23 Oct 2016

Checkpoint: Witness GTX 1070 Edition

by | posted in: Editorials & Features | 0

And just a few days after witnessing the sheer compute power of my buddy’s GTX 1080, my Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1070 Gaming G1 arrived. Installation in the Silverstone Raven Z RVZ02 was painless with plenty of room to spare.

Shamefully, I’ve yet to put the video card through its paces. (I blame Overwatch and its Halloween event). I installed it, ran the Gears of War 4 benchmark and that was it. Unsurprisingly, it completed the test with 1080p at ultra settings without breaking a sweat. I’m hoping to play actual games with it some time today or tomorrow. I promise it’s not just going to be a Gears of War 4 benchmarking machine.

Oh, I did change the LED color to orange and made it pulsate like it was “breathing”. A truly useless feature when the case which the video card is installed is windowless.

I understand why people poo poo on the GeForce Experience for requiring a username a login but when it offers easy install and update of video card drivers, it’s tolerable. I don’t know how well it optimizes game settings to my hardware but at least there’s a baseline to work with.

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Dragon Quest VII is surprising me with changes to the party members. It may end up being a temporary change but to see a major character just up and depart was eye brow raising.

21 Nov 2013

You only need one Xbox One review

by | posted in: Game News | 0

If you need just one Xbox One console review make it AnandTech’s “mini-review“. It is amazing that one outlet’s “mini-review” outdoes the efforts of a majority of gaming press.

They not only highlight the differences in performance but also explain how the differences manifest themselves in games. They measured power consumption at different power states and even browser benchmarks. Who else is going to run browser benchmarks out there?

Who cares enough about the details like AnandTech? Not the clowns at Gamespot who came up with this doozy of a comparison. I can only assume this is ineptitude and lack of effort because I refuse to believe that was someone’s best effort.

Digital Foundry is close to what I’m looking for from the game’s press but they’re not in the same league as AnandTech. I don’t expect every member of an outlet to be experts but I do expect them to hire someone who knows what they’re talking about and how impart that knowledge to their readers.

 

31 Jul 2013

Detecting for Benchmarks: A Blast from the Past

by | posted in: Technology News | 0

samsung-logoI recall the controversy over NVIDIA cheating in 3DMark. I remember the internet rage and how much crud was flung over NVIDIA’s GeForce FX because of these kinds of antics. Now with Samsung (and potentially others) caught pulling off these kinds of stunts in smartphones, I’m left wondering if we’ll see something similar.

It’s actually been a couple of days since the AnandTech posted their investigation and not much buzz surrounded it. What happened? We stopped caring about just one benchmark. GL Benchmark — and most theoretical benchmarks for that matter — lost relevancy after the NVIDIA and 3DMark controversy. Reviewers and users stopped giving these theoretical benchmarks weight. It’s about user performance and real world testing.

These kinds of shady optimizations should not be condoned though. They still muddy reviews and Samsung and the likes should be called out for it.

19 Feb 2013

NVIDIA’s Rollout Plan for Titan is Lame

by | posted in: Technology News | 0

This is what happens when you’re top dog. You get to milk the release of your $999 video card and waste everyone’s time with your nonsense.

Today tech sites like AnandTech get to talk about the upcoming Geforce GTX Titan but not divulge any performance figures. Apparently we all have to wait until Thursday to see numbers like this:

geforce-gtx-titan-nvidia-benchmarks

The above was apparently taken down NVIDIA’s website. It’s an impressive leap over the GTX 680 but these are NVIDIA numbers and I they may be a bit generous. Why couldn’t they just allow people to release their benchmark results today? Because after tomorrow, I don’t think I will care anymore.

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