GIGABYTE : Digital Power Engine (3D Power)


GIGABYTE Z77 series motherboards take advantage of an exclusive All Digital PWM controller array, to deliver power to the board's 3rd generation Intel® Core™ processor. Using entirely digital controllers means that more precise power delivery to the motherboard's most power hungry and energy sensitive components is possible. These components include the CPU, VTT, processor graphics and memory, without doubt the most important components on your motherboard. This All Digital Power system, with Precise Auto Voltage Compensation, provides you with exceptional control over the component power delivery on your GIGABYTE 7 series motherboard. 


GIGABYTE 3D Power: Digital Voltage, Frequency and Phase Control 
Utilizing an exclusive All Digital controller array, GIGABYTE's 3D Power features precise Auto Voltage Compensation to deliver a steady flow of power to the system, no matter the loading. With digital controllers for the CPU (Vcore), VTT, processor graphics and memory (DDR), users can make real-time adjustments with the exclusive GIGABYTE 3D Power Utility, that include settings such as OVP (Over Voltage Protection), Load-line Calibration and on-the-fly PWM frequency adjustment.

GIGABYTE 3D Power Utility

Users can enjoy a fully interactive 3D utility that facilitates adjustment of the 3 dimensions that control the power delivery to your CPU and Memory: Voltage, Phase and Frequency. These parameters are crucial to how the digital PWM supplies power to critical areas of the motherboard and can help users quickly obtain the highest, most stable overclock.


 
3D Power: Voltage Control
Voltage parameters can be modified within 3D Power, including load line calibration of the CPU. By adjusting load line calibration, Vdroop can be avoided, maintaining optimal voltages levels despite increasing current levels. OVP (over voltage protection) can also be adjusted to change default protection range of the CPU, IGP, VTT and system memory.


3D Power: Phase Control
Users can calibrate OCP (Over Current Protection) for the CPU, integrated memory controller and system memory power levels. This allows the Phase control to deliver even more power to the system when needed.




3D Power: Frequency Control
GIGABYTE's all digital PWM allows for adjustable frequency control via the International Rectifier PWM controller. 3D Power frequency control allows users to change the PWM controller frequency so that the CPU VRM can adjust power delivery speeds more quickly. Users can also adjust the PWM spectrum or maximum and minimum overall frequencies.





Ivy Bridge Unveiled : A look Inside the Intel Core i7 3770K


Ivy Bridge has been a Buzz word that has been tossed around the world, and one that has everyone in anticipation of just what the hell Intel has up their sleeves for the desktop environment, and finally the long awaited day has arrived where we can actually legally show off just what all the hype and hoopla was all about. Many sites have already violated NDA, which is a legal statement by Intel addressing the time and date of releasing their information to the public, but we held fast waiting for the actual stated deadline to arrive before breaking the news to you good folks. It sucks to be a legitimate player sometimes as that means towing the line even under pressure.


When it comes to CPUs and their accompanying chipsets there is no company known to man that reaches the levels that Intel does. Always on the forefront of technology and development it is a rare day to see anyone offering them anything but the slightest competition as AMD really does not create a hard competitor for big blue. Everybody is always looking for a better, faster and more affordable solution to solve their computing needs and from entry level to High-End Intel has a solution to fit your need. The big Buzz word for this event is Ivy Bridge and it once again see’s Intel breaking ground and paving the way for a new desktop platform.  Sandy Bridge was a very big market hit and the i7 2500K one of the most sought after CPUs for the overclocker and gamer crowd who have pushed that CPU to its limits squeezing every ounce of performance they could extract from it. 

Intel releases a new set of CPUs to work on their latest Z77 and other Chipset motherboards that offers many new features including a separate chip for the onboard graphics all housed in the same Silicon in a similar fashion to the AMD APU line of products, but one that actually has a pair of balls to back up the video capabilities where the APU uses a low end processors in its mix. That might be good for very entry-level projects, but Ivy is ready for desktop primetime and has both good CPU power and GPU power to boost about. This release will show Intel on a new road that takes your graphics needs very seriously and if they really put their efforts in an all out quest to achieve this the graphics cards companies will have to find new ways to fill in that niche. I am no scientist so I don’t grasp and truly understand all the technology involved in creating a new CPU so I wont even try to convey that, but I do know what works and if it is something I would want to actually own and use.  I am a layman, gamer and enthusiast just like 98% of the people reading this review. With that in mind lets take a closer look at what Intel’s been trying to keep under wraps for months, the new Core i7 3770K.


