Lowest in Geforce 8 Series?

As always, Nvidia released 8800GTS and 8800GTX initially; big cards first and small cards afterwards. Well, this is same with any hardware company. If we look into the age of Geforce FX cards, there was FX 5800 released first, then came all its sibling like lower profile cards (5700, 5600, 5400, etc. and their LE, GT and Ultra versions). Lowest among them was 5200? Maybe not, there was something like 5100Go chip; mobile graphics solution but not sure. But Nvidia website shows minimum level chip among FX series is 5200! Afterwards from Geforce 6 Series, most of us know that 6150/6100 is the lowest which come only integrated with mainboards and 6200 and above on cards. Same goes with 7100 but nothing in the family seems to be in the form of integrated ones. So finally, what's the lowest in 8 series? in other words which Direct X10 capable card from Nvidia you can get for the cheapest buck? atleast those games releasing around this time will work a bit fairly. Then my answer is Geforce 8400GS which is in Nvidia's official website (for now) though I've seen in some blogs even 8100 exist!

 

The entire series is compared below with 8400GS.

	Geforce 8800 Ultra	Geforce 8800 GTX	Geforce 8800 GTS	Geforce 8600 GTS	Geforce 8600 GT	Geforce 8500 GT	Geforce 8400 GS
Core Spd. (MHz)	612	575	500	675	540	450	450
Shader Spd. (Mhz)	1500	1350	1200	1450	1190	900	900
Memory Spd.	1080	900	800	1000	700	400	400
Default Memory amt. (Mb)	786	786	640/320	256	256	256	256
Memory Interface	384 bit	384 bit	320 bit	128 bit	128 bit	128 bit	64 bit
Memory Bandwidth (Gb/sec)	103.7	86.4	65	32	22.4	12.8	6.4
Texture Fill Rate (billion/S)	39.2	36.8	24	108	8.64	3.6	3.6

Source: Nvidia website

 

Current prices in US dollar (Approximate) for Geforce 8 Series -

	8800 Ultra	8800 GTX	8800 GTS 640mb	8800 GTS 320mb	8600 GTS	8600 GT	8500 GT	8400 GS
Price Aprox.	$689 to $934	$569 to $664	$399 to $482	$289 to $347	$189 to $223	$140 to $183	$79 to $111	$69

Prices may vary without notice. Shown only average of prices from online shops.

IMAGE SOURCE: Nvidia Website

Intel's new P35 and G33 chipsets

Chipset upgrading always bring in performance increase. As Intel strived forward with their P965/975 with ICH8 chipset series, in every turn falls back when its compared to its Nvidia counterpart but sometimes they bring in innovative stuff like their new P35 and G33 with ICH9 chipsets (officially released this May. (Codenamed Bearlake before release) supporting DDR3 exclusively! while news sources say AMD is making DDR3 support plans as well. It doesn't say users have to migrate to DDR3 as it natively supports DDR2 as well.

 

How Intel P35 works (Source: Intel) [Click to enlarge]

 

What's more is 12 USB ports (only 10 ports for P965) increased FSB to 1333mhz(1066Mhz for P965) and new 'Intel Fast Memory Access' capability will result in higher bandwidth between North and South Bridge. While P35 will be enthusiast class, the G33 will not burn holes in your pocket; a non-enthusiast chip with onboard video (Intel GMA3100) favored for mainstream users.

 

Intel P35/ICH9 chips [Click to enlarge]

 

Anyway, everything above does not translate an upgrade to P35 as DDR2 will stay in markets for quite a while as DDR3 is not readily available now and surely it'll be priced heftily upon its launch. Intel already announced their upcoming X38 and G35 chipsets for Q3. G35 will be the first one to feature Intel's direct X10 based integrated video, x3500 and you will see PCI Express 2.0 in X38/G35. So stay tuned with us to know more about them in a few months.

 

IMAGE SOURCE: Intel Website

READ MORE: What's new with DDR3?

AMD's Energy Efficient X2 Processors

We all know these days AMD lost the crown to Intel on hi-end processors and now they are targeted in making mainstream and entry-level desktop processors more affordable. Recently, they released dual core Athlon X2 BE-2350 and BE-2300 running on 2.1Ghz and 1.9Ghz respectively The chip would cost only around 70$.. amazing? just for 'real' value conscious buyers. Both are Socket AM2 compatible The interesting point is that they consume only 45W (made by 65nm fabrication process) means the most energy efficient processor available in market! Similar contender Intel's Pentium Dual Core E2160 in energy saving, comes only near.

 

 

 

These BE chips having two cores, each are linked to a 512kb totaling 1mb L2 cache. Also there is 'crossbar switch' which exchange data between two cache units (Like Intel's unified L2 cache). As usual, an integrated memory controller and AMD's own 'Cool n Quiet' technology. Surely it can decode H.264 movies with ease and is suitable for home theater/office/productivity applications and absolutely a mid-range processor but not for hi-end gaming and heavy graphical use. The processor would easily pair with AMD's 690 chipset boards which are quite more energy efficient than Intel counterpart. If you are on the look out for a real money saver; a below 100$ processor + low power bills with decent performance then we would recommend this one straight out.

 

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TECH REPORT

Tom's Hardware

 

Image Source: TECH REPORT

AMD/ATi goes DX10

With Microsoft's new graphics API DirectX10 release Nvidia came up with their Geforce 8XXX series GPUs with DX10 compatibility. As usual ATi brought it late, the new Radeon 2900 XT (code named R600) which is primarily targeted to gamers and also be the top of the line chip. But this time the chips are manufactured under AMD, so things are yet to be seen in real-life gaming as the company now makes processors, mainboard chips as well as now graphic processors altogether. This new iteration radeon is also Crossfire (Similar to Nvidia's SLi) capable, means you can run two or more cards in a single PC resulting in double the performance. Well, the 'bell-ringer' is these chips are fully HD capable for immersive gaming and movie experience and supports full 1080p video for HD compatible large LCD displays/projectors. One thing really interesting is that it has a pass through audio feature previously it was rumored as it, will have integrated audio controllers like in motherboards.

On the tech side, the machine looks impressive with over 320 stream processing units 512-bit memory interface which is double as of their previous chip 1950XTX. Also is 'AVIVO HD video' technology which can enable dual monitors for a really wide screen movie experience. Full shader model 4.0 support plus the new 'Super Scalar Shader Architecture' is ready to blaze the next gen games. The radeon HD 2XXX range will start with HD 2400 (starting from 99$) on low end sector, HD 2600 in mid-end (99$-199$), the enthusiast is HD 2900 XT which comes for a hefty 399$. For people on move, there will be Mobility Radeons starting from 2300 HD for entry level and 2400/2600 for higher class notebooks.

 

Read More: ATI's HD2900 Overview