The Best Graphics Cards of 2013

Posted by Andreas Christodoulou

Description :

What's the golden rule of building a gaming rig? You don't skimp on the GPU. Processors, RAM, hard drives and accessories can all be sacrificed without sabotaging the experience, but the graphics card is the heart of any gaming PC. 

It doesn't matter if it's a $500 budget machine or a $3,000 powerhouse.

Finding a balance between quality and price is tough. AMD and Nvidia are the two big manufacturers regarding chipsets (Radeon and GeForce), but several third-party companies assemble the actual video cards and add the memory.

Gigabyte GV-N670OC-2GD

Chipset: GeForce GTX 670

Memory: 2GB

Price: $285 on Newegg

This is the perfect card for the budget builder. The 670 is a middle-road chip from Nvidia capable of handling high settings from fan favorites like Skyrim and some GTA IV resolution mods. It's new anti-aliasing mode helps eliminate most of the jagged edges during gameplay without sacrificing frame rate, and you can game on three monitors from a single card (4-way SLI is optional if you want to go crazy).

On top of that, Gigabyte houses 2GB of video RAM on the card, which is standard, and keeps it all cool with three massive fans — all for less than $300.

EVGA 03G-P4-2784-KR

Chipset: GeForce GTX 780

Memory: 3GB

Price: $520 on Amazon

So the GTX 670 doesn't quite wet your whistle. We get it. You want to run that new Battlefield 4 download on ultra-high settings while gaming on several monitors. But at the same time, you're not made of money. The 780 is one of Nvidia's top chipsets and, while the price seems high at $520, it's actually modest in comparison to others (don't worry, we'll get to those).

The extra gigabyte of memory makes a difference too, as games like BF4 list 3GB as the recommended dosage for video memory. Any gaming PC equipped with an i7 and 16GB of RAM should have a card like this.

Sapphire Vapor-X

Chipset: Radeon HD 7970

Memory: 3GB

Price: $385 on Newegg

Nvidia and AMD are a bit like Ford and Chevrolet. Each have loyalists who swear by the product's superiority, but in the end it's really two versions of the same beast. The Radeon HD 7970 is the chipset from AMD that's comparable to a GTX 770 from Nvidia. Both chips can manage high to ultra-high settings on modern games and handle all the shadowing, smoothing and anti-aliasing a game can challenge.

The 3GB of memory is on par with any mid- to high-end card, and the Radeon is capable of 4K resolution if you can actually afford one of the displays.

EVGA 06-P4-2791-KR

Chipset: GeForce GTX Titan

Memory: 6GB

Price: $1,010 on SuperBiiz

Alright, no more child's play. You want the biggest, baddest video card on the market and you don't care what it costs. Nvidia has you covered. The GTX Titan is, by leaps and bounds, the sexiest chipset in gaming graphics. It packs every feature under the sun and is backed with 6GB of memory that could likely handle two games at once. This card doesn't run ultra-high settings on just today's games, but will run top-notch without skipping a frame for any 2014 game as well. It's a clean grand to buy, but this card is a Ferrari among Mustangs.

SEE ALSO: Game-Changing Reasons Why Parents Can Say Yes to Video Games

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*by andreascy*

CNETTV : Beautiful and Powerful Dell XPS 14 - First Look

Posted by Andreas Christodoulou

Description :

The latest high-end XPS laptop from Dell is a slick aluminum ultrabook with discrete graphics. It offers a minimal design that’ll be instantly familiar to Apple fans. The latest Intel processors and a beefy portion of RAM will hopefully make it your powerful, portable friend.

The flagship of Dell's revamped laptop line, the XPS 14 is a worthy competitor to something like the MacBook Pro, and the two systems share a similar aesthetic. But Dell's new Inspiron ultrabook is nearly as good, and a lot less expensive.

The Dell XPS 14 follows the XPS 13 ultrabook. Equipped with a 14-inch screen, dual-core Intel Core i7 running at 2.4 GHz, 8 gigabytes of RAM, 500 gigabyte HDD (with a 32 gig SSD for quick caching), and discrete NVIDIA GeForce GT 630M graphics, it certainly has horsepower to spare.

*by andreascy*

Dell : First Ultrabook XPS 13 on CES 2012

Posted by Andreas Christodoulou

Description :

The laptop looks much like Apple's MacBook Air, has a 13-inch screen and weighs 2.99 pounds (1.35 kilograms). The laptop is 0.2 inches (6 mm) thick. It can run up to eight hours on a battery charge. The XPS 13 comes as Dell moves away from consumer products to focus on the more profitable segments of business computers and mobile devices. 

The company has already killed it's Mini netbooks and some Streak tablets, which have not done well with consumers. Dell's consumer PCs now revolve around laptops and desktops branded Inspiron and XPS, some of which are also targeted at businesses. 

The XPS 13 is "squarely aimed" at the professional community, but will be offered for sale through consumer channels, a Dell spokesman said. The XPS 13, though thinner, provides the full functionality of a standard-sized laptop, the spokesman said. The 13-inch laptop is designed to fit in the frame of an 11-inch laptop, so users get a full-sized keyboard and larger screen in a smaller package. 