The Desktop 3rd Generation Intel CoreTM processor family is the next generation of 64-bit, multi-core processors built on 22-nanometer process technology. The processors are designed for a two-chip platform. The two-chip platform consists of a processor and a Platform Controller Hub (PCH) and enables higher performance, lower cost, easier validation, and improved x-y footprint. The processor includes Integrated Display Engine, Processor Graphics, PCI Express ports, and an Integrated Memory Controller. The processor is designed for desktop platforms. The processor offers either 6 or 16 graphic execution units. The number of EU engines supported may vary between processor SKUs. The processor is offered in an 1155-land LGA package, but will not function on previous generation chipset motherboards.

Intel has now shrunk the die size of the of the CPU from 32nm to 22nm just like we have seen the VGA companies doing on the new 6 series from NVIDIA and 7 series from AMD so its no surprise to see the CPUs going in the same direction. Today Intel introduces 10 new CPUS to the desktop market, these are as follows: The Intel CoreTM i7-3770K, i7-3770, i7-3770S, i7-3770T, i5-3570K, i5-3550, i5-3550S, i5-3570T, i5-3450, and i5-3450S processors. We are looking at the i7 3770K the new flagship CPU for the Ivy Bridge platform featuring an unlocked core and HD4000 graphics. The i7 3770K is clocked at 3.5GHz with Turbo Boost to 3.9GHz, has 4 Cores that when used with Hyper-Threading enabled works like 8 cores, and having an unlocked core means that overclockers will have the utmost in flexibility when trying to get the most performance from their CPU. Lower power requirements should also translate into a cooler running CPU as well and with Intel now being 100% behind the entire overclocking movement this new generation of processors should be the most receptive to this process.

Ivy Bridge Special Features

 8-Way MultiTask Processing: Runs 8 independent processing threads in one physical package.            
Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.01: Dynamically increases the processor frequency up to 3.9 GHz when applications demand more performance. Speed when you need it, energy efficiency when you don’t.            
Intel Hyper Threading Technology: Allows each core of the processor to work on two tasks at the same time providing amazing processing capability for better multitasking, and for threaded applications.            
Intel Smart Cache: 8MB of shared cached allows faster access to your data by enabling dynamic and efficient allocation of the cache to match the needs of each core significantly reducing latency to frequently used data and improving performance.            
CPU Overclocking Enabled (with Intel Z77 Express & Z75 Express Chipsets)
Fully unlocked core multiplier, power, and DDR3 memory ratios enable high flexibility for overclocking.
Graphics Overclocking Enabled (with all Intel 7 Series Chipsets) 5: Unlocked graphics multiplier allows for overclocking to boost the graphics clock speed.            
Integrated Memory Controller: Supports 2 channels of DDR3 1600 memory with 2 DIMMs per channel. Support for memory based on the Intel Extreme Memory Profile (Intel XMP) specification.
Chipset/Motherboard Compatibility: Compatible with all Intel 7 Series Chipsets and selected Intel 6 Series Chipsets6.         
Intel Secure Key: a HW assist processor technology designed to produce high-quality, high-security, high-volume random numbers through an on-chip entropy source that can be used for various security computing demands.            
Intel OS Guard: A HW assist processor technology designed to prevent certain system malware attacks aiming to gain kernel level access to the operating system (OS enabling required).
Intel AES New Instructions (AES-NI) Provides 6 processor instructions that help to improve performance for AES encryption and decryption algorithms.            
Built-in Visuals: New enhanced built-in visual features deliver a seamless visual PC experience for doing everything from simple e-mail to enjoying the latest 3D and HD entertainment.
The built-in visuals suite includes: Intel Quick Sync Video 2.0 Technology: Media processing for incredibly fast conversion of video files for portable media players or online sharing. Intel InTruTM3D9: Stereoscopic 3D Blu-ray playback experience in full HD 1080p resolution over HDMI 1.4 with
3D. Intel Clear Video HD Technology: Visual quality and color fidelity enhancements for spectacular HD playback and immersive web browsing. Intel Advanced Vector Extensions (Intel AVX): Increased performance for demanding visual applications like professional video & image editing. Intel HD Graphics 4000: Brand new graphics architecture delivering full DX11 functionality and up to 2X compute throughput (via increased number of execution units and dual-issue), translating into significant graphics performance enhancements (over 2nd Gen Intel Core processors with HD Graphics 2000/3000) for immersive mainstream gaming on a broader range of titles.

