ATI’s Crossfire scaling hits the bench

CROSSFIRE HAS never been consensual. It has its quirks and advantages and isn’t squeaky clean in what pertains to bugs. Tom’s Hardware is looking at Crossfire scaling applied to all manner of Intel chipsets. Did you know, for example, if you play at 1680x1050 or lower resolutions, Crossfire gains are negligible – and in some games it doesn’t even make a difference? Interesting.

Apparently Hilbert at Guru 3D is a huge fan of water-cooling, as your computing experience goes from “noisy” to “humming”. There’s a Coolermaster Aquagate Max liquid cooling system on review there, together with a “liquid-cooling 101”. You can stick the reservoir+pump in a couple of 5.25-inch bays and buy it off the shelf for about $225, which makes it expensive but not prohibitive. Go here.

Tech Gage has gone back to re-testing the HD 4870 vs. Geforce GTX 260 Core 216, only with the new 8.12 (final) drivers, now. ATI seems to struggle to keep pace with the GTX 260, although it does outclass its rival in a few benchmarks. Give the article a look, Rob was wise enough to include a side-by-side price comparison of several brands (notice at Gigabyte).

Gigabyte is getting in on the peripheral action with their GHOST gaming mouse. The GM-M8000 wired competes with high-end gaming mice with its 3000dpi optics (adjustable res), weighting system and cool looking mouse pad. Andrew thinks it’s worth shelling out the bucks.

Notebook Review is raving about HP’s Mini note 1000, the design-driven netbook that is just about the same as every living breathing netbook on the planet. Kevin liked its design, upgrading ease and, surprisingly, the speakers. It earned the rather unimpressive score of 88 3DMarks (06), but that was almost a high-score amongst netbooks. Read it here.

Twenty-two inch LCD panels are moving into the mainstream and can now be bought for a very low price. OCIA picked an Envision G218a1 Professional series panel that retails for about $160. It isn’t really a “Pro” at anything and only supports the most basic of video inputs, but it should make do with the budget crowd who needs a bit more screen real-estate. Give it a look-see. µ