TweakTown -- I've been waiting weeks for a GTX 480 to arrive here at TweakTown and it's nice to see it's finally come in the form of a retail version thanks to GIGABYTE. The chances are that most people have probably made up their mind on what they think of the GTX 400 series, but let's have a look at a retail version and see how it compares against some of the top cards from ATI along with the GTX 470. While we didn't have a GTX 480 at launch, we have already covered the main specifications of the model and along with the main features it and the GTX 400 series in general offers. Since we won't go into massive detail on those two areas today, I recommend that you check out both my GTX 400 Series - What you need to know article and our stand alone GTX 470 review.

 

TweakTown -- The HD 5670 continues to be a stand out model thanks to the value for money the model represents when it comes to gaming. Sure, you can't game at the highest resolutions, but if you're a casual gamer at 1680 x 1050 the chances are you're going to be able to get a frame rate out of the model that you're happy with. The latest version of the model to arrive comes from GIGABYTE and packs the OC label on it. GIGABYTE has really been a bit of hit and miss when it comes to OC video cards. Sometimes we see a small bump in clocks and other times we see models that come under the Super Overclock series that sport some serious MHz.

Techgage -- Building a silent PC or on the look-out for a quality mid-range graphics card offering? Gigabyte's 8600GTS includes the best of both worlds. In addition to including a passive cooler, a free copy of Supreme Commander can be found here also. Of course the important question is: Does the overall performance warrant your attention?

Boot Daily -- NVIDIA was able to strip down the G80 GPU by eliminating some of its shader processing units, a smaller memory bus which also means it takes a lot less power to run. In fact, this card takes so little power that there’s no need for an accessory power input on it – folks with smaller power supplies should certainly be excited about this. The resulting GPU is actually dubbed the NX86 GPU and has set a new benchmark for performance, power and features.

Hexus -- ATI's Radeon X1800 XL 256MB GPU was introduced to combat the threat provided by NVIDIA's GeForce 7800 GT 256MB SKU. Priced at betweeen £260-£300, depending upon which manufacturer and e-tailer took your fancy, The 'X1800 XL is based a modern, efficient architecture that does especially well in DirectX gaming and, obviously, in shader-heavy titles.

t-break -- Silence is golden. That rule applies as well to cinemas as it does to your PC. Gone are the days when we were proud of having 5000RPM fans stuck to our CPUs and GPUs that ran at full speed and produced noise levels equivalent to a runway. With the move towards Small form factor and HTPCs, we now want our PCs to be as quiet as possible- preferably dead silent. However using the latest & greatest in technology always comes more power consumption and heat dissipation requiring noisy cooling. With the GV-RX16T25V-RH, Gigabyte takes a shot at helping out.

PCStats -- Old games of yesteryear look primitive compared to the stunning games of today and visually it's hard to go back and play those old favorites. Today, if you want the best videocard on the market regardless of price, it's definitely going to be something based on the nVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX core. The GV-NX78X256V-B is backed up by 256MB of GDDR3 memory and supports VIVO as well as component output, and is fully SLI compatible. Included in the package is also a pretty good software suite which includes two full version games and some multimedia software.

PCStats -- The Gigabyte GV-NX66T256DE videocard is not just another run of the mill GeForce 6600GT with 256MB of DDR2 memory, this card is unique. The GV-NX66T256DE is cooled by fully passive means, and incorporates a couple of unique attributes to lower ambient case temperatures too. The 'Silent-Pipe II' cooler, as it is called, bridges the GPU to two separate heat exchangers. The videocard also supports both S-Video and component output via a break-out box, and comes with a DVI-to-analog converter for good measure.