Supported Technologies
 • Intel Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (Intel® VT-d)
• Intel Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT-x)
• Intel Active Management Technology 8.0 (Intel® AMT 8.0)
• Intel Trusted Execution Technology (Intel® TXT)
• Intel Streaming SIMD Extensions 4.1 (Intel® SSE4.1)
• Intel Streaming SIMD Extensions 4.2 (Intel® SSE4.2) • Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology • Intel® 64 Architecture
• Execute Disable Bit
• Intel Turbo Boost Technology
• Intel Advanced Vector Extensions (Intel® AVX)
• Advanced Encryption Standard New Instructions (AES-NI)
• PCLMULQDQ Instruction
• RDRAND instruction for random number generation
• SMEP – Supervisor Mode Execution Protection
• PAIR – Power Aware Interrupt Routing

Core i7 3770K Computation Performance

In this section of the review we compare the i7 2600K to the i7 3770K in direct CPU computational performance so you can see just what types of performance levels there are between Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge. These tests are designed to stress the various aspects of your CPUs total computing power and how they perform under a full load. We ran the i7 2600K at its stock clock speed of 3.4GHz and the 3770K at both its core clock at 3.5GHz and at an overclocked state at 4.6GHz.


 The biggest thing that has happened is something getting smaller as in the new die shrinkage from 32bn to 22nm and the Onboard HD4000 Graphics with a ton of technical information as to the scientific if that’s and what’s that make up the architecture of the new 3rd generation Core CPUs. In-between all that is how it affects our lives in the minute way that interfacing with our PC has on a daily basis has, and finally our workload and playtime interaction. Don’t expect miracles here, as this race is always just another brick in wall of the step-by-step process each new generation of CPUs brings to the market.






As far as sheer GPU power Ivy Bridge brings about a 12-21% performance increase depending on the application and that is about the same as most desktop performance gains seen in previous launches, and at least this is not just a bump release, but also an actual new and improved product. Improvement in gaming is noticeable if you use a PCIe 3.0 based card, but older cards show no real improvements, as they cannot take advantage of the features that PCIe 3.0 brings to the table. The HD 4000 Graphics engine shows a major improvement over the previous generation HD 3000 and now is the perfect solution for any HTPC or entry level gaming rig and significantly reducing the TCO for that type of system. This is one area that Intel has definitely improved with each new generation of the chipset.


The move to the smaller Die size will also allow Intel to venture into new areas of discovery and a wave of new mobile devices for the PC crowd. The Z77 platform offers users a robust amount of features and with the release of 14 new CPU skews you will have many shiny i5 and i7 processors to choose from so you should be able to find one that will suit your needs. With the release of Ivy Bridge Intel did not reinvent the wheel, but the did make a better tire to grip the road your on. Ivy Bridge breaths just enough new life into the desktop environment to at least keep things interesting through the summer season and show a positive direction for the future of embedded graphics. 

Nvidia's New Kepler Architecture


New architectures don't come around quite as frequently for video cards as they do for processors, but they can have almost as big an impact. That's certainly what Nvidia is trying to prove with its new Kepler architecture. Nvidia promises it will deliver impressive gains in terms of power and performance for desktops and laptops alike, and you should expect to start seeing it appear in both stay-at-home and out-and-about computers starting soon. We've already reviewed the first desktop discrete card based on the Kepler architecture, the GeForce GTX 680,  so if you're interested in where Nvidia is planning on taking PC graphics processing, we've already got you covered.Still, there's a ton of information out there about Kepler itself—its genesis, its features, its capabilities—to sift through. So we've prepared this brief rundown of six important things to know about what Kepler is, how it works, and what it will mean for PC graphics in the upcoming year or two.

