Hasta La Gadget!

We knew it was coming, and come it did. Over in Taiwan today, ASUS was demonstrating its motherboard-incinerating Mars graphics card, which it proudly deemed “the world’s fastest.” In fact, the card packs 21 percent more power than a reference GeForce GTX 295 card, and the eight-heatpipe cooling solution keeps things at least a notch below molten. We found that the card will actually be sold in some capacity, though only 1,000 of them — all of which will be individually numbered — will be made available. Two more looks after the break.

Continue reading ASUS Mars GPU hands-on at Computex

Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

ASUS Mars GPU hands-on at Computex originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Jun 2009 09:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

You into frame rates? No, we mean are you frickin’ bonkers over watching your rig hit triple digits in a Crysis timedemo? If you’re still nodding “yes,” have a gander at what’ll absolutely have to be your next buy. The ASUS Mars 295 Limited Edition is quite the unique beast, rocking a pair of GTX 285 chips that are viewed by Windows as a GeForce GTX 295. All told, you’re looking at 240 shader processors, a 512-bit GDDR3 memory interface, 32 total memory chips and 4GB of RAM. Amazingly, the card is totally compatible with existing drivers and is Quad-SLI capable, and if all goes to plan, it’ll actually peek its head out at Computex next week. Rest assured, we’ll do everything we can to touch it.

Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

ASUS Mars GPU weds twin GeForce GTX 285s, might just melt your face originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 May 2009 11:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

We like how you’re thinking, AMD, and we don’t say that everyday — or ever, really. During a time when even hardcore gamers are having to rethink whether or not that next-gen GPU is a necessity, AMD has pushed out a remarkably potent new graphics card for under a Benjamin, and the whole world has joined in to review it. The ATI Radeon HD 4770, which was outed just over a week ago, has been officially introduced for the low, low price of just $99 (including rebates, which should surface soon). Aside from being the company’s first mainstream desktop GPU manufactured using a 40nm process, this little gem was a real powerhouse when put to the test. In fact, critics at HotHardware exclaimed that this card “offers performance in the same range as cards that were launched at the $299 to $349 price point only a year ago.” The bottom line? It’s “one of the best buys” out in its price range, and even with all that belt tightening you’ve been doing, surely you can spare a C-note, yeah?

Read – HotHardware (“Recommended; one of the best buys at its price point”)
Read – XBit Labs (“the best budget graphics accelerator [out there]”)
Read – LegitReviews (“great performance, low power consumption and low noise”)
Read – PCStats (“strikes a balance between performance and price”)
Read – TechSpot (“an outstanding choice in the $100 graphics market”)
Read – NeoSeeker (“a good value”)
Read – PCPerspective (“impressive”)

Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

ATI Radeon HD 4770 GPU review roundup originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Unless you’ve started your weekend early, you have probably realized that both NVIDIA and AMD announced new GPUs this morning. Coincidental timing aside, it sure makes things easy for the consumer to eye the respective benchmarks and plan out their next mid-range GPU purchase accordingly. A whole bevy of reviews, tests, graphs and bar charts have hit the web this morning extolling and panning the pros and cons, but without getting too deep in the nitty-gritty, we can sum things up pretty easily with this. NVIDIA’s GTX 275 showed performance that placed it perfectly between the GTX 285 and GTX 260, and in all but a few off-the-wall tests, it outpaced the ATI Radeon HD 4890 (albeit slightly). Granted, the HD 4890 was called the “fastest, single-GPU powered graphics card AMD has ever produced” by HotHardware, though apparently even that wasn’t enough to help it snag the gold across the board. If you’re hungry for more (and you are, trust us), take the rest of the day off and dig in below.

Read – HotHardware GeForce GTX 275 review
Read – HotHardware Radeon HD 4890 review
Read – ExtremeTech GeForce GTX 275 and Radeon HD 4890 review
Read – DailyTech GeForce GTX 275 and Radeon HD 4890 review
Read – X-bit Labs ATI Radeon HD 4890 review
Read – ComputerShopper ATI Radeon HD 4890 review
Read – Guru 3D GeForce GTX 275 review
Read – Guru 3D ATI Radeon HD 4890 review
Read – PCPerspective ATI Radeon HD 4890 review

Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

NVIDIA GTX 275 / ATI Radeon HD 4890 review roundup originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Apr 2009 11:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

It’s a big day here in Germany for NVIDIA, as it has chosen CeBIT to announce four new mobile GPUs. Without question, the biggest newcomer is the GeForce GTX 280M, which NVIDIA claims is “the fastest laptop GPU on the market, with up to 50 percent more performance than previous generation enthusiast laptop GPUs.” The company is also pushing out the somewhat less exciting GeForce GTX 260M, GTS 160M and GTS 150M, all of which feature the company’s own CUDA compiling architecture and support PhysX gaming effects. ASUS, Clevo and MSI are all showcasing lappies based on the new GeForce GTX 200M and GeForce GTS 100M Series GPUs here in Hannover, though there’s no word on when any of those mysterious machines will ship to drooling consumers.

[Via HotHardware]

Filed under: Laptops, Peripherals

NVIDIA intros GeForce GTX 280M / 260M and GTS 160M / 150M laptop GPUs originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 Mar 2009 09:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments