http://www.overclock.net/blogs/slowend/ An overclocking forum devoted to maximizing the performance of graphics cards, CPUs, motherboards, RAM and everything else found inside your computer case. en Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:06:38 GMT vBulletin 1 http://static.overclock.net/images/oc/misc/rss.jpg http://www.overclock.net/blogs/slowend/ http://www.overclock.net/blogs/slowend/1423-nvidia-ati.html Thu, 01 Oct 2009 04:47:00 GMT I like Nvidia.
I also like ATI.

Both have their pros and cons in my eyes.

Nvidia

Nvidia GPU's (The midrange and mid-highrange in particular) have impressed me with their price/performance. The 6600GT was good. The 6800GT was good. The 7600GT was good. The 9600GSO, 9600GT, and 8800GT were/are also excellent.

Sure, I don't approve of their renaming, but this doesn't affect me since I know my way around their naming.

I am however, a little upset that they're willing to trick less informed customers.

I don't approve of PhysX either. It's just some gimmicky eye candy that reduces performance. It's also proprietary, so that alienates ATI users. Some fanboys argue that Nvidia offered PhysX to ATI. Do they honestly think that offer was not without unfavourable terms for ATI?


ATI

ATI has impressed me with their technology. They were the first to adopt a 256-bit memory bus (In their excellent Radeon 9000 series), the first to adopt 512-bit (With the HD2900's). It's always exciting to see what kind of tech they're using because they're always using new stuff. (Eg. 55nm, 40nm, GDDR4, GDDR5) ATI's GPUs also have remarkably small die sizes.

I am not too familiar with their products because I have only used 1 at home (HD3200), but I have had no driver issues from them. I don't understand why some Nvidia fanboys say that ATI has "inferior drivers". I have experienced no such thing.

As for which series from ATI impressed me... the HD4000 and HD5000 series. The HD4000 series delivers remarkable price/performance. The HD5000 series (well, at this point the HD5850/5870) impresses me because it delivers 4870X2 ~ GTX295 performance whilst consuming a lot less power. (And that's with release drivers.) The AA/AF quality has improved as well and the price is right. (A 5870 is $90 less than a GTX295 at the time of this writing) I can't see how anyone can justify buying a GTX295 right now for reasons other than folding.

I wish ATI's AIB partners were as good as Nvidia's. Nvidia arguably has better AIB partners right now.



P.S.
I don't give a rat's *** about flagship card performance. ]]> sLowEnd http://www.overclock.net/blogs/slowend/1423-nvidia-ati.html http://www.overclock.net/blogs/slowend/1419-ati-always-behind-nvidia-hardly.html Sat, 26 Sep 2009 23:48:04 GMT Radeon 9000 series vs Geforce FX 5000 series
ATI wins, especially when AA/AF is on despite being released earlier than Nvidia's cards.

X850XTPE vs 6800 Ultra
X850XTPE wins by a large margin.
The lower end cards from both sides were comparable.

X1000 series vs Geforce 7000 series
The X1800XT was superior to the 7800GTX. Only with the introduction of the 7900GTX and ATI's X1950XT did the performance become closer. ATI's cards of this generation have AA/AF quality than their Nvidia counterparts. The 7600GT and X1650XT were more or less equal. The 7600GT was more popular due to the X1650XT's predecessor, the X1600XT being a flop. GPU folding initally only supported ATI's X19XX series cards.

HD2000 series vs Geforce 8000 series
ATI's most notable loss to Nvidia. Seems to be the only thing that most Nvidia fanboys remember.
ATI's cards of this generation were no match for the 8800GTX/Ultra/GT.
The 2900XT's performance was similar to the 8800GTS 640MB, but it also consumed more power, produced more heat, and was louder.
The 2600XT was inferior to the 8600GT despite the 8600GT being a disappointment, not offering a big increase over the 7600GT.

HD3000 series vs Geforce 8000/9000 series
Refresh of the failed HD2000 series to reduce production costs (65/80nm -> 55nm) and to make the products more consumer friendly. (Lower noise, lower prices, lower power consumption...etc)
Performance wise, still lost against Nvidia offerings. The 3870X2 briefly retook the performance crown before the 9800GX2 was pushed out.

HD4000 series vs GTX200 series
Dramatically reduced the prices of the GTX200 series and introduced some serious competition. ATI briefly held the performance crown before the GTX295 was introduced. Though not the performance leader, ATI gained market share with this series due to excellent pricing. ]]> sLowEnd http://www.overclock.net/blogs/slowend/1419-ati-always-behind-nvidia-hardly.html http://www.overclock.net/blogs/slowend/1411-psus.html Wed, 23 Sep 2009 19:05:56 GMT .>]]> Corsair this.