1. "Kepler" is "Fermi" evolved. 
Nvidia heralded its "Fermi" architecture, released in 2010 on its GTX 480 video card, as a major advance in parallel processing. It was based on a collection of four Graphics Processing Clusters (or GPCs), each of which contained a raster engine and four Streaming Multiprocessor (or SM) units. Each SM, in turn, contained 32 CUDA processing cores, 16 texture units, and a polymorph engine. The GTX 680's GPCs use a similar design, but with a couple of key differences. Each SM is now a "next-generation Streaming Multiprocessor," which Nvidia abbreviates as SMX; each SMX contains 192 CUDA cores, for a total of 1,536 cores in the entire Kepler GPU—which suggests potential for considerably greater performance; and the polymorph engines have been redesigned to deliver twice of the performance of those used in Fermi, for what Nvidia calls "a significant improvement in tessellation workloads." But because all those CUDA cores also run at a lower clock speed than Fermi's did, the GPU as a whole uses less power even as it delivers more performance. (We've verified this in our own testing, by the way.) This could prove to be especially good news for laptop owners, as those power savings can easily translate to longer battery life.

2. Memory has been rethought. 
There are changes to the memory system as well as the processing structure. An L2 cache of 512KB is shared across the GPU to provide extra buffer space for the chip's various units; its cache hit bandwidth and atomic operation have both been increased to provide additional support for all those more powerful CUDA cores. A Kepler GPU also contains four 64-bit memory controllers, operating at an overall data rate of 6,008MHz—a significant improvement over the 3,696MHz of the GTX 480, which was loaded with six 64-bit controllers. Nvidia boasts about achieving the 6,008MHz speed by way of a new I/O system based on improvements in circuit and physical design, link training, and signal integrity. On the GTX 680, which is equipped with 2GB of GDDR5 memory, this all adds up to a total memory bandwidth of 192.26GBps, again more than the 177.4GBps seen on the GTX 480.

3. It's speedier than it looks.
Nvidia has instituted for Kepler-based hardware a new technology called GPU Boost. Similar to Intel's Turbo Boost and AMD's Turbo Core, GPU Boost ensures that the video card's clock speed is, in fact, a very fluid thing. For example, the GTX 680 has a base clock running at 1,006MHz. But if the card is operating below its TDP, meaning it's using less power than it's capable of using (because it's running a not-too-demanding 3D game, for example), it can dynamically increase its clock speed until the gap is filled. It's tough to say at this point how much of a performance improvement you can expect in any given title, though we have an idea of the range. The average upped clock speed is 1,058MHz, but Kepler GPUs are capable of going even higher than that. This is before overclocking is figured in, by the way—that remains an option for gaining even more speed. (GPU Boost is currently only slated to be available in desktop products; laptop users are out of luck, at least for now.)

4. Video has been re envisioned.
Nvidia has implemented a new display engine on its Kepler GPUs that enable some useful features. Whereas previous Nvidia cards were limited to powering two monitors, you can now drive four at a time with a single card like the GTX 680—nice if you want to have three displays for a 3D Vision Surround setup and one for actual work. On Kepler GPUs you'll also now find a hardware-based H.264 video encoder called NVENC. On previous Nvidia cards encoding was handled by the CUDA cores, and their use increased power consumption; a hardware solution consumes much less power and, according to Nvidia, encodes video almost four times faster. Nvidia claims that NVENC can encode 1080p videos eight times faster than real time, and can encode up to resolutions of 4,096 by 4,096. NVENC supports H.264 Base, Main, and High Profile Level 4.1 (the same as the Blu-ray standard), and the H.264 extension Multiview Video Coding (MVC) for stereoscopic video for use with Blu-ray 3D.

5. Anti-aliasing goes pro.
Kepler-based GPUs push anti-aliasing beyond the common styles today (Multisample Anti-Aliasing, or MSAA, is the big one, though Nvidia also uses Coverage Sample Anti-Aliasing and AMD Morphological Anti-Aliasing) with a new flavor called Temporal Anti-Aliasing (or TXAA for short). According to Nvidia, TXAA is a new "film-style" technique that blends MSAA with Fast Approximate Anti-Aliasing (FXAA), where it analyzes all the pixels on the screen and smooths the ones it detects create an artificial edge. Because no game yet supports TXAA, we weren't able to test this, but Nvidia says it delivers the kind of image quality you'd get from 8x MSAA with the accompanying performance hit of only 2x MSAA.

