RS780 revs up graphics performance

YESTERDAY, OCWorkbench claimed the RS780 chipset was scoring 261 per cent better than its predecessor, the AMD 690G - and that turned a few heads. Today the site disclosed all the data, and you get to read a full (English-language) review on the RS780-based Jetway PA78GT3. According to the review, the RS780 chipset will eventually support Hybrid Crossfire X with updated drivers, but so far, it’s shaping up to be the king of IGP systems. Maybe DAAMIT’s new IGP can wrestle the championship belt away from Intel this year.

It seems like every day that passes, a new 8800GT pops up based on some after-market piece of cooling kit. Well, that too is the case of the MSI NX8800GT – an overclocked G92 chip with equally overclocked memory and a Zalman fan/heatsink to cool things down. CPU3D has a sample under review and seem smittened by the critter. The NX8800GT scores ahead of the pack, but below the XXX Edition from XFX – not bad for a very quiet card, thinks Winston. It’s also fairly inexpensive, just £175. Ideal for HTPC’s or just people with sensitive ears.

Just when you thought we were done with B2 stepping Phenoms, along comes a hardware site and does all the tests again. Techspot took a snapshot of the whole Phenom family, for posterity’s sake – you can catch the review here. Phenom’s aren’t enthusiast material, apparently, as they couldn’t get much overclocking mileage out of any of them. They do perform well, they think, but you’d still want a Core 2 for your daily fix of games.

The MacNN/Primate Labs Blog presents a review, sort of. They ran some benchies on the eight-core Mac Pro and came up with ... uhm... results (yes, it sounds stupid. Keep reading). The fruit-themed news site claims the 3.2GHz Mac Pro took top spot when pitched against 3.0GHz and 2.8GHz versions of the same computer. Now is it just us or does this REALLY go without saying? More sensible conclusions, however, are that the 64-bit benchmarks score higher than the 32-bit benchmarks, on the same Intel Xeon CPU. The idea is that if you have primarily 64-bit apps running on your Mac Pro, then you needn’t go for the insanely expensive 3.2GHz CPU, but you can do well with the 2.8GHz CPU.

Hardware Logic has a go at the Intel QX9650, an extremely expensive Yorkfield and does a thorough comparison with its older sibling, the QX8650. As the heir-apparent, the QX9650 is performing very well and with overclocking headroom to boot. Granted, it’s still extremely expensive but you already knew that, didn’t you? Get your quad-core sibling rivalry here.

The Brits at XSReviews.co.uk have wandered into French territory and nabbed a Vvikoo 8800GT MAX – no ransom was demanded, though. Vvikoo might not be known to many, but they are a relatively new player in the €uroland market... and this is another example of after-market solutions being integrated into retail kit. Zalman, again, supplied the cooling technology, and it’ll get you pretty silent running for the cost of an additional hardware slot on your PC. It also overclocks quite well, thinketh XS – which supports the “best bang for your buck claim” laid down by Whoopty. µ