Graphics

While some of these names may be unfamiliar, graphics specialist Sparkle is part of one of the world's largest manufacturers of graphics cards and its Calibre series is aimed squarely at the affordable nVidia performance market. KitGuru notices something new on the site and heads off to investigate. The Calibre …

Sparkle today releases the powerful Dual Fan series– SPARKLE GTX 660 OC Dual Fan, GTX 650Ti Super OC(SOC) Dual Fan and GTX 650Ti OC Dual Fan. The latest Dual Fan series features default overclocked setting, with up to 1006MHz core speed, the Dual Fan series delivers turbocharged performance, maximizing the …

Sparkle announced their X680/X670 graphics cards in September and today we have the flagship Calibre X680 Captain in for review. This card utilises a 2oz Copper PCB and CoolPro Cooling system, with Triple Silent PWN fans. The cooler has been specially designed to optimise airflow through the large heatsink, supported …

If you are thinking of upgrading your system before Christmas then we have two highly modified graphics cards on test today from HIS which should prove interesting. The HIS HD 7950 IceQ is competitively priced at £239.99 and features a large custom cooler and out of the box overclocked speeds. …

At CES in January 2011, Jen Hsun gave a big speech about the fruits from Project Denver, the idea of nVidia working with another company to incorporate important CPU technologies that the graphics giant lacked in its portfolio. Today, in San Francisco, AMD looks set to make a very similar …

KitGuru has spent time, possible too much time, analysing AMD's financial state in recent articles – but not really gone into any depth on Intel and what the future might have in store, financially, for the world's biggest CPU company and its investors. We pull out the trusty abacus and …

For years, nVidia has enjoyed a huge lead in workstation graphics. No secret. Quadro brings in serious profit. The connection from workstation to desktop was tenuous – as both had very different brands, markets, drivers and sales strategies. But there's one thing that Quadro gives nVidia, which could be crucial …

In October last year AMD released the FX8150 Black Edition 8 Core processor which met with a mixed reception. While the chip delivered good performance, it was priced too high and couldn't compete against equivalent Intel processors. Today we are looking at the latest AMD Black Edition, the FX8350, which …

Working in the AMD graphics team, right now, must be one of the most bizarre experiences in the world. While departments are scrambling everywhere to deal with the company's new focus into non-PC space by 2022, the graphics team are quietly doing exactly what they're required to do. KitGuru checks …

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) are hoping that a new campaign will help drive sales of their graphics cards in Q4. They are bundling a series of high quality AAA games with their video cards. The ‘Never Settle' bundle campaign targets a wish list of AAA games such as Dirt ShowDown, …

Alongside the news that over 1,000 jobs would be lost to redundancy, last night's Q3 earnings call gave AMD the opportunity to discuss the changes it sees happening in the market – and how it sees itself ten years down the line. One thing was loud and clear, it won't …

During last night's Q3 financial call, AMD executives delivered the news that KitGuru has expected for almost a year – a significant reduction in workforce going forward. It simply doesn't need the same workforce going forward as it did in the past. KitGuru pulls out the abacus to calculate the …

When it comes to creating a high end graphics card, very few companies can match Asus. Today we are looking at their new Matrix HD7970 Platinum graphics card, which features a hefty metal, dual fan cooler and out of the box overclocked settings. This card uses a 20 phase VRM …

We have reviewed many ARCTIC products in the last year, and today we are looking at their latest cooler, the Accelero Twin Turbo 690. As the name would suggest this is specifically designed for the current NVIDIA GTX690 flagship graphics solution. Is this worth the hefty $169.95 asking price? The …

This is our second of two reviews today, focusing on the official launch of AMD's A10 5800K when paired up with partner motherboards. In our other review we have paired up the new AMD APU with a high end AMD discrete graphics card to see how it compares against a …

Regular readers of Kitguru may remember our review of the AMD E-350 in March 2011. I really enjoyed AMD's Fusion technology but it was never marketed properly and subsequently wasn't quite the success it should have been. AMD's A8 series chips made the headlines shortly afterwards and I particularly liked …

While AMD might struggle to match Intel's tick-tock on the CPU side of life, the old ATi graphics team has no such difficulty in pushing out next-generation GPUs. We have spoken with our sources in the Far East and discovered AMD's launch plans for the Radeon 8000 series. KitGuru orders …

Are you building a new system? Are you wanting to push some serious frame rates with a new graphics card update but concerned you can't afford the cost? Today we might just have the solution for you. We have worked with AFOX to give away not one but two of …

As we've said before on KitGuru, companies communicate in a lot of different ways. The press release is one and the annual report is another. While these don't normally contain downright lies, they are certainly spun in a very specific/positive way. But what about recruitment? It's tough to spin job …

Over time, companies gain and lose people. In the natural sequence of events, when someone leaves, they are often replaced immediately by someone else with similar experience/salary demands. Right now, that's not the case at AMD. KitGuru looks at the latest changes and believes it has found a pattern. If …

We have reviewed all of Sapphire's Flex cards to date and today we are looking at the latest, budget addition in their range, the HD7770 Flex GHZ Edition. Sapphire are shipping this card with a custom low noise cooling solution and we aim to find out if this is a …

Upgrading or replacing your PC is fun, but as soon as you get anything that boosts graphics performance – the first thing you'll be looking at is your tired old games and wondering how many new ones you should buy. XFX has just air-dropped the solution into Aria. KitGuru was …

Sparkle. Not a name that may immediately spring to mind when discussing a new video card release, however there was a time when they had some market presence in Europe. The company are refocusing their strategy and relaunching their brand name with a series of exciting, upcoming video cards. Today …

Nvidia have been very active in recent months, releasing a slew of performance cards targeting the high end enthusiast gaming audience. Sadly, for those on a restricted budget under £200, there have been very few choices, unless you opt for AMD's HD7870 or HD7850. That is set to change today …

Nvidia recently released the GTX660 Ti – a high performance solution aimed at the hard core gaming enthusiast user with a budget under £300. Today we are looking at the new Gigabyte GTX 660 Ti OC Windforce which is a custom cooled solution supplied at ‘out of the box' overclocked …

From the moment we discovered what the street price of the GTX660 was going to be, we were (a) concerned that it was too close to the GTX670 and (b) that it would tumble at some stage – causing worry among the early adopters who might have saved a wad …

The Tweaktown v Nvidia drama continues. This time the website have published results of testing a new (unnamed) GTX660 reference card – even though Nvidia have worked hard to stop it. Tweaktown said in their review “We're being super cautious this time as NVIDIA seemed to work really hard to …

From the time of AMD's graphics price cut announcement, it took all of 24 hours for the first resellers to implement the drops. KitGuru happens across a forum announcement that indicates the price war has not finished. Not yet at any rate. Whatever your opinion on the GTX660 and the …

This weekend is a great time to pick up a kick ass, low cost graphics card, courtesy of UK e-tailer ARIA. They are offering an ARIANET (reference) branded AMD HD7850 for only £129.95 including VAT. The HD7850 is a very capable card, easily powering most modern engines at 1080p with …

There's nothing that floats a KitGuru's boat like an intelligent bundle and that's appealing and does not add to the cost of a product you wanted to buy anyway. nVidia did a great bundle with Lost Planet in the past and it's something that we try to take into account …