6. Less focus on compute.
All of Nvidia's changes have resulted in what is, overall, the fastest and the most electricity-bill-friendly single-GPU gaming video card we've yet seen. But this title hasn't come without one sacrifice: compute. Fermi GPUs were sold, at least partially, on their ability to perform mathematical calculations à la CPUs, and displayed impressive facility doing just that, but Nvidia stripped some of those abilities away in order to improve power efficiency. Using LuxMark 2.0, an application designed for testing OpenCL compute performance, we compared last generation's GeForce GTX 580 (based on an updated Fermi-style GPU) with the GTX 680, and the earlier card came out ahead in every test—and AMD's new cards, like the Radeon HD 7970, did even better. If you want a card that's every bit as good for work as play, Kepler-based GPUs may not be the way to go. But the GTX 680 is the runaway champs for playing 3D games on your PC.

ZOTAC GTX 680 (Kepler) Video Card Review

The new GeForce GTX 680 is the first GPU based on “Kepler” architecture. NVIDIA’s Kepler architecture builds on the technology first established in 2010 with the launch of the GeForce GTX 480, the first GPU using the “Fermi” architecture in its nomenclature. The big thing about Fermi is that it featured an entirely new parallel geometry pipeline optimized for tessellation and displacement mapping, as well as a new compute architecture that offers faster context switching and improved performance for atomic operations.  The new Kepler GPUs are composed of many different hardware blocks that make up the different parts of the GPU. Each performs specific tasks that dynamically improve the way your GPU performs and functions. Some things however remain the same such as the GPC continues to be the dominant high-level hardware block in Kepler. THE GPC uses its own dedicated resources for rasterization, shading, texturing, and compute. This means most of the GPU’s core graphics functions are performed inside the GPC.

Inside the new Kepler GPC resides the next generation Streaming Multiprocessor (SMX). SMX not only provides more performance than Fermi’s SM, but does so while consuming significantly lower power. Most of the key hardware units for graphics processing reside in the SMX, which now supports 192 cores. The SMX’s CUDA Cores perform pixel/vertex/geometry shading and physics/compute calculations. Texture units perform texture filtering and load/store units fetch and save data to memory. Special Function Units (SFUs) handle transcendental and graphics interpolation instructions. Finally, the PolyMorph Engine handles vertex fetch, tessellation, viewport transform, attribute setup, and stream output. In addition to SMX, Kepler also boasts an improved memory interface. NVIDIA engineers completely reworked the memory subsystem for Kepler, enabling much higher memory clock speeds compared to prior GeForce GPUs. As a result of this effort, GeForce GTX 680 achieves memory speeds up to 6Gbps, the highest speed of any GPU in the industry.

SMX features substantially more shader, texture, and geometry processing power compared to the previous generation Fermi, while the double speed processor clock present in prior Ge Force GPUs has been eliminated in favor of more CUDA cores operating at the lower-speed graphics clock. Running the CUDA Cores at 2x clock allowed us to extract the most performance in the least amount of die space for Fermi, but the downside was higher power consumption. With Kepler, each SMX processor contains up to 192 CUDA Cores; that’s 6x the number of cores per SM compared to Fermi, providing 2x the perf/watt equation and allowing much better performance per clock cycle. As far as power goes the new GTX 680 takes a step in the right direction by eliminating the need for a Six and Eight Pin Connector required by  AMD's top dog the HD7970 by allowing Two Six Pin connections and less TDP by 25W as the AMD HD7970 requires 220W and the new GTX 680 only requires 195W TDP a significant improvement. Based off the 28nm process NVIDIA now has moved a forward in their technology and with all these new advancements the cards should run cooler and faster than ever.

NVIDIA's GPU Boost
The motto for Big Green with the launch of the GTX 680, better, faster, and  smoother. What does this mean, let's start off with NVIDIA's GPU Boost, like Intel's Turbo Boost Technology NVIDIA now kicks in the power for games that by default are set to their basic settings for compatibility and unlock their other features. GPU Boost is a combination hardware/software technology that is supported by GeForce GTX 680. GPU Boost works in the background, dynamically adjusting the GPU’s graphics clock speed automatically based on GPU operating conditions. Dedicated hardware circuitry constantly monitors GPU power consumption. GPU Boost automatically adjusts clocks to achieve the maximum possible clock speed while remaining within a predefined power target. This is very interesting stuff that NVIDIA is trying out here, we will have to see how real world results are.



Single GPU 3D-Vision Surround
In previous generation NVIDIA cards 3D-Vision Surround required 2 GTX cards to power and run this technology. With another tech advancement using the new GTX 680 the user now has the ability to have up to 4 Monitors in 3D-Vision on a single GTX 680. Just think of the possibilities, 3 monitors on the bottom all in a row and one above in the center to still see and use your desktop. This is a great step for NVIDIA  and I can't wait to hook up my 27'' ASUS 3D 120Hz Monitor and see how well the new GTX 680 does on my humble single 3D monitor, and in truth only the very rich can afford to even begin to look into getting a multi-monitor setup that consists of 3D Monitors, as that is a very costly investment.