The laptop's starting price is US$999 and it will be available in late February or early March. But ultrabooks have been criticized for their high prices and Intel hopes to bring down the starting price of ultrabooks to $699 by the end of the year. The XPS 13 has specific mobility features unique to ultrabooks such as Smart Connect technology, in which email and social network feeds are updated even when the laptop is in sleep mode. Dell said XPS 13 also boots in a matter of seconds. 

The laptop has Intel dual-core Core i3, i5 or i7 processors based on the Sandy Bridge microarchitecture, up to 256GB of solid-state drive storage and 4GB of RAM. The laptop has a USB 3.0 port and a webcam. The laptop will initially be available in the U.S. and some parts of the world, though specific country details were not provided. 

Ultrabooks are backed heavily by Intel as a way to rejuvenate a slumping PC market, which has taken a beating from tablets. Intel said future ultrabooks will include tablet-like features such as touchscreens and always-on connectivity. 

Ultrabooks have dominated the CES show floor, with PC makers like Lenovo, Hewlett-Packard and Acer announcing products. Ultrabooks based on Intel's new Ivy Bridge microarchitecture, which will bring faster performance and graphics, are due later this year.

Compared to previous shows, Dell has a comparatively mellow presence at CES. Last year Dell announced many tablets and laptops at the event.

UPDATE : CNETTV : Beautiful and Powerful Dell XPS 14 - First Look

*by andreascy*

Inno3D GTX 560 Ti 448SP HyperCore Graphics card

Posted by Andreas Christodoulou

Description :

What's up everyone? Are you new here? Please click that FB LIKE button to get started! We like you too! ;)

Inno3D® announced the launch of the Inno3D GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448SP. The GTX 560 Ti 448SP boasts an amazing 448 CUDA cores, a 320-bit interface to 1.28GB of onboard GDDR5 RAM, and clock speeds of 760MHz and 3800MHz. GTX 560 Ti 448SP continues with the redesigned from the ground up architecture to deliver the best performance on DX11 - adding dedicated engines in the GPU to accelerate key features like tessellation. 

Game performance and image quality has received a tremendous boost, enabling film-like geometric realism for game characters and objects. Geometric realism is central to the GTX 560 Ti 448SP architectural enhancements for graphics. In addition, PhysX simulations are much faster, and developers can utilize GPU computing features in games most effectively. 

Key features

 Microsoft® DirectX® 11 Support :

 DirectX 11 GPU with Shader Model 5.0 support designed for ultra high performance in the new API's key graphics feature, GPU-accelerated tessellation. 

 NVIDIA ® 3D Vision™ Ready :

GeForce GPU support for NVIDIA 3D Vision, bringing a fully immersive stereoscopic 3D experience to the PC. A combination of high-tech wireless glasses and advanced software, 3D Vision transforms hundreds of PC games into full stereoscopic 3D. In addition, you can watch 3D movies and 3D digital photographs in eye popping, crystal-clear quality. 

NVIDIA ® 3D Vision™ Surround Ready :

Expand your games across three displays in full stereoscopic 3D for the ultimate "inside the game" experience with the power of NVIDIA 3D Vision and SLI technologies. NVIDIA ® Surround ™ also supports triple screen gaming with non-stereo displays. 

NVIDIA SLI ® Technology :

Industry leading NVIDIA SLI technology offers amazing performance scaling for the world's premier gaming solution. 

NIVIDIA® PhysX® technology :

GeForce GPU support for NVIDIA PhysX technology, enabling a totally new class of physical gaming interaction for a more dynamic and realistic experience with GeForce. 

NIVIDIA® CUDA™ Technology :

CUDA technology unlocks the power of the GPU's processor cores to accelerate the most demanding systems tasks – such as video transcoding – delivering incredible performance improvements over traditional CPUs. 

32x Anti-aliasing Technology :

Lightening fast, high-quality anti-aliasing at up to 32x sample rates obliterates jagged edges. 

NVIDIA PureVideo HD Technology :

The combination of high definition video decode acceleration and post-processing that delivers unprecedented picture clarity, smooth video, accurate colour, and precise image scaling for movies and video. 

PCI Express 2.0 Support :

Designed for the new PCI Express 2.0 bus architecture offering the highest data transfer speeds for the most bandwidth-hungry games and 3D applications, while maintaining backwards compatibility with existing PCI Express motherboards for the broadest support. 

Dual-link DVI Support :

Able to drive industry's largest and highest resolution flat-panel displays up to 2560x1600 and with support for High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP). 

HDMI 1.4a Support :

Support for HDMI 1.4a including GPU accelerated Blu-ray 3D support, x.v.Color, HDMI Deep Color, and 7.1 digital surround sound and video.

Inno3D® the Hong Kong-based company has been kicking lately. As always the card is going to be available in limited quantities, and only in a few North American and European markets. Let us know what you think. 

*by andreascy*