Corsair that.

A lot of people seem to be very closed minded about other brands >.> ]]> sLowEnd http://www.overclock.net/blogs/slowend/1411-psus.html http://www.overclock.net/blogs/slowend/1399-tdp.html Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:42:15 GMT TDP stands for "Thermal Design Power" and it is intended to be a guideline for how effective a heatsink should be to adequately cool the object.

It gives a very rough idea of what the heat dissipation is, but it certainly isn't accurate.
For example, a Q8200 and a Phenom 9750 are both 95W TDP.

Do they consume the same amount of power or produce the same amount of heat?
No. The Phenom clearly consumes more power and produce more heat.


I also don't get why people complain about the TDP of the Phenom II X4 965BE being higher than the TDP of the Phenom II X4 955BE.

TDP rises when you overclock, so buying a 955BE and then overclocking it to 965BE levels doesn't necesasrily net you a cooler chip.


Seriously, sometimes I think that people overreact to TDP ratings. ]]> sLowEnd http://www.overclock.net/blogs/slowend/1399-tdp.html http://www.overclock.net/blogs/slowend/1393-gt300-gonna-kick-hd5800s-butt-lol.html Wed, 16 Sep 2009 02:05:06 GMT For Nvidia's sake, it damn well better, considering how much later it's coming out.

Still, there is ZERO concrete info about GT300 right now, so why are people under the impression that it will beat HD5800 by a really large margin?

Besides, if the GT300 really does turn out to be 512-bit GDDR5 with a huge die, like many people believe it to be, then I doubt many people will be able afford it.

I mean, people are already complaining about HD5800 prices (Which really aren't that bad if you compare them to previous high end releases). How frickin cheap do you people think the GT300 will be? Are you going to whine about that too? ]]> sLowEnd http://www.overclock.net/blogs/slowend/1393-gt300-gonna-kick-hd5800s-butt-lol.html http://www.overclock.net/blogs/slowend/1392-45w-quads.html Wed, 16 Sep 2009 02:00:13 GMT Whenever there is a thread about Athlon II X4's, I keep seeing people whine about how they want a 45W TDP quad from AMD.

...Come on now. Be reasonable.

Athlon II's are still based off K10.5 no matter how you look at it.

Last I checked, K10.5 isn't as energy efficient as Core 2, yet there are still no 45W TDP C2Q's even now. ]]> sLowEnd http://www.overclock.net/blogs/slowend/1392-45w-quads.html http://www.overclock.net/blogs/slowend/1066-sidepanel.html Fri, 10 Apr 2009 02:26:40 GMT I've never run my computer under full load without the sidepanel until just now.

Wowzers. My case's airflow is terrible because under full load with the sidepanel on, it gets rather loud since the CPU fan speeds up and the temps shoot from 30c idle to 44c load

With the sidepanel off, 28c idle 34c load

:doh:

P.S. I hate IDE cables ]]> sLowEnd http://www.overclock.net/blogs/slowend/1066-sidepanel.html http://www.overclock.net/blogs/slowend/723-i-have-learned-several-things-today.html Sat, 15 Nov 2008 02:45:31 GMT I was helping my friend with his computer today

I panicked like crazy when my friend's Phenom's pins bent
We spent 2 hours bending them back carefully and luckily nothing broke

Anyway...I learned a few things today.

1)Don't mess with expensive parts...stick to cheap disposable parts for maximum pleasure

2)OCZ Freeze is freakin dry. I'll stick to AS5 for ease of spread.

3)Small cases suck

4)Rosewill's coolers have pretty good build quality ]]> sLowEnd http://www.overclock.net/blogs/slowend/723-i-have-learned-several-things-today.html http://www.overclock.net/blogs/slowend/692-solitaire.html Mon, 13 Oct 2008 20:17:45 GMT Y'know how people joke about solitaire being the only game a slow computer can play without lagging right?

I was at my cousin's yesterday. Me being bored, I checked out what games he had. Chess Titans...Freecell...Minesweeper...Solitaire!

I picked solitaire.

It lagged. Well, actually, everything lagged. He was running Vista Ultimate on a computer with

Athlon 3800+
1GB DDR-667
Geforce 6150 SE (Which is leeching like 300 some odd MB out of the main RAM)

...lol

I'm also amazed at how dusty his computer was

(Oh and Chess Titans was running at like 10fps or something)

:lachen: ]]> sLowEnd http://www.overclock.net/blogs/slowend/692-solitaire.html