iXBT Labs: Technology Reviews

i3DSpeed, June 2009

The i3DSpeed project is dedicated to informing you about performance of a large number of graphics cards in Windows Vista. Traditionally, we offer you performance charts of popular graphics cards and inform about best price/performance deals in the market.

Five Premium CPU Coolers In Tests

Today we are going to examine five premium coolers: ASUS Royal Knight, Noctua NH-C12P, Scythe Mugen 2, Thermalright IFX-14, and Thermaltake BigTyp14Pro. They are the best there is. Although only Scythe Mugen 2 is a new model here (taking the first steps on our market), all of them, including the true veterans Noctua NH-C12P and Thermalright IFX-14, are leading their series.

NVIDIA GeForce GT2XX Reference

Updated NVIDIA GPU reference. Now with the descriptions and specifications of the GT200/GT200b GPUs as well as brief reviews of GeForce GTX 275, GTX 285 and GTX 295.

AMD(ATI) RADEON R(V)7XX Reference

Updated AMD(ATI) GPU reference. Now with the descriptions and specifications of the RV790 and RV740 as well as brief reviews of RADEON HD 4890 and RADEON HD 4770.

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Sound Cards

Our tests prove the good quality of the new X-Fi Titanium family. These cards are honestly positioned for gamers now, being the best choice in this category. PCI Express itself does not give any benefits to the cards. But X-Fi Titaniums, owing to Creative's efforts, provide extra protection from cracking, which was a serious problem with previous X-Fi PCI cards.

AMD Phenom II 9xx CPUs With DDR3 Support

Today we are going to test two 9xx series processors including the new flagship Phenom II X4 955. To differentiate new processors from the older models supporting DDR2, the number "5" is added to their index. For example, the model 945 differs from the former flagship (model 940) only by DDR3 support (and a locked multiplier).

MSI 790FX-GD70 Motherboard

This motherboard fits the top model profile in terms of exterior and especially in peripheral interfaces. It also offers the well thought-out fan speed control. It's easy to implement, but for some reason this hasn't been done on many motherboards.

i3DSpeed, May 2009

Overclocker DDR3 for Socket AM3

On the one hand, the answer is clear: if you want to save some money and not lose much (or any) performance, it will be reasonable to redistribute your budget and buy DDR2 memory, which is still cheaper. Also, the relatively old overclocker DDR3 memory kits for other platforms work well with Phenom II, and in most cases they even significantly exceed their recommended frequencies.

Intel Core i7 950 Processor

We hadn't planned to use the old test method anymore, but reality made us reconsider our decision. We got ourselves an engineering sample of a new Core i7 processor, and we decided to test it with our time-proven method to be able to compare it with other CPUs. And as soon as we adopt the new test procedure, our first step will be to retest this processor and other models from this and other series. Now what's so interesting about the Core i7 950?