen, of course. By attaching LN2-filled copper pots to each of the four already-powerful graphics cards and physically tacking on extra capacitors to direct the voltage, they bumped the Core i7-980X CPU clock to 5.8GHz and each GPU to 1250MHz, in what we think you'll agree is a healthy jump from 3.06 3.33GHz and 850MHz, respectively. Watch them build the mean machine after the break, and remember kids, don't try this at home. Update: The Core i7-980X runs at 3.33GHz, or 3.6GHz in Turbo Mode, not 3.06GHz. Our bad!
Dell sticks AMD's latest crop inside new Dell Studio XPS 7100 line
Dell's wasting no time appropriating AMD's new Phenom II X6 chips, pushing out a brand new Studio XPS line to deal with the new top of the line (and a few quad cores as well) from "that other processor company." While AMD can crow about having more cores at a mid-range price, Dell isn't trying to pass these off as pure competition for Intel's brood: the Studio XPS 7100 line is AMD-only, while the Core i-based Studio XPS 8100 desktops are a clear step up model number-wise. The 7100 baseline system, with integrated graphics, goes for $699, but Dell's doing this with an enthusiast slant, packing in a 460 watt power supply to power up some fancy graphics and giving hardcore users room to grow. We got to check out a $1,199 system running the AMD Phenom II X6 1050T, which is supposed to be somewhat comparable to an Intel Core i5 760, and paired up with ATI Radeon HD 5870 graphics and 6GB of RAM the machine makes for a pretty tight gaming rig. Unfortunately, AMD's top-of-line 5970 graphics are being held for the Studio XPS 8100, and AMD's best new X6 chip, the 1090T (roughly a Core i7 870), won't be available from Dell until this summer. Still, if you're looking for a nice balance between price and performance, AMD and Dell might have something to offer with this new understated desktop setup. %Gallery-92820%
ATI Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity 6 Edition review roundup: novel, but not for everyone
We've been fortunate enough to spend a bit of time with an Eyefinity setup before, but up until now, it's been somewhat of a hassle to get a fully functional six-screen setup into a consumer's home. Today, AMD is taking the legwork out of the equation with the introduction of the Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity 6 Edition, a standalone GPU with 2GB of GDDR5 memory and innate support for pushing a half-dozen panels at once. Outside of that, it's essentially the same card that we saw last September, and based on the cadre of reviews that we rounded up, the doubled memory bank doesn't do much to boost frame rates. What it does do, however, is enable six-screen gaming. Unfortunately (though understandably), this type of gaming scenario is only meant for a select segment of users, and many critics found the novelty wearing off exceptionally quick. In fact, it wasn't long before NeoSeeker became fed up with the bezels ruining the experience, and just about everyone agreed that you needed to sit a good half-mile away to really enjoy it. Either way, we'd encourage you to hit up Hot Hardware's collection of videos before biting the bullet, buying up an extra five LCDs and then regretting it for the rest of your Earthly life. Read - Hot Hardware Read - AnandTech Read - NeoSeeker Read - Rage3D Read - PC Perspective Read - TweakTown Read - FiringSquad Read - Tom's Hardware Read - ExtremeTech Read - Hexus