Performance 



ASUS HD7770 Review


Today we are bringing to you a very interesting review on dual-graphics performance from the latest cards from ASUS and the latest AMD 28nm chipset 7770. Previous DIRECT CU cards have proven to be incredibly good performers for the price and these new cards from ASUS shouldn’t be any different. These cards feature their Direct CU thermal solution which has been very popular on all chipset cards. With that said let’s take a look at the basic features of these new cards from the chipset fabs of AMD and the engineeers of ASUS.

These new GPUs are aimed at the more budget minded gamer that still wants excellent performance, but cannot shell out the big bucks. Cards that feature this new GPU are currently retailing for about 160 dollars regardless of features. This puts it in direct competition with nVidia’s GTX 550 Ti for the best mid level gaming solution. The 550Ti card has been very popular with this same market and should help to keep prices competitive between these two competitors.

One of the most incredible features of these new GPUs is that they come with a stock core clock of 1000MHz. This makes it the first card to ever be offered with such a fast core clock. It also features 640 Stream Processing Units and a full gig of GDDR5 at a 128-bit memory interface. These are certain to be very popular cards simply because of these amazing features and aggressive pricing.  These cards also feature a stock memory clock of 1125MHZ (4.5 Gbps).

These cards are also capable of supporting the new 4K display technology that has dramatically better resolution of your standard 1080p monitor, which is the high end at the moment. Now, with only a single gig of GDDR5 these cards are going to be a bit limited in terms of actually supporting this new technology though in single card mode. For such a high resolution you really will need more dedicated video memory to buffer your high-resolution images. This is what this memory is used for and the more of it that your card has the better it’s able to perform at higher resolutions. This is also where having a CrossFire solution can really shine.

Another amazing feature is that these cards are manufactured with AMD’s latest 28nm process. This has the benefit of reducing power requirements and reducing the need for an aggressive thermal solution to keep it cool. These cards also use the latest PCIe 3.0 interface that effectively doubles the available bandwidth of the previous generation in theory. This new interface though won’t be able to be fully utilized until Intel releases their next generation of processors that will support it. Until then we really won’t know if this new interface technology will even make a difference. Honestly, the previous generation hadn’t even been fully utilized with the latest video cards. The only way to really push your bandwidth to the theoretical limit would be one of the new PCIe Solid State hard drives. Devices like this should be able to take advantage of the increased bandwidth once it’s made fully available.

hese cards also support AMD’s Eyefinity technology for multi-display configurations. This is great for those that want to realize the benefits of running such a configuration. One thing to keep in mind though is that these cards only have a single gig of GDDR5 memory. This will impede your performance with such a configuration due to the resolution that this type of a configuration requires. These cards also only feature a single CrossFireX connector, so they can only be used in a dual-card configuration. This will also limit your ability to use this technology because of the memory limitation and the inability to add more than one card. With that being said though, the clock speed of the GPU does help to reduce the limitations from the single gig of GDDR5 memory. This was pretty wisely done to offset this limitation and AMD should be commended for this. In our benchmarks we should be able to see if this also translates to better performance.

Performance
In terms of raw performance these cards were really quite amazing and were able to put up scores that weren’t all that far behind the HD 7970. Now the 7970 clearly beat these cards in Crossfire. I’m just saying that when you take into account the price difference between two of these and a single 7970, you’d think that there’d be a wider performance gap. There is nearly 200 dollars separating these cards in terms of price, but there certainly isn’t 200 dollars separating them in terms of performance. This should help to make these cards fly off the store shelves. You really can’t beat the performance of these right now because in their price point there really isn’t any competition.

When you look at  benchmark scores you can see that these cards are just amazing. They also have one of the most aggressive thermal designs that we’ve seen. This should help to boost overclocking potential that will of course boost performance. These cards really represent the sweet-spot in terms of price versus performance right now and it’s easy to see why when you look at these scores. There really isn’t anything not to like about them. For all of you nVidia fan-boy’s out there, you really have to give it to AMD for this round. They are dominating the competition at almost every level right now and there are still more 7000 series cards on the way.